Gideon Mantell Quotes

21 Sourced Quotes

In the prosecution of these researches... extraneous fossils were no longer regarded merely as subjects of natural history, but as memorials of revolutions which have swept over the face of the earth, in ages antecedent to all human record and tradition.

Gideon Mantell
It should ever be borne in mind that the primary object of every study ought to be an inward one that of enlarging and elevating the intellect; and the direct aim of science should be the discovery of the principles of unity, order, and connexion, which are everywhere manifest in the universal life of nature.

Gideon Mantell
Geology, in addition to its adherent dignity, puts forth strong claims to regard on the ground of positive utility. Everything reposes upon the mineral kingdom; it affords to man, directly or indirectly, all the materials of his physical comfort, all those of national wealth, and all the means of civilization.

Gideon Mantell
To the medical philosopher Geology presents peculiar attractions for those hours of leisure and relaxation, which are indispensable to maintain a healthy state of mind; for it requires the cultivation and application of Chemistry, Botany, Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, and Physiology, sciences which form the very foundation of medical knowledge.

Gideon Mantell
Volcanic eruptions throw up into daylight the foundations of the fathomless deep below, in the form of ejected or molten masses, or in rivers of ignited and fluid rocks, which congeal on the surface of the ground, either inflated like the scoriae of furnaces, or in solid masses, with no visible impress of heat...

Gideon Mantell
Whereby the useful is indissolubly linked with the true, the exalted, and the beautiful, science thus followed for its own sake will pour forth abundant overflowing streams to enrich and fertilize that industrial prosperity, which is the conquest of the intelligence of Man over matter.

Gideon Mantell
Geology and Astronomy are, in truth, sciences whose discoveries have realized the wildest imaginings of the poet, and whose realities infinitely surpass, in grandeur and sublimity, the most imposing fictions of romance.

Gideon Mantell
The study of those Medals of Creation - those electrotypes of nature - the mineralized remains of the plants and animals which successively flourished in the earlier ages of our planet, in periods incalculably remote, and long antecedent to all human history and tradition.

Gideon Mantell
Every walk we take offers subjects for profound meditation,—every pebble that attracts our notice, matter for serious reflection; and contemplating the incessant dissolution and renovation which are taking place around us in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature, we are struck by the force and beauty of the exclamation of the poet—
"My heart is awed within me, when I think
Of the great miracle which still goes on
In silence round me—the perpetual work
Of Thy Creation, finished, yet renewed
For ever!"

Gideon Mantell
It appears that in the lapse of ages, the sea alternately encroaches on and retreats from the land, and the districts it formerly occupied become the habitation of terrestrial animals and vegetables;—but other revolutions succeed, the sea returns to its ancient bed, and the countries from which it retires, are again fitted for the reception of their former inhabitants.

Gideon Mantell
Upon fixing my residence at Lewes, I resolved to devote my leisure moments to the investigation of the "Organic remains of a former world"...

Gideon Mantell
Geology... possesses the great advantage of presenting subjects adapted to every capacity; on some of its investigations the highest intellectual powers and the most profound acquirements in exact science are required; while many of its problems may be solved by any one who has eyes and will use them; and innumerable facts illustrative of the ancient condition of our planet, and of its inhabitants, may be gathered by any diligent and intelligent observer.

Gideon Mantell
Although we may not be able to mark the precise boundary beyond which organic beings do not appear, it is certain that in all geological epochs, subsequent, at least, to that of the primary rocks, animals and plants have existed in successive families; they have been created, have lived their day, and by the operation of physical causes, have perished; while new races have been called into being, and in their turn have ceased to be, in order to give room to other families, requiring, perhaps, a different climate, and a new order of things.

Gideon Mantell
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, there were several eminent men in England who were greatly in advance of the age in which they lived, and strenuously exerted themselves to discover and promulgate the true principles of Geology. Among these Dr. Martin Lister, physician to Queen Anne, was one of the most distinguished. This accomplished naturalist in his great work on shells... figures and describes many fossil shells as real animal productions, and carefully compares them with recent species. He also recognised the distinction of strata by the organic remains they contain; and to him the honour is due of having first suggested the construction of geological maps...

Gideon Mantell
In circumstances where the uninstructed and incurious eye can perceive neither novelty nor beauty, he who is imbued with a taste for natural science will everywhere discover an inexhaustible mine of pleasure and instruction, and new and stupendous proofs of the power and goodness of the Eternal! For every rock in the desert, every boulder on the plain, every pebble by the brook-side, every grain of sand on the sea-shore, is fraught with lessons of wisdom to the mind which is fitted to receive and comprehend their sublime import.
"From millions take thy choice,
In all that lives a guide to God is given;
Ever thou hear'st some guardian angel's voice,
When nature speaks of heaven!"

Gideon Mantell
A mere savage, ignorant and brutal, and the creature of appetite alone, can never rise from his degradation, until he has learned to draw from the mineral kingdom the instruments of arts and civilization, or, at least, to use the aids that are thus obtained. The axe, the hoe, the plough, the loom, are inseparable means and companions of his advancement.

Gideon Mantell
The following pages contain the result of my labours. They have been composed under circumstances particularly unfavourable to literary pursuits; and such as those only can duly appreciate, who are aware of the numerous and anxious duties, which a country practitioner is called upon to perform.

Gideon Mantell
Our beautiful planet is indeed worthy of our study; it was once our cradle—it will soon be our grave: between the dawn and the night of life, it is the scene of our busy action, and from it we shall rise to another state of being.

Gideon Mantell
Every part of the earth's surface presents unequivocal proofs that the elevation of the bed of the ocean in some places, and the subsidence of the dry land in others, have been, and are still, going on; and that, in truth, the continual changes in the relative position of the land and water, are the effects of laws which the Divine Author of the Universe has impressed on matter, and thus rendered it capable of perpetual renovation:—
Art, Empire, Earth itself, to change are doomed;
Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vail,
And gulf's the mountain's mighty mass entombed,
And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloomed.

Gideon Mantell
Whether we speak of the cedar, the oak, the lichens, or the grasses, all equally derive their support from the elements afforded by the mineral world, which, in its widest sense, includes not only the solid earth, but its waters, and all its fiuids—its atmosphere, and all its gases.

Gideon Mantell
It seems scarcely credible, that but little more than a century ago it was a matter of serious question with naturalists, whether the petrified shells imbedded in the rocks and strata were indeed shells that had been secreted by molluscous animals; or whether these bodies, together with the teeth, bones, leaves, wood, &c., found in a fossil state, were not formed by what was then termed the plastic power of the earth; in like manner as minerals, metals, and crystals.

Gideon Mantell