U^^IVERSITIES : ACTUAL AJSTD IDEAL. 49 



Enthusiasts for the antiquity of one of the two acknowledged j^ar- 

 ents of all universities, indeed, do not hesitate to trace the origin of 

 the " Studium Parisiense " up to that wonderful King of the Franks 

 and Lombards, Karl, surnamed the Great, whom we all called Charle- 

 magne, and believed to be a Frenchman, until a learned historian, by 

 beneficent iteration, taught us better. Karl is said not to have been 

 much of a scholar himself, but he had the wisdom of which knowledge 

 is only the servitor. And that wisdom enabled him to see that igno- 

 rance is one of the roots of all evil. 



In the " Capitulary " which enjoins the foundation of monasterial 

 and cathedral schools, he says : " Right action is better than knowl- 

 edge : but in order to do what is right we must know what is right." ' 

 An irrefragable truth, I fancy. Acting upon it, the king took pretty 

 full compulsory powers, and carried into effect a really considerable 

 and effectual scheme of elementary education through the length and 

 breadth of his dominions. 



No doubt, the idolators out by the Elbe, in what is now part of 

 Prussia, objected to the Prankish king's measures ; no doubt, the 

 priests, who had never hesitated about sacrificing all unbelievers in 

 their fantastic deities and futile conjurations, were the loudest in 

 chanting the -virtues of toleration ; no doubt, they denounced as a 

 cruel persecutor the man who would not allow them, however sincere 

 they might be, to go on spreading delusions which debased the intel- 

 lect, as much as they deadened the moral sense and undermined the 

 bonds of civil allegiance ; no doubt, if they had lived in these times, 

 they would have been able to show, with ease, that the king's pro- 

 ceedings were totally contrary to the best liberal principles. But 

 it may be said, in justification of the Teutonic ruler, first, that he 

 was born before those principles, and did not suspect that the best 

 way of getting disorder into order was to let it alone ; and, secondly, 

 that his rough and questionable proceedings did, more or less, bring 

 about the end he had in view. For, in a couple of centuries, the 

 schools he sowed broadcast produced their crop of men thirsting for 

 knowledge and craving for culture. Such men, gravitating toward 

 Paris, as a light amid the darkness of evil days, from Germany, from 

 Spain, from Britain, and from Scandinavia, came together by natural 

 afiinity. By degrees they banded themselves into a society, which, 

 as its end was the knowledge of all things knowable, called itself a 

 " Studium Generale ; " and, when it had grown into a recognized cor- 

 poration, acquired the name of " JJniversitas Studii Generalis / " 

 which, mark you, means not a " Useful Knowledge Society," but a 

 " Knowledge-of-things-in-general Society." 



^ " Quamvis enim melius sit bene facere quam nosse, prius tamen est nosse quam , 

 facere." — " Karoli Magni Regis Constitutio de Scholis per singula Episcopia et Monas-- 

 teria instituendis," addressed to the Abbot of Fulda. Baluzius, "Capitularia Regurri, 

 Franeorum," tomus i., p. 202. 

 VOL. V. — 4 



