Second General Meeting. 



11 



sincerely hope may be an earnest of the increased activity of a 

 Society which, though so recently founded, has already furnished 

 sufficient evidence of healthy and vigorous life. 



The Chairman then moved the adoption of the report, which 

 was agreed to. 



The Lord Bishop of Salisbury: Ladies and Grentlemen, — With- 

 out a moment's notice a paper has been put into my hands, conveying 

 "the cordial thanks of this meeting to the secretaries, the Rev. 

 Mr. Jackson, and the Rev. Mr. Lukis, for their zeal and per- 

 severance in editing the Society's Magazine, and for preparing 

 the present report." If I had been aware that it was intended 

 to introduce such a motion to the meeting, and that it was to have 

 been placed in my hands, I should have prepared myself to express 

 the deep interest I take in the progress of this Society. As it is, I 

 fear I shall have to content myself with merely assuring you that 

 whatever course was pursued by my late beloved and revered pre- 

 decessor, I shall endeavour steadily to follow. I am aware that one 

 of the objects dear to his heart was to promote the well-being of 

 this Society, and I will endeavour, as far as it is in my power, to 

 give effect to his good purposes. I think that a Society of this kind 

 must commend itself to the sympathy and patronage of all persons, 

 and that on the most indisputable ground — whether we look upon 

 its effects as a means of education and of training the intellect, or 

 as a means of improving the moral well-being of our population. 

 I am not, indeed, one of those who are content to be laudator 

 temporis acti, nor do I forget the Word of God which enjoins me 

 to "say not what is the cause that the former days were better than 

 these, for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning these things;" 

 but at the same time I am sure that it is one of the only ways of 

 avoiding the evil tendencies of the present generation by binding 

 up, as closely as possible, our sympathies and interests with the 

 great and good works and endeavours of our able and most excellent 

 forefathers. There can be no doubt that one of the perils in which 

 we stand, intellectually, in the present generation, is that we find 

 every thing made so ready to hand that we often-times lack the 

 motive for that accurate and exact investigation, that patient and 



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