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CHAP. IL 



'fllTORKS of Natural Hiftory, when truly 

 ^ illuminated, may be confidered as a 

 book legible to people of all nations and lan- 

 guages, whether learned or illiterate : real re- 

 prefentations of animals, &c. properly deli- 

 neated and coloured, are charadters that all 

 nations are taught by nature to underftand ; 

 and, in many refpedls, good figures from na- 

 ture furpafs the beft verbal defcriptions. In 

 the courfe of my works I have generally had 

 the advantage of working from real nature, 

 many of my fubjeds being aliye and in high 

 perfeétion, and others well prefervied in order to 

 be imported to us from foreign parts ; and, if 

 my figures fall fliort of nature, as they certain- 

 ly muft, it is not for want of care in me, or 

 proper fubjeds to work from j but: becaufe 

 there is an infinite difference between the Great 

 Creator of natural produdtions, and the pre- 

 sumptuous weak creature, who dared to elfay 



