GIFFORD LECTURE THE ELEVENTH. Lectures by Lord Gifford -By whom edited-Germane to, and illustrative of, natural theology-Number and nature-Their literary excellence-Even poetical-Der laute Lärm des Tages-On attention-On St. Bernard of Clairvaux-( lairvaux-(Luther, Gibbon)-What Lord Gifford admires--The spirit of religion-The TrinityEmerson, Spinoza - Substance-Brahmanism-Religion-Understanding and reason--Metaphysical terms-MaterialismLiterary enthusiasm-Technical shortcomings-Emerson and Carlyle-Social intercourse-Humanity-Liberality and tolerance-Faith-Mesmerism-Ebenezer Elliott-An open sense to evidence. I BEG to express to you, in the first place, the pleasure which it gives me to meet once again an assembly like the present, in the interest of these lectures on the Lord Gifford Bequest. Then, in the reference that seems naturally next, as regards an introductory discourse, namely, perhaps I may be allowed to say that I might excusably hold no such preliminary to be expected from me on this occasion, when what we begin is but the half of a whole that had abundantly its preparatory explanations at first. So far one may incline to accept that, probably, as a very reasonable view. Still, I know not that I can proceed to act on it with any grace, in face of the fact of this little book. As one sees, it is a handsome little volume; and it came to me, bound as it is, unexpectedly and with surprise, from Frankfort-on-the-Main. It has, somehow, a singularly simple, pure, and taking title-page, the words on which are these : "Lectures Delivered on Various Occasions by Adam Gifford, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, Scotland." This title-page is followed by a perfectly correspondent modest little note, to the effect, that the lectures concerned are a selection from a miscellaneous number of others given from time to time by request, on very various occasions, and to greatly differing audiences, the preparation of which was a great pleasure to the lecturer," and, if " of necessity sometimes hurried, never careless." They were in no case," it is added, "meant for publication, and we print a few of them now only for his friends." The signatures to that note- the "we"-are Alice Raleigh and Herbert James Gifford; the one the niece, so long, in loving attention, associated with Lord Gifford, and the other his son. The lectures themselves, as we see, are not to be regarded as published; and that I should speak of them here, consequently, may seem to border on impropriety. But, as we see also, they are printed for his friends; and I know not that I speak to others than the friends of Lord Gifford when I speak to this audience. I am very certain of this, too, that I can adduce nothing from these lectures that will not prove admirably illustrative and confirmatory of the express terms in which, in the Trust-Disposition and Settlement, directions are given with respect to the duties necessarily incumbent on the holders of this chair. It is in that light and for that light, that, precisely to me at all events, these lectures of Lord Gifford's own are very specially welcome. And if now, by quotation, comment, or remark, I proceed to make as much as that good to you also, I have the hope that the result will prove constitutive, as well, of a lecture in place, a lecture in just such a course as this is, a lecture on the subject of Natural Theology, and a lecture, too, even in a way, almost at the very hands of the founder himself of this chair itself. There are seven of these lectures of Lord Gifford's, and they are respectively LITERARY EXCELLENCE. 199 named as they come: 1. Ralph Waldo Emerson; 2. Attention as an Instrument of Self-Culture; 3. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux; 4. Substance: A Metaphysical Thought; 5. Law a Schoolmaster, or the Educational Function of Jurisprudence; 6. The Ten Avatars of Vishnu; and 7. The Two Fountains of Jurisprudence. Only two of them, then, so far as the titles would seem to suggest, belong to the writer's own profession of law, while the rest are literary, philosophical, or even metaphysical. Three of them in spirit, and even more or less in matter, might not unreasonably be held to have a direct bearing on the very subject which it has been his will that the four universities of Scotland should be bound in perpetuity expressly to discuss. What strikes one at first in these lectures, and from the very face of them, is the constant vivid writing, the literary accomplishment that everywhere obtains in them. He says once, for example, " If first principles have not been carried out, if on the firm foundations the walls have not risen rightly, by truest plummet perpendicular towards heaven, and by bedded block parallel to the horizon; then be sure that sooner or later we must begin again, for Nature will find out our failure, and with her there is no forgiveness." Surely that last is what is usually described as a fine thought; and there is concrete reflection throughout, as well as felicitous phrase. It is in the same way that he says once: "The prophet can tell his vision, but he cannot give his own anointed eye." What we may almost call technical literary balance is perpetual with him, as when he says: "Hinduism offers culture to the educated and wisdom to the wise, while with equal hand she gives superstitions and charms to the ignorant and to the foolish; " or when he holds of Emerson that Many of his essays are refined and elevated poems, and some of his poems are really very " |