278 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



the connecting links between this family and the Ananchytes demonstrated ; the 

 only living representative of which is the Pentacrinus ( Caput Medusa) of the 



West-Indian Seas. The lecturer gave the history of this ancient family of fixed 

 radiate animals, and explained their singular structure, and showed the affinities 

 between them and the Starfish, Ophiura, and Euryale of our seas. In conclusion, 

 Mr. Wright observed, " In reviewing the vast number of facts I have submitted 

 for your consideration, I trust I have succeeded in convincing you that the study 

 of fossil remains, and of the strata that contain them, can no longer be supposed 

 to lead the mind astray from its first and most holy duty — the worship of its 

 Adorable Creator. Is is possible that the Christian's fondest and dearest hopes 

 can be at all weakened by surveying the stupendous grandeur of the material 

 world ? — that his assurance of a future can be at all weakened by contemplating 

 the immensity of the past ? No, it cannot be. Geology, so far from being 

 opposed to the religion of the Bible, is the only science that is capable of demon- 

 strating that a special Providence alike directs the fiery vomit of the volcano and 

 the development of the zoophyte ; it teaches Man that there was a time when 

 no living thing animated the primeval ocean ; that there was a starting point — 

 a beginning ; it shews him that the regulating hand of Omnipotence has, through 

 all the immensity of the past, adjusted and maintained the economy of our 

 planet ; that peculiar forms of animal life were created, to perform a certain part 

 in the " police of Nature ;" and that, when that part was no longer required, they 

 were annihilated, to give place to others better adapted, by some new feature 

 in their organization, to the character of the changing scene they were for a brief 

 span destined to animate ; and finally, Geology shows that, when the appointed 

 time had arrived, Man — stamped with the image of his God — was placed upon 

 its surface, just at that period when the external world had been prepared, by a 

 long series of eventful changes, for his reception ; with the furniture of the 

 universe wonderfully adapted to his nature, and calculated to arouse to action 

 his noblest faculties. It is thus the brilliant discoveries of modern Geology 

 become the handmaids of natural theology, and show, in the most striking and 

 satisfactory manner, the unity of the stupendous design and creative intelligence 

 of the Great First Cause ; for whilst the crust of our planet was destined by 

 its Creator to pass through a series of successive though turbulent changes, still 

 do we find the structure and functions of the myriads of animals that have lived 

 and died upon its surface, through all the periods of geological chronology, to 

 present the same exquisite organization — the same perfect adaptation to sur- 

 rounding nature, and to their varied habits and instincts, as the countless 

 numbers of happy beings that fill, with life and activity, the air, the earth, and 

 the waters of the present day. 



At the close of the lecture the President of the Institution (Dr. BoiSRAf.ox) 



