Excerpt from The Wonderful and Scientific Museum, or Magazine of Remarkable Characters, Vol. 1: Including All the Curiosities of Nature and Art, From the Remotest Period to the Present Time, Drawn From Every Authentic Source The Public are respectfully informed, that the present Publication of kirby's wonderful museum, is undertaken in consequence of new arrangements and connections, that will efl'ectually secure its permanence, without let or hindrance, upon the most liberal and extensive scale, as long as the annals of history, the discoveries of art and ingenuity, and the efforts of labour and learning shall be capable of administering to the entertain mentor information of the human intellect -that taste for enquiring into all the arcana, per'fections, and even the exc'entrieities of art and nature, which, from various causes, seems growing with our growth, and strengthening with our strength/will most probably find its true and genuine aliment in the panacea, which it shall be our duty and pleasure to present to our Readers, as much as possible adapted to this diversity of taste, inclination, and propensity. That which is truly Curious, positively, or relatively Wonderful, will, at all times, be our study to procure and collect from the inexhaustible regions of animate or inanimate nature; from the records of history, or the improvements of art. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.