ORDINARY MEETING.* 
THE VEN. ARCHDEACON THORNTON, D.D., V.P., IN THE 
CHAIR, 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following Elections were announced :— 
Mempers :—The Ven. Archdeacon Donne, M.A., Yorks ; J. P. McArthur, 
Esq., D.L., Surrey ; A. G. McArthur, Esq., London; F. A. Holman, 
Esq., London. 
Assocr1ATEs :—Colonel Le Mesurier, London ; Rev. J. E.C. Welldon, M.A., 
Harrow ; C. King Rudge, Esq., M.R.C.S., Bristol. 
Hon. Cor. Memeer :—Surg.-Major W. T. Black, Esq., M.D., Edin- 
burgh. 
The following paper was then read by the Author :— 
THE ALLEGED SCEPTICISM OF KANT. By W. lL, 
CourTNEY, M.A., LL.D. 
| ANT, says a French critic, has spread through the whole 
of Europe the spiit of doubt. This is the point from 
which I desire to begin, for, if such a statement as this be 
true, then it 1s also. true that the thinker who, before all 
others, represents a definite turning-point, an epovh-making 
system in modern philosophy, is the chief agent for that en- 
tirely negative spirit which Professor Huxley has induced us 
to call agnosticism. My subject, therefore, though primarily 
dealing with Kant, is not by any means limited to him. I 
assume that he has made a revolution in the mental world, 
similar to that which was made in the astronomical world by 
the demolition of the old Ptolemaic methods, and the substi- 
tution of the Copernican system. [also assume that, in one 
way or other, a characteristic of the modern age is an atti- 
tude of suspense—not wholly of negation, but of suspense— 
towards the ultimate principles of the constitution of man’s 
nature and the government of the world; and the question 
which I wish to consider is how far it is due to the Kantian 
standpoint that the world has become sceptical, and that we 
* 6th of 28th Session. 
