THE 



AOUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 



ADDRESS OF PROF. OWEN BEFORE THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 1858. 



THE following is an abstract of an address delivered by Professor Owen, 

 on assuming the chair as President of the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of 

 the British Association for the advancement of Science, September 22, 1858 : 



GENTLEMEN OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION : "We are here met, in this our 

 Twenty -eighth Annual Assembly, to continue the aim of the Association, which 

 is the promotion of Science, or the knowledge of the Laws of Nature; where- 

 by we acquire a dominion over nature, and are thereby able so to apply her 

 powers as to advance the well-being of society and exalt the condition of 

 mankind. It is no light matter, therefore, the work that we are here assem- 

 bled to do. God has given to man a capacity to discover and comprehend the 

 laws by which His universe is governed ; and man is impelled by a healthy 

 and natural impulse to exercise the faculties by which that knowledge can be 

 acquired. Agreeably with the relations which have been instituted between 

 our finite faculties and the phenomena that affect them, we arrive at demon- 

 strations and convictions which are the most certain that our present state of 

 being can have or act upon. Nor let any one, against whose prepossessions a 

 scientific truth may jar, confound such demonstrations with the speculative 

 philosophies condemned by the Apostle; or ascribe to arrogant intellect, soar- 

 ing to regions of forbidden mysteries, the acquisition of such truths as have 

 been or may be established by patient and inductive research. For the most 

 part, the discoverer has been so placed by circumstances, rather than by 

 predetermined selection, as to have his work of investigation allotted to 

 him as his daily duty; in the fulfilment of which he is brought face to face 

 with phenomena into which he must inquire, and the result of which inquiry 

 he must faithfully impart. The advance of natural as of moral truth has 

 been and is progressive ; but it has pleased the Author of all truth to vary 

 the fashion of the imparting of such parcels thereof as He has allotted, from 

 time to time, for the behoof and guidance of mankind. Those who are 



