AN 



INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



There are not many inducements to become a Concholo- 

 gist : his pursuit has always been deemed one of an infe- 

 rior character, and the fame of none of its masters has ever 

 extended beyond the narrow pale of his fellow co-operators, 

 excepting when, in one or two instances, the witty pen of the 

 satirist has momentarily fixed the public eye upon this ob- 

 scure object of its ridicule. Unless, therefore, you are con- 

 tent to forego all chance of literary fame, and to rest satisfied 

 with a very moderate share of scientific reputation, you had 

 better at once leave this private path, and betake yourself to 

 a higher and more frequented road : there are many, not few 

 of them less pleasant and less useful to the traveller, which 

 lead to the gratification of a higher vanity. But should you, 

 unambitious, still feel disposed to follow the bent of your 

 taste, satisfied that, in these matters, 



" He chooses best, whose labour entertains 

 His vacant fancy most," * 



I shall willingly assist you towards its gratification, because 

 I am fully convinced that there is as much pleasure, and as 

 much profit, to be found in the cultivation of this department 

 of natural history as in any other. You are not going to 

 follow it out as the chief object of your life, — that were to 

 do what I could not commend, — but as a recreation to relax 

 and refresh the wearied mind, as a resort to fall back upon in 

 those hours of idleness which will overtake the busiest of us 



* " It is a very useless inquiry — wliat kind of knowledge, or what line of 

 occupation is best ? — all are good, and, in a complex system of society, all 

 are needful. The community will best be served, if each do strenuously 

 what he can do best, without troubling himself about the comparative worth 

 or dignity of his vocation." — Hartlei/ Coleridge. 



B 



