174 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



very best man who can be found ; and, abroad, those special 

 colleges are the best which act on this principle, becoming 

 really universities in all but the name. Another disadvantage 

 of the special school is, that they are led to carry this preparatory 

 training much too far. A glaring instance of this is to be found 

 in the Polytechnic School in Paris, where every Government 

 engineer receives a mathematical training such as would fit him 

 to be a wrangler at Cambridge, and very generally unfits him 

 to be an engineer. Moreover, I desire for every engineering 

 student a liberal education. It is probable that wide differences 

 of opinion would be found among us if we were called upon to 

 define a truly liberal education ; and the liberal education of to- 

 day will not be the liberal education of to-morrow. But we may 

 all agree that the general course of education given in a univer- 

 sity, where men of all professions and every turn of mind mix 

 together, is more likely to be liberal and wide in its scope than 

 the education given in a college devoted to any one profession, 

 be that profession law, physic, or divinity itself. I am quite 

 aware that, as subordinates, comparatively uneducated men are 

 often as useful and trustworthy as their more showy competitors ; 

 but in the higher walks of the profession, a good general educa- 

 tion is of great use in dealing with all forms of business, and it 

 is of incomparable value to its possessor, by directing his intellect 

 and his tastes to the purest and noblest food. 



I hope, therefore, that our professional men will continue to 

 pass through our universities. But in order that this may be 

 the case, the universities must be developed, so as to meet the 

 requirements of old professions as they extend, and new pro- 

 fessions as they arise. 



Dr. Lyon PI ay fair drew my attention to the fact that exist- 

 ing universities almost all arose as professional schools of law, 

 medicine, and divinity, for a long time the only learned profes- 

 sions. Now that there are new learned professions (I may 

 surely claim that title for engineering at least), the universities 

 should recognise the fact, and provide the necessary curriculum, 

 and the necessary degree or attestation that this curriculum 

 has been profitably followed. We boast in Great Britain that 

 our institutions grow ; whereas foreign institutions are too often 

 shackled by such bonds, that, unable to develop, they grow old 



