147 
ORDINARY MEETING, May 6th, 1867. 
The Rev. Walter Mitchell, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The minutes of the previous Meeting having been read and confirmed, 
the Honorary Secretary announced that, in return for our Journal of 
Transactions , the Royal Institution of Great Britain had, through its 
Secretary, presented the Institute with a complete set of its Proceedings 
from 1851 to 1866, in four volumes, and that three pamphlets had also 
been received from Mr. Patrick McFarlane, a Member of the Institute. 
The following Paper was then read : — 
ON THE LOGIC OF SCEPTICISM. By the Rev. Robinson 
Thornton, D.D., Head Master of Epsom College , Mem . 
Viet. Inst. 
T HE conclusions, or supposed conclusions, arrived at by- 
modern science in opposition to tbe statements made in 
the Books which we accept as containing a Divine Revelation, 
have been generally parried by throwing doubt upon the facts 
or observations on which they are founded. Believers in the 
genuineness and authenticity of the Old and New Testament 
have been contented to cast discredit upon the accuracy of 
observers, or have even been tempted to accuse them of mis- 
representing or inventing facts, for the sole purpose of sub- 
verting the authority of the writings which others held sacred. 
This accusation may possibly be merited in some few cases. 
Hasty observations may have been reported as nice and care- 
ful : inferences may have been registered as facts : and without 
doubt observations have received a direction, and reports a 
colour, from a foregone conclusion. But it would be doing a 
great injustice to the majority of those who advocate the views 
which bur Institute was founded to combat, if we attributed 
to them any design but that of arriving at truth by means of 
truth. We contend that observations have been incorrect, 
and facts mis-stated, not that they have been deliberately 
falsified. However, it is not sufficient to impugn the records 
of the senses. Cogent argument as it is, if we are able to 
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