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 ADDRESS 
 
 RICHARD G. MOULTON, A.M., 
 
 OF Cambridge, Eng., 
 
 University Extension 
 
 MOVEMENT. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 
 
 FOR THB 
 
 EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING, 
 1602 Chestnut Street, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 

 ,G7A|4 
 
 ADDRESS OF R. G. MOULTON, A.M., 
 
 CAiMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION LECTURER IN LITERATURE. 
 
 (Delivered before the American Society for the Extension of 
 University Teaching, November 19th, 1890.) 
 
 Mr. Provost, Ladies and Gentlemen : — 
 
 I am invited to lay before you the facts of the University 
 Extension movement in England. Only side by side with the 
 facts, I want to put also the ideas of the movement ; because 
 facts are only useful in so far as they illustrate ideas. The 
 facts are simply the body ; the idea of a movement is its ani- 
 mating soul. But when I speak of the idea of the movement, 
 you must not suppose that I mean something which flashed 
 into the mind of James Stuart, or any one else, one fine 
 morning. The idea of the movement is continually changing 
 and enlarging as the movement goes on. Just as with your 
 children at home, while their bodies are growing their minds 
 also are growing, so while the facts of the University Extension 
 movement in the last fifteen or seventeen years have been ex- 
 panding and becoming more various, in the same proportion the 
 idea of the University Extension movement has broadened and 
 become deeper. 
 
 What, then, is the idea of the University Extension move- 
 ment, as we understand it at this date.-* We may first just read 
 an official description. " The purpose of the University Exten- 
 sion movement is to prbvide the means of higher education for 
 persons of all classes and of both sexes engaged in the regular 
 occupations of life. It is, in fact, an attempt to solve the problem 
 of how much of what the universities do for their own students 
 can be done for persons unable to go to a university." That is 
 the official description of the purpose of this movement. My 
 own definition is shorter: University Extension means "Uni- 
 versity Education for the Whole Nation, organized upon Itinerant 
 lines." That will be the text of all I have to say to you. 
 
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 But every single phrase in that definition will want careful 
 explanation. And first, that phrase, "University education." I 
 think it is quite possible that if some of you go out into the streets 
 and try to get adherents among your neighbors for this movement, 
 and talk of "University education" for the whole people, they 
 may find that this idea is not very attractive. I am quite sure of 
 this : That if twenty years ago in England we had announced 
 University education for the masses, we should have seemed to 
 have been advocating a somewhat impracticable thing, very much 
 as if we had proposed a means of promoting a late hour for din- 
 ner. People would have said, " Dining late may be very well for 
 people of a certain class ; it suits them ; but the people in general 
 could not manage it, and if they could, they would not gain much 
 by it." If we had announced University education for the whole 
 nation 'twenty years ago, that would have been the sort of recep- 
 tion our message would have met with in very many quarters. 
 
 To guard against any misapprehension of that kind, let me 
 begin by saying what may astonish some of you, and for aught 
 I know may shock some of you — that University education, as I 
 understand it, has nothing to do with universities. I mean that 
 University education has no necessary connection with univer- 
 sities. I am happy to say that, as a matter of fact. University ex- 
 tension in England has had a great deal to do with the universities. 
 The old "fossilized universities " of Cambridge and Oxford placed 
 themselves at the very head of this movement called " Univer- 
 sity Extension:" — I do not say that they rose to the needs of 
 the people, they rather went about rousing the nation to the 
 necessity of that which afterwards they were ready to supply. 
 But though that is true, yet I consider it is also true that Uni- 
 versity education, and therefore University Extension, has no 
 necessary connection with the particular institutions called uni- 
 versities. As a matter of fact, one of the three great branches 
 of the movement in England is not managed by a university — 
 the branch which provides for the great wants of the vast area 
 of London ; this is directed by an association, which simply goes 
 to the different universities for lecturers, just as you go to a 
 grocery store to provide your household. 
 
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 5 
 
 If, then, University education has no essential connection 
 with universities, what does it mean? you will ask. I take it that 
 you must define University education in antithesis to school edu- 
 cation. As I understand the matter, school education belongs 
 to young people ; university education belongs to adults, to the 
 busy. School education is, in the nature of things, compulsory — 
 it is administered under discipline; University education is pre- 
 eminently voluntary. School education is, in the nature of 
 things, limited. It is limited with regard to age, being given only 
 to young people ; whereas University education begins where 
 school education leaves off. School education is still more lim- 
 ited with regard to its purpose, which is to bring up a boy or a 
 girl to such measure of education as is expected in the rank of 
 life to which the boy or girl belongs. If he is to be in one rank 
 of life, he must at least know reading, writing and arithmetic, 
 and a little more ; or else he will be at a disadvantage with his 
 companions and an ignorant fellow. If he is going to move in 
 another rank of life, he must have the training suitable to that 
 rank, or he will be put down as uneducated. I grant you, of 
 course, that schools often, and very properly, do a great deal 
 more than this. But I say the essential purpose of school edu- 
 cation is limited to bringing a boy or a girl just up to that which 
 is expected of them in the rank of life to which they belong. 
 
 But University education is absolutely unlimited. It is not 
 only unlimited in its range, but it has no limit of age; it belongs 
 to a man's whole life. I grant that your connection with some 
 particular university institution may come to an end at the age 
 of five and twenty or six and twenty ; but that university has 
 failed miserably in its duty if it does not give you those tastes 
 and those mental habits which will lead you to go on and work 
 for yourself mentally to the very end of your days. We hear 
 sometimes of finishing schools. I never heard of a finishing 
 university. The essence of University education is that it is 
 education for adults ; it is voluntary, it is unlimited in scope, 
 unlimited in age ; it applies to a man's whole life. If that be the 
 true view of University education, you will see that it has no 
 necessary connection with universities, but it is equally the 
 interest of all adults who have a desire to take part in it. 
 
The main basis, the foundation for this great movement of 
 University Extension, is a fact^the fact that a change has come 
 over the attitude of public opinion with regard to this matter of 
 adult education ; that whereas in the past higher education was 
 taken for granted as being the property of a class, and education 
 in the case of the masses was supposed to come to an end with the 
 school age, and in the case only of a very few to go on to the 
 adult period ; — a change is coming over the public mind which 
 makes education one of the permanent interests of our whole 
 life, and side by side, shall I say, with religion and politics, the 
 interest of every good citizen. 
 
 And this is one of the great revolutions, which, when you 
 see them from a sufficient distance, make up our history. You 
 know, if you go back far enough, there was a time when religion 
 itself was regarded as a thing for the few ; only the clergy were 
 to think on those matters, and the rest were simply to take what 
 the clergy gave them. Then there came the great revolution 
 of the Reformation, and the whole adult population insisted 
 upon thinking for themselves in religious matters. Again, in 
 Europe at least, there was a time when political matters were 
 supposed to be the property of a class, a governing class, and 
 the great mass of the nation had simply to obey. Then there 
 came the vast political revolutions which have produced modern 
 times, the essence of which is that every adult person considers 
 that he has an interest in political matters, and a right to act for 
 himself as a citizen of the body politic. Happily, we have no 
 revolution this time, but a silent change coming over the body 
 of the whole nation — here you will find it clearly marked, there 
 you will find it only beginning — but anyhow when recognized 
 with an historical eye it is one of the great movements of our 
 history; this tendency of the whole adu^t population to claim 
 higher education, to claim the life education that belongs to 
 university teaching, and to claim it as the heritage of every 
 good citizen. Just as in political matters every adult person 
 claims to be within the Constitution, so by this new change com- 
 ing over us every adult person will claim to be within the Uni- 
 versity, in the sense in which I have defined it. 
 
That is our ground work for University Extension, and in 
 that sense, I say, the movement proposes to extend university 
 education to the whole nation. 
 
 This leads me to my second point. When we talk of such 
 education for the " whole nation," we are met, I think, with a 
 good deal of opposition from very practical persons. Persons 
 who are accustomed to raise practical objections will say: "My 
 dear sir, what do you mean by talking that nonsense .'' Any kind 
 of education, university or otherwise, for the whole nation ! 
 How can you possibly deal with that vast mass of different 
 peo^Dle, some of them with very little previous education, with 
 very little time, with very little leisure or inclination, and other 
 people, clever, with plenty of leisure, well read beforehand — 
 how can you make the same education suitable for all these dif- 
 ferent varieties of people.''" In fact, they say, "It is a sort of 
 communism that you are preaching to us, educational commun- 
 ismx, that a university education should be given indiscriminately 
 to the whole nation." Somebody in England made the interest- 
 ing calculation that if all the wealth of England were put into a 
 common stock and distributed all around equally, every British 
 household would have two hundred pounds a year. The discov- 
 ery is more interesting than useful. But, I fancy, when we talk 
 about University education for the whole nation, our practical 
 friends think it is something like a proposal for giving every 
 household two hundred pounds a year; that it is a communistic 
 proposal. " How can you possibly make the same thing suitable 
 for all this great diversity of people.''" 
 
 But, surely, that objection is an unreasonable one. When 
 we talk of University education for all classes, we do not mean 
 that every individual will get the same thing out of it. What a 
 man gets out of your University Extension system will depend, of 
 course, on what he brings to it. I take it that University Exten- 
 sion will be a sort of stream that runs from the mountain tops 
 of the University or similar institutions : the stream flows from 
 this height over the whole land, and everybody helps himself as 
 he wishes, or as he can. One man helps himself with no more 
 than a cup, another man takes a bucket, one man finds a cistern 
 
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 is necessary to supply his wants. Each helps himself and can 
 help himself only according to his own capacity. What you 
 have to do is to see that the water is pure. 
 
 So I claim that our movement is not a mere theorist's dream. 
 It is a perfectly practical thing that this university education 
 should be extended to the whole nation without exception. But 
 that objection of the practical person leads to a very practical 
 point. As soon as you come to put your system into operation 
 you will be met at once by a great practical dilemma, and a good 
 deal of the success of this scheme will depend on how you deal 
 with this. You will be advised from opposite quarters. On the 
 one side some one will say, "Now, whatever we do, let us see 
 that our University Extension education is every bit as good as 
 that they give in universities ; let us have no lowering of the 
 standard, but let us make the education outside and within the 
 university exactly the same." You at once feel a sympathy with 
 that advice. But then somebody will advise you in quite the 
 opposite direction. They say, "We want nothing oi the kind. 
 Our business is to go where we are most needed, and consider 
 the neglected classes of the community. We must be content 
 with a make-shift education, the best we can do, the best they 
 can take; and we must leave all those fancy schemes, and just 
 adapt ourselves to the most neglected classes, and find out how 
 little is sufficient to draw them." And you have sympathy with 
 that also. How are you to decide between these opposite 
 policies .'' 
 
 Here, I think, our experience in England may be useful to 
 you. At all events, I will tell you how we have dealt with that 
 fundamental dilemma in a system that is to extend a high thing 
 like university education to the whole nation indiscriminately. 
 We have done this : we have said that what a university does 
 for its own students is two-fold. On the one hand, the univer- 
 sity has to teach, and, of course, it follows that its teaching is 
 to be as thorough and its standard as high as is possible. But 
 besides the duty of teaching, the university has also the duty of 
 deciding what ought to be taught — the curriculum, as it is called. 
 If any body is charged with granting degrees, that body has cast 
 
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 upon it the most important duty of considering what course of 
 study, what combination of subjects, and in what order, will 
 make a fitting preparation for a degree in a given course of 
 liberal education. Those are two main duties of a university- 
 method and curriculum. 
 
 Now, in their application to University Extension, you can 
 keep those two things quite distinct. And our solution of the 
 difficulty in England is that, so far as regards method, our sys- 
 tem shall be as thorough outside the university as in it. We 
 will not relax one inch. Our standard of University Extension 
 teaching shall be as high as— personally, I go further, I say 
 higher than— that of the universities themselves. But when 
 you come to the course of study, the question as to what is to 
 be taught, then, having to serve a vast variety of people with 
 all manner of different requirements, your system must be 
 elastic. And, therefore, we get, to begin with, a " unit," as we 
 call it. Our unit is a three months' course of instruction in a 
 single subject. And whatever teaching we do in University 
 Extension is given in a combination of units, of these three 
 months' courses in particular subjects. We say that we are 
 perfectly willing to deal with any local center that is able to 
 take no more than a single unit, and we are anxious to have them. 
 At the same time, where a town has more funds and more de- 
 mands, we are prepared to combine unit course with unit course 
 in a proper educational sequence. The University of Cambridge 
 has carried such combination to the extent of what is called the 
 Affiliation Course : a regular educational sequence of these unit 
 courses, which are considered the equivalent of a single year at 
 the university, so that those who have gone through the affilia- 
 tion course in their own locality are admitted to the university 
 as second-year students. And, though that is as far as we have 
 gone at present in England, yet there are several of us who are 
 resolved never to cease until we have brought it about that a 
 complete degree course, equal in every way to the course given 
 in the universities, but administered in University Extension 
 methods, shall be obtainable by University Extension students, 
 no doubt extending over a long term of years, but obtainable 
 by them through the system of University Extension. 
 
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 10 
 
 That being so, you see how we have solved this difficulty. 
 What a university does for its students is method, curriculum.. 
 In method we have resolved to be as thorough or even more 
 thorough than in the universities themselves ; but so far as cur- 
 riculum goes, we must be elastic. We fix upon our unit system 
 of the single term in the single subject. We make our com- 
 bination of units. We contemplate going as far as a complete 
 degree course followed by degrees. And each locality must 
 take advantage of our system so far as its wants permit. 
 
 But, now, I want to dwell a little longer upon what I dare 
 say astonishes some of you. I say that the system is as 
 thorough as, or more thorough than, that in the universities 
 themselves. I want to speak about the University Extension 
 method of teaching, putting it to you as an addition to the appa- 
 ratus of education. Its elements are Lectures, Class, Syllabus, 
 Weekly Exercises, Examinations, Certificates. And in England 
 there is no University Extension teaching which does not imply 
 all these. 
 
 Let me describe, as a lecturer, the method that is followed. 
 First, with regard to the Lectures. We expect the audience at 
 our lectures to be as miscellaneous as the congregation of a 
 church. That is a very important point. Some people imagine 
 that University Extension is only for people who are already 
 cultured ; other people imagine that University Extension is a 
 system of education for the working classes. I utterly repudi- 
 ate such descriptions. We know nothing about social classes 
 in University Extension. We wish our audience to include all 
 kinds of people, all ages, all degrees of previous education. If 
 there is anybody who will be out of place in the congregation of 
 a church, that person would be out of place in our lecture audi- 
 ence, but nobody else. It is quite true that in some centers, 
 owing to the particular locality, or the subject, or the lecturer's 
 personality, you will find audiences composed almost entirely of 
 mechanics, or of artisans. We are delighted to have it so. 
 Some great triumphs have been won in centers of that kind. 
 But it is a mistake to suppose that this is a movement simply 
 for mechanics — for the working classes. It is for all classes 
 
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 II 
 
 alike. And, taking the movement all over England, we do 
 actually get all classes represented in our lecture audiences. 
 
 But we assume that in any audience there will be a nucleus 
 of students, or persons who desire to do something besides at- 
 tending the lectures ; and our theory is, and practice confirms 
 it, that the large audience and the nucleus of students will 
 mutually benefit by being united. What we do for our students 
 is conveyed in the Syllabus. The Syllabus contains the lecturer's 
 own outline for the whole work of his course. We do not expect 
 to teach in the lectures. That is a common error. Although I 
 am a lecturer, I do not believe in lectures as a mode of teaching. 
 The purpose of a lecture is quite different : it is to stimulate 
 persons to learn. The lecturer's business is not to give informa- 
 tion, which is much better obtained from books. His duty in 
 the lecture is to stimulate, to put the right points of view, to stir 
 his hearers up to search for themselves. And the Syllabus guides 
 the student in his work to the books which are required. 
 
 The students attend the lecture to-day, for example. They 
 go home, and with the aid of their syllabus they read and get 
 information on the subject. Then we have what are called Weekly 
 Exercises — weekly papers they are called here — but I prefer the 
 term exercises. A set of questions will be found in the Syllabus, 
 and all students are invited to answer those questions at home, 
 and send the results in to the lecturer. I want to lay stress upon 
 these Exercises. They are entirely different from examinations. 
 They are entirely different — so far as I, a stranger, can under- 
 stand — from what are called in this country "quizzes." Because, 
 I imagine, in the case of quizzes, and, certainly in examinations, 
 such things are mainly exercises for the memory. But that is 
 just what the Weekly Exercises are not. They are done by the 
 student at his own home, at his own leisure. He takes just 
 what time he likes. He makes whatever use he can of books 
 and papers and any kind of information he can lay hold of- 
 "Why," somebody will say, "if you leave him to do them at 
 home, he will get somebody to help him." Of course he will, 
 and that is what we want ; we want him to get all the help from 
 all the sources he can. In fact, we want him to work just as if 
 
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 12 
 
 he was investigating for himself. If you were studying some 
 subject, investigating some subject for yourself, would you not 
 use books and papers and instruments ? Would you not ransack 
 libraries ? Would you not pick the brains of everybody that 
 knew more about it than yourself? That is just what we want 
 our students to do in Weekly Exercises — get all the help they 
 possibly can. They are not exercises to see how much he 
 remembers, but they are simply intended to train him to work 
 for himself. 
 
 The student does these exercises, and he sends them in to 
 the lecturer, and the lecturer's business is to make comments in 
 the margin, keeping up, as it were, a regular conversation with 
 the student. Then the next week there is the " Class," which is 
 held on the day of the next lecture, either before or after the 
 lecture. There the lecturer meets the students who have been 
 sending papers in to him, and also as many others as like to come, 
 and he occupies that hour in any way he pleases, but usually in 
 talking about the points that have arisen in the exercises that 
 students have sent in to him. For example, when I am examin- 
 ing a student's exercise, I make a point of noting down every- 
 thing that is at all out of the common. It may be a misunder- 
 ing ; it may be a brilliant saying — I get a great many of them. 
 It may be some unexpected side light on the matter from some 
 person who has special experience. And I take care that the 
 whole class has the full benefit of what everybody has said. I 
 do not mention names ; everything that is sent in is received in 
 sacred confidence. But, I assure you, it is an immense stimulus 
 to a student — very often a shy, quiet person — to he'ar some re- 
 mark he has put in his paper quoted to the whole class, even 
 without his name, and to see the start of admiration over the 
 whole room. And we are often equally indebted to people who 
 make a mistake : a good, rattling mistake serves to clear up a 
 matter for a lot of people who are too hazy to make the mistake 
 themselves. Besides, mistakes are good preparation for further 
 teaching. Suppose, after a lecture on Marlowe's " Faustus," I 
 ask for a description of the final scene. I am quite sure that 
 half the students who attempt that would make a mess of it. 
 
m^mm^^m^ 
 
 13 
 
 That is precisely what I want : they imagine that all the dra- 
 matic setting can be put in by each reader according to his own 
 taste, whereas I should be able to show in class, line by line, 
 word by word, that I did not put anything into my description 
 of that scene which was not necessarily implied in the wording 
 of the author. Moreover, I should branch out into "dramatic 
 background " in general from this example, and should show other 
 samples of similar treatment, until by the end of the class stu- 
 dents would feel that they had known all about dramatic back- 
 ground all their life. "Well," you say, "you could do all this 
 in a lecture." So I could ; but it would not make the same dif- 
 ference to the student : the fact of his having attempted and 
 failed, would make my remarks on the subject come to him with 
 ten-fold effect. 
 
 Again, I set original questions; I mean questions involving 
 original investigation and creative work. When I lecture upon 
 Goethe's Fans/, I never fail to put one question in the last paper— 
 "Sketch an original epilogue to Faust." You know Goethe 
 gives a "prologue in heaven," but no epilogue. Now, I say, 
 sketch an original "epilogue in heaven" in order to bring out 
 what you think about the working of the story. That draws 
 most valuable answers. Of course, I read them all out in class, 
 and I have known people converted to belief in University Ex- 
 tension by attending such classes. I recall a very distinguished 
 man in England, who was present, in one when I read out ans- 
 wers of this kind, and he came to me afterwards and said: "Well, 
 I did not think much of your lecture, but I do think a great deal 
 of the class. I never conceived that you got such work out of 
 people in University Extension." And he went on to say, what 
 practically came to this, that he would never laugh at University 
 Extension again. 
 
 I wanted to speak freely and at length on this subject, be- 
 cause I wish you to realize this, which is the strength of our 
 system— the free Weekly Exercises of the students given at their 
 own home. 
 
 Now comes the key to our whole method : Whatever we 
 give by way of Certificates is given upon a combination of the 
 
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 ^jjaaggiisHiaifei 
 
 
 14 
 
 Weekly Exercises and the Examination at the end. . We never 
 give certificates for examinations. I am quite sure, if you 
 knew as much as I do of examinations, you would not have 
 much belief in them. However, people in England have a 
 belief in them, unfortunately. But what we do is to make our 
 Certificates depend equally upon the lecturers' reports of the 
 exercises throughout the term, and the result of a final examina- 
 tion. There are some people who can do well at examinations ; 
 there are other people who do not. But there are some people 
 who do splendid work in the weekly exercises, which are more 
 valuable than anything that can be given in examination. Each 
 party gets a chance. Different sets ' of mental operations are 
 brought into play, and the result is that our Certificates come 
 nearer to what certificates should be, I believe, than any others. 
 Now that is the method on which we work. 
 
 But then, the proof of the pudding must be, of course, in 
 the eating, and you must consider every educational method by 
 its success. What success have we had .-' In the first place, we 
 have succeeded in getting hold of the people we want. It is a 
 fact, right through England, that our lecture audiences are as 
 miscellaneous as the congregation of a church. It is equally 
 true that those who do paper work, our students, are miscellane- 
 ous in the same way. I have known in one case one-third of 
 the lecture audience, generally one-fifth, and sometimes a smaller 
 proportion, do the weekly exercises. And there is as much mis- 
 cellaneousness in the weekly exercises as in the audience. For 
 example, I have had exercises sent in by high university gradu- 
 ates who happened to be attending the lectures and were inter- 
 ested and delighted to fight their old battles over again. And 
 I have had weekly exercises from children who wrote in round 
 text. I have had many exercises from people who knew the 
 subject better than I did myself, and I have also had exercises 
 every week from people who could not spell, and whose grammar 
 was very questionable. I have had occasional exercises — and 
 very bright ones, suggesting something for the class — written 
 on post cards : and on the other hand I am quite accustomed to 
 have exercises from thirty to thirty-five or forty pages of quarto. 
 
■l^ll&li■■■■■■■H■■■■ 
 
 MMMm 
 
 15 
 
 I recollect . one case in which I had, week after week, from one 
 student, fifty folio pages of notes in close writing and small. I 
 regret to be obliged to add that that student was mad. But this 
 shows we have actually tapped all strata of English society, not 
 excepting the lunatic asylum. 
 
 And with regard to the standard of our work, it is enough 
 to say that there is a general consensus of opinion among all 
 who have had to do with our work, that the standard of our work 
 is precisely the same as the standard of the university itself. I 
 am talking now of the result of final examinations — to my mind, 
 not the most important test ; but even judging by the final 
 examination, we have had it said again and again that our "pass " 
 students are just as good as the "pass" students of the univer- 
 sity, our "distinction" students in the University Extension are 
 just as good as the honor students in the universities. Indeed, 
 I was Very much struck with the remark of one person, a most 
 distinguished teacher in a university and one who also lectured 
 for our Extension movement. I heard him once describe an 
 interesting line of work he had been following, and with an eye 
 to business I said, "Come now, can't you give us that in a course 
 of University Extension ?" He instantly became grave. "Well, 
 no," he said, "I have not thought it out sufficiently for that." 
 Then he added, " You know, anything does for college, but when 
 I have to go before a University Extension audience, and have 
 the weekly exercises and the class to provide for, I must have 
 thought out my subject before I face them." This is just a speci- 
 men of the impression of thoroughness made by our method of 
 teaching. 
 
 But in reality the most important results are very much 
 oftener those which cannot be put into statistical form, and can- 
 not be tabulated. What I attach as much importance to as any- 
 thing else is this, that in almost every quarter of England into 
 which we go and give a three months' course of lectures by experi- 
 enced lecturers, we are certain in that town to hear it said that 
 the whole character of conversation and intercourse between peo- 
 ple has been altered for the three months. We hear from the 
 librarians of the public libraries : " Why, since Mr. So-and- 
 
i6 
 
 So has been lecturing, the character of the demand in our libra- 
 ries has been all changed." We have it said that at five o'clock 
 teas — I suppose that is an American institution as well as Eng- 
 lish—the character of talk is completely altered. Now, I put it 
 to you, that if you are able to go into some district and lecture, 
 say on " Paradise Lost," for three months, and know that the 
 whole character of the conversation in that district will be mate- 
 rially affected by that course — if you know that you can keep 
 the attention of that locality upon "Paradise Lost" for three 
 months together, that alone constitutes a great educational 
 achievement. 
 
 That is what I have to say with regard to the method of 
 University Extension. I have said it means University Extension 
 for the whole nation, and I have tried to show that you can have 
 an elastic system reaching the whole nation, a sort of ladder or 
 educational machinery, of which the lowest rung is the single 
 course of three months, and the highest round is to be a com- 
 plete university course. I have shown that you can have this 
 administered with complete university thoroughness. 
 
 But now I come to my last point — the education of the 
 whole nation is to be organized upon itinerant lines. It is very 
 important to add this, in order to keep University Extension dis- 
 tinct from other good movements of the same kind. 
 
 You have in this country some work of the most valuable 
 description. You are far ahead of us English people in the mat- 
 ter of work that consists of home reading and study. That is 
 most excellent work. Do not imagine that I am depreciating it 
 for a moment. But I put it to you ttat it is very desirable to 
 keep that quite distinct from " University Extension," the distin- 
 guishing feature of which is the lecturing. Whatever body is at 
 the head of a " University Extension " movement, that body must 
 be responsible for the teaching, and it can only do this by an 
 itinerant system. It must send these itinerant teachers through- 
 out the community. Organize as you will, in the ultimate result 
 your teaching will vary with your teachers. 
 
 Then, one other point is implied in an itinerant organiza- 
 tion, and this is that you must have both a Central and Local 
 
^msmmrnmim 
 
 17 
 
 organization. You must have a central body to direct, and in 
 each locality some local institution of some kind to take advan- 
 tage of the movement. I mention this in order to urge upon 
 you this point — do not imagine that the local committee or insti- 
 tution is of small importance, that its duty is simply to turn on 
 a tap, and let the stream flow to its neighborhood. We find in 
 England that the working of the movement depends quite as 
 much upon the local organization as upon the central body. 
 
 Then my next point with respect to itinerancy is this — both 
 the local organization and the central organization will need 
 funds ; money of some kind. We in England have tried, have 
 ransacked every form of contrivance, in order to make the move- 
 ment pay itself— I mean pay itself out of the fees and tickets of 
 the students who attend the lectures ; and we have failed. We 
 have come to the conclusion that while an individual course may 
 not only succeed, but bring in a handsome profit, yet, taking one 
 course with another, one district with another, you cannot pos- 
 sibly expect to pay, from the fees of those who attend, more than 
 two-thirds, at the outside, of your expenses. And even that is 
 where you are only taking the lowest round of the ladder, the 
 single course. The difference between that unit course and the 
 complete college or university course is simply one of finance. 
 And therefore the strength of your movement will lie ultimately 
 in its financial organization. In these matters, you know, 
 thinkers propose, but finance disposes ; and you will have to 
 address yourselves to that important topic — how to provide in 
 ane form or another an endowment for this movement. I do not 
 know whether the term " endowment " is an unwelcome term to 
 In England it creates quite a prejudice, but the fact re- 
 
 you. 
 
 mains that, call it by whatever name you will, somehow or other 
 you will have to find some money to supplement the tickets and 
 fees of those who attend. Both the local societies and the cen- 
 tral body will want such subscriptions as you are invited to give 
 to-night. 
 
 We have come to the conclusion in England that not only 
 is this true as a fact, but further, as a matter of principle, that 
 the movement 02ig-/a not to pay itself from the fees of those who 
 
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 attend. For this reason — it professes to be a movement of 
 higher education. Now, you may almost define higher educa- 
 tion by saying that it is education that has no market value. If 
 you find year after year and term after term that your movement 
 can be paid for out of the fees of the students, then you know 
 that you are not giving a high enough education. Again, you 
 may be quite sure of this, that if you attempt to make the move- 
 ment do without endowment you will limit it. You will have 
 to keep on the lowest round of the ladder ; or you will limit it in a 
 worse way — you will have to make your tickets high priced, and 
 therefore keep out the very persons you most wish to benefit. 
 
 But I take broader ground. The movement is a missionary 
 movement. And can you think of establishing missions with- 
 out funds to back them ? I want to appeal to you strongly on this 
 point — the more strongly because some people do not realize what 
 a grand thing subscribing is. Let me explain what I mean. 
 Everybody realizes — it does not need any explanation — what a 
 grand thing endowment is. Your nation is quite wonderful in 
 the number of rich men who have left vast sums to endow whole 
 universities and schools. It impresses an Englishman that you 
 always reckon by millions ; it sounds overpowering. Every one 
 feels the grandeur of that ; but people do not feel the grandeur 
 of subscribing five dollars and getting others besides themselves 
 to subscribe similar sums. It may be a shocking thing to say, 
 but it seems to me that, speaking generally, subscribing is a 
 higher thing than bequeathing. Of course, it is on a smaller 
 scale ; but I often think about those who have left these grand 
 sums to public objects — and of course they have done a good 
 thing — that they enjoyed the money the whole time of their 
 lives, and, when they could get no more out of it, then they gave 
 it to public objects. That is a good thing to do, but they gave 
 it away, not for themselves, but from their successors. Now, 
 everybody who makes an annual subscription of five dollars or 
 more is not giving it away from his heirs or successors, but he 
 is giving it from himself. Thus those who become members of 
 this association, and who get other people to become members, 
 and canvass heartily for it, are to my mind doing exactly the 
 
PiiPpiliSiS^ 
 
 19 
 
 same thing on a smaller scale as those great citizens who have 
 left vast sums to found universities ; and, to my mind, they are 
 doing it in a better way, because they are assisting their own 
 generation and at their own expense. 
 
 This is the one word that I want to leave with you 
 this word "missionary spirit." University Extension is pre- 
 eminently a missionary movement. And I want to wipe away 
 the reproach that at present rests upon higher education, 
 that it is selfish compared with the other great interests of life. 
 When a man feels strongly upon religious matters, the first thing 
 he does is to set about converting others. When a man has 
 views on politics, the first thing he does is to agitate and bring 
 others to his views. But in the past I am afraid it has been 
 true that culture has been selfish, so much so that in England 
 the very word has become hateful — the word "culture" has 
 come to signify an exclusive and selfish spirit, with " Get away 
 from me, I am more cultured than thou " for its motto. That 
 has been the spirit of culture in the past. Now, we think that 
 one of the missions of University Extension is to wipe away that 
 reproach, to call upon everybody who is conscious of having been 
 educated, who is conscious of an interest in intellectual matters, 
 to feel that this very sense of culture is an obligation upon him 
 to go out and help others to be cultured. To infuse a missionary 
 spirit into culture— that is the purpose of University Extension. 
 
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