Dr Mantell's IlluetraUons, ^c. 236 



On the Remains of Man, and Works of Art imbedded in Rocks 

 and Strata, as illustratite of the connexion between Archce- 

 ology and Geology, By GiDEON ALGERNON Mantell, 

 Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President of the Sussex Archce- 

 ological Society, ^c. 



(Read at the Oxford Meeting of the Archasologieal Institute, June 21, 1850).* 



The beautiful, though quaintly expressed, idea of Sir 

 Thomas Browne, that " Time conferreth a dignity upon the 

 most trifling thing that resisteth his power, ^* is suggestive of 

 the connection existing between Archaeology and Geology ; 

 for as the antiquary, from a fragment of pottery, or a muti- 

 lated statue, or a defaced coin, — objects intrinsically value- 

 less, but hallowed by the lapse of ages, — is enabled to deter- 

 mine the degree of civilization attained by a people whose 

 origin and early history are lost in remote antiquity ; so the 

 geologist, from the examination of a pebble, or a bone, or a 

 shell, may ascertain the condition of our planet, and the 

 nature of its inhabitants, in periods long antecedent to all 

 human history or tradition. And as the archaeologist is often 

 perplexed in his endeavours to decypher an ancient manu- 

 script, from the original characters having been partially 

 obliterated by later superscriptions ; in like manner the geolo- 

 gist is frequently embarrassed while attempting to interpret 

 the natural records of the physical history of the globe, from 

 the obscurity occasioned by the successive mutations which 

 the surface of the earth has undergone. 



The investigation of the past is alike the object of both ; 

 but the antiquary limits his inquiries to the remains of man 

 and his works, for the purpose of tracing the development of 

 the human mind, in the various phases of society, from the 

 dawn of civilization, and through the historic ages, down to 

 the present time : his speculations, therefore, comprise but 

 a comparatively brief period — the few thousand years that 

 have elapsed since the creation of man and the animals 



* A copy of this interesting Memoir was sent to us by the intelligent 

 Author, and is here inserted in a nearly complete form. 



