398 



NATURE 



[Sept. 7, 1876 



reach as have the universities of England'at this conjuncture, if 

 only they have the courage to seize it. With their historic repu- 

 tation, their collegiate endowments, their commanding influence, 

 Oxford and Cambridge should coatinue to be all that they novi' 

 are ; but they should, moreover, attract to their lecture-halls and 

 working cabinets students ia large numbers preparing for the 

 higher industrial pursuits of the country. The great physical 

 laboratory in Cambridge, founded and equipped by the noble 

 representative of the House of Cavendish, has in this respfect a 

 peculiar significance, and is an important step in the direction I 

 have indicated. But a small number only of those for whom 

 this temple of science is designed are now to be found in Cam- 

 bridge. It remains for the University to perform its part, and 

 to widen its portals so that the nation at large may reap the 

 advantage of this well-timed foundation. 



If the Universities, in accordance with the spirit of their 

 statutes, or at least of ancient usage, would demand from the 

 candidates for some of the higher degrees proof of original 

 powers of investigation, they would give an important stimulus 

 to the cultivation of science. The example of many continental 

 universities, and among others of the venerable University of 

 Leyden, may here be mentioned. Two proof essays recently 

 written for the degree of Doctor of Science in Leyden, one by 

 Van der Waals, the other by Lorenz, are works of unusual merit ; 

 and another pupil of Professor Rijke is now engaged in an 

 elaborate experimental research as a qualification for the same 

 degree. 



The endowment of a body of scientific men devoted ex- 

 clusively to original research, without the duty of teaching or 

 other occupation, has of late been strongly advocated in this 

 country ; and M. Fremy has given the weight of his high 

 authority to a somewhat similar proposal for the encouragement 

 of research in France. I will not attempt to discuss the subject 

 as a national question, the more so as after having given the 

 proposal the most careful consideration in my power, and turned 

 it round on every side, I have failed to discover how it could be 

 worked so as to secure the end in view. 



But whatever may be said in favour of the endowment of pure 

 research as a national question, the Universities ought surely 

 never to be asked to give their aid to a measure which would 

 separate the higher intellects of the country from the flower of 

 its youth. It is only through the influence of original minds that 

 any great or enduring impression can be produced on the hopeful 

 student. Without original power, and the habit of exercising it, 

 you may have an able instructor, but you cannot have a great 

 teacher. No man can be expected to train.otbers in habits of 

 observation and thought he has never acquired himself. In every 

 age of the world the great schools of learning have, as in Athens 

 of old, gathered around great and original minds, and never 

 more conspicuously than in the modern schools of chemistry, 

 which reflected the genius of Liebig, Wohler, Bunscn, and 

 Hofmann. These schools have been nurseries of original research 

 as well as models of scientific teaching : and students attracted 

 to them from all countries became enthusiastically devoted to 

 science, while they learned its methods from example even more 

 than from precept. Will any one have the courage to assert 

 that organic chemistry, with its many applications to the uses 

 of mankind, would have made in a few short years the marvellous 

 strides it has done, if Science, now as in mediaeval times, had 

 pursued her work in strict seclusion, 



Semota ab nostris rebus, seiunctaque longe 

 Ipsa luis pollens opibus, nil indiga nostri ? 



But while the Universities ought not to apply their resources 

 in support of a measure which would render their teaching 

 ineffective, and would at the same time dry up the springs of 

 intellectual growth, they ought to admit freely to university 

 positions men of high repute from other universities, and even 

 without academic qualifications. An honorary degree does not 

 necessarily imply a university education ; but if it have any 

 meaning at all, it implies that he who has obtained it is at least 

 on a level with the ordinary graduate, and should be eligible to 

 university positions of the highest trust. 



Not less important would it be for the encouragement of 

 learning throughout the country that the English Universities, 

 reniembering that they were founded for the same objects, and 

 derive their authority from a common source, should be prepared 

 to recognise the ancient Universities of Scotland as freely as they 

 have always recognised the Elizabethan University of Dublia 

 buch a measure would invigorate the whole university system of 

 the country more than any other I can think of. It would lead 



to the strengthening of the literary element in the northern, and 

 of the practical element in the southern Universities, and it would 

 bring the highest teaching of the country everywhere more fully 

 into harmony with the requirements of the times in which we 

 live. As an indirect result, it could not fail to give a powerful 

 impulse to literary pursuits as well as to scientific investigations. 

 Professors would be promoted from smaller positions in one 

 university to higher positions in another, after they had given 

 proofs of industry and ability ; and stagnation, hurtful alike to 

 professorial and professional life, would be effectually prevented. 

 If this union were established among the old Universities, and 

 if at the same time a new University (as I myself ten years ago 

 earnestly proposed) were founded on sound principles amidst 

 the great populations of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the uni- 

 versity system of the country would gradually receive a large 

 and useful extension, and, without losing any of its present 

 valuable characteristics, would become more intimately related 

 than hitherto with those great industries upon which mainly 

 depend the strength and wealth of the nation. 



It may perhaps appear to many a paradoxical assertion to 

 maintain that the industries of the country should look to the 

 calm and serene regions of Oxford and Cambridge for help in 

 the troublous times of which we have now a sharp and severe 

 note of warning. But I liave not spoken on light grounds, nor 

 without due consideration. If Great Britain is to retain the 

 commanding position she has so long occupied in skilled manu- 

 facture, the easy ways which (owing partly to the high qualities 

 of her people, partly to the advantages of her insular position 

 and mineral wealth) have sufficed for the past, will not be found 

 to suffice for the future. The highest training which can be 

 brought to bear on practical science will be imperatively required ; 

 and it will be a fatal policy if that training is to be sought for in 

 foreign lands because it cannot be obtained at home. The 

 country which depends unduly on the stranger for the education 

 of its skilled men, or neglects in its highest places this primary 

 duty, may expect to find the demand for such skill gradually 

 pass away, and along with it the industry for which it was 

 wanted. I do not claim for scientific education more than it will 

 accomplish, nor can it ever replace the after-training of the work- 

 shop or factory. Rare and powerful minds have, it is true, often 

 been independent of it ; but high education always gives an 

 enormous advantage to the country where it prevails. Let no 

 one suppose I am now referring to elementary instruction, and 

 much less to the active work which is going on everywhere around 

 us, in preparing for examinations of all kinds. These things are 

 all very useful in their way ; but it is not by them alone that the 

 practical arts are to be sustained in the country. It is by edu- 

 cation in its highest sense, based on a broad scientific foundation, 

 and leading to the application of science to practical purposes — 

 in itself one of the noblest pursuits of the human mind— that this 

 result is to be reached. That education of this kind can be 

 most effectively given in a university, or in an institution like the 

 Polytechnic School of Zurich, which differs from the scientific 

 side of a university only in name, and to a large extent supple- 

 ments the teaching of an actual university, I am firmly con- 

 vinced ; and for this reason, among others, I have always 

 deemed the establishment in this country of Examining Boards 

 with the power of granting degrees, but with none of the higher 

 and more important functions of a university, to have been a 

 measure of questionable utility. It is to Oxford and Cambridge, 

 widely extended as they can readily be, that the country should 

 chiefly look for the development of practical science ; they have 

 abundant resources for the task ; and if they wish to secure and 

 strengthen their lofty position, they can do it in no way so 

 effectually as by showing that in a green old age they preserve 

 the vigour and elasticity of youth. 



If any are disposed to think that I have been carrying this 

 meeting into dream-land, let them pause and listen to the result 

 of similar efforts to those I have been advocating, undertaken 

 by a neighbouring country when on the verge of ruin, and 

 steadily pursued by the same country in the climax of its pros- 

 perity. " The University of Berlin," to use the words of Hof- 

 mann, " like her sister of Bonn, is a creation of our centuiy. 

 It was founded in the year i8ro, at a period when the pressure 

 of foreign domination weighed almost insupportably on Prussia ; 

 and it will ever remain significant of the direction of the German 

 mind that the great men of that time should have hoped to de- 

 velop, by high intellectual training, the forces necessary for the 

 regeneration of their country." It is not for me, especially in 

 this place, to dwell upon the great strides which Northern Ger- 

 many has made of late years in some of the largest branches of 



