ing the popular mind by
concessions to superstition and ignorance. We can hardly hope to get
rid of the rooted errors which have so astonishing a vitality. But we
should desire, and, so far as in us lies, endeavour to secure the
presence of the largest possible element of genuine and reasoned
conviction in the faith of our own and the rising generation.

I have not sought to say anything new. I have only endeavoured to
define the general position which we, as I imagine, have agreed to
accept. We hold in common that the old dogmas are no longer tenable,
though we are very far from being agreed as to what should replace
them. We have each, I dare say, our own theory; we agree that our
theories, whatever they may be, are in need of strict examination, of
verification, it may be, but it may be also of modification or
rejection. We hope that such societies as this may in the first place
serve as centres for encouraging and popularising the full and free
discussion of the great questions. We wish that people who have reached
a certain stage of cultivation should be made aware of the course which
is being taken by those who may rightly claim to be in the van. We
often wish to know, as well as we can, what is the direction of the
deeper currents of thought; what genuine results, for example, have
been obtained by historical criticism, especially as applied to the
religious history of the world; we want to know what are the real
points now at issue in the world of science; the true bearing of the
theories of evolution, and so forth, which are known by name far beyond
the circle in which their logical reasoning is really appreciated; we
want to know, again, what are the problems which really interest modern
metaphysicians or psychologists; in what directions there seems to be a
real promise of future achievement, and in what directions it seems to
be proved by experience that any further expansion of intellectual
energy is certain to result only in the discovery of mares' nests.

Matthew Arnold would have expressed this by saying that we are required
to be made accessible to the influence of the Zeitgeist. There is a
difficulty, no doubt, in discovering by what signs we may recognise the
utterances of the Zeitgeist; and distinguish between loyalty to the
real intellectual leaders and a simple desire to be arrayed in the last
new fashion in philosophy. There is no infallible sign; and, yet, a
genuine desire to discover the true l