AN ADDRESS TO STUDKN1S. 413 



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 properties 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 subjected to examination. It 

 has its winds and clouds, its rain and frost, its light, heat, 

 sound, electricity, and magnetism. 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 languages that, and more, is involved in 

 the study of physical science. Indeed, I believe it would 

 be possible so to limit and arrange the study of a portion of 

 physics as to render the mental exercise involved in it 

 almost qualitatively the same as that involved in the un- 

 raveling of a language. 



I have thus far confined myself to the purely intellectual 

 side of this question. But man is not all intellect. If he 

 were so, science would, I believe, be his proper nutriment. 

 But he feels as well as thinks; he is receptive of the 

 sublime and beautiful as well as of the true. Indeed, I 

 believe that even the intellectual action of a complete man 

 is, consciously or unconsciously, sustained by an under- 

 current of the emotions. It is vain to attempt to separate 

 the moral and emotional from the intellectual. Let a man 

 but observe himself, and he will, if I mistake not, find 

 that in nine cases out of ten the emotions constitute the 

 motive force which pushes his intellect into action. The 

 reading of the works of two men, neither of them imbued 



