162 THE UNIVERSITY 



sible to the mind of man as the duty of the university, of complete 

 Lehrfreiheit, is comparatively recent, and not even yet adopted with- 

 out reserve by some of the oldest, richest, and most famous univer- 

 sities of the world. For centuries after the beginning of universities 

 in Europe these institutions regarded as their one duty the handing 

 down of knowledge given to them by earlier ages; for them truth, 

 as Paulsen puts it, " war ein Gegebenes," something " delivered," 

 not something to be found out. " The content of instruction was 

 provided for the medieval university; its task was to hand down the 

 fixed body of learning." To Germany belongs the honor of having, 

 first among nations, seen the inestimable advantage to the nation 

 at large of so identifying the principle of research in all fields with the 

 university that " university teacher " and " investigator," " leader 

 of scientific thought," should become practically synonymousterms, 

 and that the nation should look primarily to its universities and to 

 men trained in them for counsel and guidance. This is, it seems 

 to me, the vital point of the whole matter the impregnation of 

 the students of a university with the same enthusiasm for widening 

 the bounds of human knowledge that is felt by those who guide the 

 university, so that whatever their profession, they may practice it 

 with an eye to this as well as to their personal success. The teacher 

 who succeeds in doing this with a single pupil is in effect a university 

 teacher. Herein is the fundamental difference between the uni- 

 versity of to-day and the university of the olden time. It is to-day 

 expected to turn out trained men and women for the professions, 

 and thus to serve Church and State no less than was the university 

 of old; but above and beyond this, to serve humanity at large by 

 the insistence upon the pursuit of truth for its own sake. If the 

 teachers of our youth feel this enthusiasm within them, it cannot fail 

 to take root in the hearts of their pupils. 



What must the universities do to exert such an influence as 

 widely and deeply as possible in the world, along with the other 

 functions traditionally and properly assigned to them? 



Research alone, uncoupled with training in its methods, is rather 

 the duty of such bodies as the learned " academies " existing in 

 some countries, or of the fortunate individuals who can give their 

 lives to it, than of the universities. This narrower view of research 

 was the one held for generations by the great English universities, 

 when they have held it at all, and until the most recent times " re- 

 search " meant for them chiefly literary, mathematical, and, to 

 certain extent, historical investigation. It is plain also that research, 

 along with such training in methods, cannot be the only functions of 

 even the ideal university. There are the professions to be provided 

 for; the welfare of the community demands the existence of highly 

 trained experts, both as practitioners and as teachers; and to aban- 



