THE MODERN UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT 23 
department of knowledge? and in one spot; else, how can 
there be any school at all? Accordingly, in its simple and - 
rudimental form, it is a school of knowledge of every kind, 
consisting of teachers and learners from every quarter. Many 
things are requisite to complete and satisfy the idea embodied 
in this description; but such as this a university seems to be 
in its essence, a place for the communication and circulation 
of thought, by means of personal intercourse, through a wide 
extent of country.... A university is a place of concourse 
whither students come from every quarter for every kind of 
knowledge. You cannot have the best of every kind every- 
where; you must go to some great city or emporium for it. 
There you have all the choicest productions of nature and art 
all together, which you find each in its own separate place 
elsewhere. All the riches of the land and of the earth are 
carried up thither; there are the best markets, and there the best 
workmen. It is the centre of trade, the supreme court of 
fashion, the umpire of rival talents, and the standard of things 
rare and precious. It is the place for seeing galleries of first- 
rate pictures, and for hearing wonderful voices and performers 
of transcendent skill. It is the place for great preachers, great 
orators, great nobles, great statesmen. Inthe nature of things, 
greatness and unity go together; excellence implies a centre. 
And such, for the fourth or fifth time, is a university ; I hope 
I do not weary out the reader by repeating it. It is the place 
to which a thousand schools make contributions; in which 
the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to find its 
equal in some antagonist activity, and its judge in the tribunal 
of truth. It is a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and 
discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered 
innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with 
mind, and knowledge with knowledge. It is the place where 
the professor becomes eloquent, and is a missionary and a 
preacher, displaying his science in its most complete and most 
