THE FUNCTIONS OF A UNIVERSITY 233 



that its answer must be preceded by the answer to the 

 question ' how ? ' and that in most cases indeed in all 

 we must learn to be contented with the answer to ' how ? ' 

 The better we can tell how things are, the more nearly 

 shall we be able to say why they are. 



Such a question is applicable to all kinds of subjects : 

 to what our forerunners on this earth did ; how they 

 lived : if we go even further back, what preceded them on 

 the earth. The history of these inquiries is the function 

 of geology, palaeontology, and palseontological botany ; it 

 is continued through archseology, Egyptian and Assyrian, 

 Greek and Roman ; it evolves into history, and lights are 

 thrown on it by languages and philology; it dovetails 

 with literature and economics. In all these, research is 

 possible; and a University should be equipped for the 

 successful prosecution of inquiries in all such branches. 



Another class of inquiries relates to what we think and 

 how we reason ; and here we have philosophy and logic; 

 A different branch of the same inquiry leads us to mathe- 

 matics, which deals with spatial and numerical concepts 

 of the human mind, geometry and algebra. By an easy 

 transition we have the natural sciences ; those less closely 

 connected with ourselves as persons, but intimately related 

 to our surroundings. Zoology and botany, anatomy, 

 physiology and pathology deal with living organisms as 

 structural machines ; and they are based on physics and 

 chemistry, which are themselves dependent on mathe- 

 matics. 



Such inquiries are worth making for their own sakes. 

 They interest a large part of the human race ; and not to 

 feel interested in them is to lack intelligence. The man 

 who is content to live from day to day, glad if each day 

 will but produce him food to eat and a roof to sleep under, 

 is but little removed from an uncivilised being. For the 

 test of civilisation is prevision ; care to look forward ; to 



