222 Address delivered at the sixth and last 



original genius opened to the lovers of nature a new field of 

 instruction and delight ; — but his spirit, his talent, and his 

 fidelity of expression are preserved to the rising generation 

 in the compositions of his friend and pupil, Mr. William 

 Harvey. 



The beneficial results of this accurate mode of supplying 

 us with the groundwork of our science do not terminate in 

 the superior excellence of the description itself. The modern 

 naturalist, finding a firm foundation for his speculations in the 

 authenticity of the materials thus brought within his reach, 

 and encouraged by the number of the subjects with which the 

 increasing spirit of research has supplied him, is enabled to 

 turn from the mechanical details of his art to the contempla- 

 tion of its sublimer beauties. He has surmounted the first 

 necessary steps of his ascent, — all the petty technicalities of 

 nomenclature, — all the minute particulars that attend the 

 determination of species ; — and standing on the high vantage- 

 ground of true philosophy, he can now give way to the investi- 

 gation of general truths. It is not the mere characters of the 

 isolated individual that he searches out, but the relation which 

 it bears to every other, and the part which it sustains, singly, 

 or in combination with all, in the great scheme of the crea- 

 tion. Under the guidance of such enlarged views, the mind 

 is led forward to conclusions of the highest import, attaining, 

 by degrees, an occasional glance of the system of Nature her- 

 self. Whatever may be the process by which her laws are 

 sought out, whatever the artificial mode by which the know- 

 ledge of observed facts is communicated, they all unite in 

 iaiming at the discovery and elucidation of that true and only 

 system. 



The comprehensiveness of the views, which thus forms the 

 distinguishing feature of our present school of zoology, has 

 not passed without reproach ; and many sneers, it must be 

 confessed, have been cast, more particularly by some of the 

 minor critics of the French schools, upon our British theo- 

 rists. These cavillers have forgotten that they have themselves 

 had to boast of a BufFon and a Cuvier ; and that the philoso- 

 phising spirit of enquiry of which I speak, although followed 

 up in this countiy with a zeal far exceeding their own, to their 

 credit be it spoken, originated with themselves. But we do 

 not shrink from the imputation. We rather appropriate to 

 ourselves the title of theorists with gladness. I know, in fact, 

 no undertaking of excellence, that has not owed its existence 

 to some great and preconceived theory. It was the glimpse 

 of some great truth, that first tempted the enthusiast into the 

 thorny paths of enquiry, that supported his zeal and enlight- 



