Tin UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL 201 



strict subordination to the University hj their 

 founders; but, in many cases, their endowment, 

 consisting of land, has undergone an " unearned 

 increment," which has given these societies a con- 

 tinually increasing weight and importance as 

 against the unendowed, or fixedly endowed. Uni- 

 versity. In Pharaoh's dream, the seven lean kine 

 eat up the seven fat ones. In the reality of his- 

 torical fact, the fat Colleges have eaten up the 

 lean Universities. 



Even here in Aberdeen, though the causes at 

 work may have been somewhat difi^erent, the ef- 

 fects have been similar; and you see how much 

 more substantial an entity is the Very Eeverend 

 the Principal, analogue, if not homologue, of the 

 Principals of King's College, than the Rector, 

 lineal representative of the ancient monarchs of 

 the University, though now, little more than a 

 " king of shreds and patches." 



Do not suppose that, in thus briefly tracing the 

 process of University metamorphosis, I have had 

 any intention of quarrelling with its results. 

 Practically, it seems to me that the broad changes 

 effected in 1858 have given the Scottish Univer- 

 sities a very liberal constitution, with as much real 

 approximation to the primitive state of things as 

 is at all desirable. If vour fat kine have eaten 

 the lean, they have not lain down to chew the cud 

 ever since. The Scottish Universities, like the 

 English, have diverged widely enough from their 



