POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. 



647 



parently of great promise for scientific study, 

 but which has hitherto not effected much ; 

 that is the institution of Fellowships. Those 

 who have passed the best examinations are 

 elected as Fellows of their college, whero 

 they have a home, and along with this, a re- 

 spectable income, so that they can devote 

 the whole of their leisure to scientific pur- 

 suits. Both Oxford and Cambridge have 

 each more than 500 such fellowships. The 

 Fellows may, but need not act as tutors for 

 the students. They need not even live ia 

 the university town, but may spend their 

 stipends where they like, and ia many cases 

 may retain the fellowships for aa indefinite 

 period. With some exceptions, they only 

 lose it in case they marry, or aro elected to 

 certain offices. They are tho real successors 

 of the old corporation of students, by and 

 for which the university was founded and 

 endowed. But however beautiful this plan 

 may seem, and notwithstanding tho enormous 

 sums devoted to it, in the opinion of all 

 unprejudiced Englishmen it does but little 

 for science ; manifestly because most of 

 these young men, although they are the pick 

 of the students, and in the most favorable 

 conditions possible for scientific work, have 

 in their student-career not come sufficiently 

 in contact with the living spirit of inquiry, 

 to work on afterward on their own account, 

 and with their own enthusiasm. 



In certain respects the English universities 

 do a great deal. They bring up their stu- 

 dents as cultivated men, who are expected 

 not to break through the restrictions of their 

 political and ecclesiastical party, and, in 

 fact, do not thus break through. In two re- 

 spects we might well endeavor to imitate 

 them. In the first place, together with a 

 lively feeling for tha beauty and youthful 

 freshness of antiquity, they develop in a high 

 degree a sense for delicacy and precision ia 

 writing which shows itself in the way in 

 which they handle their mother-tongue. I 

 fear that one of the weakest sides in the in- 

 struction of German youth is in this direc- 

 tion, la the second place the English uni- 

 versities, like their schools, take greater care 

 of the bodily health of their students. They 

 live and work in airy, spacious buildings, 

 surrounded by lawns and groves of trees ; they 

 tind much of their pleasure in games which 

 excite a passionate rivalry in the develop- 

 ment of bodily energy and skill, and which 

 in this respect are far more efficacious than 

 onr gymnastic and fencing exercises. It 

 must not be forgotten that, the more young 

 men are cut off from fresh air and from the 

 opportunity of vigorous exercise, the more 

 induced will they be to seek an apparent re- 

 freshment in the misuse of tobacco and of 

 intoxicating drinks. It must also be admit- 

 ted that the English universities accustom 

 their students to energetic and accurate 

 work, and keep them up to the habits of ed- 

 ucated society. The moral effect of the more 

 rigorous control is said to bo rather illusory. 



The Scotch universities and some smaller 

 English foundations of more recent origin 



University College and King's College in 

 London, and Owens College in Manchester 

 are constituted more on the German and 

 Dutch model. 



The development of French universities 

 has been quite different, and indeed almost 

 in the opposite direction. In accordance 

 with the tendency of the French to throw 

 overboard everything of historic develop- 

 ment to suit some rationalistic theory, their 

 faculties have logically become purely insti- 

 tutes for instruction special schools, with' 

 definite regulations for the course of instruc- 

 tion, developed and quite distinct from those 

 institutions which are to further the progress 

 of science, such as the College de France, the 

 Jardin des Plantes, and the Ecole des Etudes 

 Superieures. The faculties are entirely sep- 

 arated from one another, even when they are 

 in the same town. The course of study ia 

 definitely prescribed, and is controlled by 

 frequent examinations. French teaching is 

 confined to that which is clearly established, 

 and transmits this in a well arranged, well- 

 worked-out manner, which is easily intelli- 

 gible, and does not excite doubt nor the 

 necessity for deeper inquiry. The teacher? 

 need only possess good receptive talents. 

 Thus in France it is looked upon as a false 

 step when a young man of promising talent 

 takes a professorship in a faculty in the prov- 

 inces. The method of instruction in Fiance 

 is well adapted to give pupils, of even mod- 

 erate capacity, sufficient knowledge ior the 

 routine of their calling. They have no 

 choice between different teachers, and they 

 swear in verba inayistri ; this gives a happy 

 self-satisfaction and freedom from doubts. 

 If the teacher has been "well chosen, this is 

 sufficient in ordinary cases, ia which the 

 pupil does what ho has seen his tc-acher do. 

 It is only unusual cases that test how much 

 actual insight and judgment the pupil has 

 acquired. Tho French people are moreover 

 gifted, vivacious, and ambitious, and this 

 corrects many defects la their system of 

 teaching. 



A special feature in tho organization of 

 French universities consists in the fact that 

 the position of the teacher is quite indepen- 

 dent of tho favor of his hearers ; the pupila 

 who belong to his faculty are generally com- 

 pelled to attend his lectures, and the far 

 from inconsiderable fees which they pay flow 

 into the chest of tho Minister of Education ; 

 the regular salaries of the university profess- 

 ors are defrayed from this source ; the state 

 gives but an insignificant contribution toward 

 the maintenance of the university. When, 

 therefore, the teacher has no real pleasure in 

 teaching, or is not ambitions of having a 

 number of pupils, he very sooa becomes in- , 

 different to the success of his teaching, and 

 is inclined to take things easily. 



Outside the lecture-rooms, tho French 

 students live without control, find associate 

 with young rncn of other callings, without 

 any special e.spri/ de corp.v or common feeling. 

 Tho development of the German universities 

 differs characteristically from these two ex- 



