208 UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL viii 



On the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask 

 whether it is more important to know the limits of 

 one's powers; or the ends for which they ought to 

 be exerted; or tlie conditions under which they 

 must be exerted. One may as well inquire which 

 of the terms of a Kule of Three sum one ought to 

 know, in order to get a trustworthy result. Prac- 

 tical life is such a sum, in which your duty multi- 

 plies into your capacity, and divided by your cir- 

 cumstances, gives you the fourth term in the pro- 

 portion, which is your deserts, with great accuracy. 

 All agree, I take it, that men ought to have these 

 three kinds of knowledge. The so-called " con- 

 flict of studies '' turns upon the question of how 

 they may be best obtained. 



The founders of Universities held the theory 

 that the Scriptures and Aristotle taken together, 

 the latter being limited by the former, contained 

 all knowledge worth having, and that the business 

 of philosoi)hy was to interpret and co-ordinate 

 these two. I imagine that in the twelfth century 

 this was a very fair conclusion from known facts. 

 Xowhere in the world, in those days, was there 

 such an encyclopaedia of knowledge of all three 

 classes, as is to be found in those writings. The 

 scholastic philosophy is a wonderful monument of 

 the patience and ingenuity with which the human 

 mind toiled to build up a logically consistent 

 theory of the Universe, out of such materials. 

 And that philosophy is by no means dead and 



