AN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY 



15 



matter of intimate experience. They differ widely from their sister 

 institutions in other coimtries, and in attempting to give some con- 

 ception of their peculiarities the writer proposes to restrict himself 

 •chiefly to Cambridge, because there are not very many striking dif- 

 ferences between the latter 

 and Oxford, and because 

 the scientific supremacy of 

 •Cambridge is sufficiently es- 

 tablished to render her an 

 ■object of greater intei-est to 

 the readers of the Science 

 Monthly. 



First of all, it must be 

 borne in mind that through- 

 out most of their history 

 these institutions have been 

 closely related, not to the 

 body of the people, but to 

 the aristocracy. This was 

 not so much the case at first, 

 before the university be- 

 came an aggregate of col- 

 leges. Then a rather poor 

 and humble class were en- 

 abled, through the small ex- rp, „. w „ r . ^r » tt t^ 



' , " , Tlie Eiglit Hon. Lord Actox, M. A., LL. D., 



pense involved, to acquire Trinity. Professor of Modern History. 



the rudiments of an educa- 

 tion, and even to become proficient in the scholastic dialectic. 

 But ere long, and with the gradual endowment of different col- 

 Iges, the expenses of a student became much greater, and, save 

 where scholarships could be obtained, it required some affluence 

 before parents could afford to give their sons an academic training. 

 Hence, the more fortunate or aristocratic classes came in time 

 to contribute the large majority of the student body. Those whose 

 intellectual attainments were so unusual as to constitute ways and 

 means have never been debarred, but impecunious mediocrity had 

 and still has little place or opportunity. It is well to remember, 

 in addition, that the Church fostered these universities in their 

 infancy, that it deserves unqualified credit for having nursed them 

 through their early months, and that it continues to have some con- 

 siderable influence over the modern institutions. Finally, the 

 growth of Cambridge and Oxford has largely been occasioned by 

 lack of rivals in their own class. In this branch or that, other 

 institutions have become deservedly famous. Edinburgh has a 



