The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-07-14
COW MENCEMENT.

~
character of the student. Here is found
the highest use and worth of knowl-
edge. AS means of cnriching the
material conditio ns of man science has
this fruit of the tree of knowledge.
Mind, through the body, feeds on the
juices of the planet as does the tree
! converting them into its own substance.
Diogenes of Apolonia was not all astray
when he accounted for the superior in
telligeuce of nan to that of the prone
| and earth-bowed beasts from the purer
air he breathed and the drier nature of
his food. Whatever helps production
and multiplies wealth, aids the growth
of mind. Here is the economic point
of view. 1t may unearth the hid treas
ures in natures field, harness her ODE
dent forces to our service, span the
continents with railways and tele-
graphs, fertilize soils, set the streams to
work, till the land teens with factories
and rivers groan under the burdens of
commerce, and the granaries are burst
ing with finest of wheat but unless the
material product can he coined into
character, this material force transmit
ed into mental force, and men an wom-
en- grow big and fair on this augmented
nutriment it is all as cheap as dirt
out of which it grew. | say these things
lin limine" because so many in our
times think chiefly of the material
gains that experimental science has
given TO man. Once men said knowl-
edge is power that was selfishness,
Now men say of knowledge "there is
money in it, that is meaner still. AS
if nature were pocket to he rifled and
not spectacle to be studied and adored!
| say to you knowledge is character.
Its fruit is manhood by which alone its
real worth is to be esteemed. We will
omit then from our thoughts the bread
and butter view of the question, and
ask ourselves what qualities of soul
knowledge must beget in the student {;
what purpose must inspire him who
knows anything as he ought to know.
|. The first use of true knowledge as
indicated in the text, the one which
lies at the bottom of all else, is to teach
us.our ignorance and its fruits humil-
ity. Right science is modest. Men
deepest in the secret of nature, mind,
God, have usually been humble. Soc
rates was pronounced by the Delphian
oracle to be the wiseSt of men because
he did not seem to himself to be Wise,
did not think he knew anything.
there was truth as well as wit in the
repartee of one who when an angry
IL Itu, s.pi n Iki arg a
ana you know it. replied, lin that
case am wiser than YOU for you are n
fool and don't know it, The sciolist
is pulled up. A little learning is n
dangerous thing, for it makes man
swell.
Authorities aside | appeal to ex-
perience. Somewhat of the middle of
things we know but the beginning
and the end who can understand
either? Astronomy pushing her re
search into trackless void never plants
her foot on the out-posts of space, nor
has the chemist in his subtlest analysis
caught the simple atom: but the
smallest thing is universe, "where
suns and systems inconspicuous float. "
A cloud hangs over either end of the
narrow space along which the toiling
intellect travels back and forth weaV-
ing its web of thought. We are like
men climbing up winding stairs to the
summit of some high tower. Below are
, stairs along which We have come
above are more that go out of sight
the bottom and tops alike invisible
tive know in part" never the whole,
even the part we never know but in
part. 3 e Surely then he knows
nothing as he ought to know, who in
the highest reaches of intelligence is
: not humbled at the thought how like
nothing is all we know, to what we dc
not know. have dwelt long and re-
petitiously on this point in order To ex-
: pose the perversity of that conceit OF
overmuch knowing which has been
and is the bane of learning. Ambition
Oh the part of burning intellect t.
transcend the limit of our faculties is
the temptation that has beset the path
of thought ever since man in Eden
, aspiring to he as gods fell from his high
estate, and makes of most difficult at
tainmGnt that which Il forgotten sage
. said was the greatest wisdom "to he
willing with a tranquil mind not t.
know some things And
now this vain deceit of knowledge is
invading the field of physical science
imperilling all its highest interests 10y
leading ii away from the modest anC
safe path of experiment, in which il
has made such solid and brilliant
achievements, into the ioy-banks of /;
e priori speculation. Instead of study
: ing phenomena and orders of sequence
, setting down what they find, some o.
> the most ambitious Swans are about
writing new book of Genesis. - 81
l For one, glory in science as the CRANE
q inheritance of our age, but | say to al
young students, beware of that false
, science that is pulled up with the am
i bition to know everything, that.is no
e content to know in part, demanding il
@ the boastful language of Hegel, abOv,
quoted, that the whole'universe shall
D give itself into its hands, for "if any
: man lin this way think he knowetl
o anything he knoweth nothing yet q,
he ought to know
I'd. pass to secoud use OF science
1t encourages a religious spirit. Thi
u sentence may sound strange to some ears
3 1t is more or less the fashion of thes
!. times to denounce science as the cnem
!. of religion. | do not say that men o
l. science are all religious. 1t is alarming
o ly otherwise now. What | say is, tn
= normal tendency OF the pursuit of knowl
). edge is to beget disposition favorabl
: to religion. First knowledge
g then sense OF ignorance, then faith, the
Il worship; such is the succession of menta
f states that conduct us to religion and t
:, God. What can better Inspire adoratio
- than the study Of nature? Not fac
! discovered, but opens territory Of limit
less mystery TO reverent faith. Fo
every question which science answers,
lie hundred others start up which it cannc
v put to rest. Take this flower, Botan
Is has classified and named it, 1t can ez
RS plain something of its structure and tn
L. vital circulation by which itgrows. Bu
er tell me if you please. These leaves, VI
to folding from the same bud on the sam
e, stock are so differentiated that one
r" pink and the other purple, one perhaI
- green in the centre. edged round wit