TUEOEIES OP NATURAL SEL1::CTI0N ANJ) DESIGN. 



ORDINARY MEETING, May 4, 18S5. 

 The Rev. R. W. Kennion, M.A., in the Chaie. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



OK THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION AND 



THE THEORY OF DESIGN. By Pkofpssor Duns, 



D.D., F.R.S.E., New Colleg-e, Edinburo-l,, President of 



> tlie Royal Physical Society^ Edin., Corresponding Member 



of tlie Academy of Sciences^ Philadelphia, &c. 



'' nr^HE firsc rule wliicli the exact investigator of Nature 



fl should observe is, that he should not allo^v himself to 



pronounce an opinion, either in affirmation or denial, iipoti 



subjects wliicli do not fall within the sphere of his observation 



or experience The second rule is, that he must not 



pass any opinion, form any judgment, nor utter it, upon 

 matters of any science to the present level of which he has 

 not brought himself." The words, which are Schleideu's, 

 occur in a tract, published at Leipsic in 18G3, on the 

 Materialism of the Recent German Scientific School {Ueber den 

 Materialismus, der Neueren Deutschen Natur-Wissensclinft). 

 They are worth remembering when discu.ssing the subject 

 of this paper, in regard to which the controversy is not as to 

 facts, but as to the interpretation of facts. We wish also to 

 bear in mind that to speculate where we cannot give j^i'oof 

 is far easier than to believe where we cannot understand. 



Since Mr. Darwin^s death we are in a position more favour- 

 able than before to form a just estimate of the nature, scientific 

 value, and physico-theological scope of his work. The influence 



