two important dogmas of my lecture to the test of reason, in the full belief that you are as anxious as myself to arrive at a reasonable and true conclusion regarding them. The doctrines of the creation and fall are, as it were, the foundations upon which the huge superstructure of Christianity has been founded. Take away these fundamental doctrines, and the whole fabric totters to the ground; for without a fall there can be no possible need for a redemption, and the etceteras of the religion, such as the miraculous conception and ascension, baptism, and the eucharistic feast, vanish into thin air as vain imaginations and things of naught. It cannot be too clearly and forcibly insisted upon that no fall necessitates no redemption, for the proposition is self-evident, and thus incapable of contradiction. If, therefore, we find the story of the creation and fall, as given to us in the first three chapters of Genesis, to be credible and reasonable, then our duty, upon another occasion, will be to examine the evidence for and against the subsequent theories of the religion, in order to discover whether they also are credible and reasonable. If, on the other hand, we find the story to be incredible and absurd, it will be our duty to reject the whole Christian scheme that has emanated from it. Our business at the present time is with these fundamental doctrines of creation and the fall, and our sole object is the elucidation of the truth, no matter whether it should be palatable or not to our minds. No sensible man can desire to retain that which is not true, for no system that is not founded on truth can be of any permanent service to the human race, but must on the contrary produce most pernicious results.