27 



previous regular meetings, passed its third reading and 

 Dr. WM. NEILSON moved : 



That the By-laws as now read be accepted and adopted 

 as the By-laws of the Essex Institute, in lieu of the for- 

 mer Constitution and By-laws, which are consequently 

 repealed. 



This motion was then put in the form of a vote and 

 was unanimously adopted. 



WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1876. 



Dr. A. H. JOHNSON gave the third lecture of his course 

 this evening:. He said that anxieties arise lest any ad- 

 mission of a physical basis for much of mental life should 

 destroy convictions of man's moral responsibility. Per- 

 versions of physiological facts may lead indiscreet persons 

 into a ruinous fatalism. So may a perversion of the doc- 

 trine of divine leniency lead some into reckless living. 

 Properly applied, the truths concerning the dependence 

 of mental and spiritual power upon our physical organi- 

 zation more exactly define the limits of moral obligation. 

 While corporeal states and measure of nerve power may 

 determine possibilities and obligations in moral and relig- 

 ious experience, the origin of these bodily conditions en- 

 ables us to determine when and where to attribute guilt. 



A dyspepsia which poisons the whole conception of 

 duty may have been innocently incurred, in which case it 

 will excuse misconceptions of privilege and duty. But 

 if excesses in food, or recklessness as to the time of eat- 

 ing, or a waste of energies have occasioned the disorder, 

 here a point of responsibility for mental depression is 

 found, and also a place indicated at which corrections for 



