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Proceedings of tlie Royal Society 
and, as suggested by a former Council, the Macdougall Brisbane 
prize might be given for important memoirs, such as that of Pro- 
fessor Ferguson^ by Mr Small, which has been published in our 
Transactions. 
In calling your attention to the controversy between the Hut- 
tonian and Wernerian geologists, as an epoch in the history of 
the Society, I referred to the prejudices which it awakened, and 
the bitterness with which it was carried on. The formula of Dr 
Hutton, that ‘‘ in the natural history of the earth there was no 
vestige of a beginning, and no prospect of an end,” alarmed the 
timid, and furnished his opponents with a weapon which philo- 
sophers should disdain to wield. Dr Hutton observed, ‘‘ that the. 
Mosaic history placed the beginning of man at no great distance, 
and that there had not been found in natural history any docu- 
ment by which a high antiquity might be attributed to the human 
race.” He held no opinions and indulged in no speculations in- 
compatible with revealed truth, and his Scottish disciples, led by 
Professor Playfair, maintained the doctrines of their master with- 
out doing violence to the serious convictions of their countrymen. 
It was reserved for another school of geology to array the wis- 
dom of this world — Science falsely so called — against truths eternal 
and immutable. It was reserved for an unscrupulous philosophy 
to hold an inquest on the origin of that life which G-od breathed 
into man to make him a living soul, — to teach the heresy of the 
creation and government of the universe by law ; thus hurling the 
Almighty from His throne, — Himself but the first link of the chain 
of life, — the sovereign of an empire without a sceptre, — the Father 
of a family, blind to the tears, and deaf to the cries of his 
children. 
Such views of the Divine Government will, I trust, never find 
acceptance within these walls. In the study of nature there is no 
forbidden ground. Into its deepest mysteries we are invited to 
dive, and if we make Keason our guide, and Imagination our foot- 
stool, we may rest assured that truths that are demonstrated will 
never rush into collision with truths that are revealed. 
