The Metaphysical Society (1869-1880) included sixty-two of Victorian Britain's leading minds in the realms of theology, philosophy, and science. Founded in April 1869, it held its first regular meeting in June of that year, and its last in November 1880. Once a month from November to July members convened at the Grosvenor Hotel in London to dine and then listen to and discuss 'with absolute freedom' a printed, pre-circulated paper from one of them that addressed some knotty and often controversial matter. Speculative conversations between poet Alfred Tennyson, architect and editor James Knowles, and the astronomer Charles Pritchard about the fraught relationship of science, religion, and morality, inspired Knowles to suggest a 'Theological Society' to discuss such matters. This history lists all Society members during its existence, the year they joined, the meetings they attended, and the papers they read.

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