392 Miscellatiies. 



" Each lecture is arranged under important and attractive heads ; 

 these are referred to in a copious index ; while the most difficult 

 scientific terms are explained in a glossary ; so that he who runs 

 may read." — Brighton Herald, [Eng.) paper, March 31, 1838. 



The present work, like others of the same author, is distinguished 

 by a reverent spirit towards the Author of nature, who appears to be 

 sometimes forgotten by those who investigate his works. Dr. Man- 

 tell's volumes will leave a happy moral and religious impression upon 

 the minds of young persons ; and thus science, in this department, as 

 well as in others, will be seen to be the handmaid and ally of revealed 

 religion. 



It is an interesting fact, that among the fine writers of the present 

 day, several of the geologists hold a very high rank, and their works, 

 although devoted to science, are also an ornament to literature. Who 

 can write better than Sedgwick, Buckland, Lyell, Greenough, Dau- 

 beny, Murchison, De La Beche, and Mantell, and many more geolo- 

 gists who might be named ! 



There is but one painful impression left on the mind, in closing Dr. 

 Mantell's delightful volumes. He informs us that this is his farewell 

 to science,* as he must henceforth be devoted to the practice of an 

 arduous profession, and for this purpose he has already left the clas- 

 sical fields of his own geological domain — Tilgate forest and Brigh- 

 ton cliffs and the Chalky Downs of Sussex — to plant himself in a sub- 

 urban village,! as a practising surgeon. 



We were thus plaintively reminded of Blackstone's touching fare- 

 well to the Muses, when he was about to enter the gloomy halls of the 

 courts of law ; and still more forcibly, of the struggle of Garrick be- 

 tween Comedy and Tragedy, as portrayed by the magic pencil of Rey- 

 nolds — each rival sister wooing him with admitted and almost prevail- 

 ing claims and attractions. In the present contest between surgery 

 and geology, each striving to appropriate to itself an honored votary, 

 we dare avow, that our loyalty is, at all hazards, engaged in favor of 

 geology; and if a transatlantic republican might dare to waft in the 

 western breeze a whisper that, perchance, may cross the ocean and 

 reach the ear of the youthful, lovely, and excellent British Queen, it 

 would be, that a man who has honored the British nation, and delight- 

 ed the scientific world by his beautiftd researches, might be made easy 

 to pursue the bent of his own glowing and gifted mind, and thus to 

 work onward in science, until the work of life is done ! 



* At least, as a lecturer. 



t Clapham Common, near London, distinguished as the former residence of 

 many great and good men, among whom were the Thorntons, father and sons, 

 Lord Teignmouth, and Wilberforce. 



