9 



aim of every one to simplify lils labour; and the want 

 of a plan is too frequsutly the complaint of those who 

 either through negligence or inattention, suffer oppor- 

 tunities of being useful to escape them unimproTcd ; to 

 remedy this neglect, and to supply the want above al- 

 luded to, we have annexed at the close of the different 

 divisions, a sketch of a diary or calender, somewhat on 

 the plan of that published Tnany years ago by the Honorable 

 Daines Barrington. 



The Author takes this opportunity of acknowledging 

 the assistance he has derived from various valuable pub- 

 lications, particularly from the Philosophical and the 

 transactions of the Royal and Linnean Societies, works which 

 contain papers of the highest importance and which \?ill 

 be read with interest in succeeding ages; yet from the 

 Toluminous and expensive forms of these works, they must 

 of course be read by comparatively few, and the knowledge 

 they contain can hardly extend beyond the sphere in which 

 it was at first disseminated. 



That it is not possible ever to form a complete history 

 of all natural subjects, is evident from their immense 

 variety, and from the intimate connexion subsisting 

 between each ; so that all we can expect from the ob- 

 servation of discerning men, whose attention may be 

 directed to the same objects, is an increase of our present 

 stock of knowledge, and from the gleanings of this 

 general stock, something in the nature of a complete 

 history may be formed. The par(s forming this great 

 whole, are so ccmplexj their uses so varied, and their 



