An introduction to conchology; or, elements of the natural history of molluscous animals / By George Johnston.

  • George Johnston
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to conchology; or, elements of the natural history of molluscous animals / By George Johnston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    before we could proceed further. I enter on the task wil- lingly, and owe you indeed thanks for having imposed it on me, since it is very congenial to my taste, and will supply pleasant occupation for hours, which might otherwise have been wasted in idleness or ennui. If I succeed in communi- cating to you a portion of my own enthusiasm, I feel assured you will not repent having been brought into this way of study. Several years have passed away since I entered upon it, and each succeeding year the path has become pleasanter and more thickly strewed with flowers; and your experience, trust me, will be correspondent.* The alphabet undoubt- edly must be first acquired, and alphabets are irksome; what others have done must be learned, and in this we have little other enjoyment than what every one is conscious of while adding to his stores of knowledge; but when you are thus prepared to enter into all the perplexities of synonymes, and all the niceties of systematical arrangement, to balance the pros and cons, and try your skill in untying Gordian knots which others, you fondly deem, have vainly tried to untie before, then begins your real interest and zest: and leaving even these small points behind, you may go onwards to trace the paths which Lister and Cuvier loved to tread—to examine the living animals in their haunts—unravel, with the knife and the glass, the perplexed structure which supports their life and regulates their functions and their habits. “ By swift degrees the love of nature works, And warms the bosom,”-— Enthusiasm grows apace, and now, strong enough, you are urged to explore untrodden paths where, amidst the new structures and unveiled proofs of your Creator’s wisdom which disclose themselves at every step, you lose yourself in rapture and praise ! * “Scandenti cirea ima labor est: ceeterum quantum processeris, mol- hetur clivus, et leetius solum. Et, si heee quoque jam Jenius supa perse- verantibus studiis evaseris, inde fructus illaborati, offerunt sese, et omnia sponte proveniunt: que tamen, quotidie nisi decerpantur, arescunt.”— Quinctilian, Instit. Orat. xii, 10.
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