HIS EXTRA-PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS 95 



a book, let it be with the view to special information. 

 The habits of mind to be thus attained are good, and the 

 information useful. It is surprising how difficult one 

 who attempts this rule finds it at first to provide himself 

 with subjects for thought — to think of something that he 

 does not know. In our ignorance our horizon is very 

 contracted: mists, clouds, and darkness hang upon it, 

 and self fills almost the entire view around, above, and 

 below to the utmost verge. But as we study the laws of 

 nature, and begin to understand about our own igno- 

 rance, we find light breaking through, the horizon ex- 

 panding, and self getting smaller and smaller. It is 

 like climbing a mountain : every fact or fresh discovery 

 is a step upward with an enlargement of the view, until 

 the unknown and the mysterious become boundless 

 — self infinitely small ; and the conviction comes upon us 

 with a mighty force that we know nothing — that human 

 knowledge is only a longing desire." In conclusion, he 

 warned them against believing that they had finished 

 their education on leaving the University, for they had 

 merely cleared away the rubbish and prepared the foun- 

 dations. If they ceased to study, they soon would forget 

 what they had learned and mental retrogression would 

 begin; for just as movement and progress were necessary 

 aspects of life in the physical world so were rest and 

 decay correlative terms in the mental and moral realms. 

 Among the numerous addresses which he delivered 

 during the decade preceding the Civil War, the most 

 eloquent and significant was the one given on October 

 10, 1860, at the laying of the corner stone of the Uni- 

 versity of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. For this 

 occasion there were assembled eight bishops, two hun- 

 dred presbyters, and five thousand people. In intro- 



