£25,000 to to the Dean and Faculty of Advocates of the College of Edinburgh Justice of Scotland, the sum of £25,000. Second, To the UniverSenatus Academicus of the University of Glasgow, and failsity. ing them, by declinature or otherwise, to the Faculty of £20,000 Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, the sum of £20,000. to Glasgow Univer- Third, To the Senatus Academicus of the University of sity. Aberdeen, whom failing, by declinature or otherwise, to the £20,000 to Faculty of Advocates of Aberdeen, the sum of £20,000. Aberdeen And Fourth, to the Senatus Academicus of the University of Univer sity. To found Natural St. Andrews, whom failing, by declinature or otherwise, to the Physicians and Surgeons of St. Andrews, and of the district twelve miles round it, the sum of £15,000 sterling, amounting the said four sums in all to the sum of £80,000 sterling; but said bequests are made, and said sums are to be paid in trust only for the following purpose, that is to say, for the purpose of establishing in each of the four cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews, a Lectureship or Popular Chair for Promoting, Advancing, Teaching, and Diffusing the study of Natural Theology,' in the widest sense of that term, in other words, 'The Knowledge of God, the Infinite, the All, the First and Only Cause, the One and the Sole Substance, the Sole Being, the Sole Reality, and the Sole Existence, the Knowledge of His Nature and Attributes, the Knowledge of the Relations which men and the whole universe bear to Him, the Knowledge of the Nature and Foundation of Ethics or Morals, and of all Obligations and Duties thence arising.' The Senatus Academicus in each of the four Universities, or the bodies substituted to them respectively, shall be the patrons of the several lectureships, and the administrators of the said respective endowments, and of the affairs of each lectureship in each city. I call them for shortness simply the 'patrons.' Now I leave all the details and arrangements of each lectureship in the hands and in the discretion of the 'patrons' respectively, who shall have full power from time to time to adjust and regulate the same in conformity as closely as possible to the following brief principles and directions which shall be binding on each and all of the 'patrons' as far as practicable and possible. I only Conditions, indicate leading principles. First, The endowment or capital fund of each lectureship shall be preserved entire, and be entire. tion of for two years. invested securely upon or in the purchase of lands or heritages Capital which are likely to continue of the same value, or increase preserved in value, or in such other way as Statute may permit, merely the annual proceeds or interest shall be expended in maintaining the respective lectureships. Second, The Patrons 'patrons' may delay the institution of the lectureships, and may delay may from time to time intermit the appointment of lecturers instituand the delivery of lectures for one or more years for the chair, &c. purpose of accumulating the income or enlarging capital. Third, The lecturers shall be appointed from time to time Lecturers each for a period of only two years and no longer, but the appointed same lecturer may be reappointed for other two periods of two years each, provided that no one person shall hold the office of lecturer in the same city for more than six years in all, it being desirable that the subject be promoted and illustrated by different minds. Fourth, The lecturers appointed Qualificashall be subjected to no test of any kind, and shall not be tions of lecturers. required to take any oath, or to emit or subscribe any declaration of belief, or to make any promise of any kind : they may be of any denomination whatever, or of no denomination at all (and many earnest and high-minded men prefer to belong to no ecclesiastical denomination); they may be of any religion or way of thinking, or, as is sometimes said, they may be of no religion, or they may be so-called sceptics or agnostics or freethinkers, provided only that the 'patrons' will use diligence to secure that they be able reverent men, true thinkers, sincere lovers of and earnest inquirers after truth. Fifth, I wish the lecturers to treat Subject to their subject as a strictly natural science, the greatest of all be treated possible sciences, indeed, in one sense, the only science, that as a Natuof Infinite Being, without reference to or reliance upon any supposed special exceptional or so-called miraculous revelation. I wish it considered just as astronomy or chemistry is. I have intentionally indicated, in describing the subject of the lectures, the general aspect which personally I would expect the lecturers to bear, but the lecturers shall be under no restraint whatever in their treatment of their theme; for example, they may freely discuss (and it may be well to do so) all questions about man's conceptions of God or the Infinite, their origin, nature, and truth, whether he can ral Science. Lectures lectures. Publication of lectures. have any such conceptions, whether God is under any or what limitations, and so on, as I am persuaded that nothing but good can result from free discussion. Sixth, The lectures to be popu- shall be public and popular, that is, open not only to lar, &c. students of the Universities, but to the whole community without matriculation, as I think that the subject should be studied and known by all whether receiving University instruction or not. I think such knowledge, if real, lies at the root of all wellbeing. I suggest that the fee should be as small as is consistent with the due management of the lectureships, and the due appreciation of the lectures. Besides a general and popular audience, I advise that the lecturers also have a special class of students conducted in the usual way, and instructed by examination and thesis, Number of written and oral. Seventh, As to the number of the lectures, much must be left to the discretion of the lecturer, I should think the subject cannot be treated even in abstract in less than twenty lectures, and they may be many times that number. Eighth, The 'patrons' if and when they see fit may make grants from the free income of the endowments for or towards the publication in a cheap form of any of the lectures, or any part thereof, or abstracts thereof, which they may think likely to be useful. Ninth, The patrons' respectively shall all annually submit their accounts to some one chartered accountant in Edinburgh, to be named from time to time by the Lord Ordinary on the Bills, whom failing, to the Accountant of the Court of Session, who shall prepare and certify a short abstract of the accounts and investments, to be recorded in the Books of Council and Session, or elsewhere, for preservation. And my desire and hope is that these lectureships and lectures may promote and advance among all classes of the community the true knowledge of Him Who is, and there is none and nothing besides Him, in Whom we live and move and have our being, and in Whom all things consist, and of man's real relationship to Him Whom truly to know is life everlasting. If the residue of my estate, in the sense before defined, should turn out insufficient to pay the whole sums above provided for the four lectureships (of which shortcoming, however, I trust there is no danger), then each lectureship shall suffer a propor Accounts to be audited annually. tional diminution; and if, on the other hand, there is any surplus over and above the said sum of £80,000 sterling, it If surplus shall belong one half to my son, the said Herbert James after paying the Gifford, in liferent, and to his issue other than the heirs of Univerentail in fee, whom failing, to my unmarried nieces equally sities, in fee; and the other half shall belong equally among my One half unmarried nieces. And I revoke all settlements and codicils to H. J. Gifford in previous to the date hereof if this receives effect, providing liferent. that any payments made to legatees during my life shall be Other accounted as part payment of their provisions. And I con- half to sent to registration hereof for preservation, and I dispense unmarried with delivery thereof.-In witness whereof, these presents, nieces. written on this and the six preceding pages by the said Testing Adam West Gifford, in so far as not written and filled in by Clause. my own hand, are, with the marginal notes on pages four and five (and the word 'secluding' on the eleventh line from top of page third, being written on an erasure), subscribed by me at Granton House, Edinburgh, this twenty-first day of August Eighteen hundred and eighty-five years, before these witnesses, James Foulis, Doctor of Medicine, residing in Heriot Row, Edinburgh, and John Campbell, cab driver, residing at No. 5 Mackenzie Place, Edinburgh. James Foulis, M.D., Heriot Row, John Campbell, cab driver, 5 Mackenzie Place, witness. AD. GIFFORD. Definition of religion, why wanted.-Great differences in defining religion.-Is Buddhism a religion ?-Definition of definition.-Etymological definition.-Historical definition.— Dogmatic definition.-Etymological definition of religio.—His- torical definition of religio.-Later meanings of religio.-Dogmatic definitions.-Religion and theology.-Dogmatic and practical Natural and revealed religions.-Comparative theology.- |