176 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
pageant, a still higher order of privilege is vouchsafed to us. 
We have only to light the torch of philosophy, to seize the clue 
of induction, and, like the Prophet Ezekiel in the vision, to pro- 
ceed into the valley of death, when the graves open before us 
and render forth their contents ; the dry and fragmented bones 
run together, each bone to his bone ; the sinews are laid over, 
the flesh is brought on, the skin covers all, and the past existence 
— io the minds eye — starts again into being, decked out in all the 
lineaments of life. ‘ He who calls that which hath vanished 
back again into being, enjoys a bliss like that of creating.’ Such 
were the words of the philosophical Niebuhr, when attempting 
to fill up the blanks in the fragmentary records of the ancient 
Romans, whose period in relation to past time dates but as of 
yesterday. How much more highly privileged, then, are we, who 
can recall, as it were, the beings of countless remote ages, when 
man was not yet dreamed of! not only this, but if we use 
discreetly the lights which have been given to us, we may invoke 
the spirit of the winds, and learn how they were tempered to suit 
the natures of these extinct beings.” 
