XVI PREFACE. 



contemplation of Nature, the anticipation of the 

 pleasure we may have to bestow on kindred 

 minds with our own, in sharing with them our 

 discoveries and our acquisitions. This is truly 

 an object worthy of a good man, the pleasure 

 of communicating virtuous disinterested plea- 

 sure to those who have the same tastes with our- 

 selves ; or of guiding young ingenuous minds 

 to worthy pursuits, and facilitating their acqui- 

 sition of what we have already obtained. If 

 honours and respectful consideration reward 

 such motives, they flow from a pure source. 

 The giver and the receiver are alike invulne- 

 rable, as well as inaccessible, to "envy, jealousy 

 or rivalship," and may pardon their attacks 

 without an effort. 



The natural history of animals, in many 

 respects even more interesting than botany to 

 man as an animated being, and more striking 

 in some of the phenomena which it displays, 

 is in other points less pleasing to a tender and 

 delicate mind. In botany all is elegance and 

 delight. No painful, disgusting, unhealthy ex- 

 periments or inquiries are to be made. Its 

 pleasures spring up under our feet, and, as we 

 pursue them, reward us with health and serene 



