98 



NOTES ON A REVIEW 



Art. IX. — Notes on a Revieiv of Mr. Swainsons Preli- 

 minary Discourse on the Study of Natural History. By 

 Edward Doubleday. 



Sir, — Well knowing how great a friend you are to fair 

 criticism, I have not hesitated to send you the enclosed Notes, 

 with a view to their publication in your next number. My 

 object is, to illustrate the degree of candour and fairness with 

 which Mr. Swainson's excellent Preliminary Discourse has been 

 reviewed in the Athenaeum. 



Had that review emanated from a less respectable source I 

 should not have noticed it ; but when a periodical, so univer- 

 sally esteemed for the fairness and correctness of its remarks, 

 deviates from the honourable course it generally holds, I do 

 feel that it is incumbent on some one to notice it, and I only 

 regret that it has not already been done by some one more 

 competent than myself. I will not deny that there are some 

 few trivial errors in Mr. Swainson's Discourse, some trifling 

 omissions, but they are like spots on the sun, only conspicuous 

 when beheld through mediums which magnify them, and shear 

 off the bright rays from the other parts. But let me here say 

 that I altogether exonerate the Editor of the Athenaeum from 

 blame ; I believe that he has, unknowingly, been made the 

 tool of some disappointed and rejected scribbler, or of some 

 one, 



" Blest with each talent, and each art to please, 

 And born to write, converse, and live with ease," 



can 



" Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne : 

 View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, 

 And hate for arts that caused himself to rise. 

 Like Cato, give his little senate laws. 

 And sit attentive to his own applause ; 

 Who, if two wits on rival themes contest. 

 Approves of each, but likes the worst the best ; 

 Who but must laugh, if such a man there be, 

 Who would not weep if Atticus were he." 



AthenjEUM. No. 366. Preliminary Discourse on 



Nov. 2, 1834. Natural History. 



1. "Our author takes a fancy to 1. "It is the transcendent genius 



depreciate Cuvier and the whole he (Cuvier) has shown as a Geolo- 



school of Comparative Anatomists, gist and Comparative Anatomist, 



as if their labours had had no effect that will perpetuate his name as long 



