12 HISTORY OF 



entangled forests, beasts of various kinds, insects 

 in astonishing abundance, and serpents of sur- 

 prising magnitude, find a quiet retreat from man, 

 and are seldom disturbed, except by each other. 



In this manner the extremes of our globe seem 

 equally unfitted for the comforts and convenien- 

 cies of life -, and, although the imagination may 

 find an awful pleasure in contemplating the 

 frightful precipices of Greenland, or the luxu- 

 rious verdure of Africa, yet true happiness can 

 only be found in the more moderate climates, 

 where the gifts of nature may be enjoyed with- 

 out incurring danger in obtaining them. 



It is in the temperate zone, therefore, that all 

 the arts of improving nature, and refining upon 

 happiness, have been invented : and this part of 

 the earth is, more properly speaking, the theatre 

 of natural history. Although there be millions of 

 animals and vegetables in the unexplored forests 

 under the line, yet most of these may for ever 

 continue unknown, as curiosity is there repressed 

 by surrounding danger. But it is otherwise in 

 these delightful regions "which we inhabit, and 

 where this art has had its beginning. Among us 

 there is scarcely a shrub, a flower, or an insect, 

 without its particular history; scarcely a plant 

 that could be useful, which has not been propa- 

 gated ; nor a weed that could be noxious, which 

 has not been pointed out, 



