THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 11 
facts, like cockatrices, basilisks, and krakeus, the 
breeding of bees out of a dead ox, and of geese 
from barnacles; or theories, like those of the four 
elements, the vis plastric in Nature, animal spirits, 
and the other musty heirlooms of Aristotleism and 
Neo-platonism), to try to make a science popular, 
which as yet was not even a science at all. Honour 
to them, nevertheless. Honour to Ray and his 
illustrious contemporaries in Holland and France. 
Honour to Seba and Aldrovandus; to Pomet, with 
? 
his “Historie of Drugges;” even to the ingenious 
Don Saltero, and his tavern-museum in Cheyne 
Walk. Where all was chaos, every man was useful 
who could contribute a single spot of organized 
standing ground in the shape of a fact or a speci- 
men. But it is a question whether Natural History 
would have ever attained its present honours, had 
not Geology arisen, to connect every other branch 
of Natural History with problems as vast and awful 
as they are captivating to the imagination. Nay, 
the very opposition with which Geology met was 
of as great benefit to the sister sciences as to itself. 
