aSz on the study of natural history. Aug. ii, 



ing and recognising the different clafses, kinds, and 

 species of animals and vegetables. 



1/ the strange habits and peculiarities of the cuc- 

 kow fliould excite your curiosity of further know- 

 led^", you can follow out this interesting research in 

 a p iper publiflied in the Philosophical Transactions 

 of London, by Mr John Hunter, and so on in every 

 particular that may seize on your laudable curiosi- 

 ty in any of the numerous departments of natural 

 history. 



But in vain have learned and ingenious authors 

 written, and uselefsly does nature display her vari- 

 ous wonders, if we ourselves learn not to explore the 

 particulars with our own eyes, and by the help of 

 our own acquired ingenuity and natural sagacity. 

 Without these, we Ihall learn the wonders, beauties, 

 and curious circumstances of nature, merely as 

 school boys learn their lefsons by rote, or as we ac- 

 quire the rules of arithmetic without its scientific 

 principles. 



You must learn therefore, my dear Alathea, by 

 degrees to grope a way for yourself in the delightful 

 wildernefs of nature, to lay things together proper- 

 ly in your mind, and to draw the results that will 

 not only establilL in your memory the principles 

 ot science, but will teach you at the same time to 

 collect the elements of further attainment. 



It is for this, reason that I wifh and exhort you 

 to search and think for yourself in the contempla- 

 tion of nature, after you have got hold of the proper 

 clues to lead you through her labyrinths, rather than 

 to go or be led continually in the trammels of 



