The address delivered by Flower at the meeting of the Church Congress, held at Reading in 1883, on the bearing of recent scientific advances on the Christian faith, has likewise been alluded to in the first chapter. It will therefore suffice here to quote a portion of the concluding paragraph, which demonstrates that nothing among modern discoveries had served to shake in the very slightest degree the author’s profound belief in all the essential truths of the faith of his forefathers. “Science,” he observes, “has thrown some light, little enough at present, but ever increasing, and for which we should all be thankful, upon the processes or methods by which the world in which we dwell has been brought into its present condition. The wonder and mystery of Creation remain as wonderful and mysterious as before. Of the origin of the whole, science tells us nothing. It is still as impossible as ever to conceive that such a world, governed by laws, the operations of which have led to such mighty results, and are attended by such future promise, could have originated without the intervention of some power external to itself. If the succession of small miracles, supposed to regulate the operations of nature, no longer satisfies us, have we not substituted for them one of immeasurable greatness and grandeur?” Although he does not say so in so many words, there is little doubt (reading between the lines) that Flower regarded the evolution of animated Nature as part of a preordained divine plan, and that he had little, if any, faith in such theories as “survival of the fittest,” as the true explanation of Nature’s riddle. This address, like most of the other addresses and papers discussed in this chapter, is reprinted in _Essays on Museums_. We pass now to the concluding portion of our subject, namely Flower’s influence and example in modifying and advancing previous conceptions as to the functions and objects of museums, and the mode and manner in which their contents should be arranged and distributed: on the one hand for the purpose of instructing and interesting the public, and on the other for advancing the study of biological science. In many respects this was perhaps the most important item in Flower’s life-work; and he may be said to have created the art of museum development and display. In regard to the value and importance of his labours in this respect, no better testimony can be adduced than that given by such a distinguished adept in this kind of work as Professor E. Ray Lankester, the present Director of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum.