ORDINARY MEETING, DECEMBER 6, 1875.

C. BROOKE, Esq., F.R.S., V.P., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, and the following Elections were announced :—

MEMBERS :

The Right Honourable the Lord O'Neill.

The Right Rev. C. Perry, D.D., Bishop of Melbourne.

Rev. Professor J. M. Hoppin, D.D., Yale College.

Rev. Principal T. W. Gotch, LL.D., Bristol.

Rev. Principal T. C. Edwards, University College, Aberystwith.

Rev. H. M. Butler, D.D., Harrow School.

Rev. Canon Walsham How, M.A., Oswestry.

Rev. S. Garrett, M.A., Ipswich.

Rev. F. S. Cook, B.A., Clifton.

Rev. J. H. James, D.D., Bow.

Rev. W. B. Philpot, Bersted.

Rev. F. Schreiner, New College, Eastbourne.
Hanbury Barclay, Esq., Tamworth.

E. Clarke, Esq,, Macclesfield.

J. E. Cranage, Esq., M.A., Ph.D., Salop.

C. H. Dent, Esq., London.

J. Knight, Esq., F.S.A., Hildenborough.

R. Moon, Esq., M.A., London.

F. Smith, Esq., Weston-super-Mare.
G. Thorp, Esq., 21, Eastcheap.

ASSOCIATES:

The Most Rev. S. Butcher, D.D., Bishop of Meath.

Sir J. Kennaway, Bart., M.P., Devon.

The President of Queen's College, Belfast.

The Very Rev. Dean Hamilton, F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Salisbury.

The Rev. Professor Applebe, LL.D., Belfast.

Rev. C. Bigsby, M.A., Bidborough.

Rev. A. F. Giolma, Chatham.

Rev. Prebendary Griffith, A.M., Clapton.

Rev. J. W. McKay, Belfast.

Rev. J. Rate, Penkridge.

Rev. J. Sharp, Musulipatam.

Rev. G. Vance, Sligo.

ASSOCIATES (continued) :

Rev. W. D. Walters, Dalston.
I. Ashe, Esq., M.D., Londonderry.
T. Barber, Esq., Northampton.
H. M. Blair, Esq., London.
S. B. Earl, Esq., Blackheath.
W. Q. Ewart, Esq., M.A., Belfast.
R. L. Hamilton, Esq., J.P., Belfast.
J. G. Middleton, Esq., London.
F. W. Mildred, Esq., Middlesborough.
H. Morris, Esq., Blackheath.
A. I. Paice, Esq., Wallington.
Principal B. Ralph, Dunheved College.
T. H. Richardson, Esq., Middlesborough.
S. Scott, Esq., Bungay.

Major-General A. Taylor, R.E., London.

HON. LOCAL SECRETARY :

Rev. J. T. Willis, A.B., Rhosmarket, Milford.

From the Society.

Also the presentation of the following Works to the Library :"Proceedings of the Royal Society." Part 162-3. "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society." Vol. xix.

66 Proceedings of the Royal U. S. Institution." Part 82.

From the Society.

From the Institution.

"Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute." Vol., 1874.

66

66

Proceedings of the Geological Society." Part 123-4. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology." "Proceedings of the United States Geological and

From the Institute. From the Society. Vol. iv. Ditto. Geographical Survey." From the Survey.

7 vols. "Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society." Part 93-4.

"Proceedings of the Smithsonian Institute, 1873." Report.

From the Society.

From the Institute.

"Proceedings of the Watford Natural History Society." Vol. i.

"London Quarterly."

From the Society.

From A. McArthur, Esq., M.P.

"Conservation of Moral Force." By the Rev. H. Griffith.

"Religion and Science." By the Rev. H. Griffith.
"Divine Origin of Christianity." By Dr. Ashe.
"Macherus." By Captain Dumergue.
"New Englander," 1875.

From Professor Reynolds.

From the Author.

Ditto.
Ditto.

From J. Sturtevant, Esq.

"Origin of Life on our Planet." By Principal Dawson, F.R.S.

From the Author.

"Philosophy without Assumptions." By the Rev. T. Kirkman, F.R.S.

"Communion of Saints." By the Rev. Prebendary Brooks.

Fourteen smaller Works, presented by Sir D. Salomons, Bart., Prof. Duff, D.D., W. H. Ince, Esq., Rev. J. McKay, F. Madden, Esq., Rev. R. Main, Prof. Morris, Captain F. Petrie, Dr. Sexton.

The following Paper was then read by the Author :

PRESENT-DAY MATERIALISM. By Rev. J. MCDOUGALL.

VARIOUS, and some of them august, voices tell us that

man is outliving religion. Mr. John Stuart Mill has left this testimony: "the world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments are sceptics in religion." Dr. Strauss this: that in publishing the negations of his last work, he only wrote for a great number. Almost all the more important Magazines of the day give ample space for the enunciation and exposition of non- and antireligious views. In the "Contemporary," Archbishop (now Cardinal) Manning and Mr. Fitz-James Stephen held recent tournament, in which, amongst other things, they fought over

The words VELSNACH, a "Volcian," and RUMACH, a "Roman," show that the ethnic suffix in Etruscan was ach. The same suffix is found in Susian, a Turanian cuneiform language, where Susiak denotes a "Susian. The ethnic appellations of the Altaic peoples are ordinarily formed in the same way; as Ostiak, Wotiak, Kosak, Jurak, Koriak, Karakalpak, Kalmuk, and many more.

Although my subject is "the Etruscan Language," I must not conclude without reminding you that language constitutes only a portion of the available evidence as to the affinities of nations. The features and the religions of races are transmitted as surely and certainly as their forms of speech. Therefore the sciences of Comparative Anthropology and Comparative Mythology may claim to have a voice in this matter as well as the science of Comparative Philology.

Now we have no lack of evidence as to the outward appearance of the Etruscans, and the testimony of ancient writers agrees with the evidence of the earlier mural paintings and portrait statues.* They are represented as differing altogether from the slender symmetrical forms of the Greeks and Romans. Their appearance must have resembled that of the Turanian races of Northern Asia, such as the Mongols, Tatars, Samoyedes, and Lapps.

This portrait of an Etruscan warrior, which is reduced from a well-known bronze statue found at Ravenna, might be mistaken for the representation of a Samoyed. As a rule the Etruscans had short, stout, sturdy figures, with large heads, thick arms, black hair and eyes, scanty beard, and, above all, the high cheek-bones, so characteristic of the Mongoloid race, as well as the oblique eyes with which we are so familiar in Chinese and Japanese drawings.

I would strongly recommend you to study the wonderfully realistic portrait figures which repose on the lid of the great_terracotta sarcophagus which has lately been placed in the British Museum from the Castellani collection. The eyes, you will see, are as oblique as those of a Kalmuk or a Chinese. It may, I think, be safely said that those two portraits are alone sufficient to dispose of a whole library of books which have been written to prove the Aryan affinities of the Etruscans.

Next, if the Etruscans were Turanians, their religion should also be Turanian. This is a very important branch of the evidence, which I can only speak of in the very briefest manner.

Our information as to the religion of the Etruscans is ample. Some four hundred bronze mirrors have been found in Etruscan

* The type changes in later works of art, and conforms itself more to the Roman type. So the modern Turks have completely lost the Mongoloid type of feature which distinguished them when they first entered Europe, and the Magyars are fast losing it.