523 



our researches to times immeasurably distant. Why then, after 

 wandering back in imagination through a boundless lapse of years, 

 should we expect to find any resting-place for our thoughts, or 

 hope to assign a limit to the periods of past time throughout which 

 it has pleased an omnipotent and eternal Being to manifest his 

 creative power ? 



But it is not my intention to advert now to these and other 

 points on which I happen to differ from Dr. Buckland. I would 

 rather express the gratification I feel in finding myself in perfect 

 accordance with him on so many subjects. His work is admirably 

 adapted to convey instruction on organic remains, and other de- 

 partments of geology, both to beginners and to those well versed in 

 the science, and is characterized throughout by a truly philosophi- 

 cal spirit, which betrays no desire to adhere tenaciously to dogmas 

 impugned or refuted by the modern progress of science. On the 

 contrary, the author has abandoned several opinions which he him- 

 self had formerly advocated ; and although still attached to the 

 theory which teaches the turbulent condition of the planet when the 

 lias and other fossiliferous rocks were formed, and the general in- 

 sufficiency of existing causes to explain the changes which have 

 occurred on the earth, he yet refers in almost all parts of his book 

 to the ordinary operations of nature to explain a variety of phseno- 

 mena once supposed to be the result of causes diflferent in kind and 

 degree from those now acting. 



I have now, Gentlemen, only to offer you my acknowledgements 

 for the high honour conferred upon me by my election to fill the 

 President's chair for the last two years ; and it is a source of great 

 satisfaction to me to feel assured of the continued prosperity and 

 usefulness of the association when I resign ray trust into the hands 

 of a successor so distinguished for his zeal, talents, and varied ac- 

 quirements as Mr. Whewell. 



VOL. n. 2 p 



