14 
sense of responsibility that we do the work devolving upon us. It ought to 
be comparatively easy work. It would seem, at first sight, to be a simple 
thing to watch the progress of science and to guard against any apparent 
clash between the study of the book of God’s work and the book of Bis 
word, as Lord Bacon expressed it ; and if this were all that was required of 
us, — if we really had only to deal with a patient wise study after truth, — it 
would be an easy matter, comparatively speaking. But, unfortunately, this 
is not the case. Along with the progress of science, which is the one dis- 
tinguishing character of the present day, there is the progress of science 
falsely so called, manifested in a determination to assert that the results 
obtained by science are everywhere against revelation and the belief in a 
supernatural power, — a determination which certainly does not necessarily 
belong to the study of natural science, although, undoubtedly, there has always 
been a reason to think that the exclusive study of nature does, in some 
minds, dim the power of looking through nature to the God of nature. 
Although many of the greatest scientific thinkers in the present, 
as in the past, find no antagonism in Religion and Science, there 
are too many of an entirely opposite disposition. Discoveries in 
natural science, which you would think at first sight had as little to do 
with questions of faith as they have to do with the cube-root, are eagerly 
seized upon, and in some way or other used to discredit revelation 
and a belief in God ; and, when we see this tendency abroad, we cannot 
afford to wait until time has worked a cure, — until false theories have 
been exposed and the truth has taken their place. We cannot, I say, 
afford to wait. We hear complaints from the colonies of the eagerness 
with which sceptical productions, embodying the worst tendencies of thought 
in the mother country, are sought after and read. We know the tendency 
there is to accept anything in this false science which seems to throw dis- 
credit on the faith of our ancestors, and we cannot always wait until time has 
set the matter right. There is undoubtedly a very heavy responsibility on 
the officers of this Institute, of which they are deeply conscious, in choosing 
the time when, and the means how, to controvert the scepticism which is 
growing up around us, and in doing their best to enable the Society to 
answer wisely the challenge thrown down to it. We do most heartily thank 
the members of the Institute for the way in which they have helped and sup- 
ported us. There are, undoubtedly, great difficulties to be encountered. There 
are some questions which we think it wiser not to be in a hurry to attack, and 
yet, when we find that these questions are raised, we are obliged fearlessly to 
attack and answer them to the best of our means and ability. Again, the 
scope of our efforts is well defined, and the council have to watch that none 
are tempted to go a little outside it, and to enter into subjects which belong 
to other societies.* 
Mr. Trelawney Saunders then read the following paper : — 
* “ Scientia Scientiarum,” a paper on the origin and objects of the 
Institute, will be found in vol. i. It is also published separately. 
