British Association, 397 



described the secret force by which the wandering orbs of light 

 are retained in their destined paths ; the boundless extent of cel- 

 estial spaces in which worlds on worlds are heaped ; the wonder- 

 ful mechanism by which heat and light are conveyed through 

 distances which to mortal minds seem quite unfathomable ; the 

 mysterious agency of electricity destined at one time to awaken 

 men's minds to an awful sense of a present Providence, but in 

 after-times to become a patient minister of man's will, and convey 

 his thoughts with the speed of light across the inhabited globe • 

 the beauties and prodigies of contrivance which the animal and 

 vegetable world display, from mankind downwards to the lowest 

 zoophyte, from the stately oak of the privaeval forest to the hum- 

 blest plant which the microscope unfolds to view ; the history of 

 every stone on the mountain brow, of every gi.y-coloured insect 

 which flutters in the sunbeam ; — all would have been described, and 

 all which the discoveriers of our more fortunate posterity will in 

 due time disclose, and in language such as none but they could 

 command. It is reserved for future ages to sing such a glorious 

 hymn to the Creator's praise. But is there not enough now seen 

 and heard to make indifference to the wonders around us a deep 

 reproach, nay, almost a crime. If we have neither leisure nor 

 inclination to track the course of the planet and comet through 

 boundless space ; to follow the wanderings of the subtle fluid in 

 the galvanic coil or the nicely-poised magnet ; to read the world's 

 history written on her ancient rocks, the sepulchres of stony 

 relics of ages long gone past ; to analyze with curious eye the won- 

 derful combination of the primitive elements, and the secret 

 mysteries of form and being in animal and plant ; discovering 

 everywhere connecting links, and startling analogies and proofs 

 of adaptation of means to ends — all tending to charm the senses, to 

 teach to reclaim a being who seems but a creeping worm in the 

 presence of this great creation — what, I repeat, if we will not, or 

 cannot, do these things or any of these things, — is that any reason 

 why these speaking marvels should be to us almost as they were 

 not? Marvels indeed they are : but thev are also mysteries the 

 unravelinof of some of which task to the utmost the hio-hest 

 order of human intelligence. Let us ever apply ourselves seriously 

 to the task, feeling assured that the more we thus exercise, and by 

 exercising improve our intellectual faculties, the more worthy 

 shall we be, the better shall we be fitted, to come nearer to our 

 God. 



