( "6 ) 



have either purfued a phantom, or an 

 object which Nature has inveloped with 

 a veil impenetrable to human fagacity. 

 The hiftory of actions and events is in- 

 deed unconnected with thefe difagree- 

 able attendants, but is ever united with 

 a feries of melancholy accidents, and 

 un ami able truths, which fuggeft a chain 

 of painful and often humiliating reflec- 

 tions, abundantly fufficient to allay the 

 fatisfaclion which the mind derives from 

 contemplating the variety and mutabi- 

 lity of fablunary events. But the ftudy 

 of Natural Hiftory, which ever termi- 

 nates in certainty, is unaccompanied 

 with thefe unpleafmg attendants, and 

 the mind is left to the full enjoyment of 

 that pleafure, which it ever muft re- 

 ceive in comparing the fimplicity, va- 

 riety, and beauty of Nature, in her or- 

 dinary operations, with thofe wanton 

 productions in which £he eludes the 

 comp*ehenfion of finite reafon ; and 



while 



