PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 873 



pate with me in these views. You will tell me that the 

 Latins and the Greeks were the men; but, sir, posterity will 

 surely learn to estimate the value of races of men, only by 

 their contribution to the common stock of human wisdom 

 and human greatness: the ^neid is the property of Italy — 

 the printing press the property of the Universe. 



When Peter the Hermit preached the Crusades, he little 

 dreamed what would be the result of his ministrations. 

 The savage tribes that went from the shores of Western 

 Europe, brought back with them from Damascus and As- 

 calon a leaven which speedily leavened the whole lump. 

 A spirit of inquiry was generated — the study of what was 

 designated by the monks of those days, the ancient languages 

 — a misnomer which has descended even to us — was com- 

 menced with avidity; and knights and noblemen, who but 

 a few years before could neither read nor write, pored over 

 the Iliad with raptures, and became subtle casuists in the 

 philosophy of Aristotle. The monastic institution, then 

 prevalent all over Europe, gave a tint to learning — for be- 

 cause the monks found it necessary to read the works of 

 the fathers in their original tongues, they asserted that this 

 transcended all other knowledge; and so loudly and so well 

 did they pursue their asseverations, that even in the nine- 

 teenth century we lind men who will scarcely believe that 

 there have existed conquerors more successful than Caesar — 

 empires richer and more extensive than that of Home — 

 people as civilized and as enlightened as the Grecians. 



The genius of Lord Verulam had already taught men the 

 true method of becoming powerful and wise, when Newton 

 was born. This man, gifted for a few years by Providence 

 with a most gigantic intellect — which, when it had accom- 

 plished the designed object, was withdrawn from him — has 

 exercised an influence of no common kind on the destinies of 

 his race. The inductive method of philosophy was crowned 

 with a series of the most brilliant results; but even here, 

 where we might least expect it, we find a proneness of the 

 human mind to wander into error. A tribe of bastard 

 sciences has arisen — the sciences of the mind — the illegiti- 

 mate offspring of the union of the philosophy of Bacon, in 

 its first years of wantonness and youth, with the shrivelled 

 metaphysics of the old schools. An Alexandrian philosopher 

 is said to have told the king of Egypt, that there was no royal 

 road to science; but we, in these latter days of refinement, 

 have found one — a method which gives to superficial learn- 

 ing the appearance of wisdom, and to crude ideas and child- 

 ish speculations the aspect of a perfect science — like the 



