93 
The Chairman. I am sure that all will join with me in conveying the 
thanks of the Institute to Professor Challis for his very valuable paper, and 
to the Rev. T. M. Gorman for having so kindly read it. 
The Hon. Secretary. — Letters have been received from various members, 
who are unable to be present here to-night, expressing their approval of 
Professor Challis’s paper ; and one from General Boileau, F.R.S., commends 
it as a really satisfactory paper upon the subject. 
Rev. H. St. John Reade. — Allow me to preface my remarks by relating 
an anecdote. Not long ago, a schoolmaster of my acquaintance was about to 
give a lesson on Genesis vii. and viii. He consulted Smith’s Dictionary of the 
Bible, and, being struck with the arguments in favour of a partial deluge, 
and not seeing its inconsistency with an orthodox belief in the inspiration 
of the Bible, he laid before his pupils both theories — the universal theory 
and the partial theory, — and, without pledging himself to either, stated the 
principal arguments for each. One of the boys wrote home to his father to 
say that he had been told by one of the masters that the Deluge was not 
universal. His father wrote to one of the governors to say that the boy had 
been taught that the Bible had not been inspired ; and the council recom- 
mended the master to resign his position at the end of the term. That 
schoolmaster was not myself, but I was his friend, and I am still a school- 
master, and my boys are taught the elements of science and read manua 
of geology. I come to this Society to learn how best to teach scientific know- 
ledge in conjunction with Bible History ; and I feel sure that the reason 
why so many parish clergymen have become members is, that they may not 
denounce as false in the church what they admit to be true in the lecture- 
room ; and I for one shall welcome any hints upon this point. The educa- 
tion of the young is a most important matter in every respect, and this is 
the question which touches it most nearly in the present day. As things 
are now, we rest the whole moral teaching of our boys on Bible History ; 
and it is absolutely necessary to find a plain, straightforward interpretation 
of the Scripture narratives, which shall leave those narratives manifestly 
consistent with the ultimate standards of what is right and true — with the 
demonstrable conclusions of science, no less than with the good of mankind 
in general and with the best aspirations of honest hearts. If this cannot be 
done, we must alter our system altogether. If you puzzle a boy about the 
plain meaning of a familiar Scripture narrative, he will puzzle himself about 
the meaning of a plain Scripture precept. When his faith in the narrative 
totters, his faith in morality will totter also. 
Rev. George Henslow. — In any remarks I may make I do not propose 
to enter upon any consideration of the subject of inspiration ; but to deal 
with the fact of the Deluge as recorded in Genesis, as being such as falls 
two layers, separated but in succession, containing animal remains of the same 
classes, and in large proportion of the same species, might be due to the 
earth’s surface being swept over by successive waves of the Deluge conse- 
quent upon repeated oscillations of the crust ( see p. 79). 
