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What truths have we obtained l what golden ore 
Of certainty — to weigh the balance down 
With priceless value ? Look around and see 
How still they wander in the labyrinth, 
In the old mazes, jaded and perplexed 
With puzzling tracks, which bring them round again 
To paths already tried — and no escape ! 
Or mark them working hard at Time and Space, 
Substance, Causality, the External World, 
Ego and Non-Ego — the Absolute 
Being and Non-Being — ‘ A priori’ grounds 
Of synthesis, — Abstraction pure, and store 
Of subjects — Accident, Phenomena : 
With these they build a crazy bridge, to span 
The dark, deep chasm, yawning wide between 
‘ Thought Absolute’ — and on the other side 
1 Absolute Being ’ — and essay to cross 
With all their company, and all their weight 
Of words— a ponderous baggage — so to reach 
Ontology, who sits enthroned in mist, 
The hazy ruler of the opposite coast. 
But scarce their feet have pressed the middle beam 
When the false fabric cracks, and prone is hurled 
A hideous ruin ; headlong, too, fall they 
With all their dogmas rattling round their ears, 
And seized by whirlpools, underneath are rolled 
In rapids far away, to sink in depths 
Of dark Nonentity and Unbelief.” 
By R. M. Beverley, M.A. 
Mr. J. Bateman, P.R.S. — I have much pleasure in moving a vote of thanks 
to Mr. Howard for his most able, interesting, and varied Address, to which I 
am sure yon all listened with very great pleasure. I do not know, Sir, where 
I should go to hear a better address; but I do know that at the Victoria 
Institute I can sometimes hear one as good. Holding, as I do, a very high 
opinion of the value of this Institute, I am glad to find that it is appreciated 
not only in the three kingdoms, but in other and far more distant portions of 
her Majesty’s vast empire. It was only the other day that I received a letter 
from India, from one of my sons, who is a missionary there, in which ho 
requested that two of his friends might have an honour on which they had set 
their hearts — that of being elected members of the Victoria Institute. This 
is only one of many illustrations of an appreciation of this Institute having 
penetrated into very distant parts. And here I may, perhaps, also mention, 
