Language. 
Method. 
[ viii ] 
Method, and Catagogue of Foffils, afford many critical defcriptions of a number 
of Specimens from Cornwall, and many ufeful theories deduced from them. 
Some fcattered Memorandums on our Metals, and Mines, &c. are to be found 
in the TranfaCtions of the Royal Society, and the late Mr. Hutchinfon made 
fome juft obfervations on our Strata and Lodes. I have not made the leaft ad- 
vantage of either without naming place and author. 
Few Studies are more ufeful to mankind than Natural History, but it is 
a particular Science, and to read it with pleafure and improvement (as theie is 
a connexion betwixt Sciences as well as Arts) will require fome previous and pre- 
paratory knowledge of the learned Languages, and indeed of the filler Sciences. 
For want of fufficient and adequate expreffions in the Englifh tongue 
Natural History muft needs borrow from the Greek and Latin. It muft 
alfo ftruggle to naturalize the technical terms of Geometiy , Geography and other 
Arts, in fhort, a Natural Hiftorian for the fake of properly particularizing fuch a 
variety of bodies as fall within his notice, muft have the liberty of taking 
words from every hand ; the fenfe would efeape in long fen fences and a multi- 
tude of words ; and the unavoidable circumlocutions of the Englilh tongue, if 
they did not deftroy the meaning, would neceffarily abate the impreffion. 
These technical words, however, are inferted with reluctance, and in fuch 
places more efpecially as by their abftraCted fpeculations are calculated for the 
perufal of thofe who are moft converfant in thefe ftudies. 
The Method which the principal divifions are thrown into is plain, fuch as 
the feveral parts of the Treatife fuggefted, not confined to any fyftem; nor the 
Subjects treated under the general heads, clafled and digefted according to the 
method of any other Writer. 
As the end of Method is perfpicuity, when it appeared to me that I was 
in poffeffion of that, I never thought it neceflary to fearch in books for the other. 
I follow no leader, but I have flighted no guidance, nor refufed to accept of any 
clue to regulate my conduCt : there may be too much of Syftem, as well as 
too little j Subjects may be crammed fo clofe, that they will hide one another ; 
if they are arbitrarily driven together under a clafs lefs obvious, they will not 
fuit their companions, nor become their place, nor be eafily found. 
But without an orderly difpofition Natural History fares much worfe, 
’tis but a confufed, undifciplined crowd of fubjeCts ; diftinCt, clear arrangement 
places them in their due light, without which, as the eye can fee no beauty, 
the mind can judge of no properties, competition, 01 relation. Though there 
muft be no {hackles, yet order, connexion, rank, and relation, muft be ftnCt y 
obferved, and therefore with other lovers of Natural History I here take a 
pleafure 
