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forward with a number of theories which apparently are incompatible with 

 the truth of that which we believe, and which the majority of the civilized 

 world has believed for many centuries — when a number of men come forward 

 with theories of this kind, apparently in contradiction of the received truths, 

 we feel ourselves entitled to sift very closely what they produce, and to see 

 whether their conclusions will bear the test of examination ; (Hear, and 

 cheers) or whether they are the results of an imagination heated and kindled 

 by the discovery of progressive facts in physical science, which very often 

 from their novelty, from the wonderful insight they give you into the opera- 

 tions of nature, dazzle the minds of those who first discovered them ; whether 

 these things are really so soundly established as they pretend to be, or 

 whether they are only the results of rather too hasty conclusions. (Hear, 

 hear.) I believe the philosophical world has of late been somewhat startled 

 by the coruscations that have emanated from certain philosophers, who seem 

 to have departed from the path of calm investigation and induction based upon 

 a large examination of particulars leading to definite conclusions, and to have 

 been content to launch the hasty theories that are naturally suggested by new 

 discoveries, but which have not been fully investigated. It seems to me that 

 we have come back, as it were, to those brilliant theorists of the old world, 

 who were content to imagine how things might be, rather than how they 

 were ascertained to be. They used to say that everything that was light 

 must ascend, everything that was hot must burn, and they had a number of 

 other general maxims upon which they built large conclusions. I met with 

 a specimen of this kind of reasoning the other day in an old work, which in my 

 early days was read with great interest, and obtained for many years a great 

 reputation as a scientific work. I allude to Burnett's " Theories of the Earth." 

 There is given in that work a beautiful description of how the earth might 

 have been put together, but not based upon any evidence as to how it was 

 put together. It is a beautiful book, written in glowing language, and dis- 

 playing a large fertility of imagination well fitted for men of modern times, 

 judging from some of the magnificent orations we have seen upon certain 

 theories as to the mysteries of creation, which seem to be rather going back 

 than forward, and quitting the calm paths of induction for older methods of 

 reasoning, which misled our less scientific ancestors. I think that it is our 

 business to investigate the theories that are propounded, whether they be 

 connected with metaphysics or physics ; to look at them calmly, and to see 

 if they necessarily lead to those conclusions which their propounders would 

 have us to draw. I do not think anything can be more valuable than the 

 spirit of a Society engaging in this work. It is a constant check upon those 

 hasty inferences which dazzle very much, and which, while they dazzle, they 

 blind, especially the senses of younger men, and particularly women, who, 

 when they see a theory proposed by a man of eminent name, of high personal 

 character and great scientific knowledge, take it for granted at once that it 

 must be true. (Hear, hear.) Unless there were some means set at work to 

 test the truth of these theories as they appear, they would have a much wider 

 influence than they now have. This duty of investigating I believe to be our 



