47 
The Right Hon. the Earl Nelson ; had much pleasure in moving, “That 
the Report of the Council now read be received and adopted, and circulated 
amongst the members and associates.” In doing so, he wished to express 
his gratification at the progress which the Institute had made. It was, he 
said, one of the glories of the Church of England that she had so nobly come 
forward, not to check Science, as some Churches had done, but to sanctify it. 
He condemned the crude deductions of men of science, which were put for- 
ward as irrefragable proofs of the absurdity of Revealed Religion. One of 
the essential works of this Institute was to sanctify Science, and to show that 
Revelation was in no way antagonistic to modern scientific discovery. He 
strongly counselled unity among all Christian bodies, for unity was essentially 
needed to meet the speculations and dogmatism of infidel writers. 
Rear-Admiral J. Selwyn, R.N. — I regret to say that although one of 
the original foundation members, yet I have not been able to be present 
at any of the previous meetings, having been very much engaged in foreign 
countries for many years past. I have made myself acquainted with the 
nature of the report, which is now ofFered for your approval. While in 
many other institutions known to me there is a lamentably long list 
of defaulters, when the arrears of subscriptions come to be read, often 
amounting to 25 or 30 per cent., I am happy to draw your attention to the 
fact, that in this Institute the number of those who have not paid their 
subscriptions for 1877 is only about 3^ per cent, of the total number of 
annual contributors. I think this result is largely due to the exertions of the 
officers of the Institute, but it is also a most gratifying feature of the Annual 
Report, as showing the real interest taken in the work of the Society. No 
test of this feeling is more certain than that of the regularity with which 
such payments are made, and no result can be more advantageous to the 
Society in which it occurs. The work which has elicited so solid a com- 
mendation has been, during the past year, of a character even more likely 
to interest large numbers of thoughtful men of all nations than ever 
before ; since the papers read, and the discussions that have taken 
place on them, have not only ably confuted much false reasoning on all- 
important Subjects, but have materially added to the true basis of reason- 
ing, by bringing forward new facts and new explanations of old records. 
Among the latter I would especially point to the paper on the “Horus 
Myth,” by Mr. Cooper, most interesting as evidence of the primeval feeling 
among mankind as to the inevitable necessity to the human race of a Re- 
deemer, however grossly portrayed. The refutation of errors advocated by 
Mr. Darwin and Professor Tyndal and their followers, ably conducted as it 
has been, can never possess the abiding interest which attaches to new facts, 
such as become the best weapons of future controversy. Theories and their 
authors often perish together, but new facts in each generation make up the 
true sum of science. To these facts, travellers by sea and land can largely 
contribute, and I cannot but think, if a wider field of observation were more 
closely studied, we should advance faster, and along safer tracks than by 
