THE SECRET BEYOND SCIENCE[1]
Born in 1823; graduated from Oxford in 1845; Professor of History in Oxford 1858-66; became Professor in Cornell University in 1868; removed to Toronto in 1871.
What is the sum of physical science?
Compared with the comprehensible universe and with
conceivable time, not to speak of infinity and
eternity, it is the observation of a mere point,
the experience of an instant. Are we warranted
in founding anything upon such data, except
that which we are obliged to found upon them—the
daily rules and processes necessary for the
natural life of man? We call the discoveries of
science sublime; and truly. But the sublimity
belongs not to that which they reveal, but to
that which they suggest. And that which they
suggest is, that through this material glory and
beauty, of which we see a little and imagine more,
there speaks to us a being whose nature is akin
to ours, and who has made our hearts capable
of such converse. Astronomy has its practical
uses, without which man's intellect would
scarcely rouse itself to those speculations; but
- ↑ From an address at the University of Oxford entitled "The Study of History." Printed here by kind permission of Messrs. James Parker & Co.
