of Edinburgh, Session 1868 - 69 . 397 
Before doing so, I will venture to touch for one moment on a 
rather delicate topic — the connection of the Society in its early 
days with theological subjects of discussion — because I find at that 
time an incident which might have helped the Council and the 
Society when a question was lately raised as to this matter. In 
1791 and 1792 the Rev. Dr Ogilvy of Midmar read no less than 
three successive papers on the Theology of Plato, whereupon there 
occurs the following minute : — “ The Society observed with regret 
that the discussion of a religious nature, contained in this learned 
communication, rendered an admission of it among their papers 
inconsistent with their plan ; and therefore it was not put into the 
hands of the Committee for publication.” If it was found neces- 
sary to discourage such discussions in 1790, it is not less so in these 
days, when religious differences are not less general, diverse, and 
keen. Appealed to on a recent occasion to state the law or usage 
of the Society on this subject, the Council had only one difficulty ; 
which was to define what amounted to the nature of a theological 
communication. It would be clearly absurd, for example, to say 
that when a scientific observation or inquiry threw light upon a 
scripture fact, or some incident in scripture history, the author 
should be debarred from calling attention, in passing, to such a 
practical application of his inquiries. On the other hand, no 
Fellow of the Society would probably ever dream of introducing 
into it an express dissertation on a pure theological theme. Be- 
tween these extremes there must be a limit which ought not to be 
crossed, and which it must be left in the first place to every man’s 
discretion to observe ; but if it be passed, I apprehend that it is 
still the duty of the Society, or its Council acting by its authority, 
to see that the offending communication, as of old, “ be not put 
into the hands of the Committee for publication.” 
The first twenty years of the life of the Society is rich in literary 
inquiries. I venture to hope that some time soon, a literary Yice- 
President will undertake to tell us something of these communica- 
tions, both on account of the information they contain, and for the 
sake of the light they throw upon the character, in point of learning, 
of their authors, who were among the most learned Scotsmen of 
the period. It appears that no fewer than thirty-eight papers on 
