32 UNIVEKSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



Nations, by their own votes at first, and subsequently 

 by those of their Procurators, or representatives, 

 elected their supreme head and governor, the Kector 

 at that time the sole representative of the Univer- 

 sity, and a very real power, who could defy Provosts 

 interfering from without ; or could inflict even cor- 

 poral punishment on disobedient members within the 

 University. 



Such was the primitive constitution of the Uni- 

 versity of Paris. It is in reference to this original 

 state of things that I have spoken of the Eectorate, 

 and all that appertains to it, as the sole relic of that 

 constitution. 



But this original organisation did not last long. 

 Society was not then, any more than it is now, 

 patient of culture, as such. It says to everything, 

 " Be useful to me, or away with you." And to the 

 learned, the unlearned man said then, as he does now, 

 " What is the use of all your learning, unless you can 

 tell me what I want to know ? I am here blindly 

 groping about, and constantly damaging myself by 

 collision with three mighty powers, the power of the 

 invisible God, the power of my fellow Man, and the 

 power of brute Nature. Let your learning be turned 

 to the study of these powers, that I may know how I 

 am to comport myself with regard to them." In 

 answer to this demand, some of the Masters of the 

 Faculty of Arts devoted themselves to the study of 

 Theology, some to that of Law, and some to that of 

 Medicine ; and they became Doctors men learned in 

 those technical, or, as we now call them, professional, 



