REVIEWS. 



357 



more elementary substances, from wliicli it is formed by the laws of cbe- 

 mical combination as yet unknown ; and that tliorc is no reason wliy lead 

 and zinc may not be at the present time in course of deposition wherever 

 the conditions are favourable. In the Tyne bottom mines there is reason 

 to suppose that the lead-ore lias been deposited on the flats at a compara- 

 tively recent period, and long posterior to the glacial epoch. Such is 

 a summary of the principal features of Mr. Wallace's book, — a work cha- 

 racterized by great pains and careful attention, and which we can but 

 think must prove highly useful to those engaged in this special class of in- 

 quiries. 



0)1 the Failure of Geological Attempts in Greece, prior to the Epoch of 

 Alexander. By Julius Schvarcz, Ph.D., F. G. S., Corr. Mem. Elhn. 

 Soc., etc. etc. 4to. London : Taylor and Francis. 1862. 



In the ' Geologist ' for March, 1862, we had the pleasure to call the at- 

 tention of our readers to some works on Geology and Ethnology which 

 had been published by Dr. Schvarcz in the Hungarian and Greek lan- 

 guages. These works, translated into the English language with a mental 

 force and vigour which almost makes our geologists and biologists blush 

 for their laurels, naturally attracted much attention and admiration, which 

 was heightened when the author, two months ago, appeared personally 

 before an English public to contribute his reflections on the progress 

 which Geology and Ethnology had made in classical times, prior to the 

 development of that school of biological thought, which was sanctioned 

 by the auspices of Alexander, and promoted by the researches of the 

 Stagirite. 



Such considerations as these, though condemned by the healthy English 

 mind of John Hunter,* have led Dr. Schvarcz to succeed in proving that 

 many of the beliefs of the early Greeks rested rather on a vague Icnow- 

 ledge of geological facts than on any subjective excoofitations, working 

 within and by the consciousness of Greek thought. The eternity, or at 

 least the long continuance of the Ibea, that other races pre-existed to the 

 historical self-styled autochlhoues of Hellas, is proved by Dr. Schvarcz's 

 facts. The withering rebuke which he gives to the school of thinkers who 

 are self-styled "practical men" — notoriously the most unpractical and the 

 most impracticable with which a thinker can deal — we°transcribe verhai'mi. 

 The philosophers of the Socratic school certainly make a sorry figure when 

 limned by Dr. Schvarcz, who has painted them in the darkest colours. 

 The true spirit of a conscientious biological positive philosopher is however 

 displayed by him, in the subjoined eloquent passage : — 



" Men are to he met with in our own days whose menial structure excla- 

 siveli/ fits them to observe from moral points ofvieiv, — men lolio are uncthle 

 to rejoice at cosmical or metaphysical acquirements — ivho ask, pace for 

 pace in their learned deliberation, for an apj)lication to p)ractical ad van- 

 tafie. To speak toith men of this description upon scientific matters would 



* " People who stand up for autiqiiity, and want to carry all knowledge as far back 

 as the first teachers, which knowledge really docs not belong to them, instead of raising 

 their character ratlnir injure it. . . . If the ancients really understood any piece of know- 

 ledge that we look upon as modern, and if tlu ii* account be really so dark and imperfect 

 that there is no uudc rslandiug them without previously undcrstandiisg the subject, it 

 shows that they were nuicli more stupid in not transmitting to us intelligibly what they 

 knew, than if they had not understood the subject at all." — Hunter, J., ' Essays and 

 Observations on Natural History,' edited bv 11. Owen, 8vo, 2 vols., Loudon, ISGl, 



vol. i, p. 



