Il8 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



he who, forming a fyftem of Phyfics for himfelf 

 alone, and feparating his perfonal relations from 

 all connedion with the Elements, the Earth, and 

 the Sun, is acquainted with the Laws of Nature. 

 To the invefligation of thefe divine harmonies, I 

 have devoted my life, and this Work. If, like fo 

 many others, I have gone aftray, at leaft my errors 

 fliall not be fatal to my religion. It alone appears 

 to me the natural bond of Mankind, the hope of 

 our fublime pafiions, and the complement of our 

 miferable defliny. Happy, if I have been able 

 f^metimes to prop, with my feeble fupport, that 

 facred edifice, afiailed as it is, in thefe times, on 

 every fide ! But it's foundations reft not on the 

 Earth, and to Heaven it's ftately columns rear 

 their heads. However bold fome of my fpecula- 

 tions may be, they have nothing to do with bad 

 people. But, perhaps, more than one Epicurean 

 may difcern in them, that Man's fupreme pleafure 

 is in Virtue. Good citizens will, perhaps, find in 

 them new means of being ufeful. At lead, I fliall 

 have the full rccompenfe of my labour, if fo much 

 as one unfortunate wretch, ready to fmk at the 

 melancholy fpedacle which the World prefents, 

 fliall revive, on beholding, in Nature, a Father, a 

 Friend, a Re warder. 



Such was the vail plan I propofcd to execute. I 

 bad colieded, in this view, more materials than I 



had 



