Download or read book An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Vol. 1 of 4 (Classic Reprint) written by Oliver Goldsmith and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Vol. 1 of 4 If, for lnfiance, aman fhould, in his walks, meet with an animal, the name, and confequently the billory of which, he defires to know, he is taught, by fyitematie writers of natural billory, to examine its moft obvious qualities, whether a qua-m draped, a bird, a fifh, or an infect. Having determined it, for Cxplanation fake, to be an infect, he examines whether it has wings; if he finds it poffefied of thefe, he is taught to exa mine whether it has two or four if poffeffed of four, he is taught to obferve, whether the two upper wings are of a lhelly hardnefs, and ferve as cafes to thofe under them 5 if he finds the Wings compofed in this manner, he is then taught to pro nounce that this infect is one of the beetle kind: of the bee tle kind, there are three different clafi'es, difiinguifhed from each other by their feelers; he examines the infect. Before him, and finds that the feelers are clavated, or knobbed at the ends; of beetles, with feelers thus formed, there are ten kinds; and among thofe, he is taught to look for the precife name of that'which is before him. If, for inf'tance, the knob be divided at the ends, and the belly be fireaked with white, it is no other than the Dor or Maybug; an animal, the noxious qualities of which, give it a very dif'tinguifhed rank in the hiftory of the infect creation. In this manner, a fyftem of natural hiftorymay, in fome meafure, be compared to a dictionary of words. Both are folely intended to explain the names of things but with this difference, that, in the dictionary of words, we are led from the name of a thing to its definition 5 whereas, in the fyf'cem of natural hif'tory, we are led from the definition to find out the name. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.