Let no one accuse the critic of irreverence, who doubts the wisdomof universities, and of pedantic scholars who burrow like molesin the mouldering remnants of antiquity, but see nothing of theglorious sky overhead. While I have no reverence for barren orwasted intellect, I have the profoundest respect for the fruitfulintellect which produces valuable results—for the vast energy ofthe lower class of intellectual powers, which have developed ourimmense wealth of the physical sciences and their useful applications.Indescribably grand they are. The mathematicians, chemists,geologists, astronomers, botanists, zoologists, anatomists, andthe numerous masters of dynamic sciences and arts, have lifted theworld out of the ruder elements of barbarism and suffering.
But, as for the class of speculative talkers, whose self-sufficiencyprompts them to assume the name of philosophers, to which theyhave no right, what have they ever done either to promote humanwelfare, or to assist human enlightenment and reveal the mysteriesof life? Have they not always been as blind as owls, bats, andmoles, to daylight progress? Are they not at this time utterly andunconsciously blind to the progress of spiritual sciences, to th