The work of the universities for the nation past and present. The inaugural lecture delivered at the Guildhall, Cambridge, on Saturday, July 29, 1893

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FOURTH SUMMER MEETING.

THE

WORK OF THE UNIVERSITIES
FOR THE NATION

PAST AND PRESENT

THE INAUGURAL LECTURE

DELIVERED AT THE GUILDHALL, CAMBRIDGE
ON SATURDAY JULY 29 1893

BY

R. C. JEBB, LITT.D. M.P.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF CRF.R

ttT.T.OW OF TRINITY COLLEGE

CAMBRIDGE :
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

1893
Price One Shilling.

THE

WORK OF THE UNIVERSITIES
FOR THE NATION

PAST AND PRESENT

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FOURTH SUMMER MEETING.

THE

WORK OF THE UNIVERSITIES
FOR THE NATION

PAST AND PRESENT

THE INAUGURAL LECTURE

DELIVERED AT THE GUILDHALL, CAMBRIDGE
ON SATURDAY JULY 29 1893

BY

R. C. JEBB, LITT.D. M.P.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK AND FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE

CAMBRIDGE :
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

1893

CambrtDgt :

PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

OFTHE

UNIVERSITY

THE WORK OF THE UNIVERSITIES
FOR THE NATION, PAST AND
PRESENT.

THIS meeting, to which the University
welcomes her visitors, not as strangers or
aliens, but as members of a body united to
her by common studies and sympathies, is
a visible expression of that change which,
during the last thirty years, has been
passing over the relations between the
ancient Universities of England and the
country. They are no longer content to
be only, in the strict sense of the phrase,
seats of learning ; they now desire to be
J- i

THE UNIVERSITIES

also mother-cities of intellectual colonies,
and to spread the influence of their teach-
ing throughout the land. It is indeed
instructive to contrast this impulse with
that feeling with which we meet in earlier
ages, that any addition to the number of
centres at which a higher education could
be obtained was a menace to academic
monopoly. In mediaeval times, when a
body of Cambridge students withdrew to
Northampton, Henry III., who had at
first regarded the movement as likely to
benefit the town to which they went, was
presently induced to condemn it, as an
infringement of privilege elsewhere ; and
when Oxford students migrated to Stam-
ford, they were peremptorily recalled by
Edward III. In the days of the Com-
monwealth, the Master of Caius College,
William Dell, proposed that the studies of

AND THE NATION.

Oxford and Cambridge should be estab-
lished also in the large towns of the west
and north : the scheme was rejected, how-
ever, for a reason which, though valid at
the time, was precisely opposite to that
which in our own day has recommended
University Extension ; it was held that such
a measure would tend to diminish the
influence of the Universities. The modern
developments of railway travelling were
necessary to render Extension, as we under-
stand it, even possible ; but, before the
opportunity could be used, something more
vital was required, — the rise of a new
spirit.

And this suggests that it may be not
uninteresting to consider how far, and in
what sense, that spirit is new ; what, in
the past, has been the attitude of the

Universities towards the nation ; and how

i — 2

THE UNIVERSITIES

far, at different periods, they have per-
formed a national work. This is the sub-
ject with which I shall attempt, however
slightly and imperfectly, to deal. It is
scarcely necessary to observe that the
sketch must be confined to salient points.
Rise of The Universities of Europe sprang

Universi-
ties in from a spontaneous and enthusiastic desire

Europe.

for knowledge. During the dark ages,
from the fall of the Western Empire to
the eleventh century, such education as
existed was given in the schools attached
to monasteries and cathedrals. Though
some outlines of pagan literature were
preserved, the subjects taught were mainly
such as formed a direct preparation for the
calling of the priest or the monk. Towards
the end of this period, new studies began
to press for recognition, partly through the
stimulus given to Europe by contact with

AND THE NATION.

the more civilised East, a result to which
the Crusades contributed. The practical
studies of Medicine and of Law became
more extended. The rudiments of physical
science, and some branches of Mathematics,
came more clearly into view. At the be-
ginning of the twelfth century, the study
of Dialectic, based on parts of the Aristo-
telian Logic, received a notable impulse.
Its claim rested not only on its intrinsic
value as a mental discipline, but upon its
assumed relation to Theology. A belief
was diffused, which some famous contro-
versies of the time had strengthened, that
spiritual truth could not be rightly appre-
hended except through certain forms of
reasoning. This conception was the basis
of what was afterwards known as the
scholastic philosophy. Scholasticism began The scho-

7 lastic phi-

by dealing with certain problems of the los°Phy-

THE UNIVERSITIES

Aristotelian Logic (or what passed for
such), and then applied its processes to
Theology. The task which it ultimately
undertook was that of reconciling the
doctrines of the Church with human reason.
This explains why, in the middle age,
Dialectic was regarded as the paramount
science, the highest which could engage
man's intellect ; since it was not only the
handmaid of Theology, but in a certain
sense the key to it.

The question now was, where could
these new subjects be adequately studied ?
The ordinary range of instruction in the
monastic and cathedral schools was too
narrow to admit them. A few religious
houses there were, doubtless, in which
churchmen of exceptional gifts and attain-
ments responded in some measure to the
new desire ; but these were inadequate to

AND THE NATION.

satisfy the wants of the age. Associations
began to be formed, specially devoted to
purposes of study. Such an association
was commonly designated by one of two
names ; Studium Generate, meaning a place studium

Generate

of study not merely local, but open to all and Uni-

versitas.

comers ; or Universitas, a corporation or
guild, implying that teachers and learners
formed a definitely incorporated body.
The term Universitas being a general one,
this special sense of it was defined by some
addition ; we find such phrases as Univer-
sitas Magistrorum et scholarium, a corpora-
tion of masters and scholars ; or Universi-
tas literaria. It was not probably till the
close of the fourteenth century that the
word Universitas came to be commonly
used alone, in the sense of ' University/
The earliest example of such a body

dates from a time antecedent to the ^

&EUD

OF THE

VERSITTj

THE UNIVERSITIES

awakening of the European mind, and is
associated with the most indispensable of
the practical sciences. The school of
Medicine at Salerno in Southern Italy can
be traced to the ninth century. But the
twelfth century is that in which the first
great Universities of Europe take their
rise. Two of these are respectively typical
of different tendencies in the higher teach-

Paris. ing of the age. The University of Paris
became the great school of Dialectic and
Theology : it represents especially the
desire for a general mental training, with

Bologna, a speculative bent. The University of
Bologna, famous for the study of the civil
and canon law, gave the foremost place to
the idea of a professional training, with a
definite practical aim.

The Eng- Paris was the model upon which the

lish Uni-
versities. English Universities were founded. Be-

AND THE NATION.

fore the end of the twelfth century,
Giraldus Cambrensis could describe Ox-
ford as the place ' where the clergy in
England chiefly flourished, and excelled
in clerkly lore/ The earliest history
of our own University is more obscure ;
but it, too, probably had its origin
in the twelfth century, in connection with
teaching carried on by the canons of the
Church of St Giles ; and in 1 209 we
hear of some students migrating from
Oxford to Cambridge. But it is not until
we come to the era of the earliest
Cambridge Colleges that there is any full
or clear light. Throughout the middle
age, Oxford was the representative Uni-
versity of England ; and not only that, but
at one time the rival, and in some respects
the superior, of Paris. There are, how-
ever, indications enough to show7 that the

THE UNIVERSITIES

development of mediaeval Cambridge was
following the same general course.
First pe- . The first period which we may take in

riod : from

about 1216 the history of the English Universities

to 1350

starts from the time when they begin to
have a distinct influence on the national
life, — viz., from the early part of the thir-
teenth century, — and goes down to about
the middle of the fourteenth. It answers
roughly to the reigns of Henry III. and the
first two Edwards, with the first half or so
of Edward 1 1 I.'s. This was the golden age
Oxford, of the scholastic philosophy. At this period
Oxford produced a series of famous school-
men, among whom Roger Bacon, Duns
Scotus, and William of Occam are only
some of the most prominent, — doctors
celebrated throughout Christendom. Nor
were the studies confined to scholasticism,
though that was in the foreground ; all

AND THE NATION.

other knowledge that the age possessed
was pursued with ardour. Never since,
perhaps, has any seat of learning given
proofs of a more eager or varied activity
than is attested by this long succession of
brilliant Oxonians, many of whom were

Franciscans. At this time the English The Uni-
versities

Universities represented the best intellect j
and the highest knowledge that existed in
the country. All men who cared for
mental cultivation at all looked to them as
the centres of education. Their attractive
power was the more widely felt because
the Church then offered the most varied
avenues to advancement in life ; indeed,
there was no other road to it, except a
military career. Many of us, perhaps,
when we look back upon the mediaeval
University, might be apt to think that
after all it had little but the name in

12 THE UNIVERSITIES

common with the University of to-day.
In one sense, of course, this is true. An
impassable gulf divides them in respect to
material surroundings, to aims and methods
of study, to the whole fabric of government
and society. ( But, if we revert to the idea
in which Universities had their origin, we
find that the English University of the
thirteenth century fulfilled the essence of it ;
it possessed the highest culture of the age ;
and it was recognised by the nation as the
exponent of that culture.

This position rested primarily on the
dominance of the scholastic philosophy,
which, in turn, presupposed the unity of
Christendom. It is no paradox to say
that, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
it was necessary for a University to be inter-
national before it could be worthily national.
Its rank depended on the eminence of its

AND THE NATION. 13

teachers in studies which were acknow-
ledged as paramount throughout Europe,
and which were pursued in the common
language of learning, the Latin. At Paris
this cosmopolitan character appears in the
four 'nations' of that University, the
French, the Norman, the Picard, and the
English. At Oxford and Cambridge there
were only two nations, representing re-
spectively the North and the South of
England ; but we hear of students from
Paris migrating to both our Universities ;
and the number of foreign students, especi-
ally at Oxford, must at one time have been
considerable.

With the second half of the fourteenth From 1350

to 1500

century, however, we enter upon a new A.D.
period of our academic annals, in the
course of which the attitude of the Uni-
versities towards the nation was gradually

cism.

14 7 HE UNIVERSITIES

but profoundly changed. This stage may

be roughly defined as extending from
about 1350 to 1500.

Decay of The first great fact which meets us

Scholasti-

here is the incipient decay of the scholastic
philosophy. It declined, not because any
formidable rival had appeared in the field
of intellectual interests, but because the
age was slowly coming to perceive that
scholasticism had failed in the sublime task
which had inspired the dreams of its youth-
ful ambition. It had not succeeded in
reconciling the doctrines of the Church
with human reason. The extraordinary
enthusiasm and devotion which it had so
long commanded sprang from the belief
that, in the domain of knowledge, this
philosophy was a sort of counterpart to
the Holy Roman Empire in the sphere of
government, and that, as the Emperor

AND THE NATION. 15

was in the old phrase the ' advocate ' of the
Church, so the cultivation of the intellect
reached its climax in those studies where
the Dialectic bequeathed by Greece be-
came the secular arm of Theology. But
theologians from one point of view, and
logicians from another, came to see that
the alliance had broken down ; semi- mysti-
cism on the one part, inchoate scepticism
on the other, became the refuge of dis-
appointment. And, when the scholastic
philosophy was once separated from its
loftiest purpose, what was it ? An armoury
of slowly rusting weapons, which could no
more do service in the greatest of the
causes for which they had been elaborated.
The weary guardians of the armoury might
shift the places of those weapons on the
dusty walls, and make some show of
keeping them decently keen and bright ;

1 6 THE UNIVERSITIES

but they could not feel the joyous energy
of the soldier who had sharpened and bur-
nished them for battle. Long afterwards,
Erasmus expressed what the fourteenth
century had already begun to feel, when,
asking how Christendom was to set about
converting Turks, he said — ' Shall we put
into their hands an Occam, a Durandus, a
Scotus, a Gabriel, or an Alvarus ? What
will they think of us, when they hear of
our perplexed subtleties about Instants,
Formalities, Quiddities, and Relations ? '
\ Considered merely as an instrument of
mental discipline, the scholastic philosophy
had done good work for the age in which
it arose ; it has left, indeed, an abiding
mark on the language and the thought of
Europe ; but it was now passing into a
system of lifeless formulas and mechanical
exercises. Thus the Universities were

AND THE NA

losing — slowly but surely — that which had
once been their sovereign attraction. And
at the same time they were denied an out-
let for new activities. Wyclifs gallant
struggle at Oxford was defeated. His
death in 1384 marks a turning-point.
Religious freedom was suppressed, but at
the cost of intellectual life. The crusade
against Lollardism introduced an age of
torpor and sterility at the Universities.
Indeed, the Latin philosophy was gradually
silencing itself. And a decided divorce
between the Universities and the nation
was now setting in. The laity felt less
interest in the paralysed studies of the
academic schools, which were tending to
become little more than clerical seminaries.
The numbers of the students were dwind-
ling. Already the study of Medicine was
withdrawing to the large towns ; the study
J- 2

1 8 THE UNIVERSITIES

of Law was dropping off to the Inns of
Court. It is also a significant circumstance
that the second half of the I4th century
coincides with an advance in the literary
use of the English language, as represented
by Chaucer and Gower, and by Wyclif
himself. This fact does not in itself imply
any antagonism to the Universities, but it
reminds us that a national literature was
now growing which was independent of
their influence. \
Rise of the Thus far we have contemplated what

Colleges.

may be called the negative side of the
period from 1350 to 1500. The Univer-
sities were beginning to lose their hold
upon the nation ; their old mental life
was failing. But there is another side
to this period, and one which gives it a
strong claim upon our interest. This
was the era at which the power of the

AND THE NATION. 19

Colleges was slowly rising. Of our seven-
teen Cambridge Colleges, only one was
founded before 1300, and only three were
founded after 1550. At Oxford, three
Colleges arose before 1300; and though
a larger number of foundations than here
came after 1550, still we may say that,
at both Universities, the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries form the period during
which the power of the Colleges was
chiefly consolidated. The general inten-
tion of the earliest Colleges was that
they should be boarding-houses, with a
discipline so organised that the inmates
should lead a studious and decorous
life, — special provision being made for
those who required pecuniary aid.
Many Colleges were designed more
especially for the secular clergy, as the

monastic and mendicant orders were

2 — 2

20 THE UNIVERSITIES

already so amply endowed. We must
remember that the multitude of students
at a mediaeval university was a fluctuating
and often turbulent mass. The great
value of the Collegiate system, when it
first came in, lay not so much in the
pecuniary assistance which it gave, as in
the security which it afforded for discipline
and good order. It was an element of
permanence and cohesion for the whole
academic body. The teaching function,
it may be added, did not belong to the
original idea of a College, except in so
far as the older residents might be expected
to aid or guide the studies of the younger ;
a College teaching-staff was a later de-
velopment, due to the altered status of
the University schools.
The new While the Universities, as such, long

classical

learning: continued to be identified with the mori-

AND THE NATION. 21

bund scholasticism, the Colleges, from the
fifteenth century onwards, were more es-
pecially identified with the new learning,
—with the classical revival. At the
time of Wyclif s death, that . revival was
passing, in Italy, through its earliest
phase, under the immediate followers of
Petrarch, who felt the new delight of
discovery. In the first half of the fif-
teenth century, the groups gathered
around Cosmo de' Medici at Florence,
or Nicholas V. at Rome, were busied
in arranging the discovered materials ;
and before 1500 criticism had been
carried further, chiefly by Italian societies
and academies. In due time this new its advent,

compared

humanism spread to England. But we ^flt
observe a striking difference between
the conditions under which this move-
ment reached us, and those which had

22 THE UNIVERSITIES

surrounded the advent of its great pre-
decessor, the scholastic philosophy, in
the twelfth century. That philosophy
had hardly begun its course when, owing
to the intervention of the Dominicans
and Franciscans, it was enabled to advance
under the banners of the Church. No
equivalent patronage protected or en-
couraged the first endeavours of our
English humanists. It was not until the
middle of Henry VIII/s reign that the
humanities began to enjoy the doubtful
advantage of official favour ; and then
the classical muse might already have
responded — if only she had dared — in the
tone of Dr Johnson's reply to the tardy
civilities of Lord Chesterfield. The re-
stored classical learning was planted in
England by the enterprise and zeal of
a few individuals, such as that series of

AND THE NATION. 23

Hellenists whom Oxford can show at the Oxford

and Cam-
close of the fifteenth century, — Selling-, J^ge.

J' &J Hellenists.

Lilly, Grocyn, Latimer, Linacre ; such as
Cambridge, again, produced in the im-
mediately subsequent period, — Richard
Croke, Thomas Smith, and that able
scholar, whom Ascham and Milton com-
memorate, Sir John Cheke. The Col-
leges sheltered most of those who brought
the new learning into England. These
foundations afforded opportunities for pri-
vate study, — and it must be recollected
that the new learning, Greek especially,
carried the suspicion of heresy ; — they
also facilitated foreign travel, which was
then almost indispensable for the purpose.
But the classics, though the circle of those
interested in them became continually
larger, could not exercise such a wide-
spread or popular influence as once belonged

24 THE UNIVERSITIES

~~T~

to the old mediaeval studies. / The strong-
The Col- holds of humanism, again, the Colleges,

leges.

— as their permanent character, their
wealth, and the ability of their adminis-
trators gradually made them predominant,
— represented an aristocratic or at least
oligarchic agency, engrafted upon the once
democratic existence of the mediaeval uni-
versityj Thus, in the second half of
the fifteenth century, internal causes were
tending to detach the Universities from
the general life of the nation, while at
the same time the number of other interests
and careers was expanding.

Erasmus. The early years of the sixteenth cen-
tury are made memorable for Cambridge
by the residence here of Erasmus, from
the end of 1510 to the end of 1513. In
his earlier stay at Oxford, he had enjoyed
most congenial and instructive friendships ;

AND THE NATION. 25

but here, at least, he did some of his ripest
and hardest work,- — kindling the minds of
disciples, too, who carried on the tradition.
It was in the old tower of Queens' College
that he completed a collation of the Greek
text of the New Testament ; and four
years later his edition — the first ever pub-
lished— appeared at Basle. It was in this
University, and in the years just after the

visit of Erasmus, that the Reformation had The Refor-
mation.

its English birth. It was a time, too,
when Cambridge men were zealously con-
tinuing those classical studies in which
the Hellenists of Oxford had been
pioneers. It is interesting to recall what
Erasmus wrote in 1520 to Everard, the Cambridge

in 1520

Stadtholder of Holland : ' Theology is A'D*
flourishing at Paris and at Cambridge as
nowhere else ; and why ? Because they
are adapting themselves to the tendencies

26 THE UNIVERSITIES

of the age ; because the new studies, which
are ready, if need be, to storm an entrance,
are not repelled by them as foes, but re-
ceived as welcome guests.' John Skelton
was even moved to satirise the zeal for
Greek which prevailed at Cambridge in
1521.

But this fair promise was too soon
overclouded. A time of unrest and anxiety
was at hand. Poverty and discontent,
legacies from the past century, were wide-
spread in the land ; the Church was
wealthy, and powerless to defend its wealth ;
Danger of the Universities were identified, in the

the Uni-
versities, public eye, with the Church, and, like it,

were in danger of spoliation. Oxford and
Cambridge were glad to have Wolsey's
protection ; and after his fall, it was of
vital moment to them to win the favour of
the king, The king did indeed stand

AND THE NATION. 27

their friend : when courtiers urged that
the Universities should be plundered, he
declared that he judged no land in England
better bestowed than that which was de-
voted to the uses of learning. But in
return he exacted submission to his will.
The visitation of the Universities by

Thomas Cromwell's Commissioners took Royal in-
junctions
place in 1535, when the Royal Injunctions ofl535-

were issued. They imposed the acceptance
of the royal supremacy, abolishing the
lectures and degrees in the canon law.
They prescribed the study of Latin and
Greek, and of the Old and New Testa-
ments, to the exclusion of the old scholastic
text-books. These Injunctions may indeed
be regarded as formally marking the fall
of scholasticism. They constitute an offi-
cial boundary-line between the mediaeval
learning and the new.

28 THE UNIVERSITIES

The years But the reform failed to bear good

1535—

J559- fruit. During the years from 1535 to

Mary's death in 1559 the Universities were
at a low ebb. At first, no doubt, the level
of their work seemed to be rising. But
Henry had narrowly circumscribed their
intellectual freedom ; they were suffering
from poverty ; and they were distracted by
all the fierce controversies of the time. A
mischief of a new kind had also crept in.
After the expulsion of the religious orders,
youths of the richer classes began once
more to frequent the Universities, as their
parents had no longer to fear the influence
of monk or friar. Thus in 1549 Latimer
said, referring to Cambridge, ' There be
none now but great men's sons in College,
and their fathers look not to have them
preachers.' Academic corruption followed.
Roger Ascham says, ' Talent, learning,

AND THE NATION. 29

poverty and discretion all went for no-
thing..., when interest, favour, and letters
from the great exerted their pressure
from without.7 Perhaps the Universities
were never less truly national than in
those years.

Elizabeth's reign opened a new era. Elizabe-
than age

Not that it was a brilliant period in aca- (J559—

1603).

demic studies. With the partial exception
of Theology, no branch of learning was
really flourishing at the ancient seats.
However, a decided change came about in
the general position of the Universities.
For two centuries, they had been more or
less isolated ; and the internal forces which
shaped them had been mainly ecclesiastical.
These conditions were now sensibly modi-
fied. Elizabeth, whose gifts and attainments
disposed her to appear as a patroness of
letters, showed much favour to the Uni-

30 THE UNIVERSITIES

versities. In the year of Shakespeare's
birth (1564) she made a visit of five days
to Cambridge, and not long afterwards
bestowed a like honour upon Oxford. By
these and similar acts she increased the
social prestige of the Universities. Now,
too, they came into closer contact with the
life of the capital. In London there was a
world of letters which, though it received
many recruits from Oxford and Cambridge,
was by no means academic in character.
A stream of popular literature now began
to flow from London to the Universities.
Frequent intercourse sprang up between
University students and the town wits,
and was promoted by the fact that Uni-
versity men were continually passing into
the ranks of the Inns of Court. It may
be conjectured that the results were not
altogether good for academic discipline ;

AND THE NATION. 31

but there was some real gain in the literary
impulse given to the Universities. It was
also better that they should be drawn more
into the currents of a wider and fuller life,
even though those currents were some-
times turbid, than they should remain in
isolation. Elizabeth's reign was a time
in which the Universities were tending
to acquire a certain character of ex-
clusiveness, — not, indeed, in any very
narrow sense, but relatively to the nation
at large. On the other hand it was cer-
tainly a time when they resumed some-
thing of their old relations with a world
larger and more varied than their own.

At the opening of the seventeenth cen- The lyt

century.

tury we find the Universities enjoying,
under James I., a continuance of royal
favour. But they were not prospering as
seats of learning. Much as James relished

UNIVERSITY

32 THE UNIVERSITIES

theological disputations and College plays,
his first object in regard to Oxford and
Cambridge was that they should uphold
the royal supremacy in matters of religious
belief. Under all the Stuart monarchs the
case was the same; the first thing asked
of Oxford and Cambridge was that they
should inculcate sound doctrines in Church
and State : their condition in respect of
learning was a secondary matter. In the
Great Rebellion both the Universities
were royalist ; and the Barebones Parlia-
ment once discussed the propriety of
suppressing them altogether. Milder
counsels prevailed, and under the Pro-
tectorate it was resolved that 'the Uni-
versities and schools shall be so counten-
anced and reformed as that they may
become the nurseries of piety and learn-
ing/ Shortly afterwards, however, a more

AND THE NATION. 33

rigorous plan was mooted, — viz., that the
number of Colleges in each University
should be cut down to three, answering
respectively to the faculties of Divinity,
Law, and Physic. The Restoration quickly
averted that peril ; and the Revolution, in
its turn, delivered the Universities from
those strained exercises of royal prerogative
in which the last two Stuart kings occa-
sionally indulged. Certainly the seven-
teenth century was not one in which it
could be expected that the average level
of academic life should be a high one.
And yet, throughout that century, the
two old seats of learning were producing
a long series of men whose intellectual
achievements in various fields are among
the chief glories of England. It may be
hard to say what exact share of credit is
due, in any of these cases, to the Alma
J- 3

34 THE UNIVERSITIES

Mater; but it is reasonable to believe that
in no instance can her influence have been
wholly sterile. Cambridge can point to
such names as those of Bacon, William
Harvey, Milton, Barrow, Newton, Bent-
ley ; then there are the Oxford and
Cambridge divines who bore part in the
Authorised Version of the Bible, or helped
to build up the standard Anglican theo-
logy ; the Oxford group who founded the
Royal Society; the Cambridge Platonists,
who sought, in a spirit very different from
that of the schoolmen, to reconcile religion
with philosophy and science, to soften the
strife of sects, and to bring out the essen-
tial things of Christianity. When one
looks back on that century as a whole,—
on the turmoils and contrasts of its outer
life, and on the results of its mental
activity, — one is inclined to apply the old

AND THE NATION* 35

Greek saying to our academic common-
wealths ; 'It is not the walls that make
the city, but the men/

The age which came next has usually The ist

century.

been regarded as that in which the English
Universities were least alive to their na-
tional duties and responsibilities. I shall
not attempt to offer a defence for the
academic shortcomings of the eighteenth
century. But, if the censure is not to
be too sweeping, it is well to observe
certain points. First — we should remem-
ber that those studies which Universities
seek to foster cannot really thrive unless
they are animated by at least some touch
of ardour, some spark of a generous
enthusiasm. They are sensitive to the
atmosphere about them, and are apt to be
chilled by a surrounding apathy. The
eighteenth century, correct, judicious, ob-

36 THE UNIVERSITIES

servant of measure and obedient to
common sense, gave little encourage-
ment to large aspirations or lofty ideals.
These, however, are the breath of life
to young students, and most of all to
the best. Never, perhaps, did scholars
work with greater intensity than the great
schoolmen of the thirteenth century ;—
Duns Scotus, for instance, dying, it is
said, at thirty-four, left the equivalent of
thirteen printed folios ; — and they could
do so, because the ideal before them was
so grand. The eighteenth century was in
this respect at the opposite pole from
the thirteenth. There was little in it to
feed the sacred fire. If the Universities
were torpid, their fault was at least so far
the less, that they were breathing an
unfavourable air. In the next place, it
should be noted that the torpor was not

AND THE NATION.

unbroken or universal. Like the heroes in
the battles of the Iliad, the two Universi-
ties have their respective moments of pre-
eminence ; and in regard to the eighteenth
century, an impartial inquirer will conclude,
I think, that Cambridge, though very far
from blameless, held some advantage.
There were two principal reasons for this.
First, that century opened here with a
period during which Bentley and Newton
were giving a powerful impulse to studies
old and new. Chairs of Astronomy, A-
natomy, Geology, and Botany were founded
between 1702 and 1727. Secondly, there
was at least one study, that of Mathematics,
which was pursued here with real industry
and success during at least the second
half of the century ; when a great improve-
ment was also effected in the tests of
mathematical attainment. Yet it is not to

38 THE UNIVERSITIES

be denied that, on the whole, both Univer-
sities then fell far short of any standard
which could be deemed worthy of their
position ; nor is it a sufficient plea that,
during the eighteenth century, they can
claim so many sons distinguished in
letters, science, or active careers.
Early part Institutions are seldom at their worst

of this cen-
tury, when the outcry against them is loudest.

Before public opinion reaches the point
which threatens interference from without,
conscience and prudence usually make
themselves heard within. During the first
third of this century, steps were taken at
both the Universities to improve the quality
and enlarge the scope of their work ; and
if these steps did not go very far, at least
they were laudable in their way. Meanwhile
the voice of censure, which had been almost
silent in the eighteenth century, became

AND THE NATION. 39

more importunate. Its tone was such as
we find in these words of Dugald Stewart,
which were pointed especially at the English
-Universities: — 'The academical establish-
ments of some parts of Europe/ he said,
' are not without their use to the historian
of the human mind. Immovably moored
to the same station by the strength of their
cables and the weight of their anchors, they
enable him to measure the rapidity of the
current by which the rest of mankind is

borne along/ The time of the first Reform The de-
mand for

Bill is that at which the unpopularity ofreform-
Oxford and Cambridge began to be general.
In a series of articles contributed to the
' Edinburgh Review/ Sir William Hamilton
framed an indictment against them which
attracted much attention. Within the
Universities themselves, the more active
minds were fully alive to the necessity for

40 THE UNIVERSITIES

further improvement. Foremost among
these was Adam Sedgwick, whose ' Dis-
course on the Studies of the University of
Cambridge' appeared in 1833^' A Cam-
bridge graduate who published in 1836 a
letter1 on the 'Condition, Abuses, and
Capabilities of the National Universities,'
remarks that, if he ventures to point out
defects, he will be asked 'whether he wishes
that our youth should be better educated
than Bacon, Locke, and Newton'; but he
makes it clear that his own opinions were
shared by many Cambridge residents. To
foreign observers the peril of our academic
situation was equally manifest. Huber, a
Professor at Marburg, published his History
of the English Universities in 1839. He
was a lenient judge ; sometimes even too

1 It will be found in a volume of ' Tracts' in the
University Library, BB. 26, 33.

AND THE NATION. 41

lenient. But he recognises the existence
of a hostile feeling against Oxford and
Cambridge, which is proclaimed, he says,
' in every variety of tone and manner, and
from the most different quarters/

Let us note the causes of this feeling. The two

chief de-

First, there had been, since the seventeenth fects-
century, a great expansion in science and
literature, with which the Universities had
not kept pace. They no longer adequately
represented the knowledge of the age, or
the best intellect of the nation. Secondly,
the instruction which they did give — and
in some subjects it was better than it had
ever been before — was virtually limited to
certain classes of society, defined partly by
wealth, and partly by religious opinion.
That moment was the earliest at which it
had become apparent to the country at
large that, in both these senses, the Uni-

42 THE UNIVERSITIES

versities failed to be national. And the
perception was quickened by the new
democratic tendencies.
A German It is curious to observe what Huber

criticism :

—a friendly critic — regarded as the one
tenable ground of defence. He says, in
effect : ' The end for which the English
Universities have long existed has not
been to form learned men, or able pro-
fessional men, or State officials, as our
German Universities do ; it has been to
produce that first and most distinctive
flower of English national life, an English
gentleman ; a product to which we on the
Continent have nothing really similar ; the
nearest approach to it is a Castiiian cabal-
lero' No doubt there were many people in
England — men inspired with a lofty idea
of what a University ought to be — who,
when they read those words of the German

AND THE NATION. 43

historian, felt in them a severe, though
unconscious, irony. And yet, if we wish
to be quite just to the work which the
Universities did for the nation from 1600
to 1850, we are bound to recognise the how far

true.

element of truth which Huber's remark
contains, Seats of education, which for
centuries have existed in the midst of a
vigorous people, can never be colourless
embodiments of a desire for knowledge ;
they are necessarily influenced, in different
ways at different periods, by the national
genius of that people. And it belongs to Bent of the

English

the genius of the English people — in genius.
modern days at any rate — to value cha-
racter more than intellect, and ability more
than learning. Hence there have long
been currents of influence, bearing on the
Universities from outside, which have
tended to a sort of compromise between

44 THE UNIVERSITIES

the function proper to a University and that
function of social education which can also
be performed by a good regiment, or by
any other society in which young men act
and re-act upon each other under the two-
fold sway of a public opinion controlled by
themselves and a discipline above them.
When allowance has been made for all
shortcomings, it must be granted that the
English Universities have not only ren-
dered great services to learning and
science, but have also done good work
for the nation by forming characters in
which at least some measure of liberal edu-
cation has been combined with manliness.

That, however, is no longer the only

ground upon which they can claim to be

Reforms national. The successive reforms which

since 1850.

have been accomplished since 1850 have
been directed to remedying or mitigating

AND THE NATION. 45

the two principal defects, narrowness of
study, and narrowness of social operation.
The range of studies has been immensely
enlarged ; and though much remains to be
done, it may be said of both Universities
that at no previous time have they been
the seats of intellectual work at once so
highly organised and so varied. Within
the last twenty-five years, too, their doors
have been opened to whole classes of the
community against which they were once
closed.

But the historian of the future will see Attitude

towards

something still more distinctive of our time ^autoa.
in the spirit which has moved the Universi-
ties to take up a new position in regard to
national education beyond their own pre-
cincts. In the course of the thirty-five years
since the Local Examinations were esta- LocaiExa-

minations.

blished, the Universities have done much

46 THE UNIVERSITIES

towards elevating and organising secondary
education in the schools concerned, and have
thus contributed something, at least, towards
supplying what is still the chief need in our

The EX- educational system. Larger and more fruit-
tension t
move- ful still has been the working of that later

ment.

but essentially kindred movement which,
twenty years ago, this University, moved
by Mr James Stuart, had the honour of
initiating, and which both the old Univer-
sities, in alliance with younger but vigorous
agencies, are now prosecuting in generous
emulation. To an audience such as this,
comprising many of those whose untiring
energy and distinguished ability have made
University Extension what it is — compris-
ing, as it also does, a yet larger number of
those who have tasted the benefits of the
movement — it is superfluous to speak in
detail of conditions, methods, and results

AND THE 47

with which none are so intimately ac-
quainted as themselves. Looking at the
movement in its broad aspects, we see that
the missionary enterprise of the Universi-
ties is imparting a new stimulus to the
country, and is labouring to satisfy the
demand which has been recognised or cre-
ated. No task can be more patriotic than
that of knitting the whole community to-
gether by common mental associations and
enjoyments. ' Surely as Nature createth
brotherhood in families,' said Bacon, ' so in
like manner there cannot but be fraternity
in learning and illuminations/ But the
benefits are not all upon one side. If the
Universities give, they also receive. Many
of their ablest men, the leaders and workers
in this movement, testify that they have
learned lessons which could have been ac-
quired in no other way. The Universities

48 THE UNIVERSITIES

themselves, as we venture to hope, are
gradually winning a place in the affections
of the country which must needs be the
best of incentives to good work.
Thepre- The great object now is to place Uni-

sent need.

versity Extension on a more permanent and
systematic basis. The difficulty is simply
want of funds. The Universities, as such,
are far from rich, relatively to the claims
upon them ; and if farther financial aid is
to come from an academic source, it is to
be looked for rather in the following of
that admirable example which has been
set by more than one College. The
case for aid from the State is a strong
one, and has been stated more than once
with a force to which nothing can be
added. It has been pointed out that the
State spends three millions a year on Ele-
mentary Education, and that a small grant

AND THE NATION. 49

—say ^5000 a year — to University Ex-
tension,— a grant which might in the first
instance be temporary and tentative,—
would greatly increase the value of the
return which the country obtains for the
larger expenditure. Elementary instruc-
tion, unless crowned by something higher,
is not only barren, but may even be dan-
gerous. It is not well to teach our de-
mocracy to read, unless we also teach it to
think. The County Councils' grants go at
present to one side of the movement only,

—the technical and scientific; and, far from
weakening the argument for some further
State aid, they really strengthen it. Such
thoughts naturally occur to the mind at
such a gathering as this ; but no uncer-
tainty which may hang over the future can
diminish the feelings of gratification at
past success, and of good augury for fur-
J- 4

50 THE UNIVERSITIES

ther development, which such an occasion
is fitted to inspire.

In conclusion, I would only venture to
express the earnest hope that this summer
meeting may prove no unworthy successor,
in every benefit and enjoyment which such
an experience can afford, to the meetings
which have preceded it ; and that our
visitors, whom the University so warmly
welcomes, may find here, in the temporary
home of their studies, something of that
mysterious influence which nowhere does
its spiriting more gently than in a venerable
seat of learning, — the genius of the place.
True it is that in these ancient courts and
halls, in the cloisters and the gardens, the
charm which one feels is inseparably
blended with a certain strain of melan-
choly. How often, in the long course of
the centuries, have these haunts been

AND THE NATION.

associated, not only with the efforts which
triumphed and the labours which bore
lasting fruit, but also with the lost causes
and the impossible loyalties, with the
theories which were overthrown, with the
visions which faded, with the brave and
patient endeavours which ended in failure
and defeat ! Nevertheless, this place speaks
to us of a corporate intellectual life which
has been continuous ; not always, indeed,
free from the incubus of superstition or
the heavy hand of external despotism ; not
always exempt from a depressing lethargy
within ; yet always preserving some secret
spring of recuperative vigour, and thus
linking the present with the past by a
tradition which has in a great measure run
parallel with the fortunes of England.
And now, when these scenes, so dear to
those whose life is passed among them, are

52 THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE NA T1ON.

animated by the presence of visitors who
have already experienced the influences
which Cambridge fosters, there is no one
here who will not feel that the familiar
features of our old academic home have a
light upon them which our fathers never
saw, — the light kindled by this new and
living sympathy between the Universities
and the nation.

CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M. A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

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