154 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. v. 



which he must inquire, and the results faithfully 

 impart — acting, in all this, as the servant of his 

 Master, and with the sense of responsibility for 

 the use of the talents allotted to him. " So man," 

 in the noble and eloquent language of the revered 

 and lamented Prince Consort, " is approaching 

 a more complete fulfilment of that great and 

 sacred mission which he has to perform in this 

 world. His reason being created after the image 

 of God, he has to use it to discover the laws by 

 which the Almighty governs His creation, and by 

 making those laws the standard of action to con- 

 quer Nature to his use : himself a Divine instru- 

 ment." ' 



Owen spent his holiday at Swansea, and took 

 the opportunity of inspecting the museum there. 

 ' It has a fine collection of local fossils,' he says, 

 ' but a ridiculous looking stuffed wild boar leaning 

 against the wall in a most maudlin attitude.' 



On October 3 he started for Birmingham, 

 where he gave a short course of lectures, and then 

 proceeded to Leamington. Writing to his sisters 

 on October 26, he says : — 



1 I am writing in a bedroom, looking into one 

 of the large squares of this pretty town. I am 

 staying with a friend who was an influential 

 member of the Philosophical Society of Leeds 

 when I opened their new buildings. He now 

 lives at Leamington, and came over to my lectures 

 at Birmingham, of which I delivered the last on 



