146 The late Professor Edward Forbes'.* 



We thus embrace biology, in its more special sense, and 

 geology. 



Since the details of one portion of biology, viz., the natural 

 history of plants, are fully taught by one of my colleagues, 

 and since the course of study for which I contend, that which 

 would conduct you to geological knowledge through a prelimi- 

 nary investigation of the classification and characters of 

 living beings, can in the main be effected only through zoo- 

 logy, or the study of the animal part of the creation, it is to 

 the latter division of biology that I shall confine my prelec- 

 tions. 



And since, for the understanding of geology (the science to 

 which the latter half of the course will be devoted), an 

 acquaintance with the characters and combinations of 

 minerals is requisite, the sub- science of mineralogy will ne- 

 cessarily form part of our studies. 



This, then, will be the order of our work. Commencing with 

 the consideration of those general facts and principles that 

 are common to the several sections of natural history, we shall 

 proceed to the study of existing animals, and through them, 

 arrive at an understanding of extinct forms of life, known 

 only in the fossil state. This department, or paleontology, 

 will, along with mineralogy, form the basis of our enquiry 

 into the structure and geological history of the globe. 



Almost all the varied science which we shall have to survey 

 has been eliminated from the facts of nature, within very 

 modern times. Among the ancients, strange as it may seem, 

 little progress appears to have been made in natural history, 

 and the very science, the materials for the study of which lie 

 most abundantly across the pathways of men, was that most 

 neglected, and abandoned to dreamy fable. There are only 

 two authors of antiquity, whose works are preserved, worthy 

 of being cited as original contributors and understanders of 

 science. These are Aristotle and Strabo ; the first, unequalled 

 in all times for the grasp of his intellect and the variety of 

 his acquirements, has left in the fragments of his treatise 

 " Usp/ Swap/' a masterly essay in scientific geology, and a 

 wonderfully accurate statement of well-directed observations. 

 The second, in his geography, the minute accuracy of which 



