288 Sects and Science. [July* 



some respects and narrowing in others. If the individual 

 is giving way to his littleness, is thinking too much of his 

 own gains and his own happiness, if he is forgetting the 

 past in the foundation of the present, and is weakening 

 thereby the foundations of the future to be built on it, it is 

 for the nation in its collective capacity, or for the wiser 

 men, to lead the young. This must be so done that they shall 

 not enter active life as the inferior animals do, with their 

 mere instincts and unaccumulated knowledge. We see 

 great danger of the latter ; we see more than danger, we 

 see men growing up in this condition of want of early ex- 

 perience to an extent greater than can be viewed without 

 objection, although absolute loss is impossible in our busy 

 world, where the most ignorant uses modern arts of civi- 

 lisation. There is evidently a strong party in England 

 determined to break off from the remotest contact with the 

 traditions of the great eternity behind us, as they have 

 ceased to think of that which is before us. They are men 

 of observation mainly, and they have driven their principles to 

 an extreme, and attempted to make their observations on 

 that which is not present. The type of such men is easily 

 seen in the less civilized state : in mercantile life they are 

 men who drive little bargains, look after little gains, think 

 a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and with a 

 firm grip hold enough of the goods of the world to enable 

 them to live without fear of starvation ; wider minds come 

 into the same field and become great merchants. It seems 

 to us that we can detect: the same or analogous smallness 

 in the sayings and doings of those who learn only the prac- 

 tical arts of the scientific men of modern times, dealing only 

 with physics. They have one mode of thought, clear, sharp, 

 and beautiful, but they fail to look with the broad views 

 of humanity, because they have not learnt how humanity 

 thinks and feels ; still they are often the cleverest and 

 most inventive of men, and humanity will thank them for 

 their discoveries, and by adopting them will give them 

 the width of nature. This latter our great institutions, 

 our universities, ought to look after ; it is for them to 

 think on every side of a question, and to reject nothing that 

 humanity holds dear. Clearly, however, the small dealer 

 has instilled into us many of his principles. We seek too 

 exclusively to teach a boy that which will enable him to 

 earn his bread ; we do as the hens do, and set before them 

 a few crumbs until they can find enough for themselves — we 

 feed them as birds do their young, with worms, or with game, 

 until they can fly after more ; only a few can be taught to 



