PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



no wish to see him in his nakedness ; but of this I am sure, that 

 he is neither a judge of my work, nor of the science of which 

 it treats. 



In conclusion, and not to weary you with a long letter, let 

 me entreat you, sir, for the future, to exercise your discretion 

 as an Editor, and refuse such trash offered to you as criticism, 

 or disavow your connexion with such a periodical, — your fame 

 and credit will not be improved by the alliance. 



I am, sir, 

 With much respect, your most obedient humble servant, 



JAS. JENNINGS. 



p.s. You will observe, sir, a few of the public testimonies to 

 the value of my work on the following page. I could adduce 

 many letters from some of the first naturalists of the age, and 

 fellows of the Linnean Society, to whom I am personally 

 unknown, who have voluntarily and unsolieitedly expressed their 

 approbation of it ; but such gratifying communications I have, 

 of course, no right to make public. 



To conclude this Hypercriticism, what a delightful book 

 would Omithologia have been, had not the author introduced 

 the subject of Humanity to Animals; how pleasant couid 

 he have made it, had he eulogized, as is the fashion, Isaac 

 Walton and other piscatory writers; how would our lite- 

 rary gourmands have gloated over whole pages of inanities, 

 so that he had left them to the enjoyment of their pleasures. 

 More especially if he had written in praise of the Pleasures 

 of the Chace ; of the destruction of Grouse and Partridges ; 

 of the exhilaration produced by the cry of the loud -mouthed 

 hounds ; or by the flash of Manton's rifle, on a frosty morn- 

 ing in October. But no, he has not chosen to do this, 

 and verily he hath his reward, — the silly criticism of the 

 London and the New Monthly Magazines, and the vitupe- 

 ration of the ignorant and the unfeeling. 



London; September 1829. 



