" Prof. Owen’s Address before the British Association. 421 
Extracts from the Address of Prof. Ownyx, President of the British 
Association, at Leeds, Sept. 22, 1858. —Athen., No, 1613, 394. 
We are here met, in this our twenty-eighth annnal assembly, hay- 
ing accepted for the present year, the pine of the irra 3 
town and firm seat of British magne of energy, Leeds, to con- 
tinue the aim of the Association, which is the promotion of Science 
or knowledge of the laws of Nature ; whieh we acquire a domin- 
ion over nature, and are thereby able so_to apply her powers as to ad- 
vance the well- -being of sae Me and exalt the condition of at It 
is no ee} ge a therefore, the work we are here assembled to do. God 
has } give man a ¢ aime t oe and pac sg the laws by 
tween our finite faculties and the @ phenomena scr affect them, we ar- 
iscoverer has been so placed I oy dsicommisin buihee than by prede- 
terminated selection,—as to have his work of investigation allotted to 
him as his daily duty ; in the fulfillment of which he is brought face to 
with phenomena into which me at inquire, and the result of which 
inquiry he must faithfully impart. The advance of natural as of moral 
truth, has been and is ive: ‘bat it has pleased the othe’ of all 
EE acquired. Agreeably with the relations which have been instituted be- 
progress 
truth to vary the fashion of the imparting of such parcels thereof as He 
) tions of this power imparted to us of late times, not only in respect of 
. the shape, m of sete hej solar relations of the earth, but also of its age 
, and inhabitants. 
: Geological Time.—In regard to the period during which the globe 
allotted to man has revolved in its orbit, present evidence strains the 
mind to grasp such sum of past time with an effort like that by which 
- it tries to realize the space dividing ape orbit from the fixed stars and 
se remoter nebula. Yet, during all those 
Cambrian rocks were deposited which bili the impressed record of crea- 
tive power, as it was then manifested, we know, through the interpreters 
of these “writings on stone,” that the earth was vivified by the sun’s 
light and heat, was fertilized ‘by —s showers and washed by tidal 
waves. No stagnation has been permitted to air or ocean. the vast 
body of — only moved, ua a 5 akatet in ey oscillations, regu- 
lated, as now, by sun and moon, but were rippled and agitated here and 
