11 
P R E F A.C E. 
Although my labours, in this branch of Natural History, can be 
confidered but as trifling; and though much is yet wanting to the full 
and perfe6l hiftory of thefe infefts; yet has this treatife met with 
unlooked-for honour, in the approbation of the Royal Academy of 
Sciences of Upfal, to the opinion of which learned body it has been 
fubmitted: and when I reflect on this circumftance, I confefs myfelf to 
be irrefiftibly impelled, and obliged, to the farther purfuit of the ftudy 
of nature, and the difcovery of thofe wonders, which tend to fhew the 
power of the Deity in all places. 
Having omitted a number of circumftances which might have been 
added, I have endeavoured to be as brief as polTible in this Treatise 
ON Spiders, on a fuppofition that it might be inferted in the a61;s of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences; and as it was my chief intention to fave 
time, I contented myfelf with mentioning the number of genera and 
fpecies, and with rendering them familiar by figures, fo that they might be 
eafily diftinguifhed; omitting, however, what was not abfolutely neceflary; 
as for inftance, whether thofe Spiders belong to one or more fpecies, or 
whether they be young or adult ones, which in the fpace of a fingle night 
cover large fields with innumerable threads? whether want of nutriment 
obliges them to this? whether they prefignify future tempefts, or whether 
they may be regarded as hints for proper fowing-time? &c. which is a 
matter well worthy of inquiry in the complete History of Spiders. 
But the Royal Academy, perceiving that this hiflory would require a con- 
fiderable time to be introduced into its tranfa6lions, and that thofe who 
wifhed to become acquainted with the hiftory of thefe animals, would 
thus be obliged to purchafe the whole work, before they could be pof- 
