To the moft Sacred Majefty of 



Charles the Second, 



<By the Grace of gOX>, 



King of Cjreat < Britan, France and Ireland, 



"Defender of the FAITH, See* 



May it pleafe Your zZMa'jefty, 



T had certainly been an unpardon- 

 able prefumtion for fo mean aperfon 

 as the Author of this Effay, to have 

 prefented Your M ajefty with a yet 

 meaner difcourfe, had not the fub- 

 ject of it alwaies deferved the notice* 

 and the Enquirers into it, the favor 

 of Princes. Thus had Ariflotle in writing his Treatife of 

 Animals the afsiftance of Alexander and Tliny the Pa- 

 tronage of Titus Vejpatian to his Natural Hiftory. 



Befide, this attemt feems more juftly to belong to Your 

 Majefty, than any of their Hiftories to their refpe&ive Pa- 

 trons, it being fo far from exceeding Your Majefties Do- 

 minions, that it contains but an Enquiry into one of the 

 fmalleft parts of them; *vi%. Your alwaies Loial County 

 and Univerfity of Oxford > whereas their Volumes are 

 bounded only with the Univerfe. 



h Yet 



