that their knowledge of them descended to the post-diluvians —witness the assertions of Moses,
Herodotus and all olden writere, wliose worlcs survive to our time,—that within the first ten centuries which
succeeded the all but universal destruction of man by the Hood, were achieved some of the sublimest
eiTorts recorded by history—Babel, Pyramid and a hundred nameless cities now whelmed by the sand of
the desert Afric,—that when Alexander diverted, by his astonishing conquests and by his liberal patronage
of learning, the lore of India and Pereia from the profundities of the Bi-arainical and Pcrseeian polity
into a Grecian clianucl, much apocbryphal matter, gendered by tliat subtle and vain nation, was
amalgamated therewith, and, finally, upon the subjection of Greece by the Romans and the reception in
tlic fourtli century by tlie latter—with the doctrines of Jesus Christ—of the ancient Vedas or Scriptures
of the Hebrews, tliat the Gnostic heresy, having accomplished the ruin of all the other Asiatico-European
bastai-cl progeny, fell—the last crowned horror of long-since forgotten blasphemies—and with it the
concomitants necessary to the evolution of another of that species. For then began the manifestation of a
principle which—in the hands of the Roman and Byzantine pontiffs-was destined to enslave Europe many
a century: which should reduce all men, save the crafty priest, to impotence and such utter imbecility that
notliing sliort of miracle could cflect his redemption. And when the first dawn came upon that hovi id
moral darkness, ages elapsed ere man could assure himself that he was verily safe—during wliicli he was
effectually prevented from a consideration of the move abstract circumstances that it concerned him to
know. But France, tlic pioneer in every thing intellectual, fated to the distinction of mind, of which slic
brings forth llic earliest blossom but the latest and most unsound fruit—less fortunate than England in
her struggles for liberty,—dared to anticipate the terrors both of the Romish dominion, that incarnate
Antichrist, lier arcli-foe, and the judgment of heaven, by forswearing the state religion of the former and
the divine revelation of the latter, by whicli alone man can hope to succeed to that biessed inheritance
of his, the title to which his father Adam forfeited both for himself and heirs. Then, Voltaire, archapostate,
was no less tlic spokesman of general France when he ignorantly pretended that the siiells
found upon the Apennines, and erroneously attributed by the zealots of the day to the deluge, were
dropped there by the million pilgrims that liad journeyed to the golden slirines of “ tlie Eternal City”—
than when he scoffed at the name of God and with the malice of Satan himself called HIM " wretch.”
And when the terrible revolution smote that unhappy nation with anarchy and deluged it with the blood
of her tutelary deities, the higli and the best-born, the fierce demons that governed the storm, Marat and
Robespiere, Danton and St. Just, were but the familiars of those Titan rebels that sought the destruction
of the altar, well knowing that that of the throne must follow their impious success as an inevitable
consequence: they acquired just so much of the venom of (he latter as added to their natural ferocity
sufficed to constitute them the most enormous criminals that ever disgraced and afflicted tlie earth by their
accursed sight, while, the Macchiavals, the real master-demons, chewing in their closets the fatal apple
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil wiiich had already cost so much, defied God and man at their
leisure and escaped the, oh how well merited I execrations heaped upon their wretclied instruments. And
Franco once so redolent of heaven hath been Pandemonian ever since, and to this tremendous declension—
the Catholic Priesthootl by theii' wicked and Jesuitical arts and superstitious cheats unconsciously
affortling them opportunity—her philosophers heralded her. And one of their most potent artifices,
wherewith she was and still is blinded to the truth, was drawn from the appearances of this planet, wliicli
were impudently said to cliallenge the veracity of Sacred Writ; and lo! France has no Samson to
lift up the standard of truth and to proclaim that she hath believed in a lie. Britain—less confiding than
France, and considering the signs of the times wisely so—paused when wild tales militant against the
faith were rehearsed in her private ear by the apostles of infidelity, who came from the Continent flushed
with tlie success that had there attended them. Tlic national genius, essentially suspicious, heard, but
refused consent until demonstration should be brought to the assistance of theories which, if incautiously
admitted, might lead to irremediable consequences—tliosc in fact wliich did befall France, and whicli now
imminently threaten Germany also. And then began a few of our pliilosoplicrs to address themselves to
lliis subject, but, as might have been expected from the novelty of tlie pursuit, their conceptions of tlio
science were crude and disorderly. At length, half a century liaving been thus occupied, it was agreed
to found a society, the sole object of which to be the accumulation of geological fact, divested of all
hypothesis and self-dependant. This society, the parent of many similar ones founded in several of the
provinces, owes its origin to the exertions of some half-dozen persons and to liis late Majesty, and may,
yet, redeem tlie cause of sound principle and assist in the triumph of pure religion. Its income—I speak
of the Geological Society of London—its income very considerable and still increasing, its officers
1 of liigli station in tlie social and literary world, and with tlie good wishes—nay. the
;eof government, what should hinder its usefulness? Its “ Transactions"—the records of its
labours—published to the world and the liigh example of its members, must have a salutary effect, and
wlien the time arrives for the summing up of the great evidences that it lias gathered together, if faitliful
to its purpose the whole world will abide the issue in silent expectation.
Tliis Society was the remote cause of tlie book I now commend to my reader’s indulgence, and since
I am by no means sanguine of his praise I must acquaint him witli llie disadvantages under which it was
written, that if it should unfortunately incur his censure, lie may linow how to ijualify it at the least if not
to forego its expression altogether. The Collection of which it treats—of tlio ctiief specimens of which
my plates are well descriptive—weighs more than twenty tons, occupies a superficies of two hundred
feet by twenty, and, in pretension of every sort, transcends all the collections in the world. The suspicion
of egotism is contemptible—the reader will understand me when I tell him that the siglit of about a
tenth part of this Collection, which I brought to London two years ago, surprised and delighted so much
the most distinguished geologists of our time ttiat I was encouraged to liumour my oryctological hobby
until it secured me, the most valuable aggregation of fossil o i^ n ic remains extant. This stupendous
treasure was gatheied by me from every part of England; arranged, and its multitudinous features
elaborated from the hard limestone by my own hands. A tyre in collecting a t twelve years of age, I then
boasted of all the antiques that were come-at-able in my neighbourhood, but finding tliat every body beat
my cabinet of coins and pottery I addressed myself lo worai-eaten book.s and at last to fossils. And
such was the intensity of my pursuit of tliem and such the carelessness of my natural guardians in respect
to my education, that iny ardour and a liberal allowance of money secured me a veiy line collection before
I numbered twenty summers and wintcre, when I came into possession of my father's household-gods, to
which I was a stranger until his demise. From that time to the present my inclinations, following the
same channel, have carried me from one mental pleasure and duty to another in such rapid succession
that I liave had scarce time to tliink much less to study. Therefore, the volume now before tlie reader
has but modest claim,—indeed, the title anticipates it—memoir signifying a familiar exposition of one’s
own ideas in a latitudinarian degree,—and is sufficiently descriptive of the thing proposed—tlie
assemblage of facts relative to Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri, merely. To tliis end 1 liad but to study
their remains as an anatomist, and, if I may boast, that branch of science has not been neglected by me,
and to watch vigilantly the progress of ray plates, which are, after all that is said, the best interpreters of
the original matter, if carefully examined. But the determination of the most remarkable individual
difference, by which the species should be known, devolved upon me—a serious responsibility as tlie
genera liad their liistorians ; but having ascertained tlieir consent to my views upon the subject, for
Messrs, Conybeare and De la Beche published their's daring the infancy of our acquaintance with these
extraordinary creatures, I at once refevied it to the extremities.
Naturalists wonder, if tliey bear not in mind the peculiar difficulties tliat encounter tlie sauriologist
when lie grapples subjects of this kind. The object—excessively rare—comes before him divested of tlie
properties of living animals; he sees but the osseous relics of beings that, without analogue in the present
creation, set all common methods of reason at defiance and leave him no choice but the exercise of opinion
or its abnegation. Now, mark the consequences of tlie latter postulate; the question sent a-begging returns
with a Babel of answers and is consigned with the good and bad company it has picked up to oblivion,
while the mover of it, tacking the name of one of his friends to ttie generic appellation lays the flattering
unction to his own and another's soul at tlie same moment tliat lie betrays science. Thus, tlie records of