ADDRESS. Ixxi 



" rat which were found behind a wainscot, the broken potsherd from an old 

 " barrow, the tattooed head of the New Zealand chief, the very unpleasant- 

 " looking lizards and snakes coiled up in the spirits of wine, the flint-stones 

 " and cockle shells," &c., will no longer be seen jumbled together in hetero- 

 geneous confusion, as might have been the case at the period alluded to. 



The Ipswich Museum has set an example, which I have no doubt will be 

 generally followed, of selecting for such Institutions a series of types illus- 

 trative of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; and a Committee of 

 this Association is now employed in the useful undertaking of preparing a 

 list of objects calculated to illustrate the different forms in nature, and thus 

 rendering our provincial Museums no longer mere rareeshows, but places 

 where the masses may receive instruction in all branches of Natural History. 



But the Oxford Museum aims at much more than is usually understood 

 by that title. Its central area, indeed, may be regarded as the Sanctuary of 

 the Temple of Science, intended to include all those wonderful contrivances 

 by which the Author of the Universe manifests himself to His creatures; 

 whilst the apartments which surround it, dedicated as they will be to lectures 

 and researches connected with all branches of Physical Science, may repre- 

 sent the chambers of the ministering Priests, engaged in worshiping at her 

 altar, and in expounding her mysteries. 



In turning too to this Association, the reception Avith which it is now 

 greeted in the course of its migrations through the various portions of the 

 United Kingdom, is not less encouraging as an augury of the future pro- 

 spects of Science. 



Our Body, indeed, may now be said to have passed unscathed through 

 that ordeal to which all infant undertakings are exposed, and which even its 

 great prototype, the Royal Society of London, at its commencement, did not 

 altogether escape. And the best proof that such is the case, will be found in 

 the different manner in which it is received by the public in general. 



Twenty years ago the invitations sent us proceeded, either from places like 

 the Universities expressly dedicated to learning, and therefore peculiarly 

 called upon to lend a helping hand to Science ; or else from Cities, in which 

 the predominant occupations brought the mass of the population into inii- 

 mediate and constant connexion with scientific processes. 



Now, on the contrary, we have seen the two principal Centres of fashion- 

 able resort — the favourite retreats of the wealthy and noble of the land — 

 vieing with each other in their eagerness to receive us ; and an almost purely 

 agricultural County greeting us with the same hearty welcome as that which we 

 had heretofore received from the commercial and manufacturing Communities. 



Twenty years ago it was thought necessary to explain at our meetings the 

 character and objects of this Association, and to vindicate it from the denun- 

 ciations fulminated against it by individuals, and even by parties of men, 

 who held it up as dangerous to religion, and subversive of sound principles 

 in theology. 



Now, so marked is the change in public feeling, that we are solicited by 

 the clergy, no less than by the laity, to hold our meetings within their pre- 

 cincts; and have never received a heartier welcome than in the city in which 

 we are now assembled, which values itself so especially, and with such good 

 reason, on the extent and excellence of its educational establishments. 



It begins, indeed, to be generally felt, that amongst the faculties of mind, 

 upon the development of which in youth success in afterlife mainly depends, 

 there are some which are best improved through the cultivation of the 

 Physical Sciences, and that the rudiments of those Sciences are most easily 

 acquired at an early period of life. 



