BT THE PEESIDENT, 169 



the strata of the earth, especially the submergences the earth has 

 undergone, and discover, if possible, the relation between the 

 change of elevation of the land and the climate of the sun. With 

 regard to the geological fauna and flora, although I should find a 

 certain resemblance running all through the animal and the vege- 

 table world, yet I should probably find distinct types, and I should 

 expect to see these types in certain regular cycles of time. I should 

 find some animals coming in and some going out, being probably 

 influenced by the cosmical climate. The same with regard to the 

 flora. Certain ideas run through the vegetable as they do through 

 the animal kingdom ; yet I should find a distinct flora peculiar to 

 certain ages. The flora of the Coal Measures diff'ers greatly from 

 that of the present day, and even in times almost historical the 

 flora of a country has changed, as is seen by those who have studied 

 the Stone Age. I should expect to find that the flora and the 

 fauna, the submergences of the land, and the various glacial 

 periods, bore a i-elation and correspondence with each other, and 

 also with that which I will venture to call the solar climate. 



My theory does not claim the merit of novelty, for with regard 

 to earthly affairs it seems to have been an accepted truth or maxim 

 in the days of King Solomon, for he says : ' ' The thing that hath 

 been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done is that 

 which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun." 



I must now bring my remarks to a conclusion. In both my 

 addresses I have indulged largely in speculative subjects, and I 

 have done so purposely. We may discover truth in two ways — 

 by deduction and by induction ; we may form a theory and then 

 search for facts to support it ; or we may diligently collect facts 

 and then form our theory from them. Before the time of that 

 illustrious Hertfordshire man, to whose tomb in St. Michael's 

 Church, St. Albans, strangers from all parts of the world perform 

 pilgrimages, scientific thought was confused and lost in wild 

 theory. I have read that this important question, "How many 

 angels can stand on the point of a needle ? " agitated the scientific 

 world for ages. There came, about the time of Bacon, a revolu- 

 tion from this stage of thought. I suppose he was rather the 

 exponent than the discoverer of the inductive philosophy, and 

 that the time having come round, according to the law of Nature 

 for a change of thought, if hg had not discovered it, some one else 

 soon would have done so. Since his time we have pursued his 

 method of the study of Nature, and with the most wonderful 

 results. But I think I now see a tendency in thought, especially 

 in England, to return more to metaphysical subjects; and indeed 



