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PREFACE. vil 
pebble that strews his path ; in short, every objed in the creation, how- 
ever insignificant in ordinary estimation, is capable of exciting in the 
naturalist a lively degree of interest. Whether he may chance to stroll 
the flowery fields, or climb the mountain's brow, or walk the street, or 
sail upon the ocean, he has at all times and on all occasions the means 
within himself of deriving from the surrounding objects a pleasure and an 
advantage denied to those who have neglected the study of this valuable 
branch of science. Such will only meet with dreary wastes, and feel no 
other sensation than that of weariness, where the observer of nature 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
" Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 
But not to himself alone are confined the superior advantages which ne- 
cessarily result from the knowledge of natural history. Without a 
systematic classification, it is next to impossible to communicate to others 
distinct ideas of any particular object among the almost endless variety 
that occurs in the universe. To say that an unknown plant resembles such 
a plant that is known, when perhaps in point of fact they are totally un- 
like, except in the shape of a leaf, is conveying not only vague but faulty 
information. The Author would, therefore, most earnestly recommend 
to every young person, and more particularly to such as may be designed 
for travel, the study of natural history ; by which he will contribute 
largely to the stock of his own pleasures, as well as to the real information 
of those to whom he may afterwards communicate his observations. 
The moral and physical advancement or retardation of Europeans in their 
foreign settlements ; the influence of their conduct on that of the natives, and 
its effect in promoting the happiness or increasing the misery of the latter, in 
accelerating or retarding their progress towards civilization ; their endea- 
vours to extend the cultivation of such articles of colonial produce as are 
valuable for local consumption or for commerce, are subjects of the highest 
importance to the concerns of humanity, but such as can only be ac- 
curately represented after long and patient investigation, conducted with- 
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