MAN AND NATURE. 257 



speak favourably of its fulfilment ; but this cannot be 

 done without some qualification. We have no fault 

 to find with his style, which is generally clear and 

 sometimes eloquent. We have much also to commend 

 of zeal and industry in the collection of facts, and of 

 entire honesty in his manner of using them a high 

 merit, whatever be the matter under discussion. But 

 what we find reason to regret is, that having appro- 

 priated a worthy subject, and one of comparative 

 novelty, he should have deprived his work of much of 

 its value by the inartistic way in which he has put his 

 materials together, rendering it thereby equally diffi- 

 cult to read and to remember them. There is what 

 we may best describe as a want of backbone to the 

 volume. Some part of this default may probably be 

 due to the detached and fragmentary manner in which 

 his information has been collected something also to 

 the fact that Mr. Marsh has obviously an imperfect 

 knowledge of the physical sciences, arid is wanting, 

 therefore, in that exactness of method and strictness of 

 induction which are now required on all subjects 

 coming into association with them. His proofs are 

 often trivial from their limited locality, and not always 

 duly balanced as to authority and value ; and he fre- 

 quently omits such as might well have superseded 

 those upon which he dwells for the support of his 

 argument. 



We have further to complain of deficiency as re- 

 gards the mere technicalities of book-making. The 

 volume is prefaced by a copious list of works consulted 

 by our author, attesting in this his zeal and industry ; 



s 



