INAUGURAL ADDRESS
OF
CHARLES F. MCCAY,
PROFESSOR OF
MATHEMATICS AND MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY
IN THE
SOUTH CAROLINA COLLEGE.
DELIVERED IN THE STATE HOUSE, DECEMBER 11, 1854.
COLUMBIA, S. C.:
PRINTED AT THE CAROLINA TIMES OFFICE.
1855.
A !) D R E S S.
"W iihk first informed that it would be my duty to deliver an inaugu¬
ral address 011 some topic connected with my department in College, it
occurred to me to select tor my subject, the discovery of the planet Nep¬
tune. No more splendid triumph of mathematical and physical science
had been made since the time of Newton, and many interesting' and in¬
structive facts were connected with the discovery, affording to one whose
duties had never called him to make a public address, an inviting theme
of general and popular interest. A secluded student, poring in his
chamber over the observations of Astronomers and the revelations of
his mathematical symbols, had traced a magnificent planet, many times
larger than our earth, far out, into the regions of space, where the fancy,
in its boldest flights, had seldom wandered. So great was the distance,
that this immense body dwindled to a point in the large telescopes in
the Royal observatories of London and Paris, so that it could not be
distinguished from a fixed star ; yet this student affirmed, without hesi¬
tation or doubt, that it was there, lie had felt its power in the tremb¬
lings it had produced in Uranus, and was sure it must be found where
he had said. They pointed the telescope in the direction he had indi¬
cated, and the planet was discovered. Once before, and only once, had
the calculus guided the mind on such a distant journey. The comet of
IIalley, though utterly lost to the eye and the telescope for nearly a
century, had been followed, by the philosophy of Newton, to the outer
boundaries of our system. But this was first seen in its path near the
sun, and then traced outward through its eccentric orbit. Neptune was
revealed first to the eye of the mind, and then to the eye of sense, and
his discovery, in which many great men had a larger or a smaller part,
has a tale full of interest and full of profit.
When, however, I became better acquainted with your College, and
learned its organization and the place assigned to physical studies, a sense
of duty to the State, and the great cause of practical and useful science,
prompted-me to labor this evening*with a different object; and I appear
before you to advocate tiie pre-eminent claims op physical science
IN A liberal education.
4-
It has been well and truly said, that " the end of a College education
being to improve the mind, the fitness for this end is the prime consider¬
ation in the selection of the studies." This principle is fundamental
and of paramount importance. Itexclules, at one sweep, a large class
of studies of great practical utility to a man of the world, and limits our
opportunities of selection to a narrower circle. But it excludes them
wisely. Were it made the business of education to fill the mind with
knowledge, to bring into its ample storehouse the accumulated treasures
of science, to supply it with the principles and the results of scientific
research, we would neither develope the mind, nor fit it for the practical
duties of life. A mass of undigested learning would be collected, but
the gathered treasures would be of no use to their possessor. The mind,
never tasked to use its own powers, never led to think for itself, never
forced to trust to its own strength, would be unable to enter into the
struggles of life and contend for wealth, power, and victory; for truth,
duty, or interest. The knowledge might be ample, but it would be like
the miser's stores, of no advantage to the owner. As a parrot repeats
the words he had heard, so the student could chatter off the truths he
had been taught. Though clothed in the armor of a full grown man,
he would be an infant in strength and power. He would have the club
of Hercules, but not the ability to use it; the battle-axe of Richard,
but not the muscles or sinews to wield it; the sword of Saladin, but
not the skill to cleave even tlie gossamer fabrics that turn its tempered
blade.
This principle is assented to by all who have turned their atten¬
tion to the subject, and I wish to regard it as an established truth, at
least as one to be taken for granted in the discussion which I present to¬
night. The proper object of education is to develope all the mental facul¬
ties; to expand and make perfect all the endowments given by heaven;
to start into vigorous growth every germ implanted in the human soul;
to make men of noble, God-like proportions—pure, strong, eloquent, and
wise; with grace, beauty, dignity, and might—men who can win, soothe,
and persuade, and also have a strong arm and divine skill to throw an
unerring dart with irresistible force.
This being the prime object of education, the suitableness of any
study to effect this end becomes the index of its rank in the scheme to
be adopted. The time to be devoted by the student to any department
of science or of truth, is to be measured by its ability to bring out the
mental powers, by its tendency to give breadth, height, and strength to
the intellect, by its power to make humanity tower up to the God-like
perfection after which reason and revelation have united in commanding
us to aspire.
5
The powers of the human mind are the understanding and the will,
the memory and the imagination, the conscience, the taste, and the
sensibilities; and the suitableness of any subject for College study de¬
pends on its tendency to improve and develope these powers.
To benefit the will and the imagination, very little has at any time
been suggested. For the improvement of the memory, there is no great
difference among the several subjects of study. Over the feelings and
emotions, the likes and dislikes, the sympathies and susceptibilities of our
nature, the instructions of the lecture room have but slight power, as
these are far more swayed by the social and domestic influences that
surround us.
The conscience, all important as it is, is usually committed for its im¬
provement to the parents and relatives, to the sweet purifying influences
of home, to the teachings of the Bible and the pulpit, and to the sacred
offices of the house of prayer. What more can be done towards making
the young better and purer, either by the study of books, or by the
counsels of the wise and good, or by the instructions of the professor, let
us by all means have. As far as the study of moral philosophy, and of
the evidences of natural and revealed religion, tends to awaken and
direct conscience, so far let them be pursued. Every possible means
should be employed to elevate, purify, and ennoble the moral nature.
For the improvement of the taste, for the development of the love of
the beautiful, all the art of the schools avails but little. The analysis of
our sesthetical emotions, the study of what excites them, the reading of
some standard works, the examination of the perfect models of art and
nature, furnish all the education, small though it be, that can be given
to this element of our mental constitution.
It is the understanding, and this alone, which it is the great and im¬
portant business of a College education to develope. It is the clear head,
the strong mind, the lofty intellect, which give greatness to the states¬
man, the warrior, and the philosopher. Those distinguished men who
were not bom to die, who have written their names in the history of
humanity, who have controlled the thoughts and opinions and actions of
mankind, who have built up kingdoms and destroyed despotisms, who
have originated wise laws and free institutions, who have emancipated
the human mind from the sway of superstition, who have penetrated the
mysteries of nature and divined the secrets of the universe, have all been
men of strong, far-seeing, sagacious intellect. In every walk of life,
whether professional or practical, whether in the study or in the field, the
ability to discover truth is the striking mark of superiority. This is the
object of the scholar and the mechanic, the lawyer and the physician,
the merchant and the banker, the judge and the statesman. Truth is
0
sought in the fields and in the markets, in the public halls and in the
private dwellings, in the pursuits of business and of pleasure, in youth
and in manhood, in all ages and countries, and by every people under
Heaven.
Not only is the understanding important by itself, but also by its in¬
fluence over the other faculties. It assists us in strengthening the memo¬
ry, in governing the imagination, in perfecting the conscience, in im~
proving the taste, in invigorating the will, in forming the moral character,
in controlling, exciting, and guiding the passions, desires, and emotions,
and in directing all the activities of our nature.
The improvement of the understanding being thus the main object of
education, if we consider its nature and office, we see that it is entirely
employed in the discovery of truth. And how is truth to be obtained \
By deductive, inductive, analogical, hypothetical, or intuitive reasoning.
These five methods exhaust the subject. No more than these can be
allowed, but each and all of these must be.
The deductive or syllogistic method consists in the deduction of par¬
ticular truths from general ones. It passes from tire universal to the
individual; from the whole to the part. Out of a broad comprehensive
truth it infers new propositions less extensive and less general.
This kind of reasoning has been very much despised and depreciated
by some, while others have exalted it to the lofty position of being the
only method by which truth is to be obtained. From the Greeks down
through the middle ages to the time of Bacon, it was generally esteem¬
ed to be the great and only instrument of the understanding, and no
less distinguished a writer than Whately has recently affirmed that all
reasoning may be put under this form. On the cHher side, Bacon,
Locke, Stewart, and a host of able men, have attacked the syllogism
as useless, and lauded the inductive method to the skies as the only
means of discovery.
Without discussing the rank of the syllogism, it may be safely said
that all the great truths with which science has been enriched in modern
times, have been obtained without its aid. Kepler and Newton in
astronomy, Cavendish and Lavoisier in chemistry, Franklin and
Volta in electricity, Werner and Lyell in geology, Smith and Bi-
cardo in political economy, have made their triumphs by means of
the Baconian philosophy. While the old was for ages barren, the new
has brought forth wonders. With the one there was no progress, with
the other there has been a continual succession of ovations and triumphs.
In science and the arts, in jurisprudence and government, in commerce
and agriculture, in mechanics and manufactures, every advance and im¬
provement has.been made by experiment, observation, and induction.
1
But whatever be the rank of the syllogism, physical science is con¬
tinually employed in using it. From the general laws of motion, we
deduce the rectilinear or the curved movements of bodies when acted
on in various manners by different forces. From the laws of reflection
and refraction of light, we have the doctrine of images and foci, the
principles of the telescope and the microscope. From the general pro¬
perties of fluids, we prove the lavs of equilibrium and pressure. And
so everywhere in physics ; deduction is always required.
Concerning these exercises of the understanding, it may be remarked,
that they present in physics all degrees of difficulty. While some are
so simple that the child can follow them, others are so abstruse that they
involve the most lofty exertions of the human mind. While the princi¬
ples of the hydrostatic paradox are easily made evident to the youthful
student, the isochronism of the pendulum is more difficult, the precession
of the equinoxes almost reaches the limit of his ability, and the laws of
lunar perturbation require those high and masterly efforts that can only
be made by the matured and well-disciplined intellect.
For this kind of reasoning the classics present none but the most
simple and unimportant examples. Metaphysics and moral philosophy
have more and better ones; politics and political economy are not
deficient; mathematics is almost entirely employed about it; but physi¬
cal science is superior to most of these studies, and inferior to none of
them in the number, variety, and difficulty of its deductions.
The logic of Aristotle has furnished a complete and perfect analysis
of the syllogistic reasoning; but however valuable and satisfactory this
may be, few would pretend that the rules which it lays down to guide us
in the use of the syllogism, or to prevent us from falling into error by its
'abuse, are as important as the practical exercises furnished by natural
science.. As practice is better than precept; as actual trial, in a great
variety of circumstances, is better than abstract rules, so is physics of
more use than logic in forming the perfect logician. To make a me¬
chanic, experience, not verbal direction, is required ; to form an artist,
practice and not rules is needed; and to give vigor, accuracy, and power
to the understanding, it must be employed, exercised, and drilled in
actual reasoning, and not merely instructed how to conduct the process
of ratiocination.
The second kind of reasoning is the inductive. By this we pass from
individual instances to general propositions, or from a number of particu¬
lar truths to one more comprehensive or universal. From an examina¬
tion of several specimens of iron, we discover some common properties,
and infer by induction that these belong to all masses of iron. By dis-
8
covering the relation between the power and weight in certain simple
machines which we examine, we infer the universality of these relations
in all machines both simple and complex. After finding the law of
gravity to be the same on the earth, at the moon, and at the planets,
induction extends this law to the activity of every body in the universe.
This process of reasoning is the fountain and origin of almost every
truth in every department of human knowledge. If truth were innate,
if a bountiful Creator had treasured it deep in our breasts, and it was
only necessary to search for it diligently within us, the inductive method
would not be of such transcendent importance. But as all our knowl¬
edge begins with experience, as none of it is born with us, and as all
experience is only of a single fact and not of a principle or of a general
proposition, the only way to obtain primitive truths is by induction. In
every part of natural philosophy, this is the sine qua non of all progress
and all discovery. In metaphysics and in morals, it is alike indispensa¬
ble. The fundamental truths of politics and history, of jurisprudence
and medicine, even of art, music, and poetry, are derived in like manner.
Observation of the inner and of the outer world, of man and of nature,
of matter and of mind, of men as individuals, or as banded together in
society, furnishes the starting point for all knowledge and all science.
Now, for the developement of this faculty physical science stands pre¬
eminent. From the beginning to the end its appeal is always to experi¬
ment. The single facts that the eye sees and the ear hears, are the
foundations on which its whole superstructure rests. The lever and the
screw, the air and the water, sound and heat and light, all art and labor,
every object perceived by the senses, by presenting individual phe¬
nomena to the mind, furnish the opportunities of physical inductions,
and exercise the mind in this important department of intellectual exer¬
tion. Weak and strong inductions, false and true ones, simple and
difficult ones, are continually employing the student's mind. The
experiments in the lecture room, and others which he hears or reads of,
the facts he sees and learns, he makes his starting point, and in every
step of his progress he claims no other and uses no other.
For this important kind of reasoning, can any other science furnish
like advantages ? Can logic, for example ? The rules laid down by
Aristotle, or by Bacon, to guide and govern us in forming proper in¬
ductions, are indeed of some utility. But the efforts made by some
logicians to put induction in the syllogistic form, and thus enable the
mind to decide whether any particular case is fair and allowable, are
ridiculous failures. The form in which it is commonly expressed makes
it depend on the major proposition, that what is true of A, B, C, &c., is
true of the whole class to which these individuals belong—a propo-
9
sition litterly false and unreliable. Now, liow foolish is it to pretend that
■every induction is an inference from a false proposition; as if truth could
come from error, as if all science and all knowledge depended on a
falsehood. Induction does not indeed give absolute certainty, but when
properly made it gives truth. And to say that the true is built upon the
false is trifling and absurd. Sometimes a single experiment will satis¬
factorily establish a general truth; sometimes several are required, and
in other cases the individual examples must be numerous. A single
experiment will satisfy any one that a guinea and a feather fall with
equal rapidity in an exhausted receiver, or that water is compounded of
oxygen and hydrogen. The discovery of Oersted, on which the mag¬
netic telegraph is based, depended on a few experiments—-while that
of Franklin, by which the identity of lightning and electricity was
learned, was established by numerous analogies and successive experi¬
ments, besides the one made at Philadelphia by our illustrious country¬
man. In some cases the generalization must be founded on extreme or
crucial instances, on maxima or minima values ; and in other cases these
are of little or no importance. In other words, it may be asserted that
iio rules can be laid down by which the justness of an induction can be
made known, that no form can be given to the reasoning by which its
validity can be tested, that in each example the number and character
of the individual particulars on which the generalization depends must
be judged and weighed by the mind itself, to determine the degree of
confidence that must be allowed to the conclusion. This being so, it
necessarily follows that the method of induction can not be taught by
logical rules, that there is no way in which it can be learned but by trials
-—that no man can know how to trust his generalizations but by frequent
practice—that nothing but the study of numerous examples, the renew¬
ing and repeating the actual inductions which genius has made, can
acquaint the mind with this species of reasoning.
If logic, then, is insufficient to teach the youthful mind the method of
generalizing individual facts, how is it with the classics ? Is this fertile
in its resources, abounding in examples, rich and varied in its opportu¬
nities? By no means. It is all barren from Dan to Beersheba,
From the first step in Kistoria Sacra to the last labors in the Greek
Choruses, not an example in induction can be found. This most valued
kind of reasoning is utterly ignored, and the young mind is left entirely
without exercise in this great and all-important process of the under¬
standing. Is mathematics any better ? Not at all. Induction gives
probable truths only, and these are without the domain of mathematics.
How is it with history, political economy, metaphysics, and moral
2
10
philosophy ? Are they alike useless in this development of the intel¬
lect ? Let us for a moment inquire.
The study of history is in pail a study of facts. But the names and
dates of battles, the number,- valor, and skill of the victors, and the losses
of the vanquished, are not of themselves important. The dynasties that
have ruled nations, the generals who have overturned or established em¬
pires, the statesmen who have made men happy and prosperous, may be
known and remembered with little profit.
But history, as the instructor of mankind, as the teacher of great
truths, as the establisher of important principles in man or in govern¬
ment, or in the civilization and advancement of our race, is attractive
and valuable. Here it furnishes the means of intellectual discipline—
the opportunities of mental expansion and development; and how is this
effected ? It is by induction. From individual actions of the general
or the ruler, his character is inferred ; from successive facts in the history
of governments, the tendency of each to promote the happiness of the'
governed is determined; from the particular workings of any law, any
system of taxation, any measures of government, the general conse¬
quences of any such proceedings are known; and in all cases by in¬
duction:
Nor is it any simple, easy, self-evident inference; it can' never be
clothed in any regular logical form, and appeal to the understanding for
its validity by the' terms in which the reasoning is expressed. Each
conclusion is based on its own individual facts, and these form the war¬
rant of the general inference. The reasoning: is, that in this, that, or the
other case, the operation of a particular impost i& unjust, and there-
fore the tax is itself wrong—that in this, that, and another case, arbitraiy
power is dangerous to the lives or fortunes of its subjects; therefore, in a
particular class of cases, arbitraiy power ought not to be exercised : the-
limit to be imposed on the generalization, the extent to which the infe¬
rence may be allowed, not being evident from any general form into
which the mind may attempt to throw the reasoning, but from the care¬
ful study of the particular facts on which the induction is based.
History thus furnishes fine examples for this method of reasoning; and
the only objection to it in comparing and contrasting it with physical
science, is that the young are so little acquainted with its facts, that
nearly the whole time that can be spared for history has to be devoted
to the memorizing of names, places, and battles; to revolutions, wars, and
conquests; to events in history, and not to its philosophy; to details, and
not to generalizations; to the barren, meager, and dry narrative of what
has been, rather than to those important truths which underlie the facts,
11
■giving exercise and discipline to the intellect, and storing the mind with
fthat lofty philosophy which history discourses.
Political economy is alike rich in inductions, and the objections
brought forward against history will not apply to this valuable depart¬
ment of human knowledge.
In moral and mental philosophy, since the time of Bacon and Locke,
the indispensable necessity of careful and accurate induction is univer¬
sally allowed. But so complex are all mental phenomena; so mingled,
tangled, and confused are all the facts in our spiritual structure; so ready
are we to warp, twist, and distort them; so biased are we in the view we
take of them; so controlled are we by passion, feeling, and habit in their
study, that all reasoning on these subjects, whether syllogistic or induc¬
tive,^has an unsubstantial basis on which to rest, and is incapable of
satisfactory verification in the different steps of its progress, and in the
final results to which it arrives. The vague, misty, and indefinite char¬
acter of its discussions, the Babel of confusion that is formed by its
great master spirits, the unsettled nature of all its truths, renders it a
poor exercise for the youthful intellect in any kind of reasoning. It
embraces indeed, all modes of ratiocination in its discussions. The hy¬
pothetical, analogical, and intuitive, as well as the inductive and syllo¬
gistic, are all called into active employment. But no where, either in its
facts, its reasonings, or its conclusions, can the lofty confidence, the
earnest 'belief, the holy devotion to truth, pure, simple, and divine, be
cherished and cultivated. Without the means of knowing whether we
reason rightly, whether we are embracing truth or error, whether wre are
dreaming in the land of fancy or reality, we fail to discipline, invigorate,
develope, and perfect that divine understanding which God has given us
for the holy purpose of learning and knowing the truth.
In physics how different. The facts on which the inductions are based
are thoroughly understood. Sometimes complex and involved, genius
and science have so analyzed and unraveled them, that the entire phe¬
nomena are clearly seen and known and explained. The verifications of
the inductions, by comparing the conclusion with new and different facts
besides those which formed the basis of the first reasoning, can always
be made without doubt or uncertainty. Thus, every step in the mind's
progress can be examined and tested by its agreement with observed
phenomena. Experiments go hand and hand with observation, and en¬
able us to compare our generalizations with reality in those extreme or
crucial instances which furnish the severe and decisive test of actual,
unchanging, everlasting truth.
While thus physical science stands in the front rank with logic and
mathematics in furnishing an intellectual discipline in syllogistic reason-
12
ing, it rises above all others in the multitude, variety, difficulty, and
surpassing excellence of its examples of induction, and thus supplies
exactly what is wanted to perfect the mind in this species of reasoning,
since exercise is the best and only means by which this important and
indispensable development of the understanding can be obtained.
Analogical reasoning differs from inductive in this, that in the latter
we pass from individuals to the whole, while in the former we only pass
from some facts to others of the same class, but not to all.
There are a few examples of this kind of reasoning to be found in
physical science, as when we infer the revolution of Neptune on his axis
from like phenomena in other planets, or the properties of magnetism
from similar ones in electricity, or the laws of heat from those of light.
But analogy is always a weak and uncertain guide, and the few exam¬
ples that we have of it in physics are at once both illustrations of its
use and measures of its insignificance.
No examples of it are to be found in the study of the classics ; few
in history or in political economy, or in morals, or in metaphysics ; in
mathematics it is scouted away entirely; and no where has much use
been made of it, but in the study of animal and vegetable organization,
and in the masterly work of Butler, where he has pressed into service •
this feeble instrument to increase our faith and reverence for the truths
of our most holy religion. In so good a cause no help is to be despised
or neglected, but this is a poor place to teach the mind the proper uses
of analogical reasoning. The good service it seems to render is calcu¬
lated to make us value too highly this futile and unsatisfactory process,
and it is only in physics that its true rank, its trifling value, can be pro¬
perly estimated.
Hypothetical reasoning is where some proposition or fact is assumed
to be true from which certain consequences are deduced, and the mind
judges of the truth of the premises by the agreement of the consequences
with reality.
This kind of reasoning is extremely common, and the laws which
govern it are of primary importance.
If one should inquire how it was known that Parkman was murdered
by Webster, the answer is, that a great many proved and undoubted
facts were fully accounted for on that hypothesis which no other could
explain. How is it that the doctrine of Newtonian gravity is estab¬
lished ? Is it an induction ? Is it a generalization of particular facts t
By no means. The first instance of gravitation cannot be found. The
attraction of the earth for the moon or for falling bodies, is itself a by-
13
pothesis, and every individual ease under the universal law is alike un¬
certain and unestablished. But so numerous, varied, and complex are
the phenomena that can he explained by the theory of Newton, that
no one who knows their number and character ever disbelieves or doubts
the truth of the principle of universal gravity.
This process of reasoning is frequently resorted to in physics. The
wave theories of light and of sound are examples. No single instance
of undulating air carries a sound to the ear, and furnishes a starting point
for an induction which shall include all sounds. Vibrations, indeed, oc¬
cur in solid bodies, which can be seen and felt in numerous instances
•where accompanying sounds are heard, but no effort of observation has
yet reached the discovery of a single case where an aerial pulse has been
experienced. The whole science of acoustics, beautiful and interesting
and well established as it is, presents an unbroken series of hypothetical
propositions. So it is with attractions and repulsions, with all forces and
all causes in physics; they are alike rejected by that positive philosophy
which confines itself to facts. Magnetism, electricity, caloric, atoms,
are each substances created by the imagination, and never the immediate
object of our senses. They may or may not exist. They are theoretical,
and form the ground of much reasoning, by which the student will learn
to put its proper value on hypothesis, to study its nature and validity,
and to prepare himself to use it rightly in the realities of life.
Can logic teach us how to reason by hypothesis ? Partially, but not
perfectly—for the rules which guide us in receiving or rejecting them
are different in each case ; and it is only by experience and practice that
the mind can tell when to receive and trust them.
The study of the classics affords no examples, except a few of the
simplest kind. And so with mathematics.
History, metaphysics, and moral philosophy, furnish many opportu¬
nities for this kind of reasoning, but they have the same inferiority com¬
pared with physics as is found in inductive reasoning.
In history, as the young have to study it, the time and effort are so
engrossed with the endeavor to store the memory with facts, that little
can be done in the way of exercising the mind in hypothetical or other
reasoning; while in metaphysics and morals, the phenomena to be rea¬
soned upon are so poorly seen and grasped and understood, so compli¬
cated and interwoven with other facts, so distorted by fancy, interest, and
prejudice, that they do not afford to the young suitable subjects by
which to discipline and form the mind so as to reason well concerning
the hypotheses that may be discussed.
It is, thus, natural philosophy—and this above all other studies—
which will form the mind to proper habits of hypothetical reasoning,
14
find teach us when to receive and when to reject the numerous theories
from time to time brought forward to account for the natural and moral
phenomena that attract our attention and interest.
The last method of reasoning to be considered is the intuitive. In
this the understanding, by examining the ideas contained in the propo¬
sition placed before it, pronounces its judgment without going beyond
the proposition itself. Thus, when we say that magnitudes which are
equal to the same thing are equal to each other, the mere examination
of the ideas presented'in the axiom authorizes the understanding to de¬
cide on its truth.
Now, it is evident, on the slightest reflection, that this method of satis¬
fying ourselves of the truth of any proposition is exceedingly suspicious
and uncertain. Whatever agrees with our prejudices, or passions, or
interests, whatever our parents or teachers or favorite authors tell us is
true, we are so disposed to believe, that wdien proof is wanting and dis¬
proof difficult or impossible, we are ready to assert that the proposition
is intuitively seen to be true—that it is self-evident—that we are com¬
pelled by the laws of thought, by the constitution of our nature, by the
common sense of all men, to yield our assent.
In this way, all kinds of false propositions have been taught in every
department of human knowledge; the great instruments of investiga¬
tion by which science and humanity have made all their progress have
been despised ; and those sure and indispensable tests which experience
has proved necessary to try and prove the truth, have been neglected
and scoffed at. In place of the slow discoveries brought forth by ob¬
servation and experience, the a priori judgments of men of genius have
been received and trusted. Instead of the patient ploddings of hard¬
working industry, there have been substituted the divining instincts of
great minds. An all-seeing consciousness, an inner light, a God-like
intuition, is called On to reveal the truths of philosophy, and not the real
objective nature which is placed before us for our study and investiga¬
tion. Pythian oracles and clairvoyant priests are consulted, instead of
the teachings of laborious experiment and long-continued observation.
The true, logical, allowable intuitions are the mere evolution of the
conceptions used in announcing a truth. They are transformed defini¬
tions. They are expressions in the form of a proposition of the ideas
that are comprehended in the words employed. Thus, when we say
that the whole is greater than a part, it is merely an assertion in the
form of a proposition of the ideas contained in the words whole part
and greater. Sometimes they are the explicit development of truths
implicitly granted or proved, and the mind merely unwraps and brings
is
forth what was before hidden and unseen ; as when I assert that what
is true of all mankind is true of tbe man A.B., tliere is something in
the first part of the proposition which contains in itself the second part;
and. so of all proper intuitions.
Now in physics we have continually this distinction prominently
brought forward and exemplified. We use there all the mathematical
axioms concerning space and time and number and quantity, and many
others involved in the conceptions of force, motion, velocity, momentum,
&c., but for other propositions, equally sure and credible, we demand
satisfactory evidence. When we say that equal forces produce equal
effects, we have an intuition not needing' proof, for it is merely a trans¬
formed definition of equality of forces; but when we say that double
effects are produced by double forces, we now have a proposition requir¬
ing proof, for it is a question of experience and not of reasoning.
Thus, every where in natural philosophy we are called to distinguish
between truths we learn by experience, and those we know by intuition;
.and so clear are-the ideas we have to consider, so definite, fixed, and
well comprehended are the conceptions we study, that we learn to make
this distinction well.
Do other studies teach us this skill in intuitive reasoning ? How is it
with the classics ? They know nothing at all of any such inquiries.
History is no better. How is it with mathematics ? This is all one¬
sided. Good as far as it goes, but incomplete. It is full of intuitions,
all true, but never leading us into the doubtful region where truth, not
axiomatic, seems so certain and evident as to claim intuitive evidence in
its favor.
Logic has better pretensions. It ought to serve us well in this diffi¬
cult region. This is its own province, and it ought to point out clearly
the landmarks and boundaries. But, unfortunately, the great masters
of logic have been students in another school, where this inner fight has
taught more falsehood than truth, and where fancy, theory, and preju¬
diced systems have made intuitions numerous as the meteors of the at¬
mosphere, and not less evanescent and unsubstantial.
It is in mental and moral philosophy where intuitions do most abound.
They shine forth here as the stars of heaven for multitude. The skil¬
ful metaphysician detects them, as the astronomer who points his tele¬
scope to the sky sees worlds without number, which the unaided
sight could not discern. Has he any theory to establish, his keen in¬
sight brings forth out of darkness some self-evident proposition from
which flows every feature of his system. Whatever truths he upholds
have a similar basis. The original elements of all science he finds grow¬
ing up within him as the implantation of his great Creator. He im-
16
poses limits on experience by the revelations of his own inner life. The
motions, activities, and energies of matter are controlled by laws he
discovers while reflecting on the principles he is compelled to believe by
the constitution of his nature. He knows not only what has been, and
is, and will be, but also what must be. There is a Divinity dwelling
within that shapes his thoughts and guides him into all truth. An in¬
spiration from heaven, not less pure and certain than that promised to
the holy Apostles, is with him always. The sun leads him by day, and
a pillar of fire by night.
But with all their intuitions, inspirations, and divinings, they teach
different systems, and lead their followers in diverse directions. The
mental philosophy of yesterday is overthrown to-day. The domain of
truth receives no accretions ; what is gained on one side is washed away
on the other. For forty centuries they have been trying to prove that
the solid earth exists beneath our feet; and every new philosopher or
new commentator blows away the foundation on which the truth had
been placed by his predecessor.
So every where these intuitions, these apriori teachings, these irresis¬
tible suggestions of the reason, these divine illuminations, these mes¬
meric clairvoyances, these Swedenborgian inspirations, have been the
foe of truth, of progress, and of science, in every age and in every coun¬
try of the world.
It is in physics only where the appeal is constantly made to facts, to
what the eye sees and the hand feels, that we can bring intuitions to
the infallible test of experience, and teach ourselves that we are not
divine but human, compelled to learn, in the severe school of toil and
thought, and by the slow instrument of observation and induction, every
property, quality, law of the outer and the inner world, of matter and
spirit, and that our fancies and imaginations and divinings are but
dreams which may or may not be found to be true.
These five processes, deduction, induction, analogy, hypothesis, and
intuition, exhaust the subject of reasoning. They are the only means
by which the mind attains new general truths, advances from the known
to the unknown, makes new conquests and new discoveries; and for the
improvement and development of the intellectual faculties in each of
these kinds of reasoning, I have endeavored to show that the study of
natural philosophy is unsurpassed. It ranks above mathematics in
some, above logic in others, above history, mental and moral philosophy,
in others, and high above the classics in all. I would not, however^
rest the pre-eminent importance of physics in a Collegiate course upon
this basis alone, but would refer now, briefly, to certain intellectual
i 7
habits which it is disposed to generate, and t|iUs fortify the claims f
lave presented.
The student of natural philosophy, being accustomed from day to
day to investigate the causes of its phenomena, forms the habit of
looking for cause in every thing. He penetrates beneath the surface;
he asks himself the why and the wherefore, and is not satisfied till he has
traeed an Meet back to the first influences which started it into exis¬
tence. Another habit which he tonus is the disposition to look for law
everywhere. The irregularities and anonialies which filature ..seems to
^present, he has found to be the result of universal law, and, he looks
for the same order in all the arrangements of Providence, in all the
facts of history, and all the actions of mankind. He is also , disposed
to generalize the observations and the appearances presented to him.
Instead of filling his mind with individual facts and minute details, he
is led "to comprise* them under some general principle, some broad
comprehensive truth, which will include all within its grasp. And
while thus generalizing, his science has taught him the imperative
necessity of caution and moderation, so as not to advance too boldly
Or extend too far the induction he is making. He is essentially con¬
servative in all his habits and judgments. The great truths of science
being firmly established, he clings to what has been with strong per¬
tinacity. He is disposed to incredulity and to a wise skepticism. The
neologies in the social, political, religious, and scientific world meet his
determined opposition. The higher-law fanaticism, which bases its
decisions on the revelations of an inner light, a divine inspiration, a
self-evident intuition, he laughs to scorn. But still, as additions are
constantly made to science, and new truths discovered, he is not ready
to oppose all reform and all improvement, and denounce every change
as a rash and dangerous innovation. Accustomed at all times to give
up every prejudice and preconceived opinion to the irresistible demands
of science, he never clings to error under the influence of passion,
interest, or affection. Truth he worships as a divinity, and to her he
gives his whole heart. His judgment, his reason, and his affections,
unite in commanding this devotion, and he yields, a willing and obedient
sfibject. In short, every intellectual habit which dignifies and elevates
the human understanding is developed and strengthened by the study
of physical science. The habits of attention and observation, of gen¬
eralization and caution, of patient inquiry and long-continued perse¬
verance; the disposition to seek for broad comprehensive views, to
penetrate into the most deep and hidden essence of things, to analyze
what is complex, to reveal what is mysterious, unravel what is intri¬
cate, to throw light in^ the dark recesses of the unknown—these are
3
18
habits and dispositions which at once ornament the human intellect?
and find in the study of nature their best nourishment and best
culture.
Were I to rest this argument here, I must ignore the age in which
we live, and undervalue the progress of the nineteenth century. We
have made the waterfall our servant, and pressed steam to work with
man. The elements minister to us, and the lightning is obedient. Heat
and light are tributary. The powers of nature belong to us. And
though man is weak, he las called upon Omnipotence to help him,
and now man and God work together. By the intervention of ma¬
chinery, and by the joint labors of man and nature, we travel with the
rapidity of the wind, and send our letters with the speed of the light¬
ning. The engineer commands the steam to carry us across the ocean,
and it is done. He orders it to print our books, to grind our wheat,
to spin our cotton, to weave our cloth, to forge our metals, to fashion
wood and iron so as to gratify our tastes and supply our necessities, and
the service is performed. These and innumerable other inventions are
the triumphs of physical science, and to study it is to study the powers
of nature and the methods by which they have been made subservient
to man. Modern civilization is dependent largely on these triumphs.
We are not advanced above the Greeks in intellectual culture, or in
the knowledge of mental, moral, or social phenomena. But in natural
philosophy they were perfect tyros. The abundance of the comforts
and luxuries which belong to every member of our modern civilized
society depends on the discoveries of physical properties and powers.
Steam, and Caloric, and Water, working the locomotive, the engine, and
the mill, are more powerful and effective than the Helots that labored for
the Spartans. We have the saw gin to prepare our cotton; the screw
to pack it; the card, the jenny, the mule, and the loom to work it into
cloth; and these machines alone are powerful levers of civilization.
In constructing houses, ships, and machines; in fabricating products
of utility, comfort, or beauty; in agriculture, manufactures, and com¬
merce ; in the plough, the threshing machine, and the gin; in the
furniture that ornaments our dwellings, the fabrics that adorn our
forms, the roads on which we are transported, the palaces which float
on our rivers and oceans, in almost everything which embellishes life
and gives enjoyment to our race, it is the application of art and science
to matter; it is the discovery of physical laws and properties; it is the
invention of material combinations; it is the" working of mind on the
visible, sensible, outer world, which has placed modern society at so
immeasurable an advance above the past.
19
The period in which we live is the age of iron; it is practical, not
theoretical; it is busied about the real, and not the ideal. And the
philosophy of the material and the useful is the great philosophy which
the age demands.
But the study of physical science is not only in harmony with the
times and the civilization in which we live; it is of the highest practi¬
cal ability to every member of society. Has any one a house to build,
a room to warm, a clock to regulate, a machine of any kind to construct
or repair; does any one feel an interest in frosts or rains, or dews or
winds; in soils, or rocks, or drains, or waterfalls; in mills, or factories,
or engines, or railways; in manufactures, or mechanical trades; in
work or toil of any kind: how imperative is the demand for physical
knowledge; how immense the advantage of a thorough and intimate
acquaintance with the material things on which his labor is em¬
ployed.
But what has this discussion of the utility of physical science to do
with my subject ? Even if it be granted that it surpasses all other
studies in its advantages, will that be a ground for introducing it ex¬
tensively into the curriculum of College? Am I about to degrade
intellectual pursuits by measuring them by a utilitarian standard ? By
no means. This is not my design. I have repudiated that standard,
and brought forward and approved another; and that is, that man is
to be considered as an end to himself; that the design of a liberal
education should be to cultivate our spiritual being. The object is not
to accumulate dollars and cents, to teach the arts or the handicrafts of
the age, to impart the skill of the cunning artificer, or to manufacture
good mechanics, or engineers, or planters. It is to ennoble and per¬
fect humanity, to give strength, energy, and power to the intellect,
and grace, beauty, and persuasion to all its manifestations.
But while we are thus educating the mind, if we can at the same
time store it with useful knowledge, is it not better ? If we can at
once both strengthen the sinew and forge something useful; if we can
build a magnificent structure, and in the very act of building fill it
with treasures of immense value; are not these double effects to be
preferred to single ones?
If mathematics, logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy are all
of little utility in practical life, while physical science is of immediate,
incessant, immense advantage to every member of society, adding to
his comforts, supplying his wants, giving him subjects of daily thought,
interest, and study, and ministering to his intellectual pleasures, must
not the barren and unproductive be held in lower estimation than the
20
useful and the valuable, especially if the latter stands already pre?
eminent as a means of intellectual development ?
If a traveller wished to explore the sources of the Nile, and two
routes were before him, one along that celebrated valley where civili¬
zation had its birth; where the remains of ancient art and the memo¬
rials of departed grandeur offered innumerable objects of interest and
study ; where a phase of society differing from what he had been ac¬
customed to was presented to his view; where religion, race, laws
and government, manners, industry, trade, productions, were all
diverse from what he had ever seen; and the other route parallel to
the first, and leading to the same terminus, but through the barren
Desert of Zahara, a sandy waste, without a shrub, a blade of grass, a
dwelling, an inhabitant of any kind, and having no advantages over
the other in distance, healthfulness, or security; and if he can travel
over both in the same time, and reach the same destination, but by
the one he can gather a store of useful and entertaining knowledge,
while the other is all one continual unrelieved wilderness ; which of
the two is to be preferred ? To ask such a question is to an¬
swer it.
God has made us to consist of two parts—body and soul. He is
educating us in this world for a future existence. He has given us an
intellectual and a moral nature, -.and to perfect these is the highest
object presented to us by our Divine Creator. But he has given us
also arms and hands, muscles and sinews; he has made labor neces¬
sary for our support and our health; he has interwoven our duties
with material things; he has chained the soul to the body, and we
have to fight against hunger, and thirst, and nakedness; against heat,
and cold, and rain; against the elements, the wild beasts, and man;
and-thus are we taught to improve and perfect our spiritual nature,
through the intervention of material things, and not like the monks
and anchorites of a; past age,' in solitary meditation and devout
intercourse with the Being who made us. Let us imitate the Divine
example, and educate our youth by means of material nature.
I am no radical, no utilitarian, no iconoclast who would lay
sacrilegious hands on the venerable relics of the past. My life has
been devoted to studies-hoary with the age of centuries. The beau¬
tiful geometry which Euclid and Archimedes taught two thousand
years ago, the parabolas and ellipses investigated by Plato and Appo?
lonius in the times when Grecian culture was highest, the astronomy
which Pythagoras divined and-Hyparchus labored at, have been
$hc subjects of my pursuit. But I am not wedded to the Past. I
21
love Truth more. The Philosophy of Bacon I prefer to that of
Aristotle. The Railroad is in my eyes superior to the Appian way.
Before the ideal Republic of Plato I place the noble Commonwealth
of South Carolina; and I prefer to improve the minds of our young
men, not by devoting nearly all our time to storing their memories
with the words of a fossil language, or employing their intellects on
dry abstractions or misty speculations destitute of all practical and
useful application, but by developing them in harmony with our own
age and times, to make men wise and great and good, by studying
that beautiful world which has been constructed by our wise and greafc
and good Creator,