VIII UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL 191 



of his own, but of other countries, which is his 

 honourable characteristic among statesmen. I 

 have already done my best, and, as long as I hold 

 my office, 1 shall continue my endeavours, to fol- 

 low in the path which he trod; to do what in me 

 lies, to bring this University nearer to the ideal — 

 alas, that I should be obliged to say ideal — of all 

 Universities; which, as I conceive, should be places 

 in whicli thought is free from all fetters; and in 

 which all sources of knowledge, and all aids to 

 learning, should be accessible to all comers, with- 

 out distinction of creed or country, riches or 

 poverty. 



Do not suppose, however, that I am sanguine 

 enough to expect much to come of any poor efforts 

 of mine. If your annals take any notice of my 

 incumbency, I shall probably go down to posterity 

 as the Rector who was always beaten. But if they 

 add, as I think they will, that my defeats became 

 victories in the hands of my successors, I shall be 

 well content. 



Tlie scenes are shifting in the great theatre of 

 the world. The act which commenced with the 

 Protestant Reformation is nearly played out, and a 

 wider and deeper change than that effected three 

 centuries ago — a reformation, or rather a revolu- 

 tion of thought, the extremes of which are repre- 

 sented by the intellectual heirs of John of Leyden 

 and of Ignatius Loyola, rather than by those of 



