JOACHIM ELMMDORF. 9 



the glory of the Creator and the relief of man's estate." 

 Is not that knowledge useful, apart from any nse to be 

 made of it, which abides as the sign of the permanent 

 mental discipline and development, which resulted from 

 its methodical acquisition ? Is not the joy of knowledge 

 useful ? When after the laborious mastery of the appa- 

 rently arbitrary and disjointed elements of a new lan- 

 guage or a new science, their union in the mind of the 

 student opens to his enraptured perception the treasures 

 of the promised truths, is not that intense exhilaration 

 and satisfaction of learning useful, with an elevation and 

 strength of meaning that shames the idea of low utility ? 

 Whether or not we agree with Aristotle, who like Pla- 

 to, as Herbert Spencer tells us, " comes to the conclusion 

 that the pleasures of the intellect, reached by the con- 

 templative life, constitute the highest happiness," we 

 believe that knowledge, that is not essentially evil, is a 

 good, and, like virtue, is its own reward. And while its 

 purposeless acquisition may create only walking cyclope- 

 dias, who ' ' affect us as rich possibilities, but helpless to 

 themselves and their times, do not speak to our want," 

 yet its increase in any mind enlarges the measure or 

 heightens the quality of individual existence, and best 

 endows one with the power of usefulness, if the habit of 

 imparting be connected with that of acquiring it. This, 

 too, as Mrs. Sigourney wrote, "increases mental wealth, 

 by putting it in circulation. And it enhances the value 

 of our knowledge to ourselves, not only in its depth, con- 

 firmation and readiness for use, but in that acquaintance 

 of human nature, that self-command and that reaction of 

 moral training, which are above all price." 



The fields in which the Institute proposes to promote 

 useful knowledge are most ample and inviting. These, 

 as we have seen, are the departments of science, litera- 

 ture and art. 



