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to signify a person who holds certain opinions and sticks to them because 
he has good reasons for doing so ; and, such being the case, I have no diffi- 
culty in asking you to acknowledge yourselves bigots by thanking Professor 
Beale for his very admirable paper. (Applause.) We shall be happy to 
hear any one who would like to address us upon the subject ; but, as 
time is precious, I must ask those w'ho do speak to be good enough to keep 
themselves closely to the point, and to make their remarks as brief as 
possible. I presume I may thank Professor Beale. (Applause.) 
Eev. F. C. Cook, D.D.— I merely wish to put this point. Can any 
man say that he has ever seen the mechanism of a molecule ? If no man 
can say he has seen molecular mechanism, is it not, I ask, in itself a huge 
assumption ? 
Mr. C. J. W. Pfoundes.— An illustration occurs to me wnth regard to 
one who had attained some considerable notoriety. It is stated that at 
one time, when addressing an admiring circle of his friends, he was laying 
down the law, in the egotistical and dogmatic manner w'hich is the wont of 
the particular class of persons to whom Professor Beale has alluded ; he 
informed his audience how he occupied his time, from early morning until 
late at night, — how he devoted every moment of his waking hours to some 
special purpose, until the disciples who surrounded him began to look upon 
him with awe ; at length, however, one of them, less reverent than the rest, 
exclaimed, “ But, sir, you have not allow'ed yourself one moment to think !” 
This seems to me to be pretty much what we find, in the case of most of the 
specialists of whom we hear so much, whose ability we cannot doubt, and 
whose energy and devotion to their hobbies no one would be disposed to 
revile. In driving their several hobbies along the narrow grooves to which 
they are confined, they seem to be quite oblivious to many important things. 
As a searcher after knowledge, and one who has battled against difficulties 
at home and abroad for many years, I have been very much disappointed on 
coming home, and hearing some of our great men speaking in public, on 
scientific matters ; and have had occasion to feel anything but confidence 
in some of the statements made, especially on matters of every-day life, 
— statements which I have known to be erroneous. When I look around 
and see the results of the fallacies which the scientific world (of course, 
speaking generally) puts forth, I am bound to express my great disap- 
pointment, and say that modern thought is indeed going in a direction 
which impairs the intellectual and moral elements in mankind. I am 
sorry to say, that many of the professors who come before the world seem 
to be guilty of what is neither more nor less than dishonesty. They 
distort facts, in order to bring them into their own narrow groove, for the 
bolstering up of some point that may be under discussion at the moment. 
There are many points connected with the subject that would have been 
very interesting to discuss, could we have had a copy of the paper before- 
hand. I had expected to hear a little more about the decline of modern 
thought, rather than so much in the way of combating the specialists of the 
