Bibliothèque mondiale du cheval

« The following Synopsis was originally intended for private amusement, and as an Index, for the more ready turning to any particular animal in the voluminous history of quadrupeds by M. De Buffon : But as it swelled by degrees to a size beyond my first expectation, in the end I was determined to fling it into its present form, and to other it into the world. The Synopsis of our illustrious countryman Mr. Ray has been long out of print, and though from his enlarged knowlege and great industry one might well suppose his Work would for some time discourage all further attempts of the same sort, yet a republication of that Synopsis would not have answered our present design : For, living at a period when the study of Natural Hislory was but beginning to dawn in these Kingdoms, and when our contracted Commerce deprived him of many lights we now enjoy, he was obliged to content himself with giving descriptions of the few Animals brought over here, and collecting the rest of his materials from other Writers. Yet so correct was his genius, that we view a systematic arrangement arise even from the Chaos of Aldrovandus and Gesner. Under his hand the indigested matter of these able and copious Writers a slumes a new form, and the whole is made clear and perspicuous.[…] » Présentation de l’éditeur (1771)