ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 133 



excuse for failure or shortcoming; but when fortune removes 

 them all and gives him the power of doing as he thinks best, 

 then comes the time of trial. There is but one* right, and 

 the possibilities of wrong are infinite. I doubt not that the 

 trustees of the Johns Hopkins University felt the full force 

 of this truth when they entered on the administration of 

 their trust a year and a half ago; and I can but admire the 

 activity and resolution which have enabled them, aided by 

 the able president whom they have selected, to lay down 

 the great outlines of their plan, and carry it thus far into 

 execution. It is impossible to study that plan without per- 

 ceiving that great care, forethought, and sagacity, have been 

 bestowed upon it, and that it demands the most respectful 

 consideration. I have been endeavouring to ascertain 

 how far the principles which underlie it are in accordance 

 with those which have been established in my own mind by 

 much and long-continued thought upon educational ques- 

 tions. Permit me to place before you the result of my 

 reflections. 



Under one aspect a university is a particular kind of 

 educational institution, and the views which we may take 

 of the proper nature of a university are corollaries from 

 those which we hold respecting education in general. I 

 think it must be admitted that the school should prepare 

 for the university, and that the university should crown 

 the edifice, the foundations of which are laid in the school. 

 University education should not be something distinct 

 from elementary education, but should be the n^itural out- 

 growth and development of the latter. Now I have a very 

 clear conviction as to what elementary education ought to 

 be; what it really may be, when properly organised; and 

 what I think it will be, before many years have passed over 

 our heads, in England and in America. Such education 



