AN ADDRESS TO STUDENTS 107 



which a decision might be based being absent. This dis- 

 cipline of suspending the judgment is a common one in 

 science, but not so common as it ought to be elsewhere. 

 I walked down Eegent Street some time ago with a man 

 of great gifts and acquirements, discussing with him vari- 

 ous theological questions. I could not accept his views 

 of the origin and destiny of the universe, nor was I pre- 

 pared to enunciate any definite views of my own. He 

 turned to me at length and said, "You surely must have 

 a theory of the universe." That I should in one way or 

 another have solved this mystery of mysteries seemed 

 to my friend a matter of course. "I have not even a 

 theory of magnetism'' was my reply. "We ought to learn 

 to wait. We ought assuredly to pause before closing with 

 the advances of those expounders of the ways of God to 

 men, who offer us intellectual peace at the modest cost 

 of intellectual life. 



The teachers of the world ought to be its best men, and 

 for the present at all events such men must learn self- 

 trust. By the fulness and freshness of their own lives 

 and utterances they must awaken life in others. The 

 hopes and terrors which influenced our fathers are passing 

 away, and our trust henceforth must rest on the innate 

 strength of man's moral nature. And here, I think, the 

 poet will have a great part to play in the future culture 

 of the world. To him, when he rightly understands his 

 mission, and does not flinch from the tonic discipline 

 which it assuredly demands, we have a right to look for 

 that heightening and brightening of life which so many 

 of us need. To him it is given for a long time to come 

 to fill those shores which the recession of the theologic tide 

 has left exposed. Void of oifence to science, he may freely 



