PREFACE.

T

have been observed, if not altogether impossible.The great object in view was to give a generalidea of the operations and phænomena of na-ture, independent of abstruse reasoning or labo-rious calculations; and though, by this means,the knowledge obtained by the Reader must, inmany instances, be necessarily superficial, yet itway serve to give just ideas of the subject, andto correct those notions which the prejudices ofeducation, or the apparent view of things, mightsuggest.

As the work was written for the purpose ofgeneral instruction, the Author has not scrupledto make a free use of the labours of precedingWriters, whenever he found any particular sub-ject illustrated in a manner suitable to his design:and if he has not always acknowledged his obli-gations, it is because such alterations were com-monly made as rendered it impossible, without ashow of exactness which would have appearedaffected and pedantic. The new matter intro-duced in every part of the performance, whereit was most wanted, and the pains that havebeen taken to arrange and methodize the whole,are, it is hoped, sufficient to obviate every ob-jection which may be made on this account.

The frequent allusions to the Poets, and thevarious quotations interspersed throughout thework, were intended as an agreeable relief tominds unaccustomed to the regular deduction

of