II.] UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 29 



largely symbolised by my own existence. There is 

 no Eector in an English University. Now, the organi- 

 sation of the members of an University into Nations, 

 with their elective Eector, is the last relic of the 

 primitive constitution of Universities. The Kectorate 

 was the most important of all offices in that University 

 of Paris, upon the model of which the University of 

 Aberdeen was fashioned ; and which was certainly a 

 great and flourishing institution in the twelfth century. 



Enthusiasts for the antiquity of one of the two 

 acknowledged parents of all Universities, indeed, do 

 not hesitate to trace the origin of the " Studium 

 Parisiense " up to that wonderful king of the Franks 

 and Lombards, Karl, surnamed the Great, whom we 

 all called Charlemagne, and believed to be a French- 

 man, until a learned historian, by beneficent iteration, 

 taught us better. Karl is said not to have been much 

 of a scholar himself, but he had the wisdom of which 

 knowledge is only the servitor. And that wisdom 

 enabled him to see that ignorance is one of the roots 

 of all evil. 



In the Capitulary which enjoins the foundation of 

 monasterial and cathedral schools, he says : " Eight 

 action is better than knowledge; but in order to do 

 what is right, we must know what is right." 1 An. 

 irrefragable truth, I fancy. Acting upon it, the king 

 took pretty full compulsory powers, and carried into 



1 " Quamvis enim melius sit bene facere quam nosse, prius tarnen 

 est nosse quam facere." " Karoli Magni Regis Constitutio de Scholis 

 per singula Episcopia et Monasteria instituendis," addressed to the 

 Abbot of Fulda. Baluzius, " Capitularia Regum Francorum," T. i, 

 p. 202. 



