200 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
seriously consider them, sentiments of piety and 
feelings of devotion. In reference to which, Pro- 
fessor Jamieson has elegantly observed, ‘‘ If the 
antiquary dig from among the ruins of Herculaneum 
a piece of ancient money, a vase, or a statue, we 
rejoice with him, in finding the mode of life, the 
manners and arts, of an ancient people, placed before 
our eyes: if he find an old record, illustrative of 
the history of his country, however limited in extent 
that country may be, we are grateful to him for the 
particle of knowledge which he has added to our 
store ;—but if, among the ruins of the common 
country of the human race,” or rather in the traces 
of those mighty revolutions with which Omnipotence 
was pleased to prepare our present habitation, ‘“‘ we 
linger at the great sepulchre of animated beings, who 
can look upon it without sentiments of piety? It is 
not here the statues of Polycletus that we admire, 
but the admirable monuments of the workmanship of 
nature, taken from the ruins of the great Hercula- 
neum overwhelmed by the occan, that we look upon 
with feelings of the deepest wonder and devotion !” 
