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\\ KVIKW.—NATURAL HISTORY 
cheap, attractive, and interesting form, all that relates to the laws, 
the structure, and the history of the class on which it treats; to 
present, invested with a pleasing and popular dress, a history and 
description of all the known species of the class mammalia, and, as far 
as practicable, of those occurring in a fossil state; a disquisition on the 
great characters and laws of the class; an exposition of its anatomy; 
and a delineation of those structural modifications, traceable through 
the various orders and genera, by which their affinities are determined, 
and their arrangement influenced. Most of the productions of the 
present day exclusively devoted to zoology are appreciable only by 
the man of science; and these are of such an elaborate and volumi¬ 
nous character, and withal so very expensive, that they find entrance 
only into the libraries of the wealthy, and of public institutions. 
There is no pursuit in the whole range of learning, perhaps, 
more congenial to the human mind than the study of natural his¬ 
tory ; and no one can pursue it without strengthening and enlarging 
the mind. In the earliest stages of society, when the mind is in a 
great degree uninformed of the nature of the world around, and un¬ 
influenced by the benign precepts of religion, man 
“ Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the wind.” 
As he treads the savannas and steppes of his native wilds, he be¬ 
comes acquainted with the animals indigenous to the soil, and with 
the habits and manners of those in particular on which his comfort 
and subsistence depend; he traces them to their haunts by the light 
prints of their hoofs and claws, and obtains possession of them by 
force and stratagem. He reads in the skies the indications of the 
approaching storm; observes the flights of the various migratory 
birds, their peculiarities, manners, and instincts. He observes cer¬ 
tain quadrupeds, which are lively or torpid at alternate seasons of 
the year; by the sprouting of the leaf in spring, the blossom of the 
flower in summer, the appearance of the fruits of the earth, the fall 
of the leaf in autumn, and the snows and frosts in winter, he as¬ 
certains the revolving of the seasons. He knows when the bear 
retires to his den, and the beaver comes forth from his habitation; 
and is ever alive to all impressions that may seem to give warning 
of danger, or lead to the gratification of his appetites, and the de¬ 
sire of prolonging his existence. 
Thus it is with the savage in the dark recesses of the forest; his 
knowledge must emanate directly from Nature : but civilized man 
derives his ideas from a constant series and succession of facts, 
obtained from observations on the various laws and phenomena that 
appear in the physical world. At every step he takes, Nature pre¬ 
sents him with a thousand charms, and delights him with new won¬ 
ders ; and well is he rewarded who obeys her call. The votary of 
