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goes far, in my opinion, to show that Mr. Hopkins's hypothesis of the formation of metallic veins is one well supported by facts which come under our observation, analogous to those he attributes to the natural magnetic currents of the globe, operating constantly, though almost imperceptibly, on a large scale.

The meeting was then adjourned.

ORDINARY MEETING, JAN. 7, 1867.

THE REV. WALTER MITCHELL, VICE-PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR.

The minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed; and the Hon. Secretary then announced the names of the following Members and Associates who had been elected since the first Meeting at the commencement of the Session:

MEMBERS :-Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., &c., &c., Bencher of the Middle Temple, J.P., and Dep.-Lieut. for Middlesex, 52, Portland Place, W. (VICE-PATRON and Life Member.)

William Henry Elliott, Esq., 10, Claremont Crescent, Surbiton Hill, S.W. (Life Member.)

Thomas Ball, Esq., Bramcote, Notts; Charles Lloyd Braithwaite, Esq., Kendal, Westmoreland; John Colebrook, Esq., M.R.C.S. Eng., late H.M. Madras Army, 31, Moore Street, Chelsea, S.W.; Rev. William Reyner Cosens, M.A., Oxon. et Cantab., Incumbent of Holy Trinity, Westminster, 10, Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico, S.W.; Rev. M. Davison, 5, Lansdowne Place, Lansdowne Road, Hackney, N.E.; Charles Deacon, Esq., 5, Orsett Place, Westbourne Terrace, W.; Thomas Foljambe, Esq., M.A., J.P., and Dep.-Lieut. for West Riding of Yorkshire, Acomb, near York; Alexander Gailey, Esq., Harengey Park, Hornsey, N.; Sydney Gedge, Esq., Mitcham Hall, S.; Bruce Goldie, Esq., Russell Street, Chelsea, S.W.; Thomas Gray, Esq., H.M. Civil Service, Assoc. I.N.A., 9, St. Martin's Road, Stockwell, S.; John Hall, Esq., Bondicar House, Blackheath, S.E.; James Peddie Harper, Esq., M.D., Edin. Univ., M.R.C.S.E., Clydesdale Villa, Windsor, Berks; Rev. Sir W. R. Tilson-Marsh, Bart., M.A., Oxon., Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pallmall, S.W.; Arthur C. Rainey, Teignmouth, Devon; John Henry Sadler, Esq., 34, Norfolk Road, Brighton; John Shaw, Esq., M.D., Viatoris Villa, Boston, Lincolnshire; William Stewart, Esq., of Glen Stewart, Prince Edward's Island, 12, Cottage Road, Eaton Square, S.W. ; James E. Vanner, Esq., Stamford Hill, N.; William Vanner, Esq., Stamford Hill, N.

ASSOCIATES; 1ST CLASS :-Rev. George Ranking, B.C.L., Cantab., Beulah Road, Tunbridge Wells; 2ND CLASS :-Mrs. Curteis, Aldenham, St. James's Road, Tunbridge Wells (Life Associate); Mrs. Harward, Chesham House, Nelson Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight; Mr. Thomas G. Salt, 7, Downs Park Road, Shacklewell, N.E.

The above Members and Associates were elected upon the Foundation List.

The following Associates have also been elected for the current year :— ASSOCIATES, 1ST CLASS :-Joseph Delpratt, Esq., 54, Queen's Gardens, Hyde Park; 2ND CLASS -Mrs. Flint, 34, Arundel Gardens, Kensington Park, W.

The following books were announced as having been presented to the Society :

Adam and the Adamite. By Dominick M'Causland, Esq., Q.C., M.V.I. From the Author.

Sermons in Stones. By the same.

From the Author.

The HONORARY SECRETARY then stated that he had much pleasure in announcing, that the Foundation List, as now printed, corrected to 31st December, 1866, contained 276 names, viz.:—

2 Vice-Patrons,

10 Life Members,

224 Members, Annual Subscribers,

3 Life Associates, 2nd Class,

37 other Associates, 13 1st Class, 24 2nd Class,

276

He also observed that the total assets for the year, in Donations and Subscriptions, including the donations of sixty guineas each from two VicePatrons, amount to £868,-of which the sum of £500. 10s. is from Annual Subscriptions.

PROFESSOR KIRK then read the following Paper :

ON THE PAST AND PRESENT RELATIONS OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. By the REV. JOHN KIRK, Professor of Practical Theology in the Evangelical Union Academy, Glasgow; Author of "The Age of Man Geologically considered in its bearing on the Truths of the Bible," &c., &c.; Memb. Vict. Inst.

T seems too like presumption for an "outsider" in IT Geology to undertake such a subject as this. We are reminded of a young man who had been trained in the country as a cartwright, and came to town seeking employment as a joiner. He was asked if he had ever made a window, and replied that he had not, but that he had made a harrow, which he said "was very like it." was very like it." We fear that the present paper will be only too like the writer's former "harrow," to pass well for the window which is required. It will lack symmetry, and its joints will admit, all too freely, the "cold winds of criticism." And yet the glorious sun, whose radiance is truth, may condescend to shine through it.

Geology is literally the "word of the earth." Not a word which the earth speaks, but the word which is spoken or written concerning the earth.

A word is a symbol of thought. It is only in so far as geology expresses thought regarding the earth, that it is anything. It is not the structure of the globe itself—nor is it the absolute truth regarding that structure-neither is it the expression of that truth. It is only the expression of that imperfect thought by which the structure of the earth is represented in the minds of men. He who is aware of this, will guard against the idea that Geology is any part of that supreme knowledge to which all other thought must ultimately bow.

When we take up Geological Science in this view, it lays itself out to us in three great divisions. There is that thought in which what are called the facts of the science are represented, then that representing the true inferences drawn from the comparison of these facts, and, last, the conjectural ideas that are allowed to represent themselves, but do not represent any other reality. If we wish to illustrate the first of these divisions of thought by an example, we may take up

a piece of rock, composed, we shall say, of sandstone, which has just been broken from the solid bed in the side of a hill. In that piece of rock, and as it lay in the mass of the mountain, you see the form of a shell. The words which express the thought of that fact form a part of that which is fundamental in geology. Apart from this kind of thought there is nothing real in the science.

In that which is called a fact of this character, you have three things; first, the material rock with its shell-form; then the thought representative of that object in the mind; and third, the words which express that thought. The piece of rock is the same to all who see it; the thought representing it in one mind is probably, so far, unlike the thought of it in every other; and the words expressive of such thought are both varied and changeable. Yet, from the nature of the rocky fact itself, there is at least a possibility of such repeated observation as issues in the all but perfect agreement of informed minds, as to the thing itself. It is the expression of thought regarding such facts, about which the truly scientific mind is ever most careful.

But to proceed to another example. You are on the seashore; and observing a portion of the sand which the tide has left exposed, you see that true shells, as they have been left by the molluscs that dwelt in them, are imbedded in that sand exactly as the form you have seen is imbedded in the rock. As yet we assume that you do not reason on the relations of those objects-you only observe them as they lie. Your thoughts represent little more than that which has reached you through your senses, sufficiently cogitated to present the objects to your mind. We shall suppose that you go on observing objects of this character, you are treasuring that kind of thought, out of which all geological science must be formed.

But there is, as we have said, a second and very different description of geological thought. You bring together the form of a shell which you have observed in the rock, and a real shell which you observed in the sand; comparing them, you perceive that, in many respects, they are not alike. They are indeed similar, but also strikingly dissimilar, and you begin to reason or to infer, that is, to form certain thoughts which represent relations of objects rather than the objects themselves. You then leave the thoughts representative of the mere facts for totally different thoughts, and enter a region in which difficulties and dangers greatly increase. It is then that you begin to realize what Steno, one of the ablest of geologists, wrote about two centuries ago. He says, addressing

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