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 Address to the students of the Un versit 
 
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PRESENTED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 
 
 BY 
 
 SIE ALEXANDEK GKANT, BAET. 
 
 D.C.L., LL.D., ETC. ETC. 
 VICE-CHANCELLOE AND PRINCIPAL OP THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 DELIVERED ON 
 
 28rH OCTOBER 1884 
 
 PuWfgljeti unintr tlje Sanction of i\iz Stnatas |tcati«mtc«g 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AJS'D SOJ^S 
 
 EDINBUEGH AND LONDON 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIV 
 
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 /to 
 
 RNELL 
 
 UNfVERSITYl 
 
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 .5" 
 
 PEEFATOEY NOTE. 
 
 The late Sir Alexander Grant had been unanimously requested by the 
 Senatus Academicus to publish this Address, which inaugurates the fourth 
 century of the existence of the University of Edinburgh ; and it was 
 passing through the press when his deeply lamented death occurred on 
 30th November 1884. It is known to have been his intention to preface 
 it with a statement to the effect that his expressions of opinion on 
 controvertible topics were not to be supposed to commit the members of 
 Senatus to the adoption of his views. 
 
A D D E E S S. 
 
 GENTLEMEN,— 
 
 AFTEE tlie events of last spring, I thought that I would not let this autumn go 
 by without availing myself of the privilege of my office, and asking you 
 to listen to a few words at the opening of a new session. It is not merely a 
 new session that is now being opened, but a new era in our academical history. 
 The University of Edinburgh has wound up the third century of its progress amid 
 circumstances of great prosperity, and it has been most signally honoured on the 
 occasion by the congratulations and compliments of all the most famous universities 
 and learned bodies throughout the world. So now, we here present, as representing 
 for the time the University of Edinburgh, have to inaugurate a new stage in its 
 onward career. 
 
 We do so, gentlemen, amid the echoes of the Tercentenary Festival, which 
 are calculated to fill our .hearts with encouragement, and to furnish a grand 
 incentive to the University to rise on the stepping-stones of the past to still 
 greater heights. When we think of the unanimous response, of the most cordial 
 and the most respectful character, which our invitations received from all the 
 great foreign schools ; when we think of that notable assemblage of Delegates — 
 the greatest inter-academic and international gathering that has ever been seen — 
 marshalled in their varied costumes within the Parliament House ; when we think 
 of those hundred addresses jointly testifying that the University of Edinburgh is 
 held in high esteem, that the names of its great men are widely known, and that 
 it is considered to have had a glorious past ; and when we recall the eloquent 
 words of so many gifted orators, who from various points of view brought their 
 contributions of sympathy and of praise to decorate the occasion, — we cannot but 
 feel that no university in the history of civilisation has ever been so highly honoured 
 as ours. The feeling of patriotic pride which these testimonies may awaken in us is 
 
ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 not only not identical with, but it is the antithesis and antidote to, anything like 
 personal self-glorification. As Dr Flint told us in that discourse, so worthy of the 
 occasion, which he delivered in St Giles's Cathedral, these things "ought not to 
 make us think more, but less, of our own small individualities." We are carried 
 out of ourselves in reflecting upon the history of the institution to which we 
 belong, and how from small beginnings it has risen, by the genius, the sagacity, 
 and the toil of successive generations, to be a world-famous school. Its name and 
 its fame have been handed down to us as a sacred trust. And thus the lesson of 
 the Tercentenary is to remind us of our responsibility, falling upon students and 
 ofiice-bearers alike, to maintain and carry on the work of our predecessors. If 
 we are told that our University occupies a noble position, then comes the conse- 
 quence — noblesse oblige. And what are those complimentary addresses, which dwell 
 on the achievements of the past ? They are so many bills drawn upon the future, 
 which we and our successors will be bound to honour. 
 
 Gentlemen, the memories of the Tercentenary surround us in this hall, and on 
 that account I am glad to meet you here. The traditions of that Festival have become 
 a permanent possession for all connected with the University of Edinburgh, and are 
 the common property of those now joining the University, or who may join it hereafter. 
 But there are many of those here present who took actual part in that memorable 
 scene, when in this hall the students received and welcomed some of the most illustrious 
 of living men. And to them I should say — You will surely cherish the recollection of 
 that striking, that unique event. Long years hence, after I and my generation are 
 passed away, when you too have become old and grey-headed men, you may quote for 
 the edification of your grandchildren that maxim which was suggested to you in this 
 place by M. Pasteur, " Whatever may be the career you embrace, set before yourselves 
 an elevated aim, and cultivate a reverence for great men and great things." And then 
 you may tell of a solemnity at which you were present in your youth, to which the 
 heroes and demigods of science and letters came flocking from far-off lands, like the 
 gods in old mythology to the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis. Each of you who is in a 
 position to relate and describe the ceremonies and entertainments of the Tercentenary 
 Festival, may also add, like ^Eneas, Et quorum pars magna fui. 
 
 That Festival would indeed have lost more than half its charm if it had missed 
 the many contributions made by the students towards entertaining the guests of the 
 University. And besides all that the students did towards filling up the nights and 
 days with pageant and delights, I think that they contributed still more to the occasion 
 by the spirit in which they entered into every meeting, and by the warmth of enthu- 
 siasm with which they greeted illustrious men. I believe that many of our visitors 
 will have carried away with them, as their pleasantest recollection of Edinburo^h, the 
 memory of the generous recognition which they received from the students. One of 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 our guests, Professor Eivier, published in a Swiss Review his experiences of the celebra- 
 tion ; and of the students of this University he stated : " They are said to be hard- 
 working and orderly, but every one can testify to their expansive gaiety, always good- 
 natured and decorous, during the Festival, and also to the practical ability of their 
 Eepresentative Council." I remember that a few years ago, in distributing the prizes 
 at the University Games, I ventured to say that " it should be the ambition of the 
 University of Edinburgh to be first among the Scottish Universities, — first in every- 
 thing ; first in science and literature, first in numbers, first perhaps in athletic com- 
 petitions, but certainly first in the high tone of its students." Gentlemen, I thought 
 that you realised my aspiration last April in the attitude which you displayed before 
 all the world. 
 
 But what I want now to bring out and emphasise is, that the general body of 
 the students of this University appeared at the Festival, and on other occasions during 
 the year, no longer as a fortuitous concurrence of atoms, but in some respects as an 
 organic body — self-organised ; no longer inarticulate, but provided with the means 
 of constitutionally expressing its ideas and its wants, and exhibiting, as M. Eivier 
 observed, considerable savoir-faire, or practical ability. This is a most remarkable 
 innovation. I hail it as the most important achievement of this year — as the first 
 striking feature of the new epoch which we are now inaugurating. I look upon your 
 new constitution, if I may call it so, as destined to have happy results, and to change 
 in many respects the character of student-life — not only here, but in the other 
 Universities of Scotland, who will certainly copy what has been done and will be 
 done here. 
 
 When I speak of " student-life," I must not forget that one of the German news- 
 papers pronounced that there was " no student-life at Edinburgh." " Why," it said, 
 "they have not got a single student-song!" Gentlemen, if student-life consists in 
 student-songs, with the usual German concomitants, I think that you may very well do 
 without it. I would again quote M. Eivier, who said of the Edinburgh students that 
 " they are by no means addicted to those costly babyisms which are the fashion in 
 some of the universities of Germany " ; and I would add that neither at Oxford nor 
 at Cambridge — whose strong point is considered to be the social life of the under- 
 graduates — have they a single student-song. And after all, you certainly have one 
 song peculiar to this University, and a very good one too. You have got your Alma 
 Mater, te canamus — the production of that delightful poet. Professor Maclagan, set 
 to music by Sir Herbert Oakeley. I should have thought that you had also a good 
 deal of student-life, at all events sectionally, in your various societies and clubs ; and 
 the biographies of eminent men who have been educated in this place, almost invariably 
 tell of lifelong friendships which they formed at the University. Still, as regards the 
 general body of the students, it has been truly said that hitherto " they have suffered 
 
ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 from the want of opportunities and accommodation for that intercourse, intellectual 
 and social, which plays so conspicuous and beneficial a part in the undergraduate life 
 of the universities of other countries." 
 
 A good deal, however, has been done of late years towards fostering corporate feel- 
 ing and corporate life among the students in this place ; and I cannot forbear from 
 mentioning here one name which I have always held in honour — the name of Dr 
 Charles Cathcart, who procured for the students their cricket-ground, and who has 
 been unwearied in working for their welfare, while he himself has always set them 
 an example of manliness and virtue. Dr Cathcart's name is worthy of being recorded 
 in the annals of the University as the first originator of the movement for organising 
 student-life. And the good work which he began has been taken up and carried 
 forward in the happiest way by that distinguished triumvirate, Dr Orme Mason, Mr 
 Fitzroy Bell, and Mr Sturrock, the founders and joint -presidents of the Students' 
 Kepresentative Council. 
 
 Of this institution all I can say is, that so long as it continues to be conducted 
 as it has been since its outset, with judgment, tact, and a single-minded pursuit 
 of what is good, — and I do not see why this should not continue to be the case, 
 — the advantages which it will confer upon the University wUl be very great. 
 Such a Council forms a valuable means of communication between the students, 
 and the Senatus : it implies, or ought to imply, a wise influence exercised upon 
 the public opinion of the students by their own chosen leaders ; it implies, or ought 
 to imply, the infusion of reason into chaos. Therefore, I for one earnestly hope 
 for the permanency of the Students' Representative Council. I trust that it may 
 become as solidly grounded and as integral a part of the University as the Royal 
 Medical Society, and that during the fourth century of the University it may play 
 a conspicuous part, and continue without fail to exercise a beneficent influence. 
 
 For this end it will certainly require a local habitation. And the best form of 
 this would be what the Council themselves have wisely proposed — a building for 
 a Union Society of the students of all Faculties. The idea and the name of a Union 
 Society are of course borrowed from Oxford and Cambridge. But at Oxford and 
 Cambridge the Union is a mere supplement to collegiate life. In Edinburgh such 
 an institution would be to some extent a substitute for that collegiate life which 
 here has no existence. A Union Society here would be a meeting-point and place 
 of daily resort for students otherwise scattered and isolated through the city; and 
 it would surely be an advantage for a student coming for the first time as a stranger 
 to the University, to find such a common centre hospitably awaiting him. 
 
 To efi"ect this desirable object, to establish an Edinburgh University Union 
 Society, large funds are necessary. The Prytaneum of 3000 students, with debating- 
 hall, gymnasium, reading and writing rooms, committee-rooms, and other appur- 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 tenances, must necessarily be a large building, which with its site would cost no less 
 than £15,000; and of this sum I believe only about one-fifth has been as yet pro- 
 vided. But the scheme is such a good one, and so well worthy of realisation, that 
 I think it only requires to be made generally known in order to receive the necessary 
 encouragement and support. I think that many good friends and benefactors of the 
 University, when their attention is called to it, will be glad to do a good turn for the 
 student in his lonely lodgings by giving him the means of enjoying the society of his 
 fellows. The scheme is one not only for increasing the amount of enjoyment among the 
 ranks of the students, but also for increasing their educational advantages, by promot- 
 ing the mutual play of mind, and developing the graces of courtesy and refinement. 
 I hope to see with my own eyes the building of the Students' Union set up as 
 a memorial of this remarkable year, and I hope to see the Society itself in full 
 working, as the beginning in some respects of a new order of things. 
 
 There is another piece of academic architecture,— for so I think I may call it, 
 though its purposes are perhaps not directly scientific or literary, — which I have long 
 been wishing for. It is of a less grandiose and costly character than a Students' Union, 
 to which indeed it would be a sort of appendage ; and therefore, being a comparatively 
 small thing, it might be obtained with a comparatively small eff'ort. In explaining 
 what this object is, the dignity of the present occasion compels me to resort to a 
 Johnsonian paraphrase, and to say that I desire to see erected along the south side of 
 the University New Buildings a range of areas or courts suitable for the carrying on 
 of an exercise which is usually denominated by the number of the fingers on the 
 human hand. To place facilities for this exercise within reach of the students between 
 their class-hours, would be a salutiferous, and, I think, not an unwelcome gift. 
 
 But to return to the Students' Eepresentative Council. I have been much struck 
 by a happy thought at which they have been working during the past month, and 
 with which they are still engaged. This is the formation of a Students' Directory, to 
 contain as far as possible the names and addresses of all the students attending the 
 University during the present session. The need for such a Directory has been often 
 felt. I believe that sometimes a student's friends coming to Edinburgh to see him 
 have been bafiled in the attempt to discover his residence, and that the students 
 themselves are frequently put to inconvenience by having no guide to each other's 
 addresses. The success of the plan for providing a Directory must of course depend 
 upon the co-operation of those for whose benefit it has been devised. And I hope that 
 all you gentlemen here present will render loyal assistance to the Eepresentative 
 Council, and furnish the required information, and persuade your friends to do 
 the same. 
 
 This project of a Students' Directory is a sample of the thoughtful spirit in which 
 the Council work to supply the wants of the students. May they be rewarded by the 
 
ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 gratitude and allegiance of their constituents ! There is one thing which may be 
 looked for from the Council, if this institution continues to be like what it is now — 
 and that is, that it may gradually introduce a new and good tradition with regard to 
 some of the student-customs. In all universities tradition has great force in deter- 
 mining collective conduct. And there are unfortunately such things as traditions 
 which dictate to a student the duty of doing that which his own natural judgment 
 would never have suggested to him, but would rather have led him to eschew. Such 
 traditional follies are sometimes of long, sometimes of very short duration. Several 
 such have been successively renounced in bygone days in this University. During 
 the seventeenth century there prevailed for a long time the custom that on the 10th 
 of March a football should be thrown into the class-room of the first-year students, 
 which of course led to riot and destruction. At last, in 1697, the senior students were 
 prevailed on to sign a paper in which they declared their " willingness," as they said, 
 " to have this abominable custom for ever banished from the College, and to hand up 
 for expulsion any one of their number who should attempt throwing in of the said 
 ball." After that, the practice was entirely discontinued, and was never heard of 
 again. 
 
 Subsequently various reprehensible customs — such as duelling, wearing hats in 
 class-room, and other absurdities — had their run, and were abandoned. During the 
 present century the idea arose that whenever snow lay upon the ground it was to be 
 the signal for a town and gown riot ; but with regard to this, also, good sense has pre- 
 vailed, and it ranks among the barbarisms of the past. The latest and most disgraceful 
 folly— most dangerous in its possible consequences, and meriting the heaviest aca- 
 demical penalties — has been what was called " the students' night " at a theatre. This, 
 I hope and believe, has been for ever abandoned. There is one other tradition that 
 lingers here and elsewhere ; what shall we say of it ? I refer to what might be called 
 the carnival tradition in connection with Rectorial addresses. Dulce est desipere in 
 loco ; but the great matter is the locus. It may be very appropriate for the modern 
 Eomans to go mad in the Corso on Shrove Tuesday and pelt each other with comfits, 
 as our students do with peas ; but it may well be questioned whether the right time 
 and place for students' madness, and for a carnival which often shows no respect for 
 anything human or divine, is when some great statesman has come to impart his 
 thoughts to those who have chosen him as theii- Rector, and to give them a specimen 
 of his mind and of his eloquence. That the occasion should be so used seems to be 
 confused survival of the practices at political elections ; the Rector's addi-ess appears 
 to be treated as a hustings speech. But the Lord Rector does not come to speak as 
 if from the hustings. The contest is over before he arrives ; he appears as the elected 
 member visiting his constituents or adherents, and even political etiquette demandi 
 that he should be allowed to address them without interruption. By all means let 
 
 a 
 
 s 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 US have hilarity and wit at general meetings of the students. But what is " wit " ? 
 Aristotle defines it as " chastened insolence." And if the insolence be not chastened, 
 it is no longer wit, but remains simple insolence, which is a very different thing. It 
 must be confessed that on several occasions, owing to the good influence exercised by 
 students of light and leading, the carnival spirit has been restrained within proper 
 bounds, and your present highly-esteemed Lord Eector — Sir Stafi"ord Northcote — has 
 nothing but praise to record of the treatment which you have given him. But if the 
 carnival tradition remains in this University like a caged wild beast, it can never be 
 depended on ; and there is always the apprehension that at some moment it may break 
 out into dishonourable excesses. The great hope is, that the manly temperance of the 
 Eepresentative Council may so moderate and harmonise this tradition as to turn it 
 into something graceful and worthy of the Edinburgh students. And then your 
 successors — or why should not I say " you yourselves," gentlemen ? — will look with 
 contempt upon bygone barbarisms. May the expansive but decorous gaiety described 
 by M. Eivier always continue among you ! What we ask from the students is, that 
 on all public occasions they should exhibit themselves as they did at the Tercentenary 
 Festival. 
 
 Gentlemen, in the new era which we are now entering, the University will not 
 remain exactly the same as it is now. In some respects its system will be changed, 
 so as to afford to its students even greater advantages and opportunities than they 
 at present enjoy. The changes to which we have to look forward were well indicated 
 by Dr Flint in his noble Tercentenary Discourse, and I will quote his words : " The 
 Faculty of Arts," said he, " has to reach forth unto such things as securing that its 
 entrants be duly prepared, that certain great departments of thought and learning 
 cease to be neglected, that justice to the various studies be obtained through giving 
 freedom in the choice of subjects, and that sufiicient provision be made for furthering 
 high special attainments. The Faculty of Medicine has before it the simple but 
 pressing problem of the completion of the New Buildings, and what further problem 
 I know not, save how to go on prospering as it has been doing. The Faculties of Law 
 and Theology both need great enlargement, and the latter perhaps organic changes. 
 This city itself has within it the materials out of which, if wisely used, there might 
 be built up within the University, to the great honour and profit of the nation, a 
 magnificent school both of Law and Theology." 
 
 Gentlemen, on this text a long sermon might be preached, — nay, large volumes 
 might be written. But I shall content myself here with a few brief remarks. You 
 all know that the necessity of some change in the system of the Universities of 
 Scotland has long been recognised, and that a Bill for the Better Endowment and 
 Improvement of those Universities has for two years been before Parliament. Un- 
 fortunately, owing to the exigencies of party-warfare to which the immediate wants 
 
10 ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 and interests of the nation have been of late to a considerable extent postponed, this 
 Bill has twice been crushed out of existence, like some poor flower under the charge of 
 opposing squadrons. And who can tell now when it will be reintroduced, not to say 
 carried ? Ultimately, however, this or a similar Bill will become law, and it will afi"ord 
 scope for improvement in the University, and its results will stamp the character of our 
 fourth century. The Universities (Scotland) Bill of last session was, taken all in all, a 
 very good Bill, but not a perfect Bill, — and for this reason, that it was not, so to 
 speak, a holograph ; it was not of one authorship, but a composite production made 
 up of separate contributions from distinct sources — namely, from the Lord Advocate's 
 office and from her Majesty's Treasury. And I would compare these two threads 
 in the Bill to the Khone and the Arve running together distinct in one bed, — " a 
 clear stream flowiag by a muddy one." Almost all the provisions in the Bill devised 
 by the Lord Advocate were, I think, admirable, but they were marred by clauses 
 which came in from the Treasury. These of course were not the work of the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer ; there was no question of high finance worthy of his 
 attention. They are to be attributed to the Secretary of the Treasury, doubtless 
 inspired by the subordinate and permanent officials. And it is perfectly clear that 
 the idea of these officers was to seize the occasion and make a good bargain with the 
 Scottish Universities, and so to save the national finances, and at the same time to 
 be rid of all trouble with regard to those Universities for the future. 
 
 What I complain of is the principle which the Treasury attempted to introduce 
 into the Bill. This principle was, that from henceforth University education is 
 to be cut ofi" from any additional State support ; that, whatever may be the unforeseen 
 developments of science, while other nations go on richly endowing its prosecu- 
 tion, not a penny more than a sum now fixed is to be voted for its encouragement 
 in Scotland, and that the sum fixed for all University purposes in this country is 
 to be about one per cent of the present educational vote for the United Kingdom. 
 This, I say, is a question of national policy, and I submit to you whether a question 
 of national policy should be decided by a side-wind in this manner by the subordinate 
 officials in her Majesty's Treasury. There were also special clauses in this BilL which 
 showed the spirit in which these officials worked ; I mean the clauses for transferring 
 the Observatory and the Botanical Garden in this city to the University of Edinburgh. 
 These clauses were irrelevant to the Bill, and they were evidently introduced, not from 
 any regard to the interests of the University, or to the interests of science, or to the 
 interests of the citizens of Edinburgh, but with the object of killing two birds with one 
 stone, by putting a stop to all future demands on the Treasury, not only for the 
 Universities of Scotland, but also for the Observatory and the Botanical Garden of the 
 Scottish metropolis. Gentlemen, perhaps when we have a Minister for Scottish afi"airs 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 11 
 
 with a seat in the Cabinet, our national institutions will no longer be treated so 
 contemptuously. 
 
 The Bill contained another financial clause, which I do not attribute to the 
 Treasury, because it did not reduce or limit the Parliamentary vote, but only applied 
 to its distribution. I regard it as the one serious lapsus in the Lord Advocate's 
 measure, that he consented to provide that no part of the additional grant from the 
 State should be allowed to go to augment the endowment of any of the Theological 
 Chairs. By all means make the Theological Chairs undenominational, as this Bill pro- 
 posed to do, — for a University should be above denominational distinctions and separa- 
 tions. But when that has been done, when these Chairs have been opened to the best 
 learning and ability to be found in all the Protestant communions, do not go and mar 
 all this by starving the Chairs, and making academical pariahs of them, so that to 
 eminent scholars they will be no object of attraction. And let it not be too hastily 
 laid down in these days that the State has no concern with Theological science. 
 Surely rather the opportunity should have been seized to build up a great national 
 school of Theology here, such as Andrew Melville devised for Scotland three hundred 
 years ago, though to this day his ideas have never been carried out. 
 
 The Lord Advocate's Bill provided for the improvement of the Scottish Univer- 
 sities by means of an Executive Commission : and if we were to judge by analogy from 
 the results of the last Executive Commission, which, under the wise guidance of our 
 present Chancellor, gave us freedom, order, and prosperity, we might look forward with 
 sanguine confidence to the work of a new Commission ; but the problems which await 
 the Commissioners to be appointed now are perhaps more complex, more delicate, and 
 more responsible than any of those dealt with by the Commissioners of 1858. Look, 
 for instance, at the difiiculty of the following two problems : First, How to rearrange 
 the rules of graduation in Arts and in Science, so as to give a wide choice of subjects 
 to the candidate, and to open a number of alternative avenues to a degree, and yet to 
 preserve a perfect equality as to ease and difiiculty of access, and prevent some subjects 
 from being unduly favoured, and others doomed to comparative neglect ? Second, How 
 to adjust with perfect equity a fee-fund, so that the interests of individual Professors 
 should no longer, as hitherto, be isolated, but should be more bound up in the corporate 
 prosperity of the University ? These are two of the most important problems which 
 an Executive Commission appointed on the lines of the Lord Advocate's Bill would 
 have to deal with. But any one who is at all acquainted with the subject must see 
 how great is the intrinsic difiiculty of each of them. Still, they both have necessarily 
 to be faced. They are problems worthy of the strongest and the wisest heads, but they 
 can hardly be dealt with prudently unless there be in the Commission a strong infusion 
 of actual knowledge and experience of the working of the Scottish Universities. And 
 
12 ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 I would venture to utter two warnings to the Executive Commissioners, whoever 
 they may be, and whenever appointed. In the first place, it would be by no means 
 advantageous to Scotland — nay, it would be like injuring one of the eyes of the nation 
 — if the Arts Faculties in the four Universities were turned entirely or mainly into 
 schools of science. In the second place, history teaches us, especially with regard to 
 the University of Edinburgh, that its past success and glory have been entirely due to 
 the personnel of its Professoriate. Its future hope must depend upon keeping up the 
 succession. Therefore any measure, or set of measures, which may tend to fritter away 
 the value, the dignity, and the desirableness of the Professorships, so as to make them 
 no longer objects of ambition for men of the highest ability, will certainly lead to the 
 degeneration of the University. 
 
 One of the points at which a Commission would have to aim, is one of those which 
 Dr Flint pointed out — namely, " the furthering of high special attainments " in the Arts 
 Faculty, towards which our present degree-system in Arts does next to nothing. But 
 I am happy to say that, without waiting for a Commission, we have already within the 
 University a supplement to the degree-system, which stimulates, by lucrative reward, 
 high special attainments in each of the great subjects of University teaching. I allude, 
 of course, to the Vans Dunlop Scholarships, brought into operation within the last few 
 years. These scholarships have already raised the high-water mark of attainment in 
 every department. And Dr Vans Dunlop must be held to have been one of the 
 greatest and wisest of the University's benefactors. 
 
 However much the new systems to be introduced here may be theoretically better 
 than the old, the real question wUl still be, "What is the quality of the work produced 
 under those systems ? If for universities there were to be payment by results, I. wonder 
 what the criterion of results would be ? Surely it ought not to be the marks awarded 
 by a Government examiner to the amount of cram which the students on a given day 
 might be able to produce ? Eather the results of a university should be taken over a 
 considerable period of time — say not less than half-a-century — and they might be esti- 
 mated to consist, — (1) in the great mass of fairly-educated men contributed to the nation, 
 not destined perhaps to personal distinction, but rendering good service to the com- 
 munity in the various walks of life ; (2) in the number of those alumni who are sent 
 forth to rise to eminence in the jDrofessions or in the State, and to become leaders of 
 men, beacons of light, makers of history ; (3) in the discoveries, whether in external 
 nature or in the mind of man, made within the university itself ; (4), and not least in 
 the philosophy of the university as distinguished from its special researches and 
 teachings, and the influence of that philosophy upon the world. 
 
 Of these four classes of results, the first two are obviously in the hands of successive 
 generations of students. I have spoken previously of the collective life and conduct of 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 13 
 
 the students as a body. This, though it has its own importance, is relatively superficial 
 and insignificant when compared with the greatness of the issues dependent on the work 
 and life of each student as an individual. On the one hand, if each individual here is 
 inspired with an honest desire to do well in the University, the general body is sure not 
 to go very far wrong. On the other hand, good customs and social institutions in the 
 body are biit favourable conditions for the individual — happy circumstances if they be 
 present, but which a vigorous soul may dispense with, pushing its way without devia- 
 tion towards its self-chosen goal. I need not remind you of the opportunities which 
 the University ofi'ers to all who can take full advantage of them. As it was said that 
 every soldier in Napoleon's army carried the baton of a field-marshal in his knapsack, 
 so each student coming to the University brings with him a number of potential and 
 hitherto unsigned commissions — commissions of professorships, sheriffships, judgeships, 
 titles to the highest posts that the Church, the State, Medicine, Science, and Literature 
 have to ofi"er, — so open is the career that the University puts before you, so many 
 diverse ladders does it set up. It is a small thing to say that the appointments within 
 the University itself are the natural inheritance of its students. Every previous Prin- 
 cipal here, with the exception of Eollock, was originally a student of this University ; 
 and down to 1838, when Kelland was appointed Professor of Mathematics, there was 
 not a single Edinburgh Professor in any Faculty who had not been educated in a Scot- 
 tish university. It is interesting to read how Edward Forbes, the brilliant naturalist, 
 deliberately proposed to himself, while a student, to become the successor of his great 
 teacher Jameson, and how, before his premature and lamented death, he achieved the 
 purpose of his youth. Many, doubtless, have been the cases of such secret resolve in 
 the minds of students, though not recorded by history. Yotith is like the " big wars " 
 spoken of by Othello "which make ambition virtue." In youth ambition is almost 
 identical with virtue. It is very different from the quality which goes by the same 
 name in after-life ; for it is not purely selfish. A young man strives to succeed not 
 merely for himself, but for the happiness which his doing so will give to his family : 
 thus his ambition is hallowed. And it admits of no unworthy means, no time-serving 
 or political chicanery : it is restricted to honest, persevering effort, aieu apvcTTeveLv — to 
 excel in the class-room, in the debating society, in the competition. And this effort 
 brings its own exceeding great reward. For after all, the chief good for a man in this 
 world is the consciousness of having developed and employed the faculties allotted to 
 him, and of having done his duty. 
 
 Another class of the results of a university consists in the discoveries made by 
 its Professors, or by its students working in the laboratory or reflecting upon the facts 
 of which they are possessed. Discoveries of the first magnitude are, I suppose, few 
 and far between, and it would be unjust to test a university, as perhaps Lord Bacon 
 
14 ADDEESS TO THE STUDENTS OF 
 
 would have done, solely by its discoveries. They seem to come by a " divine chance "; 
 they are like the inspirations of genius, the revelations made by Providence, in its own 
 good time, through great minds, to the world. Yet our University in times past would 
 fairly bear being submitted to such a test. The discovery of carbonic-acid gas and of 
 latent heat by Joseph Black, of nitrogen by Daniel Eutherford, of the sensor and 
 motor nerves by Charles Bell, of many of the laws of optics by David Brewster, of 
 our distance from the fixed stars by Thomas Henderson, of the nature of glaciers by 
 James Forbes, of the nucleus of the cell by John Goodsir, of the application of 
 chloroform by James Young Simpson, and of the antiseptic treatment in surgery by 
 Joseph Lister, — are all titles of honour to the University of Edinburgh. The very 
 mention of many of them shows that they were made during the infancy of science, 
 when the field was waiting for the reapers, and not so cut and garnered as it has since 
 become. But, on the other hand, they were mostly made when the University had no 
 laboratories for its students, no systematic experiments, none of those instruments for 
 torturing Nature, and forcing her to reveal her secrets, with which we are now richly 
 provided. Therefore there seems to remain a good hope that in the future which is 
 before us discoveries of hidden things may yet be vouchsafed to ardent minds in this 
 place — discoveries not only tending to the material welfare of mankind, but also to 
 man's just comprehension of the universe, and of his own position in it. 
 
 I have omitted to mention one discovery made in this University at the end 
 of the last century, which seems to me to be a striking contribution to natural 
 theology or the philosophy of the universe. I refer to the discovery by Charles 
 HojDC, Professor of Chemistry, of the remarkable property which water exhibits 
 of attaining its maximum density at a little over thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit. On 
 first hearing this, most people would regard it as the announcement of a fact ia nature, 
 and nothing more. But in reality it is the announcement of a strange break in the 
 laws of nature, made to all appearance for a special purpose. For all other fluids 
 go on contracting and increasing in weight as they get colder. With regard to water 
 alone, this law does not hold good. And what is the result ? Why, that cold water 
 from the temperature of thirty-nine degrees downwards, and after it has become ice, is 
 lighter than warmer water, and thus remains on the surface ; whereas, if the law attach- 
 ing to other fluids held good with regard to water, the top water chilled by the air would 
 always cool and fall down to the bottom, until the whole of a lake or sea became of a 
 freezing temperature, when it would become a solid mass of ice. Thus, as Sir Lyon 
 Play fair has pointed out, "not only would vegeteible and animal life be destroyed, but 
 the heat of the warmest summers would be insufiicient to melt such vast quantities 
 of ice." When we come upon this discovery, and detect nature, so to speak, inter- 
 rupting her own laws for the salvation of a great part of the earth and those that 
 
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 15 
 
 inhabit it, we may well ask, Who shall talk any longer of blind inflexible laws of 
 matter governing the universe ? who shall exclude teleology, reason, providence, from 
 the cosmical system ? 
 
 In the addresses which we have received from foreign universities, we find in 
 some cases that appeals are made to us to aid in withstanding the materialistic 
 and pessimist philosophies which are to so great an extent oppressing the continent 
 of Europe. These are appeals to the philosophy and to the attitude of the University 
 of Edinburgh in the future. Who can tell what the course of human thought in 
 another fifty years may be ? But I see no indication in the present, and no reason to 
 expect in the future, that the University of Edinburgh, on its philosophic side, 
 however much it may admire the fruitful methods of Darwinism in its earlier phase, 
 will accept the mechanical cosmism of Darwinism in its extreme developments, or 
 its clumsy and infelicitous attempts to evolve reason out of matter; — nor, again, 
 that our successors will consent, in obedience to the unwholesome dictates of a few 
 jaundiced spirits, to renounce all hope of human happiness in this life or another. 
 These philosophies assume an attitude as if the last word on the greatest questions 
 had been spoken. But what a want of imagination is this ! Probably the last 
 word can never be spoken, in a world where we know in part, and see as in a 
 glass darkly. But in the meantime, metaphysics, so far from being discarded as 
 a scholastic dream, seem to have a new future opened to them ; they are now 
 looked up to and called upon, and I read in a German book that " the great 
 necessity of the present day is an organic fusion of idealism with the results of 
 modern physical science." Should this be carried out, metaphysics will justify 
 their name, as the science that comes after physical science : thus will they take 
 the place assigned to them by Aristotle as the culminating point and crown of 
 the other sciences. And so it may come to pass that here or elsewhere it may 
 be given to metaphysics to justify, or even to demonstrate to the reason, those 
 beliefs which we now hold to by faith, and to give assurance that the glorious 
 increase of physical knowledge is not destined to be a mere increase of sorrow ; 
 that the hope of the Christian is not an idle dream ; that mankind is not left 
 fatherless, with no answering heart in the void abyss. 
 
 Such is the great province for philosophy in the opening century. And at the 
 close of that century, I trust that some one may be able to echo the words made use 
 of by Count Safii in this hall, when he said : " The grand, the noble, and the inspiring 
 feature which struck me in the celebration of your Tercentenary, was the harmony, the 
 union, — the intimate union, — between religion, patriotism, and science, which has 
 presided over all the proceedings. I am happy to be able to take home to my country- 
 men your example, and to try and convince them of the necessity of the union to 
 
16 ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. 
 
 which I have alluded — the union of the moral element with the scientific and the 
 merely intellectual in the work of life. My faith in the Eternal Ideal is comforted, is 
 confirmed, by seeing before me this gathering of young men, who represent the hope, 
 the promise, and the force of a noble future for the present generation, and for many 
 generations to come." 
 
 Gentlemen, in conclusion, let us wish all that is good for the University of 
 Edinburgh during its fom-th century, and let us each resolve to do what in us lies to 
 promote its welfare and to contribute to its honour. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAil BLACKWOOD AND SONS. 
 
v/-"