AN ADDRESS TO STUDENTS 103 



are still a long way from the final solution of this prob- 

 lem; and when the solution comes, it will be more one of 

 spiritual insight than of actual observation. But though 

 we are still a long way from this complete intellectual mas- 

 tery of nature, we have conquered vast regions of it, have 

 learned their polities and the play of their powers. We 

 live upon a ball of 8,000 miles in diameter, swathed by 

 an atmosphere of unknown height. This ball has been 

 molten by heat, chilled to a solid, and sculptured by water. 

 It is made up of substances possessing distinctive proper- 

 ties and modes of action, which offer problems to the 

 intellect, some profitable to the child, others taxing the 

 highest powers of the philosopher. Our native sphere 

 turns on its axis, and revolves in space. It is one of a 

 band which all do the same. It is illuminated by a sun 

 which, though nearly a hundred millions of miles distant, 

 can be brought virtually into our closets and there sub- 

 jected to examination. It has its winds and clouds, its 

 rain and frost, its light, heat, sound, electricity, and mag- 

 netism. And it has its vast kingdoms of animals and 

 vegetables. To a most amazing extent the human mind 

 has conquered these things, and revealed the logic which 

 runs through them. Were they facts only, without logical 

 relationship, science might, as a means of discipline, suffer 

 in comparison with language. But the whole body of 

 phenomena is instinct with law; the facts are hung on 

 principles, and the value of physical science as a means 

 of discipline consists in the motion of the intellect, both 

 inductively and deductively, along the lines of law marked 

 out by phenomena. As regards the discipline to which I 

 have already referred as derivable from the study of lan- 

 guages — that, and more, is involved in the study of phys- 



