317 
Dr. Irons having testified his acknowledgments, 
Rev. J. B. Owen. — I have much pleasure in moving “ That the thanks 
of this meeting be presented to the Earl of Shaftesbury for his occupancy of 
the chair on the present occasion.” We have heard a great deal to-night 
about the formation and nucleation of facts and inferences ; but we shall all 
agree on one point — that it would be a very difficult thing to formulate all the 
facts connected with the public services of our noble President. So long as 
his lordship continues to manifest the power and talent and fairness of 
thought which distinguish his orations in public, it will be difficult to get 
many people to believe that, after all, we are only descended from a jelly- 
fish. (Cheers.) 
Mr. C. Brooke.— I have much pleasure in seconding the motion. 
The President. — My lord bishop, ladies, and gentlemen : Small thanks 
are due to me for my services this eveniug. The lecture we have heard to- 
night is one that I have derived much instruction from, and I have been de- 
lighted with the manner in which Dr. Irons has exposed the false philosophy 
of a book which I have had little time to study. But I confess that I am filled 
with astonishment and wonder how it is possible for any man whose mind is 
a treasury of thought and abstraction, to be so regardless of the great neces- 
sities of the human race surrounding him, as to devote a long life, day and 
night, to the simple and sole purpose of shutting us up to the startling con- 
clusion that we are really descended from a monkey, and are in all probability 
returning to that state. Much of the power of such a man should have been 
devoted to the practical duties of life. If many of our abstract philosophers 
who are employed in this way, would address themselves to the pressing evils 
of the day, the great necessities of the seething populations of mankind 
would receive far more attention than they do at present. Let us have 
philosophy, and speculation, and high intellectual pursuits by all means ; but 
there are high practical dominating duties to be performed also, and of these 
duties Christianity is one. There is this simple lesson of which Dr. Watts 
reminds us all — that we must give a good account of every day that we 
have passed. (Cheers.) 
The Meeting then terminated. 
Note. — The papers read and discussed at the last Meetings of the session 
(namely those held on the 5th and 19th of June, 1871), were inserted in 
Yol. V., because they completed, so far as it was possible, an important 
inquiry begun in a paper contained in that volume. 
2 D 
YOL. YI. 
