NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 59 



policy of the University and Colleges in this matter 

 will, at no distant day, do so. 



It is sometimes urged that Oxford should contentedly 

 resign herself to the overwhelming predominance given 

 to the study of ancient elegance and historic wisdom 

 within her walls. It is said that she may well be 

 reserved for these delightful pursuits, whilst newer 

 institutions should do the hard work of aiding man in 

 his conquest of Nature. At first sight such a proposal 

 has a tempting character : we are charmed with the 

 suggestion that our beautiful Oxford should be enclosed 

 by a ring fence and cut off for ever from the contamina- 

 tion of the world. But a few moments' reflection must 

 convince most of us that such a treatment of Oxford 

 is an insult to her and an impossibility. Oxford is not 

 dead. Only a few decades have passed a mere fraction 

 of her lifetime since she was free from the oppression 

 of grammar-school studies, and sent forth Robert Boyle 

 and Christopher Wren to establish the New Philosophy 

 of the Invisible College in London. She seems, to some 

 of us, to have been used not quite wisely, perhaps 

 not quite fairly, in the brief period which has elapsed 

 since that time. Why should she not shake herself free 

 again, and give, hereafter, most, if not the whole, of her 

 wealth and strength to the urgent work which is actually 

 pursued in every other University of the world as a chief 

 aim and duty ? 



The fact that Oxford attracts the youth of the 

 country to her, and so determines the education offered 

 in the great schools, is a sufficient answer to those who 

 wish to perpetuate the present employment of her 

 resources in the subvention and encouragement of 

 comparatively unimportant, though fascinating (even too 

 fascinating), studies, to the neglect of the pressing 



