ON THE STUDY OF PHYSICS 319 



enlarged heart and mind comes among boys — when he 

 allows his spirit to stream through them, and observes the 

 operation of his own character evidenced in the elevation 

 of theirs— it would be idle to talk of the position of such 

 a man being honorable. It is a blessed position. The 

 man is a blessing to himself and to all around him. 

 Such men, I believe, are to be found in England, and 

 it behooves those who busy themselves with the mechan- 

 ics of education at the present day to seek them out. 

 For no matter what means of culture may be chosen, 

 whether physical or philological, success must ever mainly 

 depend upon the amount of life, love, and earnestness 

 which the teacher himself brings with him to his vocation. 

 Let me again, and finally, remind you that the claims 

 of that science which finds in me to-day its unripened 

 advocate are those of the logic of Nature upon the reason 

 of her child — that its disciplines, as an agent of culture, 

 are based upon the natural relations subsisting between 

 Man and the universe of which he forms a part. On the 

 one side, we have the apparently lawless shifting of phe- 

 nomena; on the other side, mind, which requires law for 

 its equilibrium, and through its own indestructible in- 

 stincts, as well as through the teachings of experience, 

 knows that these phenomena are reducible to law. To 

 chasten this apparent chaos is a problem which man has 

 set before him. The world was built in order: and to us 

 are trusted the will and power to discern its harmonies, 

 and to make them the lessons of our lives. From the 

 cradle to the grave we are surrounded with objects 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 elec- 



