22 INTRODUCTORY. 



and so attractive the study, that much satisfactory work has 

 been done, and, by the aid of some of the highest minds in 

 Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and America, paleontology 

 has already taken a permanent place on the roll of human 

 knowledge. Under the hand of a Brongniart, a Goeppert, 

 or a Lindley, these stony stems have started anew into life 

 and verdure, and tangled the swampy jungle or waved in the 

 upland forest ; under the reconstructing skill of a Cuvier, 

 an Agassiz, or an Owen, these scattered bones have been 

 reunited in intelligible symmetry, and once more repeopled 

 the earth, the air, and the ocean; while under the magic 

 lenses of an Ehrenberg these muds, and marls, and chalks, 

 have become instinct with life, and ancient waters swarm 

 with innumerable forms. 



" The dust we tread upon was once alive." 



Much as these and many others have done, year after year 

 is still adding largely to our knowledge of the PAST LIFE 

 of the Globe ; and the time, it is hoped, is not far distant 

 when Geology shall be enabled to read, through these fossil 

 chips and fragments, the Life-History of the World, with 

 as much, if not with greater, certainty than we can now read 

 the phases of human history itself, as displayed in the suc- 

 cessive developments of Mnevites and Egyptians, of Greeks 

 and Eomans, of medieval Goths and modern Anglo-Saxons. 

 Exciting, however, as this history of the world's Past 

 must be, even to minds the most illiterate, it may be fairly 

 questioned at the outset To whom, and for what purpose, 

 is all this research and ingenuity expended? Is Palason- 

 tology a theme merely for the gratification of idle curiosity 

 and ignorant wonder; or has it, like every true science, 

 qualities of sterling value that appeal at once to the intel- 

 lectual and physical exigencies of Man ? Does it bear in 

 any way on the industrial purposes of life ; does it present 



