80 



VERY REV. W. R. INGE^ M.A.^ ON 



faculty. There were, he knew, a good many Mystics who had 

 disparaged intellect because they wished to rest knowledge of God 

 on pure feeling. Professor Flint said that pure (?) feeling was pure 

 nonsense, and he believed that was true. We found, in point of 

 fact, that those Mystics who had trusted to feeling without any kind 

 of reflection or any intellectual light had been a prey to the most 

 childish, foolish, and painful hallucinations. The history of 

 Mysticism showed that it could not be separated from the intellect 

 altogether. As a rule the philosophic Mystics had been free from 

 the great drawbacks of the mystical life which came upon some in 

 the nature of what were called mystical phenomena, apparitions, 

 auditions, and all that deplorable farrago of superstition which filled 

 some books. 



The other point upon which he wished to say something was the 

 question raised by Mr. Maunder about matter. It was his fault 

 that he did not explain that he was talking during part of his address 

 rather in a Platonic manner, and using matter in the Platonic sense. 

 Matter, for the Platonist, is not "material." It is the residuum 

 left after all that gives meaning to phenomena has been abstracted. 

 But the " materialist " errs in that he imports into his system a 

 mass of ideas and valuations which, on his own principles, he has 

 no right to use. If he confines himself to matter and energy, he 

 will have nothing to work with but mathematical symbols, which 

 have only a hypothetical existence. 



The Chairman said this brought their proceedings to a happy 

 conclusion, and he asked those present to pass a hearty vote of 

 thanks to the Lecturer. 



The Meeting adjourned at 6.25 p.m. 



Written Communications. 

 The following written communications were received before the 

 Meeting, but were not read, owing to lack of time : — 



Mr. T. B. Bishop : — The researches of science have taught us that 

 there are no two organisms in nature that are exactly alike, and 

 especially are we told that no two human beings ever have existed, 

 or ever will exist, that are absolutely alike in every part and com- 

 bination of their structure. Nothing is perhaps more wonderful 

 than the varieties of feature and complexion which are to be found 



