ON THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. 303 



which provoke inquiry. Descending for a moment 

 from this high plea to considerations which lie closer 

 to us as a nation as a land of gas and furnaces, of 

 steam and electricity: as a land which science, prac- 

 tically applied, has made great in peace and mighty in 

 war: I ask you whether this ' land of old and just 

 renown ' has not a right to expect from her institutions 

 a culture more in accordance with her present needs 

 than that supplied by declension and conjugation? 

 And if the tendency should be to lower the estimate 

 of science, by regarding it exclusively as the instrument 

 of material prosperity, let it be the high mission of our 

 universities to furnish the proper counterpoise by 

 pointing out its nobler uses lifting the national mind 

 to the contemplation of it as the last development of 

 that ' increasing purpose ' which runs through the ages 

 and widens the thoughts of men. 



