INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 15 
able to appreciate this attempt at enlisting religion and 
morality on the side of self-love; by which difference of 
opinion—at all times but too writating to the human 
mind—receives the double aggravation, of real inability 
to persuade and fancied right to condemn.” When I 
remember that little more than thirty years ago I was 
taught to regard the ‘‘ Vestiges of Creation” as a book 
fraught with the most pernicious doctrines, and dangerous 
in the extreme to my youthful mind, while the ‘“ Essays 
and Reviews” were such as could only be read with safety 
by men of mature years, who had clothed their intellects 
in the proof armour of sound theology, so that they could 
never be got at;—when I remember this, and consider 
what people say and think now, I can hardly believe that 
so short a time has effected so wondrous an advance in 
toleration of speech and freedom of thought. As Buckle 
eloquently says, ‘“‘The only remedy for superstition is 
knowledge. Nothing else can wipe out that plague spot 
of the human mind. Without it the leper remains 
unwashed, and the slave unfreed.”’ 
This Society, although essentially a scientific one, hopes 
to interest and benefit the general public of Liverpool. 
It is meant to encourage those who have a natural taste 
for Biology to pursue it further than they would do, if 
left to their own unaided resources, unstimulated by the 
knowledge that many other people around them love the 
same things and would be glad to talk with them about 
such matters. And we, therefore, esteem it a great honour 
that our Mayor has set an example to his fellow citizens 
in joining us, and in lending us his hearty co-operation 
and assistance. But what gives us even greater pleasure, 
is that we all know that he in turn esteems it an honour 
to be Vice-President of the Biological Society. There is 
much, however, in a society such as ours, which can only 
