124 GERMAN SCIENCE 
He thinks of it as a temple of disinterested learning, a place 
haunted by the spirits of mighty men, the place where the 
flower of English youth assembled, young men with different 
destinies, different hopes, different ideals, who got to know 
one another, influenced and stimulated one another, where 
character was formed and strengthened, aspirations gained, and 
the whole man influenced for good service in the world. 
My praise of our old universities is always qualified. I 
believe they sadly neglected their duty to science, that they al- 
lowed themselves to grow much too aloof from the work-a-day 
world and the occupations that engage the bulk of our people. 
The new universities are relatively small, and they cannot 
claim yet to have in any great measure the greatest virtues of 
the old. But in their closer association with the industrial 
world they have, I believe, an enormous advantage. The 
University of Leeds is often spoken of as a technical univer- 
sity. It isnosuchthing. It is a university in which those who 
are engaged in literary, scientific and technical studies dwell 
together in union and harmony. We set out deliberately to 
avoid one-sidedness, we seek to gather together a community 
of all interests, and we believe that in our mutual influences we 
shall preserve a fair balance; that we shall produce neither the 
literary pedant, too superfine to sympathize with the realities 
of life, nor the narrow scientific technologist with a view of 
knowledge limited to the service of material ends. 
In this way I think we shall do better than Germany, and 
whilst cultivating science, shall avoid its detachment and in- 
tensive cultivation for practical ends apart from other realms 
of knowledge. We shall keep its votaries sane, large-minded 
and in sympathy with all that is worthy and elevating to the 
human spirit, and make them better able to gauge and meet 
the complex and varied needs of a nation striving not only for 
greater prosperity but for truer civilization. 
PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 
