54: UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 



and appliances, which must strike horror and dismay 

 into a man accustomed to mere book work; and who 

 has been in the habit of teaching a class of fifty without 

 much strain upon his energies. And this is one of the 

 real difficulties in the way of the introduction of phys- 

 ical science into the ordinary University course, to 

 which I have alluded. It is a difficulty which will not 

 be overcome, until years of patient study have organised 

 scientific teaching as well as, or I hope better than, 

 classical teaching has been organised hitherto. 



A little while ago, I ventured to hint a doubt as to 

 the perfection of some of the arrangements in the ancient 

 Universities of England ; but, in their provision for 

 giving instruction in Science as such, and without direct 

 reference to any of its practical applications, they have 

 set a brilliant example. Within the last twenty years, 

 Oxford alone has sunk more than a hundred and twenty 

 thousand pounds in building and furnishing Physical, 

 Chemical, and Physiological Laboratories, and a mag- 

 nificent Museum, arranged with an almost luxurious re- 

 gard for the needs of the student. Cambridge, less 

 rich, but aided by the munificence of her Chancellor, 

 is taking the same course ; and, in a few years, it will 

 be for no lack of the means and appliances of sound 

 teaching, if the mass of English University men remain 

 in their present state of barbarous ignorance of even the 

 rudiments of scientific culture. 



Yet another step needs to be made before Science 

 can be said to have taken its proper place in the Uni- 



