271 
An Address on Archeology. 
By the Rev. J. O. Picton. 
I wave been requested by your Committee to make some general 
observations on Archeological pursuits. In complying with that 
request I cannot hold out a hope that I shall be able to bring 
forward any original matter in reference to a subject which may 
be considered to be well nigh exhausted, and which of late years 
has been investigated and discussed, both directly and incidentally, 
with a fullness and a freedom, which would seem to leave no room 
for adducing anything further to interest or instruct. There is, 
however, a remark of Coleridge’s to this effect: that many truths 
have but little weight owing to the circumstance of their universal 
admission, and in this particular instance the same may be affirmed. 
And although novelty of treatment be not to be expected in hand- 
ling topics which have commanded the widest and most careful 
attention, yet as none can make peculiarly his own and enunciate 
the conclusions which have been arrived at by others, without at 
the same time imparting to them somewhat of a modifying hue, so 
I trust that what I shall now lay before you, if deficient in imagi- 
nation and force, may at least possess, in some degree, the freshness of 
individual character. Premising this, I will at once apply myself 
to my task. I need scarcely remark at the outset, how important it 
is when a number of persons combine to prosecute any mental 
enquiry, that they should have a clear understanding of the object 
of their pursuit. Of almost every branch of intellectual study 
there is a popular view, which while it expresses some one or other 
of its aims, still fails to define the strict and legitimate purport. 
The temptation to acquiesce in such inaccurate estimates is very 
powerful, inasmuch as we are thereby spared the effort of thought, 
and we are ever ready to take our notions of things from what 
Lord Bacon terms the ido/a fori, or those loose acceptations of 
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