"
Nor is it merely in a material point of view that science would thus
benefit the nation. She will raise and strengthen the national, as surely
as the individual, character. The great gift which Minerva offered to
Paris is now freely tendered to all, for we may apply to the nation, as
well as to the individual, Tennyson's noble lines:--
"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control:
These three alone lead life to sovereign power,
Yet not for power (power of herself
Would come uncalled for), but to live by law;
Acting the law we live by without fear."
"In the vain and foolish exultation of the heart," said John Quincy Adams,
at the close of his final lecture on resigning his chair at Boston, "which
the brighter prospects of life will sometimes excite, the pensive portress
of Science shall call you to the sober pleasures of her holy cell. In the
mortification of disappointment, her soothing voice shall whisper serenity
and peace. In social converse with the mighty dead of ancient days, you
will never smart under the galling sense of dependence upon the mighty
living of the present age.
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