4 



A NEW HISTORY OF 



I will introduce no harsh words to confound 

 them, nor recommend to them, systems, which at 

 best, are unsatisfactory inventions. All that I 

 have got to say, shall be placed before them in so 

 clear a point of view, that every reader, be his 

 education light or solid, will be able to comprehend 

 my meaning : and nothing more than this can be 

 required. 



Let us now proceed to investigate the form and 

 economy of a race of animals, which, although 

 known so early as the time in which Aristotle 

 lived, still even in our own days of supposed 

 universal knowledge, seem to be but imperfectly 

 understood. 



The whole family of those amusing and inter- 

 esting animals usually denominated monkeys, 

 stands conspicuous in the catalogue of animals. 

 I shall at once divide it into four distinct depart- 

 ments, without any reference to subdivisions : and 

 this plan will be quite sufficient for the instruction 

 of our young naturalists. 



I would wish to impose upon their minds, that 

 notwithstanding what ancient and modern philoso- 

 phers have written to the contrary, monkeys are 

 inhabitants of trees alone, when left in their own 

 freedom ; that, like the sloth, they are produced, 

 and live and die in the trees : and that, they rarely 



