For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts; even one thing All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. ECCLESIASTES. Sunt enim animalia post hominem, ita ars veterinaria post medicinam se- Neque omnia, neque nihil. SECOND EDITION. VOL, I. LONDON: PRO WITHDRAWN PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM, Dean Street, Fetter Lane, OCIETY ETY LIBES FOR H. D. SYMONDS, PATERNOSTER-ROW. PREFACE. I Nail matters of indifference, I efleem it a due and laudable act of complacence in the individual, to follow eftablished custom-I "¿erefore write a Preface: and, as I have generally obferved, that long-winded prefaces are flighted, I am refolved mine fhall not be of that defeription. But I have a motive of greater weight. It behoves me, not only out of that high refpect which I owe the Public-but alfo, in juslice to myflf, to apologize for the weak and defective, wond, too probably, prolix and tedious execution of the enfuing work; which, in truth, is the offspring of a mind not the most brilliant by nature, enfeebled, and rendered confufed and i.ritable from chronic bodily weakness, and of a memory, at intervals, farce fufficiently retentive for the ordinar purposes of life. If it be den inded, why write, then?-My anfwer is, |