PREFACE. Vll 



those, he is taught to look for the precise name 

 of that which is before him. If, for instance, the 

 knob be divided into plates at the ends, and the 

 belly be marked with large triangular white spots 

 on each side, it is no other than the Cock-chaffer, 

 or the Maybug, an animal, the noxious qualities 

 of which give it a very distinguished rank in the 

 history of the insect creation. In this manner a 

 system of natural history may, in some measure, 

 be compared to a dictionary of words. Both are 

 solely intended to explain the names of things, 

 but with this difference, that in the dictionary of 

 words we are led from the name of the thing to 

 its definition ; whereas, in the system of natural 

 history, we are led from the definition to find out 

 the name. 



Such are the efforts of writers, who have com- 

 posed their works with great labour and ingenuity, 

 to direct the learner in his progress through 

 nature, and to inform him of the name of every 

 animal, plant, or fossil substance, that he happens 

 to meet with ; but it would be only deceiving the 

 reader, to conceal the truth, which is, that books 

 alone can never teach him this art in perfection, 

 and the solitary student can never succeed. 

 Without a master, and a previous knowledge of 

 many of the objects in nature, his book will only 

 serve to confound and disgust him. Few of the 

 individual plants or animals, that he may happen 

 to meet with, are in that precise state of health, 

 or that exact period of vegetation, from whence 

 their descriptions were taken. Perhaps he meets 

 the plant only with leaves, but the systematic 



