REMARKS BY PROFESSOR SODDY 225 



the wonderful discoveries that threaten to revolutionise 

 human conceptions." 



" The older branches of learning in our Universities 

 may well welcome the newer branch, cap in hand, not only 

 as the foundation of material progress, but also as one of 

 the very highest agencies in the imaginative domain." 



" This mighty force of our day science has hitherto 

 been the Cinderella of the sisterhood of knowledge, but 

 the Prince has appeared at last and taken her by the 

 hand. It is now the turn of the elder sisters to greet the 

 once neglected princess. She will more than justify the 

 millions that are being showered upon her in most 

 progressive lands. Thus has the University developed 

 to the present all-embracing type through the successive 

 reigns of scholasticism, theology, and ancient classics, 

 always behind the age, conservative in the highest degree. 

 Science has arisen and established her claim to equality. 

 We have long had the Republic of Letters ; we now hail 

 the Republic of Knowledge." 



These quotations do not appear to admit of much 

 doubt as to what the founder's own view of the purpose of 

 his benefaction was. They are refreshingly clear and 

 frank, with a point capable even of penetrating the admit- 

 nothing, dispute-everything defence which the advocate 

 unable to face facts invariably puts up. It is an especially 

 curious commentary on the cry that it is now the turn of 

 Arts, heard at the last quinquennial distribution, and which, 

 in the University of Aberdeen, has been the interpretation 

 of the gift from the beginning, that what Mr Carnegie 

 actually said was : " It is now the turn of the elder sisters 

 to greet the once neglected princess." 



If the legal instrument, which Mr Carnegie signed to 

 give effect to his intentions, were being administered by 

 a body of men of like mind to himself, in a broad and 

 sympathetic spirit, without any desire to strain it beyond 

 its natural interpretation and twist it to serve ends not 

 intended, legal questions as to its exact meaning could 

 scarcely arise. 



But if, unfortunately, at any time that should not be 



