The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 4,186 b

owner of the mind pleases to order it to form - whichthe Romans gave the name of virtue, manhood,
itself into. The mind is in a fluid state, but it as the one thing ennobling for a man. In the literary
hardens up gradually to the consistency of rock or ages of Rome, that had very much decayed away ;
iron, and you cannot alter the habits of an old man, but still it had retained its place among the lower
but as he has begun he will proceed to go on to the classes of the Roman people. Of the deeply religious
last. By diligence I mean, among other things, and nature of the Greeks, along with ther beautiful and
very chiefly, honesty in all your inquiries of what sunny effulgences of art, you have a striking proof,
you are about. Pursue your studies in the way your if you look for it. In the tragedies of Sophocles,
conscience calls honest. More and more endeavour there is a most distinct recognition of the eternal
to do that. Keep, I mean to say, an accurate sepa- justice of Heaven, and the unfailing punishment of
ration of what you have really come to know in crime against the laws of God. I believe you will
your own minds and what is still unknown. Leave find in all histories that that has been at the head
all that on the hypothetical side of the barrier, as and foundation of them all, and that no nation that
things afterwards to be acquired, if acquired at all; did not contemplate this wonderful universe with an
and be careful not to stamp a thing as known when awestricken and reverential feeling that there was a
you do not know it. Count a thing known only great unknown, omnipotent, and all-wise, and all-
when it is stamped on your mind, so that you may virtuous Being, superintendin 0- all men in it, and all
survey if on all sides with intelligence. There is such interests in it—no nation ever came to very much,
a thing as a man endeavouring to persuade himself, nor did any man either, who forgot that. If a man
and endeavouring to persuade others, that he knows did forget that, he forgot the most important part of
about things when he does not know more than the his mission in this world. In our own history of
outside skin of them, and he goes flourishing about England, which you will take a great deal of natural
with them. (" Hear, hear," and a laugh.) There pains to make yourselves acquainted with, you will
is also a process called cramming in some universi- find it beyond all others worthy of your study ; be-
ties—(a laugh)—that is, getting np such points of causelbelieve that the British nation—andl include
' things as the examiner is likely to put questions in them the Scottish nation—produced a finer set of
about. Avoid all that as entirely unworthy of an men than any you will find it possible to get any-
honourable habit. Be modest, and humble, and where else in the world. (Applause.) I don't know
diligent in your attention to what your teachers tell in any history of Greece or Rome where you will
you, who are profoundly interested in trying
to get so fine a man as Oliver Cromwell. (Applause.)
bring you forward in the right way, so far as they And we have had men worthy of memory in our
have been able to understand it. Try all things be- little corner of the island here as well as others, and
fore you in order, if possible, to understand them, our history has been strong at least in being con-
and to value them in proportion to your fitness for netted with the world itself—for if you examine well
them. Gradually see what kind of work you can you will find that John Knox was the author, as it
do, for it is the first of all problems for a man to were, of Oliver Cromwell ; that the Puritan revolu-
find out what kind of work he is to do in the uni- tion would never have taken place in England at all
verse. In fact, morality as regards study is, as in if it had not been for that Scotchman. (Applause.)
all other things, the primary consideration, and That is an arithmetical fact, and is not prompted by
overrides all others. A dishonest man cannot do national vanity on my part at all. (Laughter and
anything real, and it would be greatly better if he applause.) And it is very possible, if you look at
were tied up from doing any such thing. He does the struggle that was going on in England, as I
nothing but darken counsel by the words he utters. have had to do in my time, you will see that people
That is a very old doctrine, but a very true one, and were overawed with the immense impediments lying
you will find it confirmed by all the thinking men in the way. A small minority of God-fearing men in
that have ever lived in this long series of generations the country were flying away with any ship they
of which we are the latest. I daresay you know could get to New England, rather than take the lion
very many of you, that it is now 700 years since by the beard. They dursn't confront the powers with
Universities were first set up in this Europe of ours. their most just complaint to be delivered from idola-
Abelard and other people had risen up with doctrines try. They wanted to make the nation altogether
in them the people wished to hear of, and students conformable to the Hebrew Bible, which they un-
flocked towards them from all parts of the world. derstood to be according to the will of London ; and
There was no getting the thing recorded in books there could be no aim more legitimate. However,
as you may now. You had to hear him speaking they could not have got their desire fulfilled at all
to you vocally, or else you could not learn at all if Knox had not succeeded by the firmness and
what it was that he wanted to say. And so they nobleness of his mind. For he is also of the select
gathered together the various people who had any- of the earth to me —John Knox. (Applause.)
thing to teach, and formed themselves gradually What he has suffered from the ungrateful genera-
under the patronage of kings and other potentates tions that have followed him should really make us
who were anxious about the culture of their popu- humble ourselves to the dust, to think that the
lations, nobly anxious for their benefit, and became most excellent men our country has produced, to
a University. I dare say, perhaps, you have heard whom we owe everything that distinguishes us
it said that all that is greatly altered by the inven- among modern nations, should have been sneered
tion of printing, which took place about midway at and abused by people. Knox was heard by Scot-
between us and the origin of Universities. A man land—the people heard him with the marrow of
has not now to go away to where a professor is their bones—they took up his doctrine, and they
actually speaking, because in most cases he can get defied principalities and powers to move them from
his doctrine out of him through a book, and can read it. "We must have it," they said. It was at
it, and read it again and again, and study it. I that time the Puritan struggle arose in England,
don't know that I know of any way in which the and you know well that the Scottish Earls and no-
whole facts of a subject may be more completely bility, with their tenantry, marched away to Dunse-
taken in, if our studies are moulded in conformity hill, and sat down there; and just in the course of
with it. Nevertheless, Universities have, and will that struggle, when it was either to be suppressed
continue to have, an indispensable value in society or brought into greater vitality, they encamped on
—a very high value. I consider the highest interests the top of Dunse-hill-30,000 armed men, drilled
of man vitally intrusted to them. In regard to for that occasion, each regiment around its land-
-1 theology, as you are aware, it has been the study lord, its earl, or whatever he might be called, and
of the deepest heads that have come into the world eager for Christ's Crown and Covenant. That was
—what is the nature of this stupendous universe, the signal for all England rising up into unappeas-
and what its relations to all things, as known to able determination to have the Gospel there also,
man, and as only known to the awful Author of it. and you know it went on and came to be a con-
In fact, the members of the Church keep theology test whether the Parliament or the King should rule
in a lively condition—(laughter)—for the benefit of ----whether it should be old formalities and use and
the population, which is the great object of our , wont, or something that had been of new con-
Universities. I consider it is the same now intrin- 1 ceived in the souls of men—namely, a divine de-
sically, though very much forgotten, from many termination to walk according to the laws of God
causes, and not so successful as might be wished at' here as the sum of all prosperity—which of these I
all. (A laugh.) It remains, however, a very curious should have the mastery ; and after a long, long
truth, what has been said by observant people, agony of struggle, it was decided—the way we
that the main use of the Universities in the pre- know. I should say also of that Protectorate of
sent age is that, after you have done with all Oliver Cromwell's—notwithstanding the abuse it
your classes, the next thing is a collection of has encountered, and the denial of everybody that it
books, a great library of good books, which you was able to get on in the world, and so on—it ap-
proceed to study and to read. What the Univer- pears to me to have been the most salutary thing in
sities have mainly done—what I have found the the modern history of England on the whole. If Oli-
University did for me, was that it taught me to ver Cromwell had continuedit out,l don't know what
read in various languages and various sciences, so it would have come to. It would have got corrupted
that I could go into the books that treated of these perhaps in our hands, and could not have gone on,
things, and try anything I wanted to make myself but it was pure and true to the last fibre in his mind
master of gradually, as I found it suit me. What- ' —there was truth in it when he ruled over it.
ever you may think of all that, the clearest and Machiavelli has remarked, in speaking about the
most imperative duty lies on every one of you to be Romans, that democracy cannot exist anywhere in ,
assiduous asaGovernment it is an impossibility
1
readers, which is, perhaps, a more difficult thing . that it should be continued, and he goes on to prov-
than you imagine. Learn to be discriminative in ing that in his own way. I do not ask you all to
your reading—to read all kinds of things that you follow him in all his convictions—(hear)--but it is
have an interest in, and that you find to be really to him a clear truth that it is a solecism and impossi-
fit for what you are engaged in. Of course, at the \ bility that the universal mass of men should govern
present time, in a great deal of the reading incum- \ themselves. He says of the Romans that they con-
bent on you you must be guided by the books re- tinued a long time, but it was purely in virtue of this
commended to you by your professors for assistance item in their constitution—namely, that they had all
towards the prelections. And then, when you get the conviction in their minds that it wassoleinnly ne-
out of the University, and go into studies of your cessary at times to appoint-a Dictator—a man who
own, you will find it very important that you have ' had the power of life and death over everything—who
selected a field, a province in which you can study degraded men out of their places, ordered them to
and work. The most unhappy of all men is the execution, and did whatever seemed to him good in
man that cannot tell what he is going to do, that has the name of God above him. He was commanded to
got no work cut out for him in the world, and does . take care thatthe Republic suffered no detriment, and
not go into it. For work is the grand cure of all 1 Machiavelli calculates that that was the thing that
the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind purified the social system from time to time, and en-
, 1
—honest work, which you intend getting done. If ' abled it to hang on as it did—an extremely likely 1
you are in a strait, a very good indication as to thing if it was composed of nothing but bad and tu-
choice—perhaps the best you could get—is a book ' multuous men triumphing in general over the better,
you have a great curiosity about. You are then in and all going the bad road, in fact. Well, Oliver
the readiest and best of all possible conditions to Cromwell's Protectorate, or Dictatorate if you will,
improve by that book. It is analogous to what lasted for about ten years, and you will find that no-
doetors tell us about the physical health and appe- thing that was contrary to the laws of Heaven was
tites of the patient. You must learn to distinguish allowed tolive by Oliver. (A laugh, and applause.)
between false appetite and real. There is such a I For example, it was found by his Parliament, called
thing as a false appetite which will lead a man into " Barebones"—the most zealous of all Parliaments
vagaries with regard to diet, will tempt him to eat probably—(laughter)—that the Court of Chancery
spicy things which he should not eat at all, and in England was in a state that was really capable of
would not but that it is toothsome, and for the no apology—no man could getup andsay thatthat was
moment in baseness of mind. A man ought to in- a right court. There were, I think, 15,000 or 1,500—
quire and find out what he really and truly has I (laughter)—l don't really remember which, but we
appetite for—what suits his constitution ; and that, shall call it by the last—(laughter)—there were 1,500
doctors tell him, is the very thing he ought to have caseslying in it undecided, and one of them, I remem-
in general. And so with books. As applicable ber, for a large amount of money, was 83 years old, and
to almost all of you, I will say that it is highly it was going on still. Wigs were waving over it, and
expedient to go into history—to inquire into what lawyers taking their fees, and there was no end of it,
has passed before you in the families of men. The upon which the Barebones people, after deliberation
history of the Romans and Greeks will first of all about it, thought it was expedient, and coin-
concern you ; and you will find that all the know- mended by the Author of Man and the Fountain of
ledge you have got will be extremely applicable to Justice, and for the true and right, to abolish the
elucidate that. There you have the most remark- court. Really, I don't know who could have dis-
able race of men in the world set before you, to say rented from that opinion. At the same time, it was
nothing of the languages which your professors can thought by those who were wiser, and had more ex-
better explain, and which, I believe, are admitted to perience of the world, that it was a very dangerous
be the most perfect orders of speech we have yet thing, and would never suit at all. The lawyers
found to exist among men. And you will find, if began to make an immense noise about it. (Laughter.)
you read well, a pair of extremely remarkable na- All the public, the great mass of solid and well-dis-
tions shining in the records left by themselves as a posed people who had got no deep insight into such
kind of pillar to light up life in the darkness of the matters, were very adverse to it, and the president
past ages ; and it will be well worth your while if of it, old Sir Francis Rouse, who translated the
you can get into the understanding of what these Psalms—those that we sing every Sunday in the
people were and what they did. You will find a church yet—a very good man and a wise man—the
great deal of hearsay, as I have found, that does not Provost of Eton—he got the minority, or I don't
touch on the matter ; but perhaps some of you will know whether or no he did not persuade the majo-
get to see a Roman face to face ; you will know in rity—he at any rate got a great number of the Par-
some measure
how they contrived to exist, and to liament to go to Oliver the Dictator, and lay down
perform
will
find h n ed s e a
thing
in the world; I believe, also, their functions altogether, and declare officially with
you not much noted, that there was their signature on Monday morning that the Parlia-
t
feats
a very great deal of deep religion in its form in both ment was dissolved. The thing was passed on Satur-
nations. That is noted by the wisest of historians, day night, and on Monday morning Rouse came
and particularly by
who is particularly and said, "We cannot carry on the affair any
well worth reading on Roman history 7 • and I believe longer, and we remit it into the hands of your
was
he Ferguson,
ry an alumnus in our own university. His I Highness." Oliver in that way became Protector a
book is a ve creditable book.
He points out the second time. I give you this as an instance that
profoundly religious nature of the Roman Oliver felt that the Parliament that had been dis-
notwithstanding
—Jupiter Ma the wildness and ferociousness of missed had been perfectly right with regardto Chan-
their nature.people,
eery, and
.that there was no doubt of the propriety
They believed that Jupiter Optimus
X11:11
that he had appointed considered it, and this is what he
the Romans to become the kind of way. Ile
—to brave all difficulty,
Maximus—_w lord of the. universe, and of abolishing Chancery, or reforming it in some
chief of men, provided they followed his commands did. He assembled GO of the wisest lawyers to be
and to stand up with an found in England. Happily, there were men great
invincible front—to be ready to do and die ; and who valued the laws as much as
also to have the same sacred
promise, to integrity, and regard to veracity,l suppose. 0. laugh.) Oliver
all" Go and examine this thing, and in
the virtues that sur- said to them,
round that noblest quality of necessary to be
men--courage—to the name of God inform me what is
oto anybodyilatheiad:s lad'--men

versity of the country. (Hear, hear.) Well, I en-
tirely participate in everybody's approval of the
movement. It is very desirable. I should be re-
sponded to, and one expects most assuredly will.
At least, if it is not, it will be shameful to the coun-
try of Scotland, which never was so rich in money
as at the present moment, and never stood so much
in need of getting noble Universities to counteract
many influences that are springing up alongside of
money. It should not be backward in coming for-
ward in the way of endowments—(a laugh)—at
least, in rivalry to our rude old barbarous ancestors,
as we have been pleased to call them. Such muni-
ficence as theirs is beyond all praise, to whom I
am sorry to say we are not yet by any manner of
means equal or approaching equality: (Laughter.) There
is an overabundance of money, and sometimes I cannot
help thinking that, probably, never has there been at any
other time in Scotland the hundredth part of the money
that now is, or even the thousandth part, for wherever I go
there is that gold-nuggeting (a laugh)—that prosperity.
Many men are counting their balances by millions. Money
was never so abundant, and nothing that is good to be done
with it. (" Hear, hear," and a laugh.) No man knows—
or very few men know—what benefit to get out of his
money. In fact, it too often is secretly a curse to him.
Much better for him never to have had any. But Ido not
expect that generally to be believed. (Laughter.) Never-
theless, I should think it a beautiful relief to many a man
that has an honest purpose struggling in him to bequeath
a handsome house of refuge, so to speak, for some meri-
torious man who may hereafter be born into the world to
enable him a little to get on in his way. To do, in fact, as
those old Norman kings as I have described to you—to
raise a man out of the dirt and mud where ho is getting
trampled, unworthily on his part, into some kind of posi-
tion where he may acquire the power to do some good in his
generation. I hope that as much as possible will be done in
that way ; that efforts will not be relaxed till the thing is
in a satisfactory state. At the same time in regard to the
classical department of things, it was to be desired that it
were properly supported—that we could allow poople to go
and devote more leisure possibly to the cultivation of parti-
cular departments. We might have more of this from
Scotch Universities than we have. lam bound, however,
to say that it does not appear as if of late times endowment
was the real soul of the matter. The English, for example,
are the richest people for endowments on the face of the
earth for Universities : and it is a remarkable fact that
since the time of Bentley you cannot name anybody that has
gained a great name in scolarship among them, or consti-
teda, point of revolution in the pursuits of men in that way.
The man that did that is a man worthy of being remembered
among men, although he may be a poorer man, and not en-
dowed with worldly wealth. One man that actually did
constitute a revolution was the son of a poor weaver in
Saxony, who edited his " Tibullus" in Dresden in the room
of a poor comrade, and who, while he was editing his
" Tibullus," had to gather his pease-cod shells on the streets
and boil them for his dinner. That was his endowment.
(Laughter.) But he was recognized soon to have done a
great thing. His name was Heine. I can remember it was
quite a revolution in my mind when I got hold of that man's
book on Virgil. I found that for the first time I had un-
derstood him—that he had introduced me for the first
time into an insight of Roman life, and pointed out the
circumstances in which these were written, and here was
interpretation ; and it has gone on in all manner of develop-
ment, and has spread out into other countries. Upon the
whole, there is one reason why endowments are not given
now as they were in old days, when they founded abbeys,
colleges, and all kinds of things of that descriptton, with
such success as we:know. All that has changed now. Why
that has decayed away may in part be that people have be-
come doubtful that colleges are now the real sources of
that which I call wisdom, whether they are anything more
—anything much more—than a cultivating of man in the
specific arts. In fact, there has been a suspicion of that
kind in the world for a long time. (A laugh.) What is
an old saying, an old proverb, " An ounce of mother-wit
is worth a pound of clergy." (Laughter.) There is a
suspicion that a man is perhaps not nearly so wise as he
looks, or because he has poured out speech so copiously.
(Laughter.) When the seven free Acts on which the old
Universities were based came to be modified a little, in
order to be convenient for or to promote the wants of mo-
dern society—though, perhaps, some of them are obsolete
enough even yet for some of us—there arose a fear that
mere vocality, mere culture of speech, if that is what comes
out Of a man, though he may be a great speaker, an elo-
quent orator, yet there is no real substance there—if that
is what is required and aimed at by the man himself, and
by the community that set him upon becoming a learned
man. Maid-servants, I hear people complaining, are
getting instructed in the " ologies," and so on, and are
apparently totally ignorant of brewing, boiling,
and baking —(loud laughter)—above all things, not
taught what is necessary to be known, from the highest to
the lowest—strict obedience, humility, and correct moral
conduct. Oh, it is a dismal chapter, all that, if one went
into it ! What has been done by rushing after fine speech ?
I have written down some very fierce things about that,
perhaps considerably more emphatic than I would wish
them to be now, but they aro deeply my conviction. (Hear,
hear.) There is very great necessity indeed for getting a
little more silent than we aro. It seems to me the finest
nations in the world—the English and the American—are
going all away into wind and tongue. (Applause and
laughter.) But it will appear sufficiently tragical by-and-
by, long after .1 am away out of it. Silence is the eternal
duty of a man. He won't get to any real understanding of
what is complex, and what is more than any other pertinent
to his interests, without maintaining silence. " Watch the
tongue" is a very old precept, and a most true one. I do
not want to discourage any of you from your Demosthenes,
and your studies of the niceties of language,, and all that.
Believe me, Ivalue that as much as much any of you. I con-
sider it a very graceful thing and a proper thing for every
human creature to know what the implement which he
uses in communicating his thoughts is, and how to make
the very utmost of it. I want you to study Demosthenes
and know all his excellences. At the same time, I must say
that speech does not seem to me, on the whole, to have
turned to any good account. Why tell me that a man
is a fine speaker if it is not the truth that he is speaking ?
Phocion, who did not speak at all, was a great deal nearer
hitting the mark than Demosthenes. (Laughter.) He used
to tell the Athenians, "You can't fight Philip. You have
not the slightest chance with him. He is a man who holds
his tongue ; he has great disciplined armies ; he can brag
anybody you like in your cities here ; and he is going on
steadily with an unvarying aim towards his object ; and he
will infallibly beat any kind of men such as you, going on
raging from shore to shore with all that rampant non=
sense." Demosthenes said to him one day, " The
Athenians will get mad some day and kill you." "Yes,"
Phocion says, " when they are mad, and you as soon as they
get sane again." (Laughter and applause.) It is also told
about him going to Messintt on some deputation that the
Athenians wanted on some kind of matter of an intricate
and contentious nature that Phocion went with some story
in his mouth to speak about. He was a man of few words
—no unveracity ; and after he had gone on telling the story
a certain time there was one burst of interruption. One
man interrupted with something he tried to answer, and
then another ; and, finally, the people began bragging and
bawling; and no end of debate, till it ended in the want of
power in the people to say any more. Phocion drew back
altogether, struck dumb, and would not speak another word
to any man ; and he left it to them to decide in any way
they liked. It appears to me there is a kind of eloquence
in that which is equal to anything Demosthenes ever said
—" Take your own way and let me out altogether."
(Applause.) All these considerations, and manifold more
connected with them—innumerable considerations, resulting
from observation of the world at this moment—have led
many people to doubt of the salutary effect of vocal educa-
tion altogether. Ido not mean to say it should be entirely
excluded ; but I look to something that will take hold of
the matter much more closely, and not allow it to slip out of
our fingers, and remain worse than it was. For if a good
speaker—an eloquent speaker—is not speaking the truth, is
there a more horrid kind of object in creation ? (Loud
cheers.) Of such speech I hear all manner and kind of
people say it is excellent; but I care very little about how he
said it, provided 3 understand it, and it be true. Excellent
speaker! but what if he is telling me things that are untrue,
that are not the fact about it—if he has formed a wrong
judgment about it—if he has no judgment in his mind to
form a right conclusion in regard to the matter ? An ex-
cellent speaker of that kind is, as it were, saying, "Ho, every
one that wants to be persuaded of the thing that is not true,
come hither." (Great laughter and applause.) I would
recommend you to be very chary of that kind of excellent
speech. (Renewed laughter.) Well, all that being the too
well-known product of our method of vocal education—
the mouth merely operating on the tongue of the pupil, and
teaching hitu to wag it in a particular way—(laughter)—it
had made a great many thinking men entertain a very
great distrust of this not very salutary way of proce-
dure, and they have longed for some kind of practical
way of working out the business. There would be room
for a great deal of description about it if I went into it;
but I most content myself with saying that the most re-
markable piece of reading that you may be recommended to
take and try if you can study is a book by Gothe—one of
his last books, which ho wrote when he was an old man,
about 70 years of age— I think one of the most beautiful he
ever wrote, full of mild wisdom, and which is found to be
very touching by those who have eyes to discern and hearts
to feel it. It is one of the pieces in " Wilhelm Meister's
Travels." I read it through many years ago; and of course
I had to read into it very hard when I was translating it—
(applause)—and it has always dwelt in my mind as about the
most remarkable bit of writing that I have known to
be executed in these late centuries. I have often said -
there are ten pages of that which, if ambition had been my
only rule, I ws#ald rather have written .than have written
all the books that have appeared since I came into the world.
(Cheers.) Deep, deep is the meaning of what is said there.
They turn on the Christian religion and the religious phe-
nomena of Christian life—altogether sketched out in the
most airy, graceful, delicately-Wise kind of way, so
as to keep himself out of the common controversies of
the street and of the forum, yet to indicate what was
the result of things he had been long inedttattnz, upon.

done with regard to it. You will see how we may
clean out the foul things in it that render it poison
to everybody." Well, they sat down then, and in
the course of six weeks—there was no public speak-
ing then, no reporting of speeches, and no trouble of
any kind; there was just the business in hand—
they got 60 propositions fixed in their minds of the
things that required to be done. And upon these 60
propositions Chancery was reconstituted and re-
modelled, and so it has lasted to our time. It had
become a nuisance, and could not have continued
much longer. That is an instance of the manner in
which things were done when a Dictatorship pre-
vailed in the country, and thatwas what the Dictator
did. Upon the whole, Ido not think that, in gene-
ral, out of common history books, you will ever get
into the real history of this country, or anything
particular which it would beseem you to know. You
may read very ingenious and very clever books by
men whom it would be the height of insolence in
me to do any other than express my respect for. But
their position is essentially sceptical. Man is unhap-
pily in that condition that he will make only a tem-
porary explanation of anything, and you will not
be able, if you are like the man, to understand how
this island came to be what it is. You will not find
it recorded in books. You will find recorded in
books a jumble of tumults, disastrous ineptitudes,
and all that kind of thing. But to get what you
want you will have to look into side sources, and
inquire in all directions. I remember getting Col-
lins' " Peerage" to read—a very poor peerage as a
work of genius, but an excellent book for diligence
and'fidelity—l was writing on Oliver Cromwell at
the time. (Applause.) I could get no biographical
dictionary, and I thought the peerage book would
help me, at least tell whether people were old or
young, and about all persons concerned in the ac-
tions about which I wrote. I got a great deal of
help out of poor Collins. lie was a diligent and
dark London bookseller of about 100 years ago,who
compiled out of all kinds of treasury chests, ar-
chieves, books that were authentic, and out of all
kinds of things ont of which he could get the infor-
mation he wanted. lle was a very meritorious man.
I not only found the solution of anything I wanted
there, but I began gradually to perceive this im-
mense fact, which I really advise every one of you
who read history to look out for and read for—if he
has not found it—it was that the kings of England all
the way from the Norman Conquest down to the times
of Charles I. had appointed, as far as they knew,
those who deserved to be appointed, peers. They
were all royal men, with minds full of justice and
valour and humanity, and all kinds of qualities
that are good for men to have who ought to rule
over others. Then their genealogy was remarkable
—and there is a great deal more in genealogies than
is generally believed at present. I never heard tell
of any clever man that came out of entirely stupid
people. If you look around the families of your
acquaintance, you will see such cases in all directions.
I know that it has been the case in mine. I can
trace the father, and the son, and the grandson,
and the family stamp is quite distinctly legible upon
each of them, so that it goes for a great deal—the
hereditary principle in Government as in other
things ; and it must be recognised so soon as there
is any fixity in things. You will remark that if at
any time the genealogy of a peerage fails—if the
man that actually holds the peerage is a fool in these
earnest striking times, the man gets into mischief
and gets into treason—he gets himself extinguished
altogether, in fact. (Laughter.) From these docu-
ments of old Collins it seems that a peer conducts
himself in a solemn, good, pious, manly kind of way,
when he takes leave of life, and when he has hos-
pitable habits, and is valiant in his procedure
throughout; and that in general a king, with a noble
approximation to what was right, had nominated
this man, saying, " Come you to me, sir ; come out
of the common level of the people, where you are
liable to be trampled upon ; come here and take a
district of country, and make it into your own
image more or less; be a king under me, and un-
derstand that that is your function." I say this is
the most divine thing that a human being can do to
other human beings, and no kind of being whatever
has so much of the character of God Almighty's
Divine Government as that thing we see that went
all over England, and that is the grand soul of
England's history. (Cheers.) It is historically true
that down to the time of Charles I. it was not un-
derstood that any man was made peer without hav-
ing a merit in him to constitute him a proper subject
for a peerage. In Charles I.'s time it grew to be
known or said that if a man was by birth a gentle-
man and was worth £lO,OOO a year, and bestowed
his gifts up and down among courtiers, he could be
made a peer. Under Charles 11. it went on with still
greater rapidity, and has been going on with ever in-
creasing velocity until we see the perfect breakneck
pace at which they are now going. (A laugh.) And
now a peerage is a paltry kind of thing to what it
was in these old times. I could go into a great
many more details about things of that sort, but I
must turn to another branch of the subject. One
remark more about your reading. Ido not know
whether it has been sufficiently brought home to
you that there are two kinds of books. When a
man is reading on any kind of subject, in most de-
partments of books—in all books, if you take it in
a wide sense—you will find that there is a division
of good books and bad books—there is a good kind
of a book and a bad kind of a book. lam not to
assume that you are all very ill acquainted with
this ; but I may remind you that it is a very im-
portant consideration at present. It casts aside
altogether the idea that people have that if they are
reading any book—that if an ignorant man is read-
ing any book he is doing rather better than nothing,
at all. I even call that in question. I even ven-
ture to deny it. (Laughter and cheers.) It would
be much safer and better would he have no concern
with books at all than with some of them. You
know these are my views. There are a number, an
increasing number, of books that are decidedly to
him not useful. (Hear.) But he will learn atso
that a certain number of books were written by a
supreme, nobler kind of people--not a very great
number, but a great number adhere more or less to
that side of things. In short, as I have written it
down somewhere else, I conceive that books are
like men's souls—divided into sheep and goats.
(Laughter and applause.) Some of them are cal-
culated to be of very great advantage in teaching
—in forwarding the teaching of all generations.
Others are going down, down, doing more and more
wilder and wilder mischief. And for the rest, in
regard to all your studies here, and whatever you
may learn, you are to remember that the object is
not particular knowledge—that you are going to
get higher in technical perfections, and all that
sort of thing. There is a higher aim lies at the
rear of all that, especially among those who
are intended for literary, for speaking pursuits—.
the sacred profession. You are ever to bear in mind
that there lies behind that the acquisition of what
may be called wisdom—namely, sound appreciation
and just decision as to all objects that come round
about you, and the habit of behaving with justice
and wisdom. In short—great wisdom—great is
the value of wisdom. It cannot be exaggerated.
The highest achievement of man—" Blessed is he
that getteth understanding." And that, I believe,
occasionally may be missed very easily ; but never
more easily than now, I think. If that is a failure,
all is a failure. However, I will not touch further
upon that matter. In this University I learn from
many sides that there is a great and considerable
stir about endowments. Oh, I should have said in
regard to book reading, if it be so very important,
how very useful would an excellent library be in
every University. I hope that will not be neglected
by those gentlemen who have charge of you—and,
indeed, I am happy to hear that your library is very
mucb improved since the time I knew it ; and I
hope it will go on improving more and more. You
require money to do that, and you require also
judgment in the selectors of the books—pious in-
sight into what is really for the advantage of human
souls, and the exclusion of all kinds of clap-trap
books which merely excite the astonishment of
foolish people. (Laughter.) Wise books—as much
as possible good books. As I was saying, there
appears to be a great demand for endowments—an
assiduous and praiseworthy industry for getting
new funds collected for encouraging the ingenuous
youth of Universities, especially 4 this chief