76 PROFESSOR OWEN CH. ill. 



which ought to be expounded. Our present 

 system of opening the book of Nature to the 

 masses, as in the galleries of the British Museum, 

 without any provision for expounding her lan- 

 guage, is akin to that which would keep the 

 book of God sealed to the multitude in a dead 

 tongue.' 



In the course of his address he also touched 

 upon the progress made in the investigation of 

 magnetism and electricity, and the attempts * to 

 explain the change in the variation of the mag- 

 netic needle.' This subject was evidently one of 

 interest to Prince Albert, for later on in the year 

 Owen received a letter from Lord Grey enclosing 

 ' a letter which the Prince has signed himself, 

 and which you can quote in your communications 

 with the Government expressive of the interest 

 which he takes in the success of your endeavours 

 to ascertain, as certainly as you can, the causes of 

 the deviation of the magnetic needle in different 

 parts of the world.' 



On November 5 Owen was again a guest 

 at the Prince of Wales's table at the White 

 Lodge ; Lord John Russell also being invited. 

 ' It was a farewell dinner to Richmond Park,' as 

 the Prince was leaving for Windsor a few days 

 later, to go to Potsdam. ' We were received,' says 

 Owen in a letter to his sister Catherine, ' in the 

 great drawing-room, where we used to play the 

 " round game " with the good old Duchess [of 



