SPECIAL INTEREST. 
217 
eras of the earthy we find them hung around 
with the furniture of their former inhabi¬ 
tants. As in the one case we tiace the 
handywork of the Roman artist, so do we 
the workmanship of God in the other; if 
we yield our admiration to the artistic taste 
and power exhibited on the walls of the 
disentombed city, shall we not much more 
render praise to the infinite skill displayed 
in the buried organizations of the ancient 
earth. 
But if amidst the ashes of Pompeii we 
could discover some work which proved 
that we of this distant place and time were 
the objects of the care, and forethought, 
and anxieties, of the good and great of that 
city;—that the designs which they formed 
and executed, had especial reference to the 
supply of our wants, and the gratification 
of our feelings ;—then we should entertain 
for them higher sentiments than mere ad¬ 
miration ; and gratitude would unite with 
curiosity in impelling our researches amidst 
the stores of former benevolence. 
Such a claim has fossil botany on our re¬ 
gards, for it tells us that man was the object 
X 5 
