NA TURE 



637 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, i! 



" OXFORD AND ITS PROFESSORS." 

 A TRENCHANT article in the last number of the 

 Edinburgh Review arraigns and passes judgment 

 on the University of " Oxford and its Professors." The 

 evidence clearly establishes the facts that the lectures 

 of the great majority of the Professors are but poorly 

 attended, and that, in spite of the efforts of two Com- 

 missions, the relations between the University and the 

 Colleges, regarded as allied educational institutions, are 

 not satisfactory. On the causes of this unhappy state of 

 things we do not desire to dwell, but, although agreeing on 

 many points with the author of the article, we must protest 

 strongly against one of the remedies which he suggests. 



" Why," he asks, " should not the Universities recognize 

 the principle of division of labour? , . , Why, for instance, 

 should not Cambridge provide thoroughly for the teaching 

 of natural science ; and Oxford as thoroughly for that of 

 theology ? , . Let the Universities abandon individualism 

 and accept individuality. Let one group of allied subjects 

 be studied in Cxford ; another at Cambridge." 



It is true that the Reviewer thinks that "a University 

 ought to provide a liberal education, competent to form 

 the basis of that technical training which is special to 

 every trade and profession," but he contends that "beyond 

 this general course, the minutely differentiated special 

 studies into which human knowledge is now necessarily 

 distributed must be recognized and ordered." 



We are convinced that an attempt of this sort to confine 

 the special studies of each University to particular lines 

 would do infinite harm. It is not only the students, but 

 the teachers, who are benefited by mingling with others 

 who are their intellectual equals, but whose intellectual 

 activities are put forth in other directions. 



It is easy to say that London is within an hour and a 

 half of Oxford or Cambridge, and that London society 

 will widen views which might otherwise contract, and 

 prune down eccentricities which might become serious 

 defects. It is not, however, true, and it is not likely to 

 become true, that the average teacher in a University has 

 society of this sort open to him in early life. More and 

 more frequently— to their honour be it said— lads who begin 

 in the elementary school fight their way to University dis- 

 tinction. Others who start from a position of greater 

 social advantage move "at home" in circles in which 

 literary or scientific ability is rare, and in which they 

 are much more likely to be spoiled by indiscriminate 

 admiration than restrained by judicious criticism. 



For a large number of young Fellows of Colleges, the 

 High Table and the Common Room furnish, during the 

 most impressionable years of life, the highest intellectual 

 and social society to which they can attain ; and many of 

 those who travel beyond these limits extend the bounds 

 of their acquaintance chiefly among those who are 

 interested in the same special studies as themselves. 



It would therefore work terrible mischief if the gulf 

 between specialists were widened by driving them into 

 different Universities. Oxford, we may be sure, would 

 fight to the death against being converted into a mere 

 school of theology. It is said that one of its Colleges 

 some years ago refused an endowment of many thousands , 

 Vol. XL.— No. 1044. 



which was fettered with the condition that it should 

 benefit only members of a particular Church ; and in this 

 temper the suggestions of the Reviewer would be met. 



Surely no man who wished well either to the Univer- 

 sities, or to religion, or to science, would desire to see 

 future curates relegated in a body to the Isis, and would- 

 be demonstrators to the Cam ; or would mould a Common 

 Room on the pattern of a Clergy House, while a Combina- 

 tion Room was fashioned into a likeness of the Secretarium 

 of the British Association. 



Nor do we adopt this view merely on the ground that 

 it is well that students of other branches of knowledge 

 should be leavened by mingling with those who cultivate 

 science. No critic is so unsparing, so useful, and so in- 

 offensive as an intimate friend, and scientific men need 

 criticism as much as others. A hint that, however valu- 

 able the scientific results of a treatise may be, they are 

 announced in execrable English, can be conveyed by a 

 college chum better than by anybody else. The Huxley or 

 Tyndall of the future will sometimes be none the worse for 

 the reminder that his predecessors, if they popularized 

 science, did not vulgarize it, and that scientific papers 

 which possibly contain useful additions to knowledge are 

 certainly literature, and, as such, must be tried by the 

 ordinary canons. In short, it is on behalf of the younger 

 scientific men that we claim that those among them who 

 study in our Universities shall not be deprived of the 

 advantage of intimate relations with fellow-students of 

 their own standing, whose aims in life, and modes of 

 thought, are other than theirs. 



The argument from economy is sufficiently met by the 

 above considerations, but it is absurd to contend that 

 there is not room for two great schools of science in the 

 Universities, if proper means are taken to fill them. 



In every provincial town. Colleges are springing up 

 which are far better equipped than were the Universities 

 themselves some twenty years ago, and the number of 

 their students steadily increases. In Cambridge, the 

 scientific lecture-rooms and laboratories are full to over- 

 flowing ; and we cannot but believe that, if Oxford is 

 less successful, the comparative failure is due either to 

 temporary causes, or to some defect of organization which 

 could be discovered and remedied. 



According to the Reviewer, the relations between the 

 Professoriate and the Colleges are not harmonious, and, 

 if this be so, natural science is probably more injuriously 

 affected than any other branch of study. Centralization, 

 harmful in many cases, is essential in the teaching of a 

 subject which at present attracts a small number of 

 very advanced students, while the machinery for the in- 

 struction of elementary students must necessarily be 

 expensive. That it can be attained without trenching 

 on the legitimate privileges of the Colleges is proved by 

 the fact that, in spite of the existence of the Collegiate 

 system, Cambridge has become a great school of science. 



SUBJECTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE. 

 Subjects of Social Welfare. By the Right Hon. Sir 

 Lyon Playfair, K.C.B., M.P., LL.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. 

 (London : Cassell, 1889.) 



IN this volume Sir Lyon Playfair has collected a series 

 of his essays, speeches, and lectures, composed or 

 delivered during the last half-century. The volume is 



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