unmixed with any beaft that preys on man, fo, few can boast a greater variety of birds, whether local, or migratory. This is a general view of the natural hiftory of our own country; why then should we neglect inquiring into the various benefits that refult from these inftances of the wifdom of our Creator, which his divine munificence has fo liberally, and fo immediately placed before us? Such a neglect is certainly highly to be blamed, for (to express ourselves in the words of an eminent writer) "the Creator "did not bestow fo much curiofity, and workmanship on "his creatures, to be looked on with a careless incurious eye, especially to have them flighted or contemned; but "to be admired by the rational part of the world, to mag nify his own power to all the world, and the ages there"of; and fince the works of the creation are all of them "fo many demonftrations of the infinite wifdom and power "of God, they may ferve to us, as fo many arguments, exciting us to a constant fear of the Deity, and a steady " and hearty obedience to all his laws." * 66 Much might be added to this fubject, if confidered in a theological light; but fince the writings of Boyle, Ray, and Derham, fully prove that the study of natural history enforces the theory of religion and practice of morality, we * Derham's Phyf. Theol. Book XI. c. 24. had had better refer to their works in general, than mangle them by imperfect quotations. To exalt our veneration towards the Almighty, is the principal end of this fublime science; and next to that, the various benefits refulting from it to human fociety deserve our serious confideration. To give an obvious inftance: what wonderful changes have been made in human affairs by the discovery of an obfcure mineral. The antients, ignorant of the application of the magnet, timidly attempted a mere coafting navigation; while we, better informed of the uses of it, traverse the wideft oceans, and by the discovery of the new world, have layed open to science, an inexhaustible fund of matter. The rife and progrefs of medicine, kept pace with the advancement of this most important difcovery; and though neceffity was the parent of the mechanic arts, yet they also throve, and grew to maturity, under the fame influence. Many more instances might be added to this brief view of the utility of natural knowlege; but we shall only give some of its uses in the polite arts, which have hitherto been too little connected with it. To inftance particularly in painting, its uses are very extenfive: the permanency of colors depends on the goodness of the pigments; but the various animal, vegetable, and foffil fubftances (out of which they are made) can only be known by repeated trials; yet the greatest artists have failed in this refpect: the shadows of the divine Raphael have acquired an uniform blackness, which obfcures the finest productions of his pencil, while the paintings of Holbein, Durer, and the Venetian-school, (who were admirably skilled in the knowlege of pigments) ftill exift in their primitive freshness. But these advantages are small, compared to thofe derived from the knowlege of nature in the representation of objects: painting is an imitation of nature; now, who can imitate without confulting the original? But to come to what is more particularly the object of our inquiries; animal and vegetable life are the effence of landscape, and often are fecondary objects in historical paintings; even the fculptor in his limited province would do well to acquire a correctness of design with a perfect knowlege of the muscles of animals. But the painter should have all this and more; he should be acquainted with all their various tints, their manner of living, their peculiar motions or attitudes, and their places of abode *,, or he will fall into manifest errors.. That great artist, Mr. Ridinger, of Aufburg, exceeds all others in the three Jaft particulars; nothing can equal his prints of animals for propriety of attitudes, for a juft idea of their way of life, and for the beautiful and natural scenery that accompanies them. His fineft works are, his Wilde Thiere, Kleine Thiere, and Jagdbare Thiere; but there are scarce any of his performances that can fail giving pleafure to all admirers of nature represented as herself. Plurimus Plurimus inde labor tabulas imitando juvabit Vim genii, ex illâque artem experientia complet *. Descriptive poetry is still more indebted to natural knowlege, than either painting or sculpture: the poet has thè whole creation for his range; nor can his art exist without borrowing metaphors, allufions, or descriptions from the face of nature, which is the only fund of great ideas. The depths of the feas, the internal caverns of the earth, and the planetary system are out of the painter's reach; but can fupply the poet with the fublimeft conceptions: nor is the knowlege of animals and vegetables lefs requifite, while his creative pen adds life and motion to every object. From hence it may be easily inferred, that an acquaintance with the works of nature is equally neceffary to form a genuine and correct taste for any of the above mentioned arts. Taste is no more than a quick fenfibility of imagination refined by judgement, and corrected by experience; but experience is another term for knowlege †, and to judge of natural images, we must acquire the fame knowlege, and by the fame means as the painter, the poet, or the fculptor. • Fresnoy de arte graph. lin. 537. + See the Effay on the origin of our ideas of the fublime and beautiful. Thus far natural hlstory in general seems connected with the polite arts; but were we to defcend into all its particular uses in common life, we fhould exceed the bounds of a preface: it will be therefore neceffary to confine our inquiries to the investigation of a single part of the material world, which few are fo ignorant as not to know is divided. into the animal, vegetable, and foffil kingdoms. Vaft would be the extent of the inquiries into each of thefe; but though ambition may tempt us to pervade the whole field of fcience, yet a little experience will open to our views the immense tracts of natural knowlege,, and we shall find it an arduous task only to investigate a single province, so as to speak with precision and certainty; without which there can be no real improvements in natural history. For these reasons, a partial examination of this science is all that a confiderate mind will aim at, which may perhaps. be most naturally guided to give the preference to the most exalted subject of it. Zoology is the noblest part of natural history, as it comprehends all sensitive beings, from reasoning man, through every species of animal life, till it defcends to that point where fenfe is wholly extinct, and vegetation commences : and certainly none will deny, that life, and voluntary motion are fuperior to a mere vegetating principle, or the more inactive state of the foffil kingdom. Should |