vl PREFACE. 



appears too complex and artificial for common 

 readers, or young students, whose circumstances, 

 occupations, pursuits, and future prospects, do not 

 permit them to make the study of Natural History 

 the business of their lives. His arrangements seem 

 also not sufficiently to coincide with the general 

 ideas entertained on this subject; for although he 

 classes the whale species with the human and quad- 

 ruped race, merely on account of the conformity 

 of their teeth, and the circumstance of being fur- 

 nished with pectoral teats, this classification will 

 never prevent the whale from being considered as 

 a fish, rather than a beast, by the generality of 

 mankind. His distinctions also, being chiefly found- 

 ed on the number of teeth, do not seem sufficiently 

 obvious to be useful to the generality of readers. 

 The classing of the elephant with the armadillo, 

 of the cat and the hedgehog with the bear, and of 

 the horse with the rhinoceros and the common 

 hog, produces such combinations as, we may with- 

 out hazard assure ourselves, will never be long re- 

 membered by young students, amidst the multipli- 

 city of other pursuits. 



To disseminate the knowledge of animated na- 

 ture among all ranks of people, the easiest method, 

 and that which is certainly best adapted to the 

 general ideas of mankind, is, to range the different 

 orders according to their visible resemblance to 

 some well-known animal, which exhibits a charac- 

 teristic distinction, obvious at the first sight, with- 

 out burdening the memory with artificial systems, 

 and scientific discriminations. 



If this work had been designed for the use of 



