ADVERTISEMENT. 



the wear and tare of twenty-two years ; and I feel fhocked 

 at the remark of the elegant Delaney^ who obferves, * that 



* it is generally agreed among wife men, that few great 



* attempts, at left in the learned way, have ever been 



* wifely imdertaken and happily executed after that period !' 

 I cannot defend the wifdom : yet, from the good fortune 

 of my life, I will attempt the execution. 



It will be formed upon the model of my Introduction 

 to the Arctic Zoology, imitating, as far as my talents will 

 admit, the great examples left by the difciples of the Lin- 

 M^AN fchool, and the folid writings of the liberal and com- 

 municative race of the hyperborean learned, fitted by cli- 

 mate to afliduous ftudy, and to retain the immenfenefs of 

 their knowlege, when acquired. The Torrid Zone gene- 

 rally enervates the body and mind. The divine particle 

 melts away, and every idea is too often loft in irreHftible, 

 indolence. 



Yet there are two writers, to whom I muft own the 

 higheft obligations, who felt no degeneracy by the influence 

 of climate. Their thoughts are as firm and colledled as if 

 they had been braced by the fteady froft of the north. 



The firft is James Rennel Efquire, late Major of Engi- 

 neers and Surveyor General in Bengal, The effects of his 



labors, 



