60 



PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



Adam Sedgwick, doctor of divinity equally with 

 Cockburn, and man of science incomparably above 

 him, was put up to oppose the Dean, and did so 

 to the alternate amusement and exaltation of his 

 audience. His castigation, however, did not silence 

 the Dean for the future, and the paper, published 

 under the title of ' The Bible defended against the 

 British Association/ ran through five editions in a 

 year. This in itself is sufficient evidence that the 

 whole incident was less trivial than it now appears ; 

 but even without such evidence it would have been 

 worthy of a reference. For it demonstrates that 

 science, through the British Association and other 

 media, has, in much less than a century, so far 

 penetrated the minds of men that the folly of Dean 

 Cockburn would now be regarded as abysmal by 

 almost any person of any pretence to education. 

 But something of the Dean's outlook survived for 

 many years, for TyndalFs wrath was stirred (presi- 

 dential address, 1874) against those ' dignitaries who 

 even now speak of the earth's rocky crust as so much 

 building material prepared for man at the Creation. 

 Surely/ he added, ' it is time that this loose language 

 should cease/ 



It is unhappily noticeable that since the first 

 meeting, when in the list of scientific sub-committees 

 (p. 79) twelve places out of forty-one are filled by 

 clergymen, there has been a marked decrease in the 

 proportion of eminent clerical cultivators of science ; 

 subject, it need hardly be added, to certain brilliant 

 exceptions down to the present time. It may well be 

 that the clergy came increasingly to lack encourage- 

 ment in this direction : on this view, it is of interest 

 to quote the Parliamentary Committee of the Asso- 



