July 24, 1913] 



NA1 URE 



b 2 7 



about, will naturally look for some well-laid scheme 

 for fostering- all the subjects that are called 

 scientific. They will find something a propos in 

 the action of the Commissioners of 1877; but, so 

 far as the spontaneous action of the University is 

 concerned, it is all very much "as it happened." 

 Other universities may set out to rear proconsuls, 

 and succeed therein, but Cambridge leaves her 

 actions to define her ambitions. If she prepares 

 for nothing', there is nothing which she is not 

 prepared for, if only opportunity offers. 



Like "J.," if there are museums to be tended, 

 she is a zoologist ; if there are books to be cared 

 for, she learns about libraries; if there are build- 

 ings to think about, she is an archaeologist, or 

 at least an architect. One is reminded of the 

 person whom Mark Twain once set to music in 

 words like these : — 



VVhate'er this man is sot to do 

 He'll do it with a zest ; 

 No matter what his training is, 

 He'll do his level best. 



There are, indeed, few things in this world 

 that the well-trained Cambridge man has no 

 opinion about ; he generally knows at least how 

 they ought to be done. A few weeks ago a 

 typical Cambridge man, confronted for the 

 first time with an elaborate contrivance, the result 

 of years of effort, for eliciting some of the secrets 

 of nature, gave expression to his admiration by 

 suggesting that it was probably based upon an 

 erroneous principle. The danger of the Cambridge 

 opportunism is that the opportunity of doing the 

 same things over again, but, of course, better, 

 is such a tempting by-path leading away from 

 t'ne object for which the things are done at 

 all. 



The Cambridge man has the examiner's instinct 

 in his bones; he is so accustomed to examining 

 everything that his first impulse is to assign marks 

 -btit not too many. "I should give 75 per cent, 

 for the sort of answer I would have written my- 

 self," as a colleague examiner once said. It. 

 may be that, in the same way, the instinct of 

 the sister university, on being confronted with a 

 new fact, would be to write an essay about it 

 (which might come in useful sometimes), but 

 Cambridge still holds by "Mr. Tripos," and can- 

 not help beginning the consideration of any sub- 

 vert by a " nego majorem," if possible. 



One ought not to omit the biography of Sedg- 

 wick, written in conjunction with Prof. McKenny 

 Hughes, but "T.'s" chief contributions to our 

 knowledge were his four monumental volumes of 

 the architectural history of the University and 

 colleges of Cambridge, begun by his uncle, Robert 

 NO. 2282, VOL. 91] 



Willis, his dramatic work, and his numerous books 

 and pamphlets on libraries and the care of books, 

 while his ostensible business in life was the 

 Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. 

 According to his own account, had Frank Balfour 

 lived, he would have devoted himself to science, 

 but, unfortunately, Balfour perished. Here, again, 

 through him we see his University. With its 

 seventeen colleges it now includes a vast staff of 

 persons of the highest competence, whose osten- 

 sible duties are to teach, but how many of them 

 become known to fame for their teaching? One 

 hears more often of their attaining eminence as 

 "eood business men," and, indeed, the curious 

 art of expert management of affairs by unpaid 

 syndics seems likely to overspread the land like 

 the examination idea. Perhaps Rhodes might 

 have had some opinion on the subject ; he might 

 have thought, with some justice, that the syndic 

 was apt to take out his value in time, as there 

 was no question of money. It may be either pious 

 or profane to say it, but in its indirectness of 

 purpose Cambridge is distinguished from the great 

 world outside, and the Cambridge man is apt to 

 carry with him the opportunist idea which abounds 

 on the Cam, that his chance of distinction lies in 

 making and using opportunities to do something 

 else. 



Dear "J."; one wonders what he would have 

 said at his biography being made a spyglass to 

 look at his University with; something forcible, 

 no doubt, if not polite. It was not any sublime 

 absence of human failings that endeared "J." to 

 successive generations of Cambridge men. His 

 jaunty walk, the suggestion of being on good terms 

 with himself and all the world, the air of posses- 

 sion when some purpose happened to have become 

 his own, and the natural conclusions to be drawn 

 from the fact that, whatever happens, one has to 

 dine somewhere, made his society a real addition 

 to the joy of life. 



And, after all, if one takes out "J.," and writes 

 Cambridge instead, there would be nothing much 

 to alter. Alma Mater — Carissima ! you are pro- 

 vokingly irresistible. How can we but adore you 

 when, in reply to the suggestion that with a 

 scheduled income of some 300,000/. a year you 

 might easily present the magnificent spectacle of 

 a self-governed world speeding onward towards 

 the light, you say (and really think), "Tut-tut — it's 

 all a misunderstanding ; we are really seventeen 

 sisters and a mother, old and very poor, as poor 

 as can be, especially the mother." Hinc lucem ei 

 pocula sacra ! yet you are very human, and by 

 taking advantage of this opportunity and that, 

 you have surely moved onward in the last century 



