height of the stars, have in the light of the astronomy of today. The star catalogue of Hipparchus contained a little over 1,000 entries; the great International Photographic Chart will show the images of more than 50,000,000 stars. There are photographs in existence showing upwards of 100,000 stars on one single small plate; and no one believes that we have reached the limit in any direction. So with their distances. By using the enormous base line of the diameter of the earth's orbit-186,000,000 of miles-we have been able to get a hint of the distances of some 40 or 50 stars; all the untold millions beside are, as yet, beyond our reach. And the nearest of these stars, where is it placed? If we represent this vast globe on which we live by a single pin-point, a hundredth of an inch in diameter; if we place an inch marble, 9 feet away, to represent the sun, we then should have to travel to Liverpool before we should be able to indicate the place of our nearest neighbour amongst the stars. Nor have we come across any token of the end; we can put no limit to the extent of the universe of stars. Has the progress of science rendered inappropriate or obsolete these two Scripture illustrations of limitless number and of limitless space? Has it not rather furnished them with superlative justification? I said early in my Address that in one sense the Bible had nothing to say respecting astronomy. I want to reverse that now. It has everything to say that is of vital importance. I do not know how large Job, David and Isaiah conceived the sun to be; they may possibly have thought it no more than 80 feet across. Anaxagoras of Greece rose to a bolder conception, and suggested that it might be as big as the Peloponnesus80 miles across. We now know that it is more than 800,000 miles, and that it is only one out of many million suns, nor is it the largest of these; it has been argued that Arcturus may be 80,000,000 of miles in diameter. Well, if so, if instead of being a fiery ball 80 feet across, the sun is really 800,000 miles or for the matter of that if it were 80,000,000 of miles, what difference does it make to the fundamental relation of man to the Creator on the one hand, and to the Creation on the other? Now from one end of the Bible to the other, no matter when its different books were written, where, or by whom, there is no faltering nor uncertainty in the teaching which it gives on this absolutely fundamental point. God is the Maker and Creator of all things; and Creation consists C of things, not of gods; man is the one creature that is made in the image of God, that has communion with Him on the one hand, and can examine into and appreciate the glories of the visible creation on the other. Here we are dealing with the basis of all religion, with truth which is eternal, with a relation which does not change, and the progress of science cannot modify in its essence. If the progress of of science could alter this relation, could alter the fundamental basis of religion, what would follow? Necessarily that religion must be closed to all but the few. The poor, the ignorant, would have no part in it. It would be the monopoly of the few giant intellects which were at the head of the science of the day. Of the science of the day, which the science of the morrow would make obsolete. For science deals with things that change and of their changes, and is the changing thought of man concerning these. But religion deals with that which is eternal and reaches all, even the poor, the ignorant and the young. Nay it is especially for these, for it is eternally true that unless we be converted and become as little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The little child can apprehend as well as the wisest sage, the first article of religion: "I believe in God the Father Who made me and all the world." That truth, whether so expressed, or expressed as in the first words of Genesis : "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," is the foundation of all science as well as of all religion. It cuts at the root of all animism, nature worship, and polytheism and of all the endless and degrading myths which have sprung therefrom, and have debased the spirit of man, and enslaved his intellect. That truth has set man free, free to examine into the whole wide creation without restriction and without fear; free also to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever. The Address was listened to with great interest, and the thanks of the Meeting for it were moved by the Very Rev. Dr. Wace, Dean of Canterbury, seconded by Rev. Chancellor Lias, and being put from the Chair by the President, were carried unanimously. At the conclusion of the proceedings a cordial vote of thanks to the President for his conduct in the Chair was carried unanimously. ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING WAS HELD IN THE ROOMS OF THE INSTITUTE, LIEUT.-GEN. SIR H. L. GEARY, K.C.B., IN THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed and the following candidates were elected : ASSOCIATE.-Rev. J. Abbot Winfield, Canada. LIBRARY ASSOCIATE.-Rugby School Library. The following paper was read by the Secretary in the absence of the author: PRIMEVAL MAN IN BELGIUM. By Rev. D. GATII WHITLEY. 1. Esquisse Géologique du Nord de la France, et des contrées voisines. Par M. J. Gosselet. (Lille, 1903.) 2. Explorations Scientifiques des cavernes de la vallée de la Mehaigne. Par Julien Fraipont et F. Tihon. (Bruxelles, 1889). 3. La Race Humaine de Néanderthal ou de Canstadt en Belgique. Par Julien Fraipont et Max Lohest. (Paris, 1886.) 4. L'Homme pendant les Ages de la Pierre, dans les environs de Dinantsur-Meuse. Par E. Dupont. Deuxième Edition. (Bruxelles, 1873.) THE HE Antiquity of Man is a subject which has come prominently to the front during the last fifty years, and the interest excited by it shows no sign of diminishing. Since Sir Charles Lyell wrote his classical work* dealing with the question, many able geologists have investigated the matter, both in England and on the Continent, as well as in America; and in no country have more important results been obtained than in Belgium. Notwithstanding its insignificant size, Belgium has played a most important part in the history of Europe, and its testimony to the Antiquity and Condition of *The Geological evidences of the Antiquity of Man. 1st Edition, 1863. early Man is of such a valuable character, that geologists from all countries have always considered that it is necessary to visit Belgium and confer with its geologists before they are fully qualified to come to definite conclusions relating to the age of Man upon the earth. Sir Charles Lyell himself thought it necessary to visit Belgium before he discussed the antiquity of Man in the light of the discoveries which had been made in the gravel beds of the valley of the Somme.* The great importance of Belgium in questions relating to Primeval Man, is determined from two striking facts. The first is that it contains a wonderfully perfect series of the Quaternary deposits. These beds of sand, clay and gravel, which were formed after the appearance of Man upon the earth, are spread out in Belgium over a vast extent of country, and are therefore easily examined. In addition to this, the limestone rocks of Belgium are full of caverns, which contain the remains of the great extinct mammalia, and also the bones and weapons of Man. No country in the world presents such a splendid series of bone-caves affording evidence as to the early condition of Man in Belgium. Professor Dupont himself has explored more than sixty caverns in seven years, and the Belgian geologists are prosecuting the work with the greatest skill and enthusiasm. From the time when Schmerling began to explore in a scientific manner the caverns near Liége in 1833, down to the present day, the work of investigation has been unceasingly carried on, and has yielded most valuable results. According to M. Dupont, the oldest portion of the Quaternary formation in Belgium is composed of a thick bed of rolled pebbles, averaging in size a hen's egg, and immediately over the pebbly deposit, lie stratified sands and clays. In this deposit are found quantities of the bones of the lion, hyæna, elephant, and rhinoceros. As a rule, this bed of pebbles is only found in the bottom of the valleys, and thins out on the lower slopes of the hills; here and there, however, it is found in patches on the uplands and on the plateaux where it contains the same fossils as characterise it in the bottom of the valleys. Next in ascending order, comes a vast deposit of yellow clay full of angular blocks, which covers hill and dale, and envelops the * Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. viii, pp. 277–281. + Étude sur le Terrain Quaternaire des vallées de la Meuse et de la Lesse, pp. 37-39. I See the opinion of M. Rutot in Bulletin de la Société Royale Malacologique de Belgique. Tome xvi, 1881. country like a gigantic winding-sheet. Over this, again, lies the Loess, an enormous deposit of calcareous clay, which is spread over every part of the country except the bottom of the valleys, and is also extensively developed in the valley of the Rhine. The most recent of the Quaternary formations in Belgium is a great deposit of sand, which is clayey towards the bottom, and shifting and movable near the surface, and which is known by the name of the "Campinian Sand." Now, all these different deposits belong to the same geological era, for they all contain the same remains; the bones of the lion, elephant,* hyæna, and rhinoceros, being found in all the beds, from the pebbly deposit at the bottom of the Quaternary series, to the Campinian Sand at the top. All, then, were formed, successively speaking, at the same geological period. Their thickness varies in different places, for it is rare to find all four members of the series present in the same locality. In the great delta, however, where meet the Rhine, the Escant, and the Meuse, Professor Gosselet tells us that the Quaternary deposits are more than 450 feet thick, on the borders of the Zuider Zee.+ Now, how were all these deposits formed, and what were the causes which operated to bring them into their present position, and to spread them out over such a large extent of country? Marine action is out of the question, for the animal remains found in them are nearly all terrestrial, being the bones of the great land mainmalia, and such shells as are confined to the land and to fresh water. M. Dupont thinks that the deposit of rolled pebbles which come chiefly from the Ardennes, was formed by the rivers, cutting out their valleys, when they had a vastly greater volume of water, during the early part of the Quaternary Period. This view is, however, quite untenable, for the rolled Ardennaise pebbles are found not only in the bottom of the valleys, but also in patches on the tops of the hills where no rivers could have flowed. Another theory is, that this great pebbly bed is of glacial origin, having been formed by great floods occasioned by the melting of glaciers and ice-sheets, which ploughed out the land, as Belgium slowly rose out of the icy waters of the Glacial Sea. This theory is no better than the former. The Belgian hills were too low to support glaciers of any considerable size, and Professor Gosselet tells us, that all over North-Eastern France, where the Quaternary beds are the same as those in Belgium, no traces of any ancient glaciers * The elephant referred to is always the Mammoth. |