CHAPTER II.
THE SPECIES OF THE
ICHTHYOSAURIAN GENUS.
How well adapted to his airy sphere the feathery bird!—how admirably fitted to its element the
fish!—and the beast of the field—! Bird, fish and brute, alike content in the peculiar modes of being,
display in their endless variation of form, the operations of nature in so illimitable a degree, that one
unbounded sentiment of amaze and pleasure overpowers the soul, and we are lost in adoration of the
unsearchable wisdom that designed and created them.
When we survey the countless families of living things; the unwieldy monsters of the Polar Seas,
the ferocious quadruped and terrible serpent of tlic Lybian deserts, the vampyre in search of his
murderous repast, and the gaudy butterfly—native of the same Asian clime; terror and delight possess
us and we revel with the excited imagination. There is “ another glory of the sun and of the moon
and of the stars;” of the doings in the clouds—thunder, lightning and tempest;—All inspire some
joy-giving chord of the human breast, and lead us to the contemplation of
■' HIM who inhabits eternity,—sitteth upon the circle of the heavens and rides upon the wings of the wind."
Oh the powers of the understanding, which dwells a t tlie same moment with equal intensity upon an
insect and a world ! That considers the universe—^worlds upon worlds—until, attempting infinity, its
wings failing like those of Icarus, it drowns in the vasty deep of its own comparative nothingness.
Tlien the chastened soul seeks her accustomed channels and pensively attempts objects
calculated
to confound he r; then the mind’s mood
it to enquire after more particular things, and to find
out the circumstances wliich belong to them.
This is proven in tlio history of the sciences;—some lone shepiierd, pondering the firmament on
the moon-lit banks of the Euphrates, first amused liiniself by associating the stars with tlie several
constellations,—the fruits of his fertile ideas. Upon this slender frame-work successive ages erected
their several experience, derived from a more attentive investigation of the celestial hemisphere, when
in the lapse of time, a Gallileo, and then a Newton, appears, by whose divinely instructed labours light
springs to life, and we learn the language of the heavenly liosts.
How well does the Celtic Scalder tell of the “ limes of old, the deeds of days of other years,”
■, “ • z*"“»”'. B„„, hill, „ p„ . a , a i„ „„I ■
u^ght. Wliea b.ais. ore removed to tlieir place, rvlieii harps are Imog in Selroa's hall, then comes a voice to Ossian
...d „ a k e . hi. .0.11 It i. the vole, ol that are goe.l The, roll bel.r. me r.lth all their d.td. ! I aei.e the
tales as they pass, and pour tliem forth in song."—
-------------“ they seem dim to Ossian’s eyes like reflected moon-heams on a distant lake. Hero rise the red
beams of war 1 There silent dwells a feeble race."
“ Stones with heads of moss are there; a stream with foaming course; and dreadful is the dark-red
cloud of Loda."
The spirit ofmusic which Strung thy harp, O “ thou breeze of the valley, huntress of Lutha,” yet lives
m the story that accompanied i t ; we hear “ the squally winds around thee from all their echoing hills
and shudder as warriors fall like the thistle-head beneath autumnal winds,"
These lines—how glowing—luxuriant—and natural. Place the works of
them, — compare those of a Byron with them, and who
verses than his. Hence we lament him as though he
Dur modern bards by
conceive more polished and refined
the last of the gifted race.
II. Who could have believed tliat sublime song and the great science of astronomy should have
associated themselves so intimately with geology, wliich a century s
welcomed to academic shades. Divine poetry lia
,s unheard of and is but just
orded, with a majesty becoming the subject, that
" In the hegihhiog GOD eemted the h . . . . . . end the e.eth, which we. .ill,cut torn ,.d , d .,k.e..
upon the face of the waler., GOD mid. Let there he light end there . . . light."
There anti the nniabers which follow in tho Book of Gene.te, reve.l tho epochs of creativo power, and
ate soffieieot of themrelves alone to inimortoliee 'ihe Hobrew seer. So tite “ sweet sin je r of Israel," in
reforonoe to the delogc, nod the gtiiltj antediluvians which it swept from the lace of the earth they
rtnlliTtoA .__ •'
The LORD thundered freni heuv.u, end the MOST HIGH uttered HI. voice. And He ..n . nut .rruw. .nd
.« ...red thenw hgh.nlug. ..d di.eon.Hwd them. And the elt.uuel. .1 the ,e . uppeer.d, the fouudu.iou. et the
re discovered, at the rebuking of the world w LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils."
Aslronom,, wooed b , the Babylonian magi upon tho dissj summit of tho tower attorw.rds dedioatod
to B e l ,-b j tho hioroph.nt of tho Land of Ham In his mystic cavern, and tho remoto sages of Continental
Ind,a and Ohina;-le.ads us back through immcnao eyclcs-through tho silent revolutions around tho
ftrdlod skies of this muodano o rb -an d pointing to the imperishable memorials of tho past consigned to
■ts trust, leaves us to study the glorious language of which they are the roots. They are few and
mutilated, and geology is yet too young to explain them.
Ill, The oxteosive empire she sway, is „„t only ilkl.Sned bet badly govoraed. Every ioci, of her
terr.lor, ,s contested, and the wordy-w-a, wl.ioh rages atouod her person serves to mystify her oracles
and lessen he, authority. Few of the principles of her govorment have been professed, still fewer are '
undevstoed. Even the analogies between by-gono and present causes are dispoted,-we hear olTects
atlr,bated by some to fire, by o,iters to water, and it but now happen, that . „ e a . is advocated and
mstsled upon. Let oor geologm.l oreotl, therefore, be limited to the in.troetions and guid.oco of
sacred instoct and those tredition. whieh, in their uncurbed range, bave mot with no oppenent
..v e the superficial sceptic, to whose cavils they daig. „„ reply: these-^of summit fa, beyond
mortal kan, htgh above tho highest qa a rr, of the haughtiest of Adam’s soos-reposo i„ immutable
tuth rere-reeted, and agree m eonce.Iing the period of the birth of timo:-the iotorval between it and
the oxh,b,t,o„ ol there laws which govern matler, or render it sohtient.
Nor do »-. attach more importaneo to the muoh-dobated questions conootniog spont.n.ou.
goh.rat.Oh, monads, stocks_o„e or more „1 a k i.d .^ h u , h,k, it for granted that there are types in ,h .