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logic that arises from figures and metaphors. I need not remind you, as 
theologians, of the vast amount of mischief which has arisen from that in 
interpreting the views of the Fathers. They have been made to say a great 
many things as matters of fact which in their minds were simply figures ; and 
hence the danger of being too poetical. (Laughter.) We sometimes find 
fault with this or that man for being rather prosy, and no doubt it is a bad 
fault in a public speaker to be prosy ; but the prosy speakers are generally 
the safer men. (Laughter.) Those prosy speakers seldom make mistakes. 
I think the gentleman who spoke first will forgive me for saying, in a good- 
humoured way, that I listened to his strictures upon Professor Kirk’s use of 
the words “ life,” “ form,” “ force,” “ uniformity,” and so on, and came to 
the conclusion that he rather proved Professor Kirk’s case, for he really made 
nothing of them himself. (Laughter.) The Professor said those things were 
non-realities, fancies of thought, though expressions useful and convenient 
enough in carrying out a discussion or in writing a thesis. All language in 
its origin having been hieroglyphic, all the figures in human speech are the 
posterity of the original hieroglyphics, only described in words instead of in 
the mental thought, which narrowed the line. But in reasoning it is unfair 
to part from the question in order to reason from the figure. Mr. Row has 
put into my hands a quotation showing the danger of this. There is a 
certain dishonesty in using this kind of figure — the personification of senses 
in nature. Just assume for a moment that there is a power of natural selec- 
tion. You will remember that Professor Kirk quotes a passage involving one 
of the operations of thought both in plants and animals, for we know what 
this “ natural selection ” means, — it is the result of a syllogism made in the 
mind. It is a curious notion to expect to find a syllogism in the brain of a 
cabbage (laughter) ; the power to add two and two together, and to draw a 
conclusion and act upon it (Laughter.) 
Mr. Redd ie. — But not more difficult than it would be to find the brain in 
the cabbage. (Laughter.) 
Rev. J. B. Owen. — That is true. This is the extract which Mr. Row has 
supplied me with : — 
“We must suppose that there is a power of natural selection ” — 
Now mark the personifying here ! — 
“ Always watching each slight accidental variation in the transparent layers, 
and carefully selecting each alteration which under varied circumstances may 
in any way or in any degree tend to produce a distinctive image.” 
Here is the work of a first-rate artist, — a combination of the artist, the philo- 
sopher, and the man of business, all in an eye ! (Laughter.) 
“We must suppose each new state of the instrument to be multiplied by 
the million, and each to be preserved till a better be produced, and then the 
old ones to be destroyed. In living bodies variations would cause the slight 
alterations ; generation will multiply them almost indefinitely ; and natural 
