But these laws of nature, these Divine laws, are capable of being discovered and understood, and of being taught and made our own. This is the task of science; and, whilst science discovers and teaches these laws, art teaches their application. No pursuit is therefore too insignificant, not to be capable of becoming the subject both of a science and an art. The fine arts (as far as they relate to painting, sculpture, and architecture), which are sometimes confounded with art in general, rest on the application of the laws of form and colour, and what may be called the science of the beautiful. They do not rest on any arbitrary theory on the modes of producing pleasurable emotions, but follow fixed laws-more difficult perhaps to seize than those regulating the material world, because belonging partly to the sphere of the ideal and of our spiritual essence, yet perfectly appreciable and teachable, both abstractedly and historically, from the works of different ages and nations. No human pursuits make any material progress until science is brought to bear upon them. We have seen, accordingly, many of them slumber for centuries upon centuries; but from the moment that science has touched them with her magic wand, they have sprung forward and taken strides which amaze, and almost awe, the beholder. Look at the transformation which has gone on around us since the laws of gravitation, electricity, magnetism, and the expansive power of heat have become known to us. It has altered our whole state of existence-one might say the whole face of the globe. We owe this to science, and to science alone; and she has other treasures in store for us, if we will but call her to our assistance. It is sometimes objected by the ignorant, that science is uncertain and changeable; and they point with a malicious kind of pleasure to the many exploding theories which have been superseded by others, as a proof that the present knowledge may be also unsound, and after all not worth having. But they are not aware that, while they think to cast blame upon science, they bestow, in fact, the highest praise upon her. For that is precisely the difference between science and prejudice that the latter keeps stubbornly to its position, whether disproved or not; whilst the former is an unarrestable movement towards the fountain of truth, caring little for cherished authorities or sentiments, but continually progressing, feeling no false shame at her shortcomings, but, on the contrary, the highest pleasure, when freed from an error, at having advanced another step towards the attainment of Divine truth-a pleasure not even intelligible to the pride of ignorance. We also hear, not unfrequently, science and practice, scientific knowledge and common sense, contrasted as antagonistic. A strange error! for science is eminently practical, and must be so, as she sees and knows what she is doing; whilst mere common practice is condemned to work in the dark, applying natural ingenuity to unknown powers to obtain a known result. Far be it from me to undervalue the creative power of genius, or to treat shrewd common sense as worthless without knowledge. But nobody will tell me that the same genius would not take an incomparably higher flight, if supplied with all the means which knowledge can impart; or that common sense does not become, in fact, only truly powerful when in possession of the materials upon which judgment is to be exercised. The study of the laws by which the Almighty governs the universe is therefore our bounden duty. Of these laws our great academies and seats of education have, rather arbitrarily, selected only two spheres or groups (as I may call them) as essential parts of our national education: the laws which regulate quantities and proportions, which form the subject of mathematics; and the laws regulating the expression of our thoughts, through the medium of language, that is to say, grammar, which finds its purest expression in the classical languages. These laws are most important branches of knowledge, their study trains and elevates the mind; but they are not the only ones; there are others which we cannot disregard, which we cannot do without. There are, for instance, the laws governing the human mind and its relation to the Divine Spirit (the subject of logic and metaphysics); there are those which govern our bodily nature and its connection with the soul (the subject of physiology and psychology); those which govern human society and the relations between man and man (the subject of politics, jurisprudence, and political economy); and many others. Whilst, of the laws just mentioned, some have been recognised as essentials of education in different institutions, and some will, by the course of time, more fully assert their right to recognition, the laws regulating matter and form are those which will constitute the chief object of your pursuits; and, as the principle of subdivision of labours is the one most congenial to our age, I would advise you to keep to this speciality, and to follow with undivided attention chiefly the sciences of mechanics, physics, and chemistry, and the fine arts in painting, sculpture, and architecture. EXERCISE 1.-Define or explain:-Locality, public, introduction, science, art, capital, universal, operate, agricultural, experiments, historically, mathematics, grammar, physiology, education. EXERCISE 2.-Give the thoughts of the first two paragraphs in your own language. 19 THE CHURCH PORCH. GEORGE HERBERT, who was born in 1593, studied first at Westminster School, then at Cambridge, of which university he was chosen Orator. He was a ripe scholar, a self-denying clergyman, and a quaint but genuine poet. He died in 1632, when only 38 years of age. Enhance, to raise to a higher value. Simpering, speaking in uncertain tones. Ecliptic, the apparent yearly Clergyman, a minister of the Verser, one who makes verses- Hypocrisy, an appearance only. Orator, one who speaks so as to Quaint, more exact than is com mon. THOU, whose sweet youth and early hopes enhance Rhyme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure: Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God, Dare to be true. Nothing can need a lie : Do all things like a man, not sneakingly : Think the king sees thee still; for his King does. Simpering is but a lay-hypocrisy : Give it a corner, and the clue undoes. Who fears to do ill, sets himself to task: Who fears to do well, sure should wear a mask. Slight those who say amidst their sickly healths, From his ecliptic line ;-beckon the sky: By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear. He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind. Scorn no man's love, though of a mean degree : As guns destroy, so may a little sling. The cunning workman never doth refuse Man is God's image; but the poor man is Christ's stamp to boot; both images regard. God reckons for him, counts the favour His: Write, so much given to God; thou shalt be heard. Let thy alms go before, and keep heaven's gate Open for thee; or both may come too late. Restore to God His due in tithe and time: A tithe purloin'd cankers the whole estate. Sundays observe; think when the bells do chime, 'Tis angels' music; therefore come not late. God then deals blessings: if a king did so, Who would not haste, nay give, to see the show? In time of service seal up both thine eyes, And send them to thy heart; that, spying sin, |