254 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



27. less, something peculiar in her two great universities. 



Unique 



character of it was neither the scientific, nor the classical, nor the 



English uni- 

 versities, philosophical spirit exclusively which reigned there; if 



any or all of them had ruled, we should not meet with 

 those repeated complaints that higher mathematics were 

 absent in Cambridge, that no philological studies were 

 cultivated in either of the universities, and that philosophy 

 was represented merely by Aristotle, Butler, Locke, and 

 1 According to the representatives of the university 



Paley. 



Europe has never witnessed a nobler 

 spectacle than the first Protestants 

 of Scotland, in the assembly of the 

 nation demanding that from the 

 funds before abused by a licentious 

 superstition one - third should be 

 devoted, not to increase the re- 

 venue of the Reformed Church, but 

 to the education, the universal edu- 

 cation, of the youth in all depart- 

 ments of instruction, from the high- 

 est to the lowest" ('North Brit. 

 Rev.,' 12, p. 483). 



1 As to the deficient mathemati- 

 cal teaching at Cambridge, see p. 

 233, note, &c. The complaints re- 

 garding the teaching of other sub- 

 jects are frequent, but belong to a 

 later date, the middle of the century, 

 when the Royal Commission of In- 

 quiry, which was appointed under 

 the Government of Lord John Rus- 

 sell on the 31st August 1850 and 

 expired with the presentation of its 

 report on the 30th August 1852, 

 attracted the attention of the pub- 

 lic to university reform, and gave 

 rise to a very full discussion of the 

 whole subject in the various liter- 

 ary papers and reviews. The two 

 older universities are called " cita- 

 dels of political prejudice and sec- 

 tarian exclusiveness, instead of be- 

 ing the temples of liberal arts and 

 the repositories of science " (' Brit. 

 Quart. Review,' 1860, July, p. 205). 

 Theology is stated to be " the last 



thing taught at Cambridge" (ibid., 

 p. 221) ; there was no professor of 

 Latin, none of English literature, 

 of logic and metaphysics, of modern 

 languages (p. 225). In 1849 Cam- 

 bridge had no laboratory ; the uni- 

 versities took no part in the legal 

 training of lawyers ('Edinb. Rev.,' 

 April 1849, p. 511); Oxford afforded 

 no training in natural science (ibid.) 

 Cambridge " sacrificed to the mon- 

 opoly of a severe geometry every 

 other exercise and attainment of 

 the human mind. There was no 

 theological study, no study of his- 

 tory, none of moral science, none of 

 chemistry, none even of experi- 

 mental philosophy" (ibid., p. 514). 

 These criticisms were fully justified 

 by the Reports of the Commissions 

 published in 1852. See on the teach- 

 ing of Theology at Cambridge, Re- 

 port, pp. 89, 102 ; Evidence, pp. 88, 

 168, 190, 216 : on the teaching of 

 Latin, Rep., pp. 98, 102 ; Evid., pp. 

 165, 176, 289: on the teaching of 

 English, Evid., pp. 124, 136 : of mo- 

 dern Languages, Rep., pp. 26, 101 ; 

 Evid., pp. 165, 216, 300: of Law, 

 Rep., pp. 35, 182; Evid., pp. 123, 

 190 : of Natural Sciences, Evid., p. 

 115, &c. In 1874 the 'Edinburgh 

 Review ' could point out that during 

 twenty years, whilst the examination 

 for the Indian Civil Service had been 

 thrown open, the English universi- 

 ties had practically contributed no 



