Some German Educational Methods and Ideais. 1 7 



examples, but it did not follow that they should be adopted in 

 other countries without much consideration. 



Mr. J. Finnegan said the discussion ought to be useful, as it 

 is the wish of several to centralize university study and compel 

 Ireland to go through the mistakes made in England and France 

 before we get a real system of University Education. 



In France the plan of a National University was tried and 

 failed, its 21 Universities disappearing at the Revolution, one 

 University took their place, with faculities in different parts of the 

 country, the general result was barrenness and decay in intellectual 

 life, and the re-establishment of 15 Universities in 1895. 



The influence of German Universities in the country and the 

 world is extraordinary, the number of students at Berlin alone is 

 as great as at Oxford and Cambridge combined. 



They constitute a world in themselves, and docents continually 

 migrating from one to another, each University tries to attract the 

 best talent to its own staff and thereby increase the number of 

 students. 



The distinctive value of the German University lies in the 

 fact that they supply an environment in which the best teaching 

 talent can be developed and every capability of the student 

 satisfied. 



Into this environment advancing science easily finds an entrance, 

 the higher vocation of eminent men is recognized, and the poorer 

 lives of common men receives an increased appreciation of ex- 

 istence. 



Professor Meissner observed that from the stand-point of a 

 German nothing appeared more surprising than the proceedings 

 of the various Commissions taking evidence on the University 

 Question. Practically the same persons were invited to give, 

 or volunteered to give, their opinion before each succeeding 

 commission. In Germany no one would ever dream of asking 

 any of these people for their opinion on University Education 

 and if they went to offer it, it would be received with the greatest 

 contempt. As to a federal university, the plan had been tried in 

 London and the Victoria University. In Ireland the attempt had 



