546 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



passed away with the individual, but those of his labours associated with the 

 human passions or sympathies, often endure for ages ; thus the book outlives its 

 author, and becomes a necessity to even successive generations. In geological 

 science, Dr. Buckland was one of the earliest and brightest stars ; no msm an- 

 swered more truly iu his particular vocation to the calls of his age than he ; but 

 the phases of geological progress with which he has been so worthily associated 

 have passed away, and it is by the one work under notice that the link with pos- 

 terity by his authorship and scientific efforts will be pre-eminently perpetuated. 



Imbibina:, as he naturally did, the *' diluvial " doctrines of an older stage of the 

 science, ajid supporting them by au elaborate volume, conspicuous for its leai-ning 

 and research, he had the moral boldness and honesty, upon maturer conviction, to 

 demolish the hypothesis he had supported, and to aid in propagating, if he indeed 

 did not really originate, those opposite views which are now universally accepted. It 

 is not, however, in this brief notice that we have to do with the man, nor his 

 general labours, but it is with a special book, written and adapted to a special pur- 

 pose—the reconciliation of the Scriptural account of the creation of the earth 

 v^'ith its geological liistory. This beautiful work — for beautiful it is, both in its 

 composition, its diction, and its illustrations, as well as in its theme and design — 

 caused at the time of its appearance a great sensation, and it still remains the 

 most valuable popular disquisition upon fossils in the English or any other lan- 

 suaiye, Ivi edifications, amounting to little or no more than a few foot-notes, by 

 three of the most eminent of modern naturalists, only have been made to this 

 posthumous edition of the Bridgewater Treatise on Geology and Mineralogy, and 

 yet the work is not behind any of the numerous others of its class and subject 

 which have been produced in the interim between its first appearance and its 

 third ; and some of those have been from no inferior pens. 



One new feature appears in the present publication as an addition to the original 

 series of excellent plates — a representation of the restored forms of extinct saurians, 

 by Mr. AVaterhouse Hawkins. 



However imperfect such attempts might be, it would be a worthy effort of the 

 human mind to clothe anew with fleshly form the age-'dry and stony bones of those 

 extinct beings which have passed, like the visionary pictures of a dream, away, im- 

 measurable ages before the first footstep of man pressed down the grassy pile of 

 Eden's verdant carpet. Mr. Hawkins' pictures of these great beasts of the geologic 

 eras have a life-like look, and an appearance of reality beyond the artistic skill 

 displayed in their composition ; and we willingly render our tribute of praise and 

 thanks for his efforts in this direction, whether in regard to his lithographic 

 pictures, his great models at the Crystal Palace, or those smaller statuettes which, 

 from our mantel-pieces, familiarise our eyes with those extraordinary life-forms 

 of primeval days. 



Of the original book, we joined in praise with thousands of other readers, and 

 of the present we would add that it has the additional advantage of an elaborate 

 biography of its author from the hand of his son, the pleasure of reading which is 

 enhanced by traces of filial affection, while of its truthfulness we are assured both 

 by its style and the certainty of the intimate sources from which the writer has 

 derived his materials, but the length of which we think might have been advantage- 

 ously curtailed. 



Many, indeed, we hope, will be successive editions of this memorable treatise, 

 and the more numerous the readers, the more numerous will be those who Avill 

 feel the noble sentiment and truth of its concluding passage, and will close its 

 pagps with the sincere conviction that " The earth, from her deep foundations, 

 unites wiih the celestial orbs that roll through boundless space, to declare the 

 glory and show forth the praise of their common Author and Preserver; and the 

 voice of natural religion accords harmoniously with the testimonies of revelation 

 in ascribing the origin of the universe to the will of one eternal and dominent In- 

 telligence, the Almighty Lord and Supi^eme First Cause of all things that subsist, 

 ' the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, ' ' before the mountains were brought; 

 forth, or even the oartli or the Avorld were made, Grod from everlasting, and world 

 without end.' " 



