70 UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 



shall afford satisfactory proof that the work is theirs. 

 The notion may sound revolutionary, but it is really 

 very old; for, I take it, that it lies at the bottom of 

 that presentation of a thesis by the candidate for a doc- 

 torate, which has now, too often, become little better 

 than a matter of form. 



Thus far, I have endeavoured to lay before you, in 

 a too brief and imperfect manner, my views respecting 

 the teaching half the Magistri and Regentes of the 

 University of the Future. Now let me turn to the 

 learning half the Scholares. 



If the Universities are to be the sanctuaries of the 

 highest culture of the country, those who would enter 

 Ahat sanctuary, must not come with unwashed hands. 

 Vlf the good seed is to yield its hundredfold harvest, it 

 must not be scattered amidst the stones of ignorance, 

 or the tares of undisciplined indolence and wantonness. 

 On the contrary, the soil must have been carefully pre- 

 pared, and the Professor should find that the opera- 

 tions of clod-crushing, draining, and weeding, and even 

 a good deal of planting, have been done by the School- 

 master. 



That is exactly what the Professor does not find in 

 any University in the three Kingdoms that I can hear 

 of the reason of which state of things lies in the 

 extremely faulty organisation of the majority of sec- 

 ondary Schools. Students come to the Universities ill- 

 prepared in classics and mathematics, not at all pre- 



