2l8 



NATURE 



[July 6, 1905 



All Souls might readily do as much for learning in 

 Oxford by her fellowships as she now does to pro 

 vent learning— as she now does to turn the attention 

 of the ablest men towards what will pay in examin- 

 ations, and to shut their ears to the still small voice 

 of latent imagination and original power. If All 

 Souls gave her two fellowships each year for evidence 

 of research, the ablest of the men studying the sub- 

 jects of her choice would demand of their teachers 

 inspiration and guidance in the highest work. Where 

 the ablest men lead others would soon follow, and the 

 whole intellectual atmosphere would rapidly change. 



All Souls unaided could do an immense deal to 

 induce the other colleges to provide higher teach- 

 ing, or, even better, to encourage their men to get 

 help outside the college walls. As it is, she provides 

 the strongest of all the forces which chain Oxford to 

 that unhappy infatuation which has had so disastrous 

 an effect on the imagination, the initiative, the re- 

 sourcefulness of the nation. 



The title of this article w\is chosen in the profound 

 conviction that interests much wider and more im- 

 portant than those of Oxford and Cambridge are at 

 stake. Our ancient universities have heavy responsi- 

 bilities, extending far beyond their historic walls. 

 Every new university and university college in the 

 Empire draws its teachers from Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge, and, for good or for evil, moulds the broad 

 features of its intellectual life upon the pattern sup- 

 plied by these ancient seats of learning. 



In the supreme interests of the Empire, as well as 

 of the university itself, we fully sympathise with the 

 aims of those who desire to render Oxford a more 

 efficient instrument of research and the highest and 

 most stimulating teaching, but we have no right to 

 claim their sympathy or support for our own views 

 on university and collegiate life. It may well be that 

 the onlooker sees weaknesses and obvious measures 

 of reform hidden from those on the spot, or appearing 

 to them as a far-off ideal impossible of realisation, 

 at least in this generation. Speaking for those who 

 watch from without, who admire and would preserve 

 and strengthen the truly inspiring elements of the 

 academic life at both our ancient universities, we 

 would gladly see them subject to the following simple, 

 but, as we believe, efficient measure of reform. 



The whole of the teaching should be entirely under 

 the control of the university, which in its boards 

 already possesses at least the foundation of the 

 necessary apparatus. The college fellowships should 

 be given in part for university teaching combined 

 with original work and in part for research alone, 

 to be held only during the continuance of investi- 

 gation. A career would thus be open for originality 

 of a high order, and the ablest men would flock 

 to our ancient seats of learning and render them 

 indeed worthy of the name. Residence in homes 

 of ancient learning would gain added inspiration 

 when the greatest traditions of the past were re- 

 newed and maintained. Even with things as they 

 NO. 1862, VOL. 72] 



are, Oxford and Cambridge, though much injured 

 by competitive examinations, have been far less 

 injured than England in general; and this they 

 owe to the residential system. Little thought of, 

 perhaps neglected, by the builders, the head-stone ot 

 the educational edifice is here to be found. Where 

 mind meets mind in the free intercourse of youth there 

 springs from the contact some of that fire which, 

 under our present system, is rarely to be obtained in 

 any other way; and not only this, but many other 

 priceless advantages in the battle of life are also con- 

 ferred. To these influences we owe in large part all 

 that is best in the English character, and so valuable 

 are the qualities thus developed, or at least greatly 

 strengthened, that we regard residential colleges as 

 essential to the success and usefulness of the newer 

 universities. The changes we have advocated in the 

 older universities would only add to this beneficent 

 system increased power for good by substituting 

 for the barren pride of first classes and university 

 prizes the enthusiasm for a society which nobly holds 

 its own in those achievements which bring renown 

 wherever the advancement of learning is held in 

 honour— a sufficient answer to the contention that to 

 deprive a college of teaching is to render it a board- 

 ing-house and nothing more. That the advancement 

 of learning is the desire of those who have signed 

 the memorial we do not doubt, however much they 

 may disagree with the methods here suggested for 

 the attainment of their ends. On our part we feel 

 such confidence in the beneficent influence of the 

 increase in efficiency for which they plead, that we 

 should gladly see funds provided for the purpose. 



In former centuries the highest learning was 

 encouraged in this country by the munificence of 

 "founders and benefactors"; and we are glad to 

 know that one of the needs set forth in the accom- 

 panying statement has already been generously met, 

 and even more than met, by the establishment of a 

 department presided over by a Beit professor of 

 colonial history. But the signs of the times do not 

 encourage us to anticipate any very large or fruitful 

 following of this fine example; and we see no pro- 

 spect of carrying out the suggested scheme in any- 

 thing like completeness, except by a re-arrangement 

 of the revenues of the university and the colleges, or 

 by the action of a Government which is convinced 

 that the national well-being is imperilled, the national 

 existence at stake. 



TBI. SARCODINE FAUNA OF DEEP LAKES. 

 Les Sarcodinis des Grands Lacs. By Eugene 



Penard. Pp. 133. (Geneva : H. Kundig, 1905.) 

 T^R. PENARD'S enthusiastic and minute investi- 

 ■L^ gations into this group of the Protozoa are 

 well known. In the course of many years' study of 

 the Sarcodina of the Lake of Geneva and of the sur- 

 rounding country, he became convinced that there is 

 a special sarcodine fauna of deep lakes. The facts on 

 which he founded his theory, already embodied in his 



