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Nor have I neglected any opportunity that offered of converfing upon thefe fubjects with travellers, upon whofe judgments and veracity I could rely. Thus comparing accurate narrations with what has been already written, and following either, as the circumftances or credibility of the witnefs led me to believe. But I have had one advantage over almost all former Naturalifts, namely that of having vifited a variety of countries myfelf, and examined the productions of each upon the spot. Whatever America, or the known parts of Africa have produced to excite curiofity has been carefully obferved by me, and compared with the accounts of others. By this I have made fome improvements that will appear in their place, and have been lefs liable to be impofed upon by the hearfay relations of credulity.

A complete cheap and commodious body of Natural History being wanted in our language, it was thefe advantages which prompted me to this undertaking. Such therefore as choofe to range in the delightful fields of Nature, will, I flatter myself, here find a proper guide; and those who have a defign to furnish a cabinet will find copious inftructions. With one of thefe volumes in his hand a spectator may go through the largest Museum, the British not excepted, fee Nature through all her varieties, and compare her ufual operations with those wanton productions, in which the seems to sport with human fagacity. I have been fparing however in the defcription of the deviations from the usual course of production, firft, becaufe fuch are almost infinite, and the Natural Hiftorian, who fhould fpend his time in defcribing deformed Nature, would be as abfurd as the Statuary, who fhould fix upon a deformed man, from whom to take his model of perfection.

But I would not raife expectations in the reader which it may not be in my power to fatisfy; he who täkes up a book of fcience muft not expect to ac6

quire

quire knowledge at the fame eafy rate that a reader of romance does entertainment; on the contrary, all fciences, and Natural Hiftory among the reft, have a language and a manner of treatment peculiar to themselves, and he who attempts to drefs them in borrowed or foreign ornaments, is every whit as uselessly employed as the German apothecary we are told of, who turned the whole difpenfatory into verfe. It will be fufficient for me, if the following fyftem is found as pleafing as the nature of the fubject will bear, neither obfcured by an unneceffary oftentation of science, nor lengthened out by an affected eagerness after needlefs embellishment.

The description of every object will be found as clear and concife as poffible, the defign not being to amuse the ear with well-turned periods, or the imagination with borrowed ornaments, but to impress the mind with the fimpleft views of nature. To answer this end more diftinctly, a picture of fuch animals is given as we are leaft acquainted with. All that is intended by this is, only to guide the enquirer with more certainty to the object itself, as it is to be found in nature. I never would advife a ftudent to apply to any science, either Anatomy, Phyfic, or Natural History, by looking on pictures only; they may serve to direct him more readily to the objects intended, but he muft by no means fuppofe himself poffeffed of adequate and diftinct ideas till he has viewed the things themselves, and not their representations.

Copper-plates, therefore, moderately well done, anfwer the learner's purpofe every whit as well as those which cannot be purchafed but at a vaft expence; they ferve to guide us to the archetypes in Nature, and this is all that the fineft picture should be permitted to do, for Nature herfelf ought always to be examined by the learner before he has done.

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INTRODUCTION

TO A NEW

HISTORY OF THE WORLD;

INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED

IN TWELVE VOLUMES 8vo.

BY J. NEWBERY 1764.

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