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contributed the most largely to his additions. The cabinets of the two friends and brother-collectors last named, Professor Agassiz describes as being so rich in the number of species, that there are no continental collections except those of Count Munster and of the Paris Museum to compete with theirs. But our limits will not permit us to continue a catalogue containing the names of almost every British collector,-for not a contributor's name is omitted in the Rapport' of the Professor,-who, however, we suspect will hardly pardon us if we omit la jolie collection de Madame Murchison,' which, among other treasures, boasts of une tête de sauroïde de lias encore indéterminée. All seem to have been animated with the same spirit; and it is far from unpleasant to witness the gratitude which Professor Agassiz manifests for the attentions shown to him, after the too many opposite returns which foreigners have made to John Bull in requital of his open-hearted liberality.

But what was to be done with the enormous influx of new materials poured in upon our author from the British collections? The question was answered by the Geological Society of London, that band of hard-working brothers, always ready to assist a worthy fellow-labourer. And here we must let Dr. Agassiz speak for himself:

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'La Société Géologique de Londres est une de ces institutions qui, organisée sur les bases les plus libérales, favorise de son influence tout ce qui peut contribuer, même indirectement, aux progrès de la science. Je dois en particulier aux vues larges et généreuses du Président et des membres du conseil de cette Société, d'avoir pu faire à Londres un travail qui, sans l'appui et l'autorisation d'une association aussi considérée, serait devenu impossible, et qui même n'a point d'antécédent dans l'histoire des sciences naturelles. Trouvant épars dans tous les musées des trois royaumes une quantité prodigieuse de documens nouveaux et importans pour mon ouvrage, j'étais embarrassé sur la manière d'en tirer le meilleur parti; il me paraissait surtout presque impossible de faire dessiner, dans les petites villes ou dans les parcs isolés, les pièces les plus importantes que j'y trouvais, assez bien pour pouvoir les reproduire dans les planches de mes Recherches. Mais telle est la libéralité des savans Anglais, que tous ceux dont j'ai examiné les collections, même les directeurs de tous les musées publics que j'ai visités (j'ai examiné en tout 63 collections), ont consenti à me laisser emporter tous les exemplaires qui me paraissaient pouvoir jeter quelque nouveau jour sur les poissons fossiles. A la demande de M. le Professeur Buckland, M. Greenough, maintenant Président de la Société Géologique, et MM. Sedgwick, Murchison, et Lyell, m'ont en outre procuré l'assentiment de la Société pour déposer tous ces trésors dans un appartement de Somerset House. Là, M. Lonsdale, conservateur des collections de la Société, m'a aidé à ranger les 2000 exemplaires de poissons fossiles que je rapportais, et que

j'avais

j'avais choisis, sur environ 5000 pièces, en parcourant l'Angleterre et une partie de l'Ecosse et de l'Irlande. Une pareille faveur est inestimable, surtout quand on pense à la difficulté qu'il y a de transporter des objets aussi fragiles, et dont la perte serait irréparable.'

The great work is now proceeding rapidly; five livraisons have been published with the approbation of all scientific Europe; and indeed the illustrations, principally produced by the skilful artist above named, leave nothing to be desired. The figures absolutely appear to stand out from the paper; and to the pictorial effect is joined a fidelity so accurate that the most minute scale or tooth is represented. But it may be naturally inquired─Here is a married man, only twenty-eight years of age, with an income amounting in all to about 150l. a year of our money,-how was this costly and magnificent work launched, and how is it carried on? Dr. Agassiz, we reply, prior to his appointment as professor at Neuchâtel, sold to that town the whole of his collections for 300l. The King of Prussia gave, by the advice of Humboldt, to whom the book is dedicated, 200l. Nor should we be surprised if this same government, careful as it has shown itself of the education of its youth and the spread of science among its people, should again come forward to enable Professor Agassiz to continue a work which, in consequence of an increased development, requires so many more plates than the subscription can possibly pay it gives largely in aid of Professor Goldfuss's excellent publications at Bonn.

We are not of those who are in raptures with the British Association for the advancement of Science.' It delights in greater display than becomes the modesty of philosophers; nor do we think that their mutual bepraisings-their amoebæan eulogies-are at all likely to add to their dignity. Wherever they go Earth no such folks, no folks have such a town;' and we cannot view with feelings of complacency our scientific Sampsons led forth to make sport on its festivals, even though the exhibition should be hallowed by a few sprinklings from the fountain of honour distributed through the spout of Ireland's Viceroy.'

While, however, we do not conceal our opinion of its faults, we must not be blind to its merits; and we were sorry to see that certain hectic symptoms made their appearance in the last autumn, indicative of anything but soundness of constitution-more especially as the Association has twice voted one hundred guineas for the encouragement of works on fossil fishes executed in England. A committee composed of Dr. Buckland, Professor Sedgwick, and Mr. Murchison decided-in our opinion most wisely-that the greater portion of the sum should be applied to drawings of the new species which Professor Agassiz is about to describe; and

we

we sincerely hope that the scientific public of England will, by many additional subscriptions, aid the great object on which such authority has set the seal of approbation.

He who enters upon a work of this kind must, like the prince in the Arabian tale, go forward at all hazards, unmindful of the warning voices that call upon him to relinquish his object-if he turns back he is lost. Nor are we ashamed to own that we feel a little of the mother within us, when we picture to ourselves the overshadowing of those bitter moments that make the heart fail, even where the stalk of carle hemp is strong in the man. Then it is that the unconquerable bar '—the frail tenure on which we hold our mortal being-the gush of feeling for the uxor optime and the dulces nati-arise like evil spirits to add horror to the dark hour of genius.

ART. VII.-The Original. By Thomas Walker, M.A., Cambridge; Barrister-at-Law, and one of the Police Magistrates of the Metropolis. Vol. I. (Originally published in Weekly Numbers.) 8vo. London.

1835.

WHEN the well-known line

'Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free,'

was repeated in Dr. Johnson's hearing, he endeavoured to throw ridicule on the sentiment by a parody

'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat;'

but, with all due deference to the Ursa Major of criticism, we cannot help thinking that a man's exposition or representation of a character may derive both truth and vividness from its resemblance to his own. Does any one, for example, believe that Mr. De Quincey would have expatiated so eloquently on the glories of opium-eating, had he not been himself a veritable Turk in such matters? or that Charles Lamb could ever have indited his 'Confessions of a Drunkard' had he lived all his life as soberly as Madame Pasta* or Sir Andrew Agnew?

From the first announcement of this publication, therefore, our decided opinion was, that it would fail unless The Original should prove himself the great sublime he drew; and we were not a little rejoiced to find, as well from the inestimable scraps of autobiography scattered amongst the essays as from other less palpable

The last time Madame Pasta was in England a literary lady of high distinction asked her whether she drank as much porter as usual:- No, mia cara, prendo half-and-half adesso'... Half-and-half is a light summer beverage composed of porter and ale in equal proportions.

indications,

indications, that Mr. Walker is actually and honestly a member of the now almost defunct corporation of humourists, who made the fortune of the dramatists of old-fellows of infinite sense, mirth, surliness, kindliness, cordiality and egotism, with just oddity enough to make them amusing without concealing the sterling goodness of their characters. To enable our readers to judge whether we are right in classifying the present writer amongst these, we shall begin by bringing together a few of the reminiscences he has printed of himself. The following are prefixed, by way of introduction, to a series of papers On the Art of attaining high Health,' which commence with the third Number of the work :

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Some months before I was born, my mother lost a favourite child from illness, owing, as she accused herself, to her own temporary absence; and that circumstance preyed upon her spirits, and affected her health to such a degree, that I was brought into the world in a very weakly and wretched state. It was supposed I could not survive long; and nothing, I believe, but the greatest maternal tenderness and care preserved my life. During childhood I was very frequently and seriously ill, often thought to be dying, and once pronounced to be dead. I was ten years old before it was judged safe to trust me from home at all; and my father's wish to place me at a public school was uniformly opposed by various medical advisers on the ground that it would be my certain destruction. During these years, and for a long time after, I felt no security of my health. At last, one day when I had shut myself up in the country, and was reading with great attention Cicero's treatise" De Oratore," some passage-I quite forget what-suggested to me the expediency of making the improvement of my health my study. I rose from my book, stood bolt upright, and determined to be well. In pursuance of my resolution I tried many extremes, was guilty of many absurdities, and committed many errors, amidst the remonstrances and ridicule of those around me. I persevered, nevertheless, and it is now, I believe, full sixteen years since I have had any medical advice, or taken any medicine, or anything whatever by way of medicine. During that period I have lived constantly in the world-for the last six years in London, without ever being absent during any one whole week-and I have never foregone a single engagement of business or pleasure, or been confined an hour, with the exception of two days in the country from over exertion. For nine years I have worn neither great-coat nor cloak, though I ride and walk at all hours and in all weathers. My dress has been the same in summer and winter, my under garments being single and only of cotton, and I am always light shod. The only inconvenience I suffer is occasionally from colds; but with a little more care I could entirely prevent them; or, if I took the trouble, I could remove the most severe in four-and-twenty hours.'

As it may be instructive and amusing to point out such chance analogies between the thoughts and habits of Mr. Walker and

other

other distinguished individuals as they occur to us, we shall here observe, that the time and manner of his determination to be well strongly resemble Major Longbow's no less strenuous determination on board the steamer, that no human consideration should induce him to be sick; and that, from his power of preventing or rapidly removing colds, we should suppose Mr. Walker related to the Marquis of Snowdon, immortalised by Mr. Hook in Love and Pride,' who scouts, as a reflection on his nobility, the bare supposition that a Plinlimmon could catch cold. But we need not resort to fiction for instances of the exemption obtained by great men, apparently by mere dint of volition, from the ordinary wants and weaknesses of humanity. The Duke of Wellington is said to have been enabled to sustain the extraordinary fatigues of the late war in the Peninsula by the acquired habit of snatching sleep at any period of the day or night indifferently, though another General, whose name has been a good deal before the public, required not merely his regular hours of rest, but the ministering aid of a warming-pan. Physiologists, again, attribute the imperturbable calmness of Prince Talleyrand-of whom Madame Guizot used to say that a kick on the hinder part of his person produced no change whatever in the expression of his face-to his faculty of compelling the due discharge of the most important of the bodily functions at will. We are the more particular in our enumeration of instances, to prepare the reader for the still more startling assertion of personal privilege or exemption which comes next. Our author is describing the results of an abstemious diet:

Indeed I felt a different being, light and vigorous, with all my senses sharpened-I enjoyed an absolute glowing existence. I cannot help mentioning two or three instances in proof of my state, though I dare say they will appear almost ridiculous, but they are nevertheless true. It seems that from the surface of an animal in perfect health there is an active exhalation going on which repels impurity; for when I walked on the dustiest roads, not only my feet, but even my stockings, remained free from dust. By way of experiment I did not wash my face for a week, nor did any one see, nor I feel, the difference?

Yet even these things may be paralleled from the memoirs of a hero of real life, who resembles Mr. Walker both in his personal peculiarities and manner of telling them, to a degree which will amply justify us in adding his authority to the above. We allude to the famous Lord Herbert of Cherbury, whose narrative runs thus:

I shall relate now some things concerning myself, which, though they may seem scarce credible, yet before God are true. I had been now in France about a year and a half, when my tailor, Andrew Henly,

VOL. LV. NO. CX.

2 G

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