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firmament; the sun and stars its pendent lamps; its music 
the murmur of streams, the pealing thunder, and the everlast- 
ing roar of ocean — I say this same Power could easily have 
caused us to pass through the probationary stages of ascidian, 
fish, reptile, monkey, and on to man, if it had so willed it ; but 
as science has failed to show that it is so, I pin my faith to 
the story in the grand old book, which tells us that man was 
created in the divine image, and I accept the tradition that 
Man sprang as Man direct from the hands of his God, 
Physiologists of every clime have for years been trying to 
connect the faculty of speech with some definite portion of the 
brain, with what result my preceding remarks will have shown. 
If the scalpel of the anatomist has failed to discover a material 
locus habitandi for man^s proud prerogative, — the faculty of 
Articulate Language ; if science has failed to trace speech to a 
“ material centre ” has failed thus to connect matter with mind, 
I submit that speech is the barrier between man and animals, 
establishing between them a difference not only of degree but 
of kind ; the Darwinian analogy between the brain of man and 
that of his reputed ancestor, the ape, loses all its force, whilst 
the common belief in the Mosaic account of the origin of man 
is strengthened. 
A discussion ensued, in which the Rev. J. W. Buckley, Mr. R. Dunn, 
the Revs. Dr. Barkley, J. H. Titcomb, J. Hill, D.D., Y. Edwards, arid 
R. B. Girdlestone ; Mr. E. Haughton, M.D., Mr. J. A. Fraser, M.D., 
Mr. Hayward, and Capt. F. Petrie took part. Dr. Bateman having replied, 
the Meeting was then adjourned, 
H 2 
