Ir is pleasant to see so marked a ree vival of the intellectual spirit in our midst as was evidenced by the proceedings at the Young Men's Institute on Tuesday evening, 28th ult. Nothingis healthier, nothing more desirable, than an opportanity for fall and untrain. melled discussion upon all matters of speculative and literary interest with. out favour or exclusion, and we trust that the broad principles upon which the Institute is now based will never be narrowed in any way. No subject that dreads the light should have any mercy shown it, nor should any plea be admitted on behalf of those exotics of controversy which have hitherto escaped lest they should be too roughly handled.
Phe discussion of Tuesday afforded many features of unusual attractive. ness to thoughtful meu. The subject was @ good one, and sufficient variety of views wore presented to impart liveliness to the debate. We do not think that the attempt of the Rev. W. Muirhead to define the meaning of the word authentic' was particularly successful, "A genuine book," says Bishop Watson, "is that which was written by the person whose name it bears as the author of it. An authentic book is that which relates matters of fact as they happened." Surely, this is the generally-recognised version of the case. But even if Mr. Muirbead's definition of the word had been accepted, he could scarcely have expected the meeting to agree with him that the mere fact of a book professedly sacred having been written by the person to whom it was attributed carried with it evidence of the credibility of all the book contained. We may and do fally believe that the Book of Mormon, a professedly sacred and inspired docu-mont, was written by Joe Smith; and yet there are, we suppose, none among us who believe the story of the golden plates and the many conflicting and ridiculous revelations' of which it is composed, The book is genuine enough, no doubt, but it is not authentic; and the same may be said of the Koran, the body of believers in which is of enormous numerical force. The Rev. W. Muirhead of course intended his remarks to apply to the Christian books alone; but this was not contemplated in the terms of the enunciation, and so far, therefore, his reasonings must be considered irrelevant,—otherwise he would find himself in the embarrassing
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.