Annual Report of the Coujicil. Ixxi 



more, he claims that, when the one meaning has been selected, 

 it " makes sense " in every case in which the original appears. 

 Moreover, many doctrinal difficulties are found to disappear. 

 " The Scriptures," he adds, " do not teach science, but they 

 anticipate it." This is not the place in which to attempt any 

 criticism of Dr. Browne's opinions on these matters, or any 

 estimate of the extent to which his conclusions may appear 

 justified ; nor would the task be congenial to the present writer. 

 But it will not be improper to point out the continuity of his 

 mental attitude. An approximately parallel case seems to be 

 that of Michael Faraday, who is incidentally mentioned by 

 Henry Browne in the introduction to the "Triglot Dictionary." 

 In his famous lecture on " Mental Education " before the Prince 

 Consort in 1854, Faraday said : — " High as man is placed above 

 the creatures around him, there is a higher and far more exalted 

 position in view ; and the ways are infinite in which he occupies 

 his thoughts about the fears, or hopes, or expectations of a future 

 life. I believe that the truth of that future cannot be brought 

 to his knowledge by any exertion of his mental powers, however 

 exalted they may be ; that it is made known to him by other 

 teaching than his own, and is received through simple belief of 

 the testimony given." Faraday knew that he would be charged 

 with inconsistency for this declaration ; and he anticipated the 

 charge by saying that he was " content to bear the reproach." 

 But, accepting his premises, the inconsistency was only super- 

 ficial. In questioning the Book of Nature, Faraday insisted on 

 direct experiment, first-hand reading, so to speak, and distrusted 

 all speculation. Accepting the Scriptures as revelation, he also 

 insisted on undiluted literalness in that case. Describing 

 Faraday's sermons as an elder of the communion to which 

 he belonged, Dr. Bence Jones says : — " His object seemed to be 

 to make the most use of the words of Scripture, and to make as 

 little of his own words as he could." A rationalist and strict 

 observer of facts in medicine. Dr. Henry Browne, as a theologian, 

 demanded the literal rendering of the earliest texts, and to those 

 who were sceptical as to the results his reply was — *' above all, 

 let us all be experimentalists." It was as an aid to experiment in 

 the direction indicated that in the last year of his long and 

 beneficent life he gave his " Triglot Dictionary " to the world. 



F. J. F. 



