UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. fl 



pared in anything else ; and half their time is spent in 

 learning that which they ought to have known when 

 they came. 



I sometimes hear it said that the Scottish Universi- 

 ties differ from the English, in being to a much greater 

 extent places of comparatively elementary education for 

 a younger class of students. But it would seem doubt- 

 ful if any great difference of this kind really exists; 

 for a high authority, himself Head of an English Col- 

 lege, has solemnly affirmed that : " Elementary teaching 

 of youths under twenty is now the only function per- 

 formed by the University;" and that Colleges are 

 " boarding schools in which the elements of the learned 

 languages are taught to youth." * 



This is not the first time that I have quoted those 

 remarkable assertions. I should like to engrave them 

 in public view, for they have not been refuted; and 

 I am convinced that if their import is once clearly 

 apprehended, they will play no mean part when the 

 question of University reorganisation, with a view to 

 practical measures, comes on for. discussion. You are 

 not responsible for this anomalous state of affairs now ; 

 but, as you pass into active life and acquire the polit- 

 ical influence to which your education and your posi- 

 tion should entitle you, you will become responsible for 

 it, unless each in his sphere does his best to alter it, 

 by insisting on the improvement of secondary Schools. 



* " Suggestions for Academical Organisation, with Especial Reference 

 to Oxford." By the Rector of Lincoln. 

 4 



