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Writers have not been wanting to decry this study as frivolous or inessential; most unjustly assailing the science itself, on account of the gross abuses which have now and then arisen from its exclusive and extravagant pursuit. They have reasoned much after this fashion:—that Conchology is a folly, because Rumphius was a fool. The Conus Cedo Nulli has been sold for three hundred guineas; and the naturalist just mentioned gave a thousand pounds sterling for one of the first discovered specimens of the Venus Dione (of Linnæus). But there have been men in all ages who have carried to an absurd, and even pernicious extreme, pursuits the most ennobling and praiseworthy.

To an upright and well regulated mind, there is no portion of the works of the Creator, coming within its cognizance, which will not afford material for attentive and pleasurable investigation; and, so far from admitting the venerable error even now partially existing to the discredit of Conchology, we should not hesitate to acknowledge, that while few branches of Natural History are of more direct, very few are of more adventitious importance.