Analysis of the Proiogcea of Leibnitz. 63 



riety, shape, color, and other properties which are so well marked, 

 that the species can be studied in the rocks as well as in a cabinet. 

 Some of them are entire and others broken, and sometimes there is 

 merely a cast ; they are not therefore, a simple and direct product 

 of nature. They have no roots, but are separated by well defined 

 limits from the rock in which they lie. The more accurately they 

 are examined, the stronger will be the conviction that they are real 

 remains, whereas, the representations of men and buildings some- 

 times found in the rocks must be viewed at a distance, or the illusion 

 vanishes. Their number, and that the species is not known to exist 

 in the living state as is the case with the cornu Ammonis, is no objec- 

 tion. They may have been accumulated on certain points by cur- 

 rents, and brought from distant regions or the dephts of the sea that 

 have never yet been explored. Analogues of the mineral species 

 are detected in greater numbers as observations are more extended 

 amongst the living races. In proportion as men are more diligent in 

 the business of observation and better acquainted with nature, they 

 are more apt to adopt the opinion espoused by Leibnitz. Such as 

 embrace different views are deceived by the fables of Kircher, Be- 

 cher and others, who find not only plants and animals but historical 

 facts exhibited in the rocks, and tell of whole fields strewed with the 

 leg bones of giants. These remains are quite distinct from certain 

 crystals that are mentioned, and the other geometry of inanimate 

 nature.* The glossopetra of Luenberg, are described and stated 

 to be shark's teeth and not to differ from those of Malta, that are so 

 much valued for their medicinal properties — they may not be alto- 

 gether without virtue as a medicine. Sect. 33 is a long enumeration 

 and description from Lachmann of different species of shells. — 34. 

 On bones, apparently of the elephant, found in the caves and laid 

 bare by the rivers of Germany. The ivory tusks dug up in Russia 

 and America may belong to the Walrus. If they are real elephant's 

 bones, the habits of the animal or the condition of the earth must 

 have changed, so that the limits beyond which he does not range must 

 be more confined than formerly, or they may have been transported 

 from a distance. — 35. Of the remains of an unicorn dug up in Ger- 

 many — fabulous, judging from the figure, and in bad taste, inasmuch 

 as it violates Horace's rule of not associating discordant organs in the 

 same animal. 



" Cactcraraquc oninem nuturte inanimaE geometriaiii." 



