Address of the President. 41 



keep the minds employed with subjects both curious and 

 useful. 



There is another object to combat besides those ordinary 

 vices. A kind dignitary of the English Church has observed, 

 that a wide-spread spirit of scepticism pervades in many 

 instances the scientific ^ publications, the popular periodical 

 literature, the daily journals, and even the theological writings 

 of the present day. In these, the subjects "are cleverly 

 adapted to suit the habits and tastes of classes. So that 

 alike in general society, and in the pastoral work, every 

 clergyman (I woxild add every man), must be prepared wisely 

 and effectively to defend the faith."* The very titles of some 

 of our highest scientific works, unintentionally in most 

 instances, point to doubts, for instance : — ^" Geological evidences 

 of the Antiquity of Man, with Notes on the Okigin of Species 

 by Variation" "Origin of Species by means of Natural 

 Selectiort." "Evidences of Man's place in Nature." "The 

 Negro's place in Nature ;" and many more such. The Geo- 

 logical evidences of man's antiquity, as I have shewn you, 

 rest in great measure on data not proved by facts, and this 

 is over and over again acknowledged by the author. The 

 question of the Origin of Species would throw aside the fiat 

 of Creation, and the Development Scheme that of design or 

 adaptation of structure. In all the controversies on Man's 

 place ia Nature, and whatever may be the position in which 

 parties place the negro,t it seems to have been forgotten, or at 

 least lost sight of, that the animal structure, high or low, was 

 planned on the same uniform principle ; that it was modified 

 (or homologated), to suit the peculiar place the animal had to 



* Bishop of Dui-ham, quoted from the Times, 14th April 1863. 



t "The savage lives a life mthout a future or a past, without hope or 

 regret, and dies the death of a coward and a dog, for whom tlie gi-ave brings 

 darkness and nothing more." — " No ; the negress is not a woman : she is a 

 parody of woman, a pretty toy, an aflectionate brute, that is all." The above 

 is one of the latest opinions of the negro, " after mature study and reflection. " 

 —Savage Africa, pp. 263, 307. 



