Page:Scottishartrevie01unse.djvu/97

Rh In other words, the degree of master was a Iwentiu docendi, and any student by taking it might himself become a teaclier. It was indeed a great free- competitive system, with as little monopoly as might be: among some hundreds of qualified masters the student was left to liis own unfettered choice. And, incredible though it may seem, this choice on the whole was used wisely,^ — the popular teachers of those days were the men whom the world ronembers still. Abelard had three thousand students, and when he was driven from Paris they followed liini into the wilds. There is no more startling picture in history than that of the Para- clete, with its oratory of reeds and tliatch, and around it the mud huts of innumerable students contenting themselves with the simplest rustic fare. Is it Utopian to look for something like a revival of the primitive academic type 't But after all the only feasible Utopia is liberty. Surely the ideal University is a self-governing community of teachers and sti idents, wherein there shall be perfect equality of status, and the utmost possible freedom. There is no necessary connection between teaching and despotism, any more than there is between service and slavery; in each case the one party possesses something which the other lacks and desires. I know it is the firm belief of pedagogues that their pupils have neither a love nor a discerning of know- ledge; but this is a delusion akin to that which in politics presupposes the people to be essentially anarcliic. In truth it is always the governors that are to blame, — the people have no interest in disorder, the students are naturally curious and insatiable of lore. And in the long run the one has not a surer eye for the riglit statesman than these others have for the right master, and perhaps it is just a lurking suspicion of this which makes our governors in school and state so fearful of every relaxation of restraint. We here in Scotland are exhorted to look with pride upon our Univer- sities because they alone continue the true medifeval organisation. But it is little good to keep the organ when once its function has been forgotten — to preserve a Council that does not govern, and a Rector who has ceased to rule. At one time the Rector was in reality what he now is only in name — the most powerful officer in the University — and through their election of him the students had a material though an indirect share in the uovern- ment. It is difficult to see how a return to some- thing like this system could be productive of anything but good. For one thing it would give our under- graduates, what they sorely need, a sobering sense of dignity and responsibility, as the free citizens of a great educational iwlls. But however that be, it is certain that any measure of University reform worth the name must strike first of all things at the monopoly in teach- ing. There are other and crying abuses to be remedied, among them the examination system, — but, first, as the groundwork and the guarantee of reformation, we must have liberty and breadth. It is surely superfluous in this country to preach the evils of monopoly. In no other profession do we give exclusive privileges as we do in teaching; the licensed clergyman may preach in any pulpit, the qualified physician may stand at any bedside. ^Ve simply ask of each candidate that he shall show himself ordinarily competent to his work, and there- after he takes his chance, and the public judges between him and his fellows. And why should our higher education be the only exception to the rule 'i Is it, to quote the current cant of sciolism, because competition is degrading to the finer activities 'i But surely that which is the law of life should be ffood enouffli for the Universities. Or is it, as the professors confidently tell us, because the vulgar cannot discern their intellectual needs aright? But whatever the professors have managed to monopolise, it certainly is not the Zeitgeist. The truth stands plain to every one that while the Universities were free they flourished, and when the liberty of teach- ing within them was restricted they declined. The schools of Germany are to-day the most active in Europe, and in the privat docent system they pre- serve the principle of free teaching. Our Scottish Universities are the most jealous of close corporations, and the names of them have become to all men a hissing and a scorn.

There is, of course, only one conclusion to this argument. The original import of the degree as a Ucentia docendi must be revived. Not certainly the degree — or at least the Arts degree — as it now exists, but a qualification adequate in some measure to the intellectual necessities of the age. To this all approximations are good in their way, however imperfect; but this itself is the ideal, for it is the embodiment of liberty, and in liberty is the secret of the higher life. R. A.