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but we must be still learning-religion and science are progressing and we must be prepared to learn more and more. Let us show we are of open mind and desire to recognise the truth.

Lieutenant-General Sir HENRY GEARY, K.C.B.-It gives me great pleasure to be allowed to second this vote of thanks to Professor Silvanus Thompson. I am sure we have all listened to it with the greatest possible interest, and I think it has been a great opportunity for us to have heard the subject handled this afternoon by so high an authority. It would be quite premature to attempt to make remarks any upon the because when it comes to be paper, printed it will require most of us to take it home for careful study; but I think an additional reason for our thanking Professor Thompson for coming amongst us is the particular era at which this paper has been read. Even the most careless cannot be blind and deaf to the unsettled state of the minds of people at the present moment. It is a time when every thinking man and woman has to go to the foundation of the faith in which they have been brought up and examine it by the light of modern study, and I think in a few words we can sum up the Professor's teaching, and that is, that perhaps the greatest crime a man can commit in the twentieth century is to close his mind to any influx of light.

Mr. MARTIN L. ROUSE, B.L.-As one deputed to ask Professor Silvanus Thompson to come to lecture before us, and who has heard him most delightfully hold forth to large audiences of the British Association an exposition of electric power, I should like to concur in the vote of thanks that is now being given; but I would say I am most firmly convinced that the evidence that we have of the truth of the holy word of God, the Bible, as it stands, is overwhelming. I would also like to call attention to this fact, that this very age is foretold by the Bible in more than one way. One way is that when Daniel was about to close up his prophecy the angel said to him: "Shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." There, in that very book we have embodied this most distinct prophecy of the character of the age just before the winding up of God's purposes and the setting up of Christ's visible kingdom upon the earth.

The CHAIRMAN.-The Resolution which has been moved, seconded and now spoken to, is that we present our best thanks to

Professor Silvanus Thompson for the address now delivered, and our thanks to those who have read papers during the session.

Of course, an old man of eighty-three, I stand here as one of the children having yet not got beyond childhood, and am still wrapped up in some of the old arguments of the early, first, second and third century beliefs. But our resolution is by no means that we are prepared to accept all that Professor Thompson has put before us, but that we still owe our thanks to him for his address.

Rev. JOHN TUCKWELL, M.R.A.S.-Mr. Chairman, I rise to propose that our very best thanks be given to the Lord Chancellor for kindly promising to come, and remaining with us as long as he could, and to General Halliday for having so kindly and promptly taken the seat which the Lord Chancellor would otherwise have occupied. Perhaps I may be allowed to say a word or two concerning the basis of this Society, and if I refer to what has been said this afternoon I hope it may not be out of place. The Society professes to maintain an open mind, both in the direction of science and in the direction of religion; and I hope it is the endeavour of all to do so. We, I trust, recognise that no religion can be accepted by us as true which is not strictly in accordance with reason; in the same way as we regard no fact of science as being acceptable to the human understanding which is not in accordance with reason. But I may be permitted to say that there is a mistake somewhere. What is science but the systemisation of the facts of nature as known to man? I think that is a correct definition. Taking that as correct there is, of course, ample ground for recognising changes and advances which science may make; but I think it ought to be recognised that the changes and advances are simply in human knowledge. Facts of science do not, and cannot, change until the Almighty Creator shall see fit to introduce some new fact. We know that electricity existed centuries ago before it was discovered. There have been no changes in the facts; what has changed has been the knowledge of man concerning them. On the other hand, what is religion? or what is theology? but a systemisation of the facts concerning the relationship between God and man. These facts are the same to-day as they were thousands of years ago; and there has been no change in the relationship between God and man. Theology has made progress in the same way as science has made progress; and progress in theology can

only be a modification of man's knowledge concerning the facts, until the Almighty Creator shall see fit to introduce some new fact, or modify existing facts concerning the relationship between man and Himself. We can know very little concerning this relationship beyond that which He sees fit to make known to us. "Man by searching cannot find out God." Whence are we to look for the revelation of the mind of God on these matters? There is no other source whence we can obtain any information except the Scriptures. I know of none other. I know of no truth that has ever been advanced for the acceptance of man of a general character which cannot be found in the Scriptures. If that be so, then I think it becomes us to search our Bibles, and it may be that in the search for truth there, we shall be able to correct any mistakes into which we may have fallen.

May I be permitted to say concerning archæology that whilst modern criticism has spoken of the different "strata" in the Old Testament Scriptures, and has suggested that something of the same kind may be found in the New Testament, I do not know of a single fact which has been revealed to us by archæological knowledge which supports the modern theories concerning these "strata "; so far as I understand the question, it is purely hypothetical.

Rev. CHANCELLOR LIAS, M.A.-I have been asked to second the Resolution of thanks to General Halliday and those who have taken part in the present meeting, and I am sorry that I do not oftener appear here. It is nearly thirty years since I read a paper, but I have been a member of the Council almost consecutively since then; and so as the question has been raised by Mr. Tuckwell about the basis of the society to which one belongs, perhaps one has a little right to speak for it. I most cordially concur with Professor Thompson that we are bound to keep an open mind. It is a most wicked thing to "close one's eyes to the telescope," but I must ask whether sometimes one is not asked to see something that is not there? About modern science there is one thing I notice, that it deals largely on assumptions. Let us make sure that we shall see the thing, and do not let us assert that it is there, and then call upon people to see it, when the very reverse is the fact.

I think I caught something from Professor Thompson about holding the truth because it is the truth. Everyone I hope wishes to do that. What is the truth? Is the truth contained in the

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Revelation of God which is handed down, or is it contained in what are said to be the ultimate conclusions of science in the twentieth century? I remember people talking about the nineteenth century, and in a very high-minded way a curate uttered a philippic against this so-called nineteenth century. Well, this is the twentieth, and then there will be the twentyfirst, and the twenty-second, and the twenty-third century, which may negative some of the things which are held at the present time.

I should like to correct a mistake which some people fall into about the Fathers of the Council of Nicæa. It is supposed that the Nicene Fathers took upon themselves to say, "this is the faith which men ought to believe because we say so." They did nothing of the kind. When Constantine brought ecclesiastical authorities from all parts of the Christian world, he said :-Here is a question to be settled. Will you kindly tell us, you who have come from France, from the East, from Egypt, can you tell us what are the doctrines of Christianity you have believed in your various localities? Then they all decided that it had been handed down that Christ was "of one substance with the Father." The answer shows the opinion of Fathers of the Council which has been handed down from time immemorial; and therefore let us understand that the Fathers were not commissioned to dictate to us what we ought to believe.

I think we ought to thrash everything out, and I hope the subject of the address may be discussed at a future meeting of the Society, when all will have an opportunity of expressing their opinions upon it.

The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

ORDINARY MEETING.*

PROF. LIONEL S. BEALE, F.R.C.P., F.R.S., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed.

The following candidates were put forward by the Council for election :

LIFE MEMBER-Rev. Dr. Cushing, President of the Baptist College, Rangoon.

MEMBERS:-Professor William Galloway, F.G.S.; Alexander Finn, Esq., H.B.M. Consul, Chicago.

ASSOCIATES:-Sir Thomas Wardle, F.G.S.; J. Heald Jenkins, Esq.; Rev. W. H. Frazer, D.D.; Rev. Alexander Irving, D.Sc.

The following paper was read by the Author :

THE RIGHT WAY IN PSYCHOLOGY. By Rev. F. STORRS TURNER, B.A.

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1. Definitions. What is psychology? Different answers are given. To Hume it meant the "science of Man," "of human nature itself." Some living psychologists think that the subjectmatter of the science is "the phenomena of mind" (Sully); the phenomena of consciousness (Baldwin); "mental process" (Stout); psychical events (Bosanquet). These definitions are equivalent, or nearly so. They suggest fundamental questions-such as, a phenomenon of what and to whom? is mind identical with consciousness? is there any known being called mind? Wundt considers that the whole of experience, that is, according to his notion of experience, all being of every kind, is the province of psychology-although immediate experience is its special subject-matter. Külpe takes psychology to be "the adequate description of those properties of the data of experience which are dependent upon experiencing individuals." Herbert Spencer's definition stands apart. His psychology studies "the connexion between two connexions"-these being "the connexion between the internal phenomena and the connexion between the external phenomena." In another place we find it described * Monday, December 5th, 1904.

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