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ADVERTISEMENT. 



" It is a truth highly honourable to the age in 

 which we live, that it is distinguished beyond every 

 preceding period by an universal solicitude to con- 

 tribute towards the formation and improvement of 

 the youthful mind. To this object scarcely any 

 writer of celebrity would formerly have conde^ 

 scended to devote his attention ; but within these 

 few years its importance has been duly appreciated. 

 Authors, eminent for genius and talents, so far 

 from disdaining the employment, have thought it 

 their duty to step forward as the instructors of the 

 rising generation, and, placing themselves on a 

 level with the comprehensions of juvenile readers, 

 they have inculcated, in simple language and in a 

 pleasing form, the elements of science, the pre- 

 cepts of virtue, and the principles of morality." 



"To diffuse still more extensively the advan- 

 tages accruing from the exertions of one of these 

 benefactors of mankind" is the object of the pub- 

 lisher, who, considering the different branches of 

 Natural History as not only pleasing studies, but 

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