Volume 2

The original works of William King ... Now first collected ... with historical notes, and memoirs of the author [by J. Nichols] / [William King].

  • William King
Date:
1776
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The original works of William King ... Now first collected ... with historical notes, and memoirs of the author [by J. Nichols] / [William King]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    « Since the world abounds in the nobleft fields of fpeculation, it is, methinks, the mark of a little genius, to be wholly converfant among infeéts, repticles, animalcules, and thofe trifling rarities that furnifh out the apartment of a Virtuofo. There are fome men whofe heads are fo oddly turned this way, that, though they are utter ftrangers to the common occurrences of life, they are able to difcover the fex of a cockle, or defcribe the generation of a mite, in all its circumftances. They are fo little verfed in the world, -that- they fearcely know a horfe from an ox; but, at the fame time, will tell you, with a great deal of gravity, that a flee is a rhinoceros, and a {nail an hermaphrodite. I have known one of thefe whimfica] Philofophers, who has fet a greater value upon a collection of fpiders than he would upon a flock of fheep, and have fold his coat off his back to purchafe a tarantula.— T would not have a fcholar wholly unacquainted with thefe fecrets and curiofities of Nature; but certainly the mind of man, that is capable of fo much higher contemplation, fhould not be altogether fixed upon fuch mean and difproportionate objects. Obfervations of this-kind are apt.to alienate us too much from the knowledge of the world, and to make us ferious upon trifles ; by which means they expofe Philofophy to the ridicule of the witty, and contempt of the ignorant.” TATLER, N° 216,
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