174 
Proceedings of the lioyal Society 
Monday , 2d December 1867. 
Opening Address by Sir David Brewster, the President. 
Communicated by Professor Kelland. 
Gentlemen, — If it is the primary object of our scientific institu- 
tions to advance the interests of science, to promote its diffusion, 
and to extend its influence, it is not the least of its secondary 
functions to grapple with intellectual error, and to expose those 
various forms of superstition and spiritual agency which are now 
exercising such a perilous influence over half-educated minds. 
In mediseval times, when positive knowledge had hardly assumed 
a definite form, and when the little which did exist was confined 
to particular classes of society, minds of activity and power 
naturally threw themselves into depths which they could not 
sound, or among quicksands from which they could not escape, and 
thus sought, in wild speculation, for the excitement and notoriety 
which they could not find in patient research. But in an enlight- 
ened age, when real knowledge has made such extraordinary ad- 
vances, and when the open fields of literature and science invite 
into their broad domains every variety of genius, and offer a rich 
harvest of truths to the patient reaper, it is difficult to discover how 
men of character and high attainments should have surrendered 
themselves to opinions not less visionary than the legends and 
prodigies of the ancient mythology. 
From such a high level the stream of error has a quick and easy 
descent, permeating the more influential circles, but driven back 
by the shrewd intelligence of the pious and educated poor. It is 
doubtless among the middle and upper classes of society that this 
credulity and love of the marvellous is most conspicuous. It is 
luxuriant among the gay and the idle, who have been reared on 
the rank pastures of our fictitious literature, and who have no faith 
in those material forces and those cosmical laws which are in daily 
operation around them. But whatever be its cause, its only cure 
is a system of secular and scientific education. 
When the scholar has learnt to read, to write, and to count, he 
has obtained only the tools of instruction. To acquire a knowledge 
