ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixxix 



add also, for the example which he has given iis of perspicuity of 

 style, of a clear and explicit statement of facts, and of sound and 

 cautious induction. 



I could have wished, Gentlemen, on this occasion to describe in 

 some detail the admirable work which has been done by Prof. M'Coy 

 in the arrangement of the fossils of the Woodwardian Museum at 

 Cambridge, and for which we owe so much, not only to the zeal, but 

 also to the private liberality of Prof. Sedgwick. But the limits to 

 which I have professedly restricted myself in this Address, and the 

 length to which it has already extended, prohibit my entering on a 

 subject of this nature, for which, however, I hope to avail myself of 

 a future occasion. I cannot, however, conclude without congratu- 

 lating you on the opening of the Museum of Practical Geology, 

 which has at once taken the rank of an important national institution. 

 In our own Society it is our object to cultivate geology generally as a 

 physical science, without especial reference to its practical applica- 

 tions. A true lover of the science will follow it for its own sake, for 

 the pleasure of detecting new phsenomena, or the laws which regulate 

 them. He delights to contemplate it as the science which opens so 

 many curious and deeply interesting views of the economy of the ma^ 

 terial universe, with reference both to organic and inorganic matter, 

 and which tends to elevate our minds by leading us to the contem- 

 plation of such views. No science — not astronomy itself — has done 

 more than geology to modify the convictions of men of cultivated 

 minds, on some of the most important points of speculation to which 

 physical science can lead us. And of this the geologist has a just 

 title to be proud. But however we may delight to contemplate our 

 science under this aspect, we should do it but partial justice if we 

 omitted a due consideration of the practical benefits which it may 

 produce by the promotion of those material interests, the progress of 

 which, in the present state of the world, seems to be essentially con- 

 nected with the advance of that civilization which consists in the due 

 cultivation and improvement of the intellectual and moral faculties. 

 The Museum of Practical Geology cannot fail to exercise an import- 

 ant influence. The lectures which have been instituted in connexion 

 with it, and so admirably begun, vdll help to extend an abstract 

 knowledge of geology and the allied sciences, and, by pointing out 

 the practical applications of such knowledge, cannot fail to afford 

 useful aids to some of the most important material interests of the 

 country. Perhaps no one of these great interests has suffered more 

 from the want of scientific knowledge than that of mining. In the 

 vast extent of our mining products, the public only sees the result of 

 that individual energy and enterprize which characterize our country- 

 men in all the practical pursuits of life, without seeing also the igno- 

 rance which, in so many cases, has formerly conducted, and the 

 ruinous consequences which have often attended such enterprizes. 

 Nor has this ignorance entailed heavy losses merely on a past gene- 

 ration. Its influence is still strongly felt in the want of those records 

 of former mining operations, which, if they existed, would be so in- 

 valuable to the miner of the present day. Evils of this nature have 



