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PART II. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Catalogue of WorTis on Natural History, lately published^ 

 with some Notice of those considered the most interesting to British 

 Naturalists, 



Drummond, James L., M.D. Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the 

 Belfast Academical Institution : Letters to a Young Naturalist on the 

 Study of Nature and Natural Theology. London, 1831. Small 8vo. 

 This is a valuable little book, and the fittest possible present to the 

 youth of both sexes : it is written in a popular manner, is very readily in- 

 telligible, and is illustrated with several wood-cuts. Considerable origin- 

 ality, too, pervades the book ; in the facts and materials, we mean : the 

 author's deductions are necessarily his own. His " Letters " embrace the 

 whole range of nature, and expatiate by turns on quadrupeds, birds, fishes, 

 reptiles, insects, plants, &c. We quote one beautiful passage : — 



" Societies which would devise means of giving stated lectures on sub- 

 jects demonstrative of the wisdom and other attributes of God as discovered 

 in his works, whether in the structure of the heavens, or in the history and 

 conformation of organised nature, or of the great features of our globe, 

 would, I am convinced, do an incalculable good. There is one recom- 

 mendation of natural theology not a little powerful ; which is, that men, by 

 attending to it, would become possessed of more and more knowledge as 

 long as they lived. So long as a man retains his faculties, there is still 

 something more in it to be acquired ; and a discourse on science in con- 

 nection with it, though attended to but once a week, would gradually 

 bestow upon the hearer a large fund of knowledge which would still be 

 increasing, and which none, I presume, will dare to say would be a useless 

 or unimportant acquisition. I again assert, what I am most assuredly con- 

 vinced of, that the imparting a knowledge of the works of creation to man- 

 kind at large would prove to them a most valuable gift. I would like that 

 a lecture-room, a museum, and a library, should be attached even to every 

 village as regularly as its church or chapel ; and that part of some set day 

 or days should be appropriated to the demonstration and teaching of the 

 works and wisdom of God in the great subjects of natural theology, whe- 

 ther in the sublime science of astronomy, or in the leading branches of 

 natural philosophy, or in the economy, fabrication, and history of the indi- 

 viduals of the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; in short, the wide and glo- 

 rious field that occupies every page of nature's stupendous volume. This 

 would be teaching men of every creed and every faith a kind of knowledge 

 which must of necessity be useful to them. Let it not be said that such is 

 taught ! — the case cannot be made out ; the people are taught no special 

 knowledge of these things in any country upon earth." (p. 318.) — J. V, 



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