14 THE MODERN UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT 
not wanting, should cleanse our rivers, and that our religious 
zeal should manifest itself not so much in an anxiety as to 
what creeds our children are taught at school, but in an 
irresistible endeavour to secure that these same children shall 
be reared in homes and surroundings that provide at least the 
common decencies, the cheaper privileges, and the simpler 
joys of civilized life! Then, I think, we should be surprised 
to find how much we had grown to resemble a university 
town. 
This is“a possibility that I do not think unlikely to be 
realized. I think that it is not even remote, and thinking so, 
the fundamental question about our new universities becomes 
to me this—is it well, in any case, that a university should lie 
near the heart of industry, or should it be remote, secluded, 
rural, far from the madding crowd? 
There is much to be said on both sides, and I am not 
insensible to the eloquence with which pleas have been uttered 
for the almost monastic seclusion of a university ; but so long 
as great cities exist, I am wholly in favour of our universities 
being by their side. To state the reason compels me again to 
speak of Oxford and Cambridge, and I should like to take the 
occasion to say how far it is from my desire to speak of those 
great institutions with any lack of respect. It would ill 
become me, for in the first place I was educated at neither, 
and in the second I know how indebted the new universities 
are to the Oxford and Cambridge men who have brought to. 
them aid and enlightenment that have guarded and guided their 
infancy. : 
. My belief in the wisdom of establishing universities in the 
centres of industry is based on both experience and anticipation. 
Experience has led me to think that English education and 
English life have suffered to an almost incalculable extent by the 
isolation of our ancient universities. The want of geographical 
contact between the greatest seats of learning and the busy 
