Part 6 (1/2)

Emotion is spontaneous, and adorers, like lovers, neither ask nor care for reasons There is in fact an ele; passion is non-rational; and when the spirit of the tiious they may be The scientific habit offaith; and the nes of the physical universe which theus face to face with new probleion and morals, in politics and society

Whatever we may think of the past, whatever we may fear or hope for the future, if ould make an ihts, the purposes, and the methods of those e live; and we ion be unchangeable, the mind of man is not so, and that the point of view varies not only froe, but froht of the individual and of the world As in travelling round the earth, ti there, so with difference of latitude and longitude, of civilization and barbarisrow different They who observe fros, or do not see theht Proof for a peasant is not proof for a philosopher; and argue are held to be unanswerable, in another lose power to convince, or becoined that the hearts of Christians should again burn with the devotional enthusiasm and the warlike ardor of the Crusaders; and just as little is it conceivable that ain become passionately interested in the questions which in the fourth and fifth centuries filled the world with the noise of theological disputation It were mere loss of time to beat now the waste fields of the Protestant controversy Wiseion, which fifty years ago attracted attention, lies like a stranded shi+p on a deserted shore, and atteht esteee; but the accoins and ends in faith There is oppugnancy between belief in an all-wise, all-good, and all-powerful God, and belief in the divine origin of Nature, whose face is s faiths and increasing knowledge cannot add to the difficulty On the contrary, the higher the intelligence, the purer Nature seerow The chemical ele body, and the earthquake and the cyclone obey the same lahich make the waters flow and the zephyrs breathe perfuination and not the reason that is overwhel space and time To the intellect, eternity is not more mysterious than the present moment, and the distance which separates us from the remotest stars is not more inco thought of ibility toward universal intelligence; and religion is the soul, escaping froht and love of the Infinite; and on the heights they meet and are at peace

Meanwhile they who seek natural knowledgefoundations of human life, and that a philosophic creed is as sterile as Platonic love; and they who uphold religion norance alone can keep alive is little better than superstition To strive to attain truth under whatever form is to seek to know God; and yet no ideal can be true for man, unless it can be made to minister to faith, hope, and love; for by thes as they are, without preoccupation or s lest what is should ever make it impossible, for us to believe and hope in the better yet to be Science and ht and action require emotion; and beyond the utmost reach of the human mind lie the boundless worlds of mystery where the soul must believe and adore what it can but dimly discern The Copernican theory of the heavens startled believers at first; but we have long since grown accustomed to the nehich reveals to us a universe infinitely ined We do not rightly see either the things which are always around us, or those which for the first time are presented to our eyes; and when novel theories of the visible world, which in so, profoundly alter our traditional notions, the mind is disturbed and overclouded, and the lapse of ti upon life, upon religion, and upon society There can be no doubt but increase of knowledge involves incidental evils, just as the progress of civilization multiplies our wants; but the wise are not therefore driven to seek help froe is gain The evils that spring froreater enlighten characteristic is confidence in education Men have ceased to care for the bliss there e, if such there still be, are as far away from the life of this century as the dead whose bones cruo

The aim the best now propose to themselves is to provide not wealth or pleasure, or better her and more effective kind of education; and hence whatever one's preoccupation, whether social, political, religious, or industrial, the question of education forces itself upon his attention Pedagogy has grown to be a science, and chairs are founded in universities to expound the theory and art of teaching The learning of fornorance of our own; and the classical writings have ceased to be the treasure-house of knowledge, and in consequence their educational value has dio wished to acquaint himself with philosophic, poetic, or eloquent expression of the best that was knoas compelled to seek for it in the Greek and Latin authors; but now Greek and Latin are accomplishments chiefly, and a classical scholar, if unacquainted with norant

”If any one,” said Hegius, the teacher of Erasrammar, rhetoric, mathematics, history, or holy scripture, let him read Greek;” and in his day this was as true as it is false and absurd in our own In the Middle Ages, Latin was roundwork of the educational system, not on account of any special value it may have been supposed to possess as a e of the learned, of all who spoke or wrote on questions of religion, philosophy, literature, and science; but noho that is able to think dreaht in a Greek or Rolish in poetry, have surpassed the Greeks; and French prose is not inferior in qualities of style to the ancient classics, and in wealth of thought and knowledge so far excels them as to preclude comparison

The life of Greece and Rome, compared with ours, was narrow and superficial; their ideas of Nature were crude and often grotesque; they lacked sympathy; the Greek had no sense of sin; the Roman none of the mercy which tempers justice In their eyes the child was not holy, woman was not sacred, the slave was not man Their notion of liberty was political and patrioticfro God, was to therowth of a people's life and thought, and the nobler the life, the ht, the reater knowledge, wisdooodness, power, in Christendoan world, it would certainly be an anomaly if modern literature were inferior to the classical The ancients, indeed, excel us in the sense for form and symmetry There is also a freshness in their words, a joyousness in their life, a certain heroic teive thee the emotions; and hence to deny them exceptional educational value is to take a partial view But even though we grant that the study of their literatures is in certain respects the best intellectual discipline, education, it ; and thorough training is soth as well, and ability to think inknown to e of the age determines what is dee to live at a ti more rapidly even than population and wealth, we must, if we hope to stand in the front ranks of those who know, keep pace with the onward movement of mind To turn away froan civilization or Christian barbarisreatis crude and his ideas of Nature are frequently grotesque Saint Thomas is a powerful intellect; but his point of view in all that concerns natural knowledge has long since vanished fro does not the early medieval scheme of education reveal; and when in the twelfth century the idea of a university rises in the best ue it is! Arow humble, and think ourselves inferior toas we, and they led a reat names of the past, the mists of illusion fill the skies, and our eyes are died with the splendors of a sun that has set

Certainly a true university will be the ho; it will teach the best that is known, and encourage research; it will stiht, refine taste, and awaken the love of excellence; it will be at once a scientific institute, a school of culture, and a training ground for the business of life; it will educate the e; it will be a nursery of ideas, a centre of influence The good we do men is quickly lost, the truth we leave them remains forever; and therefore the aim of the best education is to enable students to see what is true, and to inspire thes most profit to the individual; but philosophy and literature, science and art, elevate and refine the spirit of the whole people, and hence the university will make culture its first aihts and attained and multiplied Here if anywhere shall be found teachers whose one passion is the love of truth, which is the love of God and ofto every question a calht of the intellect fails, walk by faith and accept the omen of hope; who understand that to be distrustful of science is to lack culture, to doubt the good of progress is to lack knowledge, and to question the necessity of religion is to isdooverned world it s that reason and virtue should tend to prevail, in spite of the fact that in every age the majority of men think foolishly and act unwisely How divine is not man's apprehensive endower lose her charm, the performer his skill, we feel no co to decay, we are saddened, for we cannot believe that the Godlike and immortal faculty should be subject to death's power It is a reflection of the light that never yet was seen on sea or land; it is the ician who shapes and colors the universe, as a drop of water mirrors the boundless sky Is not this the first word the Eternal speaks?--”Let there be light” And does not the blessed Saviour coht, of truth, of joy, and peace?

Have not the Christian nations e? Is not our religion the worshi+p of God in spirit and in truth? Is not its uide and minister?

The future prevails over the present, the unseen over what touches the senses only in high and cultivated natures; and it is held to be the supre, to whom the earth seems to be heaven revealed and ious joy to seek, to serve, to love Hiood Yet this is e ask of the lovers of intellectual excellence, ithout hope of teth of heart which is found in obeying the Divine Will; for ious duty, although it is plain that to seek to know truth is to seek to know God, in whos are, and whose infinite nature and est andway for faith, hope, and love, for higher aims and nobler life; and to doubt its worth and excellence is to deny the reasonableness of religion, since belief, if not wholly blind, e The best culture serves spiritual and moral ends Its aim and purpose is to make reason prevail over sense and appetite; to raise man not only to a perception of the harood and fair Not in a darkened ht break into prisnorance is the sweet countenance of the divine Saviour best discerned If some have pursued a sublinoble life,--this leaves the good of the intellect untouched Soion, who have held high and the highest places in the Church, have been unworthy, but we do not thence infer that the tendency of religion is to norance are sophists Stupidity is norance, and not malice, is the row, let truth prevail Since God is God, the universe is good, and the ht way becoator and the thinker, the enius, cannot free themselves from bias and limitation; but the work they do will help me and all men

Indifference or opposition to the intellectual life is but a survival of the general anti-educational prejudices of for us to find fault hatever excellence is a reproach to our unworthiness The disinterested love of truth is a rare virtue, most difficult to acquire andpower and wealth, if it give fame and pleasure, it is dear to us; but how many are able to love it for its own sake? Do not nearly all men strive to convince themselves of the truth of those opinions which they are interested in holding? What is true, good, or fair is rarely at once admitted to be so; but what is practically useful men quickly accept, because they live chiefly in the world of external things, and care little for the spiritual realnorant do not even believe that knowledge gives power and pleasure, and the educated, except the chosen few, value it only for the power and pleasure it gives As the disinterested love of truth is rare, so is perfect sincerity Indeed, insincerity is here the radical vice

Good faith is essential to faith; and a sophistical ious as a depraved heart Let a s are possible; but when he persuades hiated, he becomes the eneh and Godlike

Now, to be able to desire to see things as they are, whatever their relations to ourselves may be, and to speak of them si of the intellect, which in the world of thought and opinion gives us that sweet indifference which is the rule of saints when they subuidance Why should he whose , and rests on God, be disturbed? It is with opinion as with life We cannot tell what moment truth will overthrow the one and death the other; but thought cannot change the nature of things The clouds dissolve, but the eternal heavens remain Over the bloodiest battlefields they bend calht and flowers exhale perfume The moonbeam kisses the crater's lip Over buried cities the yellow harvest waves, and all the catastrophes of endless time are present to God, ells in infinite peace He sees the universe and is not troubled, and shall not ho are akin to hi repose of mind and heart? Were it not a sweeter piety to trust that he who ht; and therefore not to grow anxious lest soator should find hi bodies are immersed in an invisible substance which feeds the flame of life, so souls breathe and think and love in the atht and love the s, in this age of transition, are passing away; but true thoughts and pure love are is a ent and ious A hundred years hence our present machinery e look to us, and our political and social organization may appear barbarous,--so rapid has the movement of life beco, partly it reater blessings they shall enjoy, but chiefly because we feel that after all the true worth of life lies in nothing of this kind, but in knowing and doing, in believing and loving; and that it would not be easier to live for truth and righteousness were electricity applied to aerial navigation and all the heavens filled with argosies of ic sail It is not possible to love sincerely the best thoughts, as it is not possible to love God when our ai external, or e believe that what is enerate and exalt h-souled man To move the masseseven to a cleaner sty; It takes the ideal to blow a hair's-breadth off The dust of the actual--Ah, your Fouriers failed, Because not poets enough to understand That life develops from within”

He who believes in culture must believe in God; for what but God do we hest beauty? No God, no best; but at rowing knowledge not be blighted by a hidden taint, if he is persuaded that at the core of the universe there is only blind unconscious force? But if he believe that God is infinite poorking for truth and love, then can he also feel that in seeking to prepare his mind for the perception of truth and his heart for the love of what is good and fair, he is working with God, and uides heavenly spirits and all the countless worlds He desires that all h he should be doomed to remain as he is, for then they would have power to help hier when his opinions are opposed He learns to bear what he cannot prevent, knowing that courage and patience make tolerable immedicable ills He feels no self-complacency, but rather the self-dissatisfaction which co faculties which he can but imperfectly use And this discontent he believes to be the infinite God stirring within the soul As the earthquake which ss some island in another hemisphere disturbs not the even tenor of our way, so the passions of men whose world is other than his, ell remote from what he contemplates and loves, shake not his tranquil ht moves in spheres unknown to theive, and is not hard to console for the loss of anything There is no true thought which he would not gladly h it should be the ord of his enemies Sinceknowledge will make it at once more evident and more attractive Hatred between races and nations he holds to be not less unchristian than the hatred which arainst his fellow-man It is ithened or consoled a human soul is sacred in his eyes; and wherever there is question of what is socially coion or a civilization, there is question of s, their yearnings, disappointonies, and deaths; and he is able to perceive that in the ports of levity there is no refuge for hearts that mourn Does not love itself, in its heaven of bliss, turn away from him who mocks? The lover of the intellectual life knows neither contenation, is not elated by success or cast down by failure; money cannot make him rich, and poverty helps to make hi wiser will become nobler and happier; and this sweet truth has in his eyes ale his power of syed; until like Saint Francis, he can call the sun his brother and the rieve with homeless winds, and feel a kinshi+p with the clod The very agonies by which his soul has been wrung open to his gaze visions of truth which else he had never caught, and so he finds even in things evil sooodness Praise and blame are for children, but to him impertinent He is tolerant of absurdity because it is so all-pervading that he whonation can have no repose

While he labors like other men to keep his place in the world, he strives to make the hereby heto him, serve intellectual and moral ends He has a meek and lowly heart, and he has also a free and illuift or accoion; for has not the Church intellects as ustine and Chrysostoa and Cervantes, Bossuet and Pascal, Saint Bernard and Gregory the Seventh, Aquinas and Michael Angelo, Mozart and Fenelon? Ah!

I behold the youthful throng, happier than ho here, in their oeet country,--in this city of government and of laith its wide streets, its open spaces, its air of freedo hum of commerce and the unintellectual din of machinery, shall hearken to the voice of wisdoe, alive, in every sense, to catch whatever e may come to theher than theether, like planets to a sun; whose ht fresher and purer than hter ever tells Who has not seen, when leaden clouds fill the sky and throw gloomy shadows on the earth, some littlekine and running brook, all bathed in sunlight, and s?

Such to my fancy is this favored spot, whose invitation is to the fortunate feho believe that ”the noblest mind the best contents forth and nurtures the fairest souls When youthful friends drift apart, andnot only in different cities, but in different worlds Those who shall come up to the university must turn away from much the world holds dear; and while the coer in pleasant places or shall get money, position, and applause, they ht Xanthippe would have had altogether a better opinion of Socrates had he not been a philosopher, and the best we do is often that for which our age and our friends care the least; but they who have once tasted the delights of a cultivated ifts of fortune, and to have beheld the fair face of wisdorow obsolete; but what is fit to be heard by the chosen few shall be true and beautiful while such minds are found on earth In the end, it is this little band--this intellectual aristocracy--who uide the world They see what is possible, outline projects, and give iest in orous, open, supple, and illuht How it enius throbs forever in the words on which its spirit has breathed Let this seed, though hidden like the grain in mummy pits for thousands of years, but fall on proper soil, and soon the golden harvest shall wave beneath the doenerous youth bend over the electric page, and lo!

all his being shall thrill and flaift But whoever keeps on doing in all earnestness so which he need not do, and for which the world cares hardly at all, if he have not genius, has at least one of its chief marks; and it is, I think, an important function of a university to create an intellectual atious, which whosoever breathes shall, like the Sibyl, feel the inspiration of divine thoughts

Sweet home! where Wisdom, like a mother, shall lead her children in pleasant ways, and to their thoughts a touch of heaven lend! Fros than I can speak,--

Our scattered knowledges together bind; Our freedom consecrate to noble aims

To music set the visions of the mind; Give utterance to the truth pure faith proclaims

Lead where the perfect beauty lies enshrined, Whose sight the blood of low-born passion taly conclude than with the nahtenedbeen hope deferred and a drea-place,--Mary Gwendolen Caldwell