396 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 298. 



We know not as regards time when the 

 fiat went forth, ' Let there be Life, and 

 there was Life.' All that we can say is 

 that it must have been in the far-distant 

 past, at a period so remote from the present 

 that the mind fails to grasp the duration 

 of the interval. Prior to its genesis our 

 earth consisted of barren rock and desolate 

 ocean. 



When matter became endowed with life, 

 with the capacity of self- maintenance and 

 of resisting external disintegrating forces, 

 the face of nature began to undergo a mo- 

 mentous change. Living organisms mul- 

 tiplied, the land became covered with 

 vegetation, and multitudinous varieties of 

 plants, from the humble fungus and moss 

 to the stately palm and oak, beautified its 

 surface and fitted it to sustain higher kinds 

 of living beings. Animal forms appeared, 

 in the first instance simple in structure, to 

 be followed by others more complex, until 

 the mammalian type was produced. The 

 ocean also became peopled with plant and 

 animal organisms, from the microscopic 

 diatom to the huge leviathan. Plants and 

 animals acted and reacted on each other, 

 on the atmosphere which surrounded them 

 and on the earth on which they dwelt, the 

 surface of which became modified in char- 

 acter and aspect. At last Man came into 

 existence. His nerve-energy, in addition 

 to regulating the processes in his economy 

 which he possesses in common with ani- 

 mals, was endowed with higher powers. 

 When translated into psychical activity it 

 has enabled him throughout the ages to 

 progress from the condition of a rude sav- 

 age to an advanced stage of civilization ; 

 to produce works in literature, art and the 

 moral sciences which have exerted, and 

 must continue to exert, a lasting influence 

 on the development of his higher Being; 

 to make discoveries in physical science ; to 

 acquire a knowledge of the structure of the 

 earth, of the ocean in its changing aspects. 



of the atmosphere and the stellar universe, 

 of the chemical composition and physical 

 properties of matter in its various forms, 

 and to analyze, comprehend and subdue 

 the forces of nature. 



By the application of these discoveries 

 to his own purposes Man has, to a large 

 extent, overcome time and space ; he has 

 studded the ocean with steamships, girdled 

 the earth with the electric wire, tunneled 

 the lofty Alps, spanned the Forth with a 

 bridge of steel, invented machines and 

 founded industries of all kinds for the pro- 

 motion of his material welfare, elaborated 

 systems of government fitted for the man- 

 agement of great communities, formulated 

 economic principles, obtained an insight 

 into the laws of health, the causes of in- 

 fective diseases, and the means of control- 

 ling and preventing them. 



When we reflect that many of the most 

 important discoveries in abstract science 

 and in its applications have been made 

 during the present century, and indeed 

 since the British Association held its first 

 meeting in the ancient capital of your county 

 sixty-nine years ago, we may look forward 

 with confidence to the future. Every ad- 

 vance in science provides a fresh platform 

 from which a new start can be made. The 

 human intellect is still in process of evo- 

 lution. The power of application and of 

 concentration of thought for the elucida- 

 tion of scientific problems is by no means 

 exhausted. In science is no hereditary 

 aristocracy. The army of workers is re- 

 cruited from all classes. The natural am- 

 bition of even the private in the ranks to 

 maintain and increase the reputation of the 

 branch of knowledge which he cultivates 

 affords an ample guarantee that the march 

 of science is ever onwards, and justifies us 

 in proclaiming for the next century, as in 

 the one fast ebbing to a close, that Great 

 is Science, and it will prevail. 



William Turner. 



