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PREFATORY NOTE.

THE substance of the following pages was delivered, in the form of Lectures, to the members of the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh, in the months of March and April, 1858. Passages necessarily omitted in the delivery, are here restored; a few passages spoken from notes, are here expanded from recollection; and there are also some additions, especially towards the end. By these changes the Discourses are made to exceed by much the ordinary limits of Lectures. I have, however, retained the name

of "Lectures" by way of title, - partly because

nearly all the matter, as it stands, was actually prepared to be spoken; and partly because the name may serve to account for anything in the manner of treatment, or in the style, that might not be considered so fitting in other forms of composition. With respect to one of the Lec

tures the third-it might even be obliging

if the reader were to remember specially that it was prepared for an Edinburgh audience.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON,

JUNE, 1859.

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