410 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
AN ADDKESS TO STUDENTS.* 
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self control, 
These three alone lead life to sovereign power, 
Yet not for power (power of herself 
Would come uncalled for), but to live by law, 
Acting the law we live by without fear; 
And, because right is right, to follow right 
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence. 
TENNYSON. 
THERE is an idea regarding the nature of man which 
modern philosophy 1ms sought, and is still seeking, to raise 
into clearness; the idea, namely, of secular growth. Man 
is not a thing of yesterday; nor do I imagine that the 
slightest controversial tinge is imparted into this address 
when I say that he is not a thing of six thousand years 
ago. Whether he carne originally from stocks or stones, 
from nebulous gas or solar fire, I know not; if he had any 
such origin the process of his transformation is as inscru- 
table to you and me as that of the grand old legend, accord- 
ing to which "the Lord G-od formed man of the dust of 
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life; and man became a livingsoul." But however obscure 
man's origin may be, his growth is not to be denied. Hero 
a little and there a little added through the ages have 
slowly transformed him from what he was into what he is. 
The doctrine has been held that the mind of the child is 
like a sheet of white paper, on which by education we can 
write what characters we please. This doctrine assuredly 
needs qualification and correction. In physics, when an 
external force is applied to a body with a view of affecting 
its inner texture, if we wish to predict the result, we must 
know whether the external force conspires with or opposes 
the internal forces of the body itself; and in bringing the 
influence of education to bear upon the new-born man his 
inner powers also must be taken into account. He comes 
to us as a bundle of inherited capacities and tendencies, 
labeled "from the indefinite past to the indefinite future;" 
and he makes his transit from the one to the other 
* Delivered at University College, London, Session 1868-69. 
