J4 THE MODERN UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT 



not wanting, should cleanse our rivers, and that our religious 

 zeal should manifest itself not so much in an anxiety as to 

 what creeds our children are taught at school, but in an 

 irresistible endeavour to secure that these same children shall 

 be reared in homes and surroundings that provide at least the 

 common decencies, the cheaper privileges, and the simpler 

 joys of civilized life ! Then, I think, we should be surprised 

 to find how much we had grown to resemble a university 

 town. 



This is a possibility that I do not think unlikely to be 

 realized. I think that it is not even remote, and thinking so, 

 the fundamental question about our new universities becomes 

 to me this is it well, in any case, that a university should lie 

 near the heart of industry, or should it be remote, secluded, 

 rural, far from the madding crowd ? 



There is much to be said on both sides, and I am not 

 insensible to the eloquence with which pleas have been uttered 

 for the almost monastic seclusion of a university ; but so long 

 as great cities exist, I am wholly in favour of our universities 

 being by their side. To state the reason compels me again to 

 speak of Oxford and Cambridge, and I should like to take the 

 occasion to say how far it is from my desire to speak of those 

 great institutions with any lack of respect. It would ill 

 become me, for in the first place I was educated at neither, 

 and in the second I know how indebted the new universities 

 are to the Oxford and Cambridge men who have brought to 

 them aid and enlightenment that have guarded and guided their 

 infancy. 



My belief in the wisdom of establishing universities in the 

 centres of industry is based on both experience and anticipation. 

 Experience has led me to think that English education and 

 English life have suffered to an almost incalculable extent by the 

 isolation of our ancient universities. The want of geographical 

 contact between the greatest seats of learning and the busy 



