2 THE MEDALS OF CREATION. 
it can be followed in whatever condition of life we may 
be placed, and wherever our fortunes may lead us. 
The eulogium passed by a distinguished living philo- 
sopher on scientific knowledge in general, is strikingly ap- 
plicable to geological investigations. “The highest worldly 
prosperity, so far from being incompatible with them, sup- 
plies additional advantages for their pursuit ; they may be 
alike enjoyed in the intervals of the most active business, 
while the calm and dispassionate interest with which they 
fill the mind, renders them a most delightful retreat from 
the agitations and dissensions of the world, and from the 
conflict of passions, prejudices, and interests, in which the 
man of business finds himself continually involved.” * 
From the present advanced state of geological science, 
particularly of that department which it is the more espe- 
cial object of these volumes to elucidate, namely PaLa- 
ONToLOoGy,t or the study of Organic Remains,—it seems 
scarcely credible, that but little more than a century ago 
it was a matter of serious question with naturalists, whether 
the petrified shells imbedded in the rocks and strata were 
indeed shells that had been secreted by molluscous animals ; 
or whether these bodies, together with the teeth, bones, 
leaves, wood, &c. found in a fossil state, were not formed 
by what was then termed the plastic power of the earth ; 
in like manner as minerals, metals, and crystals. 
In a “Natural History of England,” published towards 
the end of the last century, it is gravely observed that 
at Bethersden in Kent, a kind of stone is found full of 
shells, “ which 1s a proof that shells and the animals we 
find in them living, have no necessary connexion.” Another 
amusing instance of the ignorance on such subjects which 
* Sir J. F. W. Herschel, “Discourse on the Study of Natural 
Philosophy.” 
¢ Paleontology: from madaws, palaios, ancient—dyta, onta, beings 
—adyos, logos, a discourse. 
