[MURRAY] UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 105 



inference is, that the people, for whom and by whom all political 

 and social institutions exist, have gradually asserted the claim that 

 these educational institutions, which they have instituted and for 

 which they are responsible, shall serve all the people and not a par- 

 ticular class or creed. 



The liberty of the individual to worship as he wills and to learn 

 as he wishes is subject to certain restrictions which the State imposes 

 in the name of the public good. From the individualism of the 

 eighteenth century the movement has been extensive and rapid. 

 It is possible that in the course of time a reaction will set in against 

 the claims of the community or the State to override the wishes and 

 rights of the individual. 



The Church college still exists and performs its functions in- 

 dependent of State aid and control. The Private University, equally 

 independent and possibly equally indifferent to the aid and the 

 control of the state, may serve a select community or group, accord- 

 ing to their wishes; and if those wishes be wiser and better than 

 those of the great mass of the people, its service may be of inestimable 

 value to civilization. 



No attempt has been made to appraise the relative merits of the 

 Church, the Private and the State universities. To trace the historical 

 development is not to determine ultimate worth. Only where long 

 periods of time have provided many and varied tests can history 

 attain to finality in its judgments of truth and value. 



If "through the ages an increasing purpose runs," and if "the 

 best is yet to be," then the tracing of the historical development of a 

 movement or an institution may in some measure be an approach to 

 truth and the ascertainment of value. For this the time is too short 

 and the field too narrow since the founding of the first King's College 

 in Canada in 1789, or the founding of Harvard in 1636. Even Padua, 

 with its seven hundred years, and Europe with its many states and 

 races, may fall short of the length of time, the importance and variety 

 of the conditions required for the attainment of even a moderate 

 degree of certainty in knowledge and finality in judgment. 



