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of Udolpho ” stirred the modern reader to laughter rather than to fear, yet, 
for all her aping of knowledge and her false mediwvalism, Mrs. Radcliffe 
had done a real service to literature in delivering it from the bondage of 
false classicism and uninspired commonsense. Fanny Burney was treated as 
the illuminating historian of contemporary manners; the proposal of Lord 
Orville was read and contrasted with Thackeray’s rendering of it in the slang 
of his own day. Jane Austen, the painter of ‘‘a little bit of ivory two 
inches wide,’’ the relentless humourist of the manners and follies of the 
Upper Middle Class, was contrasted with Charlotte Bronté, who defiantly 
glorified a plain-featured heroine and scandalised the reading public of her 
day by daring to depict passion. An attempt was made to do justice to the 
charm of George Eliot as the novelist of English provincial life and to pro- 
test against the unsympathetic criticism which has followed on an excess of 
admiration. Finally, in a whimsical spirit of ‘‘ Nothing new under the 
Sun,” resemblances were traced between these writers of the past and the 
most up-to-date modern novelists; even the ““ Strong, silent man” was proved 
to be a heritage from a writer of a previous generation. 
On 12th February, Mr. Hugh T. Dutton, M.A., read a paper on “‘ John 
Wilkins, Bishop of Chester and Scientist.” After describing Wilkins’ youth 
and early days at Oxford, the lecturer gave some account of his academical 
eareer and his Puritanical tendencies, leading to his marriage to Oliver Crom- 
well’s sister and appointment successively as Warden of Wadham College, 
Oxford, and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Ejected from the latter 
preferment in 1660, he obtained a benefice in London and the preachership — 
of Gray’s Inn, being later made Bishop of Chester. He was less eminent as 
an ecclesiastic than as a scientific writer greatly in advance of his age. 
Noted for his willingness to investigate and search for truth in the realm of 
physics, he never allowed himself to be checked by theological prejudices or 
pleas that Scripture had decided against him on such subjects as the planetary 
character of the earth. The Bishop’s remarkable forecasts as to aeroplanes 
and submarine warfare, his accounts of cipher writing and signalling, and 
his speculations as to the possibility of the moon being inhabited, were all 
dealt with, and a copy of his works, with interesting plates, was inspected 
by those present. 
ASTRONOMICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SECTION. 
Two lectures have been given during the Session, the one by the Chair- 
man of the Section, and the other by Mr. J. S. Broome, M.Sc., of Warrington. 
The former lecture was entitled ‘“‘ How to see with one eye,’ and dealt with 
the principles of monocular vision, in so far as to explain the structure of the 
eye, its action as an optical instrument, and the nature of defects of vision. 
Mr. Broome’s lecture on ‘‘ Newton and the Apple” traced the development 
of our ideas on gravitation from the days of Aristotle to the time of Newton, 
and included an elementary description of the modern theory of Einstein. 
Pe a ieee 
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