12 REPORT — 1902. 



acceleration of our rate of progress. For the impetus he gave to scientific 

 work and thought, and for his fine series of researches chiefly directed to 

 what Newton called the more secret and noble works of Nature within 

 the corpuscules, the world owes Tyndall a debt of gratitude. It is well 

 that his memory should be held in perennial respect, especially in the land 

 of his birth. 



The Endowment of Education. 



These are days of munificent benefactions to science and education, 

 which however are greater and more numerous in other countries 

 than in our own. Splendid as they are, it may be doubted, if we 

 take into account the change in the value of money, the enormous 

 increase of population, and the utility of science to the builders of colossal 

 fortunes, whether they bear comparison with the efforts of earlier days. 

 But the habit of endowing science was so long in practical abeyance that 

 every evidence of its resumption is matter for sincere congratulation. 

 Mr. Cecil Rhodes has dedicated a very large sum of money to the advance- 

 ment of education, though the means he has chosen are perhaps not the 

 most effective. It must be remembered that his aims were political as 

 much as educational. He had the noble and worthy ambition to promote 

 enduring friendship between the great English-speaking communities of 

 the world, and knowing the strength of college ties he conceived that this 

 end might be greatly furthered Vjy bringing together at an English univer- 

 sity the men who would presumably have much to do in later life with 

 the influencing of opinion, or even with the direction of policy. It has 

 been held by some a striking tribute to Oxford that a man but little given 

 to academic pursuits or modes of thought should think it a matter of 

 high importance to bring men from our colonies or even from Germany, 

 to submit to the formative influences of that ancient seat of learning. 

 But this is perhaps reading Mr. Rhodes backwards. He showed his 

 affectionate recollection of his college days by his gift to Oriel. But, apart 

 from the main idea of fostering good relations between those who will 

 presumably be influential in England, in the colonies, and in the United 

 States, Mr Rhodes was probably influenced also by the hope that the 

 influx of strangers would help to broaden Oxford notions and to procure 

 revision of conventional arrangements. 



Dr. Andrew Carnegie's endowment of Scottish universities, as modi- 

 fied by him in deference to expert advice, is a more direct benefit to the 

 higher education. For while Mr. Rhodes has only enabled young men to 

 get what Oxford has to give, Dr. Carnegie has also enabled his trustees 

 powerfully to augment and improve the teaching equipment of the univer- 

 sities themselves. At the same time he has provided as far as possible 

 for the enduring usefulness of his money. His trustees form a permanent 

 body external to the universities, which, while possessing no power of 

 direct control, must always, as holder of the purse-strings, be in a position 

 to offer independent and weighty criticisms. More recently Dr. Carnegie 



