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idea, but of tbe way be has set to work we have evidence enough, and the 
result is not at all satisfactory. The author resembles an indiscreet cook, 
who has so filled her pudding with raisins that it is simply nauseating. 
Mr. Lesley has been so anxious to accumulate the bricks and mortar of the 
structure he has attempted to raise, that he has had no time to exercise the 
architect’s skill in putting them properly together. Abandoning metaphor, 
we may say of his book, that it is so overloaded with facts, that it looks more 
like a combination of Brewer’s “ Guide to Science ” and Mangnall’s ‘‘ Ques- 
tions,” than a rational scientific treatise, in which facts are simply brought 
in to illustrate theories or support generalisations. Of cuttings we have a 
multitude, but they only pei-plex the reader ; for no sooner has the author 
given a quotation than he flies away from it at a tangent, and gives us his 
own general opinions upon the matter — these being, we must add, quite 
irrespective of the facts — a sort of independent opposition ” which must have 
been highly gTatifying to Mr. Lesley, but which he has no reason to be 
proud of. The author appears to have had for his chief object the exhibition 
of his own knowledge ; and in this he has been very successful, so far as, say, 
half-a-dozen standard text-books can give a man erudition. Beyond this, 
we have nothing but flippant commentary, shallowest of the shallow. The 
following list of the branches of science mutilated gives a notion of Mr. 
Lesley’s comprehensive mind : — The classification of the sciences ; the genius 
of the physical sciences, ancient and modern ; the geological antiquity of 
man j on the dignity of mankind ; on the unity of mankind ; on the early 
social life of man language as a test of race ; the origin of architecture j 
the growth of the alphabet ; the four types of religious worship : on Arkite 
symbolism j appendix. To the educated, this book is about the most unin- 
teresting general essay ever published. To the ignorant, it will gratify the 
author by recalling the old lines — 
And still they gazed. 
And still the wonder grew. 
How one small head could carry all he knew.” 
ELEMENTARY MINERALOGY.* 
W EALE’S series — of which this book is the expansion of an old edition — 
are excellent manuals for the working student. Of this fact we 
can offer no better illustration than the various volumes included in the 
series known to our readers. We think, however, that in some respects the 
work which Mr. Ramsay has endeavoured to bring up to the present stage 
of scientific knowledge is hardly a representative one. We by no means 
wish it to be understood that the book is not a very good mineralogical 
manual, but we do not hesitate to say that it might have been considerably 
improved. Mr. Ramsay has certainly made ‘‘ an effort ” to give a scientific 
* “ The Rudiments of Mineralogy, a concise view of the General Proper- 
ties of Minerals.” By Alexander Ramsay, iun. London : Virtue & Co. 
1868. 
