12 GLAUCUS; OPv, 



For, when questions belonging to the most sacred 

 hereditary beliefs of Christendom were supposed to 

 be effected by the verification of a fossil shell, or 

 the pro"vdng that the Maestricht "homo diluvii 

 testis " was, after all, a monstrous eft, it became 

 necessary to work upon Conchology, Botany, and 

 Comparative Anatomy, with a care and a reverence, 

 a caution and a severe induction, which had been 

 never before applied to them ; and thus gradually, 

 in the last half century, the whole choir of cosmical 

 sciences have acquired a soundness, severity, and 

 fulness, which render them, as mere intellectual 

 exercises, as valuable to a manly mind as Mathe- 

 matics and Metaphysics. 



But how very lately have they attained that firm 

 and honourable standing gi'ound ! It is a question 

 whether, even twenty years ago, Geology, as it then 

 stood, was worth troubling one's head about, so 

 little had been really proved. And heavy and uphill 

 was the work, even within the last fifteen years, of 

 those who steadfastly set themselves to the task 

 of proving and of asserting at all risks, that the 



