64 BRITISH ASSOCIATION : 



preters of these " writings on stone," that the earth was rivified by the sun's light 

 and heat, was fertilized by refreshing showers and -washed by tidal waves. ITo 

 stagnation has been permitted to air or ocean. The vast body of waters not only 

 moved, as a whole, in orderly oscillations, regulated, as now, by suti and moon, but 

 were rippled and agitated here and there successively by winds and storms. The 

 atmosphere was healthily influenced by its horizontal currents, and by ever-vary- 

 ing clouds and vapours rising, condensing, dissolving, and falling in endless vertical 

 circulation, With these conditions of life, we know that life itself has been enjoyed 

 throughout the same countless thousands of years ; and that with life, from the 

 beginning, there has been death. The earliest testimony of the living thing, whether 

 shell, crust, or coral in the oldest fossiliferous rock, is at the same time proof that 

 it died. It has further been given us to know, that not only the individual but the 

 species perishes ; that as death is balanced by generation, so extinction has been 

 concomitant with creative power, which has continued to provide a succession of 

 species ; and furthermore, that as regards the varying forms of life which this 

 planet has witnessed, there has been " an advance and progress in the main.'' 

 Geology demonstrates that the creative force has not deserted this earth during 

 any of her epochs of time ; and that in respect to no one class of animals has the 

 manifestation of that force been limited to one epoch. JSTot a species of fish that 

 now lives, but has come into being during a comparatively recent period; the 

 existing species were preceded by other species ; and these again by others still 

 more different from the present. JSTo existing genus of fishes can be traced back 

 beyond a moiety of known creative time. Two entire orders (Cycloids and Stenoids) 

 have come into being, and have almost superseded two other orders (Ganoids and 

 Placoids), since the newest or latest of the secondary formations of the earth's 

 crust. Species after species of land animals, order after order of air-breaihing 

 reptiles, have succeeded each other ; creation ever compensating for extinction. 

 The successive passing away of air-breathing species may have been as little due 

 to exceptional violence, and as much to natural law, as in the case of marine plants 

 and animals. It is true, indeed, that every part of the earth's surface has been 

 submerged ; but successively, and for long periods. Of the present dry land dif- 

 ferent natural continents have different Faunae and Florae ; and the fossil remains of 

 the plants and animals of these continents respectively show that they possessed 

 the same peculiar characters, or characteristic fades, during periods extending far 

 beyond the utmost limits of human history. Such is a brief summary of facts 

 most nearly interesting us, which have been demonstratively made known 

 respecting our earth and its inhabitants. And when we reflect at how late and iii 

 how brief a period of historical time the acquisition of such knowledge has been 

 permitted, we must feel that vast as it seems, it may be but a very small part of 

 the patrimony of truth destined for the possession of future generations. 



In reviewing the nature and results of our proceedings during the last twenty- 

 seven years, and the aims and objects of our Association, it seems as if we are 

 realizing the grand Philosophical Dream or Prefigurative Vision of Francis Bacon, 

 which he has recounted in his ' ISTew Atlantis.' In this noble Parable the Father 

 of Modern Science imagines an Institution which he calls " Solomon's House," and 

 inforrag us by the mouth of one of its members, that " The end of its Foundation ia 



