THE AUTHOR AND HIS BOOK. 505 



committing these volumes to the press is, that we have 

 spared neither time nor trouble in investigating the 

 various points with which we have attempted to deal, 

 and when we have advanced theories of our own, 

 they have been originated, we can "faithfully say, not 

 upon hastily drawn conclusions, but after much anxious 

 study and thought. 



A good many facts which we have brought under 

 review, we venture to think, are however not to be 

 found in any printed books heretofore existing; that is 

 to say, during researches spread over a period of several 

 years of continuous literary labour, we have been 

 unable to find any mention of them in the works of 

 other authors ; whilst others again have been so lightly 

 touched upon by those writers who have noticed them 

 at all, that we have been unable to make any useful 

 extracts from their remarks. 



It would be too much to suppose that our views 

 will receive in all cases general acceptance without 

 demur. No one can be more sensible than we our- 

 selves are, how liable the human judgment always is 

 to fall into error. All therefore that we desire is, that 

 the arguments we may have advanced in support of 

 facts, may receive impartial hearing and consideration. 

 It can do no harm to once more remind the reader 

 that our constant object has been to picture Nature, 

 as we humbly conceive she existed before the face of 

 the wilderness had been transformed by external 

 agencies into an unrecognisable image of its original 

 self. Such are the reasons which have prompted us 

 in the selection of the title given to our work. 



Everywhere, we venture to believe, Nature is continu- 

 ally employed in writing her own biography. The 



