I have now, to the best of my endeavour, combated a too prevalent propensity, not only of my countrymen, but of most people of little or no education; a sort of complacent resting in ignorance, as if it were the part of a wise man, and most in accordance with the teaching of Holy Scripture, whereas it is, in fact, but the self-excusing Stoicism of the unfledged mind.
But surely since man is endowed with capacities for advancement in knowledge and righteousness, we must conclude that they are bestowed upon him with the intention that he should use them to the greatest advantage. In proof of this conclusion, we find that the nation which does not highly esteem these gifts must be content to give place to one that does; must, indeed, decay, while the other goes on from strength to strength.
And now to apply these remarks more closely to you, my younger brethren, what does your presence in this college imply? That in the estimation of the wisest and best men of our communion, an ignorant ministry is an evil to be avoided, as not only discreditable and injurious to our Church, but dishonouring to Him who gives us talents in order that they may be made the very most of in promoting His glory and His cause.
Ponder well over the fact, that without knowledge it will be impossible for you to raise yourselves to a high level. “The barbarian,” remarks Dr. Croly, “cannot bring the past in aid of the present, cannot ascend a step in civilization on the stone laid by the generation gone; he has virtually no ancestors, and can have no posterity. The red man of the West is, at this moment, the same solitary, fierce, and miserable being that he was a thousand years ago. The Mongol is the same wild, marauding, and miserable being as when he followed the trumpets of Tamerlane.”[24]Now, what is the reason that these people do not advance? It is because they do not begin building the fabric of sound knowledge. And do you not perceive that the same deficiency which keeps them down as a nation, will also keep you down as individuals? If, among these people, one generation laid the foundation, and another and another continually built thereon, they would rise in proportion in civilization and power. The scholar of to-day, therefore, owes his high position to the accumulations of the giant-intellects of the past. “Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.” The modern scholar by moderate effort, though no giant, stands upon an elevation which was piled up by one generation of learners and thinkers after another with slow, painstaking, and disinterested toil. This rich heritage of knowledge, this grand moral leverage, this high energy of position, constituting the imperative reason for not “breaking with the past”—of which the present is the outcome—it should be your holy ambition to attain. For how can you stretch out a hand to pull others up, unless you occupy higher ground thanthey? Bear with me then while I tell you that unless you thus strive to fit yourselves for the onerous duties of the sacred calling which you hope to adopt, you will be doing nothing towards averting the downfall of Welsh nationality. Of course, you will meet with too many who will tell you that the only way to do this is to encourage the present fatal tendency of Cambria to live solely on her remembrances. Meanwhile, however, the invincible army of progress, with the tramp of doom to effete nationalities, marches steadily and irresistibly on; and the Welsh, as a distinct race, if not better led and advised, will, by the deadly error of seeking “the living among the dead,” simply become a people of the past.
It is my regard for my country that forces me to say what I do. I hope she will always retain a certain degree of individuality, and live to emulate inher own Welsh waythe other great nations of the kingdom. The Scotch do this, why should not we? Honesty, however, forces me to affirm that by clinging unwisely to her antiquated habits when she ought to have out-grown them, Cambria will be thrown down, the advancing host will march over her prostrate form, and she will cease to be a living presence on the earth. “In the strife of tribes, of races, and of nations, in the political as in the physical world,” says the author ofHabit and Intelligence, “a process of natural selection goes on, of which the tendency is to give the victory to the best.”[25a]And Bishop Butler[25b]foreshadowed the same law when he indicated that as power and reason united have proved themselves capable of prevailing over power devoid of reason, as exhibited by the brute creation; so there is in society a tendency in power combined with reason and virtue, to overcome opposing power combined with reason and vice; and God be thanked that it is so, namely, that of the righteous it can be said, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” But now let me remind you that in such a combination as power, reason, and virtue, one very generallyexisting among the people of Wales, there are several degrees of development, and that the higher degree, the more fully differentiated, that which contains most members in one body, will, when brought into competition with it, always, in the course of time bear down or absorb the lower.
As standard-bearers in the army of the great Captain, it will be your duty, therefore, both to God and your own people, while encouraging among the latter that state of firm formation which already is so characteristic of them, to be urgent also in calling upon them to follow you, as bravely you lead the way onward, upward, God-ward.
Considerable stress has been laid in this discourse upon that element of the law of unity and variety—division of labour. Now, in concluding, I would beg to guard you against a misconception on this point which may prove mischievous to you. In my college days, it used to be a subject of complaint with many of the men, that they should have to spend so much of their time in studies, which, as they thought, had no direct connexion with theological training; that is, they were earnest advocates for greater division of labour. I have no doubt there are many of a similar way of thinking among you now. But are you not aware that those who have climbed to a higher elevation than the one you have yet been able to reach, see clearly that all these studies are really necessary to make of you ordinary scholars, gentlemen, and competent parish priests?
Archbishop Whately, in early youth, threatened to become a calculating prodigy; and you may have read that many an intellectual prodigy has been imbecile in every direction but the one in which excellence was manifested. Well, Whately’s parents, instead of being gratified at their son’s passion for numbers, very wisely took alarm. They sought competent advice, and means were taken to prevent his mind taking an abnormal development in one direction, at the expense of its efficiency in others. The result very probably was, that we lost another Colburn or Bidder, but gained an Archbishop Whately.
The conclusion to be drawn from the foregoing account is evident. It is your duty, if you would be well informed, average scholars and thinkers, to acquire more kinds of knowledge than one, and thereby to cultivate all the intellectual faculties of your mind; remembering that the greater the variety which the unity contains, the higher is its position in the scale of created being. Up to a certain point, therefore, we must all try to be universal scholars. After this point has been reached, what makes division of labour necessary is the vast extent to which knowledge has now attained, making it impossible for universal scholars like Leibnitz and the admirable Crichton to exist in these days; to which we must add the limitations, and the variety of bent existing in the mind of men, not forgetting the shortness of time. But then what individuals fail to accomplish the race can; and we have to consider, in the perfection of unselfishness, that we are members of that one body, the universal man; and that what is done by each is done for all. If individuals, therefore, are compelled by stern necessity to study a few branches, and live in faith as regards the rest, yet the race, man, becomes thereby the universal scholar, a source of strength and happiness which makes itself felt even down to the remotest member of the social body.
More especially, do not neglect, while cultivating the intellect, to improve the heart. This would, indeed, be division of labour which is very much to be deprecated. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” “Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.” If knowledge is the great moving power that ensures progress, Christian love, love which fulfilleth the law, is the great source of political stability, social harmony, restoration of soul. Therefore, in the eloquent words of the Bishop of St. David’s, words which in connexion with the present subject well deserve to be quoted,—“‘Sursum Corda,’Upward,Hearts,—upward, above all paltry, sordid, grovelling aims and desires: upward, to a level with the dignity of your calling, the privileges and duties of your station, the importance and arduousness of your work: upward, to a fellowship with the wise and good of all ages and all nations: upward to the Father of Lights, the Fountain of all Goodness:Lift up your Hearts. And from the inmost depth of many devoted wills there rises the clear response, ‘We lift them up unto the Lord.’”[28]
Finally, why should not the leading spirits among you, seriously and prayerfully studying the causes of the rise and fall of nations, band together in a holy alliance, under the title of Young Wales, to promote among your countrymen the spirit of true as opposed to false patriotism; namely, a strong passion forsoundknowledge with its elevating, building power, as opposed to mere erudition on the one hand, and on the other, to a complacent resting in ignorance with its heritage of national decadence, and slight store of light and soul-culture laid by for heaven? Such a movement as this, radiating from our chief Collegiate Institution, would be an event, the value of which to the cause of Welsh nationality, it would be difficult to estimate in too high a strain.
SPURRELL, PRINTER, KING-STREET, CARMARTHEN.
[4]Sermon delivered on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of the Welsh Educational Institution.
[23]Parish Papers, p. 109.
[24]The Cultivation of the Intellect, a Divine Duty of Man.
[25a]Vol. ii. p. 189.
[25b]The Analogy of Religion, part i., chapter iii.
[28]Sermon, on Sound Learning, delivered on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of the Welsh Educational Institution.