Reviews, Sfc, 77 



to themes wliicli by others have been rendered obscure and 

 uninviting. His delicate and often subtle humour, too, played 

 around such themes relaxing their gravity and lighting them up. 

 Above all these characteristics of his literary works, is the stead- 

 fast faith and deep religious feeling which pervades them. In 

 none is this so manifest, as in his Life of Dr. John Reid, one of 

 the most delightful examples of biography within our knowledge. 

 To Dr. George Wilson, religion was not only not a gloomy thing, 

 but it was the brightness of existence. It not only cheered him 

 in many days of prostration from severe bodily affliction, but it 

 was an element in almost all his studies, and a thing of his daily 

 laborious life. And we have reason to know, that during his last 

 days on earth, he felt it to be indeed the peace of God, and the 

 firm anchor of his soul. 



KEVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Handbook op Geological Terms and Geology, bj David Page, E.G.S., 

 Author of the Advanced Text Book of Geologj. Edinburgh and 

 London : "W. Blackwood & Sons. Montreal : B. Dawson & Son. 

 pp. 416, $2. 



Such a Handbook as this is has long been a great desideratum 

 to the reading public. The " hard words and forbidding techni- 

 calities" of science which appear to beginners of so difficult ac- 

 quirement, are here explained and made intelligible in brief and 

 simple language. The ordinary reader will find the information 

 he requires, generally in the first and second sentences of a defi- 

 nition, while^what follows is more especially addressed to students 

 and other professional enquirers. This book is just the thing for 

 students, and for those who attend geological lectures, or read 

 geological books. As the first book of the kind that has yet ap- 

 peared, it is a most meritorious production. Although far from 

 complete it yet contains nearly every term to be met with in 

 ordinary books on geology. In no other single work can the 

 same information be obtained. The defintions may be received 

 with perfect confidence. The author is well known as a most 

 painstaking and careful practical geologist. 



