32 REPORT — 1878. 



information whatever, that at other moments we are fain to call her results 

 but a vain thing, and to reject them as a stone when we had asked for 

 bread. If one aspect of the subject encourages our hopes, so does the 

 other tend to chasten our desires ; and he is perhaps the wisest, and in 

 the long run the happiest among his fellows, who has learnt not only 

 this science, but also the larger lesson which it indirectly teaches, 

 namely, to temper our aspirations to that which is possible, to moderate 

 our desires to that which is attainable, to restrict our hopes to that of 

 which accomplishment, if not immediately practicable, is at least distinctly 

 within the range of conception. That which is at present beyond our ken 

 may, at some period and in some manner as yet unknown to us, fall within 

 our grasp ; but our science teaches us, while ever yearning with Goethe 

 for " Light, more light," to concentrate our attention upon that of which 

 our powers are capable, and contentedly to leave for future experience the 

 solution of problems to which we can at present say neither yea nor nay. 



It is within the region thus indicated that knowledge in the true sense 

 of the word is to be sought. Other modes of influence there are in society 

 and in individual life, other forms of energy beside that of intellect. There 

 is the potential energy of sympathy, the actual energy of work ; there are 

 the vicissitudes of life, the diversity of circumstance, health, and disease, 

 and all the perplexing issues, whether for good or for evil, of impulse and 

 of passion. But although the book of life cannot at present be read by 

 the light of Science alone nor the wayfarers be satisfied by the few loaves 

 of knowledge now in oar hands ; yet it would be difficult to overstate the 

 almost miraculous increase which may be produced by a liberal distribution 

 of what we already have, and by a restriction of our cravings within the 

 limits of possibility. 



In proportion as method is better than impulse, deliberate purpose than 

 erratic action, the clear glow of sunshine than irregular reflexion, and 

 definite utterances than an uncertain sound ; in proportion as knowledge 

 is better than surmise, proof than opinion ; in that proportion will the 

 mathematician value a discrimination between the certain and the uncer- 

 tain, and a just estimate of the issues which depend upon one motive 

 power or the other. While on the one hand he accords to his neighbours 

 full liberty to regard the unknown in whatever way they are led by the 

 noblest powers that they possess ; so on the other he claims an equal right 

 to draw a clear line of demarcation between that which is a matter of 

 knowledge, and that which is at all events something else, and to treat the 

 one category as fairly claiming our assent, the other as open to further 

 evidence. And yet, when he sees around him those whose aspirations are 

 so fair, whose impulses so strong, whose receptive faculties so sensitive, as 

 to o-ive objective reality to what is often but a reflex from themselves, or a 

 projected image of their own experience, he will be willing to admit that 

 there are influences which he cannot as yet either fathom or measure, but 

 whose operation he must recognise among the facts of our existence. 



