198 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL vm 



Rapid growth necessitated organisation. The 

 Masters and Scholars of various tongues and 

 countries grouped themselves into four Nations ; 

 and the Nations, by their own votes at first, and 

 subsequently by those of their Procurators, or 

 representatives, elected their supreme head and 

 governor, the Rector at that time the sole 

 representative of the University, and a very real 

 power, who could defy Provosts interfering from 

 without ; or could inflict even corporal punishment 

 on disobedient members within the University. 



Such was the primitive constitution of the 

 University of Paris. It is in reference to this 

 original state of things that I have spoken of the 

 Rectorate, 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 



