CONTENTS OF PART FIRST CHAP. IV.-A Review of the different theories of the Earth, CHAP. XVI. Of the Tides, Motion, and Currents of the Sea; with their effects, - CHAP. XVII. Of the Changes produced by the Sea upon the Earth, PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. NATURAL HISTORY, considered in its utmost extent, comprehends two objects. First, that of discovering, ascertaining, and naming, all the various productions of Nature. Secondly, that of describing the properties, manners, and relations, which they bear to us, and to each other. The first, which is the most difficult part of this science, is systematical, dry, mechanical, and incomplete The second is more amusing, exhibits new pictures to the imagination, and improves our relish for existence, by widening the prospect of nature around us. as cases to those under them; if he finds the wings composed in this manner, he is then taught to pronounce that this insect is one of the beetle kind of the beetle kind there are three different classes, distinguished from each other by their feelers; he examines the insect before him, and finds that the feelers are clavated or knobbed at the ends; of beetles, with feelers thus formed, there are ten kinds; and among those he is taught to look for the precise name of that which is before him. If, for instance, the knob be divided at the ends, and the belly be streaked with white, it is no other than the Dorr, or the May-bug; an animal, the noxious qualities of which give it a very distinguished rank in the history of the insect creation. In this manner a system of natural history may, in some measure, be com Both, however, are necessary to those who would understand this pleasing science in its utmost extent. The first care of every inquirer, no doubt, should be, to see, to visit, and examine, every object, before he pretends to inspect its habitudes or its history. From seeing and ob-pared to a dictionary of words. Both are solely serving the thing itself, he is most naturally led to speculate upon its uses, its delights, or its inconveniences. intended to explain the names of things; but with this difference, that in the dictionary of words we are led from the name of the thing to its definition; whereas in the system of natural history, we are led from the definition to find out the name. Such are the efforts of writers, who have composed their works with great labour and ingenu Numberless obstructions, however, are found in this part of his pursuit that frustrate his diligence and retard his curiosity. The objects in nature are so many, and even those of the same kind are exhibited in such a variety of forms, that the inquirer finds himself lost in the exu-ity, to direct the learner in his progress through berance before him, and, like a man who attempts to count the stars, unassisted by art, his powers are all distracted in the barren superfluity. To remedy this embarrassment, artificial systems have been devised, which, grouping into masses those parts of nature more nearly resembling each other, refer the inquirer for the name of the single object he desires to know, to some one of those general distributions, where it is to be found by farther examination. nature, and to inform him of the name of every animal, plant, or fossil substance, that he happens to meet with: but it would be only deceiving the reader to conceal the truth, which is, that books alone can never teach him this art in perfection: and the solitary student can never succeed. Without a master, and a previous knowledge of many of the objects of nature, his book will only serve to confound and disgust him. Few of the individual plants or animals, that he may happen If, for instance, a man should, in his walks, to meet with, are in that precise state of health, meet with an animal, the name, and consequently or that exact period of vegetation, from whence the history, of which he desires to know, he is their descriptions were taken. Perhaps he meets taught by systematic writers of natural history the plant only with leaves, but the systematic to examine its most obvious qualities, whether a writer has described it in flower. Perhaps he quadruped, a bird, a fish, or an insect. Having meets the bird before it has moulted its first determined it, for explanation's sake, to be an feathers, while the systematic description was insect, he examines whether it has wings; if he made in its state of full perfection. He thus finds it possessed of these, he is taught to ex-ranges without an instructor, confused, and with amine whether it has two or four; if possessed sickening curiosity, from subject to subject, till of four, he is taught to observe, whether the two at last he gives up the pursuit, in the multipliupper wings are of a shelly hardness, and serve | city of his disappointments. Some practice, therefore, much instruction, | move the reader's embarrassments, and allure him and diligent reading, are requisite to make a ready and expert naturalist, who shall be able, even by the help of a system, to find out the name of every object he meets with. But when this tedious, though requisite, part of study is attained, nothing but delight and variety attend the rest of his journey. Wherever he travels, like a man in a country where he has many friends, he meets with nothing but acquaintances and allurements in all the stages of his way. The mere uninformed spectator passes on in gloomy solitude; but the naturalist, in every plant, in every insect, and every pebble, finds something to entertain his curiosity, and excite his speculation. From hence it appears, that a system may be considered as a dictionary in the study of nature. The ancients, however, who have written most delightfully on this subject, seem entirely to have rejected those humble and mechanical helps to science. They contented themselves with seizing upon the great outlines of history, and passing over what was common, as not worth the detail; they only dwelt upon what was new, great, and surprising, and sometimes even warmed the imagination at the expense of truth. Such of the moderns as revived this science in Europe, undertook the task more methodically, though not in a manner so pleasing. Aldrovandus, Gesner, and Johnson, seemed desirous of uniting the entertaining and rich descriptions of the ancients with the dry and systematic arrangement, of which they were the first prejectors. This attempt, however, was extremely imperfect, as the great variety of nature was, as yet, but very inadequately known. Nevertheless, by attempting to carry on both objects at once, first of directing us to the name of the thing, and then giving the detail of its history, they drew out their works into a tedious and unreasonable length; and thus mixing incompatible aims, they have left their labours rather to be occasionally consulted, than read with delight, by posterity. The later moderns, with that good sense which they have carried into every other part of science, have taken a different method in cultivating natural history. They have been content to give, not only the brevity, but also the dry and disgusting air of a dictionary, to their systems. Ray, Klein, Brisson, and Linnæus, have had only one aim, that of pointing out the object in nature, of discovering its name, and where it was to be found in those authors that treated of it in a more prolix and satisfactory manner. Thus natural history, at present, is carried on in two distinct and separate channels, the one serving to lead us to the thing, the other conveying the history of the thing, as supposing it already known. The following Natural History is written with only such an attention to system as serves to re to proceed. It can make no pretensions in directing him to the name of every object he meets with; that belongs to works of a very different kind, and written with very different aims. It will fully answer my design, if the reader, being already possessed of the name of any animal, shall find here a short, though satisfactory, history of its habitudes, its subsistence, its manners, its friendships, and hostilities. My aim has been to carry on just as much method as was sufficient to shorten my descriptions by generalizing them, and never to follow order where the art of writing, which is but another name for good sense, informed me that it would only contribute to the reader's embarrassment. Still, however, the reader will perceive that I have formed a kind of system in the history of every part of animated Nature, directing myself by the great obvious distinctions that she herself seems to have made; which, though too few to point exactly to the name, are yet sufficient to illuminate the subject, and remove the reader's perplexity. Mr. Buffon, indeed, who has brought greater talents to this part of learning than any other man, has almost entirely rejected method in classing quadrupeds. This, with great deference to such a character, appears to me running into the opposite extreme; and as some moderns have of late spent much time, great pains, and some learning, all to very little purpose, in systematic arrangement, he seems so much disgusted by their trifling but ostentatious efforts, that he describes his animals almost in the order they happen to come before him. This want of method seems to be a fault; but he can lose little by a criticism which every dull man can make, or by an error in arrangement, from which the dullest are the most usually free. In other respects, as far as this able philosopher has gone, I have taken him for my guide. The warmth of his style, and the brilliancy of his imagination, are inimitable. Leaving him, therefore, without a rival in these, and only availing myself of his information, I have been content to describe things in my own way; and though many of the materials are taken from him, yet I have added, retrenched, and altered, as I thought proper. It was my intention at one time, whenever I differed from him, to have mentioned it at the bottom of the page; but this occurred so often, that I soon found it would look like envy, and might perhaps convict me of those very errors which I was wanting to lay upon him. I have, therefore, as being every way his debtor, concealed my dissent, where my opinion was different; but wherever I borrow from him, I take care at the bottom of the page to express my obligations. But though my obligations to this writer are many, they extend to but the smallest part of the work, as he has hitherto completed only the history of quadrupeds. I was, therefore, left to my own reading alone, te |