C 58 3 



CHAP. II. 

 ORKS of Natural Hiftpry, when truly 



^ illuminated, may be confidered as ^ 

 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 charaders that all 

 nations are taught by nature to underftand j 

 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 alive and in high 

 perfedion, and others well preferved in order tQ 

 be imported to us from foreign parts j and, if 

 my figures fall ftiort of nature, as they certain- 

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

 proper fubjedls to work from ; but becaufe 

 there is an infinite difference between the Great 

 Creator of natural produdlions, and the pre- 

 fumptuous weak creature, who dare4 to eflay 



