IV AND WHERE TO FIND IT 103 



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It is generally acknowledged that both Ox- 

 ford and the country at large suffer greatly from 

 the absence of a body of learned men devoting 

 their lives to the cultivation of science, and to the 

 direction of academical education. 



" The fact that so few books of profound re- 

 search emanate from the University of Oxford, 

 materially impairs its character as a seat of 

 learning, and consequently its hold on the respect 

 of the nation." 



Cambridge can claim no exemption from the 

 reproaches addressed to Oxford. And thus there 

 seems no escape from the admission that what we 

 fondly call our great seats of learning are simply 

 " boarding schools " for bigger boys; that learned 

 men are not more numerous in them than out of 

 them; that the advancement of knowledge is not 

 the object of fellows of colleges; that, in the 

 philosophic calm and meditative stillness of their 

 greenswarded courts, philosophy does not thrive, 

 and meditation bears few fruits. 



It is my great good fortune to reckon amongst 

 my friends resident members of both universities, 

 ^^'ho are men of learning and research, zealous 

 cultivators of science, keeping before their minds 

 a noble ideal of a university, and doing their best 

 to make that ideal a reality; and, to me, they 

 would necessarily typify the universities, did not 

 the authoritative statements I have quoted com- 

 pel me to believe that they are exceptional, and 

 67 



