PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. ; WHEN I first undertook my labours in Natural History, my strongest motive was to lead the minds of youth to the study of that delightful pursuit, the surest foundation on which Religion and Morality can efficiently be implanted in the heart, as being the unerring and unaltérable book of the Deity. My writings were intended chiefly for youth; and the more readily to allure their pliable, though discursive, attention to the Great Truths of Creation, I illustrated them by figures delineated with all the fidelity and animation I was able to impart to mere woodcuts without colour; and as instruction is of little avail without constant cheerfulness and occasional amusement, I interspersed the more serious studies with Tale-pieces of gaiety and humour yet even in these seldom without an endeavour to illustrate some truth, or point some moral; so uniting with my ardent wish to improve the rising generation, the exercise of my art and profession, by which I lived. Little was I then aware that children of a larger growth, and even minds illumined with talent, and hearts warmed with liberality, would have caught from my exertions a kindred feeling, and extended the popularity of my labours farther than the indulgence of my fondest hopes. Thus stimulated by encouragement, and animated by success, I undertook other operations of a similar tendency, which with gratitude I acknowledge were subsequently crowned with similar rewards. After such gratifying satisfaction, it would be silly affectation not to declare, though no words can express, my sense of public approbation; and implicitly to confess my feelings, that I may not be mistaken, and so become open either to praise or censure which I do not merit. Many have imagined, and some few have |