36 UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 



to the discussion of this question, I venture to call to 

 your minds the essential and fundamental differences 

 between the Scottish and the English type of Univer- 

 sity. 



Do not charge me with anything worse than official 

 egotism, if I say that these differences appear to be 

 largely symbolised by my own existence. There is no 

 Rector in an English University. Now, the organisa- 

 tion of the members of an University into Nations, 

 with their elective Rector, is the last relic of the primi- 

 tive constitution of Universities. The Rectorate was 

 the most important of all offices in that University of 

 Paris, upon the model of which the University of Aber- 

 deen was fashioned; and which was certainly a great 

 and flourishing institution in the twelfth century. 



Enthusiasts for the antiquity of one of the two 

 acknowledged parents of all Universities, indeed, do 

 not hesitate to trace the origin of the " Studium Parisi- 

 ense" up to that wonderful king of the Franks and 

 Lombards, Karl, surnamed the Great, whom we all 

 called Charlemagne, and believed to be a Frenchman, 

 until a learned historian, by beneficent iteration, taught 

 us better. Karl is said not to have been much of a 

 scholar himself, but he had the wisdom of which knowl- 

 edge is only the servitor. And that wisdom enabled 

 him to see that ignorance is one of the roots of all 

 evil. 



In the Capitulary which enjoins the foundation of 

 monasterial and cathedral schools, he says: "Right ac- 



