153 REVIEWS. [May, 



In the days when George the Third Avas king, and when 

 George the Fourth was Prince of Wales, and made Brighton his 

 marine residence, the fashionable way of reviewing works on all 

 subjects, but especially on religion, history, politics, and litera- 

 ture, was to write an essay or a treatise on the subject discussed 

 in the book, the name of which served as a text, a handle, or a 

 title, to the lucubrations of the writer of the review. The re- 

 viewer's object was not to set before his readers an analysis of 

 the work whose title stood at the head of his performance, but 

 to show them what he knew or thought about the subject. This 

 fashion was set by the 'Edinburgh Review' at the beginning of 

 the present century ; it was servilely adopted by the ' Quarterly 

 Review,' and the practice of these two famous periodicals has 

 been more or less followed down to the present time. 



He would be esteemed a bold if not a foolhardy reviewer, who 

 ventured to follow this, the almost universal custom of review- 

 ers, in discussing the contents of the book before us. He would 

 be more than a match for a modern Admirable Crichton who 

 could successfully cope with Dr. Mantell in Geology, Dr. Harvey 

 in Algol ogy. Dr. Bell, Professor E. Forbes, and Mr. Gosse on 

 Marine Zoology, Mr. Bowerbank on Zoophytes, Captain Knox 

 on Ornithology, Mr. Mitten on Muscology, and other celebrities 

 whose fame is not quite so widely extended as that of the above- 

 named savans. The writer of this review will not make the 

 Quixotic attempt at emulating these eminent authors, each of 

 whom is great in his peculiar department. The reviewer of 

 Mrs. Merrifield's work will briefly and plainly tell his readers 

 what are the contents of the lady's book, and then state his 

 estimate of the value of her labours in this extensive field. 



Our author in a very graphic way tell us that her work is but 

 a compilation : see her Preface. It is also stated that the lists 

 of the twelve classes of subjects into which the whole is divided, 

 have been derived from as many contributors, some of which 

 have been mentioned above. Due acknowledgments are awarded 

 to all contributors. 



The authoress relies on Dr. Mantell for her abstract of the 

 geology of the coast on each side of Brighton, between Shore- 

 ham and Newhaven, the downs, and the alluvial and diluvial 

 formations of the river vales, etc., of the interior ; Dr. Harvey 

 is the authority for the algals of the coast and deep sea; on 



