xxxviii MEMOIR OF SIB J. G. DAL YELL. 



In the course of the treatise almost every known instrument is 

 brought under review by Sir John, and from his known musical science 

 and practice, his remarks are not less sound than original. 



The first volume of Sir John's last and great work " The Powers 

 of the Creator displayed in the Creation ; or, observations on Life amidst 

 the various forms of the humbler tribes of Animated Nature : with Prac- 

 tical Comments and Illustrations," was published by John Van Voorst, 

 London, in 1851. The second volume, after the author's death, was 

 brought out in 1853, under the superintendence of his sister and Professor 

 Fleming, the latter of whom introduced it with a short preface. Part of 

 this, the third volume, had also the benefit of his oversight ; but it is 

 chiefly to Miss Dalyell that the public owe the completion of the work. 

 A portion of the volume, however, is printed from the manuscript, as left 

 by the author in an imperfect state. 



" The Powers of the Creator," illustrated by two hundred excellent 

 engravings, may be considered a continuation of the " Bare and Remark- 

 able Animals of Scotland" imbued, perhaps, with a higher tone of philo- 

 sophy. It is impossible to study any particular department of the works 

 of Nature, even the most humble and apparently insignificant, without 

 having the mind exalted in contemplating the grand design of creation. 

 Sir John soars into this region ; but it is with a staid whig, convinced of 

 man's littleness, and the folly of attempting to penetrate the veil which 

 bounds our finitude. The speculations of philosophers as to a great First 

 Cause, and the development of the system of which the human race forms 

 so distinguished a part, he treats with little consideration, and regards the 

 theory of progressive creations as improbable. His object is less to inquire 

 into the reason why, and by what means, the world was produced, than 

 to trace in the wonderful organization and instincts of the lower animals 

 the power and goodness of an all-ruling Providence. In the world of 

 science, also, his aim is less to discover new races than to study more at- 

 tentively the habits and qualities of those rarer species, whom naturalists 

 have overlooked, or but imperfectly described. When it is understood 

 that the observations instituted by Sir John extended over a period of 

 fifty years, and that some of the aquatic specimens were in his possession 



