The picture presented by modern history ought to convince those
who are tardy in awakening to the truth of the lesson it teaches.
Nor let it be feared that the marked predilection for the study of nature,
and for industrial progress, which is so characteristic of the present age,
should necessarily have a tendency to retard the noble exertions of the
intellect in the domains of philosophy, classical history, and antiquity, or
to deprive the arts by which life is embellished of the vivifying breath of
imagination. Where all the germs of civilization are developed beneath the
aegis of free institutions and wise legislation, there is no cause for
apprehending that any one branch of knowledge should be cultivated to the
prejudice of others. All afford the state precious fruits, whether they
yield nourishment to man and constitute his physical wealth, or whether,
more permanent in their nature, they transmit in the works of mind the glory
of nations to remotest posterity. The Spartans, notwithstanding their Doric
austerity, prayed the gods to grant them "the beautiful with the good."*
[Footnote] *Pseudo-Plato, -- 'Alcib.', xi., p. 184, ed. Steph.; Plut.,
'Instituta Laconica', p. 253, ed. Hatten.
I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influence exercised by
the mathematical and physical sciences on all that appertains to the
material wants of social life, for the vast extent of the course on which I
am entering forbids me to insist further upon the utility of these
applications.
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