30 GLAUCUS ; OK, 



" mineral " are trembling in the balance, seem- 

 ingly ready to vanish like their fellows, " the 

 four elements " of fire, air, earth, and water. 

 No branch of science has helped so much to 

 sweep away that sensuous idolatry of mere size, 

 which tempts man to admire and respect ob- 

 jects in proportion to the number of feet or 

 inches which they occupy in space. No branch, 

 moreover, has been more humbling to the 

 boasted rapidity and omnipotence of the human 

 reason, and taught those who have eyes to see, 

 and hearts to understand, how weak and way- 

 ward, staggei'ing and slow, are the steps of our 

 fallen race (rapid and triumphant enough in 

 that broad road of theories which leads to 

 intellectual destruction) whensoever they tread 

 the narrow path of true science, which leads 

 (if I may be allowed to transfer our Lord's 

 great parable from moral to intellectual matters) 

 to Life ; to the living and permanent knowl- 

 edge of living things, and of the laws of their 

 existence. Humbling, truly, to one Avho, in 

 this summer of 1854, the centenary year of 

 British zoophytology, looks back to the summer of 

 1754, when good Mr. Ellis, the wise and benev- 

 olent West Indian merchant, read before the 



