15 



iitiro. 1;3 diffuse a knowledge of scientific principles and phenomena amoii^' 



iral IListihe people." 



Again, I wonld ask you to consider the nature of the objects wliich 



hie and lire'Or should he exhibited in such a Museum as that to whicii 1 haxo 

 I driven bafefence. Keniember whose Imndiwork they are and ft)r wliat piu'poso 



)rated paie|r were made. Can you suppose that all the vast nudlitudes of liv- 

 re cut rapiigf%eings which have preceded us on this earth and \\ hosr^ countless 



)tected, it)ltQB are being daily disentombed have no lesson for us to learn ? That 

 ley were created for no other purpose tlian their own sliort-lix^ul 

 ating the lieiiBures, or simply as a means of helping to build up the solid frani« - 

 iformatioirork of the earth itself, of which tlieir bin*ied remains form so consid- 

 i-eology. J»ble a portion? Are there no connecting threads between those past 

 3t extensivopiilations of our globe and those which are now spread over its sur- 

 al forces luce? And is there nothing in the present distribution of plants and 

 limals, in the varied forms which they present, in their adaptibility to 

 er rocks, oie most diverse circumstances and conditions of life, and in the won- 

 hes, as noti^rfiilly simple and harmonious plan wliich, notwithstanding all their 

 rnardino Piternal differences, shows them all to be constructed on one or the 



Quartz r her of a few simple patterns of growth, —is there, I say, nothing but 

 t away ; wnuseinent to be found in the contem])lations of such objects? Arr 

 ere left, ti;iey not rather, as tin material expression of Creative thought, worthy 

 n of the w* our most eareful and serious — I had almost said reverential — study? 

 ibles are ti re they not, equally with His written Word, a manifestation of the 

 •cording ti/isdom, PoM'er and Ooodness of God, and as we consider it a sacred 

 itions that ;.ity that a knowledge of the former should be as widely distributed, as 

 n them bvUy cxidained and be made as easily accessible as possilde, so, it seems 

 me, and for like reasons, we ought to demote our best energies to the 

 attention tii^ht understanding and general knowledge of the latter. We need 

 dture, and i>t fear tliat the two will clash. AVe may differ in our interpretations 

 ially to colli either of them, we may, in our imperfeet acciuaintanee with boih, sec 

 •y instruct! >int8 of apparent disagreement between them, but of one thing mo may 

 0(Tether prd'st assured, viz.. tluit if both are the works of Cod, both must be true 



long knowid both must be in hannony, and that it is our ignorance and not the 

 iractical acccts themselves which nro to be credited with that disagreement, 

 kilful media And in what better way, let me ask, can we obtain this perfect 

 d years ago.iowledge of the ways of God in Nature than by the study of Nature 

 The sanu>rself, by the collection and preservation of natural objects, and by 

 physical sci© attempt to arrange these latter in such a way as to convey, readily 

 are endeav.'^ accurately, to the mind of an obser\er something of that unity 



