The amiable Qualities, with which Nature has enriched Your Royal Highness, have been so happily cultivated by the best of Educations, that I am perfuaded the wonderful Scenes of Providence, fo elegantly displayed in this Treatife, will not be confidered, by Your Royal Highness, as an un-pleafing Entertainment, unless I have been fo unfortunate as to render it fuch, by a disagreeable Verfion.

As the Mind of Your Royal Highness has been watered with the pureft Streams that Learning could difpenfe, and as you have long been habituated to those Inftitutions, which render a young Prince the Darling of thofe who have the Honour to approach him,

there

there is fufficient Reason to believe, that any generous Attempt to promote useful Knowledge, and inspire the Sons of Men with Gratitude to their great Creator, will obtain a favourable Reception from Your Royal Highness, whofe Cabinet has ever been inacceffible to the low Singularities of Infidels and Sceptics.

The Worthy Author of the following Converfation, has charmed fo many of the politeft Readers, with his engaging Display of Nature, that I was ambitious of employing my fmall Abilities, in transfufing his Sentiments into the English Language; and fhould Your Royal Highnefs condefcend to think I have not been altogether unfuccefsful in my Attempt, I A 3

fhall

fhall then have the Honour of being indebted to you for a Pleafure that will always be gratefully predominant in the Heart of,

SIR,

Tour Royal Highness's

Moft Obedient,

and Moft Devoted

Humble Servant,

Samuel Humphreys.

PREFACE.

F all the Methods capable of being practifed with Success, for cultivating the Understanding of young Perfons, and giving them an early Habit of Thinking, there is none that produces more fure and lafting Effects than Curiofity. The Defire of Knowledge is as natural to us as Reafon; it exerts itself with Force and Vivacity through every Stage of Life, but never with more Efficacy than in Youth, when the Mind, being unfurnished with Knowledge, feizes with a peculiar eagerness on every Object prefented to it, refigns itself to the Charms of Novelty, and eafily contracts the Habit of Reflexion and Attentiveness..

We might receive all the Benefit this happy Difpofition is able to produce, did we employ it upon Subjects equally qualified to engage the Mind by Pleafure, and fill it with clear and inftructive Ideas. This double Advantage is to be attained in full Perfection by the Study of Nature whether we confider her Structure and Affemblage in general, or take a Survey of her Beauties in particular. Through all her Works fhe

;

is qualified to please and inftruct, because they are all full of Harmony and Contrivance. All the Bodies that furround us, the leaft as well as the largeft, acquaint us with fome Truth; they have all a Language in which they address themselves to us, and indeed to us alone. We learn fomething from their particular Conflitution, and their Determination to a certain End points out the Intention of the Creator. The Relations they bear to one another, as well as to us, are fo many diAinet Voices thot call for our Attention; and which, by the Counfels they give us, replenish our Lives with Accommodations, enrich our Minds with Truth, and warm our Hearts with Gratitude. In a word, we may say that Nature is the most learned and complete of all Books, proper to cultivate our Reafon, fince he comprehends at once the Objects of every Science, and never confines her Inftructions ta any particular Language or People.

It is from this Book, lying open to every Eye, though very little confulted; that we propose to give an Extract, with the View of making young Perfons fenfible of what Treasures they poffefs unenjoyed, and to prefent to their Obfervation those things that Difiance, Minuteness, or Inattention may have concealed from them. Inftead of paffing methodically from general Maxims and univerfal Ideas to thofe that are more particular, we thought it incumbent on us to imitate the Order of Nature herfelf, and begin with the first Objects we perceive around us, and which are every Moment at Hand we mean Plants and Animals.