INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

 :1s well as virtue, having lost that genuine Clavis 

 Naturae, which it is probable our primogenitor Adam 

 possessed (c) ; by the use of which, in the creature 

 he could discern the intention of his Creator : in 

 this world and its productions, seen in their various 

 affinities and economies, read his deity and attri- 

 butes, his wisdom and will, and things spiritual : so 

 that to him, the page of creation was a revelation by 

 natural symbols and types, as the Jewish religion, 

 was by instituted, and the Christian by words, the 

 arbitrary signs of ideas ; and, in consequence of 

 this knowledge, was enabled to impose upon the 

 creatures, names adapted to their several natures. 

 I say, in our present degenerate state^ we cannot 

 attain to this wisdom of the protoplast, for now 

 " we know only in part(ri)." Yet, by combining 

 our own observations upon nature with those of 

 others, who before us have laboured in the same 

 field, we shall gradually approach more and more 

 towards it, till, perhaps, if it be the Divine Will, 

 we attain to the full day of the glory of our Creator, 

 as manifested in his creatures. If that glorious day 

 of true and genuine science should ever come, we 

 shall then behold each natural object in its proper 

 place; we shall learn its history, economy, and 

 uses, its moral and spiritual signification, and find 



(c) Quod ad Historiam Naturulcm attinct, duce ejus partes, 

 Zoologia et Botanica, testautilus hoc pleriscpie thcologis et phi- 

 losophis, primi gemris nostri parentis Juere stadia. Fundament. 

 Eiitomolog. 4to. p. 4. {d) 1 Cor. xiii. y. 



B 2 God's 



