44: UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 



upper and richer classes of the nation receive a whole- 

 some and a manly training, however small may be the 

 modicum of knowledge they gather, in the intervals of 

 this, their serious business. I admit, to the full, the 

 social and political value of that training. But, when 

 I proceed to consider that these young men may be 

 said to represent the great bulk of what the Colleges 

 have to show for their enormous wealth, plus, at least, 

 a hundred and fifty pounds a year apiece which each 

 undergraduate costs his parents or guardians, I feel 

 inclined to ask, whether the rate-in-aid of the education 

 of the wealthy and professional classes, thus levied on 

 the resources of the community, is not, after all, a little 

 heavy? And, still further, I am tempted to inquire 

 what has become of the indigent scholars, the sons of 

 the masses of the people whose daily labour just suffices 

 to meet their daily w r ants, for whose benefit these rich 

 foundations were largely, if not mainly, instituted ? It 

 seems as if Pharaoh's dream had been rigorously car- 

 ried out, and that even the fat scholar has eaten the 

 lean one. And when I turn from this picture to the 

 no less real vision of many a brave and frugal Scotch 

 boy, spending his summer in hard manual labour, that 

 he may have the privilege of wending his way in au- 

 tumn to this University, with a bag of oatmeal, ten 

 pounds in his pocket, and his own stout heart to de- 

 pend upon through the northern winter ; not bent on 

 seeking 



"The bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," 



