respecting certain Quotations from Classical Authorities. 3 



giarism ? I should have owed an apology to my readers for 

 pretending to recall to their minds that celebrated passage 

 so hackneyed by repeated references in the works of Fabio 

 Colonna, Hooke, Moro, Generelli, Ray, Vallisneri, Fortis, 

 and others, had not all those writers in common with Mr. Cony- 

 beare neglected to give a full and connected view of the Pytha- 

 gorean system as developed in the memorable verses of the 

 Roman poet. 



I have scrupulously stated, in my "jPrinciples of Geology*," 

 Hooke's acquaintance with the learned Italian writers who 

 preceded him, as well as his allusion to Strabo and other 

 classical authoritiesf ; and I have not been silent respecting 

 the erudition of Moro:f, and several of his successors. The 

 notions of Theophrastus respecting fossils are discussed by 

 Fabio Colonna j, and alluded to by Scilla||; and the various 

 references to Plutarch and Lucretius in the treatises of the 

 early geologists are known to those who are versed in the 

 history of the science. No less rich are the various writings 

 of Fortis in classical citations bearing on geology. Mr. Cony- 

 beare is surely aware that his predecessors had left no field 

 open wherein geologists of his day might display their scho- 

 larship, unless they availed themselves of a more enlarged ac- 

 quaintance with natural phenomena to form a juster estimate 

 of the relative value of facts and theories recorded by the an- 

 cients. The estimate of their importance given by me in the 

 " Principles of Geology" is somewhat different from that to 

 which Mr. Conybeare inclines ; for I have been disposed to 

 refer to .observation and inductive reasoning the origin of 

 those crude speculations which in the " Outlines " are attri- 

 buted " to principles assumed on the high priori road." 



Your readers will, perhaps, think that these rival claims to 

 priority to half a dozen classical common-places are unworthy 

 of the cultivators of a science which more than any other is 

 marked by the daily discovery of grand and unexpected truths 

 in physical science, especially as the initiator of this discussion 

 ranks high as an original observer : but I feel that I should 

 presume too much on the acquaintance of the public with my 

 work, and regard too little the weight of an assertion made by 

 Mr. Conybeare, if I allowed the statement in his note to pass 

 without observation. 



2, Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn, 

 Dec. 5th, 1830. 



* Principles of Geology, p. 32. f Ibid. p. 34. t Ibid. p. 42. 



De Glossopelris, Sfc. || DC Corpor'ibus Marims,p. 41. 



B2 II. Memoir 



