THE MODERN UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT 23 



department of knowledge? and in one spot ; else, how can 

 there be any school at all? Accordingly, in its simple and 

 rudimental form, it is a school of knowledge of every kind, 

 consisting of teachers and learners from every quarter. Many 

 things are requisite to complete and satisfy the idea embodied 

 in this description ; but such as this a university seems to be 

 in its essence, a place for the communication and circulation 

 of thought, by means of personal intercourse, through a wide 

 extent of country. ... A university is a place of concourse' 

 whither students come from every quarter for every kind of 

 knowledge. You cannot have the best of every kind every- 

 where ; you must go to some great city or emporium for it. 

 There you have all the choicest productions of nature and art 

 all together, which you find each in its own separate place 

 elsewhere. All the riches of the land and of the earth are' 

 carried up thither; there are the best markets, and there the best 

 workmen. It is the centre of trade, the supreme court of 

 fashion, the umpire of rival talents, and the standard of things 

 rare and precious. It is the place for seeing galleries of first- 

 rate pictures, and for hearing wonderful voices and performers 

 of transcendent skill. It is the place for great preachers, great 

 orators, great nobles, great statesmen. In the nature of things, 

 greatness and unity go together ; excellence implies a centre. 

 And such, for the fourth or fifth time, is a university ; I hope 

 I do not weary out the reader by repeating it. It is the place 

 to which a thousand schools make contributions ; in which 

 the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to find its 

 equal in some antagonist activity, and its judge in the tribunal 

 of truth. It is a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and 

 discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered 

 innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with 

 mind, and knowledge with knowledge. It is the place where 

 the professor becomes eloquent, and is a missionary and a 

 preacher, displaying his science in its most complete and most 



