174 
ORDINARY MEETING, July 16, 1866. 
The Key. Walter Mitchell, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed ; and the 
names of the following Members and Associates were announced as having 
been elected since last Ordinary Meeting : — 
Members: — John Corderoy, Esq., 3, Kennington Green ; Rev. John Philip 
Gell, M.A., St. John’s, Notting Hill ; Malcolm Goldsmith, Esq., H.M. 
Civ. Ser., 43, Addison Road, Kensington ; D. J. Jenkins, Esq., 61, 
Marquis Road, Canonbury ; Frederick Prideaux, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, 
Reader on the Law of Real Property to the Inns of Court, Castelnau 
Cottage, Barnes ; J. Hornsby Wright, Esq., 2, Abbey Road, Maida 
Hill. 
Associates, — 1st Class : — Miss Broke, Marlborough Buildings, Bath ; 
2nd Class : — Peter Carthew, Esq., 15a, Kensington Palace Gardens, 
and Woodbridge Abbey, Suffolk. 
The following paper was then read : — 
ON THE VARIOUS THEORIES OF MANS PAST AND 
PRESENT CONDITION. — By James Reddie, Esq., 
Hon. Mem. Dial. Soc., Edin. Univer., Honorary Secretary. 
T HERE are three leading doctrines or theories current in 
the present day, which claim our attention as professing 
to account for the facts of man's past and present condition. 
The oldest and first in importance is what we have all been 
taught as children, that God created man a little lower than 
the angels, and gave him dominion over the inferior creatures. 
This might well be called the Monogenist , or the Historical 
Theory, but on the present occasion I prefer to give it another 
name, and will call it the Religious Theory. The second in 
importance, because, although the latest put forward, it is 
antagonistic to both the others, is the Darwinian Theory, 
which derives man from the ape. And the third is the 
