656 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



reference," of course, " to grammar and language." Balliol, 

 which has long been kindly to the natives of Asia and Africa, 

 has only to stay as it is ; it already exacts, from Europeans, 

 a higher standard of Greek and other things, than that of 

 " Smalls." And if there really are any colleges which cater for 

 the " idle rich," it would be a minimum of change for them to 

 have no " matriculation " at all, like the Delegacy for Unattached 

 Students. 



It is easy to jest on such a topic ; but the proposal only seems 

 new and strange because it is immemorially old. It is in fact 

 mere re-formulation of the pristine status of colleges in relation 

 to the university. The colleges have accepted always, as they 

 accept now, what students they like ; it is only in question now, 

 whether they like the right sort of men. The university welcomes 

 all ; gives the opportunities of learning to all ; and tests the 

 proficiency of all during their course and at its close. All that 

 the university, as such, is concerned to do is to see that its own 

 courses, within themselves, are coherent and efficient ; that its 

 masters are under no inducement or compulsion to lecture down 

 to their audiences but only up to their subject; and that the 

 financial interests of so-called " autonomous " societies are not 

 allowed to debase, as they certainly do debase at present, the 

 standards of attainment, whether in Greek or in Science, by 

 which the university may think right, after reasonable trial, 

 to reject all but " the right sort of men." 



