IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 237 



respectful consideration. I have been endeavour- 

 ing to ascertain how far the principles which 

 underlie it are in accordance with those which 

 have been established in my own mind by much 

 and long-continued thought upon educational 

 questions. Permit me to place before you the 

 result of my reflections. 



Under one aspect a university is a particular 

 kind of educational institution, and the views 

 which we may take of the proper nature of a 

 university are corollaries from those which we 

 hold respecting education in general. I think it 

 must be admitted that the school should prepare 

 for the university, and that the university should 

 crown the edifice, the foundations of which are 

 laid in the school. University education should 

 not be something distinct from elementary edu- 

 cation, but should be the natural outgrowth and 

 development of the latter. Now I have a very 

 clear conviction as to what elementary education 

 ought to be ; what it really may be, when properly 

 organised ; and what I think it will be, before 

 many years have passed over our heads, in Eng- 

 land and in America. ($uch education should 

 enable an average boy of fifteen or sixteen to 

 read and write his' own language with ease and 

 accuracy, and with a sense of literary excellence 

 derived from the study of our classic writers : "\ 

 to have a general acquaintance with the history 

 of his own country and with the great laws of 



