PREFACE. XV 



above-mentioned arts. Taste is no more 

 than a quick sensibility of imagination 

 refined by judgement, and corrected by 

 experience ; but experience is another term 

 for knowlege : * and to judge of natural 

 images, we must acquire the same know- 

 lege, and by the same means, as the 

 painter, the poet, or the sculptor. 



Thus far natural history in general 

 seems connected with the polite arts; 

 but were we to descend into all its parti- 

 cular uses in common life, we should ex- 

 ceed the bounds of a preface : it will be 

 therefore necessary to confine our inqui- 

 ries to the investigation of a single part of 

 the material world, which few are so igno- 

 rant as not to know is divided into the 

 animal, vegetable, and fossil kingdoms. 



Vast would be the extent of the inqui- 

 ries into each of these; but though ambi- 

 tion may tempt us to pervade the whole 

 field of science, yet a little experience will 

 open to our views the immense tracts of 



* See the Essay on the origin of our ideas of the aub« 

 lime and beautiful. 



