iNNNUAL MEETING. 



13 



He is above it ; and, therefore, what you gain by going through 

 part of a proposition and calling it by a new name 1 am not 

 able to comprehend. AVithin the last 24 hours I found a 

 very pretentious volume on my table which says that the old 

 scriptural religion is gone — that science has superseded it, that 

 the spade in Egypt and the astronomer have got rid of all the 

 old delusions. I wait to hear the proof of all that. It is 

 very well to say it ; but I think if those words were repeated 

 here in the Victoria Institute, in the presence of some of those 

 I could mention, with university degrees, the cloud of long 

 words would be soon dispersed and we should try to hnd out 

 what these words meant. All I can say is the charter of this 

 Institute is the investigation of truth to ascertain wdiat that 

 Truth is, and if we believe it is a God of Truth, the nearer we 

 come to the Truth itself the closer shall we be to God. — 

 [Applause.] 



The Dean of Canterbury. — My lord, ladies and gentlemen, I 

 hoped that the Archdeacon of London would have been here to move 

 this resolution, but I am glad to ask you to express your gratitude 

 to the President for two things — first of all, for his kindness in 

 consenting to be President of this Society, and secondh^, for his 

 kindness in escaping from the House of Lords in order to come and 

 make the interesting observations to which we have just listened. 

 AVe are extremely grateful to him also for the promise he has given 

 us to the fulfilment of which we shall look forward with great 

 interest, viz., the address which he has been prevented from preparing 

 at this moment. 



I should like to add, my lord, if I may do so without impertinence, 

 that your lordship referred to the great advantage this Society 

 experienced from its late President being a man of eminent scientific 

 position. For that we are grateful ; but I am sure we are not less 

 sensible of the advantage which the Society derives from having, as 

 our President, a person of your lordship's distinction, versed both in 

 law and matters of the world at large. While many difficulties in 

 connection with rehgion and the discoveries of science present them- 

 selves, there are many others, and those are of great importance, viz., 

 those relating to the law of evidence, the question of what is evidence 

 with respect to what occurred in former ages, and also, I venture to 

 say, in connection with that good judgment, that capacity of judging 

 human affairs in a broad light, which is acquired, in a most eminent 



