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important subjects of the present day. Certainly the Victoria Institute is 
fulfilling the purposes of its founders in the fullest degree in bringing before 
the public such papers as these, which are full of profound thought, calculated 
to meet perfectly all the distressing Sadducean objections of the present age. If 
men could only think and deliberate in such a style as this, we should find that 
the extremely superficial metaphysical thought which has been manifesting 
itself hitherto, and producing such a Sadducean leaven on the literature of the 
country, would soon be obliterated ; and I cannot help thinking that Dr. 
Irons is doing the same good in this generation, in such a paper as this, as 
Bishop Butler did in his generation. I only hope that hereafter Dr. Irons 
will respond to the suggestion of Mr. Row by giving his paper a more popular 
character, better suited for general appreciation. He has confined himself 
here to stating his thoughts in the closest possible manner ; and I cannot help 
thinking that each sentence might well be elaborated into a page, with the 
greatest possible advantage to those whose habits of thought have not fitted 
them to follow this close style of reasoning. The paper before us manifests 
the results of a lifetime of study of the most difficult writers upon the most 
difficult subjects that perhaps the human intellect has ever exercised itself 
upon. We cannot therefore but feel indebted to Dr. Irons for putting before 
us the main principles of heathen philosophy, manifesting what were the 
thoughts of men when they were earnestly striving after a knowledge of God ; 
and for putting that before us in a comprehensive shape, condensing into a 
short space that which in point of fact can only be found in the largest folios 
of our libraries. I can only again express my extreme gratification at having 
had the pleasure of presiding in the Victoria Institute when such elaborate 
papers have been brought before us. The paper is manifestly an answer to 
the superficial thought of the present day, which would bring before people 
the idea that everything which is purely philosophical or scientific must be 
opposed to the doctrines of revelation. I think Dr. Irons has shown us how 
the highest thoughts that the human intellect can reach, not only confirm all 
that has been taught us by God’s own book — the book of revelation — but 
also that those thoughts can be elaborated according to the purest systems of 
science and of the most refined philosophy ; and that we, as Christians, need 
not be afraid to meet the men of the world on their own ground, in order to 
show that pure and true science and sound philosophy never can be at 
variance with those truths which God has revealed to man. (Hear, hear.) 
Dr. Irons. — I have to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your appreciation of 
my paper, ^ which I quite agree should have been five times as long as it is. 
With regard to the discussion which has taken place on the paper, Mr, 
Row has asked me to consider the circumstances of human probation, which 
arise out of the fact that we are so differently conditioned and circumstanced 
from our birth. I would point out to Mr. Row that in the present paper 
I have referred back to these very difficulties which I specified in my former 
paper. He will find this passage : — 
“ The relation once established between the Moral Agent and the Moral 
