420 Proceedings nf'lhe British Association. 



mission to explore the wonders of creation, for ascertaining whatever they 

 may serve to ascertain ; whether it be the antiquity of the globe, the va- 

 rious changes it may have undergone, or the different purposes for which 

 it may have been made to serve, before that it was fitted for, and deliver- 

 ed over to, its present inhabitants. All we ask for Moses is, that he should 

 not be required to exceed his commission in what he records for our in- 

 struction, or be interrogated on subjects altogether foreign from thoso of 

 which it was his purpose to treat. The same precipitancy is often to be 

 observed in the manner in which some men reason on those discoveries 

 which the gracious Author of our being has enabled us to make for our- 

 selves among the work of his hands ; and the same check is to be applied. 

 Thus, admitting that geologists have discovered satisfactory proofs of a 

 fixed order of succession in many geological formations, and that they 

 are enabled to judge with tolerable accuracy as to the time they would 

 require for their accumulation by the forces now in operation, whether 

 Neptunian or Volcanian — is it fair from this to conclude at once as to the 

 time actually required — i. e. as to the absolute age of these formations, or 

 to ascribe to them an antiquity far greater than that of the human race .'' 

 They may be of this antiquity, but it is not so established. For is it not 

 reasonable to suppose that the forces concerned, though they should be 

 the same in kind with thase now in operation, must in the beginning have 

 acted with indefinitely greater encrgj- than now, that the appetencies and 

 the principles themselves have become comparatively inert by saturation, 

 and consequently the forces with which they are induced, reduced as it 

 were to a condition of equilibrium ; or shall we expect to find the same 

 activity in a neutral salt as in its separate elements before chemical com- 

 bination, or the same tendency to motion in a magnet, whether in or out 

 of the magnetic meridian ? Who can doubt that eficcts may have been 

 formerly produced on the most gigantic scale, in far less time than it 

 would take to efl^ect the most insignificant changes by the same forces, 

 now become comparatively inert ? It is not then" because of the insuffi- 

 ciency of the period included within the Mosaic history that any can feel 

 themselves compelled to place certain formations, such as that of coal, 

 and many others, beyond the limits of that history ; but because of the 

 imbedded remains of plants or animals altogether different from any now 

 m existence, or now existing in the same regions of the earth ; or because 

 of the number and variety of the overlying formations, indicative of suc- 

 cessive epochs of destruction ; or because of such an occurrence, on a large 

 scale, Moses takes no notice, except in the matter of the general deluge ; 

 and of the extensive, I would rather say, of the universal, dominion of the 

 waters over the surface of the globe, there remain to us abundant monu- 

 ments, independently of those brought to light by that ornament of this 

 Association, Dr Buckland, and others. What I insist on, then, is this ; 

 that when we seek God through the indications of his power or his will 

 contained in his word or in his works, we should apply ourselves to the 

 task with patient self-distrust and humble reverence, amounting to reli- 

 gious awe. This is the frame of mind which becomes us when we would 

 approach the Father of Lights ; and I would add, that this is the frame 

 of mind which every advance in the study of his works, no less than of 

 his word, is fitted to produce. In fact, it is only the grossly ignorant 

 who is insensible to his own ignorance. The more extensive his know- 

 ledge, the greater the number and variety of the subjects which present 

 themselves for further inc^uiry. The wider the sphere of illumination, the 

 more expanded is the surface which separates it from the domain, the 

 more numerous the points in that boundary by which we are sensibly 

 confined. This growing sense of our insufficiency, adequately to com- 

 prehend the workings of Divine power, serves but to increase the wonder 

 excited by what is already brought within the compass of our discern- 



