10 ^ag Sermons, (Sssags, anfr gtbiefas. [i. 



praises of which do not happen to be sung because they 

 are not directly convertible into instruments for creating 

 wealth. When I contemplate natural knowledge squan- 

 dering such gifts among men, the only appropriate 

 comparison I can find for her is, to liken her to such a 

 peasant woman as one sees in the Alps, striding ever 

 upward, heavily burdened, and with mind bent only on 

 her home ; but yet, without effort and without thought, 

 knittirig for her children. Now stockings are good and 

 comfortable things, and the children will undoubtedly 

 be much the better for them ; but surely it would be 

 short-sighted, to say the least of it, to depreciate this 

 toiling mother as a mere stocking-machine a mere 

 provider of physical comforts? 



However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not 

 a few of them, who take this view of natural knowledge, 

 and can see nothing in the bountiful mother of humanity 

 but a sort of comfort- grinding machine. According to 

 them, the improvement of natural knowledge always has 

 been, and always must be, synonymous with no more 

 than the improvement of the material resources and the 

 increase of the gratifications of men. 



Natural knowledge is, in their eyes, no real mother of 

 mankind, bringing them up with kindness, and, if need 

 be, with sternness, in the way they should go, and 

 instructing them in all things needful for their welfare ; 

 but a sort of fairy godmother, ready to furnish her pets 

 with shoes of swiftness, swords of sharpness, and omni- 

 potent Aladdin's lamps, so that they may have telegraphs 

 to Saturn, and see the other side of the moon, and thank 

 God they are better than their benighted ancestors. 



If this talk were true, I, for one, should not greatly 

 care to toil in the service of natural knowledge. 1 think 

 I would just as soon be quietly chipping my own flint 

 nxe, after the manner of my forefathers a few thousand 



