370 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. ~* 
enjoys, we must look, mentally, not to the present, 
but to a succeeding generation. To expect that 
such changes, as great as they are necessary, should 
take place in the minds of those who have long 
been satisfied with the present state of our learned 
and scientific institutions, would be chimerical. Some 
little advance, indeed, may be hoped for, because a 
few steps have already been taken; but Time, who 
works slowly, but surely, is the best reformer. The 
conviction of truth is rarely, if ever, sudden, while 
violent changes, besides being in opposition to the 
whole analogy of nature, have the acknowledged 
evil of generally destroying that which only required 
renovation. Where popular clamour, also, is vehe- 
mently raised against any particular establishment, 
there is danger that its true friends, by suggesting 
amendments, may be confounded, or at least be 
thought indirectly to co-operate, with its enemies. 
We seek to amplify and adorn with new pinnacles, 
neither to hide, much less to level with the ground, 
the olden towers and spires, the columns and the 
domes of our collegiate and time-honoured structures. 
Nevertheless, we feel, upon so important a subject 
as the present, the impossibility of avoiding all 
allusion to our universities. These institutions have 
long been considered—and in most respects justly 
—the seats of British learning. They are alike 
venerable for their antiquity, the noble feelings 
which led to their foundation, and the bright and 
hallowed names with which they are associated. 
They were founded for the education of those 
higher ranks of the empire whose feelings and 
conduct were to give a tone and an example to 
