THE MODERN UNIVERSITY MOVEMENT 13 



these are reasons enough, without supposing that there has 

 been a re-awakening of intellectual zeal or a resumption of 

 ancient studies such as characterized the Renaissance. Here, 

 at least, we are ; let us consider what we are and what we are 

 likely to become. 



The new universities seem, indeed, very different from 

 Oxford and Cambridge, but I believe the difference is by no 

 means so great as many people suppose. The University of 

 Leeds or of Liverpool presents a very different picture from 

 that of Oxford or Cambridge, but the difference is more in the 

 frame than in the picture. Oxford or Cambridge is in reality, 

 as in the popular imagination, a vast university, with some- 

 thing of a town in its neighbourhood ; Leeds or Liverpool is 

 a vast town, with something of a university in its neighbour- 

 hood. In one case it is nearly all canvas, and in the other 

 nearly all frame. But it must be remembered that at one time 

 Oxford, at least, was no less important an English city than 

 Liverpool now is, and that in those days the intrusion of 

 a university was looked upon by the citizens not only with 

 coldness, but with violent disfavour. 



I have no wish to make little of the difference between 

 the old universities and the new, but it is not uninteresting 

 to contemplate either the past or the future as well as the 

 present. As to the future, there are two possibilities to 

 consider. Suppose that something should occur to make 

 Oxford and Cambridge great centres of industry, to pollute 

 their air, foul their rivers, blight their trees and lawns, cover 

 their buildings with a film of tar and fill their streets with 

 crowds of artisans ! , They would become much like ourselves. 

 I do not think this likely. But there is the other possibility. 

 Suppose that something should occur to transform the con- 

 ditions of industry, that the extended use of gaseous fuel and 

 electricity should abolish our pall of smoke, that goodwill, 

 which is wanting, combined with good knowledge, which is 



