Geology 

 Library 



PREFACE. 



THE preparation of this book has occupied me at 

 intervals during several years. It would have been 

 published before the Life of a Scotch Naturalist, but 

 for want of the requisite materials. 



I have to thank my reviewers, one and all, for their 

 favourable notices of that work. It has, however, been 

 objected that I should have culled my last example of 

 Self-Help from a career not already concluded, and 

 exposed the Scotch Naturalist, after his long unmerited 

 neglect, to the harder trial of intrusive patronage, to 

 which my premature biography was likely to expose 

 him. 



Whatever truth there may be in this objection, it 

 certainly does not apply in the present case. Robert 

 Dick died twelve years ago, without any recognition of 

 his services to the cause of science, and without any of 

 that Royal Help which, as in the case of Edward, is 

 likely to render the later years of his life more free 

 from care and anxiety. 



The first account that I heard of Robert Dick was 

 from the lips of the late Sir Roderick Murchison. He 



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