SEBM0N3 IN STONES. 97 



bum-bees on the top of a thistle) to find ' good in every- 

 thing.' I have little doubt you are one of those. By the 

 by, if the assertion were true as given in the first part of 

 the line last cpioted — 'sermons in stones' — what a pitiable 

 life must be led by a mineralogist ! fur we could scarcely 

 expect that every piece of slate, grauwacke, or whin- 

 stone, would turn out a Chalmers or Thomson. Quartz 

 would make a pint of being as dry as Dr Grant [Granite], 

 Hee-hee ! 



" I rushed over (in a hackney coach) to the Wernerian 

 Society last Saturday, and was so bold, besides transact- 

 ing my own especial business, as to stay to the meeting. 

 I got a bit of a fright, however ; for the first paper read, 

 I found, was an attack upon myself — that is, upon cer- 

 tain duct lines which I had advocated in a paper read to, 

 and published by, the society some years ago : so that I 

 was obliged in my own defence, and in spite of that great 

 degree of modesty which I possess,, and which I hope you 

 have observed, and give me due credit for, to get up and 

 make the following excellent speech from a corner, in a 

 low and plaintive voice : — 



"'Mr President, — Sir.' But it would be egotistical 

 were I to proceed any further." 



In his paper on the Falconidw Mr Wilson had main- 

 tained the specific distinctness of the golden eagle (Aquila 



O 



