94i THE president's address. 



investigations of geologists and astronomers have made known, witli- 

 out having some more distinct notion of the Immensity, and 

 Wisdom, and Power, of the Great Creator ? 



"When we find men able to read in the very rocks something of the 

 history of our earth for millions of years before man was created ; able 

 to read there something of the changes of land and sea, and of climate, 

 which our earth then passed through ; what strange plants grew ; 

 what strange animals lived and flourished ; when we learn the evi- 

 dence which patient investigation has made it possible to accumulate 

 shewing that over every part of the earth's surface, in every class 

 of organic life, whole series of created forms have been changed 

 many times ; and that the whole human period is but a unit io the 

 vast sum of time that is past ; when we find how much of our earth's 

 old history has in this way become known ; when we learn the 

 possibility that telescopic observations may enable us to know more 

 of it even from the other planets of our system, as Saturn, Jupiter 

 and Mars unfold conditions not now terrestrial, and the moon other 

 conditions which perhaps await the earth ; when we read the assuran- 

 ces of the learned that within the limits of our solar system count- 

 less comets, the gipsies of the skies, are running their vagrant 

 course ; when we learn that our sun itself is not fixed in space, but is 

 constantly moving forward with a velocity it is supposed of 18,000 

 miles an hour, carrying with it its whole planetary and cometary sys- 

 tem ; that many millions of stars are distributed throughout space ; 

 that important truths in regard to their very substance are noss" 

 known to us ; that probably every star is the centre of a system as 

 vast as our own ; that all these systems probably travel through 

 space as our own solar system is doing ; that the whole universe is 

 thus in a perpetual state of motion through boundless space ; and 

 when we learn that these stupendous marvels are thought to be, or are 

 felt to be, but glimpses of the unknown and unimagined reality — who 

 does not feel his soul lost in gratitude to Grod that He has made 

 us capable of learning so much of His mighty works, and in praise 

 and wonder as he reflects on the Majesty of Him from whom all 

 these works received their being and their laws, and who sits on the 

 throne of the Heavens beholding, maintaining, and governing them 

 aU? 



But I have occupied joxir attention too long. Let me say in 

 conclusion, that whether we regard the practical utility of scientific 



