288 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



original system. We are unable to sympathize 

 with the radical spirit which would make a bon- 

 fire of all churches because the Pentateuch does 

 not teach geology, or which would upset an in- 

 digenous and time-honoured government because 

 certain social evils co-exist with it. And we can- 

 not but think that an attempt to revolutionize our 

 university, by assimilating it to sister institutions 

 in England or Germany, would be productive of 

 at least as much harm as good. If, for instance, 

 in the hope of obtaining a perfect university, we 

 were to abolish our dormitories, obliterate the dis- 

 tinction between classes, abandon the entire sys- 

 tem of marking, and transfer the task of main- 

 taining order from the Parietal Committee to the 

 civil police, we should no doubt be as much dis- 

 appointed as the men of 1789, who attempted to 

 make English institutions grow on French soil, 

 and got a Bonaparte dynasty for their pains. 

 There is a place as well as a time for all things, 

 and a great deal will always have to be conceded 

 to the habit which men have of getting used to 

 old institutions and customs, and of disliking to 

 see them too roughly dealt with. A German uni- 

 versity is little else than an organized aggregate 

 of lecture -rooms, libraries, laboratories, and other 

 facilities for those who desire to study, resem- 



