THE GEOLOGIST. 
OCTOBER 1862. 
LIKES AND DISLIKES. 
We are told that Lord Chatham *once excused himself for not pay- 
ing due attention to the speech of a political rival by saying, that he 
felt that man was responsible to the Creator that his time should not 
be wasted by hearing discourses which neither conveyed profit or 
amusement to the hearer, nor honour and dignity to the speaker. 
"We were reminded forcibly of this anecdote by reading in our es- 
teemed contemporary the ' Parthenon,' a few weeks ago, a paper en- 
titled " Likes and Similitudes," — a title very like that of an Adelphi 
farce. 
It has been observed by metaphysical writers, that every object in 
the world must be either like or iinliTce some other object, and con- 
sequently, there can be no difficulty in instituting either a comparison 
or a contrast between any two things. Tor those readers then, who, 
like the zoologists ridiculed by Eorbes, have a vivid perception of 
analogy, but not of affinity, as well as for that far more numerous 
class who can but perceive differences, without being able to decide 
whether they are dependent upon analogy or affinity, the perusal of 
" Likes and Similitudes" will afford insipid and innutritive mental re- 
past, akin in nature to that which regales poetic minds entranced 
over the pages of the ' Sentiment of Elowers ' or ' The Language of 
Plants.' 
There may be writers who might find a congenial banquet in an 
account of the gambols of a malevolent monkey, or in the descriptions 
of the frauds practised on some of those bygone geologists whose works, 
VOL. V. 3 A 
