PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. vH 



the rest of his jouruey. Wherever he travels, like a man in a 

 counti'y vehere he has many friends, he meets with nothing but 

 acquaintances and allurements in all the stages of his way. The 

 mere uninformed spectator passes on in gloomy solitude ; hut the 

 naturalist, in every plant, in every insect, and every pebble, finds 

 something to entertain his curiosity, and excite his speculation. 



From hence it appears, that a system may be considered as a 

 dictionary in the study of nature. The ancients, however, who 

 have written most delightfully on this subject, seem entirely to 

 have rejected those humble and mechanical helps to science. 

 They contented themselves with seizing upon the great outlines of 

 history, and passing over what was common, as not worth the de- 

 tail ; they only dwelt upon what was new, great, and surprising, 

 and sometimes even warmed the imagination at the expense of 

 truth. Such of the moderns as revived this science in Europe, 

 undertook the task more methodically, though not in a manner so 

 pleasing. Aldrovandus, Gesner, and Johnson, seemed desirous of 

 uniting the entertaining and rich descriptions of the ancients, with 

 the dry and systematic arrangement, of which they were the 

 first projectors. This attempt, however, was extremely imper- 

 fect, as the great variety of nature was, as j'et, but very inade- 

 quately known. Nevertheless, by attempting to can-y on both 

 objects at once, first directing us to the name of a thing, and then 

 giving the detail of its history, they drew out their woiks into a 

 tedious and unreasonable length ; and thus mixing incompatible 

 aims, they have left their labours rather to be occasionally con- 

 sulted, than read with delight, by posterity. 



The later moderns, with that good sense which they have car- 

 ried into every other part of science, have taken a different me- 

 thod in cultivating natural history. They have been content to 

 give, not only the brevity, but also the dry and disgusting air of 

 a dictionary, to their systems. Ray, Klein, Brisson, and Lin- 

 naeus, have had only one aim, that of pointing out the object in 

 nature, of discovering its name, and where it was to be found In 

 those authors that treated of it in a more prolix and satisfactory 

 maimer. Thus natural history, at present, is carried on in two 

 distinct and separate channels, the one serving to lead us to the 

 thing, the other conveying the history of the thing, as supposing 

 it already known. 



The following Natural History is written with only such an 

 attention to system as serves to remove the reader's embarrass- 

 ments, and alluie him to proceed. It can make no pretensioiis in 

 directing him to the name of every object he meets with ; that 



