Q158 M54 1848 HE present Volume is intended to furnish a very general view of the leading appearances of Physical Nature the economy of the heavens and the earth with incidental notices of the progress of discovery, and pictorial representations of remarkable phenomena and interesting localities. Regarding it as one of the happy tendencies of the age, to be more in favour of intellectual occupations than of the vulgar animal recreations that were formerly courted, the writer has endeavoured to supply a digest of the knowledge obtained respecting the "wondrous whole," of which we form a part, which the enterprise of the proprietors of the work has profusely illustrated. In submitting the accomplishment of this design to the judgment of the public, the writer may be allowed to observe, that he was called to the task at a very short notice; that disadvantageous circumstances, which could neither be foreseen nor avoided, have much interfered with its execution; but that he has honestly endeavoured, amid professional engagements, and oft-recurring physical debility, to carry out the design of the projectors. Some literal errors, almost necessarily attendant on a periodical issue, have been corrected in this Edition, and an attempt has also been made to introduce the recent discoveries in Astronomy, so that it is now hoped the work will be found tolerably free from error. THE AUTHOR. M363315 |