DZCZMBZZ 1, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



:zi 



men can make a university great. Better 

 inspired investigators and teachers in bar- 

 racks tlian a staff of industrions medioc- 

 rity in marble palaces. Best of all. alert, 

 well-trained, high-minded scholars in serv- 

 iceable buildings with adequate equipment. 

 If, however, a choice mnst be made, it 

 .should never hesitate between men and ma- 

 terials. The university which is true to its 

 ideals will draw and hold an able staff by 

 salaries that banish petty anxiety, by free- 

 dom from drudgery, by opportunities for 

 research and public service, and by digni- 

 fying recognition. No institution that 

 thinks of investigators and teachers as em- 

 ployees is likely to secure any but the 

 drudges of the profession. 



"Enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism 

 of veracity," which Huxley deemed "a 

 greater possession than much learning" is 

 the very life of a true university. No mod- 

 em "College of the Seven Days Works" 

 can hope to keep itseM alive and fmitfol 

 unless some of its members are ceaselessly 

 engaged upon the unsolved problems. No 

 ingenious machinery of scholarship, no 

 mere pedantry which, as a wit has said, 

 "never takes a step without leaving a foot- 

 note," can take the place of the genuine 

 passion for new truth. The ideal univer- 

 sity will not deceive itself or others by any 

 perfunctory simulation of research. It 

 will seek men who have the dauntless 

 "fanaticism of veracity." 



"The teaching at the ideal university," 

 dec-lares Birrell, "is without equivocation 

 and without compromise. Its notes are 

 zeal, accuracy, fullness and authority. ' ' It 

 is hard to keep the functions of teaching 

 and investigation in equal honor. "Where 

 research is exalted instruction is too often 

 lightly esteemed. The "mere teacher" as 

 the patronizing phrase runs, suffers in 

 rank and salary and social status. In tiie 

 university of our dreams the noble calling 



or imparting truth, stimulating reflection 

 and kindling enthusiasm will be held in 

 high repute. But the two types will not 

 be too sharply contrasted, for he who 

 teaches "with zeal, accuracy, fullness and 

 authority" must refresh himself con- 

 .stantly at the sources of knowledge, while 

 no man who pushes forward the frontiers 

 of science can fail to impart with zest to 

 at least a .small group of foUowers the new 

 truth that he has discovered. The two 

 types must hold each other in respect and 

 honor, and both must be held up for ad- 

 miration by their colleagues. 



In an ideal university students should 

 be treated not as subjects, but as citizens 

 of the republic of letters and science. Stu- 

 dents have not always been in pupilage. 

 Frederick Barbarossa conferred such pow- 

 ers upon the students of Bologna that they 

 not only lorded it over the towns-folk, but 

 we are told "reduced the latter (pro- 

 fe^ors) to a position of humble deference 

 to the very body they were called upon to 

 instruct." To admit students to academic 

 citizenship, however, is not to surrender to 

 them control of the university. It is 

 .simply to emphasize their share in the com- 

 munity life: to Sx upon them responsibil- 

 ity and to afford that training in corporate 

 .self-control — the selection of leaders, the 

 creation of standards, the conformity to 

 these — ^which is the very essence of democ- 

 racy. The university must hark back to 

 the mediaeval ideal of a "Univeisitas 

 magistrorum et studentium" — a corpora^ 

 tion of teachers and scholars. The alumni, 

 too, must fed themselves a part of this 

 corporation. They do not, as at tlie Eng- 

 lish universities, l^aUy control, but actu- 

 ally they have great power and responsi- 

 bility. They will not be mere praisezs of 

 the past, and resent change because the 

 memories of their undergraduate days have 

 been embalmed in sentiment. On the con- 



