214 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL vin 



As they teach it, I have no doubt it is. But to 

 teach it otherwise requires an amount of personal 

 labour and a development 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 teaching 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 overcome, 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 thou- 

 sand pounds in building and furnishing Physical, 

 Chemical, and Physiological Laboratories, and a 

 magnificent Museum, arranged with an almost 

 luxurious regard for the needs of the student. 

 Cambridge, less rich, but aided by the munificence 

 of her Chancellor, is taking the same course ; and 

 in a few years, it will be for no lack of the means 

 and appliances of sound teaching, if the mass of 



