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instructed or uninstructed with regard to the truth or the real 
value of their subjects of discussion, the weight of their 
authority will be out of all proportion to the justness or the 
truth of their theories ; and, by the additional agency of a 
daily press, which is naturally eager and anxious to get pos- 
session of, for publication, every novelty in science, art, or 
literature, and is supplied with paid skilful writers, quite pre- 
pared to advocate or attack, as the case may be, the views in 
question, very inaccurate theories may for a time gain accept- 
ance. It is impossible that by such means the truth or 
falsehood of a new and specious theory can be arrived at, and 
the unlearned public are quite at the mercy of a brilliant 
lecturer, who may choose to advocate anything respecting 
religion, however old or exploded. 
A paradoxical novelty will attract more than sober truth 
under such circumstances, and a great deal of mischief may 
be done before the mistake is discovered, or the idol displaced 
from his pedestal. 
Undoubtedly there is another bar before which every such 
work will be brought, — namely that of dispassionate and learned 
critics, who have the knowledge requisite for disentangling 
the truth and error which are generally mixed up together in 
such performances ; but, for one person who will take the 
trouble to read the replies, there are twenty who will be con- 
tent to take upon trust the essay or lecture which has dazzled 
their imagination, and a new favourite will in all probability 
soon have withdrawn their attention altogether from the 
subject. 
I am far from complaining of this state of things ; — an excited, 
eager, and intelligent public, together with the complicated 
means which exist in the present day for gratifying its 
curiosity on every possible subject, belongs naturally to our 
advanced civilization : — we must take the advantages and the 
disadvantages together, and by prudential measures endeavour 
to make all work together for good. 
And it is under this point of view that the advantages of 
such an association as the Victoria Institute appear most 
evident and indisputable. It exactly meets the evil which I 
have endeavoured to describe, as resulting from the joint effects 
of popularity and the daily press. Its members are men who 
have become so from the conviction that such an organization is 
necessary, and who are willing to devote their time and their 
learning to the distasteful task of stripping error of its delu- 
sions, and of assisting the claims of true religion. 
At the present moment the duty is far from being a pleasant 
