in.] A ZIBEXJL EDUCATION. 51 



English universities are not ; that is to say, corporations 

 " of learned men devoting their lives to the cultivation 

 of science, and the direction of academical education." 

 They are not " boarding schools for youths/' nor clerical 

 seminaries ; but institutions for the higher culture of 

 men, in which the theological faculty is of no more 

 importance, or prominence, than the rest; and which 

 are truly "universities," since they strive to represent 

 and embody the totality of human knowledge, and 

 to find room for all forms of intellectual activity. 



May zealous and clear-headed reformers like Mr. 

 Pattison succeed in their noble endeavours to shape 

 our universities towards some such ideal as this, without 

 losing what is valuable and distinctive in their social 

 tone ! But until they have succeeded, a liberal education 

 will be no more obtainable in our Oxford and Cambridge 

 Universities than in our public schools. 



If I am justified in my conception of the ideal of a 

 liberal education ; and if what I have said about the 

 existing educational institutions of the country is also 

 true, it is clear that the two have no sort of relation 

 to one another; that the best of our schools and the 

 most complete of our university trainings give but 

 a narrow, one-sided, and essentially illiberal education — 

 while the worst give what is really next to no education 

 at all. The South London Working-Men's College 

 could not copy any of these institutions if it would. 

 I am bold enough to express the conviction that it 

 ought not if it could. 



For what is wanted is the reality and not the mere 

 name of a liberal education ; and this College must 

 steadily set before itself the ambition to be able to 

 give that education sooner or later. At present we 

 are but beginning, sharpening our educational tools, 



