90 Retrospective Criticism. 
white objects, of which I cannot guess the meaning. And lastly, though not 
least in importance, the portrait of Linneus is wholly unlike the man, save 
and except his tie wig. Much stress, perhaps, ought not to be laid ona mere 
fancy composition, like the one in question; at the same time, its general 
correctness and excellence of execution are not altogether unimportant, 
The titlepage is to the volume something like what the vestibule is to the 
building ; and it is, at least, ill-judged to raise an unfavourable impression in 
limine. admire your Magazine, Mr. Editor, but not so the engraved title- 
page, which, I must say, strikes me as unworthy of the book to which it is 
prefixed. The artist has not, neither the designer [Mr. Harvey] nor en- 
graver [Mr. Branston], affixed his name, and has acted wisely by the 
omission, as the cut does him no credit; indeed, I infinitely prefer the 
vignette on the cover. I have again to apologise for the freedom of my re- 
marks, and the more so as the subject of them is a free and voluntary gift on 
your part, and one on which your purchasers had, of course, no right to 
calculate. But where things are good in the main, we are apt to wish them 
to be free from blemishes in the subordinate parts : and you must be aware 
that reproof is most profitably administered, that is, with the best chance of 
success, not to those who have the most faults to correct, but to those who 
are most disposed to correct them. 
Should you think well, Mr. Editor, to print these remarks, as you have 
done similar ones on a former occasion, the sooner you take the opportunity 
of doing so, the better; retrospective criticism being a dish that should be 
eaten hot, or it loses half its flavour. Yours, &c.— B. Coventry, Nov. 20. 
The same objections having been made by “ An Original Subscriber,” and 
others, we shall try what can be done in a title to Vol. III. — Cond. 
The Water Shrew (Vol. IL. p.399.), I am inclined to think, is not so 
rare an animal in this country as has been supposed; I occasionally see it 
on the small brooks in this parish, rapidly swimming along the surface of 
the water, and, when alarmed, diving with great agility. — W. 7. Bree. 
Allesley Rectory, Sept. 8. 1829. 
Dr, Ure’s Geology. — Sir, I trouble you with a few remarks upon a letter 
in your last Number, containing strictures on Dr. Ure’s Geology, perceiving 
you set apart in your miscellany a chapter for communications of the nature 
alluded to. I certainly am much surprised at the decided tone which the 
author assumes throughout, and the mode in which he lays down the law 
concerning right and wrong; having anticipated rather the contrary from the 
professions he repeatedly makes in the outset. 
It surely becomes one, who is “ not even a tyro in geology,” rather to ask 
a question concerning any point he may not perfectly agree with, than pe- 
remptorily to pronounce that “all this is palpably wrong.” To take Mr, 
H.’s arguments in order; I may remark, in the first place, that, in my opi- 
nion, he has been a little hasty in calling the mistake in the Table of Equiva- 
lents “ an important error.” An unpr rejudiced reader cannot, surely, view 
it in any other light than as a mere printer’s mistake, one ich may at any 
time occur in a work of any extent ; and the utmost that can be said of it 
is, that it is rather a gross oversight in the correction of the press. For, 
although Dr. Ure may not bea geologist, practically speaking, every one will 
give him eredit for knowing the place of the lias in the geological series. 
Neither can [I conceive this error likely to be at all injurious to the science, 
even with the youngest student ; for in the table immediately preceding the 
one mentioned by H., that bed is in its proper place, and all the doubt 
which such a contradiction could cause the reader might at onee be re- 
moved by turning to the chapter specially appropriated to the subject. 
Secondly, with regard to the account of the fossils of the iron-sand, I must 
again differ as to the i unportance of the error therein supposed ; nay, I will 
say, I think there is no error at all. Dr. Ure undoubtedly has not given us 
all the information he might have done, concerning those fossils, at Teast, he 
has not put it in the proper place ; in this respect his arrangement 1s much 
