l.i-vi, \ . i OOO [March 15, 



of five and twenty ye&rs ago <lo not yet linger about us and 

 prevent our fellow-members from waking up to the knowl- 

 edge and appreciation of the case as it now stands. Surely 

 more of them would then attend the meetings, bringing 

 their best thinkings with them. Is it an idle fancy that 

 every one of our meetings might be made a good deal like 

 this one? 



The spirit of a Philosophical Society should, as it seems 

 to me, have two elements of character. It should be gener- 

 ously catholic; and it should be both critical and exclusive 

 in regard to both persons and papers. 



These are, in fact, the two poles of human excellence, 

 both in thought and feeling. The first bestows liberty ; the 

 second guarantees honor and security. 



I cannot end without noticing a strange prohibition in 

 the usage, if not in the laws, of our Society, which forbids 

 the discussion of questions of religion and questions of 

 politics. In past times this may have been an excellent 

 safeguard against dissension and perhaps dissolution. But 

 it seems an odd attitude for a Philosophical Society to 

 maintain now-a-days. 



Can there be a philosophy which does not concern itself 

 with religion and politics? Yes: a philosophy resolute in 

 shutting its eyes to all of the universe which does not con- 

 sist of brute matter. Good then ! let us resolve our Society 

 into an association of physicists and naturalists. 



For my part, as I believe in God as much as I believe in 

 man, and in a commonwealth as much as in a geological for- 

 mation, my idea of a Philosophical Society is, that its mem- 

 bers should busy their brains about all truth, temporal and 

 eternal, material and spiritual, formal and essential ; inter- 

 rogating the past, the present and the future ; in a spirit 



