Ixxxii REPORT — 1876. 



University to perform its part, and to widen its portals so that tlie nation at 

 large may reap the advantage of this well-timed foundation. 



If the Universities, in accordance with the spirit of theu- statutes, or at 

 least of ancient usage, would demand from the candidates for some of the 

 higher degrees proof of original powers of investigation, they would give an 

 important stimulus to the cultivation of science. The example of many con- 

 tinental universities, and among others of the venerable University of Leyden, 

 may here be mentioned. Two proof essays recently written for the degree 

 of Doctor of Science in Leyden, one by Van der Waals, the other by Lorenz, 

 are works of unusual merit ; and another pupil of Professor Eijke is now 

 engaged in an elaborate experimental research as a qualification for the same 

 degree. 



The endowment of a body of scientific men devoted exclusively to original 

 research, without the duty of teaching or other occupation, has of late been 

 strongly advocated in this country ; and M. Fremy has given the weight of 

 his high authority to a somewhat similar proposal for the encouragement of 

 research in France. I will not attempt to discuss the subject as a national 

 question, the more so as after having given the proposal the most careful 

 consideration in my power, and turned it round on every side, I have failed 

 to discover how it could be worked so as to secure the end in view. 



But whatever may be said in favour of the endowment of pure research as 

 a national question, the Universities ought surely never to be asked to give 

 their aid to a measure which would separate the higher intellects of the country 

 from the flower of its youth. It is only through the influence of original 

 minds that any great or enduring impression can be produced on the hopeful 

 student. . Without original power, and the habit of exercising it, you may 

 have an able instructor, but you cannot have a great teacher. No man can 

 be expected to train others in habits of observation and thought he has never 

 acquired himself. In every age of the world the great schools of learning 

 have, as in Athens of old, gathered around great and original minds, and 

 never more conspicuously than in the modem schools of chemistry, which 

 reflected the genius of Liebig, Wohler, Bunscn, and Hofmann. These 

 schools have been nurseries of original research as well as models of scientific 

 teaching ; and students attracted to them from all countries became enthu- 

 siastically devoted to science, while they learned its methods from example 

 even more than from precept. "Will any one have the courage to assert that 

 organic chemistry, with its many applications to the uses of mankind, would 

 have made in a few short years the marvellous strides it has done, if Science, 

 now as in mediaeval times, had pursued her work in strict seclusion, 



SeiDota ab nostris rebus, seiunctaque longe, 

 Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nil indiga nostri ? 



But while the Universities otight not to apply their resources in support 



