lxiv REPORT—1863. 
and in the exquisite elaborations of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the 
ultimate results of mere material forces left free to follow their own unguided 
tendencies. Surely our minds would in that case be more oppressed with a 
sense of the miraculous than they now are in attributing the wondrous things 
around us to the creative hand of a Great presiding Intelligence. 
The evidences bearing upon the antiquity of man have been recently pro- 
duced in a collected and most logically-treated form by Sir Charles Lyell. It 
seems no longer possible to doubt that the human race has existed on the 
earth in a barbarian state for a period far exceeding the limit of historical 
record ; but notwithstanding this great antiquity, the proofs still remain un- 
altered that man is the latest as well as the noblest work of God. 
I will not run the risk of wearying this assembly by extending my remarks 
to other branches of science. In conclusion I will express a hope that when 
the time again comes round to receive the British Association in this town, its 
members will find the interval to have been as fruitful as the corresponding 
period on which we now look back. The tendency of progress is to quicken 
progress, because every acquisition in science is so much vantage ground for 
fresh attainment. We may expect, therefore, to increase our speed as we 
struggle forward ; but however high we climb in the pursuit of knowledge we 
shall still see heights above us, and the more we-extend our view, the more 
conscious we shall be of the immensity which lies beyond. 
