Your partiality towards my
small abilities persuades you, I fear, that I am able to do more than
is in my power: for it is no small undertaking for a man
unsupported and alone to begin a natural history from his own
autopsia! Though there is endless room for observation in the field
of nature, which is boundless, yet investigation (where a man
endeavours to be sure of his facts) can make but slow progress; and
all that one could collect in many years would go into a very
narrow compass.
Some extracts from your ingenious 'Investigations of the difference
between the present temperature of the air in Italy,' etc., have fallen
in my way, and gave me great satisfaction: they have removed the
objections that always rose in my mind whenever I came to the
passages which you quote. Surely the judicious Virgil, when
writing a didactic poem for the region of Italy, could never think of
describing freezing rivers, unless such severity of weather pretty
frequently occurred!
P.S. Swallows appear amidst snows and frost.
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