BakewelVs Introduction to Geology. 353 



have been a holly, but I see it is not^ Upon reference, I was 

 somewhat surprised to find that it was intended for one. The 

 device representing Pensiveiiess arising from Solitude^ has the 

 situation of the plants exactly the reverse of what they ought 

 to be. It now represents, according to Mr. Phillips's emblems, 

 Solitude arising from Peiisiveness. 



Unless they were intended always to be represented by 

 paintings, the party-coloured leaves must be rather difficult to 

 obtain, as described ; and it might happen that a lady might 

 not have a bird's nest at hand, when she was desirous of send- 

 ing to her lover a floral invitation to visit her in the months of 

 April or May; or a caterpillar, should she fix upon a Friday, 



One thing in the volume I did look at with some portion of 

 interest, the floral emblems of the Scottish clans : but, in other 

 respects, I have been disappointed ; the more so, from a recol- 

 lection of some interesting anecdotes, which I observed in a 

 hasty skimming of the Flora Historical some time since, and 

 which had led me to expect similar entertainment in the Floral 

 EmUems, E. 



Art. IV. An Introduction to Geology ; comprising the Elements 

 of the Science in its present advanced State, and all the recent 

 Discoveries: xvith an Outline of the Geology of England and 

 Wales. By Robert Bakewell. The Third Edition, entirely 

 recomposed, with new Plates, pp. 540, 8vo. Longman & Co. 



Geology, or the science of the earth, has only been practi- 

 cally and scientifically cultivated for about half a century. 

 What was formerly called geology, consisted of speculations 

 respecting the formation of the world, which partook more of 

 the character of poetry than of sound philosophy. Geology, 

 as a science, can only proceed like the other sciences, by a 

 patient investigation of facts, and by an extended comparison 

 of analogous phenomena in various situations. Werner and 

 some of the earlier practical geologists, who first examined, 

 attentively the structure of the earth's surface in the particular 

 countries where they resided, fell into the very common error 

 of forming premature generalisations, and took for granted 

 that the same series of strata, and the same rocks, which they 

 observed around them, were spread universally over the 

 globe, in the same invariable order of succession. On this 

 principle the system of Werner was founded, and its sup- 

 porters maintained that it was perfect in all its parts, and was 

 not less entitled to an unhesitating assent, than the Newtonian 



Vol. I. — No. 4. b b 



