Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/638

 commercial; while at the same time they desire to maintain a high standard of general education. It may be observed that in some points these Universities have taken hints from the four ancient Universities of Scotland,—which themselves have lately undergone a process of temperate reform. The Scottish Universities are accessible to every class of the community; and the success with which they have helped to mould the intellectual life of a people traditionally zealous for education, renders their example instructive for the younger institutions. With reference to the provision made by the newer Universities for studies bearing on practical life, it should be remarked that much has been done in the same direction by the two older Universities also. At Cambridge, for example, degrees can be taken in Economics and associated branches of Political Science; in Mechanism and Applied Mechanics; and in Agricultural Sciences. It certainly cannot now be said that the old Universities neglect studies which are of direct utility, though they rightly insist that the basis and method of such studies shall be liberal.

In looking back on the general course of this whole movement in England, we find that it has been steady, smooth, and fairly rapid. It has not been due to any spasmodic impulse or artificial propaganda, but has been the result of natural forces, operating throughout the nation. Universities, and the training which they give, have come to count for more in our national life as a whole.