THE 



PREFACE. 



This Work being perhaps one of the mofi: fingular 

 produdions ever ofFered to the Public, I think it 

 right to give the Reader a fhort fketch of Vv^hat he 

 is going to perufe. — I have endeavoured to arrange 

 matters in fome degree like a large garden, where 

 one meets with the fweet-fmelling flower and the 

 thorn, the gold-befpangled fly and loathfome rep- 

 tile, the richefl: glowing plumage and the darkefl 

 fhades ; the whole fo variegated as to afford, I hope, 

 both information and amufement, without racking or 

 deprefiing the fpirits, and damping the mind ; not 

 indeed in the modern pomp and brilliancy of flyle, 

 burin a Ample tale, where truth is the chief or- 

 nament. 



a 2 Here, 



