RELIGION WITHOUT DOGMA. 51 



later wrecks are to be counted by the dozen, in different stages of 

 sepulture and decay. It is probable, therefore, that these wrecks, 

 which were used by the French convicts, can not have been there many 

 years previously. The date, therefore, of this Spanish expedition to 

 Cape Breton must have been between 1580 and 1598. 



An inlet in Sydney Harbor is still known as the " Northwest Arm 

 of Spanish River." 



We have no account of the fate of this colony, but we may infer 

 that it only existed for a short time. The French took possession of 

 and colonized that country early in the seventeenth century, and their 

 writers are silent as to the existence of any Spanish settlement there 

 at that time. 



So thoroughly forgotten is this lost colony of Terra Nova that, 

 though there are many Portuguese names that survive on the map of 

 Northeastern America, they no longer suggest their origin or meaning. 

 Few persons imagine that the Bay of Fundy is the "Deep Bay," 

 or Baya Fonda ; or that Cape Race means the " Bare Cape " or Cabo 

 raso. The "Land of the Corte Reals" knows them no more. 







RELIGION WITHOUT DOGMA.* 



By GEOEGE 1LES. 



"~VyO purpose in the study of history is more instructive than that by 

 -LN which we trace the progress of freedom against authority, of in- 

 quiry as opposed to dogmatic assertion, of reason and right against 

 arbitrary power. 



As I shall have frequent need to speak of authority, it may be well 

 to discriminate between its various species, and state with what specific 

 meaning the term is to be used in this discourse. In the instruction 

 of the young we all admit that authority must be the principal method 

 employed. In early years many lessons were taught us chiefly on that 

 principle the rules of arithmetic, the relations of geometry, the for- 

 mulas of logic, the rudiments of physics, with sundry theories as to the 

 fluid nature of electricity and the atomic structure of matter. Besides 

 these were lessons in history, which included the statement that 

 Charles I was a martyr ; and lastly the Church Catechism all these 

 did we diligently commit to memory and regard as truth. With the 

 lapse of years came the perception that the lessons of childhood and 

 youth were not all of equal validity. The mathematics and logic 

 which appealed to the understanding remained, so did the largest part 

 of physics ; the hypothetic nature of electricity, however, and of the 

 ultimate structure of matter, being deemed something else than cer- 



* A lecture delivered at Montreal, Sunday, March 30, 1884. 



