II.] UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 45 



But it is only fair to the Scottish Universities to 

 point out that they have long understood the value 

 of Science as a branch of general education. I observe, 

 with the greatest satisfaction, that candidates for the 

 degree of Master of Arts in this University are re- 

 quired to have a knowledge, not only of Mental and 

 Moral Philosophy, and of Mathematics and Natural 

 Philosophy, but of Natural History, in addition to 

 the ordinary Latin and Greek course ; and that a 

 candidate may take honours in these subjects and in 

 Chemistry. 



I do not know what the requirements of your 

 examiners may be, but I sincerely trust they are not 

 satisfied with a mere book knowledge of these matters. 

 For my own part, I would not raise a finger, if I 

 could thereby introduce mere book work in science 

 into every Arts curriculum in the country. Let those 

 who want to study books devote themselves to Litera- 

 ture, in which we have the perfection of books, both 

 as to substance and as to form. If I may paraphrase 

 Hobbes's well-known aphorism, I would say that 

 "books are the money of Literature, but only the 

 counters of Science/' Science (in the sense in which I 

 now use the term) being the knowledge of fact, of 

 which every verbal description is but an incomplete 

 and symbolic expression. And be assured that no 

 teaching of science is worth anything, as a mental 

 discipline, which is not based upon direct perception 

 of the facts, and practical exercise of the observing 

 and logical faculties upon them. Even in such a 

 simple matter as the mere comprehension of form, ask 



