To the moft Sacred Majefty of 
Charles the Second, 
^ji the Grace of (^OT>y 
King of ^reat "Britariy France and Ireland^ 
"Defender of the FAIT &c. 
Majiit pkafeYouraSMajeJiy^ - 
T had certainly teen an unpardon- 
able prefumtion for fo mean aperfon 
as the Author of this Eflay^ to have 
prefented Your Majefty with a yet 
meaner difcourfe, had not the fub- 
jec5l of it alwaies deferved the notice, 
and the Enquirers into it, the favor 
of Princes. Thus had Arijlotle in writing his Treatife of 
Animals the afsiftance of Alexander^ and Tlhij^ the Pa- 
tronage of Titus Vejpatian to his Natural Hiftory. 
Befide, this attemt feemsmore juftly to belong to Your 
Majefty, than any of their Hiftories to their refpedive Pa- 
trons, it being fo far from exceeding Your Majeftics Do- 
minions, that it contains but an Enquiry into one of the 
fmalleft parts of them; i^i^. Your alwaies Loial County 
and Univerfity of Ofordi whereas their Volumes are 
bounded only with the Univerfe. 
