TllK J, M>1>i;R8& 



Fichte, "to have been the teaclier of the Sto:i, and to i 

 discoursed of Heautyand Virtue in the groves of Acaden 

 With a capacity to gra I which his 



friend (roetlie did not possess, and wh; total lack of 



exercise has not been able to reduce to atrophy, it is 

 world's loss that he. in the vigor of his years, did i. 

 his mind and sympathies to sci. i make; its con- 



clusions a portion of his message to mankind. Mar- 

 velous.lv endowed as he was equally equipped on the sid-- 

 of the heart and of the understanding he might havo 

 done much toward teaching us how to reconcile the claims 

 of both, and to enable them in coming times to dwell to- 

 gether, in unity of spirit and in the bond of peace. 



And now the end is come. With more time, or greater 

 strength and knowledge, what has been here said might 

 have hern better said, while worthy matters, here omitted, 

 might, have received lit expression. But there would havo 

 i no material deviation from the views set forth. As 

 jds myself, they are not the growth of a day; and as 

 regards you, 1 thought you ought to know the environment 

 which, with or without your consent, is rapidly surrounding 

 you. and in relation to which some adjustment on your 

 part may bo necessary. A hint of Hamlet's, however, 

 teaches us how the troubles of common life may he ended; 

 and it is perfectly possible for you and me to purchase 

 intellectual pea.-.; at the price of intellectual death. The 

 world is not without refuges of this description; nor is it 

 wanting in persons who seek their shelter, and try to 

 persuade others to do the same. The unstable and the 

 weak have yielded and will yield to this persuasion, and 

 they to whom repose is sweeter than the truth. lint 1 

 would exhort you to refuse the offered shelter, and to scorn 

 the base repose to accept, if the choice be forced upon 

 you, commotion before stagnation, the breezy leap of the 

 torrent before the f.etid stillness of the swamp. In the 

 course of this address I have touched on debatable ques- 

 tions, and 1 over what will be deemed dangerous 

 ground and this partly with the view of tolling you that, 

 as^ regards these questions, science claims unrestricted right 

 of's&ifcTir "HI ^^tslTofIo^T>o~noinrTir8air that the views of 

 Lucretius and \\v\\ . may bo 

 wrong. Here I should agree with yon, deeming it indeed 



