PALAEONTOLOGY OF THE LIAS. 75 



be effected without some trouble and perseverance. 

 Notwithstanding that all the animals of this class are of a 

 simple kind, and low in the point of Organization, natura 

 has been lavish in the eccentricity and beauty of their 

 outer coverings. As it is not probable you can clearly 

 distinguish the forms of the shells themselves, I have pre- 

 pared some enlarged drawings of afew ofthegenera, which 

 wUl shew you how varied and curious are their structures. 



I need scarcely teil you, that neither the remains of man, 

 nor his works, are to be found in the beds of which I have 

 been speaking. The fossilized skeleton of a negro is in the 

 British Museum, but this was found in a bed now in course 

 of formation, on the coast of one of the West India Islands. 

 In the year ] 725 some remains were foimd, about which a 

 German philosopher wrote a treatise, in which they were 

 described as an antediluvian man, one of the wicked beings 

 who perished at the flood, Unfortunately he overlooked 

 several important facts, that the specimen had no teeth, 

 that there were no ribs, and, worst of all, that attached to 

 the body there was a very long tail. This specimen 

 would have been a very lucky one for the author of the 

 " Vestiges of Creation," who could have argued most 

 leamedly, that, in our higher developement from this period, 

 we had left this important appendage beliind us. These 

 remains have since been proved to belong to a Salamander. 

 The World, then, on which proud man has now his brief 

 resting place, has long been a scene of Hfe, and a manifes- 

 tation of etemal wisdom and benevolence. The grand object 

 of Providence seems to have been to provide the greatest 

 happiness and enjoyment for His creatures. But why 

 should mortal man be proud ? for he only shares, in common 

 with all God's creatures, in His benevolence ; and if he 

 refuses an acknowledgement ofhis Creatoi^s goodness, there 



