INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

laid first for that faculty of medicine, which has attained in the university of Edinburgh to a distinction destined, I hope, to be as long-lived as it is without doubt extraordinary. We can hardly expect that human institutions should, without limit of time, retain the flexible and elastic tissues of their youth; and universities in particular, as they have grown old and great, have come to interlace at many points with the interests and concerns of that outer world which has but little sympathy with their proper work: or they might have displayed at this day an organization as complete, relatively to the present state of knowledge and inquiry, as was that which they possessed some centuries ago.

The older history of the universities of Europe not only presents many features of the utmost interest, but upon the whole inspires satisfaction and challenges praise from the impartial observer.

I might detain you long, gentlemen, upon the various kinds of good they did, and I might search long without discovering any characteristic evils to set down against it. What the castle was to the feudal baron, what the guild was to the infant middleclass, they were to knowledge and to mental freedom; nor was it only that from them local culture received local shelter, and enjoyed through them an immunity from the assaults of barbarism in its vicinity: they established, so to speak, a telegraph for the mind; and all the elements of intellectual culture scattered throughout Europe were brought by them into near communion. Without a visible head, or a cocrcive law, or a perilous tendency to aggression, they did for the mind of man what the unity of the Roman Church aimed at doing for his soul. They did it by the strong sympathy of an inward life, and by a common interest and impulse, almost from their nature incapable of being directed to perverse or dangerous ends. Indeed, it was not in their nature to supply the materials of any combination formidable to other social powers acting each in its proper sphere, for they were on every side watched by jealous interests, and kept at once in check and in activity by competition. The monasteries for the Church, and the legal and medical professions with their special establishments of education, as they were matured in after times, prevented an undue ascendancy; while in these seats alone there was supplied that good preservative against excess and disorder, that human knowledge was in them regarded as a whole, and its varicus branches had, from their very neighborhood, better definitions of their proper provinces, and of their mutual relations. In whatever light

we view them, there was a completeness in
the idea and work of universities, in propor-
tion as their proper development was at-
tained, which may well excite our wonder.
They aimed alike, as we have seen, at the
preservation of all old learning, and at the
appropriation of all new. They bound them-
selves to prosecute alike those studies which
fit men for the professions and the daily
needs of life, and those which terminate
upon man himself, whether by the investiga-
tion of truth or by the pursuit of refinement.
They bore, and indeed they still bear, a char-
acter at once conservative and progressive.
If not uniformly, yet in general, their influ-
cnce tended to mitigate extreme opinions:
the papal power, for example, knew no more
formidable curb than the great university
of Paris, and in England it was the special
privilege of Oxford to rear up many centuries
ago very eminent men of the class who have
been well described by a German writer as
reformers before the Reformation. I speak
now of men of action; but in both of the
universities I have named-and they are, I
think, the two placed by Huber at the head
of all the northern universities-there were
also reared many men of the first order in
power of thought, who discussed even the
highest subjects with a freedom as well as a
force much beyond what has been tolerated
in the Latin church since the alarm and
shock of the Reformation. Of all these, the
best-known name to modern cars is Abclard;
for it is associated with a romantic tale of
passion, which some, and even some famous,
writers have not thought it beneath them
to degrade. But quite apart from the pro-
found and sad interest, and the warning les-
sons of his history, he was a man that gave
to the human mind one of those enduring
impulses whose effects remain long after
their source has been forgotten, and influ-
ence the course of thought, and through
thought, of action, after many generations.

Universities were, in truth, a great medi-
ating power between the high and the low,
between the old and the new, between spec-
ulation and action, between authority and
freedom. Of these last words, in their ap-
plication to the political sphere, modern his-
tory, and the experience of our own time,
afford abundant exemplification. In coun-
tries which enjoy political liberty, the uni-
versities are usually firm supports of the es-
tablished order of things; but in countries
under absolute government they acquire a
bias towards innovation. Some excess may
be noted in these tendencies, but in the main
To take instances-
they bear witness against greater and more
pernicious cxcesses.
the university of Edinburgh did not very
easily accommodate itself to the Revolution

all ancient truth, to keep themselves in the foremost ranks of modern discovery, to harmonize continually the inherited with the acquired wealth of mankind, and to give a charter to the freedom of discussion, while they maintain the reasonable limits of the domain of tradition and of authority.

as a member of one of these institutions, feels that he is admitted to a share in a great inheritance, and instinctively burns to be worthy of the badge he has assumed.

Again, in a country which, like this, is both free and wealthy, all endowed institutions are open to the competition of the unendowed, and few establishments are so amply endowed as not to leave room for the operation on the teacher of those ordinary motives which prompt him to better his condition. This remark is eminently applicable to the universities in Scotland.

The question how far endowments for education are to be desired, is beset with peculiar difficulty. Where they are small and remote from public observation, they tend rapidly to torpor. They are admirable where they come in aid of a good-will already existing, but where the good-will does not exist be- It is indeed alleged, and I think with truth, forehand, they are as likely to stifle as to that the ancient universities of England, stimulate its growth. They make a high with their magnificent endowments, do not cultivation accessible to the youth who de-effect so much as they ought on behalf of sires it, and who could not otherwise attain either education or of learning; with the his worthy and noble end; on the other hand, they remove the spur by which Providence neutralizes the indolence of man, and moves him to supply his wants. If the teacher, when unendowed, may be constrained to forego all high training for students, and to provide only for their lower and more immediate demands; on the other hand, the teacher, when endowed, and in so far as he is endowed, is deprived of the aid which personal interest and private necessities can lend to the sense of duty, and he may be tempted to neglect or to minister but feebly to the culture of his pupils, either in its higher or in its lower sense.

And it is never to be forgotten, that amidst all the kinds of exertion incident to our human state, there is none more arduous, none more exhausting, than the work of teaching worthily performed. Some men, indeed, possess in this department a princely gift, which operates like a charm upon the young, and they follow such an one as soldiers follow their leader when he waves the banner of their native land before their eyes. But such men are rare; they are not less rare than are great men in any other walk of life. Speaking generally, the work of teaching is, even when pursued with the whole heart, even when felt to be an absorbing work, but moderately successful; while he who teaches with half his heart does not really teach at all. There are, however, considerations which tell on the other side. The solidity of establishments founded on old endowments supplies a basis on which there are gradually formed a mass of continuous traditions, always powerful and generally noble; and the very name of them, as it is handed on from generation to generation, becomes a watchword at once of affectionate remembrances and of lofty aspirations. They lay hold of the young by those properties which are the finest characteristics of youth; and in our happy country the boy, when he is enrolled

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE,

507

spirit of improvement which now rules in them, and with the powerful aid which the legislature has given for the more free and efficacious use of their property, I believe that they will both further enlarge their field and plough it more deeply. But when all has been done that we can reasonably hope, the results will still seem small when compared with those produced in other times and in other countries; they will still give rise to disappointment.

Let it not, on that account, be concluded that it would be well to strip these great and ancient foundations of their trappings. The real merits, the real performances of universities, cannot be fairly judged except by fairly measuring the strength of the competing power, that of the outer world, in all its busy spheres. The fact that a hundred pounds will not bring as much learning in England, or even in Scotland, as in Germany, is no more conclusive of this case than the fact that neither will the same sum buy as many eggs; not because eggs are more scarce, but because money is more abundant.

It may be, though I will not presume to assert positively it is, that the endowments of learning in our own country do but redress, and that partially, the relative disadvantage at which, but for them, learning itself must have been placed by the increased attractions and multiplied openings which the exterior spheres of modern life supply. This, however, we all must feel, that now is the time when it befits every teacher and every student connected with all these great and venerable institutions, to bestir himself, and to refute, at least in his own person, the charge that endowment gravitates towards torpor as its natural consummation, if indeed we desire that in a critical though not an unkindly age the universities should still enjoy that intelligent respect which has been paid them by so many generations.

I have been assuming all along that all

universities are united by a paramount bond of common interest, and I have therefore discussed them at large. If now we contract our view to the universities of Scotland-if again we bring it yet nearer home, and look at Edinburgh alone, we have the consolation of thinking that envy herself can scarcely charge either the whole of them, or this one in particular, with an abuse of wealth.

In the history of the University of Edinburgh, we may clearly trace the national character of Scotland; we find there all that hardy energy, that gift of extracting much from little, of husbanding every available provision, and of supplying the defects of external appliances and means from within by the augmented effort and courage of man, that power to make an ungenial climate smile, and a hungry soil teem with all the bounties of Providence, which have given to Scotland a place and a name among men so far beyond what was due to her geographical extent or to her natural resources. The progress of this University during the last century-I strive to speak impartially-is wonderful; from the days of Carstairs, Pitcairn, Monro, and Sibbald, at its beginning, to those of Brown and Stewart, of Robertson and Blair, of Cullen, the second Monro, of Black, of Playfair, of Robison, of Sir William Hamilton, and many others both before and since its close.

freedom of historical inquiry, nay, with a chartered freedom of discussion before an academic audience: modern times do not fall within my province: but I must declare, in looking to the past, that it will indeed be easier for the Town Council of our own day, in the discharge of the large and important share of governing duties that are still lodged in its hands, to fall below, than to rise above, the level of those who preceded it in the critical times preceding and following the Legislative Union.

And now, my younger friends, you to whom I owe the distinction of the office which enables and requires me to address you, if I have dwelt thus at length upon the character and scope of universities, and their place in the scheme of Christian civilization, it is in order that, setting before you the dignity that belongs to them, and that is reflected from them on their members, and the great opportunities which they offer, both of advancement and of improvement, I might chiefly suggest and impress by facts, which may be more eloquent than precepts, the responsibilities that are charged upon you by the enjoyment of these gifts and blessings.

Much, however, might be said to you on the acquisition of the knowledge which will be directly serviceable to you in your several professions. Much on the immense value of that kind of training, in which the subjects learned have for their chief aim not to inure the hand (so to speak) to the use of its tools in some particular art, but to operate on the mind itself, and, by making it flexible, manifold, and strong, to endow it with a general aptitude for the duties and exigencies of life. Much, lastly, on the frame of mind in which you should pursue your work.

Of these three branches, the topics belonging to the first are the most obvious and simple, for it requires no argument to persuade the workman, that he must be duly furnished with his tools, and must know how to handle them.

It would be most unjust, in any review of the fortunes of this University, not to notice that great peculiarity in its condition-its subjection to the local municipal authority, I speak, gentlemen, of what history tells. I have stated that it is the business of universities to give a charter to freedom of discussion; and I am sure you will allow me to state, without prejudice, the impression that a perusal of the ancient history of Edinburgh makes on my mind. In lieu of sovereigns, and great nobles and prelates, for patrons, visitors, chancellors, and the like, the University of Edinburgh, as a general rule, could look no further and no higher The reasons are less directly palpable than to the Council of the "good town" which have made it the habit of our country itself. A relation, originally intended for a to spend, where means permit many precious great secondary school, survived that stage years upon studies void in a great degree of of the career of the institution, and contin- immediate bearing upon the intended occuued to influence its affairs, when it was, to pations of our after life. There may, howall intents and purposes, a University; and ever, be the means of showing first, that even I must say that the history of this relation the direct uses of the studies which you inappears to be highly honorable to all parties clude under the general designation of huconcerned. On the side of the teaching body manity, are more considerable, when they we commonly find deference and trust. On are collected into one view, than might have the side of the superintending corporation, been supposed; and, secondly, that the most in generations gone by-for the present is distinguished professional men bear witness, not within the sphere of my discussion with an overwhelming authority, in favor of we find patronage effectively and intelligent- a course of education in which to train the ly exercised, and the most assiduous and mind shall be the first object, and to stock friendly care bestowed in improving and en- it, the second. larging the organization. I speak with the

Man is to be trained chiefly by studying

how Sir Robert Peel, choosing from his quiver with a congenial forethought that shaft which was most likely to strike home, averred before the same academic audience what may as safely be declared to you, that

and by knowing man; and we are prepared for knowing man in life by learning him first in books, much as we are taught to draw from drawings before we draw from nature. But if man is to be studied in books, he will best be studied in such books as present him" there is a presumption, amounting almost to us in the largest, strongest, simplest, in a word, the most typical forms. These forms are principally found among the ancients. Nor can the study of the ancients be dissociated from the study of their languages. There is a profound relation between thought and the investiture which it chooses for itself; and it is, as a general rule, most true, that we cannot know men or nations unless we know their tongue.

Diversity of language was, like labor, a temporal penalty inflicted on our race for sin; but being, like labor, originally penal, like labor it becomes, by the ordinance of God, a fertile source of blessing to these who use it aright. It is the instrument of thought, but it is not a blind or dead instrument: it is like the works in metal that Dædalus and Vulcan were fabled to produce; and even as the limping deity was supported in his walk by his nymphs of so-called brass, in like manner language re-acts upon and bears up the thoughts from which it springs, and comes to take rank among the most effective powers for the discipline of the mind.

But more important than the quest of professional knowledge, more vital than the most effective intellectual training, is the remaining question of the temper and aim with which the youth prosecutes his work.

to certainty, that if any one of you will determine to be eminent in whatever profession you may choose, and will act with unvarying steadiness in pursuance of that determination, you will, if health and strength be given to you, infallibly succeed." The mountain tops of Scotland behold on every side of them the witness, and many a one of what were once her morasses and her moorlands, now blossoming as the rose, carries on its face the proof, that it is in man and not in his circumstances that the secret of his destiny resides. For most of you that destiny will take its final bent towards evil or towards good, not from the information you imbibe, but from the habits of mind, thought, and life that you shall acquire, during your academical career. Could you with the bodily eye watch the moments of it as they fly, you would see them all pass by you, as the bee that has rifled the heather bears its honey through the air, charged with the promise, or it may be with the menace, of the future. In many things it is wise to believe before experience until you shall know, and in order that you may know; and believe me when I tell you that the thrift of time now will repay you in after life with an usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and that the waste of it will make you dwindle, alike in intellectual and in moral stature, beyond your darkest reckonings.

It is my privilege to be the first who has ever thus addressed you in the capacity of rector. But without doubt, your ears have caught the echo of those affectionate and I am Scotchman enough to know that weighty counsels, which the most eminent among you there are always many who are men of the age have not thought it beneath already, even in their tender years, fighting them to address to the students of a sister with a mature and manful courage, the batScottish university. Let me remind you tle of life. When they feel themselves lonely how one of European fame, who is now your amidst the crowd; when they are for a moand my academical superior, how the great ment disheartened by that difficulty, which jurist, orator, philosopher, and legislator, is the rude and rocking cradle of every kind who is our chancellor, how Lord Brougham of excellence; when they are conscious of besought the youth of Glasgow, as I in his the pinch of poverty and self-denial, let them words would more feebly, but not less ear- be conscious, too, that a sleepless eye is nestly, pray you, "to believe how incompara-watching them from above, that their honest bly the present season is verily and indeed the most precious of your whole lives," and how"every hour you squander here will," in other days, "rise up against you, and be paid for by years of bitter but unavailing regrets." Let me recall to you how another lord rector of Glasgow, whose name is cherished in every cottage of his country, and whose strong sagacity, vast range of experience, and energy of will were not one whit more eminent than the tenderness of his conscience, and his ever wakeful and wearing sense of public duty-let me recall to you

efforts are assisted, their humble prayers are heard, and all things are working together for their good. Is not this the true life of faith, which walks by your side from your rising in the morning to your lying down at night-which lights up for you the cheerless world, and transfigures all that you encounter, whatever be its outward form, with hues brought down from heaven?

These considerations are applicable to all of you. You are all in training here for educated life, for the higher forms of mental experience, for circles limited perhaps, but