584 



NA TURE 



[October 10, 1901 



Royal College of Science in ofi'ering on this occasion of severing 

 an official link an expression of our earnest wish that he may 

 enjoy many years of health and undiminished strength to carry 

 forward those researches which have made the name of Lockyer 

 famous throughout the civilised world. Prof. Rilcker has been 

 called away to occupy the high position of principal of the 

 teconstituted University of London, concerning which I shall 

 say a few words presently. It is difficult to express the profound 

 sense of loss with which I refer to the removal of Prof. Riicker. 

 The members of the College have only the satisfaction of 

 knowing that among their number was found the only man who 

 seemed to possess the qualifications requisite for this difficult 

 and arduous position. We also have reason to hope that the 

 association o( the College with the University will afford oppor- 

 tunities for the exercise of his friendly cooperation and advice 

 whenever they are required in the work ofthe College which hehas 

 served so long and with so much advantage to all good students. 



Days like this are milestones pn the road of life for all of us — 

 for you students marking very early stages of the journey — for 

 some of us pretty far advanced toward the end. The metaphor 

 suggests that those of us who have travelled in advance may 

 have something useful to say to those who come after. But I 

 ^m not going to offer much in the way of advice, because my 

 experience tells me that it will be only very sparingly accepted. 

 After all, the road which you have to follow is not the same, 

 things are altered since %vc passed that way, times are changed, 

 and even if it were not so the spirit of each succeeding gener- 

 ation appears to be unwilling to blend itself with the spirit of 

 the past. The instinct of the young is always to try everything 

 afresh and make up the sum of their own experience, and to 

 legard with suspicion everything which the seniors have to say. 

 But I do not seriously blame them. If it were not thus the 

 world would soon be too wise for happiness, the sense of 

 adventure would no longer brighten the springtime of life which 

 "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought would lose the 

 name of action." 



Apart from the advice which it is my custom to address to my 

 own class on the conduct of their studies, all I desire to say to 

 the students here can be expressed in a fevv words. Do not 

 suppose that we seniors are indifferent to your fortunes, to your 

 struggles and successes or failures. On such a day as this we 

 rejoice with those who have reason to rejoice — the winners of 

 prizes and rewards. We would gladly be among you as equals 

 or competitors ; we think of our own time and the happiness 

 of something attempted, something done. Go on and prosper. 

 To the newcomers whom we welcome to-day, we wish a like 

 success in the years which are to follow. But it must not be 

 forgotten by them that this demands effort, strenuous and sus- 

 tained effort. It will not be enough to enter the College every 

 ■day at a few minutes after ten and leave it at a few minutes before 

 four, and though I do not advise midnight oil, I do venture to 

 say that the chief purpose of the Royal College of Science is not 

 to provide a pleasant kind of club for a few privileged young 

 persons at the expense of the Government or of their own 

 parents and friends. 



Aut disce aut discede ought to be written up here as it is in 

 another place. 



The third course hinted at on that celebrated notice board is 

 not available here. So you must understand that there are but 

 two alternatives recognised among us — either learn or leave the 

 place. 



Independently of the circumstances to which I have already 

 ■referred as marking in a special way the opening of this present 

 •session, there is another subject which must before long assume 

 a position of great importance to us. This College is a recog- 

 nised school of the new University of London, the majority of 

 ■the staff are recognised teachers, and those students who choose 

 may become matriculated inleriial students of the University. 

 We cannot yet see clearly to what extent this association will 

 influence our work. We hope for the best ; but I think we 

 shall all be agreed that we shall not welcome any changes which 

 will not enable us to live up to the splendid standard of the 

 traditions of our College. Some modifications of detail are, no 

 ■doubt, from time to time desirable, but we cannot have the 

 standard of attainment and of original work lowered to suit the 

 arrangements of some other institution, however influential. 



As it is probable that many of you have not had occasion to 

 consider the subject of the constitution and work of the 

 University, I will venture to submit a few thoughts connected 

 with the subject. 



NO. 1667, VOL. 64] 



I wonder whether any of you have formed an idea of a 

 university so as to be able to define it. Many people think a 

 university is a place where you may get a degree ; a few think 

 it is a place for instruction of a professional or technical kind, 

 still fewer think it is a place for research. An eminent member 

 of the present Government made a speech only a few weeks ago 

 in which at the outset he promised to define a university. In 

 the end, however, he did not supply a definition, but he ex- 

 pressed, certainly very clearly, what in his opinion a university 

 ought to do. 



Mr. Chamberlain's view is that a university should do four 

 things — it should teach, it should examine, it should add to 

 knowledge by research, it should show the applications of 

 knowledge. A pretty extensive programme surely ! 



Cardinal Newman's definition — " A place of /eacAw^ universal 

 knowledge " — does not seem to imply so much, because he almost 

 immediately adds that its object is, intei- alia, the diffusion and 

 extension of knowledge rather than the advancement. *' If, he 

 says, its object were scientific and philosophical discovery, I do 

 not see why a university should have students." (*'The Idea 

 of a University," preface). 



I will venture a new definition. I should say a university is 

 a place of higher education for those who are qualified by nature 

 to profit by it. And I say that deliberately, holding the opinion 

 as I do that it is not advisable to give more than elementary 

 education to everybody, nor to encourage young people in- 

 discriminately to enter upon a university course. An enormous 

 amount of educational power is now wasted in trying to give a 

 training to* intellectual faculties which do not exist, for Provi- 

 dence has not given brains equally to everyone, and many a boy 

 and girl now forced by parents or circumstances to the study of 

 books would he much happier and more useful members of the 

 community if they were taught to lay bricks and to sew and 

 cook and wash, and do these necessary thmgs well which are 

 now done badly. This, of course, is not the business of a 

 university, but if the university can so arrange its tests, whether 

 by examination, or in some other way yet to be devised, as to 

 prevent any large number of weaklings from entering upon the 

 university curriculum, it will be doing a kindness to the rejected 

 and a service to the rest of the world. 



The new University of London is to be a place of 

 education, we are told, and no longer only a system for 

 testing knowledge got anyhow and anywhere. Us business 

 is to prepare its students for the world. I hold strongly 

 to the view that the primary business of a university is not to 

 provide technical instruction from the outset, but to provide 

 those conditions which will help to convert Ihe boy into the 

 matt, and so to prepare him by the cultivation of his faculties 

 that he is then ready to receive instruction in any profession or 

 pursuit which may be marked out for him by his own special 

 gifts or opportunities. All your bachelors, whether in arts or 

 sciences, should be merely well-educated young people with 

 brains. If the programme at school and college has been 

 properly laid out, they cannot have had time to have made 

 much progress in technical work. This does not shut other 

 doors into the professions. A man may become a doctor, a 

 lawyer, an engineer or a chemist without going near the uni- 

 versity, but the way through the university must, if things are 

 properly ordered, be always the way chosen by the best students. 

 What I fear is a continuance and increase of the confusion 

 between the processes of education which properly* belong to 

 the university and the process of instruction in useful arts or 

 applied science which belongs to the technical school, or, if you 

 please, to the more advanced stages of the university curriculum. 

 Some confusion is inevitable in consequence of the existence 

 from early times in the history of universities of the facul- 

 ties of theology, law and medicin* which are necessarily con- 

 nected with professions. But in a new university tradition 

 should not be allowed too prominent a place. 



In the faculties of engineering and commerce which are to be 

 established it will be disastrous to the cause of higher education 

 if technical practice is to be received as an equivalent for studies 

 which contribute to culture, style and character. 



I dissent altogether from the view which seems to be held by 

 some people that the sooner a boy gets to things which will be 

 connected with his future business the better. Doubtless cir- 

 cumstances compel the adoption of this course in some cases, 

 but it is not one which ought to receive the sanction of the 

 university. 



The confusion of education with instruction, the mixing of 



