THK GENESIS OF NATURE. 



55 



V. Conclusion. 

 And wlmt of this great world of Nature now, whose building 

 science has so wonderfully described, and Scripture so graphi- 

 -cally in brief set forth ? In spite of all the imperfection, pain, 

 and sin it holds ; in spite of that marring of it by evil, which 

 is equally predicated both by science and the Book; in spite 

 of its present rest being shown, by both, to be no final rest but 

 a pause before the last great consummation of all things ; as it 

 looks upon its beauty and its joy, its vast variety and its 

 teeming wealth, its wondrous adaptations and its all-pervading 

 order, its marvellous minuteness and its unmeasured grandeur, 

 does not science estimate it exactly as it is estimated in 

 Genesis? Can human learning adequately describe it, except 

 it borrow the actual words of God, and pronounce it " VERY 

 GOOD " ? 



Discussion. 



The Secretary (Professor E. Hull). — Perhaps I may be allowed 

 at this moment to personally thank the author of this eloquent and 

 able paper, which, when I read it in manuscript, struck me as 

 containing much original matter and thought, particularly in the 

 description of the attributes of God and their resemblance to those 

 of nature, or I would rather say as reflected in nature. That struck 

 me as a part of the paper which, if there were none others in it, 

 would of itself demand the thanks of this Institute. (Applause.) 



I therefore, personally, as well as on the part of the Institute 

 itself, thank Mr. Whidborne for giving it to us, because I am aware 

 that the paper was not originally written for the Institute ; but, at 

 my suggestion, when he put it into my hands, I saw it was a paper 

 that ought to be brought before the Institute if the author were 

 good enough to allow it to be read here. 



There is one point that I wish to refer to. I would call attention 

 to a work by a very distinguished naturalist, Dr. Alfred "Wallace, 

 F.R.S., whose name we are all familiar with. He has brought out a 

 work in this present year under the title of Ma its Place in the 

 Universe, in which he opposes the view^s of writers, some of whom 

 were men of great eminence, such as Herschel, Chalmers, and 

 Sir David Brewster, all of whom maintained that there are other 



E 



