o deny, or even to doubt, the high discipline
involved in the proper study of Latin and Greek.

That study, moreover, has other merits and recommendations. It is, as
I have said, organised and systematised by long-continued use. It is
an instrument wielded by some of our best intellects in the education
of youth; and it can point to results in the achievements of our
foremost men. What, then, has science to offer which is in the least
degree likely to compete with such a system? I cannot better reply
than by recurring to the grand old story from which I have already
quoted. Speaking of the world and all that therein is, of the sky and
the stars around it, the ancient writer says, 'And God saw all that
he had made, and behold it was very good.' It is the body of things
thus described which science offers to the study of man. There is a
very renowned argument much prized and much quoted by theologians, in
which the universe is compared to a watch. Let us deal practically
with this comparison. Supposing a watchmaker, having completed his
instrument, to be so satisfied with his work as to call it very good,
what would you understand him to mean? You would not suppose that he
referred to the dial-plate in front and the chasing of the case
behind, so much as to the wheels and pinions, the springs and jewelled
pivots of the works within--to those qualities and powers, in short,
which enable the watch to perform its work as a keeper of time. With
regard to the knowledge of such a watch he would be a mere ignoramus
who would content himself with outward inspection. I do not wish to
say one severe word here to-day, but I fear that many of those who are
very loud in their praise of the works of the Lord know them only in
this outside and superficial way. It is the inner works of the
universe which science reverently uncovers; it is the study of these
that she recommends as a discipline worthy of all acceptation.

The ultimate problem of physics is to reduce matter by analysis to its
lowest condition of divisibility, and force to its simplest
manifestations, and then by synthesis to construct from these elements
the world as it stands. We are still a long way from the final
solution of this problem; and when the solution comes, it will be more
one of spiritual insight than of actual observation. But though we
are still a long way from this complete intellectual mastery of
nature, we have conquered vast regions of it,