46 UNIVERSITIES I ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



the most practised and widely informed anatomist 

 what is the difference between his knowledge of a 

 structure which he has read about, and his knowledge 

 of the same structure when he has seen it for himself; 

 and he will tell you that the two things are not com- 

 parable the difference is infinite. Thus I am very 

 strongly inclined to agree with some learned school- 

 masters who say that, in their experience, the teach- 

 ing of science is all waste time. As they teach it, I 

 have no doubt it is. But to teach it otherwise, re- 

 quires an amount of personal labour and a develop- 

 ment of means and appliances, which must strike 

 horror and dismay into a man accustomed to mere 

 book work ; and who has been in the habit of teach- 

 ing a class of fifty without much strain upon his 

 energies. And this is one of the real difficulties in 

 the way of the introduction of physical science into 

 the ordinary University course, to which I have 

 alluded. It is a difficulty which will not be over- 

 come, until years of patient study have organised 

 scientific teaching as well as, or I hope better than, 

 classical teaching has been organised hitherto. 



A little while ago, I ventured to hint a doubt 

 as to the perfection of some of the arrangements 

 in the ancient Universities of England; but, in 

 their provision for giving instruction in Science as 

 such, and without direct reference to any of its 

 practical applications, they have set a brilliant ex- 

 ample. Within the last twenty years, Oxford alone 

 has sunk more than a hundred and twenty thousand 

 pounds in building and furnishing Physical, Chemical, 



