ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION, 



More than half a century has elapsed since Goldsmith's History 

 of the Earth and Animated Nature was first published ; and al- 

 though it has gone through many editions, such is the charm of 

 the work, that the demand for it continues little abated. The 

 art, which Goldsmith eminently possessed, of saying every thing 

 he had to say in a pleasing manner, — the fascinating ease and 

 beauty of his style, and the intelligible method of arrangement 

 whicii he adopted in his Natural History, secured for his work 

 an extensive and steady patronage, — and well did the result prove 

 the correctness of Dr Johnson's anticipation, when he said> as is 

 recorded in Boswell's Life, " Goldsmith is now writing a Natu- 

 ral History, and he will make it as entertaining as a Persian 

 tale." Goldsmith's work, indeed, did much to render Natural 

 History a popular study in this country; for, important and in- 

 teresting as the science is, it was late in the progress of know- 

 ledge, both as regards ancient and modern times, before it as- 

 sumed a regular form, or began to be generally cultivated. In 

 Greece, many of the sciences had been successfully prosecuted, 

 and the fine arts had attained maturity, before Aristotle gave the 

 first outline in Natural History: in Rome, taste and genius had 

 passed their meridian, before the elder Pliny collected his singu- 

 lar medley of pi'ecious facts and idle fancies, which is the only 

 valuable work in Natural History to be met with in Roman 

 literature : and in our own times, the heroes of almost every 

 other science had flourished before BufFon and Linnseus appeared. 

 Goldsmith, it is true, cannot be classed with these great natural- 

 ists in the extent and originality of his researches; yet, if he 

 added little to the science, he divested it of much of its obscurity, 

 and by the inimitable graces of his style and manner, threw a 

 sharm over it, which was new to the English reader, and the ef- 

 fect of which, in renderln' the science popular, has been, and to 

 this day is, great and ext isive. 



