1857-59 ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 75 



pleasant memory of one who cannot be said to 

 have been wealthy during his working life. And 

 that he was ever ready to assist those who applied 

 to him, in spite of the fact that he had himself 

 suffered from the usual gratitude of borrowers, is 

 evident from the following observation in a letter 

 to his sister Eliza, July 21, 1858: ' A friend to 

 whom last year I lent 50/. (a most culpable pro- 

 cedure in a worldly point of view, and of which 

 sum, from experiences of less amount, I mentally 

 took leave for ever, expecting also to lose my 

 friend at the same time agreeably to rule) called 

 on me on the morning of the 20th, and honour- 

 ably repaid me, with expressions that showed that 

 the loan had been of important service ; so, the 

 sun being very bright, all things concurred to 

 make the day so [his wedding day].' 



Owen's Presidential address to the British 

 Association this year, of which he made mention 

 in an early letter to his sister as weighing on his 

 mind, was delivered in the autumn at Leeds. 

 This address contains a prodigious collection of 

 facts, and embraces a large area of scientific 

 knowledge. A part of it he devoted to his 

 views on a Natural History Museum, and he 

 concluded with the following remarks : ' The 

 simplest coral and the meanest insect may have 

 something in its history worth knowing, and 

 in some way profitable. Every organism is a 

 character in which Divine wisdom is written, and, 



