Of Voltaire and his followers, and he said 5 they were most admirable books, 
—that they were so conclusively written, and in such a philosophical spirit, 
that scepticism, which for many generations had been afraid and ashamed 
to raise its head, had at last been able to do so.’ Now, young men in the 
present day have really and truly never read these works which are said to 
be so conclusive for the overthrowing of our faith ; but I have read them ; 
and if other people would do the same, the result would be that they would 
be ashamed of being implicated in the advancement of views which are. so 
utterly untenable by intelligent and philosophic minds.” He also said : 
“ I have desired to keep myself well abreast of the intellect of the times, 
and I think I may say that, after my long life, I know, pretty well where 
Science has spoken and where she has been silent, and, in my judgment, a 
vast quantity of the theories of the day are based upon nothing but asser- 
tion.” He added: “I am not aware of one single scientific proven fact 
connected with geology, or any other scientific fact, which in the slightest 
degree affects the truth of the Bible. I do not mean assertions. I mean 
real, well-grounded scientific fact founded upon pure and perfect induction 
the premisses clear and distinct, and the inferences irresistible.” Such were 
Sir David’s words, as near as I can give them. Now, I would say m 
reference to the paper which we had on the flint implements of the Drift, 
and to the discussion which took place upon it, that what we want now is a 
true, established, certain, unequivocal scale for measuring time, and we have 
never had one yet. We have never had a scale which has been proved to be 
true for measuring past times in geology. As to these flint flakes, I recol- 
lect years ago seeing some of them for the first time ; but the moment I saw 
their irregular form and their great number — and they had all come from 
one locality, — and the impracticability of their nature, I said to myself, ‘ ‘ Can 
any rational man believe that these are anything like humanly-constructed 
implements ? Here are an immense number of them. How came they together 
in this place ? The place could not have been a workshop, or a place in which 
arms were made. How, then, can people found a theory on anything of the 
kind?” So, again, when I heard the paper read here the other day, I was 
satisfied that these flakes were merely the results of some natural convulsion, 
in which they were broken up in the way that we see them, and that they 
never were real implements at all. T only touch upon this matter in order 
to show how important it is that the subject should be examined, and that 
we should get some proper scale to measure past time by. They tell us 
that so many thousands of years were necessary for the production of a 
certain thing ; but where is the warrant for such a statement ? The object 
of this Society is to investigate these matters without passion and without 
preconceived views ; to deal with them with clear minds, and to face the 
truth wherever it is ; and I know that our Chairman will follow out 
this plan, even if no one else will. (Cheers*) The Society wants support* 
and it should be supported, for it deserves it. It wants to have its works 
spread broadcast over the country, and they ought to be published at a 
cheaper rate than they are ; but we cannot do that until we enlarge our means. 
