VI 
PREFACE. 
It will scarcely be denied, that benefit 
arises to society from the laudable fashion^ 
may I be permitted to call it, of esteeming 
an acquaintance with the admirable stores 
of Nature, almost an essential part of polite 
education. Few would choose to be utterly 
deficient in information with regard to the 
higher properties and systematic arrange- 
ments of a science, the rudiments of which 
are now imparted to children with their 
alphabet; and constitute the basis of the 
earliest instruction which is bestowed on 
the youthful mind, to promote its expansion, 
and direct its first efforts to objects worthy 
of its choice. The mind of man cannot but 
be ameliorated by the acquisition of wisdom 
in all its forms ; and if we admit, as surely 
we must, that there is not any knowledge 
