124 GERMAN SCIENCE 



He thinks of it as a temple of disinterested learning, a place 

 haunted by the spirits of mighty men, the place where the 

 flower of English youth assembled, young men with different 

 destinies, different hopes, different ideals, who got to kno\v 

 one another, influenced and stimulated one another, where 

 character was formed and strengthened, aspirations gained, and 

 the whole man influenced for good service in the world. 



My praise of our old universities is always qualified. I 

 believe they sadly neglected their duty to science, that they al- 

 lowed themselves to grow much too aloof from the work-a-day 

 world and the occupations that engage the bulk of our people. 



The new universities are relatively small, and they cannot 

 claim yet to have in any great measure the greatest virtues of 

 the old. But in their closer association with the industrial 

 world they have, I believe, an enormous advantage. The 

 University of Leeds is often spoken of as a technical univer- 

 sity. It is no such thing. It is a university in which those who 

 are engaged in literary, scientific and technical studies dwell 

 together in union and harmony. We set out deliberately to 

 avoid one-sidedness, we seek to gather together a community 

 of all interests, and we believe that in our mutual influences we 

 shall preserve a fair balance ; that we shall produce neither the 

 literary pedant, too superfine to sympathize with the realities 

 of life, nor the narrow scientific technologist with a view of 

 knowledge limited to the service of material ends. 



In this way I think we shall do better than Germany, and 

 whilst cultivating science, shall avoid its detachment and in- 

 tensive cultivation for practical ends apart from other realms 

 of knowledge. We shall keep its votaries sane, large-minded 

 and in sympathy with all that is worthy and elevating to the 

 human spirit, and make them better able to gauge and meet 

 the complex and varied needs of a nation striving not only for 

 greater prosperity but for truer civilization. 



PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 



