436 Edward "Livingston Youmans. 



9 



which can throw light on the progress of the intellect, the 

 evolution of the emotions, and the limits of moral liberty 

 and responsibility imposed by the conditions of physical 

 organization or social circumstances. ^Esthetics, which 

 regards the beautiful in Nature, and gives rise to the fine 

 arts, depends upon the laws of feeling and sensibility. Its 

 principles are founded in the constitution of human nature, 

 and will probably be yet reduced to a scientific system. To 

 work out its great ideas of " unity," " harmony," " propor- 

 tion," and the laws of beauty, it awaits a better psychology 

 and a deeper penetration into the true spirit of Nature. 

 Literature is that great body of expression of thought 

 upon a vast variety of subjects, the proper judgment of 

 which depends upon the extent and accuracy of our knowl- 

 edge of the truth of things in reality, conception, and ex- 

 pression. 



Thus does scientific culture reach its ultimate and ex- 

 alted ends. Its course is along a line of connections 

 which are causal and dynamic ; its ideas constantly flow- 

 ing on and widening out until they embrace all the higher 

 subjects of human interest and inquiry. The order of 

 dependence of facts and principles must here impera- 

 tively determine the true order of study. To pass directly 

 from languages and mathematics to the complex questions 

 of man and society, is to violate the continuity of Nature's 

 logic ; to carry false methods of reasoning and judgment 

 into the highest spheres of thought, and to provide for 

 those errors of theology and vices of practice which are so 

 lamentably conspicuous in the management of social and 

 public affairs. Only by that scientific discipline which 

 confers a steadfast faith in the universality of law, and 

 only as the discipline of mathematical and physical studies 

 is corrected and amplified by familiarity with biological 

 conceptions, will it be possible to secure a class of thinkers 

 who can grapple with the upper grade of questions in 



