very old friend and former colleague-Sir Robert Ball, for his kindness in coming forward on this anniversary of our Institute, at great inconvenience to himself; for to-morrow morning he is bound to start for Glasgow to attend a function in that city to which all eyes are at this present moment turned. Therefore, we thank him, not only for the fact of this most remarkable lecture, which has carried us into regions of thought and delight beyond expression, but we beg to thank him for having put himself to so much inconvenience, in order to gratify and instruct us as he has done this evening.

Sir ROBERT BALL.-I am much obliged for the very kind way in which you have received my address. When I sat down, I was only conscious of the things I ought to have said which I left unsaid.

The Rev. Canon GIRDLESTONE, M.A.-I am sure you will allow me to propose that the thanks of the meeting be presented to our President, who occupies his position, I am sure, to-night with infinite pleasure. He has never, I should say, presided at a gathering which has had more interest and satisfaction to his own mind, for we have been carried in thought into the magnitude of creation. We have been brought to a contemplation of many little specks in the universe, and of our sun, the centre of our system; but we have felt too the marvellous gift which is given to man to read the nature of the stars, thanks to the spectrum analysis, so that there has been thrown on this sheet the interpretation of this wonderful event which has been occupying our minds this evening; and as we think of the closing words of the lecturer, I cannot help rejoicing in the conviction that the Being who has scattered all these material globes through space is one we can call, "Our Father in Christ"—that we can still say in the depth of our conviction, "In the beginning it was God who created the heavens and the earth." (Applause.)

I have great pleasure in proposing that the thanks of the meeting be presented to our President.

Dr. THEOPHILUS PINCHES.-I beg to second the resolution.

[The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.]

The PRESIDENT having acknowledged the vote of thanks, the proceedings then terminated.

ORDINARY MEETING.*

THE PRESIDENT, SIR G. G. STOKES, BART., LL.D.,
F.R.S., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following elections took place :

MEMBERS:-Rev. H. G. Rosedale, B.D., London; Rev. J. S. Tucker, M.A., Trent College.

ASSOCIATES:- E. Gordon Hull, Esq., M.A., M.D., London; H. Hargreaves Bolton, Esq., J.P., Lancashire; Professor J. Logan Lobley, F.G.S., London; Robert Kydd, Esq., Mech. Eng., Glasgow.

The President stated that he had conveyed to Mrs. Petrie the vote of condolence on the death of the late Hon. Secretary passed by the Special General Meeting on the 5th November last.

The SECRETARY (Prof. HULL, LL.D., F.R.S.).—Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I think it is only right that at this first meeting of Members of the Institute since my election as Secretary, I should take the opportunity of expressing to you, Mr. President, gentlemen of the Council, and lady and gentlemen Members, my deep appreciation of your kindness, and also of the honour you have done me, by electing me Secretary of the Institute, particularly as following so able a man as the late Secretary, Captain Petrie.

I assure you I count it a very high honour, and I may say that after the experience of about six months of office I have found the work of the Institute increasingly interesting, and such as falls within my own views and expectations.

I hope you will have no reason to regret your choice, and I will say that I shall do everything in my power, as long as I hold this office, to advance the interests of the Institute and those high principles for which it was founded.

* Monday, 3rd December, 1900.

I

may also say that I have derived very great satisfaction from the services of your clerk, Mr. Montague, and I take this opportunity of bearing testimony to his unwearied diligence in his duties, his great conscientiousness, his intelligence, and, above all, for his remarkable memory, to which I am often indebted, and which often saves me much trouble and research.

I am directed to say that the Council at this meeting have passed a vote to increase his salary from the beginning of next year (Hear, hear.)

Again I thank you for your kindness. (Applause.)

The PRESIDENT.-The last resolution contained a request that 1 should communicate that resolution to Mrs. Petrie. I have done so. She expressed the hope that it might appear in the forthcoming volume of our Transactions, but it was too late, because the sheets were already in the hands of the binder.

The following Paper was then read by the Author:

"The Proceedings of the Congress for the History of Religions, Paris," by Theophilus G. Pinches, Esq., M.R.A.S.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE CONGRÈS INTERNATIONAL D'HISTOIRE DES RELIGIONS, held at Paris from the 3rd to the 8th of September, 1900. By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S.*

O all those who took part in the delightful little Congress

may not have paid much attention to the matter before, the thought must have come that this was the outcome-modest in its way, but of infinite value-of the great "World's Parliament of Religions," beld at Chicago on the occasion of the great International Exhibition held in that progressive American city in 1893. But it was not only an outcome-it was also a contrast. The unique assemblage gathered together in the capital of Illinois consisted largely of the representatives of the principal religions of the world, who seem to have hailed the opportunity thus presented of placing their religious views before mankind, each claiming

*Read, Monday, 3rd December, 1900.

to be in the possession of the true road to everlasting life, and some of them showing, as was to be expected, a certain amount of intolerance, or at least of the spirit of selfrighteousness, as when the Japanese Kinza Hirai denounced the iniquities of Christian nations amid wild applause from those assembled, and the Rev. Jenkin-Jones, accepting the situation, "flung his arm around him, in the fervour of the moment." It was to all appearance a happy family which had assembled there. In our little Congress for the study of the history of religion held at Paris, however, the members were principally laymen, who had come together to study, calmly and dispassionately, the great subject of the origin, development, and the infinitely varied form of religious belief, both the old and the new, the refined and the coarse, monotheism and polytheism, in every land, and age, and nation. The idea was excellent; the members of the Congress threw themselves into the work with a will, and the result was a beginning such as must have gratified the originators of the Congress as it did the members, showing that a real want in this branch of science had been met.

To all appearance it was felt that here was an opportunity to take part in something very analogous to the great religious parliament of Chicago without any of the possible disputes which the statement of personal and sectarian religious opinions and beliefs would necessarily entail, for nothing could be pleasanter to the student and the scholar who interested himself in the thoughts and opinions of others as to the origin and nature of the Deity, and the way in which He had been and should be worshipped, than this, in which every kind of theological discussion was rigorously excluded, and disputes, other than purely scientific ones, were utterly impossible. It was an assemblage in which scientifically provable facts were discussed, and theories and opinions set aside, and the feeling of brotherhood, upon which so much stress had been laid in speaking of the Chicago religious parliament, was present in much greater reality than, probably, ever

before.

The Congress was divided into eight sections, as follows:

A. The Religions of non-civilized peoples and of pre-
Columbian America.

B. The Religions of the Far East.
C. The Religions of Egypt.

D. The Semitic Religions (Assyro-Chaldea, Western
Asia, Judaism, Islamism).

E. The Religions of India and Iran.

F. The Religions of Greece and Rome.

G. The Religions of the Germans, the Celts, and the
Slavs.

H. Christianity.

The following were set forth as the subjects to be touched upon :

SECTION A.-Non-civilized peoples and pre-Columbian America. Totemism, the functions of sacrifice. The condition of souls after death.

The table of the movable festivals in central pre-Columbian America, with special reference to those of the Mayas.

The figured representations of Mexican divinities and divinities of central America, especially those of the Codices and the monuments.

SECTION B.-China, Japan, Indo-China; Mongols, Finns. The relations of the religions of China with the state (state-religions, policy of the Government with regard to Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, and Christianity).

The moral of Choang-tse.

The historical evolution of Buddhism in China, Corea, and Japan (propagation, the various schools, relations with civil life, present condition).

The organization, doctrines, and ritual of the Buddhist sects at present in Japan.

The distribution of Pali Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism in Indo-China.

SECTION C.-Egypt.

The funeral rites at the Thinite periods, as revealed by the most recent discoveries (Petrie, Amélineau, Morgan). The differences which they show compared with the rites of later times, and that which has reference to their practice in the unerary texts as far as they are at present known (Book of the Dead; Pyramid-Texts; Book of Hades; Embalmmenttual).

Phtal of Memphis. His primitive character, theological