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. 



VII. 



AN ADDRESS TO STUDENTS. 1 



f PHERE is an idea regarding the nature of man which 

 JL modern philosophy has 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 imported into 

 this address when I say that he is not a thing of 6,000 

 years ago. Whether he came originally from stocks or 

 stones, from nebulous gas or solar fire, I know not ; if 

 he had any such origin the process of his transform- 

 ation is as inscrutable to you and me as that of the 

 grand old legend, according to which ' the Lord God 

 formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 

 into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a 

 living soul.' But however obscure man's origin may 

 be, his growth is not to be denied. Here 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 



1 Delivered at University Or liege, London, Session 1868-69. 

 36 



