UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 45 



but determined to wring knowledge from the hard hands 

 of penury ; when I see him win through all such out- 

 ward obstacles to positions of wide usefulness and well- 

 earned fame ; I cannot but think that, in essence, Aber- 

 deen has departed but little from the primitive intention 

 of the founders of Universities, and that the spirit of 

 reform has so much to do on the other side of the Bor- 

 der, that it may be long before he has leisure to look 

 this way. 



As compared with other actual Universities, then, 

 Aberdeen, may, perhaps, be well satisfied with itself. 

 But do not think me an impracticable dreamer, if I ask 

 you not to rest and be thankful in this state of satisfac- 

 tion ; if I ask you to consider awhile, how this actual 

 good stands related to that ideal better, towards which 

 both men and institutions must progress, if they would 

 not retrograde. 



In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should 

 be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge,/ 

 and discipline in the use of all the methods by which 

 knowledge is obtained. In such an University, the force 

 of living example should fire the student with a noble 

 ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and 

 to follow in the footsteps of the explorers of new fields 

 of knowledge. And the very air he breathes should be 

 charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism 

 of veracity, which is a greater possession than much 

 learning ; a nobler gift than the power of increasing 

 knowledge ; by so much greater and nobler than these, 



