REYIETVS. 
357 
more elementary substances, from which it is formed by the laws of che- 
mical combination as yet unknown ; and that there is no reason why 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 has 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. 
On tlie Failure of Geological Attempts in Greece, prior to the Epoch of 
Alexander. By Julius Schvarcz, Ph.D., F. G. S., Corr. Mem. Ethn. 
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 satictioned 
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 know- 
ledge of geological facts than on any subjective excogitations, working 
within and by the consciousness of Greek thought. The eternity, or at 
least the long continuance of the i8ea, that other races pre-existed to the 
historical self-styled autochthones of Hellas, is proved by Dr. Schvarcz's 
facts. The withering rebuke which he gives to the school of thinkers wlio 
are self-styled "practical men" — notoriously the most unpractical and the 
most impracticable with which a thinker can deal — we^trauscribe i^erhatlm. 
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 mental structure exclu- 
sively jits them to observe from moral points of view, — men who are unahle 
to rejoice at cosmical or metaphysical acquirements — who ask, pace for 
pace in their learned deliberation, for an application to practical advan- 
tage. To speak tvith men of this description upon scientific matters would 
* " People who stand up for antiquity, and want to carry all knowledge as far back 
as the first teachers, which knowledge really does not belong to thein, instead of raising 
their character rather injure it. ... If the aucients really understood any piece of know- 
ledge that we look upon as modern, and if their account be really so dark and imperfect 
that there is no understanding them without previously understanding the subject, it 
shows that they were much 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 by R. Owen, 8vo, 2 vols., London, 1861, 
vol. i. p. 369. 
