PREFACE TO 'THIRD EDITION. 
TN preparing a Third Edition of this Pamphlet, the author 
egs leave to say, that, although it has been circulated 
by order of the Provisional Committee of the Victoria In- 
stitute, he alone is responsible for its contents. In the 
Objects of the Society," " Terms of Membership," &c., 
will be found all that is strictly - official," if I may use the 
term ; and as this . pamphlet has not touched upon either of 
t e last four Objects of the Society, I would beg special 
attention to them briefly here. 
The Fourth Object merely explains that our proceedings are 
to be conducted like those of other Scientific Societies, by the 
rea mg of Papers or Memoirs, and discussing them afterwards 
it is, however, intended that our reports of discussions are to 
be more than usually full, as is signified by their being 
described as - verbatim reports," instead of mere brief ab- 
stracts. In some Societies— as, for instance, the Boyal 
Society discussions are not reported at all; and in the 
Koyax Institution of Great Britain, the Papers read are never 
discussed. The advantages of the course proposed in the 
Victoria Institute, as a Society for the study of General 
Science and Philosophy, must at once be evident, 
run i? Frftli Object is distinctively peculiar to this Society, 
iiie Eoyal Institution, indeed, has various courses of Lectures 
some of which are strictly scientific and educational, delivered 
by Professors attached to the Institution; but its popular 
Lectures on miscellaneous subjects are not the results of 
studies or discussions carried on under its auspices, and 
cannot be compared with the kind of Lectures here proposed. 
. 8lx t h Object. The intended publication of translations of 
important foreign works, of real scientific and philosophical 
value, is similar to what the Anthropological Society of London 
is doing, with marked success, for Anthropology. By this 
means, it is hoped that subscribers will not only receive a full 
return for their subscriptions, but that valuable books will be 
placed m their hands which otherwise it might not have been 
form t0 pr ° CUre 111 this countl X and not at all in an English 
The Seventh Object also goes beyond the scope of what most 
