200 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



his message to mankind. Marvellously endowed as he 

 was equally equipped on the side of the Heart and of 

 the Understanding he might have done much to- 

 wards teaching us how to reconcile the claims of both, 

 and to enable them in coming times to dwell together, 

 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 re- 

 lation 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 intel- 

 lectual 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 questions, 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 



