nothing but Truth. It's mirror shall be my Egis ; and their image reflected from it, shall become to each a Medusa's head. Or rather, may it be my lot, far remote from fickle and treacherous Man, under the roof of a small rustic cot which I can call my own, on the border of a wood, elicite the statue of my Minerva from the trunk of her own tree, and place at last a whole Globe at her feet.

Farther, if the Gentlemen Reviewers have with-held from me their suffrages, respecting objects of so much importance to the progress of natural knowledge,, and if others have got the start of me, in precluding my claim to those of the Public, I can already boast the concurrence of illustrious names among all conditions of men. The Sorbonne, to whom I am personally unknown, has done me the honour of adopting the new proofs of the Universal Deluge, which I' have deduced from the total fusion of the polar ices: these proofs have been laid down as axiomatical in one of it's theses, maintained for the first time by the Abbé de Vigueras, in his academical exercise of the 6th July, 1785.

Afterall, supposing my friends the Reviewersto have expressed still more reluctance to give an account of opinions, which contradict those of Academies, and strange even to most of themselves; and whichmust have had a suspicious appearance from their very novelty, they have made me most ample

ample compensation, in applauding me, far beyond my desert, for moral qualities, infinitely beyond the value of physical discoveries, and which I should deem myself singularly happy to attain.*

All that is left me, therefore, is to congratulate myself on the general interest with which the Public has received the moral part of this Work. I have however left untouched the great objects of political and moral reform; the one, because it was not permitted me to treat them as my conscience would have directed; and the other, because my plan could not comprehend them. I have restricted myself merely to abuses, which it is in the power of Government to rectify but there are others as universal, which depend entirely on national manners. Such is, among others, the celibacy of most domestic servants. Had it been in my power to have enlarged on this topic, I could have demonstrated that the arrangements of Society never can contravene the laws of Nature; that it is the interest of masters to have their domestics marry, because they pay, let them do their best, the expense of the, smuggled libertinism of servants, much more excessive,

* I ought undoubtedly to distinguish, in the number of my panegyrists, the two first Writers who have given an account of my Work. The one, notwithstanding the smallness of his page, and his propensity to find fault, has announced it in a manner the most flattering; and the other, devoted to the defence of morals and religion, has placed me by the side of a man, at whose feet I would have thought myself happy to sit, had Providence bestowed on me the blessing of being his contemporary.

beyond all question, than that of an honest settlement; for the strumpet always will spend more than the woman of character..

I could have demonstrated the pernicious influence which the bad morals of unmarried servants have on the children of their masters. I could likewise have dilated on the harshness of our pretended Fathers of families, who abandon their servants on the first attack of sickness, or the approach of old age, or when they become parents; on the obligations under which they lie to provide for the necessities of these men, who are their natural friends, the victims of their ill temper, the witnesses of their weakness, and the sources of their reputation, whether good or bad. I could have insisted on the necessity of re-establishing in at least the first rights of hu-. manity, the unfortunate wretches, who are deprived of most of the privileges of citizens. I could have demonstrated what an influence their: happiness has on the happiness of familiesand on national felicity, from what I have seen in some. Prussian families, where you find in general domestics zealous, affectionate, respectful, and attached to their masters; for they are born, they marry and they die in the house of the master; and you frequently find under the same roof asuccession of fathers and sons, who have been masters and servants for two or three centuries successively

Once more, if I have been somewhat diffuse on the disorders and intolerance of Associations, F have respected States; I have attacked particular bodiesof men, inthe view of defending my country, and above all in supporting the corps of HuMANITY. Of this we are all members in particular. But GOD forbid that I should think of giving a moment's pain to any one individual possessed of sensibility: I who have assumed the pen only to support the motto prefixed to my Work: Miseris succurrere disco; (the experience of misery has taught me to succour the miserable.}

My dear Reader, whatever then may be your situation in life, I shall cheerfully submit to your decision, if you judge me as a man, in a Work whose leading object is the happiness of Mankind, If on the other hand I have attained the glory of communicating to you some new pleasures, and of extending your views into the unbounded and mysterious field of Nature, reflect that after all, these are the perceptions but of a man; that they are a mere nothing compared to that which is; that they are the shadows only of that Eternal Truth, collected by one who is himself a shadow, and that a small ray of that Sun of intelligence which fills the Universe, has been playing in a drop of troubled water.

Muita abscondita sunt majora his: pauca enim vidimus operum ejus. There are yet hid greater things than these be; for we have seen but a few of his Works.. ECCLESIASTICUS xliii. 32.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES,

FRONTISPIECE.

PLATE FIRST.

rob

THE Frontispiece represents a solitude in the mountains of the Island of Samos. An attempt has been made, notwithstanding the smallness of the field, to introduce, and to display some elementary harmonies peculiar to islands and to lofty mountains. Clouds of sand, formed by the winds on the shores of the Island, and of water, pumped up by the Sun from the bosom of the Sea, are wafted toward the summits of the mountains, which arrest them by their fossil and hydraulic attractions.

In the fore-ground of the landscape are presented some of the trees which thrive in cold and humid Latitudes, among others the fir-tree and the birch. These two species of tree, which in such situations are almost always found in company, exhibit different contrast in their colours, their forms, their port, and in the animals which they nourish. The fir raises into the air his tall pyramid, clothed with leaves stiff, filiform, and of a dark verdure: and the birch opposes to these a pyramidical form inverted, with leaves moveable, roundish, and of a light green colour,

The squirrels are playing along the stem, and among the boughs of the fir; and the female of the heath-cock makes her nest in the moss which covers the roots. The beavers, on the contrary, have built their habitation at the foot of the birch; and a bird of that species which eats the

buds,