extinguished limes and tilings are interpolated with the most fleeting accidents of our own,—in the same
s|)irit as ignorant Monkery painted on its missal the Jewish virgin in the liabit of a nun, and the
disciples shaven and hooded like itself. So critical a dilemma must plead for my temerity, and I trust
my reader will believe that I should be the very fii-st to forego for better distinctions the poor credit of my
own, wliich I will, nevertheless, vindicate until such be substantiated.
Further, I beg tlie reader to bear in mind tliat I am no adept author ; confined, like the Abyssinian
prince, to a world of my own making—for I have enjoyed neither the privilege of a Mentor nor leisure
necessary to the acquirement of mucli worldly wisdom, being engaged from my earliest years in tlie
gratification of an inordinate acquisitive organ which understands no motive but curiosity—I speak only
the language of the lieart. It will offend a fastidious taste; it may even militate against some of the
conventional fonns wliicii the literary world has agreed to respect, but it bears the impress of truth and
be that the honourable badge of my first solicitude—my sacred care. I make no apologies by way of
mask, no more professions than I fulfil;—that my explanations extenuate such médiocre as may chance
in my pages I am excuseably solicitous, that I acquire the good opinion of my reader, anxious ; these are
the simple aspirations of my ambition, and the latter the only honour that I covet for reward.
01(1 Burlin|ton Street, St. Jame$’3.
SECOND EDITION.
TO THE READER.
■' The iroD hand of destiny branded our fate upon our forelicad long ere we could
form a wish, or raise a finger in our own belialf."—Sm W a lte r Scott.
Tuere are two great systems of things—the finite, and infinite—the natural and spiritual; our
faculties of them arc sickly—of matter and of mind our perce|3tion is dim and siiadowy. But some of our
wondrous race are strangely gifted—some the pioneers, some tlie avant-garde of tlieir generation, to
whose tramp echo the vasty realms of body and soul, to whose inquisition ineffable JAH is the sole
exception. But mankind listen with envious incredulity to the story of their toils, the precious
consequences of wliich their children's children are the first to enjoy; and waves Die lanky grass a long
long while over their grave ere the revolving ages consecrate their mighty manes. These are the lights
which shed immortal beams athwart the dark and troubled waters of time—the pilot-stars of tlie
myriad beings which track that faithless deep on their journey to eternity—some beacons of hope, joy
and everlasting consolation, others fascinating harbingers of woe and endless despair.
Enthusiasm is one species of inspiration, which advantaged by accident and imperturbable decision
of character, has effected for me liie enormous aggregation of fossil organic remains tiiat I boast of. Let
me treat tlie important facts witli the sanie complacency as though tlicy were the birtli-lmrn heritage and
honourable achievement of another person : I hate tlie liypocritical self-condemnatory whine, tlien let me
in the spirit of modest but valiant trutli acknowledge the animus of the Latin bard and challenge his
'• Exegi raonumcntum tore percnnius,
R^aliquc situ pyraraiduin allius;
Quod non iinber edax, non Aquilo impotcns,
Possit (liruere, aut innumorabilis
Annorum series, et fuga temporum."—
And let tliis volume—the epitome of the splendid sauri transferred from my cabinets and care to the
keeping of our Country—testify to future times to that single-heartedness with which I began and
accomplished the labour, and consecrated the fruits thereof, an humble offering, to the Throne of GOD.
I seize then tiie opportunity of a second edition to publish more explicit views of geological science,
which is so often perverted to unholy uses and made the instrument of moral deatli.
But I must preface them with the result of my last six months oryctological experience—experience
that enables me to acquit myself of all the self-imposed duties of the liistorian, and to write “ Fixis" to
my book.
And, first, the tail of Ichthyosauri terminates in a mathematical point^a truth which I conjectured
but could not before asseverate. Hence, the Chiropolyostinus, of plate 7, is not, as I had flattered myself
a perfect skeleton—twenty or more caudal vertobrm, in all probability, being lost.
o r Plesiosauri I have only to observe, whicli I do witli great pleasure, that the major portion of the
individual known to my readere as yet only by the giant bones drawn in plate 26 lias been discovered
by me.