Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 2.djvu/5



series of Treatises is published under the following circumstances:

The Right Honourable and Rev. Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, died in the month of February, 1829; and by his last will and testament, bearing date the 25th of February, 1825; he directed certain trustees therein named, to invest in the public funds, the sum of eight thousand pounds sterling; this sum, with the accruing dividends thereon, to be held at the disposal of the President, for the time being, of the Royal Society of London, to be paid to the person or persons nominated by him. The Testator farther directed, that the person or persons selected by the said President, should be appointed to write, print and publish one thousand copies of a work, on the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation; illustrating such work, by all reasonable arguments, as for instance, the variety and formation of God's creatures in the Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Kingdoms; the effect of digestion, and, thereby, of conversion; the construction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of other arguments; as also by discoveries, ancient and modern, in arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature.

He desired, moreover, that the profits arising from the sale of the work so published, should be paid to the authors of the works.

The late President of the Royal Society,, Esq. requested the assistance of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the Bishop of London, in determining upon the best mode of carrying into effect the intentions of the Testator. Acting with their advice, and with the concurrence of a nobleman immediately connected with the deceased, Mr. Davies Gilbert appointed the following eight gentlemen to write separate Treatises in the different branches of the subject here stated:-

I. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man, by the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D. D. Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh.

II. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Condition of Man, by John Kidd, M. D., F. R. 5., Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Oxford.

HI. Astronomy and General Physics, considered with reference to Natural Theology, by the Rev. William Whewell, M. A., F. R. S., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

IV. The Hand; its mechanism and vital endowments as evincing design, by Sir Charles Bell, K. H., F. R. S.

V. Animal and Vegetable Physiology, by Peter Mark Roget, M. D., Fellow of and Secretary to the Royal Society.

VI. Geology and Mineralogy, by the Rev. Wm. Buckland, D. D., F.R. S., Canon of Christ Church, and Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford.

VII. The History, Habits and Instincts of Animals, by the Rev. William Kirby, M. A., F. R. S.

VIII. Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion, by Wm. Prout, M. D., F. R. S.