Quadrupeds. 



8153 



and talent, that no ill-usage, temptation, difficulty or danger could 

 ever jeopardise : a less courageous mind would have sunk under the 

 brutality of the ignorant pedagogue who ruled the school in which 

 his boyhood was spent : a less persevering spirit would have shrunk 

 from the difficulties that met him at every step of his self-selected 

 path : a less steadfast mind would have yielded to the constantly- 

 besetting temptations to diverge from the paths of virtue, temperance 

 and frugality. To every young man this Memoir will be instructive ; 

 to every young naturalist its teachings are invaluable. It is a photo- 

 graph that represents a Bewick who is not the conventional Bewick of 

 our imagination, — a wiser perhaps, but certainly a different, man. 



E. N. 



An Essay upon the Dinotherium. By S. P. Saville, Esq. 



It would be difficult to name any other department of Science 

 which has undergone such decided improvement, within the last few 

 years, as the very interesting branch of physical investigation termed 

 Geology. Until then the secondary strata of deposits received no 

 attention ; for it was never imagined that they contained the records 

 of various and extensive revolutions in the condition of land and 

 water, as well as in the classes of organised beings with which our 

 globe has been successively peopled ; still less was it supposed that 

 evidence could be deduced from the same sources illustrative of the 

 original formation and subsequent disturbances of older rocks. When 

 a comparison is made between what is now and has been, whether 

 with reference to the works of external nature or the history of man- 

 kind, the desire of explaining what is obscure in the past supplies an 

 additional motive to examine a multitude of facts, within the reach of 

 our own observation, with more minute accuracy, and to generalize 

 them with more comprehensive views. Geology is continually con- 

 cerned in such comparisons. By prompting us to investigate more 

 in detail both the animate and inanimate kingdoms of nature, it has 

 enlarged these departments of study, and revealed a multitude of new 

 phenomena connected with them : it has even done more than this ; 

 it has elevated their rank and dignity, by teaching us the laws of the 

 aggregation and distribution of simple minerals, and by requiring 

 more comprehensive systems for the arrangement of the animal and 

 vegetable productions of the earth. This latter branch of Science 

 has engaged the energies of many powerful minds, from the days of 

 Linneus to our own times. 



VOL. XX. 2 U 



