PREFACE.

To correct some zoological errors in English poetry by a comparison with the writings of modern Naturalists, is the design of the following compilation.

The Poets are early read, and hence the erroneous notions imbibed from them are deeply fixed, and long retained; from the very circumstance, too, of the medium which conveys, and the authority which supports them: the utility, therefore, of the application of natural history to the present purpose is obvious.

False representations of natural objects can never be necessary: the beautiful features of Nature are inexhaustible, and a faithful delineation of them is capable of being set off by the hand of Genius and Taste with all the graces of poetry. Neither are the poets always re

sponsible for their inaccuracies; they took the subjects most suitable to their purpose, as they were generally known and believed at the time they wrote, and as they were defended by classical authority.

But though fictions of some kind are justly regarded as the soul of poetry, there are two cases in which false descriptions of natural objects do not seem to be allowable. To apply natural history to a moral purpose is the highest use of the science; and illustrations of the existence and attributes of the Deity, or pious and moral sentiments drawn from that source, should surely be founded on truth. For this we have the example of Sacred Writ: nowhere else are to be found such exalted praise and admiration of the works of Nature; nowhere are they applied so powerfully, and with such simple and affecting truth, in teaching and enforcing precepts of piety and virtue, and in displaying the perfections of their Divine Author.

In poetry purely descriptive an adherence to truth seems equally necessary. Here the very intention of the poet is to inform and instruct: to represent nature falsely, therefore, is to deceive the reader, to deprive him of the knowledge which he expects, and, as in the former case, to derogate from the honour due to the Author of Nature.

The present improved state of natural history has corrected many former mistakes, as well as the extravagant and unnatural fables of the ancient poets: and, as the science advances, a wider and more accurate acquaintance with its discoveries will prevent a trite repetition of the same images; objects will be viewed in new lights; new properties and qualities will be known; and the poets be thus enabled to spread through their works faithful descriptions in boundless variety, sublimity, and beauty.

In forming this collection some popular superstitions have been included, the inaccurate passages occasionally contrasted with true de

scriptions, a few illustrative engravings added from the old naturalists, and some brief zoological notice of such subjects as did not appear generally known. The corrections have been given throughout, as nearly as possible, in the words of the authors, in a spirit of candid criticism, and with the sole wish of increasing the interest and usefulness of natural knowledge, by making it more correct.