A STUDY OF BRITISH GENIUS. 6$ 



gities put togetlier. This is doubtless mainly due to the fact that Paris 

 was the unquestioned intellectual center of Europe throughout the 

 long period of the Middle Ages, though the intimate relations between 

 England and France may also have liad their influence. With tlie 

 revival of learning Italian universities became attractive, and Padua 

 long retained its preeminence as a center of medical study. During the 

 seventeenth century the Dutch universities, Leyden and Utrecht, be- 

 gan to attract English students, and continued to do so to some extent 

 throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century. It was not until 

 the nineteenth century that English students sought out the German 

 universities. Douai might perhaps have been included in the list as the 

 chief substitute for university education for the eminent English 

 Catholics who have appeared since the Reformation.* 



While the fact of university education is easily ascertained, it is 

 less easy to define its precise significance. The majority of our men 

 of preeminent intellectual ability have been at a university; but it 

 would be surprising were it otherwise, considering that the majority 

 of these men belong to the class which in ordinary course receives a 

 university education. It would be more to the point if we knew exactly 

 what influence the universities had exerted, but on this our present 

 investigation throws little light. In a considerable number of cases, 

 at least, the university exerted no favorable influence whatever, the 

 eminent man subsequently declaring that the years he spent there were 

 the most unprofitable of his life; this was so even in the case of Gibbon, 

 whose residence at Oxford might have been supposed to be very bene- 

 ficial, for at the age of fourteen he had already been drawn toward the 

 subject of his life-task. In a large number of cases, again, the eminent 

 man left the university without a degree, and in not a few cases he 

 was expelled. It is evident, however, on the whole, that university 

 life has not been unfavorable to the development of intellectual ability, 

 and that while our eminent men do not appear to have been usually 

 subjected to any severe educational discipline, they have been in a good 

 position to enjoy the best educational advantages of their land and time. 



• It may be interesting to compare these results with those obtained by Mr.. 

 Maclean in his study of nineteenth century British men of ability. He found, 

 that among some 3,000 eminent men, 1,132, or 37 per cent., are recorded as having 

 had an English, Scotch or Irish university education. Of these 1,132, 37 per cent, 

 were at Oxford, 33 per cent, at Cambridge, 21 per cent, at Scotch universities, 7 

 per cent, at Dublin, and the small remainder were scattered among various 

 modern institutions. It will be seen that university education plays a com- 

 paratively small part in this group. This may be in part due to the lower 

 standard of eminence, but it may also be due to the wide dissemination of the- 

 sources of knowledge. In no previous century would so encyclopaedic a thinker:- 

 as Herbert Spencer have been able to ignore absolutely the advantages of uni- 

 versity centers. 



VOL. i.ix.— 5 



