x 
9) 
science well-calculated to improve our intellectual powers, to stimulate 
our exertions, and raise our adoration and gratitude to the Supreme 
Disposer of all things. 
We are endowed with faculties capable of understanding the 
general arrangement and magnificent structure of the globe. We 
derive a great source of happiness from examining the recent forms 
of animal and vegetable life; and as geological knowledge advances, 
we shall be able to restore the lost links of Creation, which the revo- 
lutions of our planet have scattered and destroyed. and to form some 
faint notion of the great design and perfect harmony which our 
Almighty Creator has manifested in the system of the world*. 
The name of Cuvier must ever be mentioned with the greatest 
respect and delight ; it will shine as a beacon to direct the geologist 
in the true path of discovery. His extensive knowledge of Compara- 
tive Anatomy enabled him to classify an extinct race of animals and 
explain even their habits; and by his labours we are now able, from 
a single tooth or bone, to reconstruct animals of the most wonderful 
description, which have long since ceased to exist. 
Geology, connected with Comparative Anatomy, Conchology and 
Botany, is a pursuit most gratifymg to the mind, either taken as a 
scientific pursuit, or forming an occasional recreation from the more 
arduous duties of life. 
In the contemplation of the larger animals, such as the Ichthyo- 
saurus or Iguanodon, which Geology has brought to light, the mind is 
* The same wise Hand directed the formation of the world from the beginning. The 
physiologist is able to determme from the examination of even a portion of bone, however 
small, that its structure could not have taken place without the aid of blood-vessels and nerves. 
So we have a right to suppose from the remains we discover, that the softer and perishable parts 
must have been in accordance to the laws of animal creation. The skeleton, or I may say, solid 
part of an animal, is all that remains in a fossil state ; but, from its contrivance, and a knowledge 
of recent animals, we are enabled to form a pretty accurate idea of its habits and destinations. 
