40 



FOUNDATION AND OBJECTS 



the names of the hodge-podge of philosophers whose 

 academical distinctions so sorely vexed Mr. Keble's 

 gentle spirit. They were Brown, Brewster, Faraday, 

 and Dalton. When we recollect the lovable and 

 serene character of Keble's nature, and that he was 

 at that particular date probably the man in the 

 University who had the greatest power over other 

 men's minds, we can measure the distance we have 

 traversed since that time, and the rapidity with 

 which the converging paths of these two intellectual 

 luminaries, the University and the Association, have 

 approximated to each other. This sally of Mr. 

 Keble's was no passing or accidental caprice. It 

 represented a deep-seated sentiment in this place of 

 learning, which had its origin in historic causes, and 

 which has only died out in our time. One potent 

 cause of it was that both bodies were teachers of 

 science, but did not then in any degree attach the 

 same meaning to that word. Science with the 

 University for many generations bore a signification 

 different from that which belongs to it in this 

 assembly. It represented the knowledge which 

 alone in the Middle Ages was thought worthy of the 

 name of science. It was the knowledge gained not 

 by external observation, but by mere reflection. 

 The student's microscope was turned inward upon 

 the recesses of his own brain ; and when the supply 

 of facts and realities failed, as it very speedily did, 

 the scientific imagination was not wanting to fuf nish 

 to successive generations an interminable series of 

 conflicting speculations. Science science in our 

 academical sense had its day of rapid growth, of 

 boundless aspiration, of enthusiastic votaries. It 

 fascinated the rising intellect of the time, and it is 

 said people were not particular about figures in 



