UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 43 



the cry for change, in the practical application of the 

 endowments connected with it. 



In Aberdeen, these endowments are numerous, but 

 so small that, taken altogether, they are not equal to 

 the revenue of a single third-rate English college. They 

 are scholarships, not fellowships; aids to do work not 

 rewards for such work as it lies within the reach of an 

 ordinary, or even an extraordinary, young man to do. 

 You do not think that passing a respectable examination 

 is a fair equivalent for an income, such as many a gray- 

 headed veteran, or clergyman, would envy ; and which 

 is larger than the endowment of many Regius chairs. 

 You do not care to make your University a school of 

 manners for the rich ; of sports for the athletic ; or a 

 hot-bed of high-fed, hypercritical refinement, more de- 

 structive to vigour and originality than are starvation 

 and oppression. No; your little Bursaries of ten and 

 twenty (I believe even fifty) pounds a year, enable any 

 boy who has shown ability in the course of his education 

 in those remarkable primary schools, which have made 

 Scotland the power she is, to obtain the highest culture 

 the country can give him ; and when he is armed and 

 equipped, his Spartan Alma Mater tells him that, so far, 

 he has had his wages for his work, and that he may go 

 and earn the rest. 



When I think of the host of pleasant, monied, well- 

 bred young gentlemen, who do a little learning and 

 much boating by Cam and Isis, the vision is a pleasant 

 one ; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the youth of the 



