110 Scientific Reviews. 



bkt -attention to particular departments, and be entomologists, 

 conchologists, cryptogamists, &c. ; but we only lay stepping-stones 

 for the great science of physical geography. In studying the more 

 general facts that are applicable to matter, we may be chemists, or 

 meteorologists, or astronomers, and our labours would still only 

 tend to throw additional light on the same fundamental branch of 

 knowledge ; for in applying the acquaintance we may have gained, 

 by a life of laborious study, with the organic or inorganic world, to 

 the physical history of the globe, we shall only learn to gain a 

 deeper insight into the intimate relation which exists between the 

 apparently most distant objects, and admire still more intensely the 

 never-failing harmony which exalts the works of the Creator. 



There are those who might feel inclined to say that we are giv- 

 ing a general idea of what physical geography is instead of review- 

 ing Mr. Bell's work ; but they will be in error, as the author has 

 attempted to give a general idea of the configuration and structure 

 of the earth's crust, — of the distribution of animals and plants,— » 

 and some notions of the atmospherical agents ; so that if we arrive at 

 an expression of the sciences which this subject embraces, we have 

 traced the outline of Mr. Bell's labours. If they are not as mi- 

 nute and as detailed, and at the same time as comprehensive as we 

 would wish, it is not at present the author's fault, but that of the 

 public. They care not to acquaint themselves with facts ; they 

 wish for the general principles that may be deduced from them, 

 and leave to others the often-times unrewarded labour of their ac- 

 cumulation. Any thing that bears the aspect of science is repul* 

 give ; details are considered dry and austere ; and how many ne* 

 gleet to acquaint themselves with the most superficial facts, when 

 in the words of a lamented philosopher, science is nothing more 

 than the refinement of common sense, making use of facts already 

 known in the acquisition of new facts ! 



We would then inculcate the incontrovertible truth, that the 

 number of our intellectual enjoyments, and they are the most last- 

 ing that we can possess, is entirely dependant on the amount of 

 our knowledge ; that an acquaintance with a few facts lays open the 

 road for a knowledge of more ; in other words, that one fact leads 

 to another, and that in consequence the man whose attention hag 

 been devoted to the classification of material objects, as one who 

 has been in the constant habit of analyzing his ideas, possesses a 

 boundless power over an individual of an opposite disposition, and 

 a source of internal pleasure, that must be constant in whatever si- 

 tuation he may be placed, or to whatever trials his feelings as a 

 man, or his morality as one in the great chain of humanity, may 

 subject him. No individual should harbour the thought that much 

 happiness was not in store for him while there was much to learn. 

 Montesquieu said that he knew no mental pain that could not be 

 alleviated by a few hours reading, — the discovery of a plant saved 

 a deserted traveller from despair, — and philosophy has ever carried 

 persecuted and eminent men through the most unmerited sufferings. 



