243 
ORDINARY MEETING, January 7, 1878. 
The Rey. Preb. Currey, D.D., Master op the Charterhouse, 
in the Chair. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed; and the follow- 
ing elections were announced : — 
Members : — The Right Hon. the Lord Nelson, Salisbury ; J. R. Coutts, Esq., 
London; J. R. Fairfax, Esq., New South Wales ; Rev. M. C. Osborn, 
London ; Rev. W. B. Pope, D.D., President of the Wesleyan Con- 
ference, Didsbury. 
Associates Rev. J. Cook, D.D., United States ; IL G. Whiting, Esq., 
London ; Miss S. M. Gould, Bristol. 
Also the presentation of the following Works to the Library : — 
“ United States Geological and Geographical Survey,” 
Yol. XI., &c. From the Survey. 
“ Quinology of the East Indian Plantations.” By J. E. Howard, Esq., F.R.S. 
From the Author. 
“ Revelation and Science in complete Harmony.” By J. Coutts, Esq. 
From the Author. 
The following paper was then read by the Author : — 
NATURE’S LIMITS: AN ARGUMENT FOR THEISM. 
By S. R. Pattison, Esq., F.G.S. 
I SHALL endeavour to prove the existence of God from 
the fact that all natural phenomena are limited, and 
therefore subject to law, which requires the existence of a 
limiting power, the science of which is not disclosed by the 
phenomena, but the cognizance of which is disclosed to us by 
our experience of cause and effect, whereby we are led to a 
First Cause ; or, in other words : — Science is the discovery of 
established order in observed phenomena. The existence of 
order implies limits effected by ordination, limits imply a 
limiting power, a cause. The inference of a cause necessarily 
leads, as we prosecute it, to the affirmation of a First Cause, 
and this, by a like necessity, leads to the parallel conclusion 
that the First Cause must be infinite, or, in other words, must 
be Deitv. 
2. As Lacordaire eloquently puts it : — “ Infinity io the first 
mark of the being without cause ; does nature bear this sign ? 
