THE ECONOMICS OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 375 



bestow, but as more or less congenial means of earning a 

 livelihood. It is therefore improbable that they will often be 

 undertaken by persons who already possess means adequate to 

 their desires. 



The truth is that, so far from ignoring " great objects," the 

 well-to-do man is attracted to work in which " great objects " 

 form a larger and pecuniary reward a smaller, proportion of 

 the inducement than that which leads to the adoption of one 

 or other of the professions. He does not walk the hospitals, 

 but he often devotes time, energy, and money to hospital manage- 

 ment and finance. He does not administer the laws, but throws 

 himself heart and soul into the task of making them. He does 

 not go on circuit and plead his neighbour's cause, but as a 

 diplomatist or Member of Parliament he devotes himself to the 

 interests of his country. 



In no country in the world is more labour given to the 

 service of the city and the State by those who have little to 

 get in return than in Great Britain. In no country has more 

 of the best of the higher intellectual work been done by 

 amateurs — that is, by persons who were not financially depend- 

 ent on the results of their labours. To take a few examples 

 only: Gibbon, Hallam, and Freeman were all men of inde- 

 pendent means ; Macaulay was not attracted to literature by 

 any " necessity of application," though the decline of the family 

 fortunes afterwards compelled him to earn his living ; Ruskin 

 was the son of wealthy parents ; Boyle, as we know, was the 

 "father of Chemistry and brother to the Earl of Cork"; 

 Cavendish was a man of large fortune ; Joule was a brewer ; 

 Darwin was not constrained to work by financial need ; at the 

 present moment a peer, concensu omnium imperii capax, is the 

 President of the Royal Society. It is at least as true to say 

 that the necessity of earning a living has made many a man, 

 potentially great, mute and inglorious, as that " great objects, 

 alone and unsupported by the necessity of application, have 

 seldom been sufficient to occasion any considerable exertion." 



And between these extremes there are many intermediate 

 stages. Thus, it is fair to say that the "great object" of taking 

 some share in adding to knowledge induces many a man to take 

 a professorial chair at a smaller salary than he believes he 

 could earn by other means. It may, of course, in some cases, 

 be true that research occupies time and attention which should 



