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JOURNAL OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. VOL. XVII. JOURNAL OF THE TRANSACTIONS o~• lht ~ittnria Jnstitut t, OR Jgifosopgital jotid~ of ®reat ~ritain. EDITED BY THE HONORARY SECRETAR~ CAPT. :FRANCIS W. H. PETRIE, F.R.S.L., &c. VOL. XVII. LONDON: (l!lublisbtl:l fot tbt institute) E. STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS, S.W. EDINBURGH: R. GRANT & SON. DUBLIN: G. HERBERT. PARIS: GALIGN.ANI & CO. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND ! GEORGE ROBERTSON & CO., LIMITED. 1884. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, WY.MAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GRE.!.T QUEEN STREET LINCOLN"S-INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C. CON11ENTS OF VOL. XVII. Paye PREFAUE lX JOURNAL O:F TRANSACTIONS. Page ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, JUNE 15, 1882 1 SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 1 SPEECHES 9 THE RECENT SURVEY 0~' .WESTERN PALESTINE AND lTS BEARING UPON THE BIBLE. BY TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS, EsQ. 15 SPEECHES 29 Om,INARY MEETING, MARCH 20, 1882 33 CLIMATIC INFLUENCES AS REGARDS ORGANIC LIFE, BY SURGEON- GENERAL c. A. GORDON, C.B., M.D. 33 DISCUSSION ON THE ABOVE 55 ORDINARY MEETING, DECEMBER 4, 1882 69 ORDINARY MEETING, JANUARY 1, 1883 70 ON THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN IN NATURE, Wl'.l'H SOME lLLUS- TRATIO:-!S FROM PLANTS. BY \V. POWELL JAiIES, M.A. 71 DISCUSSION ON THE ABOVE 90 ORDI:;:ARY MEETING, PmmUARY 5, 1883 98 Vl CONTENTS OF VOL. XVII. I'age Is IT POSSIBLE TO KNOW GoD? (CONSIDERATIONS ON "THE UNKNOWN AND UNKNOWABLE" OF MODERN THOUGHT), BY THE REV, PROFESSOR J. J. LIAS, HULSEAN LECTURER, CAMBRIDGE 98 DISCUSSION ON THE ABOVE 122 \ REMARKS BY THE (LATE) RIGHT HoN. THE LoRD O'NEILL 133 THE AUTHOR'S REPLY ... 137 ORDINARY MEETING, FEBRUARY 19, 1883 142 ON CERTAIN THEORIES OF LIFE. BY SURGEON-GENERAL c. A. GORDON, M.D., C.B. 142 DISCUSSION ON THE ABOVE '166 ORDINARY MEETING, MARCH 5, 1883... 171 ON CERTAIN DEFINITIONS OF MATTER. BY (THE LATE) JOHN ELIOT HOWARD, F.R.S., &c. 171 APPENDIX (DR. HuxLEY's "InoLA ") 189 INTERMEDIATE MEETING, MARCH 19, 1883 ... 193 INTERMEDIATE MEETING, MAY 21, 1883 194 ORDINARY MEETING, JANUARY 15, 1883 195 0N THE ABSENCE OF REAL OPPOSITION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND REVELATION. BY PROFESSOR G. G. STOKES, M.A., F.R.S. ... 195 SPEECHES, &c., BY Srn J. R. BENNETT, VxcE-PRESTDENT oF THE RoYAL SocrETY, Srn J. FAYRER; K.C.S.I. F.R.S., PROFESSOR LIONEL s. BEALE, F.R.S., DR. RAE, F.R.S., AND OTHERS ... 204 COMMUNICATION FROM VICE-CHANCELLOR DAWSON, LL.D., C.M.G. F.R.S. 219 ORDINARY MEETING, APRIL 16, 1883 221 BABYLONIAN CITtEs. BY HoRMUZD R.1.ssAM, EsQ.... 221 DISCUSSION ON THE ABOVE 243 APPENDIX BY MR. W. ST. CHAD BoscAWEN 247 ORDINARY MEETING, APRIL 2, 1883 254 CONTENTS OF VOL. XVII. Vll Page PAPER ON THE "ORIGIN OF MAN." BY THE VEN. ARCHDEACON BARDSLEY, M.A. 254 DISCUSSION ON THE SAME 273 ORDINARY MEETING, JANUARY 21, 1884 282 PAPER ON "How DID THE WORLD EvoLVE I·rsELF 1" BY Sm E. BECKETT, BART., LL.D., Q.C. 282 DISCUSSION ON THE SAME 310 APPENDIX. OBJECTS, &c. 372 *¾-'If- The lnstitute's object being to investigate, it must not be held to endorse the va1·io1ts views expressed at its Meetings. PREF ACE. THE Seventeenth Volume of the Joumal of the 'l'rans- actions of the VICTORIA INSTITUTE is now issued. It contains papers by the following authors :-The Ven. Archdeacon BARDSLEY, M.A., on the "Origin of Man." Sir EDMUND BECKETT, Bart., LL.D., Q.0., on the recent writings of Mr. Herbert Spencer, inquiring into his premises, and ana lysing the logic of his arguments i~ a clear and popular style. Surgeon-General C. A. GORDON, M.D., O.B., contributes two papers, one on "Climate in relation to Organic Nature," the other on "Certain Theories of Life." The volume also contains the last paper written by (the late) Mr. J. E. HowARD, F.R.S., to whom the Institute has for a series of years been indebted for his labours in its cause. Mr. W. P. JAMES contributes a valuable paper, "On the Argument from Design in Nature, with some Illustrations from Plants." Professor J. J. LIAS, M.A., now Hulsean Lecturer, adds to his valuable earlier papers one entitled, "Is it possible to know God? Considerations on the 'Unknown and Unknowaule' of Modern Thought." It is followed by the last communication received from the (late) Right Hon. the Lord O'NEILL, which, X PREFACE. though brief, will be found to contain one of those perfect pieces of argument not often met with, and which is itself sufficient to enable us to realise how great a loss the Institute has sustained by his death. 11 Mr. IloRMUZD RASSAM con tributes a paper on "Babylonian Cities," and Mr. W. St. CHAD BoscAWEN has kindly added an appendix giving striking instances of the great interest attaching to Mr. RASSAM's recent discoveries. Mr. TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS gives a paper on the recent survey of Western Palestine : the part he has taken in the work of the Palestine Exploration Fund, in laying down on the maps of that Society the water basins and the boundaries and names of the Old and New Testaments, has enabled him to show how the cloud 0£ geographical Biblical difficulties advanced by many, from the late Bishop CoLENSO downwards, is vanishing before the matter-of-fact work 0£ the surveying parties 0£ the Royal Engineers an apt illustration of the remark made in the preface to Volume XV., that "Truth is only in danger from a want of knowledge." Finally, Professor G. G. STOKES, F.R.S., con tributes a paper " On the Absence of Real Opposition between Science and Revelation," a title which itself is a protest against that thoughtless cry to which so many outside the Institute are found to give utterance: the paper, coming as it does from one who ranks second to none in the scientific world, and who has long held the position of Secretary to the Royal Society, demands special notice; in it the author deals with the more extreme views of the Darwinian theory, showing where scientific induction ceases and conjec ture, in default 0£ fact, is called upon to support a theory. So important a paper on a subject which has long attracted public attention-and upon which some, even in the ranks 0£ Science, have spoken with far too little caution-has been PREFACE. Xl supplemented by remarks and contributions from Sir J. Risdon Bennett, Vice-President of the Royal Society; Professor Lionel S. Beale, M.D., F.R.S.; Vice-Chancellor J. W. Dawson, LL.D., C.M.G., F.R.S.; Sir Joseph Fayrer, M.D., K.C.S.I., F.R.S.; and others. To these authors and to others who have taken part in the discussion of the subjects treated, the best thanks of the Members and Associates are due. They have sought to carry on their i.nvestigati.ons strictly on the lines of the Institute; searching for the actual philosophical or scientific truth on all questions ; and where any question bearing on Holy Scripture, and which had been turned against it, has been examined, the opponents of Revelation have been disarmed by impartial inquiry, which has proved the baselessness of the alleged facts which were relied on to support erroneous theories.* 'l'he mention 0£ this subject induces a reference to a state ment which has often been made of late by the opponents 0£ all religious teaching, namely, that the progress of Science has given a death-blow to all belief in the truth 0£ the Bible, and that men of Science no longer regard that book or the religious belief it inculcates.t So false a statement might not be worthy of notice, but that it has been credited even * That this is the true way of "reconciling apparent discrepancies between Christianity and Science" (see Object 1) was urged by the Institute's leading founder, Mr. J. Reddie, in a Pamphlet, on " The True Character of the Institute," entitled Scientia Scientiarum, 1865, in which he says:-" I would beg leave to adopt the prudent language employed by the Rev. Canon H. B. Tristram, F.R.S., before the British Association at Bath, in 1864, upon reading his valuable paper ' On the Deposits in the Basin of the Dead Sea.' 'He said he had a dread of attempting to corroborate Scripture by natural or physical arguments which may be refuted; for the objector is apt to think that, when he has refnted the weak argument, he has refuted the Scriptural statement.' " t In reference to this it is remarkable to find Professor Huxley, when lecturing at Liverpool on Education(Februaryl6,1883),mentioning the Bible as the first of the books which, in his opinion, our youth should study. " I have said it before, and I repeat it here : if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out of his [sic] Bible ...... he cannot get it out of anything." Again, he wrote in the Contemporary Review, December, 1870, "I must confess I have been no less seriously perplexed to know by * XU PREFACE. by some charged with the regulation of education both at home and in our Colonies. Such a fact is an additional reason for the earnest efforts of every Member for the advance ment and extension of the influe'nce of this Institute, for surely only ignorance of the tendency of true scientific in quiry can tend to make belief of such a statement possible. During the year 1883 the steady development of the Institute, both at home and abroad, has been marked, and it has been gratifying to note the value placed upon its "Journal,'' as evidenced by Public Libraries in various parts of the world subscribing for the whole of the Institute's volumes.