360 TRANSLATION OF MINERAL CONCHOLOGY. 



matter would have appeared to us one of comparatively trivial importance, 

 and instead of advancing anything in the shape of reproach or remon- 

 strance, we should have deemed it the wiser course to have been altoge- 

 ther silent. 



The name, however, of Louis Agassiz, as the Editor and avowed pro- 

 jector of the reprint, and the plausible statement from a man of such high 

 scientific reputation, that its cheapness, when compared with the price of 

 the original work, must necessarily tend to further the progress of Geo- 

 logy, made us determine, without a moment's hesitation, on the course 

 which we pursued. For though originating in such a quarter the scheme 

 threatened to be tenfold more injurious in its operation, we felt that Agas- 

 siz was bound by so many ties to this country, that he would probably 

 consider himself amenable to the expression of censure, if publicly di- 

 rected against him in the columns of an English Journal. We are glad 

 to find that on this head we have not been mistaken ; and we may add 

 too that our expectations have been completely realised, in not even the 

 shadow of an argument being adduced to oppose the views which we 

 put forward, as to the injurious prospective operation of the part acted 

 by Agassiz. He repeats, it is true, the substance of the shallow sophism 

 that we quoted from his preface ; but how does he support the position 

 which he would there maintain, the assumed " utilite " of the measure 

 we condemn ? Three hundred cheap Sowerbys, he tells us, will be dis- 

 seminated over the continent, and pass into the hands of those who would 

 not otherwise have possessed copies of this important work. But has 

 Agassiz so little foresight, so small a share of penetration, that he looks 

 to this one result as the sole and only consequence of the course which 

 he is pursuing? Can he not perceive that the system which he has com- 

 menced, if followed up upon the strength of his example, must strike at 

 the very existence of a class of works upon which the progress of Geolo- 

 gy is essentially dependent ; — works which convey to us delineations of 

 new forms as they are brought to light in both the past and existing or- 

 der of creation ; — which tell their own tale without the aid of a transla- 

 tor, let the country be what it may to which science is indebted for their 

 acquisition ; but which, from the heavy cost of their production, and the 

 limited class among which they circulate, require that kind of support 

 which is not restricted by the boundaries of clime or country ? 



Agassiz has saved us the necessity of selecting an instance by way of 

 illustration. Singularly enough, the same document which contains the 

 attempt to justify his conduct, informs us that notwithstanding the un- 

 exampled support which, although a foreigner, he has in this country re- 

 ceived, by the aid of public pecuniary grants, and that of most extensive 



