AN ADDRESS TO STUDENTS. 99 



of unflagging delight. How I rejoiced when I found a 

 great author tripping, and was fairly able to pin him to a 

 corner from which there was no escape ! As I speak, some 

 of the sentences which exercised me when a boy rise to my 

 recollection. "He that hath ears to hear let him hear." 

 That was one of them, where the " He " is left, as it were, 

 floating in mid air without any verb to support it. I speak 

 thus of English because it was of real value to me. I do 

 not speak of other languages because their educational value 

 for me was almost insensible. But, knowing the value of 

 English so well, I should be the last to deny, or even to 

 doubt, the high discipline involved in the proper study of 

 Latin and Greek. / 



That study, moreover, has other merits and recommen- 

 dations which have been already slightly touched upon. 

 It is organized and systematized by long-continued use. 

 It is an instrument wielded by some of the best intellects 

 of the country in the education of youth ; and it can point 

 to results in the achievements of our foremost men. What, 

 then, has science to offer which is in the least degree likely 

 to compete with such a system ? I cannot better reply 

 than by recurring to the grand old story from which I have 

 already quoted. Speaking of the world and all that therein 

 is, of the sky and the stars around it, the ancient writer 

 says, " And God saw all that he had made, and behold it 

 was very good." It is the body of things thus described 

 which science offers to the study of man. There is a very 

 renowned argument much prized and much quoted by 

 theologians, in which the universe is compared to a watch. 

 Let us deal practically with this comparison. Supposing a 

 watchmaker, having completed his instrument, to be so 

 satisfied Avith his work as to call it very good, what would 

 you understand him to mean? You would not suppose 

 that he referred to the dial-plate in front and the chasing 

 of the case behind, so much as to the wheels and pinions, 



