﻿Notice of Dr. MantelVs Medals of Creation. 135 



of Europe : the tiger lurked in the jungle ; the lion slept in his 

 lair; the hyena prowled through the woods; the bear inhabited 

 the caverns ; and gigantic elks, oxen, horses, and deer, tenanted 

 the plains. But of man and his works not a vestige appears 

 throughout the vast periods embraced in this review. Yet, were 

 any of the existing islands or continents to be engulphed in the 

 depths of the ocean, and loaded with marine detritus, and in fu- 

 ture ages to be elevated above the waters, covered with consoli- 

 dated mud and sand, how different would be the characters of 

 those strata from any which have preceded them ! Their most 

 striking features would be the remains of man, and the produc- 

 tions of human art — the domes of his temples, the columns of 

 his palaces, the arches of his stupendous bridges of iron and 

 stone, the ruins of his towns and cities, and the durable rem- 

 nants of his earthly tenement imbedded in the rocks and strata — 

 these would be the ' Medals of Creation' of the human epoch, 

 and transmit to the remotest periods of time a faithful record of 

 the present condition of the surface of the earth and of its in- 

 habitants."* 



After so grave a march through creation, we may be allowed 



to introduce a few miscellaneous things before we close. 



The dedication to the author's friend, Mr. Lyell, is a warm- 

 hearted tribute of respect and regard to a distinguished man who 

 has rendered great service to the cause. The opening of the 

 address to the courteous reader, "and still more courteous pur- 

 chaser," furnishes an important practical hint not always remem- 

 bered by the admiring and non-buying world. 



The author has not forgotten to thank his "excellent printer," 

 and also his compositors, " for their skill and patience in deci- 

 phering hieroglyphics, at all times somewhat illegible, and ren- 

 dered peculiarly so on the present occasion, from the greater part 

 of the manuscript having been written under the pressure of 

 severe bodily suffering. I may say," remarks the author, " with 

 Gerald Griffin, that 'I verily believe, if I shut my eyes, or flung 

 my pen at the paper, so as to make a mark of any kind, my 

 printers would find out what I meant. They always send me 

 back my manuscript with the printed proofs for correction : and 

 I actually have repeatedly been unable to make out what I had 

 written, until I referred to the same sentence in print.' " Not a 



* See Sir H. Davy's Last Days of a Philosopher. 



