34 
Such are the cautions as to our method and temper which 
I would venture to suggest to this Institute, and to all 
who are with us in spirit. It would be presumptuous to 
say, in the words which Gotlie puts into the mouth of his 
hero, 
“ Und gediichte jeder wie icli, so stiinde die Macht auf 
Gegen die Macht, und wir erfreuten uns alle des Friedens.” 
Peace there can hardly be, so long as humanity is what it is, 
prone to worship itself rather than its Maker. But of this I 
am sure, that a quiet, large-hearted, and yet firm maintenance 
of the great truths of our Religion in the face of the glare and 
din of new discoveries, amidst all the confusion which neces- 
sarily arises when, as now, old landmarks are broken up, — a 
temperate and enlightened defence of our Christian inheritance 
against those who would bid us fling it away as effete, tainted 
with the superstition of the past, and dimmed with the rust of 
ages, will, with the blessing of the Great Author of all, be the 
happy means of preserving many a soul from the eddying 
whirlpool of Atheism, or the dreary desolation of a Pantheistic 
wilderness. 
The Right Hon. the Lord O’Neill. — I rise to move, — “That our 
best thanks be presented to the Rev. Dr. Robinson Thornton for the 
Annual Address now delivered, and also to those who have kindly read 
papers during the session.” I am but a humble learner in the work 
brought before this Institute, and therefore can only say that I listened 
to the lucid sketch given by Dr. Thornton, of the progress of scepticism, 
and of the manner in which scepticism should be met, with very profound 
respect and admiration. As to the second part of the resolution, I am 
scarce competent to say a word, because this is the first evening I have 
had the honour of being present, therefore I have not had the advantage 
of hearing the papers this year; but I have not been inattentive to the 
publications of the Society, some of which I have read with great interest 
and profit ; and am sure that if the course delivered this year bo at all 
like those I have read for previous years, they must be such as most of us 
would be desirous of returning thanks for. I have much pleasure in proposing 
the resolution which I have read. 
The Rev. Principal J. H. Riog, D.D. — I have great pleasure in seconding 
the vote of thanks just moved, and feel it a great honour to do bo. 
It is quite impossible for us to do justice to such an Address as that to 
which we have listened, and I will not attempt to do so, but we feel our 
thanks. The Address has been truly criticised as a very lucid, and a very 
able review of the scepticism of the last two centuries. It is impregnated, 
as all that Dr. Thornton writes is, with allusions which show a range of 
reading that very few of us can hope to emulate ; but notwithstanding 
