| Description |
1 online resource (viii, 287 p.) |
| Summary |
"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. 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 remove the reader's embarrassments, and allow him 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 description, 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. It will be my chief pride, therefore, if this work may be found an innocent amusement for those who have nothing else to employ them, or who require a relaxation from labour." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved) |
| Subject |
Physical geography.
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Zoology.
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Geography.
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Zoology
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Geography
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physical geography.
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zoology.
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geography.
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Geography
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Physical geography
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Zoology
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Scholars Portal
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