Mr. Poulett Scrope’s Address. Il 
paid to the beautiful forms and ornaments of Greek, Roman, and 
Etruscan pottery preserved in our Archeological Museums. Buta 
yet more striking example may be noted in the improvement 
observable on all sides in our ecclesiastical edifices, owmg to the 
increased study of the medizeval models. It is not much more than 
half a century back since Gothic Architecture was still regarded by 
the many as the rude work of barbarians devoid of taste. Now we 
have the gratification of seeing those stately and magnificent piles, 
upon which the piety of our ancestors lavished untold wealth, and 
their architects the resources of unexampled skill, taste, and genius, 
preserved, or restored, with a judgment and devotion parallel to that 
by which they were originally raised. We see, too, new churches, 
of almost equal beauty and grandeur, rising to meet the wants of 
an increasing population—some of them fully comparable to the 
work of the best ages, such as that superb Basilica which the 
munificence of one of our county members has reared in the town 
from which the county derives its name. All this improvement in 
the style of our sacred buildings is the result, be it remembered, of 
the greater attention now paid to Archeological pursuits, and the 
judicious investigation of the works of antiquity. 
It is possible that some persons may fail at first sight to discern 
the connection between the two studies which are conjoined in the 
title of our Society—Archeology and Natural History. But, 
as has been said by others, “The student of nature is a student of 
antiquities, quite as truly as the explorer of ancient art.” An 
inquirer into God’s works is as much an antiquary and historian as 
he who examines the early works of man. The rocks and minerals 
of a country are the materials of its construction, and the monu- 
ments of the vicissitudes through which its surface has passed, both 
before and since its occupation by man. Fossils have been aptly 
termed the “medals of creation,” and the geologist, indeed, like the 
coin collector, learns from them to distinguish the successive ages 
of the earth’s history. Ethnology is as much a natural science as 
a branch of history, to which Archeology supplies the means of 
comparing the various races of mankind. In truth, to complete the 
history of a country, there is required a thorough knowledge of 
its physical geography, its mineral structure, and of the plants 
and animals, no less than of the human beings, which from first 
to last have inhabited it. 
So much (too much I fear you will think) in vindication of the 
saya character and aim of societies such as this which you are to- 
ne with your approval. 
ut we have a further and special purpose in view, to which I 
must now ask your attention. It is suggested in the words of the 
printed circular proposing the formation of the Society; namely 
“the collecting and concentrating information on the Natural and 
Civil History, Topography and Antiquities of owr county” inparticular. 
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