THE ECONOMICS OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 377 



influences of true education. " My son, sir," said a parent 

 to a friend of mine, " is to enter the copper trade. I wish 

 him to learn the chemistry of copper, and not to be delayed by 

 studying oxygen, nitrogen, and other superfluous substances." 

 This remarkable sentiment was uttered many years ago, and 

 was, no doubt, an extreme case ; but it raises the question 

 whether Universities can properly deal with subjects which 

 are studied chiefly from the utilitarian point of view. 



One answer is to be found in Germany, where, in Berlin, 

 the chief Technical High School has been endowed with the 

 power of conferring degrees. Thus, two degree-giving bodies, 

 in effect two Universities, exist side by side, the one devoted 

 chiefly to pure literature and science, the other chiefly to 

 technology. 



The circumstances under which this arrangement has been 

 contrived are so different to those which exist in our own 

 country, that I will not arouse Germanophile susceptibilities 

 by impugning it ; but I should deeply regret if it were to 

 form a precedent here. 



Nothing would be more disastrous than this public division 

 of subjects of study into the useful, and those which the public 

 would immediately class as the useless. Nothing would more 

 easily lead to the belief that public and private generosity should 

 be reserved for the support of bread-winning studies ; that only 

 the future Watts and Stephensons should be encouraged, the 

 Faradays and the Joules ignored. 



Nothing would more tend to destroy that important part 

 of University education which is given, not by the teachers, 

 but by the students themselves. The mingling of lads whose 

 subjects of study and whose aims and objects in life are 

 different, is in itself an education. The young scholar or 

 investigator, absorbed in antiquarian lore or the last scientific 

 problem, would be all the better for rubbing shoulders with 

 the future engineer or miner. His tendency to priggishness 

 would be elbowed out of him. He would learn that some of 

 the greatest ability in the world is devoted to practical objects. 

 The student of technology would be an equally successful and 

 a more cultivated man if he learned in youth to respect those 

 who aimed at successes which they knew would not be re- 

 warded with a shower of gold, but would none the less be 

 worth winning. 



