viii PREFACE. 



writer has described it in flower. Perhaps he 

 meets the bird before it has moulted its first 

 feathers, while the systematic description was 

 made in its state of full perfection. He thus 

 ranges without an instructor, confused, and with 

 sickening curiosity, from subject to subject, till 

 at last he gives up the pursuit, in the multiplicity 

 of his disappointments. 



Some practice, therefore, much instruction, and 

 diligent reading, are requisite to make a ready 

 and expert naturalist, who shall be able, even by 

 the help of a system, to find out the name of 

 every object he meets with. But when this 

 tedious, though requisite part of study is attained, 

 nothing but delight and variety attend the rest of 

 his journey. Wherever he travels, like a man in 

 a country where he has many friends, he meets 

 with nothing but acquaintances and allurements 

 in all the stages of his way. The mere uninform- 

 ed spectator passes on in gloomy solitude ; but 

 the naturalist, in every plant, in every insect, and 

 in every pebble, finds something to entertain his 

 curiosity, and excite his speculation. 



From hence it appears, that a system may be 

 considered as a dictionary in the study of nature. 

 The ancients, however, who have all written most 

 delightfully on this subject, seem entirely to have 

 rejected those humble and mechanical helps to 

 science. They contented themselves with seizing 

 upon the great outlines of history, and passing 

 over what was common, as not worth the detail ; 

 they only dwelt, upon what was new, great, and 

 surprising, and sometimes even warmed the ima- 



