1SC8.] gQg [Lesley. 



imperfect rnaiiiier, even as guides to tlie understanding; for tlic 

 shifting of circumstances renders it often difficult, and in some 

 cases impossible, to establish for ourselves a certain theory of 

 cause and effect. The conduct of men depends not upon de- 

 tached fiicts or doctrines merel}^ remembered, whether the}^ have 

 been learned early or late in life ; but upon habits of thought and 

 feeling ; upon the association of ideas with the impulses which 

 directly prompt to action. No school instruction can do more 

 than establish such associations ; none can perfect the knowledge, 

 nor unalterably fix the habits of pupils. Hence, the selection of 

 the ends of conduct , th.e adjustment of the relative ra.nk of prin- 

 ciples ; the establishment of certain habitual criteria ; and the 

 promoting of that development and orderly exercise of each 

 facuUij^ ivhich result from judicious discipline — unless we pur- 

 pose amusement or display, these must be the objects of instruc- 

 tion in history." 



In m}^ own personal intercourse with Mr. Foulke, which was 

 frequent and intimate, I was profoundl}' impressed by one char- 

 acteristic of his mind, more than by almost any other ; namely, 

 a hopelessness respecting the attainment of definite knowledge. 

 This hopelessness was the result of two facts in his experience ; 

 first, that by reading diligently in almost every department of 

 human science, he had attained an intellectual point of view, 

 from which the boundlessness of nature and history and human 

 life could be descried ; and secondly, in devoting special zeal to 

 special investigations, he had learned that the most judicious 

 could seldom decide with confidence the absolute truth or the ab- 

 stract right in anything. Among all my acquaintances I had no 

 other whose spirit echoed so to the letter the despair of the wise 

 man of Palestine, that the search after knowledge would ever be 

 anything else than vanity and vexation of spirit. Inspired by this 

 sentiment, he urges in this address, that " we should in vain at- 

 tempt to teach all history," quoting his favorite. Dr. Arnold, who, 

 after rising to the first rank of philosophical historians, could say 

 " of many large and fruitful districts in the vast territory of 

 modern history I possess only the most superficial knowledge ; 

 of some I am all but totally ignorant ;" and Robertson : " the 

 collections of historical materials are so vast, the term of human 

 life is too short for the study or even the perusal of them. What 

 then can be done duiing the longest academic period 1^" 



