296 PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 



usual oft-refuted objections of atheism, fatalism, &c, were brought 

 forward by the anti-phrenologists on this occasion, but the charges 

 were satisfactorily replied to by Mr. Levison, author of Mental Cul- 

 ture, and who has done much for the diffusion of Phrenology, by 

 his lectures on the subject, in various parts of England. Intense 

 interest was exhibited in this discussion, by the enlightened inhabi- 

 tants of Doncaster and its neighbourhood. We should much like to 

 see a Phrenological Society established at Doncaster, apart from the 

 interests of the Lyceum, and are convinced that it would be well 

 supported. The general feeling of the town is certainly favourable 

 to the science, and the spark only wants fanning to kindle into a 

 goodly flame. 



MACCLESFIELD SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF 

 USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. 



At the first anniversary meeting of this Institution, John 

 Brocklehurst, Esq., M.P., the President of the Society, on taking 

 the chair, congratulated the members on the rapid progress the In- 

 stitution had made since its formation, and concluded an animated 

 address by requesting the Secretary to read the Report. The Com- 

 mittee commenced the Report by stating that, notwithstanding much 

 unmerited obloquy and misrepresentation on the one hand, and 

 indifference on the other, the Society had continued steadily to in- 

 crease its members. The Committee further express a hope that the 

 number of those persons who desire to monopolize knowledge for a 

 particular class of the community, and to prevent the working classes 

 from sharing with them the delights of intellectual improvement, 

 are fast decreasing ; and that their senseless clamours about the 

 evil tendency of learning, when pursued by the working man, will 

 no longer be listened to as a truth, but be received as a gross libel, 

 and fit only to be entertained by those whose sympathies are all 

 expended within the limits of their own particular order and rank 

 in society. 



The reading of the Report, which embraced a variety of topics, 

 being concluded, the Rev. Edward Stanley addressed the meeting 

 in a very energetic strain. In the course of his observations, the 

 reverend gentleman said he was convinced by every day's experience 

 of the importance of such establishments throughout the country, 

 but more especially in the great commercial towns, where every en- 

 couragement should be given by all who called themselves patriots 

 or Christians, in the wide and comprehensive sense of the term, to 

 institutions whereby the minds of an important part of the commu- 

 nity might be directed to pursuits which, while they enlarged and ele- 

 vated them, combined, at the same time, rational amusement with uti- 

 lity. If he had ever entertained the shadow of a doubt respecting the 

 benefits likely to accrue from such societies, they would have been 



