VI 
PREFACE. 
were feleded not as the only, or even the 
moft valuable, but as anfwering beft the 
intention of the tranflator $ which was 
to make known more generally how far 
all mankind is concerned in the ftudy of 
natural hiftory, and thereby to incite fuch 
as are properly qualified to profecute, and 
encourage that branch of knowledge, and 
fpread, as far as the nature of the thing 
is capable of, amongft all orders of men in 
this nation, the improvements made in it 
by the excellent Linnaeus. His narfie, it 
muft be confeffed, has been for fome time 
paft in the mouths of people, but his 
works, i imagine, are little known except 
to a few vertuofi who have a more than 
ordinary curiofity, and ardor to look into 
the minute parts of nature. It cannot in- 
deed be otherwife. For to underftand him 
and to make ufe of his method, requires 
It as his own. How far that may be the cafe of all the 
other pieces in the Amsen, Acad, i cannot pretend to fay. 
But it is moft likely from the practice in foreign uni- 
yerfities In relation to thefes held for degrees, that they 
HBu'ft in great part be attributed to him, as president. 
more 
