A LIBERAL EDUCATION 55 



the sufferer shall be incompetent to interpret a passage in an 

 author he has not already got up; that he shall loathe the 

 sight of a Greek or Latin book; and that he shall never open, 

 or think of, a classical writer again, until, wonderful to relate, 

 he insists upon submitting his sons to the same process. 



These be your gods, O Israel! For the sake of this net 

 result (and respectability) the British father denies his chil- 

 dren all the knowledge they might turn to account in life, not 

 merely for the achievement of vulgar success, but for guid- 

 ance in the great crises of human existence. This is the 

 stone he offers to those whom he is bound by the strongest 

 and tender e'st ties to feed with bread. 



If primary and secondary education are in this unsatis- 

 factory state, what is to be said to the universities ? This is 

 an awful subject, and one I almost fear to touch with my 

 unhallowed hands; but I can tell you what those say who 

 have authority to speak. 



The Rector of Lincoln College, in his lately published 

 valuable Suggestions for Academical Organisation with 

 especial reference to Oxford tells us (p. 127); — • 



"The colleges were, in their origin, endowments, not for 

 the elements of a general liberal education, but for the pro- 

 longed study of special and professional faculties by men of 

 riper age. The universities embraced both these objects. 

 The colleges, while they incidentally aided in elementary ed- 

 ucation, were specially devoted to the highest learning. . . . 



" This was the theory of the middle-age university and the 

 design of collegiate foundations in their origin. Time and 

 circumstances have brought about a total change. The 

 colleges no longer promote the researches of science, or direct 

 professional study. Here and there college walls may shelter 

 an occasional student, but not in larger proportions than niay 



