PREFACE. 
1 HAVE once more the satisfaction of congratulating the 
Vice-Patrons, Members and Associates of the Victoria 
Institute on the completion of another volume of our Journal 
of Transactions, and the commencement of Volume V. Con- 
sidering that the Society was only founded in 1 865, and not 
organized till 1866, when our Ordinary Meetings began and 
our first Papers were read and discussed, I venture to say 
that the amount of printed matter we have already published 
is unprecedented in the history of scientific societies. I may 
also as confidently appeal to the quality as to the quantity of 
what we have published as a source of very great satisfaction. 
It could scarcely be expected that all our later papers 
should have as much novelty or interest as some of those with 
which we commenced our proceedings. But we are bound to 
take up the most sombre questions, when their consideration 
is of consequence, as affecting directly or indirectly the truths 
of revelation. We must rather, therefore, measure our suc- 
cess by the soundness of our reasoning, and the importance of 
our discussions, than by their liveliness ; though, as a rule, I 
think I may add, our discussions have never been dull. 
None of the other Authors of Essays which appear in this 
Volume will, I feel very sure, consider that any injustice is 
done to them, if I here venture to call special attention to the 
great value of the three papers “ On Human Responsibility,” 
contributed to the present volume by the Rev. Prebendary 
