86 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



the ruins of some ancient buildings, and which 

 have been multiplied by the fertile genius of Ra- 

 phael in his paintings. Like these, they unite 

 forms which please the eye by agreeable con- 

 tours and fanciful combinations, but which are ut- 

 terly repugnant to nature and reason ; being mere- 

 ly the productions of inventive and playful genius, 

 or perhaps meant as emblematical representations 

 of metaphysical or moral propositions, veiled un- 

 der mystical hieroglyphics, after the oriental man- 

 ner. Learned men may be permitted to employ 

 their time and ingenuity in attempts to decipher 

 the mystic knowledge concealed under the forms 

 of the sphinx of Thebes, the pegasus of Thessaly, 

 the minotaur of Crete, or the chimera of Epirus ; 

 but it would be folly to expect seriously to find 

 such monsters in nature. We might as well en- 

 deavour to find the animals of Daniel, or the 

 beasts of the Apocalypse, in some hitherto unex- 

 plored recesses of the globe. Neither can we 

 look for the mythological animals of the Persians, 

 creatures of a still bolder imagination such as 

 the martichore, or destroyer of men, having a h u- 

 man head on the body of a lion, and the tail of a 

 scorpion ;* the griffin, or guardian of hidden trea- 

 sures, half eagle and half lion ;f or the cartazonon, 



*Plin. VIII. fll. Aristot-- Phot. Bibl. art. 72. Ctes. Indie. 

 ./Elian. Anim. IV. 21. 

 . Anim. 



