4 
Bibliography. 191 
18. Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.—In Vol. xivu11, p. 
395 of this Journal, we have mentioned this new work, with its novel 
and startling views and opinions. Upon it our respected London cor- 
respondent remarks :—‘“It has made a great sensation; chiefly, I be- 
lieve, because the author cannot be detected,* and that two hundred 
copies were gratuitously delivered to the leading scientific and literary 
men. It is evidently the work of a very clever man, who has read 
much and speculated-more ; and who is not an original observer. It 
embraces all the natural sciences, and abounds in the most extraordinary 
speculations, most of them based on insufficient data, or on mistaken 
facts. His object is to prove that creation has proceeded according toa 
law impressed by the Creator on matter, by which organic forms arise 
from inorganic atoms, and that the simplest and most primitive type, un- 
der a law to which that of like production is subordinate, gave birth to the 
next type above it; that this again produced the next higher, and so on 
to the very highest, the stage of advance being, in all cases, very small, 
namely from one species to another. In support of this theory of pro- 
gressive development, geology and physiolozy are made to succumb to 
the views of the author. I have no time,” remarks the writer, “‘ for far- 
ther comment, but I think the book false in religion and philosophy, and 
all its errors are swallowed by the upper classes, to whom every thing 
boldly asserted and in captivating style is gospel.” 
19. Dr. G. A. ManteEtt on the Geological Structure of the couniry 
seen from Leith Hill in the county of Surrey ;—(from Brayley’s Topo- 
graphical History of Surrey.)—A very beautiful thin quarto of only 
19 pages, adorned by three exquisite pictures of landscape views, and 
five wood cuts of the structure of the country, is received from the 
author almost at the moment of closing our number. This little geo- 
logical tract is a contribution from Dr. Mantell to Brayley’s Topograph- 
ical History of Surrey, a splendid work now going through the press 
in England; another addition to works, (of which England possesses 
many valuable ones,) on the local history of counties and districts in that 
country. The present work illustrates: I. The Natural State; II. The 
History and Antiquities ; III. The Social Economy and present condi- 
tion of the county of Surrey, a region rich in historical, social, and 
geological interest. The formation of chalk and the Wealden having 
been so often and so ably illustrated by Dr. Mantell, it is almost super- 
fluous to add, that this tract corresponds with ihe well known character 
of his mind for dignity, discrimination, and for the living interest which 
is diffused over all his productions. 
* We have heard it attributed to a celebrated London zoologist, whose name we 
forbear to cite, as we are not sure of the fact.—Eps. 
