330 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



Such in its leading outlines is the scheme of 

 university reform which has long been present, 

 with more or less distinctness, to the mind of the 

 writer. We are not sufficiently vain or sanguine 

 to hope that it will at once recommend itself to 

 those in whose hands the work of reform has been 

 placed. We have throughout, however, avoided 

 the discussion of Utopian measures for the attain- 

 ment of ideal excellence, and have proposed no 

 innovations for which we do not consider the times 

 to be fully ripe, and the means of execution en- 

 tirely at command. If our suggestions shall have 

 at all contributed to fix and give shape to the 

 floating ideas of any graduate who may be now 

 first approaching the subject of reform, their end 

 will be amply subserved. Something would have 

 been said, had space allowed, on the important 

 subject of a post-graduate course. But for the 

 present we must be content with directing the at- 

 tention of the alumni and the public to the im- 

 perative need which exists for an arrangement 

 whereby those graduates who desire it shall be 

 enabled to pursue their studies indefinitely, under 

 the shadow of the university. Only under such 

 a system can we make due provision for thorough 

 scholarship. Our literature cannot hope to com- 

 pete with that of other countries, so long as our 



