IV PREFACE. 



silion of the universe. This study is also both 

 easy and entertaining, and appears congenial to 

 the nature of man, in every stage of his life. The 

 infant, on his first entrance into life, is naturally 

 led to employ his opening faculties in observing 

 the exterior appearances of the things which he 

 perceives around him ; and as soon as he has ac- 

 quired the use of speech, he desires to be informed 

 of their qualities and uses. When grown to ma- 

 turity, he sees himself placed in a boundless am- 

 phitheatre, filled with an immense variety of ob- 

 jects, which solicit his attention; but, through a 

 want of previous instruction, is often lost and con- 

 founded in the magnificence and multiplicity of 

 those scenes which Nature presents to his view. 



That some knowledge of the system of Nature 

 is necessary to all ranks of people, is a truth that 

 cannot be contested. The gentleman, the trades- 

 man, the farmer, the mechanic, ought to have such 

 a general acquaintance with this science, as may 

 give him an exalted idea of the Creator of the 

 universe, or some general information of those 

 parts of the animal, vegetable, and mineral king- 

 doms, which furnish articles of important utility, in 

 regard to food and clothing, manufactures and 

 commerce. Without something of this kind of 

 knowledge, a -person must often betray his igno- 

 rance, and expose himself to ridicule. 



The greatest princes and philosophers have not 

 thought the study of Natural History, unworthy 

 their attention. Solomon, as the scripture informs 

 us, " spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in 

 Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springeth out of 



