fl 637 
 7 
 
 J4 
 Dpy 1 
 
 University College of North Wales, 
 Bangor 
 
 Some Aspects of Modern 
 University Education 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 Closing Ceremony of the Session 1902-3 
 June 19th, 1903 
 
 BY 
 
 Sir RICHARD JEBB, D.C.L., LL.D., M.P., 
 
 REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 Printed at the University Press 
 1903 
 
University College of North Wales, 
 Bangor 
 
 Some Aspects of Modern 
 University Education 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 Closing Ceremony of the Session 1902-3 
 
 June 19th, 1903 
 
 BY 
 Sir RICHARD JEBB, D.C.L., LL.D., M.P., 
 
 REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 Printed at the University Press 
 1903 
 
V 
 
 K^ 
 
 A 
 
 5 
 
 ^ 
 
Address given at University College, Barigor, 
 on Friday, June 19. 
 
 SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN UNIVERSITY 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 The nineteenth century will always be memorable in the 
 history of English education. Our Elementary system was 
 for the first time organised under the control of the State ; 
 Secondary training, though not organised, was immensely im- 
 proved in several kinds of schools; the education of women was 
 lifted to a wholly new level ; technical education was begun 
 under the auspices of the County Councils ; and, finally, a most 
 remarkable development took place in the resources for teaching 
 of a University type. This last change, indeed, is second in 
 importance to none of those momentous changes which marked 
 the Victorian age. Look back only a little more than seventy 
 years, and consider what the situation was on the eve of the 
 first Reform Bill. Oxford and Cambridge were then the only 
 Universities south of the Tweed ; and their position was far 
 from satisfactory. The range of their studies was too narrow ; 
 they had not been keeping pace with the advancement of 
 knowledge. Their social operation also was much too limited ; 
 it was practically confined to the wealthier classes, and to the 
 members of one communion. They were out of touch with the 
 nation as a whole ; and the discontent with which they were 
 regarded found expression in many different quarters. In the 
 second half of the century, however, all this was changed. By 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 successive reforms the quality of their teaching was improved 
 and its range was greatly widened ; religious tests were 
 abolished; the doors of the Universities were opened to large 
 classes of the community against which they had formerly been 
 closed. Oxford and Cambridge came to be in fact, and no 
 longer in name only, national Universities. But meanwhile a 
 rapidly growing demand for higher education had gradually 
 created a series of new institutions of various kinds. The 
 earliest of these sprang fi'om a sense of the fact that the 
 benefits of the ancient Universities were restricted to the few. 
 The metropolis was the first seat of such new foundations. 
 University College, London, was established in 1828, and 
 King's College in the following year. London University, as 
 an Examining Board, received its first charter in 1836. The 
 needs of the North of England also claimed attention. Li 
 1838 a charter was granted to the University of Uui'ham. 
 Owens College, Manchester, arose in 1851. The period from 
 1870 to 1885 was marked by signal activity. A series of 
 University Colleges then came into existence, including those 
 of Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Aberystwyth, Cardiff, 
 and Bangor. Two such Colleges, those of Nottingham and 
 Sheffield, grew out of the University Extension movement, 
 which has since produced also Colleges of a special type at 
 Reading, Exeter, and Colchester. The next great step was the 
 formation of the Federal Universities. The Colleges at Man- 
 chester, Liverpool, and Leeds were federated in the Victoria 
 Universit}^, to Avhich a charter was given in 1880. Your own 
 University of Wales received its charter in 1893. Since then 
 some events have occurred which are of great importance for 
 the future of our University education. The University of 
 Birmingham has been founded. The University of London has 
 been reconstituted as a teaching body. The federal Victoria 
 University is to be dissolved. Liverpool has received a charter 
 for a University of its own. There will be a University of 
 Manchester: and Leeds is to be the seat of another. Thus in 
 England and Wales we are to have at least nine Universities. 
 And it has recently been announced that there is a project for 
 establishing a University of Sheffield. 
 
With this growing multiplication of centres for training of 
 the University type, it is clear that we have entered on a new 
 period in the history of our higher educatiou. New problems 
 are presenting themselves, and old questions are recurring in 
 new forms. The great fact which determines the character of 
 the whole movement is the extraordinary development of local 
 interest and energy in this direction. One of the first questions 
 that occur at the present time is this:— What are the ad- 
 vantages or drawbacks of a Federal University as compared 
 with a City University, such as that of Birmingham ? One 
 advantage of the federal system is that which it bestows on 
 Colleges which might not be strong enough to stand alone as 
 degree-giving bodies. By federation, by common action, each 
 of them gains in breadth ; the studies of each, leading up to 
 degrees conferred by the University, gain in importance and 
 become animated by a larger spirit. There is a further con- 
 sideration, which applies with special force to an area such as 
 that of the Principality ; namely, that a University which 
 represents Wales enjoys the solid support of Welsh national 
 sentiment. This is a source of strength which can hardly be 
 overrated. As to the drawbacks of the federal system, one of 
 them is that the federal control necessarily imposes certain 
 limits on the freedom of teaching in the constituent Colleges, 
 especially, perhaps, on the Arts side. I am not aware that in 
 Wales you have felt that much ; I believe that the University 
 of Wales has been very successful in combining a uniformly 
 high standard with a reasonable freedom for the Colleges in 
 regard to their schemes of study. But the College at Liverpool, 
 it is understood, felt somewhat trammelled by the federal system, 
 and this was one of the reasons which prompted the desire for 
 separation. Then in a federal University there is always the 
 geographical question. In your own case it has been felt, I 
 believe, as a real inconvenience that the meetings of Joint 
 Boards involve long and frequent journeys, making considerable 
 demand on tlie time of some Professors. That difficulty is 
 inherent in the system ; I do not know whether, or how far, 
 it could be mitigated by limiting the number of teachers 
 affected by it. Turn now to the City University ; has it any 
 
 1—2 
 
distinctive recommendation, as compared with the Federal? 
 Its chief advantage is, I suppose, the concentration of local 
 patriotism. A citizen of Liverpool, for instance, will be apt to 
 care more for a University of that city than he would care for a 
 Liverpool College in a University which included Manchester 
 and Leeds. This may be one of the reasons why a University 
 of Birmingham was thought more expedient than a University 
 of the Midlands. The local patriotism of our great provincial 
 cities has in these days a force and an intensity which can 
 hardly be realised except by those who have lived in such a 
 city. I know something of it from long experience at Glasgow. 
 It is a force rooted in British character, in our institutions, our 
 freedom, and our habits of local self-government. That each 
 great city should have its own University, may or may not be 
 educationally good ; but the rivalry between such cities is a 
 very powerful factor in the case. If Birmingham is to have a 
 University of its own, that is, for Liverpool, a further reason 
 why it should have one too : and if Leeds is to have one, 
 Sheffield will hardly be content that its College should be 
 affiliated, in a subordinate position, to its neighbour's institu- 
 tion. The situation is characteristically English. The English 
 people, as a whole, has till lately cared comparatively little 
 about education ; education, in all its grades, has been advanced 
 mainly by voluntary agencies, or by individual enterprise ; it 
 has not been, as in Germany, organised from top to bottom by 
 the State. And a very good thing too, many will say. Yes, 
 good in certain respects ; but it is a history which makes the 
 situation very complex at a moment like the present, when the 
 country is waking up to the fact that its place in world-compe- 
 titions is jeopardised by its backwardness in education. The 
 dissolution of the federal Victoria University, whether desirable 
 or not, was inevitable from the moment that one great city 
 had decided to apply for a separate charter; for, in such 
 a matter, the will of a great city is practically irresistible. 
 In referring to that event, it is impossible not to ask oneself 
 whether it is fraught Avith any omen for the future of the 
 University of Wales. I merely venture to utter aloud some 
 thoughts that occur to me, as a spectator genuinely interested 
 
in the fortunes of this University, of which the position is 
 in some respects unique. One of your three Colleges is 
 seated in a great commercial town. Suppose, for the sake 
 of argument merely — I have no reason whatever to believe 
 that the thing is probable — suppose that this great town 
 should some day decide to have a University of its own. 
 Then, I presume, one of two things would happen : Bangor and 
 Aberystwyth would go on in federal union ; or else Bangor 
 would become the University of North Wales, and Aberystwyth 
 would be left in a position analogous to that in which Leeds 
 found itself when the dissolution was decreed. In view of such 
 possible contingencies, one question before all others would seem 
 to require an answer. Are the drawbacks to the federal system 
 outweighed by the fact that the existing University stands for 
 all Wales, and has the undivided support of Welsh sentiment 
 behind it ? An onlooker who thinks as I do would replj' 
 unhesitatingly, Yes : the advantage outweighs the drawbacks. 
 To represent Wales is not merely to represent a geographical 
 area and a distinct nationality: it is to represent also a well- 
 marked type of national genius, characterised by certain 
 intellectual bents, by certain literary aptitudes, by certain gifts 
 of imagination and sympathy, specially manifested in the love 
 of poetry and of music ; a type of genius which is peculiarly 
 susceptible to the influence of humane studies. A University 
 which is the one academic expression of such a national genius 
 holds a position of unique interest and of peculiar strength. 
 It would be a great pity to break it up into two or three 
 Universities, no one of which could have the same prestige. If 
 there were but two Universities, one for North Wales and the 
 other for South, the national sentiment would be divided, the 
 strength which it gives would be impaired, and the unavoidable 
 competition, however generous, might possibly be prejudicial to 
 the interests of Welsh education at large. Perhaps I ought to 
 apologise for this purely hypothetical reference to a situation 
 which may never occur : but the prevailing current of events in 
 England forcibly presses such thoughts on the mind ; and a 
 loyal well-wisher of the University may, I hope, be excused for 
 saying these few words on the subject. 
 
6 
 
 I revert to the new Universities in the great English towns, 
 such as Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham. It is clear 
 that they are destined to be Universities of what is called the 
 modern type, — that is, predominantly scientific, and devoting 
 special attention to the needs of practical life, professional, 
 industrial, and commercial. But I may say at once that, in my 
 opinion, there is no fear that these new modern Universities 
 Avill not aim at a high standard of libei'al education, whatever 
 the subjects of it may be. Those who dcjubt this hardly realise 
 (I believe) how much English thought at the great centres of 
 popidation has been moving in the last few 3'ears. Only a few 
 years ago, no doubt, there was a decided prejudice among many 
 men of business and employers of labour against a University 
 training, as they understood it. But the cruder form of utilita- 
 rianism in this matter has latel}' been dying out, — thanks 
 largely to certain object-lessons furnished by Germany. One 
 of the best-known of these, which 1 merely mention in passing, 
 is the case of the aniline dyes. These colours were first 
 discovered in England, and produced from English coal-tar. 
 British dj^ers are still the largest consumers ; but the processes 
 for producing the colours have been so developed in the labora- 
 tories of Berlin that the industry has passed almost wholly 
 from England to Germany. There are other like cases. Not 
 long ago, at a meeting in London, I heard a speech by one 
 of the highest authorities on technical education, Professor 
 Ewing, who while holding the Chair of Applied Mechanics at 
 Cambridge has so greatly developed the work of the Engineer- 
 ing Laboratory there, and who has lately been appointed 
 Director of Naval Education. He urged that, in the interests 
 of the technical industries themselves, the great need was for 
 a training which should be more than technical, — which should 
 be really scientific, giving a grasp of principles, educating the 
 mind, stimulating the imagination, giving men some power of 
 original initiative, and drawing out their inventive faculties. 
 The leading men in the great cities, the merchants and the 
 captains of industry, are probably becoming more and more 
 alive to the fact that a mind which has been disciplined by a 
 liberal training is more efficient for practical affairs and techni- 
 
cal pursuits. We may expect to find such men supporting the 
 effort to maintain a high standard in the new local Universities. 
 To do so is indeed the only way to secure an adequate return 
 for the very large sums which will be spent on equipment. 
 The Council of Birmingham University proposes to spend a 
 quarter of a million on buildings for certain technical branches 
 of study, chiefly Engineering, Mining, and Metallurgy ; and the 
 fittings will cost large additional sums. That is a special 
 development on a scale with which the older Universities 
 cannot compete ; and those who provide these funds will doubt- 
 less take care that the scientific training is the best that can be 
 given. But in all our Universities, old and new, there is now a 
 disposition to enlarge the range of study by including subjects 
 which have some definite bearing on practical life, if, and so far 
 as, they can be made instruments of a really liberal training. 
 I may take two examples from the English University which I 
 know best. At Cambridge it has just been decided to establish 
 a school of honours in Economics. Before this was done, it was 
 carefully discussed whether the subject was, or was not, large 
 enough and educative enough to have such a school all to 
 itself. I will venture to read part of the answer to that ques- 
 tion given by one of the foremost advocates of the proposal. 
 " Economics," said Professor Foxwell, " is intimately related to 
 Ethics, Politics, Law, Histor}-, and even to Philosophy.... Eco- 
 nomics, when adequately treated, must include a reference to 
 almost all the aspects of the citizen's life.... With this width of 
 range, too, it combines more than the usual variety of mental 
 disciplines. Modern economic analysis, which has to deal with 
 very complicated relations of cause and effect, requires a con- 
 siderable grasp of exact methods.... The observation, the judg- 
 ment, the imagination, and the sympathies are all strengthened 
 and trained by the various forms of economic inquiry; and 
 from the educational point of view, at least, the study cannot 
 fairly be called narrow." There, then, is a subject well-suited 
 for study at the great centres of commerce and industry. I 
 will take one other example from a different field. Honours at 
 Cambridge will henceforth be obtainable by three years' study 
 of the Chinese language, coupled with some knowledge of the 
 
general history of the Far East. That, again, is an instance in 
 which a legitimate subject of the highest study has also a 
 practical bearing, in view of the international situation with 
 regard to the trade of China. A thorough study of the Modern 
 Languages of Europe is another subject which ought to flourish 
 in the new City Universities. We ma}- well augur for them a 
 prosperous and most useful career. There are, however, two 
 dangers to which it seems possible that they may be exposed. 
 One is this : that, where the course for a Universit}' degree 
 combines some branches of science with certain technical 
 studies, the pressure of local demands may be exerted in favour 
 of laying the chief stress on the technical attainments, and 
 relaxing the requirements in regard to science. But it is 
 reasonable to suppose that if in such a case the University 
 authorities stand firm, they will be supported by the best local 
 opinion. The Birmingham school of brewing seems to be a 
 good example of the manner in which an academic course of 
 this composite nature, partly scientific and partly technical, can 
 be planned. The student is to spend two years on Physics, 
 Chemistry, Biology and kindred subjects before he goes on to 
 his two years of technical work in the brewing department. 
 He is to study the testing of material, and all the processes 
 involved, from a strictly scientific point of view. It is not 
 likely that, in such a school, the scientific training, which is its 
 very essence, would ever be unduly subordinated to the tech- 
 nical. There may be other instances in which such a danger 
 would be greater: but, if so, we may hope that it will be 
 avoided. The other danger of which I was thinking is that the 
 scientific side of education in the new City Universities may 
 sometimes too decidedly overpower the literary side. The 
 experience of University Extension has shown that it is not 
 always easy to preserve a just balance. The cause of this is 
 not so much any want of literary interest among the abler 
 students, but rather the pressure of time and practical needs. 
 All the newer Universities have, or will have, first-rate teachers 
 of literary subjects. There will be no lack of zeal, as a rule, 
 among the students, — of that we may be sure ; but it is to be 
 feared that the main current of things will be rather adverse. 
 
9 
 
 Yet it is of vital moment for all our higher education that the 
 literary studies should hold their own. 
 
 Hitherto I have been referring to the Universities in cities 
 of the first rank, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. 
 But an essentially different question arises when we come to 
 towns which, though very large, — with populations of 200,000 
 or more, — -are not in the same class with those just mentioned. 
 If things go on as they are going at present, more than one 
 such town will soon insist on having a University of its own. 
 It will be a town which has a University College, strong, prob- 
 ably, in certain scientific and technical subjects, but weak, 
 possibly, in some other subjects which nevertheless are indis- 
 pensable for a University. The local wealth may be relied upon 
 to support the highest study of an}- subjects which bear on the 
 local industries, but will be comparatively apathetic towards 
 others which the local man regards as ornamental. What is 
 the State to do in such a case ? Is it to grant the charter for 
 a University, and hope for the best ? Or is it to refuse, at the 
 risk of damping local generosity towards studies which are 
 valuable in themselves ? It is a case of this nature which 
 justifies some real anxiety as to the new tendency towards 
 multiplying Universities. Now there is at least one con- 
 sideration which may, I think, be suggested as helping to 
 indicate a line between the cases in which a charter should, 
 and should not, be granted. It would be generally allowed 
 that a Faculty of Arts is one essential element of a University. 
 Would it not be fair and wise to say that, before a charter 
 is given for a new University, evidence should be forthcoming 
 to show that such a University could provide a reasonably 
 strong Faculty of Arts, in addition to its provision for the 
 teaching of scientific and technical subjects ? If this condition 
 were not satisfied, the new degree-giving institution would be 
 in fact only a College of Science, or a Technical College, and 
 not in any proper sense a University. In such cases, the true 
 solution would be found, I believe, by taking a hint from 
 Germany. In Germany, as we know, the results of the highest 
 education are systematically brought to bear on all the greater 
 industries of the country. But this highest education is not 
 
10 
 
 given only in completely equipped Universities, which confer 
 degrees. It is largely given in the institutions known as 
 Technical High Schools, to which we have nothing properly 
 corresponding. In these Technical High Schools teaching of a 
 University type is given by Professors of University rank in 
 such subjects as Architecture, various branches of Engineering, 
 Chemistry, and General Technical Science. There are now, 
 I think, some ten or eleven of these institutions in Germany. 
 At the great Technical High School of Berlin every new inven- 
 tion of an}^ importance is promptly made the subject of practical 
 study. There is more than one, perhaps, of our large towns of 
 the second rank which would be an admirable seat for a 
 Technical High School of this elevated order ; whereas the 
 same town, if it insisted on having a University, might find it 
 an arduous and uncongenial task to equip a Faculty of Arts. 
 The multiplication of Universities need not, in itself, cause 
 uneasiness, provided that each new University is thoroughly 
 well equipped, is a true University, and is really needed for the 
 service of an adequately large population. If these conditions 
 are fulfilled, there is an evident gain in additions to the number 
 of centres from which the highest education is vigorously and 
 efficiently propagated. The real disaster would be if we came 
 to have one or more distinctly weak Universities, — institutions 
 which could perform only some small part or parts of the func- 
 tion which that name implies. The mischief would be that 
 such a body, having the power to give degrees, would tend to 
 depreciate the value of that guarantee. This would be one of 
 the gravest educational evils that could befall the country ; it 
 is one from which we have hitherto been exempt. 
 
 Will you permit me now to say a very few words on another 
 matter which is suggested by the new developments, — namely 
 the influence of students upon each other, considered as an 
 element in University education ? In the case of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, this is a distinctive feature, — perhaps one might 
 almost say, the capital distinction. Residence for three or four 
 years amidst the influences of the University and the Colleges 
 leaves an impress on the mind and character which is never 
 effaced. There are many men who, in looking back, would 
 
11 
 
 say that no other part of their education had gone deeper 
 than this ; and they could say so without any disparagement 
 of their debt to wise guides and eminent teachers, without 
 insensibility to the formative power of their Alma Mater, 
 without ingratitude for the various lessons which she had 
 inculcated. Of course, the value of these youthful associa- 
 tions must depend in some measure on a man's choice of 
 companions and on the qualities of the set in which he lives 
 at the University. But to those who are fortunate in such 
 respects the benefits are altogether inestimable: they cannot 
 be analysed or measured. In a retrospect of those days, many 
 a man will reflect with thankfulness on all else that was done 
 for him there, but the inmost places of his memory, its sedes 
 secretae piorum, will be peopled by recollections of hours passed 
 in that intimate society of contemporaries, in walks and talks 
 lit up by an interchange of thought and feeling, by confidences, 
 b}' discussions, by the avowal of dawning aspirations, by the 
 asking and giving of counsel such as are possible only in a 
 concurrence of five conditions which can never meet again, — 
 namely, youth, — intellectual interest in its first freshness, — 
 close ties of friendship, — leisure, — and such a genius loci as 
 haunts those ancient homes of study and of peace. Everyone 
 who appreciates the immense value of this element at the 
 older Universities must be anxious for its presence in the 
 newer seats of learning. You have that element, I doubt 
 not, at Bangor. Your College shares with at least one of its 
 sisters the twofold advantage of seclusion from turmoil and 
 of surroundings at once beautiful and invigorating. All this 
 is propitious to the social side of academic life. In the new 
 Universities of the great cities the intercourse of students will 
 be attended by greater difficulties, because many or most of 
 them wall have less leisure, and their residences will be spread 
 over a wide area. Clubs, similar to the Unions at Oxford 
 and Cambridge, will doubtless be created where they do not 
 already exist. The value of such students' clubs in great 
 cities consists very much in the increase of opportunities for 
 friendship. We may be sure that the administrators of the 
 
12 
 
 new Universities will further such objects, and will be fully 
 alive to their educational significance. 
 
 The new local authorities for education will have to see 
 that, so far as possible, the several grades of training shall 
 be continuous, and that, for promising pupils, there shall be 
 access from the lower to the higher. It was the good fortune 
 of Wales that her system of Secondary schools had been organ- 
 ised, under the Intermediate Education Act of 1889, before 
 her University entered upon its active career. That was an 
 initial advantage for the University. In England the present 
 situation is somewhat different. Secondary education has not 
 yet been fully organised ; to effect that is the duty of the new 
 authorities : and at the same time new seats of University 
 education are coming into existence, with which the Secondary 
 schools of each area, or many of them, will have to be brought 
 into touch by the action of those same local authorities. Thus 
 the work which lies before the Education Committees, espe- 
 cially in the great cities, is very large and complex. At such 
 a time it is well to know as clearly as may be what we 
 understand by " University Education." Does it mean merely 
 the highest grade of teaching, — higher, that is, than such as is 
 given by the most advanced Secondary schools of the country ? 
 Or does the phrase connote certain qualities of the education, 
 over and above the fact that it is of the highest grade ? The 
 word Univer situs, as you are aware, was a general term for 
 a corporation or guild : then it was specially applied to a body 
 of students, voluntarily associated in the pursuit of knowledge, 
 who, by becoming a corporation, acquired certain immunities 
 and privileges which, in medieval times, were advantageous or 
 necessary for their security. Such a TJniversitas of students has 
 always had two features ; first, that several different branches 
 of higher study have been represented in it ; secondly, that 
 the members have received oral instruction from appointed 
 teachers. From these two features the distinctive character 
 of University education has been developed. It matters not 
 where a University is seated, or in what subjects its special 
 strength may reside ; if it is adequately equipped and organ- 
 
13 
 
 ised, — if it is doing the proper work of a University, — it will 
 tend to produce certain effects : I say, " will tend," because, like 
 other human institutions, Universities have their proportion of 
 failures. What are those effects ? Well, it is not difficult to 
 indicate some, at least, of them. University teaching aims at 
 a general discipline of the mind, besides giving a grasp of at 
 least one special branch of knowledge. Hence it tends to 
 instil an intelligent respect for all studies ; it helps students 
 of science, for instance, and students of letters to under- 
 stand each others' aims. The spirit of University teaching 
 is tolerant and sympathetic : the specialist acquires some sense 
 of the manifold relations in which his own subject stands to 
 others ; he is led to perceive the largeness of knowledge and of 
 life. Again, the University is equalising: external advantages 
 confer no privilege : the absence of them is no reproach. It 
 is also chastening ; for it exacts from the student that he 
 shall think out things for himself: the true teacher is no 
 " crammer ; " he gives materials, opportunities, and impulse. 
 This impulse is given, not as a book may give it, but by 
 personal contact, by the living voice, through which facts and 
 thoughts are presented with a new force. The best University 
 teaching is not in bondage to the letter, but is spiritual and 
 suggestive : it tends to nourish and sustain ideals. Let the 
 dwellers and workers in great cities, especially, remember this : 
 in all studies the University seeks to impart some glimpse of 
 the ideal : and, as has well been said, '' the vision of the ideal 
 guards monotony of work from becoming monotony of life." 
 Mr Gladstone expressed this truth in another way when, in 
 a striking address at Oxford, he described the University as 
 seeking " to secure that the man shall ever be greater than 
 his work, and never bounded by it, but that his eye shall boldly 
 run (in the language of Wordsworth) 
 
 'Along the line of limitless desires.'" 
 
 If these are some of the things which a University seeks to 
 do, then it may be said that there never was a time when 
 true University education was more needful than it is in our 
 day and in our country. High specialisation in every field of 
 
14 
 
 knowledge and of work tends to limit the horizon of thorough 
 study : on the other hand, the hurry of the age, the crowd 
 of subjects brought under notice by the press, the social 
 demand for acquaintance with the topics of the hour, en- 
 courage reading of a miscellaneous and very superficial kind. 
 Both these tendencies are adverse to breadth and sobriety of 
 judgment. Then it is a trait of the time to measure success 
 by material standards, and to brush aside, as weak and un- 
 businesslike, any suspicion that an engrossing pursuit of such 
 success may involve the loss of things better than the prize. 
 So far as the true spirit of University education can make itself 
 felt, it is a corrective of such tendencies. 
 
 The insistent demand, from large sections of the public, for 
 immediate utility in our highest education can be met, more 
 or less, by many subjects which have now been brought within 
 tiie academic purview. There are, however, other subjects of 
 which the utility is not in the same sense direct, but consists 
 in their value as a discipline, intellectual and moral. Among 
 these are the works of the ancient Greek genius, with all their 
 claims on the student of thought, of political society, of litera- 
 ture, and of art ; the Roman evolution of institutions and of 
 law ; the studies of modern history and philoso})hy. These 
 can impart humanity and breadth, train the moral judgment, 
 sharpen the critical faculty, refine the appreciation of literary 
 form, educate a sense of measure, enrich the imagination, 023en 
 that perspective of knowledge without which there is apt to 
 be a narrowing of the mental vision, render all life more sug- 
 gestive and more significant. No University is complete, no 
 University fulfils the true idea of such an institution, which 
 does not keep an honoured place for such studies as these. 
 When it is said that there is no time for them now-a-days, 
 the question arises, — what, even from a strictly practical point 
 of view, is the best educational investment of time ? As to 
 the study of Greek, which figurefs so much in the foreground 
 of the controversy, one remark may be made in passing. The 
 experience of women who have been distinguished in that 
 subject goes far to show that the study of Greek might be 
 begun at a somewhat later age than has been usual in schools, 
 
15 
 
 without risk of inferior results. And one other thing may be 
 said, which applies to the school-study of the classics generally. 
 Every effort should be made to awaken the pupil's literary 
 interest from the outset, even at the cost of postponing the 
 closer study of grammar. Many young people would quickly 
 feel the charm and stimulating freshness of the great litera- 
 ture, who now arc apt to lose heart in the vestibule of accidence 
 and syntax. 
 
 But whatever may be done in this or other particulars, we 
 must hope that nothing will be allowed to lower or to obscure 
 in this country the true ideal of a University training. Let 
 every duo regard be paid to the rc(|uirements of active life 
 at the present day. But let it also be remembered that there 
 is a national need even more urgent than the preparation of 
 special aptitudes. It is the need for a wider diffusion of 
 such a liberal education as shall train the intelligence, give 
 elasticity to the faculties of the mind, humanise the character, 
 and form, not merely an expert, but an efficient man. 
 
 Cambridge : Printed at the University Press. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 022 109 397 5