Bibliographical Notices. 355 



view, all the lighter amusements of life are frivolous and vexatious ; 

 like the original Shepherd in " Pickwick," he regards them all as 

 *'wanities;" and although this maybe true in the abstract, we question 

 whether it would not have been a more successful way of carrying 

 the war into the enemy's country, to have treated these little weak- 

 nesses with more tenderness, rather than to insinuate that when once 

 a man has put his hand to the plough of science, it becomes in a 

 manner his duty to eschew all his previous amusements. 



To compensate for this somewhat disrespectful view of what, to 

 many, constitute the chief business of hfe, Mr. Kingsley certainly 

 lays before his readers in a most attractive form the gratifications to 

 be derived even from a dilettante study of the great book of Nature. 

 Scarcely a branch of Natural History but has some of its most pleasing 

 features put forward in the pages of this charming little volume, 

 and although many of these are conveyed in hints, they still produce 

 a sufficiently distinct impression upon the mind to awaken a desire 

 for further information on the mysteries concealed by the half-raised 

 veil. 



Few subjects could be better adapted for the author's purpose than 

 that expressed in the title of his book, — The Wonders of the Shore. 

 On the shores and beneath the waves of the ocean dwell myriads of 

 creatures whose very existence is unknown to the great mass of the 

 public, as indeed was that of many of them until very lately even to 

 the scientific naturalist. The remarkable forms, the beautiful colours, 

 and the singular histories of these creatures render them objects of 

 the highest interest ; whilst the imperfect state of our knowledge of 

 many of them, resulting from the difficulties presented to investiga- 

 tion by the very conditions of their existence, may raise hopes even in 

 the beginner, that before he has long prosecuted his studies in marine 

 Zoology, he may be rewarded, if not by the discovery of new species 

 (which by the way Mr. Kingsley appears to think one of the most 

 ecstatic occurrences of life), at least by the observation of some new 

 facts, which, by supplying the deficiencies of our previous knowledge, 

 may be of still greater scientific importance. 



Of the scientific merits of * Glaucus ' we need say but little. The 

 book, as we are told at its commencement, is an amplification of an 

 article contributed by the author about a twelvemonth ago to the 

 North British Review, on Mr. Gosse's recent contributions to British 

 Marine Zoology. The strictly zoological portion of the book is con- 

 sequently to a great extent composed of extracts from the works of 

 that naturalist, a circumstance which gives rather a peculiar character 

 to the book when regarded as an independent publication, although 

 legitimate enough in the pages of a review. There is, however, an ad- 

 mirable and most amusing original account of the habits of the Spider 

 Crab (Maia Sqninado), and of the multitude of zoophytes which that 

 crustacean usually carries about with him, and we regret that its 

 length prevents our transferring it to our pages, as an illustration of 

 our author's mode of dealing with such subjects. We must content 

 ourselves with adding, that, for the assistance of those who may be 

 induced by the perusal of his book to take up the study of marine 



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