( tf ) 



Hiftory, merely by the language in which its principles are deliver- 

 ed. To the intelligent inhabitants of the country, and to thofe 

 who are employed, either at home or abroad, in the purfuits of com- 

 merce, navigation, or agriculture, this fcience will open a new and 

 never failing fource of rational amufement. Every walk in the 

 woods and fields, affording an infinite fund of agreeable relaxation 

 from profeffional bufinefs, may thus be employed in pleafing fludy ; 

 and that time, which now too often drags heavily on with thofe 

 who are idle, more from want of an object of rational employment 

 than from inclination, may be filled up with a conftant and eafy in- 

 veftigation of the beauties of creation. To many perfons, this ftudy 

 may be rendered an object of pecuniary advantage, by enabling 

 them to felect and preferve the more valuable fpecimens, which are 

 in great requeft, and bear a high price among collectors of cabinets. 

 Even the ladies may be induced, from the interefting nature of the 

 fludy, to prefer the purfuit of Natural Hiftory to thofe frivolous 

 publications, which have too often a hurtful, and never any beneficial 

 tendency. 



One part of this great Syftem of Nature, the arrangement, def- 

 cription, and nomenclature of vegetables, has already been moft 

 laudably given to the public in Englifh by the Litchfield Botanical 

 Society,, and with deferved applaufe. It is now propofed to tranflate 

 the Animal System of the fame celebrated author, which ar- 

 ranges, defcribes, and names the whole known Species and Varieties 

 of Quadrupeds, Birds, Amphibious animals, Reptiles, Serpents, Fi/hes n 

 Infecls, and Worms. By this means, the mere Englifh. reader will 

 be enabled to contemplate, with facility and pleafure, the number- 

 lefs beauties which Nature every where prefents to the attentive ob» 

 ferver. The defcriptions given by Linnaeus are fo admirably adapt- 

 ed to the fubject, and are expreffed in fuch clear and diftinct. terms,, 

 that any perfon, by a very fmajl degree of attention, may difcover, 



b 2. thfir 



