IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 237 



respectful consideration. I have been endeavour- 

 ing to ascertain how far the principles which 

 underlie it are in accordance with those which 

 have been established in my own mind by much 

 and long-continued thought upon educational 

 questions. Permit me to place before you the 

 result of my reflections. 



Under one aspect a university is a particular 

 kind of educational institution, and the views 

 which we may take of the proper nature of a 

 university are corollaries from those which we 

 hold respecting education in general. I think it 

 must be admitted that the school should prepare 

 for the university, and that the university should 

 crown the -edifice, the foundations of which are 

 laid in the school. University education should 

 not be something distinct from elementary edu- 

 cation, but should be the natural outgrowth and 

 development of the latter. Now I have a very 

 clear conviction as to what elementary education 

 ought to be ; what it really may be, when properly 

 organised ; and what I think it will be, before 

 many years have passed over our heads, in Eng- 

 land and in America. Such education should 

 enable an average boy of fifteen or sixteen to 

 read and write his own language with ease and 

 accuracy, and with a sense of literary excellence 

 derived from the study of our classic writers : 

 to have a general acquaintance with the history 

 of his own country and with the great laws of 



