Owen. Archetype of Nature. General Scale of Nature. Never existed at one time in the History of the Earth. Reconsideration of the Argument for Final Causes. Mi- racles. Belief in a First Cause, and Moral Conclusions from it. Induction the Fountain of all Material Truth, &c. ccxxix Pantheistic views of Revelation and its Evidences, and Comments on the Newtonian Philosophy. Evidences of Christianity, Historical and Prophetical. Moral Purity of the Gospel. Its Propagation and effects on the Pro- gress of Man, &c. . 2 Recent Changes in the University Course. of Cambridge-Philosophical Society. improvements. Moral and social character of the Stu- dents, &c. . celvi cccxxiii B General Diffusion of the Imponderable Agents through Space. 102 C Reply to Fanatical Objections against the Study of Physical E Religious Bearing of the Study of Nature-La Place's Senti- F Natural Theology-Paley-Examples of Adaptation in Com- . IV. On the supposed Interchange of Vegetable Species-Hybridi- - VI. On the supposed derivation of the Terrestrial Flora from the Marine, by a Natural Transmutation of Species VII. On the Use and Abuse of the word Law; and on the methods by which we rise to a right conception of it among physical ib. ERRATA. Preface, p. xviii. 1. 21, for in which read from which xxxvii. 1. 20, for a back-bone read a back-bone and spinal chord Ixiv. 1. 12, for a Cestracion read a Cestraciont lxxxii. second Note, for p. 64 read p. 65. See Supplement to the Appendix, No. IX. ccxv. 1. 7, for the Radiata read those Radiata cccxii. 1. 8, for evidences our read evidences of our ccclxvi. 1. 15, for Churchman Low read Churchman and Low ccccx. 1. 22, for self-love breed read self-love and breed ccccxv. 1. 6 from the bottom, for It read it Ib. last line, for (we dare to say logically) read (we dare to say) logically Appendix, p. 122, 1. 9, for round our own read round their own Supplement to Appendix, p. 178, 1. 16, for infra p. 27 read supra p. 27. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE substance of the following Discourse was delivered in the Chapel of Trinity College, on the day of the Annual Commemoration in December last, and is published at the request of the junior Members of the Society, to whom it was more immediately addressed. As the long delay in its publication requires some apology, the Author begs leave to state, that the request, on which he is now acting, first reached him during the Christmas vacation, when he was absent from the University; and that for some weeks after his return he was so much occupied in completing a course of lectures and in passing two memoirs through the press, that the Lent Term had nearly expired before he had time to revise his MS. for the printer. Without any further delay it was then struck off as far as page 33; and he hoped to have published it at the commencement of the Easter Term. During its progress through the press he found however that he had undertaken a more difficult task than he had imagined: for having animadverted with much freedom on some parts of the Cambridge course of reading, he felt himself compelled, before he dared to give what he had written to the public, to enter at more length on a justification of his opinions. On this account, his remarks on the classical, metaphysical, and moral studies of the University (extending from p. 33 to p. 91) were cast over again, and expanded to at least three times their original length. Before this part of his task was completed, an attack of indisposition compelled him for a short time to quit the University; and on his return the languor of ill health, and a series of engagements of which it is not necessary here to speak, prevented him from immediately resuming it so that the latter part of this Discourse was not printed till a late period in the Easter Term, when most of the junior Members had left the University for the long vacation. On this account he resolved not to publish before the University reassembled in the October Term. Lest he should be accused of printing a discourse too widely differing from the one he was requested to publish, he wishes to state, that (with the exception of mere verbal corrections) it is, as far as p. 33, in the form in which it was first written, and that the conclusion has undergone no change and in the two parts which have been so much expanded, he has preserved the scope : |