THE FUNCTIONS OF A UNIVERSITY 237 



remunerative utilisation. He remarked, incidentally, that 

 the professors in Polytechnika (what we should term 

 technical colleges, intended to prepare young men for the 

 professions of engineering and technical chemistry) were 

 less known for their influence on industry than University 

 professors. The aim is different in the two cases; the 

 Polytechnika train men for a profession ; the Philosophical 

 Faculty of a German University aims at imparting a love 

 of knowledge ; and as a matter of fact the latter pay in 

 their influence on the prosperity of the nation better than 

 the former. And this brings me to the fundamental 

 premiss of my Oration. It is this : That the best prepara- 

 tion for success in any calling is the training of the student 

 in methods of research. This should be the goal to be 

 clearly kept in view by all teachers in the Philosophical 

 Faculties of Universities. They should teach with this 

 object: to awaken in each of their students a love of his 

 subject, and a consciousness that if he persevere, he, too, 

 will be able to extend its bounds. 



Of course it is necessary for the student to learn, so far 

 as is possible, what has already been done. I would not 

 urge that a young man should not master, or at all events 

 study, a great deal of what has already been discovered, 

 before he attempts to soar on his own wings. But there 

 is all the difference in the world between the point of 

 view of the student who reads in order to qualify for 

 an examination, or to gain a prize or a scholarship, 

 and the student who reads because he knows that 

 thus he will acquire knowledge which may be used 

 as a basis of new knowledge. It is that spirit in 

 which our Universities in England are so lamentably 

 deficient; it is that spirit which has contributed to 

 the success of the Teutonic nations, and which is 

 beginning to influence the United States. For this con- 

 dition of things our examinational system is largely to 



