THE 
PREFACE. 
A L A RG R field was before the Author of thefe volumes, when 
he firfi laid down the plan of the Work. Part of it had been 
more, part lefs cultivated, and a part, not to reproach the Natu - 
ralifis too much, left almoft in it s native wildnefs . When I mention the 
part mofl cultivated, I Jhall readily enough be underfiood to mean that 
which relates to vegetables ; the animal world has, of late years, began 
alfo to be examined, but what has been written concerning it, is not by any 
means to be compared with the labours of the late and prefent age, in re¬ 
gard to Botany. The Fofiils, although of equal number, and of equal 
value with even the Animals, or with the Plants in ufe; mofi valuable of 
all in point of property and intrinfic value; had been fearce at all regarded 
as the obje&s of a regular difquifition . 
FROM the earlieft time indeed men had written of them. Theo- 
phraflus, whofe works on this fubjeEl I fome time fence publifhed, although 
one of the earliefi of thefe whofe works have travelled down to 
us, mentions the Jludy as not new, and even quotes Diodes, and fome 
others who went before him. But although the Greeks, and the Latins af¬ 
ter them, have treated of minerals, what they have written ferves but to 
fhew how little they were acquainted with them, nor has the induflry of the 
Germans ferved to much better effed, than the genius of thofe earlier in- 
vefligators. The one have deferibed a few, the others have underfiood a 
few. The far greater part lay untouched, unnoticed, and even un¬ 
named : And, of the fmall number that either had confidered, none were 
yet arranged into any kind of order. 
IF we except our Dr Wlodward, it will be hard to mention any au¬ 
thor , who has made but a tolerable attempt toward difiributing the Foffils 
into method, and forming the fiudy of them into a fcience. Linnceus has 
followed him, but, infiead of order, he has introduced confufion : neither 
did the arrangement of Woodward, in his catalogues, by any means ap¬ 
proach towards a perfect fyftem. The real chara&ers of thefe bodies he 
was wholly unacquainted with, and it was therefore impoffble he Jhould 
arrive at any found method of difpofing them . 
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