INTRODUCTION. V 



to give place to the higher object of serving the general 

 cause, while investigating the works of the Creator. 



The favourable reception given to the preceding 

 volume has encouraged me to persevere in the attempt 

 to make this work readable by all, and at the same time 

 useful to my brother conchologists. The advice of our 

 old friend, Horace, should not be neglected by any 



writer : 



Onine tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci 

 Lectoreni delectando pariterque monendo. 



All that relates to Nature is in itself so delightful, 

 and the pursuit of it elicits so many of our best and 

 truest feelings, that every undertaking of this kind 

 ought to be imbued with the sentiment inculcated by 

 the above maxim, instead of repelling students by too 

 much technicality. The author and his readers have a 

 joint property in the subject-matter, and they are held 

 together by the same tie of sympathy. 



" Pleasure is spread through the earth 



In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find." 



Our communion with GrOD, through His works, affords 

 one of the purest and most unalloyed of pleasures that 

 is permitted to us in this transitory state. Even the 

 mere contemplation of them, in any of their various 

 aspects, if it is made in a fitting mood, assures us, much 

 more forcibly than human teaching can, that our minds 

 — our spirits — our souls partake of His eternity and are 

 imperishable. This idea has pervaded all men and in 

 every age. It is innate and ineradicable. 



At the same time it cannot be denied that novels, 

 magazines, and newspapers constitute now-a-days the 

 literature which chiefly occupies the small reading-time 

 of the public, and that scientific books generally are 



