50 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



And thus the first " university," at any rate on this side of the 

 Alps, came into being. Originally it had but one faculty, that of arts. 

 Its aim was, to be a centre of knowledge and culture, not to be, in any 

 sense, a technical school. 



The scholars seemed to have studied grammar, logic, and rhetoric ; 

 arithmetic and geometry; astronomy; theology; and music. Thus, 

 their work, however imperfect and faulty, judged by modern lights, it 

 may have been, brought them face to face with all the leading aspects 

 of the many-sided mind of man. For these studies did really contain, 

 at any rate, in embryo — sometimes, it may be, in caricature — what 

 we now call philosophy, mathematical and physical science, and art. 

 And I doubt if the curriculum of any modern university shows so clear 

 and generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture as this old 

 trivium and quadrivium does. 



The students who had passed through the university course, and 

 had proved themselves competent to teach, became masters and teach- 

 ers of their younger brethren. Whence the distinction of masters and 

 regents, on the one hand, and scholars, on the other. 



Rapid growth necessitated organization. The masters and scholars, 

 of various tongues and countries, grouped themselves into four na- 

 tions ; and the nations, by their own votes at first, and subsequently 

 by those of their procurators, or representatives, elected their supreme 

 head and governor, the rector — at that time the sole representative of 

 the university, and a very real power, who could defy provosts inter- 

 fering from without, or pould infiict even corporal punishment on dis- 

 obedient members within the university. 



Such was the primitive constitution of the University of Paris. 

 It is in reference to this original state of things, that I have spoken of 

 the rectorate, and all that appertains to it, as the sole relic of that 

 constitution. 



But this original organization did not last long. Society was not 

 then, any more than it is now, patient of culture, as such. It says to 

 every thing, *' Be useful to me, or away with you." And, to the 

 learned, the unlearned man said then, as he does now : "What is the 

 use of all your learning, unless you can tell me what I want to know ? 

 I am here blindly groping about, and constantly damaging myself by 

 collision with three mighty powers : the power of the invisible God, 

 the power of my fellow-man, and the power of brute Nature. Let 

 your learning be turned to the study of these powers, that I may know 

 how I am to comport myself with regard to them." In answer to this 

 demand, some of the masters of the faculty of arts devoted themselves 

 to the study of theology, some to that of law, and some to that of 

 medicine ; and they became doctors — men learned in those technical, 

 or, as we now call them, professional branches of knowledge. Like 

 cleaving to like, the doctors formed schools, or faculties, of theology, 

 law, and medicine, which sometimes assumed airs of superiority over 



