Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

BY THE REV. EDWARD POLEHAMPTON,
FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;

Assisted by Distinguished Writers in the various Departments of the Work.

ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED PLATES,
FROM NEW DESIGNS, DESCRIPTIVE OF THE WONDERS OF NATURE AND ART.

BENEATH HIM, WITH NEW WONDER, NOW HE VIEWS,
IN NARROW ROOM, NATURE'S WHOLE WEALTH.

IN SIX VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

MILTON.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY R. WILKS, 89, CHANCERY-LANE;

SOLD BY CRADOCK AND JOY, PATERNOSTER-ROW; RODWELL, NEW
BOND-STREET; UNDERWOOD, FLEET-STREET;
AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

PREFACE.

As the boundaries of Science extend, the Discoveries and Curiosities it develops extend also; and as these boundaries have of late years been extended in every direction, it is become impossible for the great body of mankind, or indeed for any one who does not professionally surrender the whole of his life to literary pursuits, to follow up and store in his memory the multiplied facts or discoveries of an amusing, interesting, or extraordinary nature, which have hence been laid open, and are daily growing before us.

A correct and comprehensive Repository, therefore, of whatever is chiefly valuable, and has chiefly a claim upon the public attention, of whatever is intrinsically curious, wonderful, or in any other way impressive, derived from the vast theatres of NATURE and ART, as they are at present unfolded to us; if selected with a judicious and discriminating hand, from the immense mass of matter at this moment before the world, in the various physical and philosophical Transactions, Journals, and Memoirs, the Ephemerides, Amanitates, and Miscellanea Curiosa, of our own and other countries, cannot fail of becoming an object of public attention and patronage; as peculiarly adapted to the public want, and as combining a rich variety of elegant amusement, with the most valuable specimens of scientific pursuit.

With this feeling the Proprietors of the present work commenced it nearly two years ago, and fully offered their views upon the subject, in a brief Prospectus accompanying

« PreviousContinue »