October lo, 1901] 



NA TURE 



585 



preparatory with professional studies, also leads to much waste 

 of time. All preparatory studies ought to be over by the age 

 of twenty-one, and in some cases even sooner. A young 

 engineer ought not at that age to be learning the physics and 

 chemistry and mechanics, the principles of which he certainly 

 requires for use, but should be free to work at his engineering, 

 and what pertains directly to it. 



VVe may hope that the university will provide such a liberal 

 programme that there may be many avenues to the same degree 

 suitable to the needs and circumstances of difiTerent classes of 

 students. By this I mean that there should be a very free 

 choice of languages and sciences ;and I should exclude altogether 

 from the early stages of a student's career commercial and 

 technical subjects which, however practically important they 

 may be, should only be taken up after the first degree, B. A. or 

 B.Sc. , has been reached, and the time for concentration has 

 come. 



As to the entrance or matriculation examination, much diflfer- 

 ence of opinion exists. But whether a classical language be 

 insisted upon or not, and whether one or more modern languages 

 be required, seem to me to be questions far inferior in importance 

 to the requirement that every student admitted to the university 

 should have been trained as far as he has gone in scientific method. 

 This does not mean that he should be acquainted with any par- 

 ticular branch of science, but thit by means of scientific study 

 he should have been taught to use his eyes so as to see things 

 clearly, and should have been made to understand the nature 

 and the right use of evidence in coming to any conclusion. This 

 cannot be done by literary study alone, and if not begun'early in 

 life will scarcely be accomplished later on. 



.\n educated man must have not only thoughts, but language 

 by which he may express his thoughts intelligibly and with such 

 brevity or fulness as befits the occasion or the nature of the 

 subject. He must speak and write his own language correctly. 

 How much more should be required by the university I have no 

 time to consider now, but I thmk no man of active mind will be 

 content with translations of the literature or even of the .scientific 

 treatises of other countries. 



The university is a place of education primarily, as I have 

 said ; but it should also be a place for research, and I will try to 

 say why. 



It is not, I think, the first business of a university to make 

 new knowledge for the sake of the knowledge, but it is indis- 

 pensable to all systems of advanced instruction that students 

 should be associated with teachers who are daily engaged in the 

 endeavour to penetrate by new ways into the regions which lie 

 beyond the boundaries of existing knowledge. In no other way 

 can the teaching of the university be preserved both fresh and 

 free from error. Moreover, it is impossible to arrest the progress 

 of discovery, which will go on elsewhere, however it may be 

 ignored by the university, and how is it to keep abreast of the 

 knowledge of the day except by taking part in the process of 

 making it ? Fortunately, the statutes framed by the commis- 

 sioners distinctly include among the purposes of the University 

 the promotion of research and the advancement of science and 

 learning. This is a matter which cannot be passed by in silence, 

 because it is one of those questions about which difference of 

 opinion exists even within the senate of the University itself. 

 This is shown by what occurred at the presentation for degrees 

 last May. Lord Rosebery was present on the platform and 

 everybody was very glad to see him, but there is great danger 

 in yielding, as the Vice-Chancellor quite naturally did, to the 

 temptation to invite a distinguished visitor to say a few words 

 on the spur of the moment, unless you are quite certain before- 

 hand as to what he will say. For on being asked to speak. 

 Lord Rosebery expressed the opinion that the University should 

 teach and should have nothing to do with research, which proved 

 to my mind that he had never thought seriously about the 

 question. Nevertheless, this remark was received with evident 

 approval by a considerable part of the audience, and was of 

 course reported fully in all the newspapers. 



There are two influences exercised by newspapers which 

 seem to me distinctly mischievous. The one is the diffusion 

 of the idea that mere novelty is a virtue, that things of 

 yesterday are more interesting and important than the things of 

 any day before ; and the other is that the utterances of a 

 prominent public man, on any subject whatever, are better 

 worth having than the opinion of the man who has given his 

 whole life to it, and I venture to say that public men are not 

 always cautious enough in what they say on subjects to which 



NO. 1667, VOL. 64] 



they have given no attention, considering the weight attached 

 by the public to all their words. 



But as to this que.stion of research in all places of higher 

 instruction, what a priori judgment can compare with experience 

 already gained ? I am not one of those who willingly refer to 

 Germany, for I am weary of the exaggerated nonsense often 

 talked about German competition and English incompetence. 

 But it is easy to see that the universities of Germany have 

 settled the question for us and all the rest of the world by 

 simply acting on the advice and example of Liebig, to whose 

 influence much of her present prosperity is due. 



Newman, as already stated, did not think that scientific or 

 philosophical discovery should be the business of a university, 

 but there is a splendid passage in his famous book, "The Idea 

 of a University," which, though he does not refer lo research, I 

 cannot refrain from tearing away from its context, because it 

 supplies such a vivid picture of the benefits which attend the 

 existence of such a university in which the art of research is 

 cultivated. He says : " This I conceive to be the advantage of 

 a seat of universal learning, considered as a place of education. 

 An assemblage of learned men, zealous for their own sciences, 

 and rivals of each other are brought, by familiar intercourse 

 and for the sake of intellectual peace, to adjust together the 

 claims and relations of their respective subjects of investigation. 

 They learn to respect, to consult, to aid each other. Thus is 

 created a pure and clear atmosphere of thought, which the 

 student also breathes, though in his own case he only pursues a 

 few sciences out of the multitude. He profits by an intellectual 

 tradition which is independent of particular teachers, which 

 guides him in his choice of subjects and duly interprets for him 

 those which he chooses. He apprehends the great outlines of 

 knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its 

 parts, its lights and its shades, its great points and its little, as 

 he otherwise cannot apprehend them. Hence it is that his 

 education is called ' liberal.' A habit of mind is formed which 

 lasts through life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitable- 

 ness, calmness, moderation and wisdom ; or what I have 

 ventured to call a philosophical habit. This, then, I would 

 assign as the special fruit of the education furnished at a 

 university, as contrasted with other places of teaching or modes 

 of teaching. This is the main purpose of a university in its 

 treatment of its students." 



This I also humbly believe to be the primary purpose of 

 university education, and this kept steadily in view all other 

 things, the making of good doctors, chemists, engineers and 

 merchants will be added thereto. This it is which, I think, will 

 also best satisfy the want so eloquently put forward by Lord 

 Rosebery last November, when, speaking not on the spur of the 

 moment, but deliberately in the character of Lord Rector of the 

 ancient University of Glasgow, he declared that " the first need 

 of our country is a want of men. We want men for all sorts 

 of high positions. We want men who will go anywhere at a 

 moment's notice and do anything." And Lord Rosebery rightly 

 thinks that it is the business of universities to produce such 

 men. Of course it will be asked what has all this to do with 

 the Royal College of Science, which is essentially a technical 

 school for the training of teachers and of mining engineers 

 and metallurgists. The answer is that we have accepted pro- 

 visionally a place in the new university, and so the future work- 

 ing of the university cannot fail to have a deep interest for us. 

 The nature of the entrance examinations which hereafter we 

 shall be obliged to impose, the extent to which our courses 

 of instruction and our college examinations are to be recognised 

 by the university, the position of our associates in the university, 

 are questions which remain to be considered and settled. 

 And, further, I may add thati the character and organisation of 

 the teaching side of the university are subjects which will here- 

 after seriously influence our feelings towards it and the 

 extent to which we shall be inclined to cast in our lot per- 

 manently with the new institution. A great opportunity now 

 opens for the establishment of a seat of learning in the richest 

 and most populous city in the world, richest not only in 

 material wealth, but richest in collections of all that Is precious 

 to literature, science and art, richest in magnificent traditions 

 and in memorials of the past. The question is, Will the people 

 of London rise to the level of the great occasion ? It concerns 

 them more nearly than anyone else. Is London to fall behind 

 a dozen provincial towns which by the exertions or the munifi- 

 cence of their own citizens aflford such splendid evidence of local 

 patriotism ? London is no longer one city, but has become lately 



