185 



ORDINARY MEETING.* 



The President (Sir George G. Stokes, Burr., V.P.R.S.), 

 in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 

 following Elections were announced : — 



Member : — The Hon. Martin Brimmer, United States. 



Associates : — Eev. S. Hungerford, New South Wales ; Eev. H. M. Ladd, 

 D.D., United States; C. B Phipson, Esq., J.P., Ireland ; Eev. C. H. 

 H. Wright, D.D., Liverpool. 



The following Paper was then read by the Author : — 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS OF THE A RG UMENT 

 FROM DESIGN. By the Rev. J. H. Bernard, D.D., 

 Archbishop King's Lecturer in Divinity in the University 

 of Dublin. 



NO one who studies with any diligence the history of the 

 Theistic controversy, since the last century, can fail 

 to be struck with the marked change of tone that has come 

 over the literature on the side of the defenders of religion, 

 as well as on the side of its opponents. The flippancy of 

 Tom Paine and writers of his class has been replaced by a 

 sad and sober criticism ; while on the other hand the 

 confident and dogmatic statements of Paley are exchanged 

 for a cautious and apologetic presentation of the philo- 

 sophical basis of religion, which shrinks from no charge with 

 such dread as the charge of special pleading. And there is 

 no question but that this change is, on the whole, for the 

 better. No one can doubt that the object of the philo- 

 sophical writers of our own time who deal with religion is 

 rather to find out the truth than to score a point in con- 

 troversy with an opponent ; and I am not sure that that 

 could always have been said of religious literature in 

 England. 



But laudable as are the motives which keep one from over- 

 stating one's case, or from misrepresenting one's opponents, 



* April 4, 1892. 



