48 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 



edge is to give replies to these three questions : "What 

 can I do? What ought I to do? What may I hope 

 for? The forms of knowledge which I have enumer- 

 ated, should furnish such replies as are within human 

 reach, to the first and second of these questions. While 

 to the third, perhaps the wisest answer is, " Do what you 

 can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and fear- 

 ing alone." 



If this be a just and an exhaustive classification of 

 the forms of knowledge, no question as to their relative 

 importance, or as to the superiority of one to the other, 

 can be seriously raised. 



On the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask whether 

 it is more important to know the limits of one's powers ; 

 or the ends for which they ought to be exerted ; or the 

 conditions under which they must be exerted. One 

 may as well inquire which of the terms of a Rule of 

 Three sum one ought to know, in order to get a trust- 

 worthy result. Practical life is such a sum, in which 

 your duty multiplied into your capacity, and divided by 

 your circumstances, gives you the fourth term in the 

 proportion, which is your deserts, with great accuracy. 

 All agree, I take it, that men ought to have these three 

 kinds of knowledge. The so-called " conflict of studies " 

 turns upon the question of how they may best be ob- 

 tained. 



The founders of Universities held the theory that the 

 Scriptures and Aristotle taken together, the latter being 

 limited by the former, contained all knowledge worth 



