26 ON THE RELATION OF 



student is referred to authorities even by the best 

 teachers. Both faults are traceable to a certain in- 

 dolence and vagueness of thought, the sad effects of 

 which are not confined to subsequent scientific studies. 

 But certainly the best remedy for both is to be found in 

 mathematics, where there is absolute certainty in the 

 reasoning, and no authority is recognised but that of 

 one's own intelligence. 



So much for the several branches of science considered 

 as exercises for the intellect, and as supplementing each 

 other in that respect. But knowledge is not the sole 

 object of man upon earth. Though the sciences arouse 

 and educate the subtlest powers of the mind, yet a man 

 who should study simply for the sake of knowing, would 

 assuredly not fulfil the purpose of his existence. We 

 often see men of considerable endowments, to whom 

 their good or bad fortune has secured a comfortable 

 livelihood or good social position, without giving them, 

 at the same time, ambition or energy enough to make 

 them work, dragging out a weary, unsatisfied existence, 

 while all the time they fancy they are following the 

 noblest aim of life by constantly devoting themselves to 

 the increase of their knowledge, and the cultivation of 

 their minds. Action alone gives a man a life worth 

 living ; and therefore he must aim either at the practical 

 application of his knowledge, or at the extension of the 

 limits of science itself. For to extend the limits of science 

 is really to work for the progress of humanity. Thus we 

 pass to the second link, uniting the different sciences, 

 the. connection, namely, between the subjects of which 

 they treat. 



Knowledge is power. Our age, more than any other, 

 is in a position to demonstrate the truth of this maxim. 

 We have taught the forces of inanimate nature to 

 minister to the wants of human life and the designs of 



