1874 LORD RECTOR OF ABERDEEN 123 



medical school, a point to which he gave practical 

 effect in the Council of the University. 



In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should 

 be able to obtain instruction in all forma of knowledge, 

 and discipline in the use of all the methods by which 

 knowledge is obtained. In such a University the force 

 of living example should fire the student with a noble 

 ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and to 

 follow in the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of 

 knowledge. And the very air he breathes should be 

 charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism 

 of veracity, which is a greater possession than much 

 learning ; a nobler gift than the power of increasing 

 knowledge ; by so much greater and nobler than these, 

 as the moral nature of man is greater than the intel- 

 lectual ; for veracity is the heart of morality. (Coll. Ess. 

 iii 189, sqq.) 



As for the "so-called 'conflict of studies,'" he 

 exclaims 



One might as well inquire which of the terms of a 

 Rule of Three sum one ought to know in order to get a 

 trustworthy result Practical life is such a sum, in 

 which your duty multiplied into your capacity and 

 divided by your circumstances gives you the fourth term 

 in the proportion, which is your deserts, with great 

 accuracy. 



The knowledge on which medical practice should 

 be based is "the sort of practical, familiar, finger- 

 end knowledge which a watchmaker has of a watch," 

 the knowledge gained in the dissecting-room and 

 laboratory. 



