THE BEL FA ST A D DRESS, 493 
Fichte, " to have been the teacher of the Stoa, and to have 
discoursed of Beauty and Virtue in the groves of Academe." 
With a capacity to grasp physical principles which his 
friend Goethe did not possess, and which even total lack of 
exercise has not been able to reduce to atrophy, it is the 
world's loss that he, in the vigor of his years, did not open 
his mind and sympathies to science, and rttake its con- 
clusions a portion of his message to mankind. Mar- 
velously endowed as he was equally equipped on the side 
of the heart and of the understanding he might have 
done much toward teaching us how to reconcile the claims 
of both, and to enable them in coming times to dwell to- 
gether, in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace. 
And now the end is come. With more time, or greater 
strength and knowledge, what has been here said might 
have been better said, while worthy matters, here omitted, 
might have received fit expression. But there would have 
been no material deviation from the views set forth. As 
regards myself, they are not the growth of a day; and as 
regards you, I thought you ought to know the environment 
which, with or without your consent, is rapidly surrounding 
you, and in relation to which some adjustment on your 
part may be necessary. A hint of Hamlet's, however, 
teaches us how the troubles of common life may be ended; 
and it is perfectly possible for you and me to purchase 
intellectual peace at the price of "intellectual death. The 
world is not without refuges of this description; nor is it 
wanting in persons who seek their shelter, and try to 
persuade others to do the same. The unstable and the 
weak Have yielded and will yield to this persuasion, and 
they to whom repose is sweeter than the truth. But I 
.would exhort you to refuse the offered shelter, and to scorn 
the base repose to accept, if the choice be forced upon 
you, commotion before stagnation, the breezy leap of the 
torrent before the foetid stillness of the swamp. In the 
course of this address I have touched on debatable ques- 
tions, and led you over what will be deemed dangerous 
ground and this partly with the view of telling you that, 
as regards these questions, science claims unrestricted right 
of search. It is not to the point to say that the views of 
Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin and Spencer, may be 
wrong. Here I should agree with you, deeming it indeed 
