72 
have not circulated our Transactions much more extensively.* You 
must not suppose that any of us agree with all the statements in 
the papers. Some of them I have read with considerable hesitation, but 
all of them with admiration-admiration at your courage, at your fair- 
ness, and at your thorough determination that questions shall be honestly 
probed. That will tell among Englishmen. I heartily wish we could ma e 
some men blush when they have been convicted of bad reasoning and have 
not had the grace to own it. I think, sir, your own memory, and that ot 
the members of the council, will fully understand my allusion. 
Lieut.-Gen. Crawford.— On coming into this room, I had the honour ot 
having a suggestion made to me that I should second this resolution. I sup- 
pose a soldier will always be ready and willing to do anything he can for the 
honour and glory of his master— that great Eternal Master who gave us that 
blessed Book which is to be our guide in life and our comfort in death, and 
the fruits of which will be a glorious immortality hereafter. Surely, as 
soldiers, we are all bound to stand by that Book, and to meet and oppose its 
enemies— not with carnal weapons, but with the weapons of a scientific in- 
tellectual opposition, such as have been ever used by this Society. (Cheers.) 
The other day, I think it was on the 6th of this month, we had a paper 
read and an important discussion upon the so-called— I am glad we have 
that phrase “ so-called ’’—flint implements of the Drift. Now the fact of 
the matter is, that whatever may be said of it, there never was a period in 
the world’s history in which men were so led by authority as they are now. 
They enthrone the intellects of some men who manage to get the ear of the 
public ; they enthrone certain men who manage to flatter their vanity an 
influence their belief, by the view that free-thinkers are exercismg their 
faculties without being chained as slaves to the opinions of others. But the 
fact is the very reverse in the present day, if you take the thousands who im- 
bibe these pernicious views, questions and doubts, with regard to the Bible. 
It is entirely by the assertions of others -the dogmatic, continuous asser- 
tion of that which has never been proved to be a fact scientifically— that 
most people are led. I recollect sitting once by the bedside of that venerable 
man, Sir David Brewster, shortly before his death. He said : “ General, m 
the present day people fancy that they are free-thinkers, and that they are 
searching, with a thoroughly intellectual examination, into every subject that 
comes before them with reference to those questions which bear on the vera- 
city of the Bible. But, in the whole history of the world, I don’t thmk there 
ever was a period of time when men were more led by the opinions of others.’ 
He also made this further observation : “ I remember, in my early days, when 
I was a young man, a sceptic showed me some books belonging to the school 
* With a view to the more extensive circulation of the Transactions, it has 
been decided, so far as the funds of the Institute admit, to issue a selection 
of the most popular papers m a “ People’s Edition ; the first paper of thi 
series to be the Annual Address delivered on this occasion.— |Ed.J 
