cniTICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 47 



" Further, I beg the reader to bear in mind that I am no adept 

 author; confined, like the Abyssinian prince, to a world of my own 

 making, for 1 have enjoyed neither the privilege of a Mentor nor leisure 

 necessary to the acquirement of much worldly wisdom, being engaged 

 from my earliest years in the gratification of an inordinate acquisitive 

 organ which understood no motive but curiosity — I speak only the 

 language of the heart. It will offend a fastidious taste ; it may even 

 militate against some of the conventional forms which the literary world 

 has agreed to respect, but it bears the impress of truth, and be that the 

 honourable badge of my first solicitude — my sacred care. I make no 

 apologies by way of mask, no more professions than I fulfil ; — that my 

 explanations extenuate such mediocre as may chance in my pages, I am 

 excusably solicitous ; that I acquire the good opinion of my readers, 

 anxious ; these are the simple aspirations of my ambition, and the latter 

 the only honour that I covet for reward." 



Taking the anterior extremity of the Ichthyosaurus and the posterior 

 extremity of the Plesiosaurus as the bases on which to found a new 

 arrangement of species, he explains himself thus. Speaking of the 

 Ichthyosauri. ** Rejecting the old specific terms, as of too indefinite 

 pretension, and comparing the numerous specimens in our collection 

 with one another, we ascertain that the most unique feature of the 

 Ichthyosaurus — the paddle — furnishes the best ground for the true 

 identification of the species which we enumerate : — 



1. Ichthyosaurus Chiroligostinus, from ;^j<p, hand; oXi^oj-, few; and ooreov, bone. 



2. I Chiropolyostinus, from x,^ip, hand ; voXvf, many ; and oartov, 



bone. 



3. I Chirostrongulostinus, from xj^tp, hand ; ar^otyyvXoT, round ; and 



oareoy, bone. 



4. I.I Chiroparamekostinus, from x»'pj hand ; 'rra^a/ui.rtKrti-, oblong ; 



and oartoy, bone." 



Speaking of the Plesiosauri, he says — ** It is not in the relative 

 characters of a few dislocated bones of an extinct family that we look 

 for the differences that identify species, but in some great deviation from 

 the general rule as betrayed in the teeth of quadrupeds and in the limbs 

 of oviparous reptiles : here, in the posterior extremity — in the tarsus — 

 it is discovered. We establish from species, therefore — the same number 

 that belongs to the fish-lizard genus — the 



1. Plesiosaurus Triatarsostinus, from Tf/a, three; rafffor, tarsus ; and oarsoy, bone. 



2. P Tessarestarsostinus, from naaet^is; four ; ra^ao^, tarsus ; and 



oareov, bone. 



3. P Pentetarsostinus, from tetyre, five ; ra^ao^, tarsus ; and oarsof, 



bone. 



4. P Extarsostinus. from t^, six ; rafiroj-, tarsus ; and oanov, bone." 



We beg to offer our meed of approbation to the getting up of the 

 plates, and our sincere admiration of Mr. Hawkins's indefatigable 

 industry and enthusiasm ; but we hope when he again lays before us 

 their results, he will remember that accuracy of facts and simplicity of 

 diction are the to t^paTrov and roaxXov of books of science. 



We finish with a choice specimen of our author's manner. ** There 

 is an oasis in the North of our Isle which has a temple — like the 

 Ephesian — beautiful, high-priests venerable, and sons rich in the wisdom 

 that cures the maladies of the soul. The northern town Scarbro^ — the 

 second Bath — has founded this building — modelled after the temple of 

 Theseus, at Athens — and directed the public energies to the cause of 



