YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of NEW HAVEN PUBLIC LIBRARY CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES BY W. PETERSON Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO, 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS I9I5 TWO CHANCELLORS OF McGILL THE LATE LORD STRATHCONA AND SIR WILLIAM MACDONALD PEEFACE. This book is published as a memorial volume. It is, in its way, a record of the period which has elapsed since the author took up his Canadian citizenship — now nearly twenty years ago. But let it be said at once that he is under no illusions as to the reception it is likely to meet with or the vogue it is likely to enjoy. He is well aware that these addresses and papers may turn out to have mainly a local interest, and that some of them may be considered even out of date, especially since the sudden outbreak of this appalling world-war. But if their publication should be criticized as superfluous and unnecessary, he would only plead in extenuation the fact that they form, to some extent, a record of institutional policy as well as of individual opinion, and that he has felt strongly on many of the subjects with which they deal. This last remark refers especially to the imperial series, which was selected, like the rest, from a mass of available material before the war broke out. Some of the misunderstandings that surround the imperial issue might be cleared away if individuals would only examine themselves intelligently, and frankly declare which way their aspirations tend. The writer has sought to give a reason for the faith and hope that are in him ; those who have regarded his reported attitude as ultra-imperialist will have the opportunity now, if they care to take it, of vii vui PBBFACB reading the written word, and discovering wherein their sympathies really differ from his. Of course there will always be some who hold that the question is not one of aspiration or sympathy : however alluring may be the prospect of some form of imperial unity, it is to them a practical impossibility, an unrealizable dream, and "there's an end on't ! " As to the second part, there is one consideration that may help to link it with the imperial series. The University, especially when it comprises con stituent and more or less self-governing colleges, is in a sense a microcosm of Empire, Both are systems- that need organization, but of both it may be said that even the most perfect outward form would not suffice if it were not animated and inspired in every separate section by a conscious unity of aims and purposes, "Autonomy" and "individuality" should not be the only words to conjure with : there is also the ideal of the due subordination of the parts to the whole and of the harmonizing of what may seem to be conflicting interests with the general good. The wide extent of territory over which these addresses were delivered may help to lend them an additional element of interest. It is one of the privileges which the world of education shares with the Church that those who aspire to leadership are in constant demand all over the country for cere monial appearances involving more or less oratory. The notes from which many of the papers have been reconstructed show that, in the author's case at least, whatever may be thought of the results, the element of careful thought and preparation has seldom been wanting. McGill TJnivbbbity, MoNTEEAL, September, 1914, CONTENTS, PAET FIEST. PAGE The Belations op the English-Speaking Peoples .... 1 An address deliyered before the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni in New York, 13 Marbh, 1896. The Bbitish Empibe 21 An address delivered before the British Public Schools aud Universities Club, New York, 9 November, 1903. The FuT0JEtE op Canada 38 From " The Empire and the Century," John Murray, London, 1905. The Wae in South Afbica — (a) A Pabewehi to Stbathcona's Hor^e 56 Montreal, 12 March, 1900. (6) The Inadgubation of the Stbathcona and Sodth Afbican Monument 58 Montreal, 24 May, 1907. Canada and the Empibe 62 An address delivered before the Canadian Club, Winnipeg, 11 January, 1908. Canada and the United States 74 An address delivered before the Intercolonial Club of Boston, 16 December, 1907. Canada and the Navy 87 An address delivered before the Empire Club, Toronto, 3 February, 1910. Teub Impebiadism 108 The "University Magazine," December, 1910. ix X CONTENTS PAGE The Impbeiaii Confbeencb 117 The " University Magazine," October, 1911. Dominion and Empiee 129 An address delivered before the Canadian Club, Smith's Falls, Ontario, 24 April, 1913. Me. Boeden'b Naval Policy 149 An address delivered before the British Public Schools and Universities Club, New York, 24 May, 1918. PAET SECOND. (a) Inaugubal Addeess as Peincipal op McGill Uniyebsitt . 155 Montreal, 24 January, 1896. 6) OuB Seventy-Sixth Annivbesaey 176 Montreal, 6 October, 1904. (c) A Sessional Addbess 200 Montreal, 1 October, 1913. National Education 213 An address delivered before the Ontario Educational Association, 5 April, 1904. The Unity op Learning 235 An address delivered at the Jubilee of the University of Wis consin, Madison, 9 June, 1904. The Place op the Univeesity in the Commebciai City . . . 253 An address delivered before the Canadian Club, Montreal, 24 March, 1905. The Earliest Univeesities and the Latest 267 Convocation Address, University of Chicago, 18 June, 1905. The Claims op Clabsicai. Studies in Modebn Education . . . 287 An address delivered before the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Chicago, 29 March, 1907. PoBTEY in the School 804 An address delivered before the Women's Canadian Club, Winnipeg, 11 January, 1908. Education and Business 316 An address delivered before the Canadian Club, Ottawa, 7 Jan uary, 1911. CONTENTS xi PAGE Ameeioan Addebsses— {a) The Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 20 February, 1902 329 (6) The Harvard Canadian Club, 14 December, 1907 . . . 333 (c) The Inauguration of President Lowell at Harvard, 6 October, 1909 340 {d) Annual Meeting of the Archsaologioal Institute at Baltimore, 30 December, 1909 845 (e) The Dedication of the Graduate School at Princeton, 21 October, 1913 . . 349 Addeess Deliveeed at the Opening of the McGill Conseevatoeium op Music 352 Montreal, 14 October, 1904. Addeess Delivebed befoee the St. Andbew's Society, New Yoek . 358 30 November, 1904. Addeess Delivebed on the occasion op the Mbmoeial Seevice held IN CONNEXION WITH THE FUNEBAL OP LOBD StEATHCONA . . 367 Eoyal Victoria College, 26 January, 1914. PAET FIRST THE EBLATIONS OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES.! Forget not whence the breath was blown That wafted you afar. — W. Watson. I NBVEE rose to address any audience with feelings of greater responsibility and greater dif&dence — I might almost say perturbation — than on the present occasion. Till this morn ing I had never seen New York, and a week or two ago it would have required some gift of prophecy to foretell that I should now be standing up before an audience of American citizens to address them on a topic of such far-reaching im port. But no matter how I may acquit myself in your hear ing to-night — and I fear I shall respond very imperfectly to the demands that have been laid upon me — I shall always regard it as one of the most interesting incidents of my life that, within only a few months of having taken up my abode in another part of this vast continent, and at a time when the great heart of English-speaking humanity has been touched to its core by the untoward course of recent events, I should have been honoured with an invitation to address you in this city on the " relations of the English-speaking peoples ". To my care has been entrusted to-night the presentation of what I may call the case for Anglo-Saxon unity. I have to set before you not only the relations which exist between the component parts of the British Empire, but also the con siderations that ought to draw together into a wider unity — a unity at least of moral force and sentiment — those whom '¦ An address delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni in New York, 13 March, 1896. 1 2 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBB geographical position and the course of historical develop ment have parted asunder into two separate and distinct nationalities, but to whom it is still open to think of them selves as one, — " two nations but one people," sharing the same blood, the same language, and under different forms the same freedom. Gentlemen, it is a proud privilege to speak on such a subject, before such an audience. The occasion is one which might well inflame with eloquence the most inarticulate of speakers. As regards myself, there is also an element of freshness, and even adventure, which I trust may gain for me the indulgence of any who may be predisposed to weigh critically the utterance which I have the honour to address to you. Only a few short months ago, I was a peace ful dweller in that country over seas which — if it is often made the mark for humorous allusions of the postprandial order — may at the same time be said to enjoy in a special degree the favour of the New World, in respect not only of its wealth of romantic traditions, its rich inheritance of song and story, but also of the fact that it was privileged to write on some of the earliest pages of modern history those lessons of rugged independence and stout resistance to oppression which are so dear to the heart of your people. By way of Canada, gentlemen, I have come to you from Scotland. And so once more, in my humble person, the Old and New World reach their hands Across the water, and the friendly lands Talk with each other from their severed strands. And I am glad, in such times as these, that on the occasion of this my first visit to the United States I should enjoy the deHghtful privilege of being welcomed by a society of univer sity men. Of the many benefits that may be derived from a university training, not the least conspicuous, I take it, is a certain sanity of judgment, a trained intelligence, such as is required for dealing with complex considerations. The power to think aright, to view things in their true relations, to rise above all that is narrow, and local, and partial, is or ought to be, in my opinion, the most distinguishing characteristic of the educated man. That power, that faculty was never EELATIONS OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 3 more needed than it is in the world to-day, when, in the very closing years of what an indignant orator once referred to as the so-called nineteenth century, it appeared for a time as though the whole fabric of Anglo-Saxon civilization were fated once again to be shaken to its base — by the stirring of smouldering animosities, by the revival of all the instincts of savagery and barbarism, even by an appeal to the arbitrament of war. Out of evil good has often come, and we have much reason to hope that it may be so also in the present instance. We are all so self-centred — so intent upon our own affairs — that we ought almost to be thankful for anything that stirs us to the consciousness of greater interdependence and wider responsibilities. The people on the other side of the water have certainly enjoyed abundant opportunities, during the last few months, of seeing themselves as others see them ; and if there is any truth in the view that the opinion of foreign nations is apt to become the verdict of posterity, one might almost tremble for the future of the British Empire. And yet there are some features in the picture that can hardly fail to bring a smile of indulgent good-will to the face of even the most relentless critic. Poor John Bull, in the course of his long life, has given many "hos tages to fortune". He is the father of a very numerous progeny. And so it is coming to be more and more difficult for him to regulate his family affairs without giving offence in some quarter. In the effort to do so, he has been learning many lessons. Time was when he felt himself to be the lineal successor of Imperial Eome, called on to do the world's work with rough-and-ready justice, and by no means over sensitive to the susceptibilities of others. When not engaged in fighting for the liberties of Europe, or even for self-pre servation, he was occupied in working out a colonial policy of which it may be confidently said that, with all its blunders, it has materially advanced the civilization of the world. His great successes have reacted on his naturally self-reliant disposition to produce certain more or less unamiable char acteristics. It may be that he will refuse to plead guilty 4 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES to the charge that "insatiable greed" is everywhere the dominant note of his national policy. He does not recognize himself when he is told that, while he dehghts to bully and oppress weaker vessels in far-off corners of the world where his doings cannot be watched, he will at once catch up his coat and run if confronted with a champion as strong as himself. But it cannot be denied that he has developed that "certain condescension" which was charged against him by one of your own great writers — for whose death he mourned with a keen sense of personal loss. His domineer ing, conceited, and intolerant ways have been bred in him by a long and almost uninterrupted career of success, in the course of which he has come into collision with every nation in Europe. And the result is that he is incliaed to look on himself and his children as in every way better and stronger and manlier and — well, generally, less " foreign " than they. But for all that, gentlemen, I stand here to affirm that the heart and conscience of the nation which John Bull represents are sound at the core. The people of the old country are insular and independent and self-reliant ; they have taught their colonies also the lessons they have learned, often in the school of bitter experience. But they are not unconscionable, as they are sometimes said to be. They have had to do a good deal of the dirty work of the world, in the course of their long history. But it cannot be charged against them that their national activity, taken as a whole, has been anything like an obstacle in the way of the world's progress. In the midst of new and somewhat unfamiliar surroundings, I purposely choose an indirect and quahfied method of expression. But the statement here made could be most confidently advanced in regard to the past ; and as one who beheves that his country's course is not yet run, and that her star is still far from setting, I will venture to make it also in regard to the future. The best security for the permanence of British rule, both at home and abroad, will continue to be — as we think it has been to a great extent in the past— a due regard for the greatest good of the greatest num ber, for the cause of 'law and order, civilization [and progress. EELATIONS OP ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 5 It is only too probable, I fear, that in more than one quarter on this continent there has been a comparative failure to realize the degree to which our ideals of things civil and political have been enlarged and extended in the old country, and our conceptions widened and improved. The excellence of their own political institutions ought not to blind the people of the United States to the steady growth of democratic principles in other countries. The measure of the debt of the Old World to the New may be found in the increased sympathy with popular government which is so potent an element to-day in the councils of Europe. You must of course draw an indulgent veil over the venerable relics of feudalism which linger on with us — many of them preserved from an altogether creditable disinclination to break entirely with the past, and in something of the same spirit as that which prompts old families to retain their grandfather's clocks, even if these revered heirlooms have lost the faculty of keeping absolutely correct time. With us, as well as with you, it may be said that there is gradual growth that will not brook The heaping up and clogging of the past. I trust I may venture to say that it is an amiable delusion to imagine that Britain, because it is monarchical, is there fore essentially a less democratic country than the United States. The sovereignty of the people is a principle which seems to me at least to be as fully recognized in the old country as it is with you. There is nothing incompatible with democratic ideals even in the schemes of which we have lately heard so much for federating the empire — an empire that is based, not on despotism, but on freedom and liberty. The discussion of these schemes has done a good deal to show what British hopes and British purposes in the world really are. The big blunder which we made now over a hundred years ago saved us from any further tempta tion to play the part of an unjust stepmother to our colonies. We can truly say in the words which were even then used by Edmund Burke that our hold of the colonies " is in the 6 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEE8SES close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron." The first duty, therefore, that has to be dis charged in promoting harmonious relations among English- speaking peoples is one that falls directly upon ourselves. We must do everything we can to maintain and strengthen the ties which have held and are holding together the various constituent portions of the empire. Fortunately for the old country, this task will be made all the easier by the loyal and sympathetic attitude of the colonies themselves. Britain is reaping the reward to-day of the attitude into which she may almost be said to have "blundered" when she let the world know that her colonies were free to leave her if they wanted to. No other empire could have afforded to display such magnanimity, even if to some of us it may have seemed, for a time, that the declaration was needlessly insisted on, and repeated with regrettable emphasis and un necessary frequency. But the reward has come, as I have said, in the attitude of the colonies themselves. They do not boggle over the subordinate relation that is meanwhile implied in the use of such a phrase as " dependencies of the Empire " : they recognize themselves for what they ar6 in fact, " democratic republics under the gentle sovereignty of the parent state ". Not even the " world of seas " that divides them from the home-land need bar them from a living contact with our national existence, or prevent them from realizing their partnership in a magnificent ocean empire. The life of our nation is being continued and ex tended in this equal citizenship beyond the seas, and the firm attachment of her colonies is the crown and glory of the old age of the mother country. " When we have ac customed ourselves," said the late Professor Seeley, " to con template the whole Empire together and call it all England, we shall see that here too is a United States." And in the same strain our latest poet, apostrophizing the Colonies, can say with truth EELATIONS OP ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 7 Young is she yet, her world-task but begun 1 By you we know her safe, and know by you Her veins are million but her heart is one. Gentlemen, you will forgive one who has so recently transferred his citizenship from the old country to the great Dominion that lies along your northern border for the enthusiasm with which he has addressed himself to the subject of the relations of the English-speaking colonies to the Empire. I turn now to consider the wider unity — the unity of moral force and sentiment — that ought to weld together the two great sections of the Anglo-Saxon race. Here, too, I trust I may count upon the sympathy of my audience — apart at least from existing complications. For are we not all familiar with utterances which go to show that in all essentials of national unity the subjects of the British Crown are one with the citizens of the great Eepublic? They are " bound together by links stronger than laws and constitutions can create ; they are bound together by religion and race ; by a common history, language, and literature. . . . And the statesman who in the fulness of time shall bring about the federation of all English-speaking peoples will have done a signal service, not only in the consoHdation of kindred races, but in creating a peaceful instrument for establishing peace and extending civilization." I have been told that among the sixty-five odd miUions of people who inhabit the United States of America there are probably only about a million and a half that would be at all likely to attach weight to arguments for peace and good-will based upon the kinship of the two peoples. Indeed I have seen the statement somewhere in print : and in these latter days that is of course the best proof of the correctness of an assertion ! Gentlemen, if I believed in the infallible truth of the statement in question, it would be with a heavy heart that I speak to you to-night. I know how vast is the volume of the tide of immigration that has reached your shores from other countries than Britain. But I know also in how marvellous a fashion the process of assimilation has been 8 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS going on, and how in particular the English language has everywhere asserted its supremacy in your midst. And I re fuse to believe that the vast body of your people is blind to the ties of kinship that exist between us, and deaf to the soft voices that call for the establishment of a league of mutual peace and good-will. Indeed it is only in view of the delicate character of existing situations that I feel it at all necessary to weigh my words well in speaking of this subject. We must all rejoice in the splendid utterances of those who, on both sides of the Atlantic, have refused to credit the possibil ity of any permanent breach between America and Great Britain. Aristotle said long ago, speaking of revolutions, that they " arise out of small incidents, but from great causes ". So also in regard to wars : the " small incidents" may be present with us, but none of us believes that there can ever conceivably be any sufficient cause for war. How is it that we have come to drift so far apart, if apart we have drifted ? Some one has said that the two democracies are to be compared to elderly relatives, settled in different parts of the same country, who have outgrown the youthful en thusiasm for regular correspondence. The masses of the community on either side are too greatly absorbed in their own affairs to find much time nowadays for mutual apprecia tion or mutual admiration. There may be here in America the idea that you have httle to learn from us, while with us it must be taken as an undoubted fact that your significance as a democracy is not what it was in the days when you en joyed the distinction of being almost the sole exponents of the art of popular government. John Burns and Keir Hardie have recently reported on their visits to the States in terms far different from those which would have been used by leaders of their class in the days when America exercised an unrivalled power of magnetic attraction over the minds of all who despaired of achieving, in the Old World, equahty of social conditions. Again, the pohcy of non-intervention which has so wisely marked your conduct of external affairs is responsible for the fact that it is only on the emergence of some grave difficulty that the two peoples are brought into EELATIONS OP ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 9 national contact with each other. A conflict of wills is not the best school of harmony. But at the same time there are influences at work on both sides of the Atlantic that ought to make for harmony. We on our side are sincere in our appreciation of the magnifi cent spectacle that may be witnessed here of an altogether phenomenal growth in material prosperity. We admire — with a touch, perhaps, of something like parental pride — the political genius which has enabled you, within what is, com paratively speaking, so short a period of time, to extend your institutions and your whole national system across the breadth of this vast continent. We rejoice, in fact, that the experi ence of yet another century has confirmed the predictions which Edmund Burke, in a well-known passage, puts in the mouth of the " angel " of the aged Lord Bathurst : " What ever England has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by succes sion of civihzing conquests and civilizing settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America in the course of a single life ! " He would indeed be unworthy of the name of Englishman who did not rejoice at the greatness and prosperity of the great Western Land that was founded by men of his own race and blood. Over the deep Atlantic has passed, in this latest age of the world's history, the same spirit of development and progress that showed itself in earlier times among the various nations which dwelt round the basin of the Mediterranean. The modern kingdoms of France, Spain, and Portugal have been evolved out of the uniformity which the old empire of Eome induced among the Latin races. In the course of historical development, England has become almost their universal heir in the matter of colonies and provinces ; and America is a second England — settled by immigrants who sailed across the seas, and working continuously since its foundation for the realization of higher political ideals and for the providing of better opportunities for the exercise of a common citizen ship. To me, gentlemen, holding these sentiments, and believing, as I do believe, that they are the sentiments uni- 10 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES versally entertained by my countrymen, it is well-nigh in conceivable that in this age of the world's progress the two representatives of Anglo-Saxon civilization will ever enter on a fratricidal struggle to decide which shall be the greater. The breach which has been allowed to widen between us is capable of being filled. If only it were not considered neces sary for our statesmen, in the discharge of their pohtical duties, to indite long letters to each other which must inevit ably contain — as so often happens also in private correspond ence — some root of bitterness which is hidden from the writer, and if an earnest effort could be made to avoid any thing that might tend to wound our mutual susceptibilities, a permanent reconciliation might be effected. In their quarrels nations are often like children. And unfortunately the organs of national opinion, the newspapers, do not always use language that makes for peace. King Demos has to be tickled, and made to realize what a powerful and discriminat ing champion he has in this or that journal — one who wiU brook no insult from any foreign foe ! I have been glad to notice how cordially many of your newspapers, especially here in New York, have responded to the expressions of disinterested brotherly attachment which have found utter ance in most of the organs of public opinion in the old country during the recent troubles. There has been a searching of hearts on both sides that ought to lead to a better understand ing for the future. It may be also that things have been said which should go far to remove much of the ancient bitterness and animosity. I do not know whether what I may refer to as provincial opinion in the United States realizes that we are as fully conscious as any American can be of the foUy of British policy now over one hundred years ago. No one would seek to minimize the importance of the Eevolution — " an event not only of greater importance but on an altogether higher level of importance than almost any other in modern Bnghsh History " (Seeley). But what we say is that lapse of time and the growth of the critical spirit ought to enable intelligent persons to view the feuds of last century in their true light and proportion. Things were even more mixed in EELATIONS OP ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 11 the world then than they are to-day : you must remember that seventeen years after the Declaration of Independence King George still called himself King of France ! In par ticular, the management of colonies was not understood in that age by any European govemment. Those of Spain, France, and Portugal at their best were not so independent as were the famous " Thirteen " even at their lowest point of maladministration. A true historical perspective would seem to suggest that none but Englishmen, nurtured on the tradi tions of freedom, would have thought of rebelling at such a state of things as existed in 1775 ; and it would therefore appear to be as unreasonable to let the events of that unhappy war come between us now as it would be to censure the States for not immediately, even in the days of their infancy, abolishing slavery. It looks sometimes as if it were the interest of individuals to keep open old sores, and to prevent the dead past from burying its dead. The young people of your country are trained in the knowledge of what must ever be to you a great national memory : they are even taught that the events of 1812,^ and our attitude and actings during your great Civil War, must remain an indelible stigma on the whole nation. As for us, it is no doubt chargeable on our national superciliousness and indifference that, though we freely express contrition for the wrong we sought to inflict on you, the incidents of the revolutionary struggle are no longer indelibly engraved on popular recollection. In your schools the history of that great struggle is not unnaturally taught with a view to inspiring the noble sentiment of patriotism : England is to the youth of America the Pharaoh that would not let the people go. With us the story is made to yield the lesson — discoverable in many another crisis of the world's history — that wrong can never be expected to triumph over right. I doubt whether the vast majority of those who read the story on the other side of the Atlantic do not thoroughly sympathize with those who proved the victors in the struggle. 1 See an article in " Blaokwood " for January, 1896, " How American History is Written ''. 12 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES Well, gentlemen, we lost the best chance of maintaining for yet awhile longer the solidarity of the Anglo-Saxon name when we parted company now over a century ago. But we may console ourselves by recognizing the marvellous results that have flowed to the world at large from the establishment of the independence of your grand republic. We may con sole ourselves also with the thought that if political separa tion had not come about at that particular time and in that particular way, the defects of the old 'colonial system would have made it sooner or later inevitable. No one could expect to see the various families of our race united for all time under a common government. None the less it behoves us now to do all we can to nurse the forces of cohesion that are at work in our midst, and to draw near to each other in the moral unity of a real brotherhood. The best guarantees for the continuance of mutual goodwill are surely to be found in that of which I know we are all equally proud — community of race, language, literature, religion, and institutions, to gether with the glorious traditions of a common history. The fairest portions of the earth have fallen to us for an in heritance, and even while we remain apart there should be no political ideal so stimulating for us as that of the hearty sympathy and enlightened co-operation of the various branches of our race. " There is no topic so pregnant as this. . . . The whole future of the planet depends upon it " (Seeley). It is probably owing to a certain lack of imagina tion in the Anglo-Saxon temperament that we have failed to see that the obstacles to such a racial federation are not of equal magnitude with those which have been overcome in less worthy causes. The world is looking for a reign of peace, the consummation of the movement which began with the Pax Dei of the eleventh century. Peace is no longer the greatest of British interests merely, as it was de fined to be by the late Lord Derby. Eecent events are showing that it is an interest which may be endangered also for you — to whom freedom from external complications is so essential in the work that lies before you of developing high ideals of responsible citizenship and diffusing a high EBLATIONS OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 13 standard of cultivated tastes throughout the length and breadth of your land. If we could only come to a proper understanding with each other, there can be no doubt that a perpetual league of amity might be established between the two great Anglo-Saxon commonwealths. Such a league would react on the military monarchies of Europe. It is a mark of progress that, even in the most emperor-ridden of them all, anything like a repetition of the performances of the First Napoleon is well-nigh inconceivable. Militarism is rampant, and the people still live under the " shadow of the sword " ; but deep down in the national consciousness is the resolve that no individual shall be permitted to play havoc with a country's destinies. A racial federation between Britain and America would probably prove a potent factor in hastening the era of general disarmament. But even if such a federation be a dream, we should still be able to act together for the maintenance of peace. Our commercial interests may be by no means identical; but surely the struggle to capture the markets of the world will never be come so acute as to permanently disturb the relations which exist between us at present. No : we ought to be able to throw our joint weight into the peaceful development of the resources which lie at our command, for the benefit of civili zation. Even with a more or less marked individuahty of political growth and commercial progress, we may still prove ourselves to be a mighty brotherhood Linked by a jealous interchange of good. I have not made any definite reference hitherto to the concrete conditions with which we are confronted at the present time, and until the settlement which we all expect has been effected it might be more discreet to ignore them altogether. If the language that was recently addressed to the Government of Great Britain is to be taken as meaning that the theory of " natural boundaries " is gaining converts in the United States of America, and that the intervention of three thousand miles of ocean between the parent country 14 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS and its colonies is regarded as making their union un natural and inexpedient, then trouble is certain to result, sooner or later. Such a manifesto would be interpreted in Britain as a " notice to quit " — not only British Guiana, and Honduras, and Trinidad, but Canada as well. If, in the un foreseen course of development, it is fated that this attitude is one day to be adopted by the United States, the issue will undoubtedly have to be met. Let us hope, however, that it will always continue to be a monopoly of the noisier and less intelligent representatives of political thought in this country ! I may be allowed also to say that no one can fail to appre ciate the patriotic spirit with which Americans declared that if there is going to be trouble they will be on the side of their country, no matter who it be that is against them. I should like at the same time to vindicate the claim which I have already made on behalf of the great mass of the inhabitants of the British Isles. I have said that they are not greedy, grasping, and unconscionable, as they are often represented to be. For the purpose of my argument I content myself with an enumeration of their virtues on the negative side. And I am confident that when the famous Presidential Message reached our shores, — after the bewildered look that is apt to come over John Bull when he realizes that he is to be in hot water once again, — after the first fit of surprise, with consequent rubbing of eyes and spectacles, and a leisurely examination of the map — the almost unanimous sentiment of the people at large was not, Well, we will soon show these Americans, but rather, Well, we must see whether our case is really as strong as we believed it to be. I have carefully watched the expressions of opinion which have come to us from the other side during the last few months, and as a British subject I am proud that they have been marked almost universally by such tolerance, such generosity, such brotherly kindness, and such a conscientious desire to do what is right. But no one can be blind to the fact that during out bursts of intense feeling, nations which are at heart essentially RELATIONS OP ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 15 friendly to each other may often be really standing on the brink of a precipice. There were times during the last few months when it seemed as if the advance of our common civilization were about to receive a sudden check — nay, as if it were to be almost overwhelmed in what would have proved a veritable cataclysm. Can anything be done to guard against the recurrence of such evil times ? I am glad to be able, in this connexion, to use the language of one of your own authorities, who, writing in the current number of one of your monthly journals,^ expresses the opinion that it " would not be a difficult matter to negotiate a treaty between England and the United States which would, for example, recognize the essential principle of the Monroe Doctrine on the one hand, and on the other pledge England the support of the United States, in such measures of intervention as might be necessary, in the matter of the Armenian troubles. This would be the announcement of a new policy. It would be a notice to the world" that henceforth all English-speaking people might be expected to act together in great questions affecting their interests or in the suppression of savagery. . . . The alliance of England and the United States would be one of the strongest guarantees of the world's peace. To attack this alliance would mean to attack at once the strong est navy in the world and the country which could furnish unhmited men of the best fighting quality and with inex haustible economic resources behind them. It would be folly for any Power short of united Europe to attack at once the whole English-speaking world — a folly which Europe would not be hkely to commit. . . . This combination would undoubtedly be regarded by the rest of the world as an in strument of oppression. The justification of it is only that it would be a combination of those forces, economic, pohtical, and ethical, which are historically foremost and which make most strongly for progress in civihzation. This is an arro gant pretension; but history justifies it. By a firm union between all Enghsh-speaking peoples, their supremacy in 1 Prof. Sidney Sherwood of Johns Hopkins, in the " Forum " for March, 1896, p. 95. 16 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS industrial methods, in free government, and in moral living would be made unassailable. To live with us the rest of the world would be forced to live like us. And that is a fair definition of progress." It may seem almost superfluous to add my own poor utterance to the volume of sound that has gone forth from both sides of the Atlantic in favour of the establishment of a permanent court to settle such disputes as may arise between the two peoples. The advocates of the great principle of international arbitration, which has played no insignificant part in the relations of Great Britain and America during the past one hundred years, should take as their motto Shakespeare's hues, A peace is of the nature of a conquest ; For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loses. — " Henry IV," Part II, Act iv. so. ii. Arbitration is a principle that has already been approved and ratified by the legislatures of both countries, and it only re mains to discover a reliable method of applying it per manently. No doubt arbitration has its limitations. But the adoption of the principle of arbitration will give the Anglo-Saxon race the opportunity of guiding the rest of the world into the ways of peace. It must be obvious to all that some such initiative is absolutely indispensable if the human race is ever to come within sight of the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World. What a glorious privilege to stand forth before the universe as sponsors for a system under which, no longer in a figure of speech, men's swords shall be turned into ploughshares, and which shall realize the happy consummation shadowed forth in Whittier's lines : — The poles unite, the zones agree. The tongues of striving cease ; As on the sea of Galilee The Christ is whispering, Peace ! —"The Tent on the Beach." Gentlemen, that at least is not a task beyond the powers of our common civilization : it would seem to be the natural EELATIONS OF ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 17 outgrowth of the traditions of the Anglo-American people. If for the last hundred years our history has run in separate though parallel lines, it must none the less be remembered that it was a common history for some thirteen hundred years previously. The use of the same language will to all time make us One name, not twain for division ; One thing, not twain, from the birth. — Swinburne to Walt Whitman. Was Matthew Arnold wrong when he said of Milton, " He and his hearers on both sides of the Atlantic are English and will remain English — Sermonem Ausonii patrium moresque tenebunt" ? ("Essays in Criticism"). And consider in your own literature the eminently friendly tone of Emerson, Haw thorne, Holmes, and Eichard G. White towards the old country. Think of Lowell, and the universal esteem which was entertained on the other side of the ocean for the kindly author of " Jonathon to John ". The London " Times " — with which you possibly do not always find yourselves in agree ment — never said a truer word than that his death was felt with a keener sense of personal loss by Englishmen than the death of any man of the time who was not a British subject. Are not our legal institutions, again, stamped with the im press of a common origin and animated by a common spirit? It is a curious coincidence that Sir Frederick Pollock, who has been preparing the Venezuelan case now in the hands of your Commission, should have dedicated his " Torts " to your Judge Holmes. We know, too, what valuable contributions have been made in America to the work of the school of historical jurists of whom with us the type is Sir Henry Maine. And our lawyers follow the decisions of your Supreme Court with an interest which they would not think of extending to the legal procedure of any foreign nation. I shall not dwell on our common interests in the field of scientific progress, or in the sphere of moral, religious, and philanthropic effort and enterprise, though a detailed con sideration of these subjects would be indispensable to any 18 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES attempt to enumerate with completeness the points in which the two nations stand forth to the world as members of one body. It was to me a gracious incident, in the field of academic effort, that the inauguration of my work in Montreal was witnessed by the head of your oldest and wealthiest and most influential foundation— President Ehot of Harvard. Voices have been raised of late in the endeavour to disparage and depreciate the sentiment of unity which is fostered by such rapprochements as these. But they will be of no avail to blunt or to obscure the deep-set feeling of unity that is still a motive-force with you as well as with our selves. Your own poet has set forth in noble verse your just claim to share in the inheritance of our blood, our speech, and the long glories of our common ancestry. O Englishmen ! in hope and creed. In blood and tongue our brothers ! We too are heirs of Runnymede ; And Shakespeare's fame and Cromwell's deed Are not alone our mother's. Thicker than water in one rill Through centuries of story Our Saxon blood has flowed, and still We share with you its good and iU, The shadow and the glory. Joint heirs and kinfolk, leagues of wave Nor length of years can part us ; Your right is ours to shrine and grave, The common freehold of the brave, The gift of saints and martyrs. — Whittiee to Englishmen. We Britons are not an imaginative or a sentimental people. But the American cheer that burst from the " Tren ton " when Her Majesty's ship " Calliope " — destined to be the sole survivor of some thirteen sail — was skilfully brought out of danger in the harbour of Samoa is with us a precious memory, that will long continue to outweigh many expres sions of passing ill-will.^ 1 " Not often in naval history was there a moment of more sickening peril, and it was dignified by one of those incidents that reconcile the chronicler to EBLATIONS OP ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES 19 And you on your side may not have forgotten how our hearts throbbed in sympathy with yours as you watched over the dying bed of one of the noblest of your Presidents, foully done to death by the bullet of the assassin. Such incidents as these are evidences of a greater kinship of feeling and sentiment than it would be possible for either of us to enter tain to the people of any other country. " Blood is thicker than water." That trite but true say ing has been much in my heart this day, as I made my way for the first time along your crowded streets and felt that after all I was not far from — home. A like utterance was heard once again in the hall of your Capitol at Washington when only the other day one of your Senators, who was not afraid to incur the reproach of a diluted patriotism, uttered the prayer : " Until a just quarrel divides us, which Heaven forbid, may these two great nations, of the same speech, lineage, and traditions, stand as brothers shoulder to shoulder in the interests of humanity by a union-compelling peace ! " And perhaps I can find no more significant or more ap propriate conclusion for my remarks to-night than by setting side by side with that noble aspiration the language that was used about the same time in England by the leader of the British House of Commons, Mr. Arthur Balfour : " I feel that our pride in the race to which we belong is a pride which includes every English-speaking community in the world. We have a domestic patriotism as Scotchmen or as Enghshmen or as Irishmen, or what you will. We have an Imperial patriotism as citizens of the British Empire. But surely, in addition to that, we have also an Anglo-Saxon his otherwise abhorrent task. From the doomed flagship the Americans hailed the success of the English with a cheer. It was led by the old Admiral in person, rising over the storm with a holiday vigour, and was answered by the Calliopes with an emotion easily conceived." Eear-Admiral Kimberley after wards wrote to Captain Kane : " You went out spendidly, and we all felt from our hearts for you, and our cheers came with sinceritj and admiration for the able manner in which you handled your ship. We oould not have been gladder if it had been one of our own ships, for in times like these I can say truly with old Admiral Josiah Latnall that ' Blood is thicker than water '." — Eobbet Louis Stevenson, " A Footnote to History," pp. 258-9. 2* 20 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES patriotism which embraces within its ample folds the whole of that great race which has done so much in every branch of human effort, and above all in that branch of human effort which has produced free institutions and free communities. ... It cannot but be that those whose national roots go down into the same past as our own, who share our language, our literature, our laws, our religion — everything that makes a nation great — and who share in substance our institutions — it cannot but be that the time will come when they will feel that they and we have a common duty to perform, a common office to fulfil among the nations of the world. The time will come, the time must come, when some statesman of authority, more fortunate even than President Monroe, will lay down the doctrine that between English-speaking peoples war is impossible, and then it will be seen that every man who by rash action or hasty word makes the preservation of peace difficult has committed a crime not only against his own country . . . but against civilization itself. May no English statesman and no English party ever have the re sponsibility of that crime heavy upon their souls ! " THE BEITISH EMPIEE.^ I WAS glad to be able to accept your kind invitation to come and help you to celebrate the King's Birthday in New York. And what more inspiring subject could have been assigned to me, especially before so friendly an audience, than the British Empire ? To all who boast the British name, whether they be native-born or so-cahed "colonists," whether they reside in the imperial metropolis or at the outskirts of the Empire, or are even, like many of you, sojourners in another land — a land which is to all of you, I am sure, anything but a foreign land — to all British subjects, I say, the mere mention of my theme must come home with a thrill of patriotic exultation. For you know, each and all of you, that — let others say what they will — we Britons may look the whole world in the face with a well-grounded con fidence that the strength and prosperity of our united Empire is to-day one of the best guarantees of the peace, progress, and civilization of mankind. Look at the extent of that Empire. The energy and the enterprise of our people have carried to the four quarters of the globe, over seas which no longer disunite, British trade and commerce, British law' and justice, British freedom, along with all that British freedom implies — I might have said also the British language, except for the fact that so long as the people of the United States are content to speak English, and to call it Enghsh, English will be good enough for me, Scotch though I am by birth ! Some four himdred millions of human beings own the gracious sway of that ' An address delivered before the British Pnblio Schools and Universities' Club, New York, 9 November, 1903. 21 22 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES sovereign who is himself among the world's great peace- lovers, and whose crown is the golden link that connects with the homeland the several free democratic republics of which our Empire is made up. Such a spectacle is unique in the world's history ; it would have been impossible for any other age, for any other people. But let us not exult in greatness only — in the mere physical extent of our terri tory, in the millions of our fellow-citizens, or even in the unparalleled amount of our national wealth. Our prosperity would be based on an altogether unstable foundation if it incited us to be sounding for ever the note of imperial pride and braggadocio. At the momentous epoch in which you and I are living to-day — more than ever in our previous history — there ought to be the consciousness in the heart of each individual that moral greatness is as important as material greatness, and that the best security for the per manence of our rule is an increased sense of duty and re sponsibility on the part of every one of us. And surely we can look back on our past at least with no sense of shame, however much the spirit of humility may be made to mingle with our pride of race and of achievement. Our Empire has never been an Empire of war and conquest only. I think it was Lord Eosebery who said of it in a recent speech : " It has often used the sword, it could not exist without the sword, but it does not live by the sword ". We never adopted the maxim of Eoman imperialism which taught that Empire must be retained and fostered by the same forceful methods as those by which it was acquired. Perhaps some of you may never have sufficiently reflected on the strange circumstances under which our Empire has been built up — has grown, as it were, almost in spite of our selves, till the sceptred isle, that " precious stone set in the silver sea," spreading itself over both hemispheres, has be come the parent of new nations. Not from any settled national design or deliberate public policy, but primarily to find an outlet for the natural overflow of an energetic popu lation — which took with it home ideals as well as the restless spirit of commercial enterprise — we may be said to have THE BEITISH EMPIEE 23 stumbled, as a people, on the best parts of the unoccupied world, and almost to have "blundered" into our imperial inheritance. You know how it was, for example, with Austraha. You have heard the story of the British officer who reported to the Home Government, some time at the beginning of the last century, that the Australian continent seemed a veritable desert, which soil and climate rendered uninhabitable, and from which they ought to withdraw in good time, lest a worse thing come unto them ! And yet one Sunday afternoon last year, in connexion with the celebration of the King's Coronation, I worshipped at St. Paul's Cathedral along with the representatives of the 8000 Australian volunteers who had come victoriously through the South African war ! No ! in the early days, our successes along the line of colonization were achieved more by the individual effort and courage of our citizens than by our Government. So far as we had a colonial policy at all, it was, on the whole, a bad one ; certainly it cost us the thirteen States of the American Union. But after aU we were no worse than other nations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and we were wise enough to profit by the lessons we had learned. That is probably the reason why — whereas there used to be a Greater Spain, a Greater France, a Greater Portugal, and a Greater Holland, as well as a Greater Britain — the Greater Britain alone remains. The failure of the old colonial policy was succeeded by a period during which the people in the home country almost deserved to lose their colonies, because they did not appre ciate them. But there is no room in the Empire for such apathy to-day. We do not hear so much now about " cutting the painter". If down here in New York you sometimes read about such suggestions being made in Canada — if you hear nonsense about the hauling down of the British flag, or about the celebration of great banquets at which every emblem of the British connexion has been carefully removed, I pray you do not believe a word of it. These are stories manufactured for consumption on certain premises. I do 24 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS not wish to ignore the little matter to which Sir Percy Sanderson has alluded, and as to which he has asked for the expression of a Canadian opinion. No sensible Canadian (and there are very few others !) needs to be told that he ought to have implicit confidence in the Lord Chief Justice of England. It did not take us long to realize the fact that the constitution of the Alaska Tribunal was such that the case was practically a hearing before one judge — Lord Alverstone. His verdict has gone against Canada, but no one whose opinion is worth considering would harbour any other view than that Lord Alverstone did all his work and rendered his judgment in the true spirit of an impartial jurist, and with the most perfect fairness. The only diffi culty remaining in the situation is that the not unnatural feeling of disappointment is aggravated at the moment by two considerations : first, that Canada's protest against the constitution of the tribunal (which contained three Com missioners who had already committed themselves on the subject on which they undertook to adjudicate) seems to have been over-ruled by the British Government ; and, secondly, that the two Canadian representatives have put it on record that, in their opinion. Lord Alverstone had changed his mind in regard to the two most northerly islands in the Portland Channel, and, after first agreeing with them, had — without notifying them of his intention — finished by awarding these islands to the United States by way of compromise. It seems to me at least that the sug gestion that Lord Alverstone did not take his Canadian colleagues sufficiently into his confidence is a personal matter between him and them. It is, in fact, extra-judicial. Mean while the Alaska difficulty no longer exists, and if, as regards the main issue, our case was really a weak one, we ought to be as glad as the people of the United States that a settle ment has been arrived at. Even in the face of such difficulties and such misunder standings, no one living in any of our colonies can fail to realize that the march of recent events has drawn us more closely together than at any previous time. In spite of, or THE BEITISH EMPIEE 25 even because of, present-day problems, the national instinct for unity will satisfy itself in the end. And why not ? Is there anything wrong, is there anything that will mihtate against the world's best interests, is there anything that can be rightly construed as an offence to other nations in such an ideal as that to which I always like to refer — in compliment to the Great Eepublic — as the United States of the British Empire ? We are a great governing race, and we have given hostages all the world over for the justice and equity of our rule. We have shown that the general scheme of our imperial administration is compatible with the fullest measure of self-government for individual communities. Liberty has never been endangered under our rule. Even in the latest crisis of our history we gave pledges which we are redeeming now, and those who were our enemies will themselves admit that it is not the ascendancy of one race over another — in South Africa any more than in Canada — that is dear to the British heart, but rather liberty and equal rule for all under the security of the British flag. Gentlemen, it is not too much to say that in these latter days the British Empire has been born again. The great war in which we were recently engaged called forth all our energies, and discovered a cheerful readiness for loyal service and a devoted zeal which could not have been so well tested in any other way. It had been prophesied that an Empire so loosely joined together as ours was would be brought top pling down about our ears like a house of cards by the first great war in which we might happen to become involved. But what has been the result ? The huge ungainly-looking structure, which on the map seemed incapable of any patriotic combination, is now more compact and more powerful than ever, because we have shown the world that for purposes of defence and for just warfare we are one nation still. The outward and visible sign of this closer union has been seen in those great Imperial pageants, which, both under the late reign and in connexion with the King's cor onation, drew all eyes to the capital of the Empire. It was 26 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS my privilege to witness some of these great celebrations, and perhaps the " pride of empire " could not be more legitimately felt than by a humble citizen who belongs to a family of which one brother served his country in India, another in Australia, another in New Zealand, another in Canada, while yet another was left behind in Scotland to attend to the interests of the Old World ! At all events, when the Imperial reserves from the " Britains beyond the seas " par aded before the Eoyal standard, my heart .was full of the noble lines in which Kipling fancies he hears the old " grey mother " greeting the children who have rushed to her support.^ And how fitly has the same poet expressed the feelings with which sober-minded Englishmen turned away at the close of such a spectacle as that which we witnessed, for instance, last summer when the King reviewed the fleet at Spithead. Shall I quote — especially as the refrain has been so often misunderstood and misapplied — one verse, to remind you that it is righteousness after aU that exalteth a nation ? The tumult and the shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart. Still stands thine ancient sacrifice A humble and a contrite heart : Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget ! Lest we forget ! Or let your thoughts rest once again for one brief moment on the union of hearts, which never beat in more sympathetic accord than on the day of the Queen's funeral. That was a day of which it might be said that the sun " did not set upon an Empire's grief : when the mournful roll of muffled drums, following the orb of day and keeping company with the hours, circled the earth with one continuous and un broken strain of grief ". Truly, sorrow unites as well as joy, and on that day the Empire stood forth as one household, mourning the loss of its head ! There remains the practical question — the question of ' Quoted on p. 58. THE BEITISH EMPIRE 27 the day, of the hour ! Is the union of hearts sufficient for the purposes of Britain's world-mission? Or are any more binding ties necessary to secure the stability and permanence of our Empire ? Here it seems a duty to avoid rhetoric on either side of the question. I may be allowed, however, to state my own conviction that few persons would be found content to rest in the position that all is for the best as it is, and that absol utely no change is needed. The problem rather is, what amount of change would be possible and judicious. The student of history knows that the main factor in the down fall of ancient Eome was her failure to adapt the constitution of what was originally a city-state to the changed conditions of a world-wide empire. The principle of representation had not been discovered in those early days, and even if it had been discovered, it could not have been worked without great difficulty. How stands it to-day with our imperial inheritance? The population of Canada is already greater than that of Scotland, and it needs little power of political foresight to see that Canada has in prospect just such a period of prosperity as this Great Eepublic had before it, say, forty or fifty years ago. Australia about equals the popula tion of Ireland, and the white population of South Africa falls little short of that of Wales. What would any of these be without the others, as regards either their separate pro sperity or the weight that any one of them could bring to bear in the councils of the Empire ? Fortunate it is for us that the devoted affection of her daughter-states is the crown and glory of the old age of the motherland. They know that they are regarded no longer as " colonies " — though the word survives — no longer as mere over-sea possessions. We speak of them now as the " new nations within the Empire ''. I am proud to remember that this phrase was originally coined in a letter addressed to me by Mr. Eudyard Kipling, conveying his acceptance of the honorary degree of McGill University. As regards the essence of the thing, apart from the phrase, another poet had been before him. Poets are often more far-sighted than practical men. If you will look 28 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES at Lord Tennyson's life, you will see that it is full of pro phetic anticipations of the time when England herself would come to recognize that her future is inseparably bound up with the strength and prosperity of her colonies. And we can say now, can we not, that our colonies feel, one and all, that their best and truest line of national development is to remain for ever integral portions of the British Empire ? To me at least it seems that our late successes are but a summons to more work in the interests of our Empire. We have the opportunity now of adding a fresh chapter to our imperial annals, of inaugurating a new era in our imperial history. Of course we must hasten slowly. But we have had a long enough period of waiting, and a sufficiency of moves and counter-moves. I myself have heard a leading statesman emphasize the point that the first approach must come from the colonies ; and then the Prime Minister of a great colony — in whose hearing this point was emphasized — says, on leaving for the Colonial Conference, that he is con fident that this same statesman would not have summoned such a conference in London if he had not something definite to put before it ! And it was in connexion with this same confer ence that the Ministers of one of the leading colonies sent word to London that they would not be prepared to discuss imperial defence, for the reason that no one scheme of de fence could be devised that would suit the circumstances of each and all of our over-sea possessions ! These were lame utterances — the latter certainly wanting in logic ! Surely at the least we might manage to institute an Im perial Council authorized to represent and to promote in every possible and legitimate way the interests of every part of the Empire. Why should Mr. Chamberlain be able to tell us, for instance, as he did at Liverpool the other night, that the real reason why British trade is being displaced by German trade at Zanzibar is because the Germans are running a better service of steamers ? True, their steamers are more largely subsidized than ours ; but it might turn out to be the first duty of such a council as I am suggesting to offend — for a time — against every law of political economy in recommend- THE BRITISH EMPIRE 29 ing and securing such a subsidy as would prevent this in jurious displacement of former conditions. When they have captured the whole trade, the Germans will no doubt reduce their subsidy, and meanwhile we ought to fight them with their own weapons. They have profited largely by our apathy and carelessness in the past. It sounds almost in credible now that the Home Government bound itself by treaty some forty years ago to give Germany equal rights with itself in the Canadian market. That short-sighted ar rangement lay at the root of the recent difficulty with Ger many. It showed a deplorable lack of imagination on the part of British statesmen. They failed to forecast the growth of their colonial markets, and they were equally blind to the possibility that Germany might see fit to develop — -just as the United States had already begun to do — an industrial policy very different from their own ! Such an illustration will suffice to remind you that it is impossible to go very far in the discussion of imperial ques tions at the present time without running up against the fiscal problem. Patriotism and commerce seem destined to march hand in hand with equal steps. It is certainly a very difficult matter, and I doubt if there ever was in England so great a conflict of opinion on any subject as there is to-day on this. On aU sides we hear the statement made that we " stand at the parting of the ways ". One class of thinkers holds that the only way effectually to preserve the Empire is to institute preferential trading; another is equally emphatic in the opinion that this course will shatter the imperial fabric, and bring about an inevitable dismemberment and disintegration. Without going so far as to say that the Empire will fall to pieces immediately unless his pohcy is adopted, Mr. Chamber lain urges it as in the best interests alike of the colonies and the mother country; to which his adversaries rejoin that colonial loyalty is not to be purchased at two shillings per quarter. The sensational picture given in an 'illustrated weekly paper of a fight between disputants in a railway car riage is typical, not only of the division of opinion which pre vails at home, but also of the industrial conflict which the 30 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES great nations of the world now wage against each other. Each of them wants to produce as much as it can for itself, and refuses to be tied down to the special lines which it found at first lying ready to its hand. It did not take the United States long to realize that its true interests were not to be sought for in the activities which had been marked out for it by the economists of former days. The great Eepublic had a wider destiny before it than merely to dig and delve in order to ship its raw products to what was, fifty years ago, the workshop of the world. And so the ideal begins to float before our minds to-day of a self-sustaining and self- contained empire. When Mr. Morley and Mr. Courtney tell us that, even if it could be realized, this would remain a "barbarous" ideal, and one not in the best interests of civilization, it seems to me at least that possibly they may be taking too little into account the driving force of national ity in the commerce of the modern world. Why should it be right and proper, for instance, on the part of the United States to institute a reciprocity system with Cuba, under which British trade and British shipping will be practically displaced, and wrong for Great Britain even to consider such a thing in regard to Canada? No; there seems to be no good reason why we should not seek to place ourselves in a position in which we shall be at least on even terms with other nations. If we are told that retaliation is an ugly word, may we not with truth reply that other nations have retaliated on us in advance ? I do not think we need to shudder before the suggestion lately made by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, that under a system of preferential trading Boston wreckers might again find something to do in the way of throwing British cargo into the sea. What surprised me more was that the same authority, who looked forward gleefully some years ago to the prospect that the late President McKinley would be led to " take the necessary steps " to bring Canada to a proper state of mind, should resent the idea that others might want to play a similar hand in the same game. The late Chancellor of the Exchequer's somewhat craven fear that America might retaliate on Canada may have proceeded partly from Mr. THE BRITISH EMPIRE 31 Carnegie's threat that the bonding privileges would be with drawn. If it be the case that these bonding privileges are equally valuable to the United States, we should expect to hear from Chicago and other American centres which at present make a somewhat extensive use of Canadian territory. And if Chicago raised no protest, we could still fall 'back, even with a longer haulage of our goods, on Hahfax and St. John, ports which are as open as Portland and New York the whole year round. It is not for me, however, or such as I am, to endeavour further to probe these commercial mysteries, especially on an occasion like this. But I do not see why the fact that no foreign nation would rejoice in Mr. Chamberlain's success should be counted against Mr. Chamberlain. Even if noth ing were to come of his present efforts, it may turn out to be on the side of gain that notice has been given to foreign nations that they must no longer take it as axiomatic that Great Britain will never do anything to protect her interests in the way in which they so well know how to protect their interests. Even a worm will turn. I have no wish to dog matize on what is reaUy a very difficult subject, but I hope I have said enough to show that we ought not to agree with those who hold that all is for the best as it is, and that noth ing should be done. It is very stimulating to hear statesmen speak of forwarding the federation of the Empire by educa tion, by the diffusion of intelligence, by cultivating the spirit of union, by concentrating attention and effort on the realiza tion of high imperial ideals of citizenship. But that may tum out — as things stand to-day among the nations of the world — not to be enough. It may be that the time has come to make at least a partial revisal of the terms of partnership between the members of the firm of John Bull and Sons. The Britains beyond the seas want to get a larger interest in the business, and if they are to continue as branch establishments they ought to be put in a position in which they can take part in the annual stocktaking and calculation of profits. That, however, is too commercial an analogy for a peroration. The colonies are, indeed, partners in a great 32 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES imperial concern. But let me claim for them again that they are also a fellowship of free peoples, joint heirs with England in the glorious traditions of England's imperial history, and that, equally with the motherland, they will shrink from no sacrifice that may enable them to aid in the task of handing down to their children's children, unimpaired and even enhanced in value, the great inheritance they have received from their forefathers, and of helping to forward and fulfil Britain's mighty mission of peace and goodwill, freedom and justice, in the world. Not without good reason did our youngestpoet, William Watson, in apostrophizing thecolonies, exclaim of the British Empire, in words with which I may be well content to close, — Young is she yet, her world-task just begun, By you we know her safe, and know by you Her veins are million, but her heart is one ! CANADA AND HEE FUTUEE.i Though the record of the "Deeds that won the Empire" may now be considered closed, Britain has still a great work in front of her, the work of imperial organization, consolida tion, and if possible, federation. To ridicule this aspiration, and to pronounce it unrealizable, on the ground that the achievement would be without historic parallel, is a cheap and easy form of selfishness. It betrays the limitation of outlook, the want of imagination, which is one of the main defects, for all its sturdiness, of the Anglo-Saxon character. No doubt there are difficulties to be surmounted, and adverse conditions to be overcome. It may be true that the Empire, as we know it to-day, is " anomalous " and " amorphous ". But there are many of us — not unfamiliar with the records of the past, or the circumstances of the present time — who feel confident that, if it were possible to forecast the judgment of history, it would be found to be against a policy of " drift ". To those who read the future, or at least think they can read it, the recommendation to " let well alone " seems greatly out of place at present in reference to imperial affairs. In the mission of further consolidation we start with one great point in our favour. It is by no means to its dis advantage or discredit that the British Empire is not alto gether as other Empires have been. It was by the sword that old Eome, for instance, held what by the sword she had won. To her modern successor and representative has been left the glory of reconcihng the two elements, which many of Eome's subjects found incompatible, "Empire" and "Liberty". A constitution which secures equal rights for ^EepubUshed, by permission, as originally written for " The Empire and the Century," John Murray, 1905, pp. 363 s ?eem at first sight to lie apart. We must endure to be in a^ great degree practi cally ignorant of what hes outside our own immediate studies, but we need not be indifferent to it. An intelligent and en lightened sympathy with what others are doing is the best counteractive to the tendency towards that contractedness of mental view which is often the penalty of absorption in some particular pursuit. This obvious truth is reflected in the constitution of our INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 161 universities, and in the interdependence of the various faculties of which they consist. Take, for instance, the Faculty of Medicine, which represents what is, perhaps, the most indispensable of all the practical sciences. It is a well- known fact that the status of medical schools which carry on their work in isolation — as is the case with some of the great London hospitals — is not so high as that of schools which enjoy the benefit of close association with a teaching university. In such institutions there is apt to be a pre mature assertion of what, for the purpose of my present argument, and without the slightest disparagement, I may designate the professional spirit ; and even the great sciences which ought to lie at the very foundation of a medical curri culum — physics, chemistry, botany, and zoology — are in danger of being regarded in their practical and professional aspects merely. Fortunately, we have the opportunity, in McGill, of making these very sciences the bridge to secure an even closer union than exists at present between the Faculty of Medicine, which has done so much for the Uni versity in the past, and the Faculty of Arts, of which so much may be expected in the future. And I may say, incidentally, that the friends of both faculties — and all who aim at the very highest attainable results — ought not to rest until biology (including botany and zoology) and chemistry are as weU housed and as adequately equipped and provided for as the sister department of physics. Take again the Faculty of Applied Science. It could easily exist, apart from the university altogether, as a well-equipped technical school. But what a limitation of aim would not this involve ! To say nothing of the severance that would thus result from the other university studies which go to the making of an educated man, (studies which the students of the Faculty of Applied Science are well known not wholly to despise), the very subjects which underlie the whole work of the department — mathematics, mechanics, and physics — would be in danger of assuming, more or less prematurely, a professional colour. However tempting and attractive the offer of a definite and independ ent curriculum might be made to youthful entrants who are 11 162 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS hastening forward (or whose parents wish them to hasten) to the goal of their aspirations, it must be remembered, on the other hand, that there is such a thing as what the Germans caU the " ideality of the scientific sense, the interest in science not dependent upon, nor limited by, practical aims, but ministering to the liberal education of the mind as such, the many-sided and broad exercise of the thinking faculty ". I must not attempt, within the limits of this address, to cover the whole ground of university education ; but I may venture one more reference, this time to the Faculty of Law, which we have recently welcomed inside our College buildings. The excellent syllabus of the work of that faculty, which ap pears in the " University Calendar," shows the comprehensive nature of the aims which it cherishes. It offers the oppor tunity of a systematic study of law, not only with a view to its practice as a profession, but also " as a means of culture, and as a qualification for the discharge of the higher duties of citizenship ". When the philosophical department of our Faculty of Arts has been opened up so as to embrace — in ad dition to chairs of Logic and Moral Philosophy — a chair of Social and Political Science, including Economic Theory, we shall see more clearly than we can at present how close a connexion there is between such subjects (along with History) in the Arts curriculum, and the studies which it is desired to foster and encourage in the Faculty of Law. The sum and substance of what I have been endeavouring to state- is, firstly, that we must do nothing to obscure the fact that knowledge is valuable even apart from its practical applications ; and secondly, that there is a vital interdepend ence among all studies. An excessive devotion to the isolated applications of science must tend to obscure the broad principles on which aU science rests ; and a proper apprecia tion of the educational value of science is apt to be endangered when scientific knowledge is looked on mainly as a concrete means of profit and advancement in connexion with some particular profession or pursuit. Again, studies throw hght on each other ; and even when the relation is least obvious, it will generally be found that some deep-lying principle INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 163 exists, which, when discovered and applied, will bring into the closest union with each other branches that may appear to be totally unconnected. It is by apprehending the similar ity of the methods that run through all the sciences that the student will be enabled, amid the multiplicity of subjects which strain for recognition, to hold fast to the ideal of the unity of learning, to keep the parts in due subordination to the conception of the whole, and to bring himself into sympathetic contact with the comprehensive circle of human knowledge. In fostering and developing this faculty of viewing know ledge as a whole, a great part must be played by the Depart ment of Arts, of which I must now proceed to say a few words. I have no wish unduly to exalt the studies to which my own teaching activity has been devoted, though my colleagues in the Faculties of Law, Medicine, and Applied Science could well afford — now that they are popularly sup posed to have had their every want supplied— to listen with equanimity to such a eulogy, even if it were to take the practical form of an exhortation to all intending benefactors of the University to concentrate their attention during the next few years upon the Faculty of Arts. If I were to make such an appeal, I do not know that any particular Faculty could object, except, perhaps, that of Comparative Medicine, whose wants are well known to all of us. Comparisons are invidious : they are sometimes even stigmatized as odious. It is, however, no disparagement of other work to say that there is still a virtue in the old ideal of a " Faculty of Arts," that was to precede — and, fortunately for us here, does often stiU precede — the special study of Law, Medicine, or Theo logy. It is thus at once the pledge and the expression of the unity of learning, the connecting link which unites academical and professional study. It projects into outlying regions, and finds common ground everywhere. Law and Theology rely on history and philosophy, Technology on the mathe matical and mechanical sciences, Medicine on physics, chemistry, zoology, and botany. Let us hope that we shall always have in McGill a large and ever-increasing body of students who will aim at acquiring, in a more fully developed 11* 164 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES Arts curriculum, a truly wide and liberal culture before they seek to superadd to their previous studies the professional training that may be requisite to fit them for their work in life. There is an old maxim that a liberal education consists in learning something of everything and everything of some thing. The field of human knowledge has in these latter days become greatly extended, and perhaps somewhat un wieldy and unworkable. But so far as this maxim is still applicable to the multifarious subjects of which education must now take cognizance, it finds its best realization in the Faculty of Arts. Even in these times of specialized activity, a truly comprehensive education may still remain a realizable ideal for those who have adequate leisure and opportunity. For such students it is attainable within the limits of school and college life, provided they do not begin to apply them selves to some special training in the very first year of their collegiate course. A really liberal education must therefore still include, whatever else it may embrace — as conspicuously a sympathetic acquaintance with the literature of the mother tongue — some knowledge of the language, the literature, the art and the life of the great nations of ancient times, that the student, besides undergoing the discipline of linguistic study, may learn to know and value his intellectual ancestors — the Eomans, who imposed their language and their law on a world they had (bound fast in the fetters of their imperial sway, and the Greeks, from whom have emanated the crea tions that will remain for ever the patterns of art and the models of literary excellence. It should include a training in mathematics, for the cultivation of exact habits of thought and consecutiveness in our reasonings ; and in some branch at least of natural science, the study of which wUl foster the faculty of observation, and will enable the student, by induc tive processes, to develop order and law out of the multiplicity of phenomena that meet him when he surveys the realm of nature. Lastly, not nature only, but man — his mental and moral constitution, and the obligations and responsibilities which rest upon him in virtue of his position as a member of society and of the state. INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 165 This is not an impossible course for those whose education is carried on under favourable conditions and who are not under the necessity of hurrying on to what the Germans call their Brodstudien, It is certainly an ideal on which it be hoves us in McGill to keep our eyes steadily fixed. A com plete and comprehensive education is a more or less constant factor : it aims at the culture of the entire self, the harmonious development of all the faculties, that so their possessor may be able to keep pace with all that is highest and best in moral and intellectual aspiration. The character of special training, on the other hand, varies in different circumstances and under different conditions, and the demands of one age are not the demands of that by which it is succeeded. Our ideals in the Faculty of Arts are a standing protest against an exclusively utilitarian theory of education, if any such theory anywhere exists. The studies which it offers are not intended to be selected with care and calculation, on the ground of being profitable for some special profession or pursuit. On the contrary, it is here that the warning of the greatest of th« early Greek theorists on education may still come home to us, when he said that education " must not be undertaken in the spirit of merchants or traders, with a view to buying or sell ing, but /or the sake of the soul herself". The old antagonism between Arts and Science, of which one hears so much in the popular talk of the day, may be partly resolved and reconciled in the true conception of a Faculty of Ai-ts, such as it has been attempted to realize in McGill, though with very inadequate resources. To a great extent, it arises from a misapprehension of terms. The word Arts itself is a misnomer : it makes one think of the fine arts and of elegant accomplishments generally, if not of the black arts. The word Science again, which is merely an equivalent for knowledge — organized knowledge — cannot properly be limited to any special department of study. The antithesis is more intelligible when literature is pitted against science, the knowledge of the best thoughts of mankind, worthily ex pressed, against the knowledge of the laws of the external universe. But science and letters are not mutually exclusive : 166 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES there is a literature of science, and scientific method is applic able to the study of language and literature. Everything in fact depends on method. It is absurd, for example, to regard physics as scientific and philology or history as non-scientific ; just as though the study of these subjects does not call for the apphcation of method, does not offer a sphere for exercising the faculty of analogy, for reasoning from evidence towards law, from distinguishing between the rule and the exception, the essential and the accidental. In so far as they are dealt with on scientific principles, all departments of human thought, all manifestations of human life may be regarded as falling within the sphere of science. It will continue, there fore, to be the aim of our Arts Faculty — I hope under im proved conditions — to harmonize the claims of literature and science, so as to render unnecessary, at least in the earlier stages of the curriculum, any rigid choice between the two. We recognize that it would be the proof of an incomplete development if a man were able to read the classics, but remained grossly ignorant of the physical universe ; just as, on the other hand, we should regret the emergence of a fully- titled science graduate, say, an engineer, who was unable to clothe the results of his work in tolerable English. Eminence in either branch need not be attained at the cost of one- sidedness. The crown and flower of all education is that philosophical spirit which Bacon spoke of as Universality, the enlargement or illumination of mind, the mental breadth, the sanit}^ of judgment that come from an all-round training. To general considerations such as these it may not be inappropriate to append an attempt to forecast how, when ad ditional endowments are forthcoming, the existing curriculum in Arts may be strengthened and extended. My apology for presuming to refer to such a subject, after so short an ac quaintance with the University system is, in the first place, that I understand the need for some forward movement is fully realized by all the friends of McGill, and nowhere more fully perhaps than in the Faculty of Arts itself ; while, in the second place, the conditions of Arts teaching here bear a strong family resemblance to those of the country which I INAUGUEAL ADDRESS 167 have just left, where we have all quite recently been engaged in giving a Commission appointed by Parliament our best assistance in the work of re-organizing the whole teaching system of our national Scottish Universities. Nothing that I may say in endeavouring to anticipate future improvements need be taken as implying the slightest disparagement of the work that has been accomphshed in the past — often in the face of grave difficulties, and with very inadequate resources. It was expedient in the past that the generosity of bene factors should be guided to flow in channels which have raised some of the other Faculties to a level on which they can challenge comparison with similar institutions anywhere. That the ideal of completeness was never lost sight of is evident from the foUowing passage, which I wish to give myself the satisfaction of quoting from one of Sir Wm. Dawson's pubhshed papers: "I would wish the student to have before his mind an ideal university — one complete and perfect in all its parts, with every subject, literary, scientific, or professional, adequately and uniformly provided for ; with every professor at once a model as a man, and a perfect specialist in his subject, and supphed with all the means and appliances for his own progress and for teaching what he knows ; with all facilities for the comfort and progress of the student ; and with all its regulations so framed as to afford the greatest possible facilities for higher culture, both in general education and every useful department of study". The ideal of a nation's culture is that all branches of valuable knowledge, all departments of intellectual activity, should be fuUy represented in its national Universities. In the course of progress towards this ideal in McGill it seems now to be the turn of the Faculty of Arts, of which we may say at present, in the words of the poet, that hke man himself, it " partly is and wholly hopes to be ". One of the first necessities of the situation, as it presents itself to me, is the need for more tutorial instruction in the great disciplinary subjects which ought to form the staple of the earlier portion of our Arts curriculum. At home, the Scotch universities have been making an earnest effort to 168 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES raise the standard of admission required from all students who intend to proceed to a degree ; but they have been un able to shut their eyes to the fact that, till the schools throughout the country can rise to such a uniform standard, it will be expedient to continue those junior classes in Latin, Greek and Mathematics, in which — though they are now outside the regular Arts curriculum — tutors and professors unite to work up, by vigorous teaching, the somewhat crude material out of which they hope to develop the — more or less — finished graduate. A similar condition of things seems to me to exist in Canada, where, especially in country dis tricts, the lack of previous opportunity for adequate prepara tion for university work is, of course, much greater than it is in Scotland to-day. Next, I venture to think that we have need of greater concentration, where that can be secured, throughout the whole curriculum. The conditions that are natural and necessary for the work of the school are too closely reproduced in a university where candidates are sometimes occupied with as many as seven or eight subjects at a time. The intellectual maturity that ought to be the mark of the university student can hardly be attained to under such con ditions as these. If he has to apply his mind to languages and literatures, ancient and modern, mathematics, history, physics and natural science, surely we must endeavour so to divide his work that he shall be mainly occupied with one set of subjects at one time, and with another set at another. It may be of interest to indicate briefly how this problem has been dealt with in Scotland. The old system was beauti fully simple, if somewhat limited in its scope. It imphed for all but the best students a four years' course in Classics, Mathematics and Philosophy. During the two first years of the curriculum, a student might occupy himself exclusively with Classics and Mathematics, and he would then pass, say, the classical part of the degree. In his third year he would take up the study of Natural Philosophy, which he would combine with his mathematical studies for the purpose of passing in that department. But as a subsidiary subject he would also take Logic and Metaphysics, which would lead INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 169 him on to specialize in Philosophy during the fourth or last year of his course, at the close of which he would graduate in that department (with English Literature thrown in as an extra subject), and then be dubbed Master of Arts. That was a scheme which had all the merits of simplicity and straight-forwardness, and which may still be favourably compared with more pretentious systems elsewhere. Its defect was that it took little or no account of modern sub jects. Accordingly, when the Commissioners came to re model it, they proceeded on the plan of taking the two subjects which had in each case made up the departments of Classics, Mathematics and Philosophy, and offering them as options. After giving sufficient evidence of good standing in his school subjects (evidence that is obtained through the medium of a University Preliminary examination, which has now been made identical for all Scotland — just as it has some times been proposed to institute an identical examination for aU Canada), the candidate for a degree is invited to choose between Latin and Greek, between Mathematics and Physics, between Logic and Moral Philosophy. Along with the seventh branch of the old curriculum — -English Literature — is conjoined Modern History, or French, or German. A choice of one subject out of each of these departments will yield four in all ; and for the additional three subjects that are still required to make up the " sacred seven," a candidate may take any of those which he has rejected, or Political Economy, or Chemistry, or Zoology, or Botany, or Geology, or Education, or Archaeology, or Hebrew, or Sanskrit and Comparative Philology. To guard against excessive disloca tion, it has been enacted that the whole subjects taken shall include at least one special department of allied subjects : i.e., the student must take either (a) both Latin and Greek, or (b) both Logic and Moral Philosophy, or (c) any two of the following three subjects : Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry. From this brief sketch it will be seen that the principle of options, already recognized to some extent in McGill, has now been introduced into the Scottish University system ; 170 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES and it is a principle which, in my judgment, is capable of an almost indefinite extension, provided certain preliminary conditions are realized. I do not speak at present of the liberty the student enjoys of beginning his studies at once in one of the professional Faculties, without any previous train ing in Arts. I applaud the efforts which have been made to lay down a course in Arts, which shall be preliminary to the professional study, for example, of medicine ; and it seems obvious to me that if the full Arts course cannot be taken by medical students, they should have the option of studying in the Arts curriculum, along with literary subjects, especially English, the great underlying sciences of Physics, Botany and Zoology. But in the Arts course itself — given a satis factory Matriculation examination, and also an Intermediate which shall represent proficiency in the disciplinary portion of the curriculum — I should not object to seeing the student receive full latitude to pass on to more specialized study in one or more of certain related groups. For there does seem to be a point in intellectual development after which the learner may be left to choose judiciously between Language and Literature, for example, whether ancient or modern ; Philosophy in its widest applications ; Mathematics and "Physical" Science generally; Chemistry and "Natural" Science. There is a period during which one may be helping to mould one's mental constitution by bestowing attention even on subjects for which one may feel little or no natural aptitude ; but that period cannot profitably be made to last for ever. And there is even a virtue in the exercise of the faculty of choice. " The new obhgation," to use the words of the late Prof. Seeley, " which falls upon the student of deciding for himself between several courses of study, caUs him to make an effort which may certainly be very beneficial to him. The old uniformity which was so tranquillizing to the mind . . . deprived the student of one of the most wholesome of mental exercises — the exercise of appraising or valuing knowledge." And again: "The student should be always considering what subjects it is most important for him to study, what knowledge and acquirements his after-life INAUGUEAL ADDEESS 171 is likely to demand, what his own intellectual powers and defects are, and in what way he may best develop the one and correct the other. His mind should be intent upon his future life, his ambitions should anticipate his mature man hood. Now, in this matter the business of the University is by a quiet guidance to give these ambitions a liberal and elevated turn." . . . " If by the new variety of our studies, and the new difficulty of choosing between several courses, students should be led to a habit of intelligently comparing the different departments of knowledge, a great gain would accrue from a temporary embarrassment." But it is comparatively useless to speak of the further extension of the principle of options in the Arts Department of McGill, so long as the curriculum remains incomplete, and so long as the work undertaken is hampered by insufficient resources. The vast subject of Philosophy is represented at present in the person of a single professor, with a lecturer attached. And there is no provision at all for that teaching of Social and Pohtical Science (including the Theory of Economics), which is so living a force in most modern uni versities. The development of political theory, the compara tive study of constitutions, the origin and functions of the state, modern municipal systems and administration — the study of topics such as these oould not fail to create a better informed public opinion in regard to subjects that are of the highest importance to our common citizenship. Sociology, Economics, and Political Science — taken along with History as a living study — would form the best possible training for those who may, in after life, be called upon to take some part in the administration of social affairs, or the direction of social thought, or the improvement of social conditions. These subjects would be a training in themselves for journalists and members of the Civil Service ; in a young country such as this, they might even prove a very school of statesmanship. Again, we have no properly endowed Chair of Zoology ; and, though excellent work is being done in this department, the appliances and accommodation for practical teaching can not be considered adequate. The Chair of Botany is also in 172 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS need of additional endowment and equipment ; and I look forward — as I have said already — to the day when the two departments shaU be housed together in a Biological Institute, which shall loom as grandly on the campus as our present Physics building. Chemistry, too, has long been in want of additional accommodation and equipment for practical work ; by migrating to new laboratories of the approved modem type and provided with a sufficient staff, it would not only relieve the pressure on the old buildings, but would also be enabled — in association with Mining and Metallurgy — to stretch forth helping hands to the work of the Faculty of Applied Science. The interest of modern languages and litera tures might also be further secured by the extension of the teaching staff, regard being had, in the appointments made, not only to practical skill in teaching, but also to evidence of special research in the literature and philology of the Eomance and Germanic tongues. Lastly, I will venture to record my conviction that the equipment of no university is complete which does not make some provision — though not necessarily as an integral part of the regular curriculum — for the study of Art and Music. These subjects ought not, in my judgment, to be relegated to establishments for the higher education of young ladies. They are as necessary, as counter actives to the exclusive cultivation of the intellect, as are the indispensable exercises in which nerve and muscle are strengthened and developed on the campus. Our function as educators does not stop short at the accumulation of knowledge. We must strive after beauty as well as truth ; we must cultivate imagination and sympathy as well as intellect. Otherwise, how shall we reahze that ideal of spiritual culture that was sketched for us long ago by Plato, when he prayed that the youth of his Eepubhc, gifted with the faculty of discerning the "true nature of beauty and grace," might "dweU in the land of health amid fair sights and sounds ; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, wiU visit the eye and ear, like a healthful breeze from a purer region, and insensibly draw the soul into harmony with the beauty of reason ". INAUGURAL ADDRESS 173 The mention of Plato reminds me that I have omitted to speak at any length of the place of classical studies in our University — not because the subject does not lie near to my heart, but because it might seem to deserve a lecture in itself. Though I am a Professor of Classics, I do not hold the view that Greek and Latin have still a paramount — far less an ex clusive — claim to dominate the whole field of education. Such supremacy belonged to them of right in the days when ancient literature was the main storehouse of human wisdom, when it was recognized as containing the best things that could be known at the time — what will always be valued as "imperishable thoughts expressed in noble language". The lessons taught by the classics — though they still retain all the freshness of their originals — have naturally become ab sorbed in modern literature, and have passed into the general body of our common inheritance from the past. I still main tain, however, that Latin and Greek are unsurpassed as dis- ciphnary studies, and that they hold the key to one of the greatest and most important chapters of human history. And that is why I hope, in directing the work of the classical department, to be able to give effect to broad views of classi cal teaching, so far as these may be realizable in the condi tions under which the main body of our students come up to the University. Parents and guardians, who are inclined to revolt against what they consider as the lumber of dead learning, ought to remember, with regard to the disciplinary side, say of Latin, that a knowledge of that ancient language is accepted by cultivated opinion everywhere as affording the " highest guarantee for a proper understanding of the scien tific principles of grammar and analysis, the best security for ability to use one's own language intelligently, and the fittest introduction to the study of any other ". But the study of the classics, in a broad sense, ought to mean a great deal more than that. It ought to embrace, not the language only, but the literature, the history, the art, the life, and the institutions of the two greatest nations of antiquity. It is in this aspect of the subject that — even on a comparison with other departments — the truth will still hold that on classical 174 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES studies the educated world will never be able to turn its back. The linguistic side may not attract the sympathies of every student : some may even be repelled by the compara tive study of grammar and syntax, though it is here that recent advances have given classics their greatest claim to a place among the exact sciences. But there will always remain the human side of the subject, that which justifies the grand old title of "The Humanities," in which the learner may look out on the whole field of ancient life and thought, moral, philosophical, religious, hterary, social, and pohtical. To those who will foUow this leading, and who will patiently provide themselves with due equipment, literature may come to take the place of grammar, poetry of prosody, reading and appreciation of translation and composition — the spirit, in fact, of the letter. And it will be here, in my judgment, that classical studies will continue longest to assert their vitality. The idea of Eome has impressed itself too deeply on the fabric of our common civilization, and on the onward march of history, ever to be lightly effaced — especially, if the word may be said, among the people, and the offshoots of the people, which in the arts of government and law may claim to be the lineal successor of the old Senatus Populusque Bomanus ; and the literature, the art, the philosophy of Greece will for ever remain the clearest expression of the whole spirit of classical antiquity, and the most perfect intellectual product to which the world has ever attained. I end where I began. In a harmonious development, the enthusiasm for scientific discovery will be reconciled with the spirit of reverence that loves to dwell on the thoughts and literary achievements of the past. Those among us, whether teachers or students, who are engaged in following the triumphs of physical science, may let their imagination rest at times on the patient labours of scholars who busy themselves with deciphering from new discoveries fresh lessons in the his tory and the life of the nations of antiquity ; on the other hand, the scholar will do well to learn to appreciate the methods and results of scientific research. While we cultivate each INAUGURAL ADDRESS 173 our little corner of the fruitful field, we may all look out with sympathetic interest on the ample prospect which unfolds itself to our view. This attitude of mind will be the best guarantee of that catholicity and universality which is the central feature of what I have called the University spirit. It will enable us to realize in some degree that sense of the unity and continuity of learning which is the mainspring of all University work. In wise old Bacon's words, "Let this be a rule that all partitions of knowledge be accepted rather for lines and veins than for sections and separations ". The various departments which claim our intellectual energies do not lie isolated and apart, but are mutually interconnected. " They resemble a vast forest " — to use an image employed by the historian Gibbon — " every tree of which appears, at first sight, to be isolated and separate ; but on digging beneath the surface their roots are found to be all interlaced with each other." In all the various forms of inteUectual activity it is one and the same human spirit that is endeavouring to assert itself ; and in proportion as we sympathize with our fellow-searchers after truth and knowledge shall we be suc cessful in realizing the idea of that community of letters, that Universitas Litterarum, of which here in Montreal our Uni versity is intended to be the concrete embodiment and ex pression. OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVEESAEY.^ Members of Convocation, Undergraduates, Ladies and Gentlemen : The arrangement by which the Annual University Lecture is henceforth to be delivered on our Founder's Birthday marks a new departure in the internal economy of the University ; and it may be expedient, by way of introduction, to set forth in a few words the reasons for the change. For several years past this lecture has been given at almost any time of the year that happened to be convenient to the lecturer. He was usually one of the considerable number of new professors who have recently enriched the teaching staff, and, though sometimes pleading for a few months' grace, he was not at heart unwilling to avail himself of so conspicuous an oppor tunity of setting forth, before an audience intended to represent the whole University, the special importance and attractive ness of his particular subject. With the growing solidarity of the Faculties, and an increasing consciousness on the part of all of us that we belong to one common whole, the view has been expressed, and has found very gratifying support, that the proper way for a great University to begin its annual operations is for all its members to meet together with one accord in one place, and to signify by such meeting their acceptance of the watchword " unity amid diversity ". Every year that adds itself to our history witnesses an ever-growing complexity in our academic machinery. But it is easier now, perhaps, than it has sometimes been — even notwith standing the fact that the Molson Hall has become quite inadequate to our needs — to cherish the feeling that we are 1 The Annual University Lecture for 1904, Montreal, 6 October, 1904. 176 OUR SEVBNTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 177 all members one of another, and that nothing can happen in any section of the University that is not of interest and importance to the whole. This being so, the suggestion was received from the Academic Board that our Founder's Birthday, which falls so fitly almost at the beginning of the session, would be the proper occasion for the holding of such an annual celebration. James McGill was born on 6 October, 1744. It may be said that he " builded more wisely than he knew " when he made provision for the foundation of a college which — though it has reached a development surpassing, in all likelihood, his fondest dreams — is still content to bear his name. In reading recently Mr. Morley's " Life of Gladstone " — a work which, in view of the author's approaching visit to McGill, had for me a double interest, and which has just been characterized by Dr. Goldwin Smith as the most notable event in the publish ing world since the issue of the first volumes of Macaulay's " History '' — in reading Gladstone's life, I was much struck by the way in which, under fortunate circumstances, individuals may link the centuries together. Mr. Gladstone's father was bom in 1764, and died in 1851. The great statesman himself lived to see his 88th birthday before his death in 1898. James McGill was born twenty years earlier than Mr. Gladstone's father, and, dying in 1813, he might have left a son who could have been with us down to quite recent memory. What changes have taken place within the span of two such lifetimes ! It would have been altogether im possible for our founder, when in 1813 he laid down a life full of high purpose, public spirit, and honest industry, to forecast the future which we are privileged now to read like an open book. The political destiny of his adopted country must often have seemed to him full of dark and well-nigh insoluble problems. The war which raged round the proposal to found, by the aid of Government grants, a Provincial University, of which McGiU College should be a component part, was only an augury of the unfortunate dualism which has since prevailed in regard to educational interests in the province of Quebec. At the time of James McGill's death 12 178 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES the population of Montreal was scarcely 15,000 : the extent of its foreign trade may be measured by the fact that nine ships, of an aggregate of 1589 tons, are reported as having come up from the sea in the year 1813. Our founder's heart would thrill with patriotic exultation if he could come back to earth and witness the gigantic strides which Montreal and Canada have made in all that pertains to material progress and advancement ; but may we not well believe that the moment of his greatest rapture would come when he turned to look on the noble pile of buildings, reared by the munifi cence of others of his own race and speech, and standing on what is, architecturally, one of the finest University sites on the whole American continent? Conspicuous in the very centre of our common collegiate life is the spot where now his honoured bones repose : placida convpostus pace quiescit. The steadfast purpose which he had at heart has been reahzed increasingly with the lapse of years, and his memory will ever be cherished by a grateful and appreciative community. Eecent research in the Matriculation Eegister of the University of Glasgow has brought to light the fact that nearly a century and a half ago James McGill, along with his brother Andrew (with whom he was afterwards in partnership in Montreal), entered as a student at that famous seat of learning, as you are students here to-day.^ It was the custom in those days to enter young, and James McGill matriculated at an age (12) at which we should hardly welcome accessions to the college which now bears his name. But the emergence of the date, and of the fact of his connexion with Glasgow University, gives additional point to a passage in the Latiu address which was forwarded by Corporation to Glasgow for the celebration of its ninth jubilee, with the acknowledgment that it was from Glasgow that Montreal had received, by the hand of James McGill, "that glowing torch which is never to grow dim or to be ^The entries in the Matriculation Album of Glasgow University are as under : — 1756 " Jacobus McGill filius natu maximus Jacobi mercatoris Glasguensis ". 1765 " Andreas McGill filius natu quiutus Jacobi mercatoris Glasguensis ". OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 179 extinguished in this land ".^ This sturdy son of Glasgow knew what its school and college system had done for his native land, and he was anxious to secure to all time the same advantages for the country of his adoption. It is not too much to say that the McGill bequest has proved the "real centre and rallying point" of English education throughout our Province. An important stage in the history of the McGill founda tion is marked by the session on which we have just entered. We can now look back on seventy-five years of teaching work. It was in 1829 that, after some litigation on the sub ject of James McGill's will, the ceremony in connexion with the opening of the new college was held in Burnside House, the former residence of the founder. The institution started with a Faculty of Arts, consisting of the principal and two professors ; but on the very day of the inaugural ceremony an important accession was received in the shape of a Faculty of Medicine, composed of the four professors who then formed the Montreal Medical Institute. It was mainly through this Medical Faculty, and owing to the reputation its professors had already achieved, that McGill College was able to make any progress at all during the next twenty years. What its later history was after the new charter was received in 1852, and under the long principalship of the late Sir William Dawson, it is needless here to recall. And now a new quarter-century is opening to our view. In many centres this would have been made the occasion of a great celebration, attended by distinguished representatives from 1 " ut enim cum Scoticis Universitatibus summa nobis fuit semper neces- situdo ac famiharitas quippe qui genere, institutis, studiis quoque aoadsmiois haud multum simus dissimiles, ita artiore quodam eognationis vinculo vobis- cum consociati sumus, quod Glasguae natus est, abhinc annos amplius centum et quinquaginta, noster ille conditor Jacobus McGill, cuius memoriam grato adhuc animo et summa pietate prosequimur : qui, quamquam iniquo aequoris Atlantic! spatio divsus, moribundus quoque dulces reminiscebatur Argos, et voluitiin novo domicile existere Aoademiam quae vestrae potissimum Univer- sitatis ref erret speciem. luvat igitur praedieare a Vobis nos per ilium taedam illam lucentem accepisse, quae ntinam in his terris numquam obscuretur aut evanesoat." 12* 180 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES other seats of learning, and by graduates from every part of the country. Thank-offerings in the shape of large additional endowments would have poured in from appreciative sup porters, and some return in the shape of honorary degrees might have been made to visitors from sister Universities. But though a repetition of the University dinner, last cele brated in 1896, is still within the range of possibility, the general feeling seems to be that McGiU has not accomplished all she would like to do before inviting the learned world to join her in holding high festival. Those of you who may find it convenient to attend in the year 1929 (or perhaps 1921, when we received our Charter) will probably enjoy an opportunity of witnessing something on a scale adequate to the occasion of what will then be a centennial celebration ! On the fly-leaf of an old book I find the following Greek verse : — epiya via>v ^ovXal Se fiecrcov ev'^al Se jepovTcov.^ Below it the scribe has obligingly furnished a Latin trans lation : Consule vir, fac vota senex, iuvenisque labora. The meaning is that youth is the time for work, manhood for counsel, and old age for dreaming and praying. Personally, I have not yet begun to dream, or to hmit myself to prayers. But as this session marks the tenth year of my residence in Montreal, it has occurred to me that it might not be con sidered presumptuous if I were to venture to take a forward view, and to forecast the course of the next twenty-five years in the light of the past decade. It is here that wise counsel will be needed, and prayers as well. I might have chosen as the subject of this address some topic remote from current academic questions. Like other University lecturers, I have my favourite studies, the fruits of which, so far as they can be made of general interest, might not unfitly be served up to an audience on an occasion such as this. But the prin cipal of a modern and progressive University has to hve very much in the concrete. Wherever he may go he takes his charge in thought along with him. And when he has the ^ From Hesiod : v. Hyperides, ed. Blass, p. 81. OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 181 opportunity of addressing such an audience, and through it a wider public, he may as well try to turn it to good account, for the advancement of the common cause. Nearly nine years ago, after but a few months' experience of conditions at McGill, I ventured to embody in a similar lecture, delivered before the University, my ideas of what we should mainly aim at in what was then the immediate future. Will you allow me first to take a backward glance, and by a kind of academic stock-taking endeavour to ascertain how far the aspirations then set forth have been realized in fact ? This will probably be the best possible introduction to any thing I may feel impelled to say of what is still before us as a University. The main subject of my paper was the " Unity of Learning ". Even its title may recall some of the associations of former days, and lead to some congratulations among the friends of the University on the fact that things are not now as they may once have been. McGill is "more together" to-day than it used to be. If I have been able to contribute in any way to this desirable end, it has not been only because my instincts pointed in that direction, but because I did not fail to take to heart the wise words of my venerable predecessor in office, when, in his " Thirty-Eight Years of McGill "—the University lecture delivered by Sir William Dawson in 1893 — he spoke as follows : " The operations of McGill are now so extensive and complicated that the dangers of disintegra tion and isolation have become greater than any others, and the Principal must always be the central bond of union of the University, because he alone can know it in all its parts and weigh the claims, needs, dangers, difficulties and opportuni ties of each of its constituent faculties and departments". Perhaps it was mainly with this thought in mind that I made the main burden of my own inaugural address, in 1896, an appeal for a greater degree of that recognition of the vital interdependence among all studies on which the feeling of a true University brotherhood must ever rest. Only in pro portion as we sympathize with our fellow-seekers after knowledge and truth, even while cultivating for ourselves 182 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES each his little comer of the fruitful field, do we realize the attitude of mind that ought to be the distinguishing mark of an academic community. There is a certain unity of purpose running through our diverse operations that ought to inspire in all of us a consciousness of common sympathies. If, on the other hand, we lose ourselves in our special preoccupa tions, holding as of little account all other studies and pursuits, we shall pay the penalty in a limitation of mental view that will debar us from enjoying the true communion of spirits. Some degree of specialization is of course a necessity of existence in days when it is no longer possible for a single mind to "take all knowledge for its province ". To a large extent we must endure to be practically ignorant of much that lies outside the range of our own immediate studies ; but we need not be indifferent to it. A sympathetic appreciation of the spirit and aims of workers in other fields than our own is quite within the range of every one of us — even the youngest ! And it is only by cultivating this frame of mind that the individual student can make his own special pursuit a humane study, a collaboration towards universal ends, inspired with the feeling of ideality, as well as with the needed sense of the proportion of the parts as related to full amplitude of knowledge. Such an attitude on the part of individuals is the best possible guarantee for the maintenance and development of that which is so often on the lips of all of us — the University spirit. May I refer to two concrete manifestations of that spirit which are among the novelties of our recent history, and which have not yet attained, perhaps, their full effect and potency ? Though blessed otherwise with an excellent constitution, McGill did not possess, until recent years, any organization through the medium of which the collective wisdom of its professorial staff could be brought to bear on current problems. The individual professor could make his voice heard only in his own separate Faculty or through the mouth of the delegate of that Faculty to Corporation. And so it was open to him to take just as much interest, and no more, in questions of administration as his comparatively OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 183 limited opportunities allowed of, and at the same time con veniently to disown all responsibility for any mistakes which, in his judgment, might be committed by the University acting in its corporate capacity. All this has been changed by the institution in 1898 of the Academic Board, charged with the duty of " considering such matters as pertain to the interests of the University as a whole, and making re commendations concerning the same ". I do not know of any more important step in the direction of solidarity than this. And we have not far to go in seeking for an illustra tion of the opportunities thus afforded. Undoubtedly the greatest boon that has come during recent years to the University, as a whole, is Sir William Macdonald's gift of the McGill Union. There is not a member of the permanent staff who ought not to be interested in the affairs of this institution — whether they concern its constitution, its internal arrangements, or the regulations for its maintenance and administration. The Union is bound to play a most important part in the future in the development of student life at McGiU. Well, the Academic Board provides a free outlet for the frank expression of any views or criticisms which may be entertained by any member of the teaching body on this or any other topic' ' Compare the following 'from the Report ot the President of Yale Univer sity, 1908-4 :— " The growth of the spirit of co-operation between the several departments has been reflected in the increased interest and importanoe of the meetings of the University Council. The history of that body has been a little different from what was expected at the time of its foundation. It has less importanoe as a place for legislative action; it has more importance as a place for the interchange of ideas and the formation of public opinion. As far as the actual work of the government of the University is concerned, the different faculties can meet most of the problems as they arise ; and whenever anything comes up where serious conflicts of interest between different faculties are involved, it usually has to go to the Corporation or to one of its committees for settlement, rather than to a body like the University Council. But this very absence of legislative power has increased the Council's usefulness as a field for the inter change of ideas. Numbering as it does on its roll some of the most influential members ofthe different departments, it gives to each of them the means of seeing matters of University finance or of interdepartmental co-operation approached from more sides and looked at from more standpoints than would 184 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES Account has also to be taken of the collective wisdom of the undergraduates themselves. They are, of course, not so permanent an element in the constitution as their teachers : nothing but failure to pass the statutory examinations could retain many of their number in the service of the University beyond the usual four year limit ! But their views and opinions on matters of current interest are always entitled to a sympathetic and respectful hearing. The difficulty as to the expression of these views — for " mass meetings " of so large a body are not always an easy or effective or convenient method of giving utterance to permanent policy — has been eliminated by the institution of the Alma Mater Society, cor responding to the Students' Eepresentative Councils of the Scottish Universities. This body, on which personally I rely very greatly for the possibility of keeping in touch with student feeling, is invested with just as much authority as the general mass of the undergraduates may care to give it. Whether that be large or small, there is surely a great ad vantage in having an accredited medium, within the limits of the constitution, through which may be expressed any well-considered opinions that may be held by our under graduates on any topic of current interest. There remain only the graduates. McGill is rich in the affectionate loyalty of her sons, organized as they are in the various graduate societies which flourish in all the large centres of the Dominion, and also in the United States. We see too little of them here in Montreal. Perhaps, if in con nexion with our annual convocation at the close of each session, a Graduates' Day could be organized, they would have better opportunities of maintaining their local connexion, and also of offering suggestions for the advancement of McGill interests in the various districts they represent. be possible within the limits of a single faculty. The Council has a function analogous to that exercised by the English Parliament in the early days of its history— where the delegates from each part of England presented their views to men from the other parts, aud were able to report back to their own con stituents the judgments which they had thus been able to form concerning the interests of the commonwealth as a whole." OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 185 It is not without much gratification that I find, on refer ring to the Inaugural Address of nine short years ago, how much of the progress then foreshadowed has been already realized. Perhaps no more important issue was raised in that Address than the necessity for the extension and re organization of the Faculty of Arts. If this Faculty receives the foremost place in what must be a very rapid review of our recent history, I am sure I shall have the approval of all who recognize the importance of the Arts curriculum as the essential basis of the whole University fabric. Not only have we received from three different sources the three endowed professorships to the need for which I called attention in 1896 — Economics, Philosophy, Zoology — but our generous supporter. Sir William Macdonald, has greatly relieved the finances of the Faculty by providing endowments also for the already existing Chairs of Botany and History. Moreover, Arts shares with the sister Faculty of Applied Science the gratification that another aspiration uttered nine years ago has been fulfilled in the most magnificent way possible, viz. : that the Department of Chemistry should be provided with new laboratories of the approved modern style, and a suffici ent staff to run them. Concurrently with this strengthening of its staff and equipment, the Faculty took in hand the re organization of the academic curriculum ; with the result that we may confidently assert that there is nowhere in Canada a stronger body of teachers in this department, or a more satisfactory and " up-to-date " course of study. In this refer ence I must not forget the organization of the Eoyal Victoria College, which engrossed in the earlier years much of my time and attention. That it is an important factor in the prosperity of the Faculty of Arts, which it has greatly strengthened, goes without saying. I may be allowed to recall in particular the fact that it was in the Eoyal Victoria College that a new branch of study, prophesied in my inaugural address, had its birth — a department destined to grow to great proportions in our future work — the Depart ment of Music, represented now by the new Conservatorium on Sherbrooke Street. Of the significance of this new part 186 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES of our educational programme there is much that I should like to say, but it may be well to reserve further comment for the opening ceremony to be held on the 14th of this month, under the illustrious auspices of His ExceUency the Governor- General and the Premier of the Dominion. The phenomenal success of the Faculty of Applied Science, which nine years ago was still a comparatively new foundation, is one of the brightest pages in our recent history. In a department which owes almost everything to a single giver, as regards both equipment and endowment, it is super fluous to enter into any detail ; it should be stated, how ever, that the complete establishment of the Chairs of Mining and Metallurgy, as well as of that of Architecture, falls within the period now under review. Sir WiUiam Macdonald has his reward — if indeed he looks for any re ward — in the unstinted praise which is ever}rwhere accorded to the work of this Faculty, and most recently in the re ports of the Mosely Commission. For a time it seemed as if Canada were in danger of being altogether overlooked by Mr. Mosely's Commissioners, and it is a personal satisfaction to me to recall the part I took in bringing about a visit which resulted in the admission that McGill " possesses material appliances for the development of scientific knowledge at least not inferior to any that can be found in the United States " (Eeport, page 164). And again : "While thoroughly equipped and doing excellent work on the literary side, McGill is particularly rich in science and applied science, and possesses in physics, chemistry, engineering, and mining a staff and laboratories which are unsurpassed by those of any American University " (page 303). The commissioner who was specially charged with the duty of reporting on Canadian institutions was particularly impressed by the proposal to open a Department of Eailroad Engineering, which he characterizes as the most remarkable instance that came under his notice, in the course of his whole American tour, of the growing belief in the value of a college training. " It is significant," says Dr. Eeichel, " that the most remark able token of confidence in the value of academic work to OUE SEVENTY. SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 187 industrial development has been furnished in connexion with McGill University. The decision of two great railway com panies to establish and equip a department of railway en gineering at McGill is one of immense importance to Canada. Not only will the new school enable these companies to push on their work in the North-west Provinces, but it will also furnish, in the staff of officials of real scientific attainments whom it will train, a body of men who will serve as centres of industrial development of all kinds in the new districts " (page 304). When I came to McGill the Faculty of Law had only quite recently abandoned its former status as a proprietary professional school, and taken rank as an integral part of the University. For this welcome transformation we know what we owe to our never-failing friend and supporter, Sir William Macdonald. It may be of interest to state that at Yale University a similar improvement was effected only last year. So in this respect we can say we are more than a decade ahead of Yale. The control of the University over the affairs of the Department of Law is now as complete as in the case of the other Faculties, and the change has been accomplished with the happiest results in the way of the consolidation of mutual interests. Moreover, the successful organization of the Faculty, under a new Dean, has widened the outlook of its members and friends, and should result ere long in secur ing some enlargement of the sphere of its operations. Till quite recently we have all felt compelled to acquiesce in the view that local conditions naturally and necessarily restrict our Law Faculty to the task of training lawyers for the Province of Quebec. The appointment of one of its best known graduates to a Professorship at Cairo was regarded at the time as a quite exceptional occurrence. In this respect the Faculty of Law has certainly stood in a somewhat different position from the other faculties — say, of Applied Science or Medicine. The young engineer or doctor who finds no room at home can always try his fortune abroad, whereas the young lawyer who has learnt the law of Quebec only cannot expect to have more than one market for his 188 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES wares. That market is, of course, the Province of Quebec itself. And when we consider how large a portion of the Quebec Bar is French-Canadian, and how natural it is that all but a handful of them should get their law at Laval, we shall not be surprised that— under existing conditions — the number of students in our Faculty of Law is not likely to receive any very large increase. It is true that a few find their way to us from British Columbia, Manitoba, and the North-west Territories, where there are in the meantime no organized law schools. But on its present footing the Faculty of Law may be said, speaking broadly, to be a school of law for the lawyers and notaries of the Province of Quebec. This, of course, need not be understood as conveying the slightest disparagement or depreciation. If we confine our selves in this department to merely provincial aims, so do three-fourths of the law schools on the American continent. We know how thoroughly our Law Faculty enjoys and deserves the confidence of the profession, which regards it as an efficient and well-organized school, conferring a degree that ranks second to none. But may we not hope in any way to extend our present boundaries ? Not to any great extent, I am afraid, under existing conditions. And yet it is desirable that Canada should possess a law school which shall be a Dominion and not a Provincial Institution. As we grow in nationhood, we shall need more and more trained publicists and civil servants and statesmen. Where are they to get their training ? If our Law Faculty is to aid in this work, she will have to add to what she has at present a good deal that she has not. By way of making a suggestion, let me say that she will need, to begin with, a chair of Eng lish Common Law. The possession of such a chair would enable us to attract more students from the West, and would show that the ambitions of our School of Law are not limited by the boundaries of our Province. I come now to the Faculty of Medicine. The reference made at the outset of my remarks to the inaugural ceremony held in 1829, at which the already existing School of Medicine joined hands with the infant college, will have sufficed to re- OUR SEVBNTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 189 mind you of the fact that the history of this Faculty reaches farther back almost than that of McGill itself. And in the early years of stress and struggle, when McGill College seems to have been the wrestling ground of denominational factions, it was the efficiency and prestige of the Medical Faculty that kept the College alive. Let us never forget that much ofthe progress of this Faculty has been due to the unselfish effort and the devoted sacrifices of many who have been at various periods associated with its teaching. Since 1896 it has seemed to have reached the high-water mark of its prosperity. It has had as many students as it could easily accommodate, and the two great hospitals with which it is so closely as sociated have stood forth to the world with ever-increasing efficiency as models of what such hospitals should be. Many of you will be surprised, in these circumstances, if I here re cord my conviction that no department of our work requires more strengthening at the present time than the Faculty of Medicine, and that no claims for large endowments ought to take precedence of those which might be urged by the mem bers of that Faculty. Why do I say this of a Faculty one of whose proudest boasts is that it has always been able to hold its own and to manage its own affairs without being beholden to anybody ? Because the facts warrant the statement. In recent years the Faculty has been fortunate in receiving a considerable sum of money from Lord Strathcona and the members of his family, given mainly for the highly desirable and, indeed, almost indispensable purpose of extending and improving the Medical Building. Apart from this, however, and some as sistance in the departments of Pathology, Physiology, and Pharmacology, the Medical Faculty has in the last nine years received nothing at all from the general public, for which it does so much. If the prevailing impression is that it has no needs, or at least none that it cannot itself supply, the sooner that idea can be dissipated the better. The demands made by the various branches of medicine at the present day — always increasing with the constant advances in medical knowledge — the crying need for more specialized instruction. 190 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES and for the displacement of the large lecture by the divisional or unit system, with a greater amount of detailed teaching and more personal supervision on the part of the instructor — all this combines to render the further and fuller endowment of our Medical School one of our most pressing needs, perhaps the most urgent of all. From the very earliest days of its foundation, owing to the excellent clinical instruction pro vided in the hospitals, our Faculty of Medicine has been a standard-bearer among the schools of the whole American Continent. We want to keep it in the van. That is the motto — agmina ducens — which its patron and friend. Lord Strath cona, has chosen for his coat-of-arms in the peerage of Great Britain. We want to have it also for the motto of our Faculty. Though Montreal is not quite so big a place as New York or .Boston, or Philadelphia or Chicago, we must not stand idly by and see our great school of medicine lose the lead which it once obtained over the schools which are com ing now to be so lavishly endowed and so magnificently equipped in those important centres. Nor do we wish to see our Canadian students of medicine tempted across the line to these or any other schools. That is why it is incumbent on this University, in view of existing conditions, to aim high in what it seeks to do for medicine. It is not enough to tum out each year a stated number of men, who are likely to be come thoroughly sound and experienced general practitioners. That is highly important, even essential, for a young and de veloping country like Canada, but it is not the whole duty of a medical school which aims at first rank. The reputation of such a school must be more than merely local. It wiU remain comparatively unknown in the greater world of scientific medicine, if it does not train a considerable propor tion of men capable of making their mark in other schools, and of becoming leading authorities in some branch of med ical work. This is only one aspect of the admitted fact that nowadays a university takes rank, not as a teaching machine, but according to the measure of its achievements in the higher field of research and investigation. And so the training of the scientific physician, qualified to make additions to know- OUR SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVERSARY 191 ledge as well as to impart it to others, must continue to be a leading feature of our school. Here comes in the need for well-equipped laboratories, giving a thoroughly sound scien tific training in medicine preparatory to clinical work. This is a costly business, and it will become even more costly than it is at present, with the larger number of classes that will result from the extension of the medical curriculum from four years to five. It is quite conceivable that this forward step, when it comes to be taken, will lose us some students. One of the disadvantages of the present situation is that we have to think too much of that not unimportant factor. About five-sixths of the gross revenue of the Medical Faculty are derived from students' fees ; not much more than a paltry $8000 comes from interest on endowments. This is a by no means secure, far less an impregnable, position and, in my judgment, it should be remedied at the earliest possible mo ment. Endowments should be sought for to provide, apart from fees, the salaries of the professors who occupy the purely scientific chairs in the faculty — beginning with anatomy, and including physiology, pathology, pharmacology, hygiene — and salaries large enough to make certain that these chairs shall always be filled by the very best men obtainable. Then it is not quite creditable that lecturers and assistants should be asked to work for practically nothing. How can a young physician be expected to give whole-hearted service to the work of teaching for a few hundred dollars a year ? And how can his chief exact from him even the routine duty required in his department, to say nothing of co-operation in research ? Everybody knows that to become a first-class physiologist, or anatomist, or pathologist, or pharmacologist nowadays it is essential to devote one's whole time for many years to the one subject. Unless we can encourage our younger men to do this, where are we to look for successors to the present holders of chairs, and how are we to avoid the reproach of going abroad for them ? There is no need of the Medical Faculty — or, so far as I am aware, of any other Faculty — that cannot be supplied by money. Probably over half a milhon of dollars would be 192 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES necessary to overtake the objects to which I have referred ; and the completion of the buildings— with new dissecting rooms, library, museum, etc. — as well as an adequate fund tor maintenance and equipment, would call for as much again. Do not let us be dismayed by the figures. Within this last year Harvard has been assured of no less than ten milhon dollars for the building and fuller equipment of her medical school, and Chicago, now that the Eush Medical College has been joined to the University, is promised as much and more. There is no department of our work that has greater claims on the good-wiU of the public than that which centres round the art of healing. It is not more doctors that we aim at tuming out, but better doctors — men who have had the best available advantages in equipping themselves for the practice of the most honourable and the most onerous of all professions. The McGill Medical Faculty has done noble work in the past, and I am confident that, as soon as its needs are properly understood, it will receive such a degree of support from an appreciative community as shall enable it to keep pace with the ever-growing demands of medical teaching and medical science. When I say that there is no McGill want that money will not supply, I do not want to be quoted as implying that money is everjrthing. DoUars wiU not create the spirit that ought to animate our work — the spirit of earnest devotion to the highest interests of the cause we serve. It is because that spirit already exists in McGill that its friends and supporters may confidently appeal for further financial aid. Gratitude for past favours need not debar us from cherishing a lively expectation of favours still to come. The present administra tion of the University has received some signal marks of trust and confidence. In looking back on the nine years that have passed since 1895, I cannot forget the kindness of the late Mr. John Henry Molson, who was Chairman of the Board of Governors when I came to McGiU. As Chairman also of the Finance Committee, Mr. Molson had a very heavy load to carry. He knew the needs of the University in all its de partments, and was greatly oppressed at times— as all finance OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 193 chairmen must be — by the constantly recurring difficulty of making both ends meet. Yet when he died, it was found that he had given the administration a most signal mark of confidence by bequeathing the sum of one hundred thousand dollars for the General Endowment Fund of the University. Some of the greatest gifts he made us during his lifetime were marked by the same spirit of self-effacing devotion to the general interest. He gave the ground on which the Eedpath Library stands, and (in 1893) he gave $60,000 for the purchase of land and for buildings and equipment for the Faculty of Medicine. If his name is not connected with either of these great donations, his memory remains none the less deep-graven in our hearts. It is on a portion of the lots he acquired on McTavish Street that Mrs. Peter Eedpath's most welcome and valuable extension of the Library was erected in 1900. Permit me now to indicate very briefly the lines on which the consolidation and extension of our work as a University should, according to my best judgment, be made to proceed. I believe, in the first place, that if the time is not yet come it will soon be at hand when McGill ought very seriously to consider whether it vidll allow boys to go direct from school into any of the professional faculties without taking at least a partial course in Arts as a preliminary. In Medicine the curriculum has everything to gain by having physics, chemistry and biology eliminated, and taken in the Faculty of Arts as introductory. The best preparation for the law course is a preliminary study of such subjects as History and Pohtical Science. As for the Faculty of Applied Science, if the needs of a developing country have been calling out for young engineers, the dignity of the engineering profession no less demands that they shall be as fuUy educated as possible. An utterance may be cited in this connexion which I once heard from the lips of President Ehot, of Harvard : " Wlien all the leading Universities of the country require a degree in Arts or Science for admission to their professional schools — of law, medicine, divinity, teaching, architecture, and applied science — an effective support will be given to the Bachelor's degree 13 194 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS in Arts and Science such as has never yet been given in the United States ; and the higher walks of all the professions will be filled with men who have received not only a strenuous professional training, but a broad preliminary culture ". So, too. President Butler, of Columbia: "For a University to admit professional students direct from the secondary schools is to throw the weight of its influence against the spirit and ideals of college training, and to prepare for the so-called learned professions a large body of very imperfectly educated men ". This takes me back to the Faculty of Arts, in the recent reorganization of whose courses we had ever in view the aim of making an organic connexion with the several departments of professional study. One link is still wanting — the Chair of Education that is to lead up to the activity of teaching. When that has been supplied, the holder of the Chair — with the Normal School as his laboratory — will be able to impress himself upon the whole education of the province, if not of the country at large. Meanwhile any prospective donors who may prefer to help us to strengthen and to consolidate work aheady undertaken will allow us to remind them that the Department of Modern Languages is utterly without endow ment of any kind. We ought to have two chairs here, one of Teutonic and the other of Eomance Languages and Litera ture. The energy which Dr. Walter devoted this year to the successful organization of a summer school of French may be expected to draw fresh attention to the needs of this most important department. I say nothing of classics ; that sub ject would need a lecture in itself. It is possible to obtain that " reasonable tincture of letters " for which Professor Macnaughton pleaded last year vsdthout any excessive devo tion to classical study. But the friends of the classics may refer, with pardonable pride, to the "rush back to Latin" which is going on at present in the United States, and which seems to amount almost to a rediscovery in that country of what I have elsewhere called the logic of grammar. Another sign of the times is the establishment of two flourish ing Classical Associations, the one in Scotland and the other OUE SBVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 195 in England, the members of which propose not only to give reasons for the faith that is in them, but also to question others as to theirs. PersonaUy, I should be the last to ad vocate the claims of classical study if these claims necessarily involved ignorance of the world we live in and of the natural phenomena that are about and around us. Education is meant to lead us into active life, not out of it. At the same time the brilliant discoveries of natural science, which have taught us much that our grandfathers did not know, need not induce the rapid inference that what our grandfathers did know must necessarily have been useless knowledge. If my own connexion with the classical department at McGill has resulted in any broader views of classical study — such as I pleaded for nine years ago — then in this department also we may claim that some progress has been made. The fortunate settlement of the long-standing controversy vnth Ontario, on the subject of the recognition of McGill de grees for certain purposes in that province, induces the hope that we may witness in future a greater amount of recipro city among Canadian Universities. In early days it was per haps not altogether unnatural that our great educational institutions, separated from each other by immense distances, should have lived apart as it were, and should have been tempted to cultivate separate interests. This has not made for unity, either of methods or of feeling and sentiment. Now that we note some slight disposition to lower the provincial boundary-fences we may perhaps hope for better things. The Universities in various parts of the United States can agree to act together, when expedient, on matters of common interest ; why should not we ? It is not necessary or even advisable that all our Universities should be moulded after the same pattern. They have all their own proper work to do. Each will in aU probability develop on the lines that are most suited to its circumstances and its situation. There should therefore be less rivalry, less jealousy in the future — less belittling of each other and a greater effort to present a united front in what is after all a common cause. Some people make a great bugaboo of the British North America 13 * 196 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES Act, which committed the interests of education to the several provinces. In those early days that was probably altogether a vdse measure, and the Federal Government must often have had occasion since to congratulate itself that — so far as education is concerned — it could keep itself in a large measure outside the arena of provincial strife. But the edu cation that was mainly thought of at the time of the framing of the Act was school education. The great subject of tech nical education, for example, had scarcely been heard of. This has been brought home to us in connexion with our new school of Eailroad Engineering, which ought to be thoroughly national in character. There is certainly nothing provincial about its origin or its aims. Again, when last year we were forced by circumstances to abandon our Faculty of Veterinary Science, it was not without the hope that it might one day be revived on a larger scale. In view of the bearing of the teaching given in that Faculty on the greatest of aU our national interests — the interests of agricul ture — it is a matter of great regret that we should have felt obliged to relinquish it. The whole Dominion might profit by the institution, in connexion with one of our leading Universities, of a great national school of Agriculture, or Agronomics, one branch of which, as at Cornell, would be veterinary science. I am one of those who believe that it is the duty of a University to make itseK of service to the country at large by associating itself with all its leading in terests. In so wide a field as that there is room for all who will co-operate — room for the Federal Government, too, if it can be induced to come in. Meanwhile we ought to cherish, in all that concerns University education, the spirit of co-operation and mutual helpfulness. The need for that in Canada was very much in my thoughts last year when I sat as your representative at an Imperial University Conference which met in London. High argument was addressed to the audience by various speakers on behalf of imperial unity in education — the dis semination of a better knowledge of what is going on in our Universities throughout the length and breadth of the Empire, OUE SEVBNTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 197 the cultivation of mutual interests, the furtherance of com mon aims, a sort of federation of the Empire, in fact, through education. I could not help thinking, as I listened, that here in Canada we had better begin at home. The times are not unfavourable for such a rapprochement. We must not let the Empire get ahead of the Dominion. Here in McGill we have accustomed ourselves to take wide and broad views. That is why we have special reason to rejoice in everything that tends to promote the unification of our national interests, both in act and in sentiment. There have always been some who felt a difficulty over the fact that the educational institu tions of the Colonies have been manned to a large extent from the great British Universities. Now the tide is beginning to flow the other way. Only a few months ago the Eoyal Society of London came to McGiU to borrow Professor Eutherford for the purposes of the Bakerian Lecture. And along with the first flight of Ehodes scholars to Oxford goes our most illustrious alumnus Dr. William Osier. This pro cess of interchange will doubtless go on increasing as the years roU on. " The result," as "our friend Dr. Parkin writes in a paper which he has just forwarded to me, " the result cannot be otherwise than healthy and inspiring. Able men in the Motherland will go abroad more readily when they know that distinction won there counts at the centre. Able men born abroad in the Colonies will know that the pathway to recognition is freely open to them in whatever corner of the Empire they may happen to be. Everything of this kind counts for the unification of the nation, in work, in interest, in sentiment. It makes for continuity as well. The dis tinguished Canadian man of science, coming to hold up at Oxford his lamp of knowledge lighted there in the thirteenth century by Eoger Bacon, is a truer prophecy of the future of the Empire, we may fairly hope, than Macaulay's New Zea- lander contemplating the ruins of St. Paul's from a broken arch of London Bridge." Members of Convocation, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I have made it my aim in this address to gather up the lessons of our recent past, and to estimate the educational position 198 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES which we find McGill occupying after three-quarters of a century of almost uninterrupted teaching. We have much reason to rejoice together over what has already been accom plished, and also to go forward with good hope into the future. In point of solid progress we could hardly wish the record other than it has been. McGill stands deservedly high among the learned institutions of the Dominion and of the Empire. In this respect it never stood higher than it does to-day. But it is a trite remark that learning is not everything ; not all knowledge is power. Perhaps in the time to come, with the greater social advantages that are now to be at the command of the student body^with our Union, and let us hope, soon too, our Halls of Eesidence — the university may come to be as widely known as a school of manners, in the broad sense of the term, as it is at present for learning and solid work. You know the old motto of William of Wykeham, who founded Winchester and New College, Oxford : " Manners makyth man ". Too little at tention is paid in our educational programmes to the upbuild ing of character. When we think of the unspeakable im portance of the years which our young men spend at coUege, as a preparation for their after life, our hearts must yearn to do more for them than under present conditions we are able to accomphsh. Manners are formed and personality is built up in the school of life — even the student school. Honesty, purity, reverence — all the moral virtues, in fact, are just as important for the youth of a country as are learning and scholarship. " Manners makyth man." We want to have a hall-mark for McGill men, by which they may be known and recognized all the world over. It lies with our students themselves to set the standard. What we wish to do is to give them all the help we can to make the most of their advantages while they are with us. CoUege days are soon over, and they leave with the individual either the satis faction of strenuous effort or the memory of neglected opportunities. " How truly it is in man," as Mr. Gladstone said to the students at Edinburgh, " in man, and not in his circumstances, that the secret of his destiny resides. For OUE SEVENTY-SIXTH ANNIVBESAEY 199 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 academic 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 ; to believe until you may know ; and believe me when I tell you that the thrift oi time 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, beneath your darkest reckonings." A SESSIONAL ADDEESS.^ This meeting is intended, as has been the custom for some years past, to mark the beginning of a new academic year. We come together to inaugurate it, as it were ; and I am expected to give an Inaugural < or Opening Address. Some people don't like the word "inaugurate". Perhaps they think it savours of superstition. It is certainly one of those words which contain within themselves something of what has been called fossil history ! For it reminds us, does it not, of what was a settled custom, a fixed habit, with the ancient Eomans — something that was, in fact, so customary and habitual with them that in the end it degenerated, like many other outward observances, into a pure formahty. The Eomans never entered on any serious undertaking with out first taking the auspices, in order to ascertain the will of heaven. They consulted the omens, and " auspicated " all their proceedings — an even more classical word than "in augurate ". Academic practice varies in different countries. On this side of the Atlantic it is usual to select the close of the session for giving what are called " Commencement " Addresses. For that also there is said to be a reason in history. And so, though I can scarcely presume to consult the omens as to whether the football team is to retain the championship this year, or as to the probability of some windfall coming our way that may enable us to begin the construction of a gymnasium and student residences on the new campus, I can proceed to inaugurate, in my own way, the session 1913-4. After all, the skill of the Eoman augur consisted not so much in managing to see things as in inter preting what he saw. 1 Delivered at the opening of the McGill Session, 1 October, 1913. 200 A SESSIONAL ADDEESS 201 Well, this opening talk is something that I have often given before, and whether in this Assembly Hall or in some other surroundings the scene begins to have quite a familiar look. Let us hope that what I have to say to you will not appear unduly stereotyped, or too much after the pattern of a hardy annual. Most of you have been with us in past sessions. You have come back, teachers and students alike, from what I am sure I may call the strenuous idleness of the long vacation, to a further period of work and study. Even if I have said it before, believe me that I speak with equal sin cerity to-day when I express the hope that you may all find the greatest possible satisfaction in the work of your several departments. I had almost said your " self-appointed tasks " ; and that would have reminded me to say a word, which ought perhaps to be specially addressed to new-comers, as to the essential difference between school and college work. It is not all that I may have to say to the freshmen, but it will do for a beginning. They know with what anxious hearts we follow their doings, both in and out of college, in the earlier part of the session. Our thoughts are with them day and night — especially sometimes at night ! The Freshmen Class this year will, I am sure, remember that the good name of McGiU is largely in their keeping, and will carefully re frain from any ebullitions outside the limits of the campus, either by day or by night, that may interfere with the com fort or convenience of their fellow-citizens. Of course it takes a little time to get accustomed to the full blaze of student greatness. You come up from school where discip line rules supreme, and obedience to authority, to find your selves suddenly in the enjoyment of a full measure of what we may call ordered freedom. The remedy for any incipient lawlessness is, I think, to be found in reflection on the differences between school and college. From being pupils and wards you have become partners. You are responsible, along with us, for the credit of the firm. And not only for the standing it may enjoy in the community, but also for the progress it may make with the special business entrusted to it. I always like to think of students and professors in a 202 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES University — certainly in the higher stages of the curriculum — as joint-partners in a common enterprise. They are heirs to the learning of all the ages, and they co-operate in a united effort to make it their own. McGill has a great asset in its staff as well as in its students. The trouble at present is that owing mainly to the great advance in the cost of living we cannot always keep the good men who come to us. I hope you all shared the pride I felt on reading the other day that Madame Curie, whom Sir Oliver Lodge described as the greatest woman of science in all time, had exhorted the British Association to keep its eye on our late colleague Eutherford, as the physi cist from whose laboratory wonder-working discoveries were most likely in the near future to proceed. It is a great thing for McGill to have had Eutherford on her staff, even if only for eight or nine years. And I was glad to see that Dr. McBride, who left us still more recently, has obtained a well- deserved promotion in the Imperial College of Science. I make the confident statement that one of the elements in the recent progress of McGill, and one that, as much as anything else, has attracted attention to her as a great University, is the fact that it has been known all over the English-speaking world that, when there was an appointment to be made at McGill, the Board of Governors could be relied upon to make it without fear or favour, and after a patient and painstaking investigation of the claims and qualifications of possible can didates on both sides of the Atlantic. I need not attempt to enumerate here the new appoint ments which take effect this session, and which have been filled in each and every case by men well qualified to do good work in their several departments. * ^^ # * The mere mention of these departments may serve to remind us how varied and how widespread are the operations of a great University, and how essential it is that they be held together by a consciousness of common aims and a common purpose. We are all members one of another, and it ought to be a source of much gratification that the feeling of inter-dependence and community of interest, in the different A SESSIONAL ADDEESS 203 faculties and departments, seems at McGill to be steadily on the increase. Let us strive to do everything in our power still further to strengthen and develop that feeling. For only thus can we become colleagues, in the full and true sense of the word ; and only in this way can we present a united front to the community on whose interest and good-will we are so dependent for further progress and future success. There is general agreement to-day that the aim and purpose of a University may be fitly described under three heads : first, teaching ; second, research and investigation ; third, influence on the community in which it does its work. The first is of supreme importance — as every undergraduate knows. If we failed to teach, and to teach well, we should be turning our backs on what is, after all, the main reason for our existence. It follows of course immediately from this that our students, on whom we exercise our gifts of teaching, are — along with ourselves — the most indispensable element in the whole make-up of the University. This needs no argument. The only extension of the statement that might seem to be called for is that by teaching we do not merely mean the pouring of information down open throats, but the discipline of learning. And even outside our lecture-rooms and laboratories, there are various agencies, including student activities themselves, by means of which much may be done in the way of building up character and strengthening personality. " Let character grow with knowledge." But — to return to the second point — teaching is enlivened and informed by the spirit of original research and the habit of investigation ; and one of the ideals of the McGill administration is that the leading positions on the teaching staff shall be in the hands of those who have shown themselves capable, by such research, of advancing our know ledge of their subject and of taking rank, in this way, with fellow-workers all over the world. What I have described as the third of the functions of a University is for McGill and Montreal at the present juncture of almost equal importance. We are carrying on our opera tions in the midst of a large centre of population with which 204 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES it is at once our duty and our interest to cultivate the closest possible relations. For from such relations much benefit may be derived by both. It is an interesting feature of the growth of English democracy that large industrial centres like Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, and Bristol have insisted — practically within the last generation — on pos sessing each a University of its own. The civic University is, in fact, a new birth of these later days. If anyone is in doubt as to the explanation of this phenomenon, he has only to ask himself what these cities would be without their University. They would of course be great in commerce and industry, in manufacturing enterprise and material prosperity ; but they would lack the institution which is the centralized expression of their aspirations after things that are higher than these, and which enables them to rank vnth world-famous centres of learning. In each of the cities I have named the local institution is an object of civic pride, and systematic efforts are made, even to the extent in some cases of an addition to the rates, to secure that adequate re sources shall be forthcoming for its maintenance and develop ment. It is recognized that the University will give back to the community, in ever-growing measure, as much at least as it receives from it. For not only does it increase and en hance local prestige and dignity, but it guarantees equality of educational opportunity to all who are born within its sphere of influence. And it helps to enlarge the number of those who are the best products of busy and populous centres — the men of affairs who, while strenuously engaged in their special avocations, yet feel the impulse to cultivate other tastes and interests. McGill has largely profited in the past not only by the generosity of our great men of business, but also by the practical sagacity they have shown in the direction of its affairs. We are not so homogeneous a community as those which exist in the English cities I have named, and we are debarred by obvious reasons from actually claiming to be the civic University of Montreal. But McGill is by far the most important and the most valuable asset in the common life of the A SESSIONAL ADDEESS 205 English-speaking element in. our population, and we cannot doubt that as such it will continue to be cherished and well cared for. Signs have not been wanting of late — the financial campaign of November, 1911 was in itself enough to prove it — that the alliance between city and University is growing closer and stronger. As McGill becomes more serviceable to its friends and supporters, and as they in turn get to be more conscious of common aims and interests, the future may be relied on to reproduce and even to eclipse the record of the past. There has been a great growth of pubhc spirit in Montreal within recent years. Those who used to complain that the University was " not sufficiently in touch with the community " will do well to ponder the significance of this phrase. It is difficult to get into touch with what does not exist — or rather with what, if it did exist, was so rapidly passing beyond normal limits that it had some difficulty in realizing its corporate being. That is being cured now — as we may see even from the greater care that is bestowed on our streets. We seem to have more "civic pride" about us now. The next thing is for us in the University to strike the imagination of the community, and make it more than ever proud of McGill. It was a good thing for the reputation and also for the material well-being of Bologna when the guilds of students established themselves there. So it ought to be with us in Montreal. I had a letter the other day from one of our friends, the wording of which betrayed a behef that McGill did not " really need money ". It struck me at the time that he must be somewhat lacking in imagination. He seemed to think, or to wish to think, that our University is now complete. What about the new campus, you will ask, and the need for student-residences, a new gymnasium, larger endowments to provide better professorial salaries, especiaUy in view of the great advance in the cost of living, an additional engineering building, and the other things which are always carefully enumerated in the Annual Eeport ? Harvard is an older foundation than McGill, and by this way of reckoning ought to have been complete long ago. 206 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES But even after three centuries of growth Harvard is still developing, and never before in its whole history has it had so many buildings under way at once as it has at present. Apart from unconsidered trifles in the way of gifts last session, amounting to over one million dollars, it was put in a posi tion to undertake new construction to the extent of more than four milhons, as follows : Library, $2,000,000 ; freshman- dormitories, .$1,500,000; stadium bridge, $200,000; music building, $100,000 ; museum extension, $100,000 ; engineer ing laboratory, $100,000 ; herbarium, $56,500 : total, $4,056,600. We may well be proud to have McGill mentioned in the same breath with an institution which can command material resources such as these. McGill spent last year on all its various operations, including Macdonald College, about $700,000, while Harvard was able to dispose of a revenue of about two and a haU millions. But we have much to be thankful for. After all, size is not everything : the greatest thing is to keep going on the highest attainable level. And Montreal is showing an ever- increasing tendency to be generous towards works of charity and philanthropic effort. Though confined perhaps to a relatively small circle of donors, subscriptions to such ob jects are always readily obtainable, and are generally ac companied with a measure of personal interest that doubles the value of every gift. It is true that during my eighteen years' residence in the city I have noted a long succession of vast estates passing from hand to hand, on the death of a testator, without much thought of the public need that furnishes — or ought to furnish — the private opportunity. But there have been exceptions. I had the pleasure of informing you last year of the bequest by which the late Mr. E. J. Wickstead had left his whole estate to his Alma Mater for the endowment of physical education. His generous example was foUowed by another lawyer — the late Mr. Cramp, who acted so long as the College notary. Mr. Cramp put McGill down in his will for a third of his estate. And only the other day we were greatly gratified to learn that a member of the Board of Governors, the late Mr. James Eoss, A SESSIONAL ADDEESS 207 had remembered McGill University in his will to the extent of one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Eoss was one of our friends. His connexion with the administration of the University had given him many opportunities of appreciating the difficulty of carrying on an institution whose needs, in the very nature of things, are always outrunning its re sources ; and his kindly thought of us has touched a chord in our hearts that vibrates with gratitude and appreciation. It is a melancholy pleasure to record also our indebtedness to Mr. Eoss for much help and advice given as a member of the governing body of the University, especially in the de partment of mechanical engineering. Besides being a great and experienced engineer, he was a patron of the arts and sciences. He took an active interest also in the well-being of our hospitals ; and as they are in a sense University in stitutions his bequests to the Eoyal Victoria and Maternity Hospitals may be cited here as additional reasons for grati tude. He was a man of high artistic culture, one who "loved that beauty should go beautifully ". Mere splendour without taste would always have been repellent to him. Perhaps his best memorial, apart from the magnificent col lection of pictures which he got together with such care and discrimination, and which was the joy and pride of his wide circle of friends, will be the beautiful building on Sherbrooke Street to which he has contributed so largely as the per manent home of the Art Association. Such men lend valuable aid in the way of enabling a community to realize some aspects of its higher self, and it is one of the functions of a civic University, as has been already said, to help in the coming time to increase their number. No matter how greatly engrossed individuals may be in their special avocations, there is always something outside them that wiU amply repay attention. If I were called in to prescribe for cases where the need of some ex ternal interest was felt in order to relieve the monotony of concentrated effort and speciahzed endeavour, I should make bold to recommend attention to one or more of the branches of our Graduate School, at present wholly without support. 208 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS and yet capable by further development of conferring the highest distinction on both the University and the city. You all know how some of the greatest triumphs of modern invention have owed everything to the patient and unselfish research-work of the professor in his laboratory. And yet research is quite the most unremunerative department of professorial effort. It stands greatly in need of generous patronage if it is to be put on a sound basis. In comment ing on the fact that the State spends no more than £200,000 per annum (one million dollars) on University education in England and Wales (outside Oxford and Cambridge) — an amount only slightly in excess of what is devoted to a single University in Germany — Principal Griffiths, of the Uni versity College of South Wales, went on to tell the British Association the other day how greatly this militated against the possibility of sufficient provision for research. "When you reflect," said he, "on the magnitude of the results which would inevitably follow an adequate encourage ment of research, the irony of the position becomes more evident. It is stated on authority that Pasteur during his lifetime saved for his country the whole cost of the Franco- Prussian War." "It should be our mission," he went on to say, " to make evident to the working-man his indebtedness to the pioneers of science. Demonstrate to him the close connexion be tween the price of his meat and the use of refrigerating processes founded on the investigations of Joule and Thom son ; between the purity of his beer — this for the Enghsh- man ! — and the labours of Pasteur. Show the collier that his safety is to no small extent due to Humphrey Davy ; the driver of the electric tramcar that his wages were coined by Faraday. Make the worker in steel realize his obligation to Bessemer and Nasmyth.; the telegraphist his indebtedness to Volta and Wheatstone; and the man at the 'wireless' station that his employment is due to Hertz. Tell the soldier that the successful extraction of the bullet he received during the South African War was accomplished by the aid of Eontgen. Convince the sailor that his good ' landfall ' A SESSIONAL ADDEESS 209 was achieved by the help of mathematicians and astronomers ; that Tyndall had much to do with the brilliancy of the lights which warned him of danger, and that to Kelvin he owed the perfection of his compass and sounding-line. Impress upon all wage-earners the probability that had it not been for the researches of Lister, they, or some member of their family, would not be living to enjoy the fruits of their labours. If we could but bring some 5 per cent of our voters to believe that their security, their comfort, their health are the fruits of scientific investigation, then — but not until then — should we see the attitude of those in au thority towards this great question of the encouragement of research change from indifference to enthusiasm and from opposition to support. When we have educated the man in the street it is possible that we may succeed in the hardest task — that of educating our legislators." Here in Canada we are barred from looking for so large a measure of state-aid as the speaker is pleading for in Eng land, and this makes it all the more necessary that we should do what we can to strike the imagination, as I have said, of individual supporters, and to enlist the general good-will of the community. Principal Griffiths is a man of science, and he approaches his problem from the standpoint natural to him. But here in McGill we are under a special obligation not to forget the other manifestations of the human spirit. We cannot turn a dull ear to the mighty voices that speak to us from the pages of the past, or ignore the messages that reach us from poets and bards, singers and seers, orators, philosophers, dramatists, and statesmen. It is charged against our present stage of civihzation that it is unduly material. One weU-known critic of Canadian conditions says that the shriek of the railway-whistle and the atmo sphere of the counting-house are too much with us, and that as a consequence we have no song to give the world. Per sonaUy I think that things are greatly improving in this regard, and that for the improvement we have to thank, in large measure, the Universities. But we must continue to insist, in every department of work, on that adequate founda- 14 210 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES tion of general culture which is so desirable not only in itself, but also as a means of co-ordinating and co-relating the special studies which succeed it. Some of it ought, of course, to be acquired at school. But I do not like to hear of boys of tender years passing straight from school into the professional study of law and medicine — to say nothing of applied science. Time I know is short, and opportunity is waiting ; but if no further training is secured, before the special study is begun, in such subjects as English, history, economics, logic, and modern languages, it will never be secured at all. If one subject has to be chosen out of many, let it be history : there is nothing that will so effectually counteract any narrowing tendencies in the professional career of lawyer, doctor, or engineer as to have a wide outlook upon history. And this reminds me to commend to those who are responsible for the general course given in our first year a little book just pubhshed at Oxford, entitled " The Living Past ". The author, Mr. F. S. Marvin, has been specially successful in drawing from each of the periods that he passes in brief and picturesque review those lessons that ought to be impressed on the minds of all. The book gives, in fact, that sense of historical perspective without which I have always contended that no one can claim to be properly educated. Sir Oliver Lodge said at Birmingham the other day that he " saw the whole of material existence as a steady passage from past to future, only the single instant which we call the present being actual ". And surely without taking geologic time into account — compared with which historic time is but a point or a dot — the most interesting part of the whole process is for us the Ascent of Man, now the heir of all the ages, but discovered at first, long before historical records begin, mak ing his way painfully upwards, by the help of stone, and bronze, and iron, from childhood to adolescence, and then emerging after tens of thousands of years into the light of history as we know it to-day. Every educated man, and woman too, ought to know, at least in outline, the story of the early Empires of the East, and of the Greeks and Eomans, A SESSIONAL ADDRESS 211 the lessons of the Middle Ages, of the Eenaissahce and the rise of modern science, of the industrial, social, and political changes which were afterwards brought to pass, and of the main lines of progress achieved during the last hundred years. All this, with a most useful bibliography, the general reader will find in the little volume I am commending to your notice. There are some special points on which I had meant briefly to touch if it were not for the fear of trespassing un duly on your patience. When we had Lord Haldane with us the other day — along with our venerable Chancellor Lord Strathcona, and a group of distinguished men the like of which has seldom been seen on this or any University plat form — I could not help remembering that, some years before he became Lord High ChanceUor, Viscount Haldane had made himself responsible for the scheme we are trying to reproduce here in our Officers' Training Corps. If we had been in session at that time, and your Corps could have turned out to greet him, I am sure the former Secretary of War would have beamed on it with a certain amount of what may be called paternal pride. Those who understand this movement, based as it is on the most scientific methods of military training, will be glad to see it taking its place more and more within the sphere of our University work, which it, in fact, expands and supplements. If discipline is a good thing, and the habit of obedience to authority, the student will get it here in acceptable form, and physical exercise as well. I have always thought that it was a great compliment to the University when Lord Haldane brought forward his project for securing a reserve of officers by drawing on the splendid material provided by large bodies of educated young men, who could be trained under proper direction and super vision to take command as officers in any great emergency. Our Corps made a highly satisfactory beginning last year, and with the new Drill Hall promised for its exclusive use, I look forward to a considerable development in its numbers and usefulness. On all other recognized forms of student activity I should 14* 212 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES like to bestow a similar blessing, both those which care for the body and those which look after the things of the mind. The want of a gymnasium vsrill, I fear, be greatly felt by many, and we must just keep talking about it till we get one. The Canadian Club speaks of holding its first meeting in connexion with the University Lecture, which is to be delivered by Sir Gilbert Parker on Monday of next week. Then there is the Mock Parliament, which has done so much to stimulate in terest in public affairs. I am not sure that I do not hke it much better than I like your Liberal and Conservative Clubs ; Aristotle held that young men were not fit students of moral philosophy, and I am sure he would have considered it need lessly precipitate for undergraduates to range themselves on all questions under opposing banners. I need not tell you how heartily we wish you all success on the football field and the hockey rink. My only regret is that the lookers-on at those games so greatly outnumber the players. Do not be satisfied with merely looking on, but contrive to get a certain amount of regular exercise yourselves on each day of the week. The healthful habits you may form now will stand you in good stead in after life. And the same thing should be said of the cultivation of inteUectual tastes and aptitudes. Eemember that the higher you aim in life the better your educational preparation should be. Join with us in trying to make Montreal prouder than ever before that she should be able to furnish such a preparation within the halls of " Old McGill ". And bear yourselves while you are here in such a way that you may be able to look back with satisfac tion hereafter on the institution which helped to mould your lives, giving you not only that knowledge which is power, but the impulse also and the inspiration that will set your feet in high places. NATIONAL EDUCATION.! The friends of education and (so far as it shows its interest) the general public have frequent opportunities of admiring the spirit in which teachers devote part of their hardly won leisure to reunions such as this. It might be thought that you would be only too glad to get away from the somewhat wearing associations of your daily work. But the feeling of brotherhood is strong in your hearts — the feeling which was referred to this morning as that which inspires the " goodly fellowship of teachers " ; and it is the experience of all countries that so long as these meetings are held with the single-minded aim of advancing the interests of education, and not for the purpose of providing what has been called a " dumping ground for the faddist and the axe-grinder," they will always continue to prove a valuable source of stimulus and inspiration. The pressure of other engagements has been so often my excuse for declining your invitations that I was almost shamed into accepting the one which reached me this year. And I had besides another motive. It is very often imputed as a fault to University men that they hold themselves aloof from the work of public schools, and that they are either ignorant of, or indifferent to the conditions which obtain there. For myself, I cannot plead guilty to this charge. If there be one truth that seems to need more emphasis than another, especially at the present day, it is the essential unity of all education. A good deal of mischief has been done in Eng land by the hard and fast line that is drawn, with consequent social cleavage, between the elementary teacher and the ' An address delivered before the Ontario Educational Association, 5 April, 1904. 213 214 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES teacher in a secondary school. But even in England this prejudice is tending to disappear, and it will disappear all the sooner if the nation can be roused to a consciousness of the far-reaching opportunities of national service that lie within the reach of the primary teacher. In the colonies, less hampered as they are by social traditions, there should be no room for such a prejudice. But it is unfortunately just here in Canada that I have found, in my own experience, evidence of a desire to set one department of education against another, to stir up class feeling, to trade on the diversity of interests that separate rural schools from city schools, and to unite all alike in somewhat unintelligent and uninstructed criticism of our Universities. That is certainly not the direction in which things are moving in the Old Country, where there is a growing conviction — both in England and in Scotland — that there should be no impassable gulf between the Universities and the elementary schools, and where, through the medium of their Day Training Colleges, the Universities are getting a larger share of the business of turning out fully equipped teachers of all grades. It will not do our elementary teachers any good to encourage them in a low estimate of the value of University training, or to praise a condition of things in which the large mass of pupUs whose education finishes in the public schools may get a great part of their teaching from persons whose qualifications are little in advance of their own. Probably you will at once make up your minds that I am a reactionary ; but I want to record my conviction at the start that in a well-ordered system the University ought to have the opportunity — if only it will use it wisely and well — of associating itself with the whole scheme of national education, and of giving all the light and leading which it may be capable of supplying. Take, for instance, the question of the school curriculum. It would surely be a remarkable discovery for the twentieth century to make that the subjects to which Universities attach importance in their entrance examinations, as indispensable to sound education, are not, after all, the subjects which should occupy the largest place in the programme of the NATIONAL EDUCATION 215 schools. Such an attitude — assuming that the Universities are not entirely astray as to what constitutes sound educa tion — would seem to render impossible of realization the continuous and weU-graded scheme which should be the aim of aU our educational endeavour. The fact is that two opposing forces are here at work. There is a party — strongly represented, I understand, in Ontario — which aims at assimi lating the higher reaches of school education to the lower by giving less weight to languages, as well as to algebra and geometry ; while others would lay a better foundation for the study of these subjects in the high school by making some provision for them also in the later years of the ele mentary course. For myself, I am at a loss to see how the " career open to the talents " can be secured to the children of the poor as well as of the rich without taking account of this latter view. Apart altogether from the consequent enrichment of the public school curriculum, and from the additional inducement thus offered to continued study in the high school, I do not consider it wise to draw so hard and fast a line between the upper and the lower reaches of school education, and in this way to segregate, as it were, in separate departments those who for one reason or another desire to carry their work beyond the ordinary public school course. It may well be feared that under new conditions we shall see an increase rather than a decrease in the number of those pupils who present themselves for matriculation at a Uni versity without ever having studied any language except Enghsh, and of whom we have found by actual experience that they " ask for special consideration because they were actually debarred by the conditions of the school they attended — ^otherwise excellently well-equipped — from taking up any language save their mother-tongue ". The fact that so great a bone of contention should offer itself almost at the outset of the inquiry may well suggest a doubt as to the wisdom of my choice of a title for this paper. For how can there be such a thing as national education so long as those most concerned have no agreement amongst themselves? Especially here in Canada it might almost 216 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS appear as though to speak of national education would be a contradiction in terms. For is not Canadian education necessarily provincial, and might not one dispose of the whole subject of my paper within the limits of the celebrated chapter " On Snakes in Iceland " ? When I say " provincial " I hope no one will imagine that the term is necessarily a disparaging one, or that I wish to imply that any one part of Canada is more " provincial " than another. I am glad to know that you have your Dominion Educational Association, which is to meet this summer at Winnipeg. There you have a much-needed opportunity of comparing the different con ditions under which you teach in the several provinces, and of considering the points of contact and contrast between those conditions and true educational ideals. But we all heard what kind of a reception was given at the 1901 meet ing — notably by an official representative of my own province of Quebec — to the proposal that the proceedings of that association should be crystallized, as it were, in a Dominion Bureau of Education. Those who are afraid of overcen- tralization may continue to feel the comforting assurance that, under the British North America Act, there can be no danger of having any artificial and uniform type of education imposed on the whole country, such as is complained of, for example, in France at the present day.^ Even apart from that constitutional difficulty, there will be no possibility of reaching any dead level of uniformity in a country where the opinion of the average parent on edu cational issues is advanced just as confidently as that of any expert. This phenomenon is not altogether unnatural in a new country; but it inust work woeful, havoc with the theories of those who seek to prove that there is a universally 1 It is interesting to compare the ideal which is cherished in the United States : " In the United States there is, broadly speaking, uniformity of tradition, of govermnent, of civilization, and the educated youth of San Francisco bears about the same relation to the world as the educated youth of Boston ; hence, so far as elementary and secondary education is pursued, there is no reason why it should not be substantially the same in various schools — not in details belonging to the individual teacher, but in paper requirements and important features of methods ". — Baker, " Education and Life," p. 63. NATIONAL EDUCATION 217 applicable science of education, whose laws are just as im mutable as those, for instance, of chemistry and mechanics. Such views seem all the more difficult when we are from time to time reminded that we must take into account the varying factor of human nature and individual volition, — and not on the part of the child only, but also as proceeding from the parent. But though education must ever be conditioned by the particular circumstances of the nation, the teacher, the family and the child — and let us not forget the climate, too ! — it may well be that there are certain fixed principles which admit of more or less general application.^ It ought never to be for gotten, to begin with, that all education should be a training of faculty. Its essential aim should be "to develop and train the natural powers of the mind ; to make it quick, observing, apprehensive, accurate, logical ; able to understand argu ment ; able to search out facts for itself, and draw from them the proper conclusions ; to reason, and to understand reason ing ; in one word, to think " (Professor G. G. Eamsay). It is almost a platitude to say that the real test of efficiency in education is not the accumulation of data or the acquisition of knowledge, but the development of intellectual power. What seems to be more in need of emphasis — especially in view of the clamour for what are known as " soft subjects " — is that in the elementary stages this cannot be attained without a certain amount of drudgery. Only through earnest application, bestowed sometimes even on what may seem to be an uncongenial subject, will the pupil form those habits of attention, concentration, accuracy and thoroughness which lay the indispensable foundation of further progress. Com petent critics have not hesitated to say that smattering and superficiality are the curse of our school education. We plume ourselves on being " alive" and " up-to-date," and we ' Report of the Chief Superintendent of Education in New Brunswick, 1903, p. Iix : " There are many educational problems which are not merely provincial but national ; and perhaps there is no more effective agency for the cultivation of a national spirit and the quickening of true patriotism than an interchange of thought and sentiment among the educators of widely separated provinces of the united country ". 218 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES use high-sounding phrases about " relating the work of the class-room to the work of life ". This leads to the introduc tion into the curriculum of stenography and typewriting, which are hailed as being much more " vivid and vital " than any " dead languages ". But should we not lay to heart the warnings addressed to us by those who are entitled to speak with authority on the subject ? Let me quote two from England and one from the United States. "Do not overload the curriculum," said Sir Joshua Fitch, " by multiplying the number of necessary subjects, but hold fast resolutely by the recognized and staple subjects which experience has shown to have the best formative value; secure a definite proportion of hours to those subjects, and for the rest of the available time provide as many forms of intellectual and other activity as your appliances and teach ing staff' have at command." And again: "The mental gymnastic afforded by a complete devotion to one Chosen subject, which taxes all the powers of the student to the utmost, is far superior to that furnished by a half-hearted study of a dozen incongruous things. When the training has once been received, the mind, strengthened rather than cramped by the limits within which it has been working, may expatiate with profit over a wider field ; but the training is the main thing " (Professor A. S. Wilkins). Or take this from a report of one of the American Committees of Twelve : " (The tendency to lengthen the Latin course by extending it down into the elementary schools) had its origin in a grow ing conviction that the ends of education, at least in the earlier stages, are best subserved by the concentration of effort upon a limited number of leading studies, properly cor related, rather than by the scattering of energies over an in definite range of loosely related subjects ". The view thus set forth should, I take it, be accepted as one of the fixed principles of national education everywhere, and it may confidently be set against much current talk. Making every allowance for adjustment of details in different locahties, and for different classes of pupils, there is surely an a priori probabihty that the subjects which modern Uni- NATIONAL EDUCATION 219 versities require for entrance are, in the main, the subjects which ought to form the staple of a good general education. But, say the critics, this is to assume that " what is good preparation for entrance into the Freshman class in College is equally good for the boy who is to be a farmer, or the girl who is to manage a farm-home. ... To teach in the elementary schools what is simply taken up in College or University is not sound in principle. The old academic methods are out of place with young children." ^ This is only partially true. Special teaching must, of course, be provided in connexion with special courses, but farmers need, just as much as others, training in habits of accuracy, and much of what is valuable in the traditional curriculum will be quite as valuable for them as for others. There are some subjects that must be adhered to for aU pupils ; it is the methods of teaching that will always afford room for improvement. We can all sub scribe to the definite and concrete recommendations made, for instance, by President Eliot, of Harvard, when (in his little book entitled " More Money for the Schools ") he pleads for " more observation studies, less arithmetic ^ and a little more geography; less spelling and grammar and more literature ; wiser teaching of geography as a natural-history subject, and not on account of obsolete or trivial political divisions and a list of names of bays, capes, rivers, mountains and capitals ; a better teaching of history as a story of dis coveries, industries, commerce, peoples and institutions, and not of battles and dynasties ". With much that seems somewhat more vague and incon clusive. Sir Oliver Lodge makes similar criticisms in his recent paper on " School Eeform " (" Contemporary Eeview," February, 1904). His main subject is the Enghsh public schools, which, while admitting their achievements in producing that mental and moral balance which we know as 'Report of the Minister of Education (Ontario), 1903. ^I should be inclined to say much less arithmetic, which ds said to take np sometimes as much as one-third of a teacher's whole time. After a certain stage this subject is apt to degenerate into vain repetition, but it is persisted in — to the prejudice of higher subjects — because it is easy. 220 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES character, he seems to consider a contemptible training ground for a boy's intellect. They turn out boys, according to Sir Oliver Lodge, of whom it can be said that they "neither possess knowledge, nor do they know how to acquire it, nor do they as a rule feel an interest in it, nor do they respect it ". It is obvious that the writer is thinking here mainly of scientific knowledge. He laments in more than one passage the gross ignorance which prevails among average persons of the "fundamentals of natural knowledge". Apart from a comparison of the efficacy of ancient and modern languages as teaching disciplines, his paper is mainly taken up with suggestions for the remedy to be applied to this deplorable state of things. Incidentally, it is instructive to note that he thinks that a knowledge of the facts of nature is " so easy that some acquaintance with them can be got even through the medium of an occasional popular lecture ". Nor is he at all in love with what are called " modern sides ". The teaching he advocates should not be given on a modern or any other side ; it should be put along with the three E's and the mother tongue, as something that everybody ought to know, if the average man is to be enabled to understand the great applications of science and to follow the trend of modern discovery. But it is not enough merely to " superimpose on what is already taught the facts of science," though this is what Sir Oliver else where (p. 154) refers to as "real education," viz., what can easily be now taught about the world and the forces of nature ; what enables a man to " think and ascertain truth for himself ". If this were all, it could readily be shown that, while avoiding the pretentious sham of undertaking to teach at school all the known sciences, physics, chemistry, zoology, botany, physiology, and the rest, few modern centres of school education are content to ignore the im portance of elementary science teaching.^ It may well be 1 " The teaching of science should not ... for the majority of boys be a technical drill in detailed facts and modes of measurement, which may be as dull and unremunerative as was a grind through the Latin grammar of my youth. The science taught to all the children should be of a stimulating and invigorat- NATIONAL EDUCATION 221 that enough has not been done in this direction ; and there must be some quarters; where more heed should be paid to Sir Ohver Lodge's criticism that " as a rule no attempt is made first to awaken curiosity and hunger for knowledge, and then to supply it ; no attempt is made to get children to seek knowledge for themselves and show them how to do it, especially how to glean facts from nature at first hand ; how to get into contact with real and vitalizing sources of supply in the true spirit of scientific inquiry ; that spirit which hereafter may lead some o'f them, as it has led many self- taught men, to the discovery of truths new to the world ". Elsewhere, however, Sir Oliver's paper seems to be a wholesale invective against current methods of -teaching, rather than subjects. And here he by no means confines his attention to those whom you in Ontario call the " Latinists ".^ Listen to what he says of mathematics : "A dreary laying of foundations and grinding away at tedious details of un necessary arithmetic and antique geometry is worse than a waste of time ; it covers the subject with legitimate dislike. If a boy is going to be an architect, every detail of joiat and tenon and mortise and cement and foundation must be known to him, but the average citizen wishes to know enough archi tecture to realize the beauty of old churches, the interest and ing description. It should deal with fundamentals and essentials, it should be observational, and as a rule should leave technical details to those with special aptitudes aud powers." 'Sir Oliver Lodge rightly satirizes the "ridiculous catch questions on out- of-the-way points of scholarship, or triviaUties which no one need know except speciaUsts," which sometimes form too large an element in examination papers. That these are often put unintelligently, as well, may be seen from the following reminiscence by Mr. E. B. Sargant, Education Adviser to Lord Milner in South Africa. "To this day I cannot forget the indignation I felt when the head master of the first boarding-school to whieh I was sent, asked me, in regard to a certain Latin noun, why it was feminine. Failing to obtain an answer, he told me triumphantly that the reason was that that word was in the list of exceptions to the rule, that all nouns of the third declension having a certain termination were masculine. Even a little boy of ten years of age, in his first year of Latin, oould realize that the Romans had not prophetically made the noun feminine in order that it might be placed in a hst of exceptions compiled by an obscure grammarian some thousands of years afterwards." 222 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES meaning of a modern building, to be able to appreciate the skill of construction and the meaning of the ornamentation and design. All this is better for him than a perpetual grubbing away at foundations without hfting his eyes. Let the solid ground be reserved for specialists with special aptitudes, and let others know enough to be able to consult a specialist hereafter and understand his answer. So with mathematics — let us give to children some beauty and range of this mighty subject, and cast our hogsheads, our furlongs, our poles, together with our scruples and our drams, into the depths of the sea, there to remain till by old age they have become interesting fossils, whereas now they are disgusting corpses." In common with every educationist who knows what he is talking about, Sir Oliver Lodge protests against the notion that there is any training of faculty in giving pupils a smattering of many things. On the contrary, he is all for thoroughness and efficiency. " Some one subject," he says, " should be taught thoroughly up to the capacity of the youth to receive it, so as to show what strenuous study and real knowledge really are." But just when one is expecting something definite,^ he goes on : "I am not prepared to say what that subject is which would best suit the majority of average boys, nor even whether there is one subject that could be generally utiUzed for that purpose ". And in another place, by way of a sort of reluctant tribute to the classics, he admits that it is the consciousness of the need for such a subject that is " the excuse, no doubt, for the ex cessive attention paid to the dead languages," but quaUfies the force of the admission by going on to say that " an effort should be made to give in some other way the same intellec tual drill and command of language which is fostered by " classical studies. 1 Cp. the language of au address by the President of the Royal Society (Sir William Huggins), on which has been based a recent memorial from the Eoyal Society to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge : " The direction in which changes should be made [in the studies of our higher schools and in secondary education generaUy] is in that of the development of self-helpfulness and a spirit of free inquiry as opposed to the traditional teaching of the past ". NATIONAL EDUCATION 223 Of all countries, Germany is the one that has most reason to be content with her existing educational system, and it is in Germany, more than anywhere else, that classics still maintain their ancient supremacy. There is much virtue in the German school motto, Non multa sed multum — the "minimum of matter with the maximum of mind". For this Dr. Johnson's equivalent was, " I hate by-ways in education ". The Germans have very little sympathy with the modern view that the " best mode of preparing the young mind for its future work is to direct it at an early age, before a basis of really sound knowledge has been laid, towards the special studies and pursuits which are to occupy it in after Hfe ". They would rather incline to the converse proposi tion, viz. : that " the more special the occupation of the man, the more large and hberal should be the studies on which the boy is trained ". The idea that a commercial return should at once accrue for the outlay expended on education was reprobated long ago by Plato, when he said that education " should not be undertaken in the spirit of merchants and traders, with a view to buying or selhng, but for the sake of the soul herself". And when people speak of the need for taking into account the practical interests of life, they must not be allowed to limit their argument to the making of a livelihood : the leisure of life has to be provided for as well as life's business, and there are many, in town and country ahke, who can be helped by education even to make a proper use of their Sundays ! The need for instilling a permanent taste for good literature is a commonplace with reformers. Cases have been known where an excessive devotion to mathematics, for example, and science has stunted the growth of the hterary faculty. Surely it would be doubtful gain if the masses of pupils in our public schools were led to cultivate immediate probable utility at the cost of falling out of acquaintance, say, with the language of poetry. But is the education which is to-day tending to supplant the old curri culum reaUy effective in creating a feeling for literature ? I doubt if this will ever really flourish where language-teaching 224 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES is neglected. I am one of those who believe that the study of an inflectional language is necessary for the accurate use of the mother-tongue, and for a proper appreciation of literature. It may be a question with some whether French or Latin should be studied first. But one foreign language is certainly indispensable for all who are to be well equipped for the use and understanding of their mother-tongue. I said on another occasion that it is often precisely those who are loudest in their profession of single-hearted devotion to the study of English who contrive to write English just about as badly as it can be written. " What should they know of English who only English know ? " I do not wish to interfere unnecessarily in the discussion of the vexed questions of Ontario. And no one need imagine that I hold any brief for this or that language. I am no bigot, for example, on the classical question. It was not long after my settlement at Montreal that compulsory Greek disappeared from the entrance examinations at McGill. But I am astonished to find that so little recognition is given here to the facts of experience, one of which certainly is that pupils who have acquired a foreign language possess, as a rule, a greater mental development than those who only have their mother-tongue. In this country, nothing aids so much the efforts of those who are bent on disparaging the value of language study as the tone adopted towards it in the home. This attitude springs from the excess of the sentiment which has lately declared that education in the past has been too " bookish," and that children should be instructed in " things " rather than in " words ". With us it is regarded as a sign of alert and up-to-date inteUigence to proclaim that one has " no use for Greek ". But do not let us ignore the views of others. In England, the new committee which regulates the conditions of entrance into the Navy is enacting that Latin shall be obligatory on all candidates — i.e. that boys of, say, twelve and half, shall be examined in Caesar and in the translation into Latin of short compound sentences of every type. And yet I don't suppose they speak Latin in the NATIONAL EDUCATION 225 British Navy ! Germany recognizes the traditional curric ulum in classics, mathematics, and modern languages as the best means of training for all, whether they are going to the University or not. Specialized studies in Germany come later. In the United States, fully half the pupils in attend ance in secondary schools are learning Latin, though of these only about one-sixth have any intention of following up the study at the University. In Scotland a Classical Association was formed a couple of years ago, and the movement has just been imitated in England, consisting of those who believe in " the supreme value to the intellectual life of the nation of the preservation of classical study, as a means of the highest mental discipline for all such as have the natural aptitude and can afford the time needed to turn those studies to account ". What is the meaning of all this ? To account for it, it is by no means necessary to utter any extravagant eulogy of what we understand classical scholarship to be. That is for the few, and in regard to school education it is the in terests of the many that have to be considered. But the foregoing review of facts may help us to understand the attitude of those who hold that there is no more fortifying subject in the whole school curriculum than Latin and Latin grammar. If this subject has fared badly in Canada, owing in the main to the woeful lack of preparation on the part of those who have undertaken the teaching of it, that is no reason why we as a nation should wish to turn our backs on a study which is recognized by other peoples as " affording the highest guarantee for a proper understanding of the scientific principles of grammar and analysis, the best security for abihty to use one's own language intelligently, and the fittest introduction to the study of any other ". One of the reasons why there is so much slipshod English current in this country is, in my opinion, that Latin is being neglected in many of our schools.^ It suffers from the charge ^ " Commercial Law," for example, is taking its place, and I cite the following gem from a recent handbook on this subject. " A person living several years after making a will, if circumstances require many alterations, it 15 226 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES of being a learned subject; one in which the Universities have the leading interest ; one which will help to keep the children away from the farm. Latin is, of course, anything but a "soft subject". But the phenomenal revival of this study in the United States, after a certain period of experi menting in other directions, is probably to be accounted for by the consciousness of how greatly Enghsh would suffer by its suppression, as well as by what a member of the Mosely Commission (Mr. Fletcher) refers to as the " disgust at the disappointing results of the smattering of many subjects offered in its stead ". Listen to the words of a Harvard Committee, reporting on English in the secondary schools : " The study of Latin Grammar may be so conducted as to render the formal study of Enghsh Grammar superfluous in the high school ; and it may, by virtue of the singularly logical character of Latin syntax, help to train the pupil in expression as well as in thought. Through the study of Latin, moreover, the pupil may make himself familiar with many of the common English prefixes and suffixes, and with the derivation of many Enghsh words ; he may enlarge his vocabulary and learn to use it with finer discrimination. The advantages of oral and written translation as a means of training in Enghsh need not be dwelt on." The pupil is, in fact, learning thereby to write and speak his own language all the time, and constantly increasing his stock of English phrases, constructions, and idioms. With modern languages it is apt to be more a matter of vocabulary only : cast in the same mould as Enghsh, they do not supply, equally with Latin, the mental gymnastic of a close logical training in language. It is Latin that, above all other languages, imparts what may be called the logic of grammar. I have already admitted that something remains to be done to simphfy the study, especially in a country which is hurrying on to meet the practical needs of life. We ought to throw overboard a great many of the minutia of scholar- is better to make a new will and burn the old one." There is no greater enemy of illiterate and ungrammatical English than an elementary knowledge of the principles of grammar, such as may be obtained from Latin. NATIONAL EDUCATION 227 ship, rare and abnormal grammatical forms that are only a burden to the memory, and in fact do a good deal less of what used to be caUed " gerund-grinding". The textbooks in use are, as a rule, too elaborate. They tend to frighten beginners. Here I shall only say that if the Universities would join hands and take the same parental oversight of the school curriculum in classics as the German Govemment does, better results might be accomplished. The use of such a book, for instance, as Eitchie's recently published " First Steps in Csesar " might brighten his task to many a pupil who is in danger of believing at present that the greatest of all Eomans wrote his famous commentaries to serve as a school textbook in a later age. I say less about Greek, which ought certainly not to be begun while boys are still struggling with the elements of other foreign languages. Some people speak as though the whole end of reform would be achieved if Greek could be entirely expunged from the school programme. In this connexion Prof. Mahaffy told an amusing story recently. Protesting against the assumption that scientific research is the only possible form of original investigation, he narrated a conversation with a yoimg friend who had reported to him that he had decided to go in for Medicine. "Then, I suppose," said Dr. Mahaffy, "you are hard at work on the preliminary subjects, botany, zoology, chemistry?" "Oh, no!" replied the boy, "but I have given up Greek ! " I hope no one will think that I take too narrow a view of education. My training has been too broad, and my experience too vnde for me to feel that I am personally in any danger of this. I know that the excess of language-study is just as re prehensible as the neglect of it. As one of my own friends, himself the successful head of a preparatory school,^ puts it, while recognizing the immense importance of Latin, Greek, French, and Mathematics as methods of discipline in accuracy : " Disciphne is not everything in early education. The best teaching is that which takes the will captive and enlists the ^ G. Gidley Robinson, Hillside, Godalming, England. 15* 228 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES pupil as an ally in the process of learning ; which sympathizes with the curiosity natural to all children, and knows how to transmute it into sound and reasoned knowledge ; which sti mulates imagination and arouses interest, effort, the desire to know more. In a word, stimulus is needed as well as disci pline. The average boy who spends nearly his whole school time in wrestling with the rudiments of three foreign lan guages, or with the dry rules of mathematics, never sees the wood for the trees. He does not feel that growing and en couraging sense of power which comes from having his goal well in sight, pressing towards it, reaching it. What he needs is a richer curriculum, one that appeals to other than the merely linguistic faculties ; one which, while not losing sight of discipline, shall at the same time appeal to other sides of boy-nature ; discovering and developing aptitudes which now languish for want of opportunity ; giving him less book-work, and teaching him how to use his eyes and hands ; training memory less and intelligence more ; in a word, mak ing education a less mechanical and a more vital thing. It is ' more life and fuller that we want '. The teacher's aim, it has been admirably said, ' is to help the pupil to live a fuller, a richer, a more interesting and a more useful life'." This is why, while there are some of us who look with suspicion on such a subject as " Book-keeping and Commer cial Transactions," we should aU welcome an improvement in the methods of teaching, say, commercial geography, to gether with everything else that will give pupils an idea of the natural resources of their own and of foreign countries. Along with that as much " nature-study " as anyone could wish for ; provided, that the teacher in charge of the subject has a sound hold on the general sciences on which "nature- study " must rest, and can, as it were, " sow from a fuU sack " in dealing with it. Nor do I need to commend manual training and instruction in the mechanical arts — a subject which the efforts of one man, Sir Wilham Macdonald, have sufficed to place on almost a national basis already throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion. The immense field of technical education in general would require a paper to NATIONAL EDUCATION 229 itself. If it is to be adequately dealt with in Canada, the provinces will have to come to some arrangement with the Federal Government, which is in the meantime barred from all the good works in education that seem almost to lie ready to its hand. It is just in regard to professional train ing generaUy, including Art and Music, that the intervention of an extra-provincial authority could do the greatest good. The Dominion Government, as such, has a real and practical interest in the existence of high-class Colleges of Agriculture all over the country, as well as in providing adequate training for Doctors of Veterinary Medicine. But aU this comes under the head of education, and must, according to our con stitution, be left to the separate activities of the provinces. How difficult any proposal for concerted action may prove in such matters, when there is even one dissentient, we saw lately in connexion with the discussion of Dr. Eoddick's Medical Eegistration Bill. Meanwhile, as regards our schools — including those of all the provinces, from the Atlantic to the Pacific — the key to the solution of every present and future problem is to be found in the adequate training and the sufficient remunera tion of the teachers. We must get rid of the absurd idea that all the situation calls for is to have the services of a body of persons who have learned jiist a little more than they may be required to teach. That is a bad Enghsh tradition which would be laughed out of court in Germany. I sometimes wish there were even a greater dearth of public school teachers than there is to-day. Nothing short of a general stoppage in the supply will suffice to call attention to the altogether unsatisfactory nature of present conditions. But the only result of an actual scarcity is that the powers that be are forced to go still lower down in the scale and grant certificates to unquahfied persons, with consequent prejudice alike to salaries and to status. The report of the Mosely Commission, which will shortly be issued to the public, will probably be found to state that the facilities for training teachers in Canada are by no means all they might be. This reminds me to say that at Montreal 230 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES one of these days we shall have a thoroughly-equipped Train ing College in close connexion with McGill University, the work of which it will be impossible for any province in Canada to ignore. We know that we have to do more than minister to the local needs of our immediate neighbourhood, and that is why we are so much alive to every opportunity of national usefulness. At Montreal we shall want to have our Training College as closely connected with the University course as are our existing professional schools of Law, Medicine, and Applied Science. It is just as good for teachers as it is for lawyers and doctors and clergymen that up to a certain point they should obtain the same liberal education as other students, and have their technical and professional training afterwards. In our existing Normal School may easily be found the nucleus of an institution which shall place McGill on the same level as the most advanced Universities of the United States— Columbia, with its Teachers' College, and Chicago, with its School of Education, the Professor of Education in the University acting as responsible head also of the Normal College. Meanwhile, to show how deeply we are interested in the better training of teachers, we have decided to start, without delay, a Summer School, the first contribution of which to their better equipment shall be made in the neglected department of language-study. Montreal is an ideal centre for the teaching of French ; and for a month or so McGill will welcome all teachers who desire to profit by the opportunity offered for the study of this subject. They will be boarded in one of the affihated colleges, and every attempt will be made to establish and maintain an exclusively French atmosphere from the beginning to the end of the course. The leaflet which I have handed to your secretary details the methods by which this desirable end is to be secured, and I shall only add here that as nothing of the kind is offered in your own province — your Summer School at London being limited, I think, to manual training, domestic science, etc. — I hope some of you will take advantage of the invitation we extend to you to come to Montreal for this pur pose. The course will be given in July. NATIONAL EDUCATION 231 That reminds me to refer to the regrettable fact that there may be some people here who profess to believe that McGill is not quite good enough for Ontario. In the recent discus sion as to the qualifications of specialists, nothing surprised me more than the amount of argument and the length of time required to bring home to those who did not want to admit it the fact which stares every one in the face who is at all conversant with your provincial regulations. The worth or the inferiority of McGiU courses has at present nothing to do with the question. You might have a University manned by angels and archangels, and yet if that University were situated only a mile or two beyond your provincial boundary, its honour graduates could not obtain the standing of specialists under your regulations. Such a condition of things is ob viously the negation of "national education". I took the liberty of raising this question after reading the account of a speech in which one of your most distinguished fellow-towns men, speaking in well-deserved praise of the University of Toronto, had made it a boast that "while the University of Toronto has of graduates teaching in high schools 283, Trinity College has 13, and McGiU has 1 ". That was in 1900, and your Education Department is still in travail with the issue to which I have referred. It sees on the one hand that education is the most highly protected industry of this province, and that the admission of competition from the out side might spoil the market ; on the other hand, it is probably aware by now that, equally with Toronto, McGill University is growing to be a national force which cannot be conveniently ignored. It is certainly in no sense a provincial University. It is as free from party politics as it is from denominational influences of any kind, and it owes no allegiance to any pro vincial Department of Education. Its Faculty of Arts will now compare favourably with that of any University in the country, its standard for honours is fully as high as that which obtains elsewhere, and it is gradually extending its in fluence all over the Dominion, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It ought not to be left to me to say such things of McGiU, but if no one else will, in Ontario, why of course I must ! 232 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES I am one of those who think it is somewhat vain to speak of Canada as a nation so long as such a state of things con tinues to be possible. And if the argument is used that "to allow McGill graduates to take certain scholastic positions in other provinces would deprive those who belonged to such provinces of the chance of earning their bread and butter," the answer must be that this is a question of efficiency. If Ontario is to continue in the educational van of Canada, we ought to be able to presume that what it wants from its teachers is the best possible service. Will it get this if it insists on ranging itself alongside the craftsmen of Ephesus, who had no better argument to advance than, " This our craft is in danger ; great is Diana of the Ephesians " ? But I must not close with any reference that may give rise to a difference of opinion among you. We are all agreed that the discovery of the supreme importance of education is one of the greatest achievements of the nineteenth century. And not least on this American continent, where the watchword has ever been, and will continue to be, equality of opportun ity for all. In former days in Europe education was a class privilege. But now we have to think no longer of the pro fessional classes only, but of the masses of the people, in regard to whom it is our interest, as well as our duty, to cast the net wide, so as to get the greatest possible return from the available brain power of the whole community, by bring ing the benefits of a liberal education within the reach of all. With such a task before us, it will be strange if we do not see before long some sort of awakening as to the status and remuneration of the teacher. Otherwise the condemnation of posterity will assuredly overtake us. At some future stage in the development of human civihzation, the wonderment will be great that there should have been a time at which nations were content to pay elementary school teachers at a rate not much above that which could be claimed by unskilled labour. No expenditure is considered too great to be grudged on war and armaments by land and by sea, on constructive works such as railways, bridges, harbours, and naval stations ; but the needs of the common school rouse little, if any, NATIONAL EDUCATION 233 interest or enthusiasm. And yet it is there that those are being trained who are to form the manhood and the woman hood of the nation in the years that are to come. It is there that the national character is being moulded, even though some of those who are engaged in the work may not be fully ahve to the magnitude of their opportunities. Think for a moment of what it ought to mean — this chance of having all the children of a nation together up to the ages of thirteen or fourteen ! Not merely for the acquiring of knowledge — that is by no means the whole of education. Success in examinations is something, but it is by no means everything. For instance, it cannot be regarded as furnishing a complete and satisfying test of character. I was so much impressed by what was said on this subject by an Inspector of Schools in the West ^ that I wrote down the words of his report : " Unless the pupil leaves our schools with refined and gentle manners ; with a self-control sufficient to free him from the need of external restraint and guidance ; with clear know ledge of his duties and sound views of the worth of life and its prizes ; with a power of growth and a thirst after know ledge ; the schools have not done their best work for him, however broad and accurate his scholarship may be". Good manners, courtesy, consideration for others, respect for seniors, friendly politeness towards all — a time may come when it may be superfluous to speak of the need of caring for such things : but meanwhile we must look to the school to make good whatever deficiencies may exist in the home. It is to enable them to meet these and other demands that we want the best possible training for our teachers. We want to complete the transformation of what used to be considered a sort of refuge for the destitute into a profession that shall be recognized as ranking among the noblest and most honourable of all. If in the course of progress we lay increasing burdens upon you, and make demands of you that become greater from year to year, we ought to honour you all the more when you successfully fulfil the duties assigned ' Dr. Goggin. 234 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES to you. Meanwhile you should have every opportunity of comparing one set of teaching conditions with another, and exchanging notes on educational experience. That you will never have if you shut yourselves up within the narrow limits of any single system, cultivating self-complacency in stead of broad-mindedness, and refusing to see good in any subject except the one you teach, or efficiency in any institu tions except those of your own parish. Education may become the greatest federating force at work among the various provinces of our vast Dominion. The influences which it wields will act more potently than the provisions of any paper constitution in the direction of unity of interest, thought, feeling, and aspiration. That is why I should like to see, if it were possible to realize it, a great national training centre, which would serve as a sort of rallying-point for teachers throughout the country, to which they might return from time to time to replenish their stores, and so qualify themselves for advancement from a lower to a higher grade in the profession of their choice. Would that it might become to many — men as well as women — a life work, instead of a convenient way of spending a limited number of years of active service ! It is the best brains of the country that are needed for this onerous and responsible but noble and dignified field of work, and the time is at hand when the nation will be content with nothing else. THE UNITY OF LEAENING.^ The Canadian University which accredited me as a delegate to this jubilee and inauguration is twenty-five years older than the University of Wisconsin : as for Oxford, which I have the honour also to represent — Oxford does not really know her age. She is past the time of life when it is easy or con venient to recall the date of one's birth. Unlike your Univer sity, McGill in Montreal is of private foundation — owing httle, if anything, to the State. Such institutions exist for the purpose, speaking for the moment only of finance, of enabling wealthy givers to escape the epitaph which might otherwise record the bare, naked fact that " the rich man died also and was buried ". How different is your case ! I have never heard the points of contrast between the two types — the State University and the private foundation — put so cogently as by those who have already addressed you. We may weU envy you that wealth of public appreciation which takes the form of a large annual subsidy — paid, I have no doubt, with the regularity of clockwork — and which operates at the same time as a guarantee that your work shall always keep in touch with practical and public aims. The beautiful drives which your visitors have been privileged to take in the neighbourhood have impressed on them the fact that the State has encouraged you to annex a public park and call it a campus. You do not permit any other University institution in this State to approach the legislature : you have it all to yourself. No two State Universities, as was said yesterday, are supposed to ask for appropriations from the same common wealth. How different are our relations with the private ' An Address delivered at the Jubilee of the University of Wisconsin, 9 June, 1904. 236 236 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES donor ! He is distracted by rival claims and conflicting in terests, and cannot lavish all his affections on the college of his choice. There are the Churches, for instance ! Of Oxford it might be difficult to say whether it is, on the whole, a public or a private foundation. Such State recogni tion as it enjoys does not carry with it any great increase of the material resources of the university, and as to private donations, it seems a long time since the pious founders went to their rest. There is generally, in all private foundations, a long wait between the gifts ! The reason why Oxford re ceives no endowments now from private sources is possibly the mistaken idea that a University which has been going for so many centuries must surely be complete. Neither McGill nor Oxford definitely authorized me to inflict in its name on this large and representative audience any expression of academic views. But I am quite at home in such celebrations both in this world and — what some of us caU " the old country " ; and it is therefore a pleasure to re spond to your new President's invitation that I should say something on the subject of our mutual interests. A great part of the activity of a modern college head is, in fact, taken up with attending such celebrations as this. My apprentice ship began thirty years ago — as far back as the great Edin burgh tercentenary in 1884. Though it has fallen to my lot to attend similar festivals at various points on this continent, I have never yet been quite so far west — or rather let me say, quite so near what I am told is to be considered the centre of American gravity. I think it was that spirited writer, Dr. Conan Doyle, who spoke so feelingly of finding all the com forts of civilization in the course of a lecturing tour which he made through the United States — in the hotel, for example, where the barber's shop provided him with attendance from a hairdresser on the very spot where in recent memory the original inhabitants of the continent might have left no hair on his head at all ! But, however appreciative such a stroll ing lecturer may show himself, he cannot experience those feelings of gratitude and satisfaction which fill our hearts to-day when, as the invited guests of a great American Uni- THE UNITY OP LEARNING 237 versity, we receive such overwhelming proof of American friendliness and American hospitality. After all the wealth of oratory to which we have listened, it may not be out of place for me to call your attention to the fact that this is the first opportunity you have had of hearing from the outside world. Previous speakers have spoken as feUow-citizens : I am called upon to represent the foreigner ! It is a comfort to think that what I shall endeavour to submit to you ought not, at least, to sound very foreign in your ears. I should like to tell you, to begin with, that the duty of ad dressing you could not have fallen to the lot of anyone who has a greater respect for, or a higher appreciation of, the people of these United States. I am a great admirer of your nation. On more than one occasion, in the course of my residence on this continent, I have had valued opportunities of speaking on the subject of Anglo-American interests, show ing to the best of my poor ability how Britain and the United States are bound together by ties stronger than laws and constitutions can create, by community of race, language, literature, rehgion, institutions, commercial and social inter course, and the glorious traditions of a common history. No one can be much in touch with your people without being constantly struck by its energies and enterprise ; its almost unbounded confidence and consciousness of power ; its re sourcefulness, ingenuity, and above all, the rapidity with which it can adapt itself to meet the calls of new conditions and ever-changing circumstances. As one of my Canadian confreres lately expressed it, " the bold spirit of enterprise which you have shown and your capacity for organization, encouraged from the beginning by the requirements of a vast new territory, now amount to something which is as clearly national genius as the Eoman's capacity for organiz ing conquest in the ancient world and the Englishman's for organizing Empire in the modern ".^ As for education, that has become one of your greatest national industries. There is no more powerful unifying agency at work in the world ' Professor Cappon of Queen's University. 238 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES than education. It may interest you to know that at a great imperial University Conference which I had the honour of at tending in London last year, and which was presided over by Mr. James Bryce, more than one speaker expressed the view that if we only had representatives from American universi ties with us, we should have been quite complete. In default of any such larger federation, it is at least open to cultivate the cordial relationships which are implied in the exchange of visits on the occasion of interesting ceremonials such as the present. I do not know that either Englishmen or Americans are sufficiently conscious of the amount of fusion that is going on around and about us, as shown especially in the results of the silent processes by which our common lan guage is asserting its supremacy not only on this continent, but in far-off Asia, Australia, and Africa as weU. It is a good augury for the future federation of the world that America, as a whole, speaks English, and is content to call it Enghsh StiU! When your President asked me to furnish him with some title for my address this forenoon, I felt inclined to suggest that I might be aUowed to discourse on what I should have liked to call " standing impressions ". For such a talk I should have been glad to draw inspiration merely from the various speeches which I knew were to precede mine. But something more formal was required of me, and I have been at some pains to comply with the demand. No one can take part in such a ceremonial as this without realizing the degree of identity, as well as of difference, that will be found to exist on a comparison of British and American university institu tions. Identity there must ever be amongst the universities of all countries, centering as each does in the common con stitution of chair, faculty, and senate. (I leave the question of business administration out of account, as that is cared for in many different ways.) All American universities are demo cratic, some more, some less. Those who still imagine that a democracy prefers to be governed by ignorant persons ought to have had the opportunity which your visitors have en joyed, of listening to the speakers whose eloquence, as is THE UNITY OF LEARNING 239 usually the case at such gatherings in the United States, has been so remarkable a feature of your festival. It is not the fact that a democracy would choose, if left to itself, to remain ignorant. It wants rather the best guidance that it can get. That is why it is that, no matter what course a student may follow, his university training is not considered to have done much for him if it fails to make him more fit than he other- vyise would have been, to lead his fellowmen, and to take a useful and a creditable part in the conduct of public affairs. Preparation for citizenship and for the public service has rightly been made the basis of much of your work in the realm of higher education. There is a passage in one of President EUiot's recent reports which may well be cited in this connexion : " Since wise and efficient conduct of Ameri can affairs, commercial, industrial, and public, depends more and more upon the learned and scientific professions, the universities owe it to the country to provide the best possible preparation for all the professions. This best possible pre paration can only be given to young men who, up to their twenty-first year, have had the advantages of continuous and progressive school and college training." » * # After all it is the spirit which makes us one, no matter what differences may exist as regards external form. Our universities need not all be fashioned in the same mould. Here in Wisconsin, with your State patronage and your mutual understanding as to the advantages which both parties to existing contracts may hope to reap, it may surprise you to realize that questions are still raised elsewhere as to the pro priety of including in the university curriculum the industrial apphcations of science. To me it seems to be the natural consequence of the rapid growth of science in recent times. The earliest universities were eminently practical. Bologna was founded for Law, Salerno for Medicine. The distinction between what we call pure and applied science is a natural and necessary distinction, and though the former now comes first in the order of teaching, it was not so in the order of historical development. It was the practical needs of life that gave rise in the first instance to the science of astronomy. 240 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS for example, and geometry ; and as for chemistry, in the hands of the alchemists, its essential motive was the persistent en deavour to transmute the baser metals into gold. On the one hand, the practical applications of science lie at the founda tion of all science : on the other, it may be truly said that all the marvels of modern scientific activity rest on the basis of the abstract and theoretical learning which was fostered by the' universities, and which, as has been rightly insisted on by previous speakers, it is the duty of the State, as well as its privilege, to develop and encourage in such a University as this. What we have to do is to seek to minimize the danger and disadvantage of the separation of the two spheres by giving practical men a sound training in theory, and also by keeping theory in touch with practice. There are, in fact, obvious advantages in the association of technology with the university curriculum. The univer sity alone can adequately cover the higher parts of technical instruction, safeguarding the disinterestedness of science and keeping in due subordination to the search for truth the material advantages and " bread-earning " potencies that may be involved in any particular branch of study. And by so doing — by throwing its aegis over technology — the university learns the lesson that the day is long past and gone when it might be content with being a mere academic ornament instead of striving to make itself a centre of practical use fulness in the community. The word has gone forth over all the world that learning and science are and must ever remain incomplete and unsatisfying unless they can be adapted to the service and the use of man. The danger now rather seems to be that the needs of practical and professional training, and the pressure of com mercial interests, may tend to depress the standard of liberal education and the old traditions of culture. We hear much now-a-days of proposals to get the universities to shorten or cut down the academic and literary side of their training. But if we follow our best counsellors, we shall not want to do so many things in so great a hurry. Eather we shall stand by the sure foundation which a university training THE UNITY OF LEAENING 241 ought to guarantee. This has been well described by one of your own authorities, Prof. Andrew West, of Princeton, in his reference to the college department of a university as that which furnishes "the one repository and shelter of liberal education as distinct from technical or commercial training ; the only available foundation for the erection of universities containing faculties devoted to the maintenance of pure learning, and the only institution which can furnish the preparation which is always desired, even though it is not yet generally exacted, by the better prof essional schools". We all know when it becomes our duty gently to combat, for example, the wishes of the parent who says: "My boy wants to be a chemist or an engineer ; put him through his studies in the shortest possible time ". A year or two's delay will make all the better man of him. Not that we do not beheve in specialization, but we also believe that the student makes a mistake when, in his haste to advance himself in some special field, he turns his back on the advantages of a broad general education. Let him have an opportunity of developing an interest also in other subjects, outside his own particular sphere : so shall we secure that he shall rise superior to the temptation of acquiring the mere knacks of a trade, and that those who may become the future leaders of great industrial undertakings shall have a mastery of prin ciples as well as that faculty of well-balanced judgment and careful discrimination which, as distinct from the mere acquisition of knowledge, is the mark of a sound and compre hensive education. It is by giving emphasis to this argument that we may avoid any reasonable censure from those who wish to warn us that it is no part of the work and office of a university to teach the students how money may be made. Apart from aU thought of " getting on in the world," the benefits of a coUege training should be made to stand out as solid advan tages for the betterment and enrichment of the individual life. It is a trite remark that business or professional avoca tions do not make up the whole of existence for any one of us. The leisure of life has to be provided for, and as was 16 242 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES lately remarked by one of my coUeagues in Montreal : " Every one should receive an equipment such as shall enable him even to get through his Sundays with credit ". I have referred already to the great expansion in modern days of the field of university studies. Law, medicine, theology are no longer the only technical applications of our academic work. The modern type of college professor can make his views heard, not only about railroads, bridges, and electrical supplies, but also about pubhc finance and currency and banking — even about an international dispute over a boundary line ! And it is good for the university thus to be brought into close touch with the actual needs of hfe. No one believes nowadays that a sound training in classics and mathematics is enough for a student, whatever may be the line of life he may intend to enter on. But in adapting our selves to the new, we need by no means part wholly with the old. Do not let us forget that, while it is not beneath the dignity of a university to take an interest in practical matters, such as the problems of banking and finance, sanitary reform, water supply, taxation, charity organization, and municipal questions generally, there is such a thing as the uphfting of professional interests and pursuits by association with an in stitution which is above and beyond them all. The path of progress in the professional faculties is now marked out on the lines of an ever-increasing identification with the aims and ideals of the university. Instead of separation in in dependence, what we work for now is the co-ordination of subjects and departments, the inter-relation and inter-depen dence of the faculties, the unification of the separate and segregated parts in one systematic and consistent whole, in which each branch, while distinct in its own well-defined sphere, shaU yet contribute to the common strength of all. Upon such a scheme mining may quite well go hand in hand with metaphysics, Hebrew with hydraulics. Take mining, a branch of which the importance can hardly be over-esti mated, and which we have fully installed at one of the universities which I represent to-day — I need hardly say I am not referring to Oxford ! It may serve to illustrate the THE UNITY OP LEARNING 243 wide interest that may be cultivated in a university of the kind I am describing, if I recall the fact that I know also another type of miner, different from the one who is trained in schools of mining engineering. Some of my friends are digging at this moment — not on virgin soil like the Klondike, but in countries hke Egypt, and Crete, and Asia Minor, whose hills and plains are gray with hoar antiquity. What is the object of their search ? Not the shining nugget or the ore which will yield its hidden treasure only to the pressure of machinery, but the mould- covered and musty papyrus — some buried and long-forgotten manuscript that may seem to bridge again the gulf which separates the old world from the new. Perhaps there may be some here who would not give much for such treasure- trove, but none the less is it true that the explorers in Egypt and elsewhere are adding, like the mining engineer, to the sum of the world's wealth : to its opportunities of knowing itself, its past history, and the story of its previous intellectual efforts. And so room may be found under practically the same roof for science on the one hand, and also for literary studies, those branches which make it their business to investigate the origins of things — of languages, of religions, of national customs, ideas, and institutions. All nations have need of the " scholar class " — the men who stand for ideas and ideals, who are eager to join in the search for truth and to proclaim it fearlessly. The one thing needful is that aU investigations, literary and scientific alike, be carried on in the spirit of the maxim laid down by Monsieur Gaston Paris : "I profess absolutely and without reserve this doctrine, that the sole object of science is truth, and truth for its own sake, without regard to consequences, good or evil, happy or un happy. He who through patriotic, religious, or even moral motives, allows himself in regard to the facts which he in vestigates, or the conclusions which he draws from them, the smallest dissimulation, the slightest variation of standard, is not worthy to have a place in the great laboratory where honesty is a more indispensable title to admission than ability. Thus understood, common studies, pursued in the same spirit 16* 244 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES in all civilized countries, form — above restricted and too often hostile nationalities — a grande patrie which is stained by no war, menaced by no conqueror, and where our souls find the rest and communion which was given them in other days by the City of God." And now, as specially representing Oxford, I should like to say a word or two of the feeling of unity which may well bind universities in other parts of the English-speaking world, to that which may be called the " old grey mother of them all ". There is a popular notion on this continent that Oxford is an anachronism, used up and out of date, and that it exists only for the purpose of providing the sister university of Cambridge with a partner for the boat race and the university cricket match. Much of this is due to the gentle irony of Matthew Arnold, who spoke lightly (knowing that he would not be misunderstood by his friends) of Oxford as being " steeped in prejudice and port " ; and who apostrophized the university as the " home of lost causes, impossible loyalties, and forsaken beliefs". The current view is, how ever, surely a heavy penalty for Oxford to pay for not giving special prominence to those branches of technical or profes sional study which are so greatly praised in America, on the ground not only of their intrinsic excellence, but also for the practical reason that they afford a speedy means of obtaining a livelihood, and that they contribute also to develop the material resources of the country. It is no reproach to Oxford to admit that her chief glory centres round those literary and humanistic studies of which it may be said, in brief, that their main value lies in the fact that they are followed not only for their own sake, not only as ends in themselves, but also because they enter, and must ever con tinue to enter, into all the other branches of a university curriculum. Oxford does not neglect science, although circumstances prevent Oxford from cultivating all branches of science. What she recognizes is the fact that letters are as necessary to civilization as science, and that science will only thrive and exist in an intellectual atmosphere where literature also flourishes. For these two grow from one root. THE UNITY OP LEARNING 245 I listened with interest to what President Van Hise said in appreciation of the advantages of the residential system at our great English universities. There are many who would ac knowledge their indebtedness to that system for a degree of what I may call social experience to which they might not othervsdse have attained. But, besides being a great school of manners, Oxford has realized the ideal which your own Mr. Lowell set before Aiherican colleges in his memorable oration at the Harvard celebration, when he said that he " would rather the college should turn out one of Aristotle's four-square men, capable of holding his own in whatever field he may be cast, than a score of lop-sided ones, developed ab normally in one direction " ; and when he defined the general purposes of coUege education as being " to set free, to supple and to train the faculties in such wise as shall make them most effective for whatever task in life may afterwards be set them — for the duties of life rather than for its business ; and to open windows on every side of the mind where thick ness of wall does not prevent it ". October of this year will see the first additions from American colleges to the ranks of Oxford students under the terms of the Ehodes Bequest. It may be in order to offer a word or two on that much-discussed topic. Let me first re call the words of Mr. Ehodes' will. He states in express terms that his desire was " to encourage and foster an ap preciation of the advantages which will result from the union of the English-speaking peoples throughout the world, and to encourage in the students of the United States of America, who will benefit from the American scholarships, an attach ment to the country from which they have sprung loithout withdra/wing them or their sympathies from the land of their adoption or birth ". It is probably the fear of something of this sort that has given rise to certain criticisms of the Ehodes Bequest. The most acrimonious that I have seen comes from a journal that calls itself the " Cosmopolitan," ^ ' The remarks which form the subject of what follows may be found in a note appended by the editor to a paper in which the writer seems to gloat over what he conceived to be the approaching dissolution of the British Monarchy. — " CosmopoUtan," May, 1904. 246 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES the editor of which finds fault with Dr. Parkin for claiming (as reported in a newspaper interview) that " Oxford during three centuries has turned out literary statesmen for England as regularly as clockwork, and gives to students the kind of world-wide knowledge that will enable them to stand among the great ones of the earth ". The literary roll of honour among the statesmen of this country is undoubtedly grovnng in distinction ; it contains names like those of your great President of the United States, the strenuous Theodore Eoosevelt, John Hay, and others ; all that Dr. Parkin meant to assert was that England has never lacked statesmen who were also eminent in literature. But what says the editor of the " Cosmopolitan " ? " Seen through American eyes, Oxford has not turned out two great statesmen of high in tegrity, broad conceptions, and personal courage to each of these three centuries." Then he proceeds to offer a prize of one hundred dollars to anyone who will name such statesmen. I should like to enter this competition and found with the proceeds a prize in the history department of the University of Wisconsin ! Mr. Walker's remarks are practically an indictment, not of Oxford, but of English statesmanship for the last three hundred years. For it is true that a very great proportion of England's public men, during that period, were educated in Oxford : the rest had mostly the advantage of a Cambridge training. In our own day there have been from Oxford, Gladstone, Morley, Goschen, James Bryce, Asquith, and many more. A century ago, there were Chatham, Fox, Carteret (the first Lord Granville) ; two centuries ago, John Hampden, Lord Clarendon, Sir Harry Vane, Sir John Eliot. That some of these not merely passed through Oxford, but retained her teaching in the deepest substance of their minds, may be inferred from the famous anecdote of Carteret told by Eobert Wood, the author of the Essay on the Genius of Homer. Wood caUed on Carteret a few days before his death with the preliminary articles of the Treaty of Paris. He found the statesman so languid that he pro posed postponing the business. But Carteret insisted that THE UNITY OP LEARNING 247 he should stay; "it could not prolong his Ufe," he said, "to neglect his duty ". Then he repeated to his visitor, in the original Greek, the immortal lines which Sarpedon in Homer's Twelfth Ihad addresses to Glaucus, the son of Hippolochus : — " Friend of my soul, if we might escape from this war, and then live for ever without old age or death, I should not fight myself amid the foremost ranks, nor would I send thee into the glorifying battle : but a thousand fates of death stand over us, which mortal man may not flee from nor avoid : then let us on, whether we shall give glory to others, or obtain it for ourselves." It was the spirit of Oxford and of an Oxford training that spoke in these words of a dying statesman. Carteret may have had his faults — such faults as were common in that age. But this story from his very death-bed will ever hallow his memory in the minds of those who know what an Oxford training means. It was certainly Cecil Ehodes' intention, in addition to improving the relations of the English-speaking peoples, to help to enlarge in America — what has been the glory of England — the class of really cultivated statesmen, capable of a broad and generous view, free from all parochialism and crudity. Of course Oxford cannot create men of genius : nature must do that. Neither can she create heroes and saints, men with a burning passion for humanity. But she can leaven all the human materials sent her with a certain civilizing influence, a certain softening power of beauty and of thought. Her very walls will do it. Most of you know this very well. I appeal to my friend President Harper. What greater comphment could Chicago have paid to our English universities than to imitate their buildings in struc tures which recall — in what I was glad to find last week are reaUy no uncongenial surroundings — the stately associations of the college gardens I We must not expect statesmen — men of action — to be representatives of ideal perfection: none of them ever has been. Caesar, Cromwell, Bismarck, have many obvious 248 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES faults. It is high praise for them if they see the thing which has to be done, and can be done in their age, and get that thing done. If they were votaries of abstract perfection, and would not move till that could be secured, they would do nothing at all. Why then should Oxford be discouraged by the fact that the editor of the " Cosmopohtan " holds that Cecil Ehodes " did not propose to send American youths to Oxford to be educated, but American youths to educate Oxford in the ways of a great Eepublic " ? Or, again — " Oxford annually puts forth a group of parliamentary mediocrities, or literary jingoes, of political make-shifts, of legislative dilettanti, of conservatives, of opportunists, of men who sweep with the tide, and never put forth a fearless effort on behalf of improved government ". And once more — "Has Oxford," cries J. B. Walker, "sent out within fifty years a single great figure who can be spoken of as having a splendid courage, a high integrity, a clear inteUigence, a comprehensive grasp of improved governmental methods, and at heart solely the interests of his fellowmen? No. Class favouritism, social kotowing, cowardice in opposing popular measures " (whatever may be the meaning of that), " disciples of the has-been and commonplace, these are her graduates." Ladies and Gentlemen, I am a graduate of Oxford, which I am proud to look back upon as my Alma Mater, and I must confess that I do not recognize my mother in this travesty and caricature. Mr. Walker states it as a fact that while Oxford-trained statesmen " follow in a gentlemanly way along the channels of personal advantage, of social success, of universal respectability, London has 22,000 homeless ones in her streets ". He does not mention the number for New York. And he fails to recall — probably because he did not know it — that it was Oxford that first, in the foundation of Toynbee Hall, made the attempt to carry the influence of university men out among the masses of a great metropohs. If I may mention the name of one more Oxford man of the last generation — Lord Shaftesbury, that will be enough to complete the refutation of the charge that English statesmen neglect the interests of their fellowmen. THE UNITY OP LEARNING 249 I am sure there must be very few in this audience who have any sympathy with the statements I have quoted. But I cite them with a purpose. I have derived, on the other hand, some relief from the information that this sort of trash comes from the same omniscient editor who once stated in the pages of his magazine that in his judgment the late Queen Victoria was a much overrated woman, who wasted great opportunities for usefulness upon trivial matters of routine and ceremonial ; and who, in his desire to belittle everything that connects with the old country, also came out with an article making the British Government responsible for the loss of life in India, by taking such steps as would develop rather than suppress the plague and famine and pestilence that from time to time unhappily devastate the teeming milhons of that great continent. Criticism of all new schemes, such as the Ehodes Bequest, is right and proper : it is even open to anyone to have misgivings as to the practical benefit that is to accrue from the operation of Mr. Ehodes' will. But the man who makes it the opportunity for trying to stir up ill-feeling between the English-speaking peoples should meet with the reprobation of all right-minded persons. In my judgment Mr. Ehodes' main purpose will be amply fulfilled if the American students at Oxford not only bring back from that university a better knowledge of the real friendliness which is felt towards Americans in the old country, but also if the monetary inducement which he offers should attract more of them than might otherwise be the case, to delay that rush into professional work which has been so natural in the early days of a new country, and to spend some of the best years of their lives in getting out of Oxford what Oxford is so well qualified to give — the inestim able advantages of an all-round education. I had intended to refer also, did time permit, to another topic of present-day interest, the report of the Mosely Com mission, some members of which recently visited this Uni versity along with others in the United States. In reading the volume which has been issued in the name of this com mission, I am deeply impressed by the sincerity of the 250 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES compliments and congratulations which the commissioners offer to the educators of the United States. On all hands recognition is given to that wonderful enthusiasm for educa tion which inspires everything you are trying to accomplish in this department, to your " absolute belief in the value of education, both to the community at large, and to agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and the service of the state ". The " femininization " to which Dr. Gilman referred as something which had appeared to excite apprehension on the part of the Mosely Commissioners, is by them connected — as I read their reports — not with the troublous question of co-education (though I do not know that any one of them would be ready to go to the stake for co-education as a principle), but with the great and increasing preponderance of women teachers in your public schools. But however this may be, the Mosely Commissioners are well aware that in the United States you have been foremost in realizing that one of the greatest dis coveries of the nineteenth century has been the discovery of the value of education. You know that it is the best educated nation that wins in the race with others. Take the following : " There is in America a more widely-spread desire for the education of the people than in England, and it is generally recognized that education is to be given to every citizen as a matter of right. Each child is brought up on the understanding that it is the duty of the state in which he lives to give him the best education he is fit to receive, and the community understands that the public funds are to be drawn upon to provide such education " (p. 351). " The whole people appear to regard the children as the nation's best asset, whilst the children themselves seem to be animated with the desire to cultivate their powers to the fullest extent, because they realize that they can only hope to occupy such position in life as their education has fitted them to fill with credit " (p. 376). More than one of the Mosely Commissioners quote with approval President Eoosevelt's utterance, when he said that while education would not make or save a nation, the nation which neglected education would be assuredly undone in THE UNITY OP LEARNING 251 the long run. With you education has come to be a " prime necessity of national life, for which hardly any expenditure can be too great," and the opportunities for which are being widely diffused, and made generally accessible, in aU its branches, to every section of your great democracy. That is a result on which I ask to be allowed to join my congratulations to those of my fellow-countrymen who, in the pages of the Mosely Commission Eeport, have enshrined so appreciative and so illuminating an account of your educational system. Let me close by offering a word of congratulation on the success which has attended your pi?esent celebration. I am sure I am speaking for all your guests when I say that it has been an occasion of great enjoyment and much edification to the whole body of your visitors. Especially to those of us who represent other countries, you have given one more illustration of that spirit of whole-hearted enthusiasm which pervades aU your work as a nation. It was greatly to the credit of those who settled the Western States that, in the days when their thoughts must have been occupied with what many would consider more pressing problems — in a time of hurry and bustle such as marks the birth of a new community — they gave their best energies to the organization in your midst of an institution of the higher learning. Fifty years may seem a brief space if compared, for ex ample, with the antiquity which Oxford boasts, but the true standard of comparison is the interval of time that has elapsed since this territory was organized into a state of the Union. That was, I believe, only a few years before the University of Wisconsin was launched as a state institution upon its re markable career. However gratifying may be the retrospect as it was sketched for us in the interesting address of President Van Hise, the representatives of sister universities feel every confidence that your outlook for the next half century is still more hopeful and promising. Those who may assemble here to celebrate your first centennial will look back upon a period crowded with achievements even more glorious than those we celebrate to-day. Meanwhile the festival in which we have been privileged to take part will stimulate the staff of this 252 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES university to even greater and more strenuous service. It is on them, along with the new President, that the burden mainly falls. I am certain that they will realize the fact that after all a university is what its teachers make it ; that it is for them to keep it a living and active force in the com munity, which shall not be content only with teaching science and learning, as it were, ready-made, but shall always en deavour to contribute to the making of them. May this University remain through all time a centre of American national life, seeking to influence at every point not only education, but also social progress and the public service ! THE PLACE OF THE UNIVEESITY IN A COMMEECIAL CITY.^ This is to be — not an address, but an after-dinner talk. The trouble about it is that it has a title. Such talk, as you all know, is always about everything in general and nothing in particular. And after-dinner talk should never be left in the hands of one man. When such a thing happens, that man is generally voted something of a bore. If I monopolize the conversation for a time to-night, you know you have only yourselves to blame. And on looking at it again I find the title — since there had to be a title — a rather pretentious one for such a talk as I am about to give. But after all it only conceals one's natural inclination to speak to others about what interests one most. The Place of The University in a Commercial City. I know that University. There is no deception. They asked me to go down to St. Louis last year to give a ten minutes' talk on The University, meaning the ideal University, the pattern of which — as Plato would have said — is laid up in Heaven. I couldn't go, but in replying I assumed — with a de liberate and calculated f acetiousness — that they meant McGill. There — the name wiU out I I understand that at your last meeting Mr. Hays was discoursing to you about the Grand Trunk Pacific. He couldn't keep away from it either 1 If you had got me to speak about railroading, and Mr. Hays to speak about McGill, I am sure you would have added to the gaiety of your evening's entertainment. You all know that our great railroads have lately become — through the action of Sir Thomas Shaughnessy and others — mere depart- ^ An Address deUvered before the Canadian Club, Montreal, 24 March, 1905. 253 254 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ments of McGill. We are talking now about getting a new building up at McGill for the Transportation School, and we shall easily be able to provide accommodation for the Head Offices of both roads — the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific Eailways — under one roof! I ought to have brought a map with me. I am told Mr. Hays had one. It would have been quite the thing to take a pointer and show you McGUl as it is to-day, and as I hope it will be, say, ten years after date. The only difference between Mr. Hays and me is that he has got all the money he wants for his new road, and I don't know which way to turn to keep McGill going even on present lines. Well, as I said, I know the University ; sometimes I am inclined to think that I know a good deal more about it than I want to. And you know the Commercial City, so between us we ought to be able to hit it off. I have done ten years now of life in Montreal ; and all the time I have tried to keep in view that somewhat obvious fact that if university people have much to teach such a community as this, they have also something to learn from it. When we began work in the University College of Dundee, good old Principal Tulloch addressed us in words which I have always liked to keep be fore me : " Nowhere does the school of life afford a better training in the qualities of prudence, good sense, sagacity, keeping your own counsel and doing your own work without too much fuss than in a thriving mercantile community. No qualities can be more useful or wear better than these, and I fear it is possible to pass through any college, or even to teach in a college, without sometimes having a conspicuous share of them." You know too how Cecil Ehodes gently satirized the Oxford dons when he said that college people know nothing of affairs, and are " as children in finance ". Well, that is not the danger from which we suffer up at McGill. We have to keep a pretty sharp lookout on our finance up there. What Sir John A. Macdonald called the two worlds of LL.D.'s and L.S.D. are not so far apart from each other up at McGill after all. For myself I can say that my activities are so varied — I deal in so many different lines THE UNIVEESITY'S PLACE IN A COMMEECIAL CITY 255 of goods — that I consider myself thoroughly qualified to be come the managing head of any great departmental store. There is no fear of anyone in my position, or with my duties, becoming what Lord Palmerston contemptuously called (speaking, by the way, of Germany) merely a " d — • — d Professor ". If I know the University, you know the City, and it is this that lends such a piquancy to our meeting here to-night. We Professors live up on the heights, and seldom find it necessary to go down town at all, except in the course of the arduous and unequal struggle to pay our monthly bills. You are down town all the time, engaged in acquiring a superabundance of dollars such as may set you free from all these anxieties. And then we meet. You have made your pile and you want to consult me as to what you shall do with it, or some of it — what channel of benevolence and public spirit you should select in which to cause the golden shower to flow. Can there be any doubt as to my reply ? One of my colleagues who recently left Montreal to re turn to Kingston spoke, with much praise for McGill itself, of the " depressing unsympathetic plutocratic atmosphere " with which it has to contend in the city of Montreal. What can he have meant ? Montreal prides itself on what it has done for its English-speaking University. Our existing prosperity is the result of the benefactions of various Mon treal families and individuals, whom it would be superfluous here to mention. On the other hand, I could cite you the names of many citizens who, dying within the last ten years, have left miUions of dollars behind them, without appearing ever to have given much thought to the higher interests of the community in which they had amassed their wealth. And what of the rank and file ? Perhaps Professor Mac naughton meant that the rush of life and the scramble for a bare existence is so great in this city that many people have hardly the time to think of higher things. You know how powerfully he preached the gospel of culture, and how he protested against the view that the true end of education is to make money. Such a view cannot be accepted even for 256 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS the professional departments which it is our duty as well as our interest to foster in a commercial community such as this. Perhaps all that Professor Macnaughton meant to plead for is a little more sympathy — on the part of all classes of society — with the work which McGill represents and with the workers who are carrying it on. On their behalf I shall venture to assert — and the future will prove my statement true — that not the least of the obligations which this com munity is incurring in connexion with higher education to day is towards that body of men who, with next to no margin of profit, after providing themselves with the neces saries of life, are content to toil on from year to year at the subjects with which they wish to have their names identified. College work, as we know it in McGill, is just about the most unremunerative service of modern times. I sometimes tell my colleagues that the one reward they are sure of is that — if everything goes well — they may have their names mentioned in the evening paper thirty years after date ! A recent writer — who can speak with some authority on the subject — has gone so far as to say that the great fabric of higher education " owes its existence in great measure to the willingness of college professors to bear a great part of the cost ". Their salaries, small enough to begin with, show little disposition to keep pace with the increased cost of living and with the higher standard of attainment that is now-a-days required of anyone who offers himself for col lege work. " Preparation for college teaching," says the same writer,^ " is more exacting than that for any other profession, medicine not excepted. The prospect of spend ing seven years in preparation, of working afterwards as an assistant for several years at a salary of $700 or $800, for several years more at a small advance, and of attaining at middle age a salary not much greater than the wages of a switchman in an eastern railway yard . . is by no means alluring to a man unwilling to remain celibate through life." 1 Professor John J. Stevenson, on " The Status of American Professors," " Popular Science Monthly," December, 1904. THE UNIVEESITY'S PLACE IN A COMMEECIAL CITY 257 It seems to me that this is a condition of things which needs a little ventilation and discussion, especially in a com munity which affects to believe that its University is rich beyond the dreams of avarice. I do not know what harm may not have been done by the oft-repeated statement that McGill is amply provided for out of the abundant means of her wealthy benefactors. Individuals cannot be expected to do everything, no matter how wealthy they may be, and it is a very poor form of gratitude which suggests that they should be called on to do more. I look for an alleviation of present conditions in a more widespread appreciation through out the community of the needs of our University, and a bridging of the gulf which sometimes exists between pro fessors, as men and as workers, and the citizens among whom they are living and working. Meanwhile, it is well that I should take this opportunity of stating the fact : so far from being excessively rich, there are many departments, as I could easily show you in detail, in which Old McGill is at a standstill — for want of money. The explanation is, of course, to be found in the manifold variety of our present operations, and also — paradoxical as it may seem — in the very success which has attended them. That success itself creates new necessities. There never was any need for regarding universities as fashioned in the same mould, and the university in the commercial city has long ago overpassed the limits of the old Arts college. So much is this the case that our enterprising American friends have actually sought to establish a new connotation for each of the words college and university, different from that which has been in use in other countries. In cases where the designation of university is something more than merely a " majestic synonym " for college, it implies in America the presence of professional faculties. And the tendency in these professional faculties is to follow the example of Ger many, and to insist on a college degree as a prerequisite for entrance. We have not got that length in McGill yet, though a growing number of our students voluntarily take the Arts course first. But it has come to be the established 17 258 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES system at Harvard for Law, Medicine, and Theology; at Columbia for Law ; and at Johns Hopkins for Medicine. The great danger at the present time is that the pressing demands of commercial life, and the intensely practical atti tude which is forced as a consequence on American higher education, may interfere with the natural course of develop ment along this line, and may result in an excessive curtail ment of the period of academic training. Few who know the conditions of our own country will feel any surprise that so many of our young men have been in the habit of hurrying at once into the professional faculties without over-much pre liminary education. The country had need of them, and they made haste to reach their goal. But there is less reason now — especially with a well-developed Faculty of Arts — why McGill should continue to run the risk of turning out un educated specialists. Those of you who know our medical student, for example, will not be sorry if he takes to heart the advice he is likely to get from Dr. Osier next month, and devotes a little more time than has been altogether usual hitherto to the needs of preliminary training. But I must not be understood to be saying a single word in disparagement of our professional faculties. It is one of the great discoveries of recent years that there is no reason in the nature of things why chemists and miners and engin eers of all kinds should not be just as cultured as doctors and lawyers. And so their training has now a definite place in all broad university systems. Take our own Faculty of Ap plied Science, and the splendid record it has achieved within comparatively few years. We are looking for a great develop ment in the prosperity of this department of our work. If it could be properly cared for now, it would become one of the greatest centres for such teaching on the whole American continent. With adequate accommodation it could easily double the numbers of its students. As regards medicine, I am not sure that we have not already just about as many doctors as we want. What we need is a better training for the best of them. But there is practically no limit to the number of young men whose services will be called for by this THE UNIVEESITY'S PLACE IN A COMMEECIAL CITY 259 great and growing country in the field of industries and manu factures. It will be with us just as it has been with Germany and the United States, where the phenomenal increase in the number of students enrolled in schools of technology and in university faculties of applied science during recent years is a good index of the marvellous development of the scientific and industrial activities of both nations. And yet there are some who profess to fear that we are over-educating our people. There might be some ground for this if we were seeking to drive all students into what used to be called the "learned professions". But, as to over-edu cation in general, let Germany give its answer. It is calcu lated that in Germany during the last thirty years the number of men of university training (including schools of technology, mining, > agriculture, forestry, and veterinary science) has doubled itself. The industrial life of this country has gone on developing in close contact with its academic life. The practical undertakings of German captains of industry rest on a sohd basis of scientific training. Nowhere has the truth more fully emerged that Law and Medicine and Theology are not now the only technical applications of academic studies. Germans recognize the fact that it is the abstract and theo retical learning fostered by the university that supplies the basis on which rest all the marvels of modern scientific activity. And no expense is spared to carry out the work. You have heard how the great railroads of this country have recently combined to found, in connexion with our Faculty of Applied Science, a department of Eailroad Engineering. But in Germany this sort of thing is going all the time. Take the manufacture of explosives. Eival concerns com bined some year ago, knowing how much they depended on high science, to subscribe about half a million dollars, and to found close to Berlin an institution which they called their Centralstelle. This establishment, " maintained by subscrip tion at a cost of about £12,000 a year, is presided over by one of the most distinguished professors of chemistry in the uni versity, with a staff of highly trained assistants. To it are referred as they arise the problems by which the subscribers 17 * 260 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS in their individual work are confronted, and by it is carried on a regular system of research in the field of production of ex plosives, the fruits of which are communicated to the sub scribers." (Et. Hon. E. B. Haldane, M.P.) But with all this Germany does not make the mistake of forgetting the things of the mind. To show you where the danger lies here, I want to read you something which recently appeared in a Canadian journal. True, it has reference only to school education, but, after hearing the extract, you will ask yourselves what we may look for later if such things are done in the green tree. " I visited once, some years ago," says a writer in Canada First, "a high school in a little Ontarian country town, situate in the midst of a great stretch of beauti ful and fertile soil, all of it arable, much of it wooded, and bordering on a bountiful and navigable lake. Its head-master told me, evidently with pride, that his upper classes were reading Plato's ' Laches,' and Tennyson's 'The Princess, a Medley '. Some day, perhaps, some one will have the sense to substitute for Plato and Tennyson tuition in intensive farming, scientific dairying, stock-raising, horse-breeding, poultry-keeping, fruit-growing and preserving, bee-keeping, pisciculture and fish-curing, and forest-conservation. I should think the sooner that day comes the better." In opposition to this, let us not forget that intellectual advancement may well go hand in hand with practical activity. In Germany the application of the highest know ledge to commercial and industrial enterprise is not allowed to obscure the claims of pure culture. That is an end in it self, and if it is to be realized in its greatest perfection it must be sought in and for itself. In the schools of our Pro vince, conditions would be worse than they are at present if the writer of the extract just quoted were allowed to have his way. What we need in our schools is not a longer hst of subjects, but some method which shall secure that the pupils know a few things well. The instruction given should be more thorough and less diffuse. It saddens me to realize at times the contemptuous attitude of persons who think they know what ought to be taught in schools towards some of us THE UNIVEESITY'S PLACE IN A COMMEECIAL CITY 261 who are professionally identified with teaching interests. The country districts, for instance, are jealous of the control which the University rightly claims to exercise over the whole school system of the Province. Not more than 5 per cent of the pupils, they say, are going to the University ; therefore the University should leave the 95 per cent alone 1 Two points of view occur to me here : first, that so far as true education is concerned, the needs of the 95 per cent are not reaUy so different after all from the needs of the 5 per cent ; and, secondly, that the University which would seek to set up an impassable barrier, as regards entrance, between the majority of the scholars and the smaller remnant, in esti mating the results of efficient school-teaching, would stamp itself as hopelessly out of date. But this is a subject which is more proper to the atmosphere of teachers' conventions than to this. I shall only repeat that the influence of a modern and well-regulated University ought to be allowed to permeate all strata of the educational fabric. This reminds me to refer to the new outlook that has opened up for common school education in Quebec since Pror fessor Eobertson was authorized to make the announcement of Sir William Macdonald's benevolent intentions in regard to it. Let me here quote what has been appropriately said by one of my University confreres — Professor Cappon of Queen's CoUege, Kingston — in praise of our greatest educa tional benefactor : " His name will remain honourably identi fied in the minds of his countrymen with educational work in Canada when that of many a pohtician now occupying much of the public attention will be mentioned only to illustrate the curious psychological features of the political corruption of the age" ("Queen's Quarterly," January, 1905, p. 315). Not the least important feature of the new order of things is the proposed transference of the McGill Normal School to Ste. Anne ; and with the guarantee of continued University supervision and control of the work of training, I am sure that this change td improved conditions will be hailed with the greatest satisfaction by all who are interested in the educational progress of our Province. As to the new College 262 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS of Agriculture, I cannot claim to speak vrith the same au thority. It had always been one of my pious aspirations that the McGill Faculty of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Science should rise again, as it were, from its ashes, and recommence work on a larger scale ; and this need wiU, no doubt, not be lost sight of by the new foundation. It used to be said in Scotland that the path was well-trodden from the University to the farm-house. Sir William is en gaged in building a road back to the farm, and when agricul ture has been rendered increasingly profitable by the larger use of scientific methods, farming ought to become as attractive to our young men as other avocations are at present. I had almost forgotten to say a word on another subject which has been recently much in my thoughts^ — -the possi bility of instituting a commercial course at McGill for young men who intend to follow a business career. Provided the standard of entrance could be maintained, it would be com paratively easy to add to the subjects of the first two years of the Arts course, which already includes such essentials as history, modern languages, and mathematics, teaching in commercial geography, descriptive economics, and so forth, leading to a diploma conferred in connexion with our present Intermediate Examination. With the co-operation of em ployers, hours could also be arranged for further study in the succeeding years of the curriculum — including political economy, economic history, accounting, mercantile law and practice, banking and insurance, and the principles under lying successful business management. Such a depart ment, centring around our School of Economics and Political Science, might provide more or less systematic training also in the methods of government and administration, in statistics and social investigation, in the study of the municipal system and the legislative control of industry and commerce. I am a believer in the possibihty of inspiring, through education, that feehng of unity which is so indispensable in members of the same civic community, citizens of the same state, joint heirs of the same imperial heritage. Who can doubt, for example, that some of the problems that confront us in re- THE UNIVEESITY'S PLACE IN A COMMEECIAL CITY 263 gard to imperial questions at the present moment, as well as those likely to develop under the surprising changes that are going on in the Orient, might be more efficiently solved if a greater proportion of our people were brought into intelligent touch with the interests which such problems represent ? The self-government on which we rightly insist should have a sound basis of education to support it. The relations of the British Empire to its colonies, and its best methods of dealing with foreign countries — such subjects are best understood by those who have made a special study of them, and especially those who have had already the advantage of gaining some instruction in such branches as economic science, political and commercial history, and commercial law. Such a start has lately been made in the University of Birmingham, although that University is still without the two Chairs of History and Economics of which McGill can boast. It should not be above our capacity to organize some thing of the same kind for Montreal. There are in this city, as in most other cities of the same size and importance, " men of business skilled in finance, in banking, in exchange, great organizers and administrators, experts in various lines of commerce," who might be willing perhaps, as visiting lecturers, to devote some portion of their time and energy to the training of our youth. Where that has been attempted elsewhere, the process has been found to be mutually bene ficial, for those who undertake the task of instructing others soon realize that there are few things more truly educative than the attempt to put one's own ideas into conscious order and expound them to others. To conclude. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Universities on this side of the Atlantic is their breadth of aim. They train for citizenship. They are not a thing apart as Universities were in former days, remote from the life of the people. And they try to inculcate the duty of taking an interest in affairs, with the view of shaping public opinion and influencing public action. Let me quote Professor Macnaughton : " The Universities are here mainly to supply the nation with more ^ght. No doubt it is also part of their 264 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS business to provide men equipped to render to the community particular services requiring special knowledge and technical training. But their highest and most characteristic, their in dispensable function, is the general and wider one, namely, to turn out men of disciphned intellect." To those who bear this truth in mind it must be obvious that the disparag ing talk to which we have sometimes to listen in regard to old-world centres of education is not always well founded. For it must be admitted that tried by this test of the service they render to the nation, Oxford and Cambridge are not found wholly wanting. Though local conditions may seem to us, in a great commercial centre, to impose limitations and restrictions on their work, the English Universities can claim that they have helped to realize the aspirations of the Bidding Prayer, used every Sunday before the University ser mon, " that there may never be wanting a due supply of persons qualified to serve God in Church and State ". But it is more by influencing the privileged few than by getting at the masses of the people that they do their direct educational work. In the past their influence on the governing classes has been conspicuous. It is bound up with the residential system, which is so potent a factor in social training, and in the moulding of character. It was this, as well as his own con nexion with Oriel College, that turned Mr. Ehodes's thoughts to Oxford, though we know from his will that he might otherwise have preferred Edinburgh. That brings me to the question of residences for our students, a pressing need, the supply of which would enable us to show that our interest in our young constituents does not confine itself to the lecture-rooms and laboratories. Instruction is given there, but I do not know of anyone who would hold that the class-room is a completely equipped field for the training of character. In this aspect McGill is only a stepmother to her children. She leaves them, so far as residence is concerned, to find lodging where they may. The great gift of the Union or Club-house, now in course of erection at Sir William Macdonald's expense, will furnish a valuable counter-attraction to the cheap restaurant. But, as THE UNIVEESITY'S PLACE IN A COMMEECIAL CITY 265 to residence, if any of your members who have gone into the question of residential flats, built with a view to profit, would care to extend his interest in the subject to the needs of McGill students, I shall be glad to put him in the way of a good thing. At Oxford and Cambridge the residential system has been carried to such lengths in the course of centuries that the colleges dominate the University, which exists as a separate corporation only for examinations, degrees, and other general purposes. Here in Montreal things began the other way on. The University is firmly established, but the in terests of the whole student body would be greatly advanced if we could now provide residential halls, like the dormitories at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. To me it seems just about the least we could do, looking to the formation of character — and it is perhaps all the more incumbent on us as we are forbidden by our constitution to have any definite church connexion. Eehgious zeal is forbidden to us as a corporation, and we have to substitute for it what a late Archbishop of Canterbury said would do equally well, the cultivation of a " quiet sense of duty ". That is a point which could be easily elaborated, but I shall leave you to fill in the outline for yourselves. You know what difficulties and temptations beset a young man who comes up to reside for the first time in a great centre of population such as this. It is not creditable to Montreal, in my judgment, that she should plume herself on having a great University which aims at playing an important part in our national life, and yet show such an utter disregard for the comfort and social well-being of its students. Some may think that, like others, students should take their chances, and learn in the school of experience. For immature young men that is emphatically a " fool-school," and the cost of tuition is excessive. Many fall by the way who could, under healthier conditions, be guided over the stony ground. I think that this question of residence should receive the earliest possible attention from the friends of McGiU. In any event, I hope that I have shown that the operations of a great university should be of interest to all sections of the 266 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS community in which it is striving to do its work. In order to be of direct service we must be in close touch with popular needs. I have no fear of being considered " utilitarian ". It is quite possible not to lose sight of the humanities and yet be practical. The conditions of modern life require, in all departments, a higher training than has been necessary in the past. Education has come to be increasingly indispensable for the efficient discharge of the duties of citizenship. You know what a great uplift for the whole country is secured when its educational standards are properly set. Universities are on the side of enlightenment, progress, and truth. And I hope you share my view that what a modern university has to offer in the midst of a commercial city, so far from dis- quahfying a man for success in business, ought to help him forward, just as is the case with the professions. THE EAELIEST UNIVEESITIES AND THE LATEST.i Dean Judson, Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, Members of the Faculty, Graduates, Undergraduates, Ladies and Gentlemen : My main qualification for standing here to-day is sincere appreciation of the work you have been privileged to accom plish duriag the short period of your existence as a University. I want to say this at the outset of my address ; for it is no more than should be said. You may perhaps be aware that many older institutions have been apt to cherish something like a grudge against you. The lightning-like rapidity of your academic progress has shocked from time to time their quiet repose. You have disturbed their standards by crowding into little more than a single decade what ought, according to all previous experience, to have taken at least a century. You have seemed to discredit, in a way, their methods by keeping open all the year round, and so turning your backs, as it were, on that most time-honoured of all university institutions — the three-months' long vacation. Instead of having one annual commencement, like all the rest of the world, you hold this graduation ceremonial at the end of every quarter. The consequence is that, although you are only fourteen years old, this is already your fifty-fifth celebra tion ; and at this rate of progress you will soon overtake and outstrip the oldest universities in Europe as well as in America. Again, you stand charged with the crime of making it a practice to engage professors for piecework, returning them, after they have done temporary duty with you, to their native 1 DeUvered on the occasion of the Fifty-fifth Convocation of the University of Chicago, held in the Leon Mandel Assembly HaU, 13 June, 1905. 267 268 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES establishments. This procedure, it is almost needless to state, is apt to cause some heart-burning among those whom you do not honour with your choice. Even the size, shape, and colour of your " Annual Eegister," so different from every other known calendar or catalogue, has been made a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling. I know what the attitude was towards your early efforts of such Old- World centres as Oxford and Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and it is all the more pleasurable on that account to have this opportunity of paying the tribute you have so fully merited in spite of, or rather by reason of, your manifold innovations. To the great wonder-worker who has watched over your academic child hood I would convey an expression of my homage and admiration. Perhaps none are so fully qualified as those who are themselves university presidents to estimate what Chicago owes to President Harper. His masterly report, pubhshed as the first volume of the first series of your Decennial Pubh- cations, will long remain as a standing monument of clear sighted, courageous, and comprehensive academic policy. In these latter days a college head is called on to play many parts. He must be a man of affairs as well as a scholar. What he does not know himself he must be able to appreciate in others, whether it be mining or metaphysics, hydraulics or Hebrew. He is organizer and administrator ; happy is he, too, if he can continue for a time to give the best that is in him as teacher also ! And, apart from all that, he has to keep in touch with his staff, collectively and individually, to study the interests of his undergraduate constituents, to stimulate his board of trustees, and to be ever ready — day or night, and often even on Sundays — to represent his university before the pubhc. His function has been weU said to consist in putting pressure upon everybody — including the benefactor 1 How well Dr. Harper has discharged these manifold duties you know even better than I do. But in the dark days through which he passed this winter, even those of us who live at a distance from this great centre, and are not in close touch with your affairs, did not fail to associate ourselves with your anxiety and grief. If anything was capable of sustaining THE EAELIEST UNIVEESITIES AND THE LATEST 269 your President during tha|; trying time, in addition to his trust in God, it must have been the knowledge that he had the sympathy of every academic community on this continent, as well as elsewhere. If the federation of the world ever comes to pass, it will be largely through the influence of the universities. The earliest of them was the outcome of that thirst for knowledge which, after a dark age, marked the rising nationalities of modern Europe. These institutions possessed the highest culture of their day and generation, and were recognized as the best exponents of that culture, not only by the nations to which they respectively belonged, but throughout theEuropean continent. The latest universities are but the most recently forged links in the chain that binds together all the peoples of the earth, uniting them in a common purpose and leading them to work for a common end. One of the most interesting suggestions of the present day is the possibility of increased intercommunication among these universities. We cannot know too much, in my judgment, of what is going on in other countries — what progress is being made, what experiments are being tried and with what results, what is the general trend of academic thought in regard to the various problems that engross attention. This is true not only of the various seats of learning which belong to the same country, but also of the attitude in which the universities of different countries might stand to one another. Now that they are coming to be more closely related to life and citizenship, they may be expected to be increasingly conscious of the fact that they have before them a common task, in the execution of which they must rest on the basis of common principles and the inspiration of a common ideal. Certainly throughout the English-speaking wotld we do weU to cherish every academic aim that may make for com munity of sentiment. And most of aU can it be predicated of the modern university in the commercial city — whether that city be Manchester, or Birmingham, or Chicago, or Montreal — that the atmosphere which surrounds it, as well as the tasks it has to face, is one and the same for all. The 270 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES academic view is sometimes obscured, especially in the Old World, by the assumption that all universities, whether in small or large centres of population, ought to be cast in the same mould and fashioned after the same type. This is obviously not the case. Oxford and Cambridge differ to some extent from each other, and both present a strong contrast in traditions and tendencies to Manchester, Leeds, Birming ham, or Liverpool. Each type has much to learn from the other. The problems of modern life which have become ur gent in a great city such as Chicago are closely connected with the economic and historical studies pursued in the older universities ; and, as Mr. James Bryce has lately expressed it,^ "the relation between those studies and the plans fit to be followed in handling social problems may be compared to the relations between theoretic and applied science. Among the practical questions of educational methods, there are some in which Oxford can give light to Manchester, and some in which Manchester can give hght to Oxford." On this side of the Atlantic we have shown our superior ity to tradition by introducing even a new connotation for the word "university," distinguishing the type, as we have it here, with its graduate and professional schools, from the old "college of arts and sciences". There is little, if any, ground for this in history. It is one of our bold American innovations. May I hope to interest you if I ask you to look back from the developed product, as we know it now, to the mediaeval beginnings in which the modern university had its origin? A brief retrospect may enable us to grasp more clearly the essential points in which the new differentiates itself from the old, as well as the points of contact and re semblance. The study of origins is always among the most fascinating of all studies, and not least when applied to the consideration of the lineal succession in which the universities of the modern world stand to their prototypes. For me this chapter of history has lately acquired something of a personal interest by the discovery that the founder of the college and ^" University Eeview," May, 1905, p. 5. THE EAELIEST UNIVERSITIES AND THE LATEST 271 university which I represent was, before he came to Canada in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, a duly matricu lated student of the University of Glasgow. Now, Glasgow was founded by a papal bull on the model of the oldest of all universities — the University of Bologna, famous for the study of the civil and canon law ; so that from Bologna in the twelfth century to Glasgow in the fifteenth, and from Glasgow in the fifteenth century to McGill and Montreal in the twentieth, is but a step. But, apart from that particular and personal reference, some degree of general interest may attach to a comparison of the forces to which the earhest foundations owed their origin, and the conditions that have given birth to such a University as this. In spite of great and obvious differences in the surrounding circumstances, there is nevertheless much of the same spirit that led to their establishment to be descried in the missionary energy and enterprise which have marked your efforts during the last fourteen years. One point of contrast, however, suggests itself at once. The various universities which were founded many centuries ago at short intervals on the European continent were the nurs- hngs of the Church — the Church which, after keeping alive the sacred lamp of learning from the fall of the Western Empire to the eleventh century of our era, had become the great centralizing agency of the then known world. They had grown out of the schools attached to monasteries and cathedrals in which facilities were offered for the educa tion of young " clerks," the only teachers being the monks. Princes and people might unite with learned men to supply the impetus which resulted in the elevation of such schools into universities ; but it was from the popes that there came the immunities and privileges conferred on the corporations thus formed, of which the most important was the power of granting degrees, i.e. licences to teach anywhere throughout the world. The first chapter in the history of university extension was introduced when, in addition to the professional training of priests and monks, the more practical studies of medicine and law began to press for recognition. Before 272 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES the beginning of the twelfth century the rudiments of physical science and some branches of mathematics had emerged more clearly into view. Next came the scholastic philosophy, arising out of the study of Aristotle, and claiming attention, not only because of its intrinsic value as a mental discipline, but also as the key to the proper interpretation of theological doctrine. The earliest universities were too spontaneous in their origin for us to connect their first beginnings with the name of any personal founder. In spite of the accretions of tradi tion, which would associate Paris with Charles the Great and Oxford with King Alfred, we may say that they did not owe their establishment, in the first instance, to individuals. They arose out of the spontaneous and enthusiastic desire for knowledge, which drew together — not, be it noted, in seclusion and retirement, but in great towns — a concourse of the most learned men of the day. The busy centres of commerce — Bologna, Paris, Naples, Florence, Vienna — became great seats of learning because they were already great cities. Privileges conceded by the local authorities to teachers and taught kept them generally faithful to the place of their choice, though unfortunate disagreements sometimes led to the migration of a whole university to a neighbouring centre. It was the papal buU which, by con stituting what was called a studium generale, or centre of study open to all comers, elevated each new foundation to a place in the ever-widening circle of those seats of learning which, by the use of a common language and the acceptance of a common faith, held together for a time in bonds of unity the various peoples of the European world. The rapidity with which the movement spread may be judged from the fact that before the year 1400 — by which date the word universitas had come to be used in the sense we now attach to it — some forty universities had been established in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and Portugal. As soon as the cloister or cathedral school had received papal authorization, its fortunes began rapidly to improve. Its future was now altogether in the hands of the learned THE EARLIEST UNIVERSITIES AND THE LATEST 273 men who had first given it a name, and hence the growth of every university centre is linked with the fame of some in dividual teacher whose prelections on some special subject of study drew crowds of ardent young men to hear him from all quarters of the country, and even from foreign parts. For before the days of printed books the power of the living voice and of personal intercourse with the teacher was a larger element in education than it can be now. By the majority of students knowledge could then only be acquired orally. And they knew the value of those at whose feet they elected to sit, pressing after them with an ardour which sum moned the great Abelard, for example, when the romance of his life was over, back from the cell inwhich he had thought to spend the rest of his days in solitary meditation, to do battle once again for the spirit of hberty and free thought. The wandering life which many students led in search of new knowledge is, indeed, in curious contrast with life at a university to-day. It was a reversal of the circumstances under which the higher education had risen first in Greece, where the early sophists went from city to city, sometimes accompanied by enthusiastic pupils, to incite the youth of the Hellenic people to apply themselves to the new learning of which they had constituted themselves the first professors. Now, the university was to have more of a fixed home for the teachers, but not for the ideal students of the Middle Age, who cherished too lofty an ambition to be satisfied with rudimentary education, even though it might lead to immedi ate advancement in the profession with which the universities were so intimately connected — the profession of the Church. For years together, sometimes for a whole lifetime, they would journey on from university to university, attracted by the fame of some rising teacher who had made some new subject his own. Travelling was made easy for them ; they were a specially privileged caste, for whom the roads were kept open and free of toU by royal or imperial decree, and they could depend on being able to maintain communication vyith their homes and on having supplies forwarded them without fear of robbery. But the poorest scholars felt no 18 274 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES shame in begging by the way, and in the cities through which their journey lay they would even employ this system for the purpose of raising the fees on which their unendowed profes sors were so obviously dependent. For if a man might ask alms to keep body and soul together, why should he not invite the charity of the rich to assist him in the studies that were to revolutionize the world ? Arrived at a university, students from the same provinces — from which they often came up in bands — showed a tendency to herd together in a way which powerfully influ enced mediaeval organization. The jealousies of the rival sets who came from different parts of the country, roused to action, perhaps, by different views of the merits of some individual teacher, often developed tumults such as in some centres have not even yet been altogether dissociated from academic hfe ; though, on the other hand, the provincial organizations must have done good service in preventing the danger of isolation on the part of poor scholars coming up for the first time, and in assisting them with advice and counsel. In Paris the system was extended into the or ganization of what was called the " Four Nations," whose existence is ample proof of the cosmopolitan character of the universities of that early time. Each nation had its separate houses for the sick and poor among its members, its separate officers, and separate funds on which it could draw to assist its needy scholars, or "bursars," as they began to be called when the students came to be housed in bursa or " inns " — the germ of the future colleges. Of the life of the students we have some glimpses which will enable us to contrast it with present circumstances and surroundings, and which will account for the survival at Oxford of some of the regulations at which we are told our American Ehodes scholars are apt to chafe. It was a life, not of ease and freedom, but of discipline and stern control. At Paris lecturing went on from sunrise to noon, the hour of dinner, not in comfortably equipped classrooms, but in any vacant space where an audience could be housed, the students sitting on the floor, or sometimes on the ground at the porch THE EARLIEST UNIVERSITIES AND THE LATEST 275 of some great church. History records that the legates of the Pope censured the university on one occasion for intro ducing the use of wooden benches, as subversive of academic disciphne and tending to effeminacy of manners. Dinner over, the afternoon was comparatively free. Then came supper about sunset, after which study was resumed. Three hours before midnight, the chains which barred the narrow streets began to be fastened up ; watches pat- roUed in the name of the various authorities who claimed a share in the pohce of Paris ; and every son of learning was expected to be in bed, unless he had access to some of the towers where the votaries of astrology out watched the stars. Of the inner life of some at least of the students we have a terrible account in the writings of Erasmus, whose evil fate it was to pass the early years of his life in the most poverty-stricken college of the Paris University — the College of Montaigu (Montacutum). It is to be hoped the picture he draws was not true of any other place : — " The students lived, packed three or four together, in a damp room, filled with pestilential air from the neighbouring cesspools ; their bed was the floor ; their food, coarse bread and scanty, varied with rotten eggs ; their drink, putrid water, diversified occasionally with wine of so vinegarish a quahty that it obtained for the college the nickname of Montacetum. Fireplaces or stoves they had none ; filth and vermin {pedi- culorum largissima copia) assisted in keeping them from the cold, and their circulation was sometimes artificially acceler ated by the aid of corporal punishment." Not altogether dissimilar, though fortunately free from revolting features, is the description given of student life at Cambridge not long afterwards by the old chronicler Antony a Wood : — " There be divers there who rise daily betwixt four and five o'clock in the morning, and from five until six of the clock use common prayer . . . and from six unto ten o'clock use ever either private study or common lectures." At that hour they had their frugal dinner. It was composed of a "penny piece of beef among four, having a few porage 18* 276 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES made of the broth of the same beef, with salt and oatmeal and nothing else ". From dinner to supper, at five o'clock, the time was spent, we are told, either in teaching or study ; and after supper the students discussed problems or pursued other studies until ten, when, being without hearth or stove, " they were fain," says the old chronicler, " to Walk or run up and down half an hour to give an heat to their feet when they go to bed. These men be not weary of their pains, but very sorry to leave their study." It would lead us too far into the domain of history to trace the consequences for the universities of that double re volution in learning and religion, the two phases of which were each so intimately connected with the other. The Eenascence, by the revival of Greek and Latin literature, first freed men's minds from the fetters of a dead scholas ticism, whose depressing weight had long crushed all indi viduality out of them ; the Eeformation was an assertion of spiritual independence, breaking the bonds of the ecclesiastical system which for centuries had held together the nations of the West, and producing changes of a radical nature, not only in religion, but also in politics and education. The spirit of independent free thought had been aroused, never again to slumber ; and though in church centres which stiU remained Catholic the new learning met with great opposi tion, the old traditionary system had received its deathblow. The universities were no longer to be mere " links in the chain which the Church had thrown over Europe " ; they had become independent units, and they progressed toward a distinct individual existence in which different types of nationality were now allowed to impose something of their own peculiar character. Thus it has been pointed out how France, with her centralizing instincts, concentrated the study of law at Orleans or Bourges ; of medicine at Montpellier ; of theology at Paris ; how England, with her natural in clination toward competition, relied mainly till within recent years on two universities alone, designed, as it were, to keep each other mutually up to the mark ; while the various sub divisions of mediaeval Germany were faithfully reproduced in THE EARLIEST UNIVERSITIES AND THE LATEST 277 the numerous seats of learning which sprang up within her boundaries. In most universities there existed the time-honoured four faculties — arts (sometimes called philosophy), theology, law, and medicine ; though none cultivated all four in the same degree. At Paris, e.g. theology was supreme, or rather theology and philosophy welded together in the system forged by the schoolmen when they first took the dogmas of the Church under their care. This accounts for the small consideration given to medicine and law by the English and German universities, modelled, as they were, after Paris. In course of time the division according to faculties, as based on difference of studies, supplanted the old organization of the students according to their " nations," which now became of less practical consequence. While the universities of the North, both in England and Scotland, mainly adopted Paris as their model, those of Italy, Spain, and a great part of France itself followed the lead of Bologna. Paris stood for a general mental training, with the speculative bent natural to the study of dialectic ; Bologna laid more weight on the idea of a professional training in law, with a definite practical aim. But the growth of the institutions which came after Bologna and Paris was marked by very different conditions. By the fifteenth century colleges had been numerously founded both in the French and the English universities; though the system never took much hold of either Italy or Germany. These colleges had developed originally out of the " inns " or bursce, already mentioned — hostels provided under the supervision of a resi dent graduate as special homes for the students ; which the beneficence of the rich, by endowing lectureships and scholar ships, and furnishing separate chapels and halls, had gradually enabled to fix a deep hold on the constitution of the university — in fact to grow to even greater importance than the very corporations themselves to which they had been intended as subsidiary. As many of you may be aware, this is still the case with the English universities. In Scotland, on the other hand, lack of funds — as well as the sturdy independence 278 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES of the Scottish student, who even to this day is usually left to seek out his own home for himself — prevented the establishment of the collegiate system. American universities have done well to reproduce, in their dormitories and halls of residence, this feature of the life of the earliest seats of learning. Too much cannot be said of the advantage to our students of a healthful and help ful environment ; it is necessary, in fact, for the apphcation of the doctrine that education consists, not only in the train ing of the intellect, but also in the supply and the use of opportunities and experience that shall go to the upbuilding of a manly and well-mannered type of character. For centuries after their first organization the universities of Europe, with frequent internal changes, kept pretty much to the lines that were originally laid down for them. They met the requirements of their constituents by providing, under the head of " arts," a general literary culture, and also by furnishing the means of preparation for the special profes sions of law, medicine, and theology. The demand of the present day is different and more extensive. It is a twofold demand : first, that the spheres of professional activity recog nized and countenanced by the universities shall be greatly widened ; and secondly that the universities shall supply, not merely the training required by scholars and speciahsts, but also the liberal culture proper for the ordinary citizen. What is it that, during the last quarter of a century, has drawn to ward so many departments of our work the benevolent atten tions of practical men ? Surely, the acceptance of the view that the university is no longer a thing apart from the life of the people, exists no longer only for the scholar and the re cluse, but is eager to come into practical touch with every interest that may be helpful in preparation for citizenship and public service. The day is past and gone when it could con tent itself with being a mere academic ornament, instead of striving to make itself a centre of usefulness to the community. Eather has the word gone forth that learning and science are, and must ever remain, "incomplete and unsatisfying unless they can be adapted to the service and the use of man ". THE EARLIEST UNIVERSITIES AND THE LATEST 279 All this can be said without incurring any reasonable censure from those who wish to warn us that it is no part of the office and function of a university to teach its students how money can be made. The mere statement of the point is enough to remind us of the great extension which has been given in recent times to the field of university work. Many additions have been made to the system under which law, medicine, and theology were recognized as the only technical applica tions of our academic studies. Why, all the marvels of modern scientific and practical activity rest on the basis of the abstract and theoretical learning which the university fosters. And there seems no reason in the nature of things why engineers and chemists should not have just as broad and sound an education as doctors and lawyers. No country in the world has had more success than the United States in meeting the demand for uniting the old traditionary education with one that shall have a direct practical bearing on the life and occupations of the people. On this continent no influences have been at work to obscure the view that it is for the interest of society at large that each member of it shall be able to claim, so far as circumstances allow, the opportunity for the full development of the talents with which nature has endowed him, to the end that he and his fellow-men may reap the benefit of their proper exercise. We have never regarded it as worse than useless — even dan gerous — to give education to those whose lives are to be spent in the practice of the manual arts. " He who would seek to hmit education for fear nobody would be left to black his boots is a slaveholder at heart " — that is a dictum which would surely be rejected by none. If you say that education breeds discontent, so much the better ; discontent is the parent of progress. Let the educated man and the trained workman, in every profession and in every industry, take precedence over the uneducated and the untrained ; society will be the better for it. This extension of the sphere of its activities has brought the modern university one clear and obvious gain. It may be confidently stated that at no time has so great an amount 280 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES of public interest been taken in its operations. Like the tyrant of old, the university has " taken the people into partnership ". The many share the tastes, sympathies, as pirations, and studies that only a generation ago were the hall-mark of the fortunate and highly favoured few. That a large section of the general public feel a direct interest in university matters is evidenced by the amount of space which the press is ready to devote to them. One important New York journal gives its readers the benefit of a valuable weekly budget of "News of the College World," and does not seem to grudge the room thus withdrawn from its financial and other sections. This is one result of that policy of making its affairs known to the public which changed conditions have rendered it expedient for the modern university to adopt — not with the view of advertising itself, but rather on the ground, as Dr. Harper says in his Decennial Eeport, that "the institution is a public institution, and that everything relating to its inside history, including its financial condition, should be made known. Its deficits have been published as well as its surpluses, and we attribute largely to this policy of public statement, not only the interest of the pubhc, but the confidence which has been shown on so many occasions." There is much in this that more conservative institutions in other countries would do well to imitate. It was not of such a university as yours that the late Mr. Cecil Ehodes was thinking when he said that college people know nothing of affairs, and are as " children in finance ". Listen to another extract from your President's report :¦ — " The establishment of the budget from year to year, and the rigid adherence to its provisions, have made it possible to reduce the work of the University to a thoroughly business basis, and it may fairly be claimed that the affairs of no business corporation are conducted more strictly on business lines than are those of the University." Business administration is, of course, quite a different matter from educational organization. But it is as indispen sable for our universities as it is in other departments, and I think it is to be counted clear gain that the business men THE EAELIEST UNIVEESITIES AND THE LATEST 281 who are generally found on the board of trustees have been allowed the opportunity of securing increased efficiency in university administration. College people are sometimes a little shy about admitting suggestions or criticisms from the outside world. To understa.nd colleges, they say, you must be a college man yourself ; railroad people, for example, need not apply. But college accounts, after aU, are just like other accounts. It is true that we are not in education for the purpose of declaring a dividend to shareholders at the close of each financial year ; our returns are made in another way — by adding to what may be called, for short, the "brain power" of the community. But, on the other hand, we are all the better for keeping as closely as possible, so far as regards business management, to the methods of business. We cannot go all lengths wdth the churches, for example, which are often compelled by the circumstances of their work to leave a large margin for faith and trust on the credit side of their accounts. As an illustration, then, of how the affairs of the modern university have come into close relation with the facts of life, it is well to acknowledge that where efficient administration has been secured, it is mainly to be credited, not to the professors and the faculty, but to the keen insight and the wise judgment of those business men who form so important an element in our boards of trustees. Those who stiU deprecate the share in university administration thus given to men who need not themselves be college-bred may care to read the following extract from an address given to the students of Gu-ard College, 20 May, 1905, by Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip, ex-assistant secretary of the treasury, and now vice-president of the National City Bank : — " The professional educator is quite as likely to become narrow and provincial as is any other specialist. The presi dent of one of our great eastern universities told me a few days ago that he had been making an exhaustive examination of the history of his institution, and he had discovered that the great progressive steps which the university had taken in 150 years had been against the protest and the opposition of 282 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS the faculty. The trustees from time to time brought forward new plans of organization and broader ideas regarding the curriculum. The faculty had in every case voted adversely, and when the changes were made, they were made only by the trustees taking the responsibility upon themselves. Now, in the light of years of experience, these changes have been seen to be wise in the main. The unavailing protests of the learned men who made up the institution's faculty are dis covered sometimes to have been based on narrow grounds, lacking the impersonal view and judgment that should have been brought to bear upon the questions." You will benefit by your connexion with the business men of this city also in another way. I understand that your President has been looking around for some new world to conquer, and that it has been decided to institute in connexion with the University a completely equipped school of techno logy. In no department have the business men, both of this and of other countries, shown greater appreciation of the practical value which attaches to the highest theoretical in struction, and nowhere has generous giving been more fully illustrated. I am not unaware of what has already been accomplished in this connexion. The report of the Mosely Commission, which recently visited America, is fuU of in formation as to what has been done, even apart from our universities, to give our workmen the scientific basis of the occupation which is to be theirs in life. With the spread of technical education, unskilled labour, work by rule-of -thumb, is everywhere going to the wall before the intelligence of the skilled workman who has studied the abstract principles of the science which is applicable to his particular industry. But here as elsewhere there is always room at the top. The field of our industries and manufactures is so vast and various that America, like Germany, is finding instruction of the highest type in regard to the application of science to practical enterprise a very remunerative investment. It is stated that in Germany the number of men of university training (in cluding schools of technology, mining, agriculture, forestry, and veterinary science) has doubled itself within the last THE EAELIEST UNIVEESITIES AND THE LATEST 283 thirty years. The industrial activity of the country has gone on developing itself in close contact with its academic hfe. So, too, in the United States, the phenomenal increase in the number of students enroUed in schools of technology, and in university faculties of apphed science, is a good index of the marvellous development of the scientific and industrial activity of the nation. The new departure which your Board of Trustees is now about to take springs no doubt from the conviction that one of the most effective methods of strengthening industry by education is to provide the highest and most thorough scientific training for those who are to be the leaders of industry. A few highly trained speciahsts will always be found to be of more value to the industrial progress of the nation than a whole army of smatterers. But I do not wish to pose as one whose main interest is in science and its application to industry. Applied science is by no means everything. Far from it : you might as well try to get bread from stones as a stimulating culture from applied science alone. Its exclusive cultivation would lead to a dis tortion of the true work and office of the university, which must ever have a higher aim than to qualify a man for any particular department of practical or professional activity. This fact may be in need of some restatement, for the op posite view is abroad in the land, and is at times put forward in somewhat precocious fashion. Let me cite, as an illustra tion of the contrast in spirit and methods between the earliest universities and the latest, an extract from a letter recently addressed to me. It was from a young man, who begins by telling me that he " expects to enter one of the large colleges of America on graduating from high school in about a year". He then submits a list of seven questions, which I am asked to answer " as nearly as I can ". Here are three of them : — ¦ 1. " What thing do you believe is the best for a young man to follow, and from which he can obtain the largest returns ? 2. " About how much can an electrical engineer graduate from your college get, and how much can he get in later years, as nearly as you know ? 284 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS 3. " If you think something else is better, how much can a graduate obtain in wages after mastering that something?" I do not know how many college presidents the writer of this letter may have honoured with his confidence. He is probably a very young man. If Ihad replied to him, I should have been tempted again to quote a sentence from Plato, who said that education " must not be undertaken in the spirit of merchants or traders, with a view to buying or selling ; but for the sake of the soul herself". It is with the educational value of science, and its effect on the mental training of the individual, that the university is primarily concerned, and it should give no encouragement to anyone who looks on scientific knowledge merely as a means of concrete means of profit and material advancement. I often think that in these days of electives, and the glorification of " departments " and even graduate studies, we are too apt to lose sight of the old ideal of a " faculty of arts ". The university must be some thing more than a mere nursery for specialists. We all know what it is to have to deal with an uneducated specialist. It is here, as it seems to me, that the small college, with its more or less fixed curriculum, is having at once its opportun ity and its revenge. The university must not give up the attempt to define the sphere of liberal instruction and culture. Specialization is, of course, one of its most important func tions ; but, after all, there is no greater service it can render the community than that which is implied in turning out, year by year, a number of students who have received the benefits of a sound and comprehensive education, and who are fitted thereby to take their places worthily in the arena of life. When I go back in memory to the old days of the Scottish universities, when the whole student body came into contact — albeit in huge, unwieldy, and overgrown classes — with arts professors, each of whom was a worthy representative of an important and almost essential subject, I realize the loss, as well as the gain, that has come to us from the revision of our methods and standards. Many of our greatest univer sities are now looking around for some corrective to apply to what has been described as " haphazardness " in the choice THE EAELIEST UNIVEESITIES AND THE LATEST 285 of studies. You are probably aware that at Harvard, for ex ample, students may graduate without either classics or mathematics ; a recent return showed that 45 per cent drop classics altogether in entering coUege, and 75 per cent drop mathematics. These time-honoured subjects are being dis placed in favour of studies which are described as " more likely to be serviceable to the actual activities of modern society ". I have grave doubts about the wisdom of making so large a departure from what may be regarded as of per manent value in the traditional basis of a liberal education. Such an education ought not to be a thing of the past for those who have the opportunity of acquiring it. For them it is attainable within the limits of school and college life, provided they do not begin to apply themselves exclusively to some special training in the very first year of their academic course. There ought always to be some order, some definition, some regulation of university studies. Wherever the attitude is adopted that is implied in the well-known formula of one subject being "as good as another," we are hkely, in my judgment, to be called on to pay the penalty. The university, so far as concerns what is called its " academic " side, wfll be cut up into fragments. Departments will be apt to be treated as wholes in themselves, rather than in their organic relation to fundamental branches of knowledge. But, however that may be, one thing is certain : No uni versity can be in a healthy condition which is not spending a large part of its energies on those subjects which do not offer any preparation for professional life, which cannot be converted immediately into wage-earning products, and in regard to which young men are not told that " their brains are merchandise, and that the college is the mUl that will best coin them ". In short, we must not accept a purely utilitarian theory of education. The humanities must always be allowed to go hand in hand with the utilities. And we must bear in mind that education ought to be a preparation, not for a special career, but for the whole after-life. Many of us do not command, and never can command, the leisure that would enable us fuUy to satisfy tastes that lie outside our daily avoca- 286 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS tions. But we do not want to forget them, or to lose sight of them. For we know that, if we would avoid that narrow ing of the mental and intellectual horizon which is generally the penalty of absorption in some special calling, such tastes and such pursuits should be considered valuable in proportion as they are removed from the environment of our daily life. Students who come to this University under such favourable conditions as seem everywhere to surround it, ought to realize that, if they neglect the opportunities of culture now, they will come hereafter to regret the loss of an abiding source of satisfaction. There is always the danger that in such a centre as this material interests and material prosperity may take the edge off intellectual aspiration. Let the students of the University of Chicago look beyond the horizon of the pursuit to which they may be destined, and, by using every means of self-cultivation that may be within their reach, endeavour " sincerely to give a true account of their gift of reason to the benefit and use of men ". THE CLAIMS OF CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION.! Though of late years more or less engrossed in administrative work, and as one may say, " corrupted by affairs,'' yet I may claim to have taught classics now for over a quarter of a century — without once unburdening myself, except inciden tally, on the subject of this address. You remember the con servative jurist in Tacitus who told the Senate that he had often refrained from opposing radical legislation lest he should be thought unduly to exalt the department of constitutional law and history. His words — ne nimio amore antiqui moris studium meum extollere viderer — are applicable to the state of mind of some of us who have to go about this modern world, and especially the American continent, without saying at all times all that we think about classics and education. It would not be wise or discreet to do so. And after all the ancient classics have had what cricketers call a " long inn ings ". We must recognize that they are not, and never can be again, the whole of education. Their position and pro spects in the world at the present day furnish one of the most interesting topics of educational discussion ; and when the in vitation reached me to prepare a paper on the subject for this conference — though it would have been easier to offer some thing else — I felt myself quite in a mood to comply. My own teaching career was begun as an Assistant Professor, under Sellar, of what is still called Humanity in the University of Edinburgh. And it is not without good reason that the Scottish Universities retain that designation for their Latin Chairs. The language which was once the best medium of ' An address delivered before the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Chicago, 29 March, 1907. 287 288 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES inter-communication for the whole civilized world has still the gift of bringing those who can wield it into touch with the intellectual and spiritual record of humanity, and of giv ing them a quick and hving sympathy with aU that has dig nified and glorified the mighty past. If anything is said in the course of my address that may seem to non-classical critics an excess of statement, I must beg them to remember that this is primarily a classical conference and that I may therefore speak as one who is among friends. Nowhere is it more obvious than in America that we are living in an age of educational ferment. Apart from the classical issue altogether, which is sometimes wrongly stated and often misunderstood, many of the old landmarks are disappearing, and we cannot yet tell what the final outcome is to be. New educational demands are being made, many of them quite justifiable and excellent in their way, and the desire of all parties must be that in the effort to meet them we shall not sacrifice anything that is essential and indis pensable. Nor is it only new subjects and new studies that call for consideration : the setting of the educational stage has been shifted, and instead of ministering to the tastes and interests of a small and select class, destined for the pro fessions and the higher activities of life, we must make the most we can, through education, of all the brain power of the whole community. The most important criticism that can be made on one aspect of present-day educational tendencies is that they are mainly in the direction of reducing the intellectual element in education and exalting the mechanical. By all means let us have manual training, for instance : I even like from many points of view the definition given by a friend of mine who said that education should aim chiefly at teaching people what to do wdth their hands and their feet. But we must not neglect the things of the mind, and it is simply not true to say that there is " just as much intellectual discipline derived from sawing a board straight, or making a dove-tailed joint as translating a passage of Cicero or solving a problem in geometry". That is, quite recognizably, an "excess of CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION 289 statement". Science has nobler methods than that of re venge for past neglect. No doubt there is a moral quality involved in the ability to saw straight instead of crooked : but it is mere " ability," and its possessor is "habihs " or " able" rather than mentally gifted. It would be a pity if we were to deny the title of " well-educated" to every one who cannot sharpen a lead pencil properly, or even shave himself without a safety razor : on the latter theory some very eminent persons would be in danger of being branded as uneducated while waiting their turn in the barber shop! The fact is that we are nowadays too apt to forget that the true aim of education, especially of school education, is to teach a few things thoroughly rather than many things superficially, and that general training of faculty should rank above proficiency in any special accomplishment. The desire to impart, at school, to minds comparatively untrained practical arts that could easily be acquired afterwards is responsible for some of the modern additions to the old curriculum. Then there is the delusion that all study ought to be made easy, simple, and attractive, without any approach to drudgery or even sustained effort. Why, it is the effort that tells I Some lines of the poet Cowper were lately, by two slight changes, adapted to the conditions we see around us to-day : — Habits of close attention, thinking heads Become more rare as education spreads, Till teachers hear around one general cry, Tickle and eniiertain us, or we die. One excellent result, however, of the long-continued dis cussion is that there is a better understanding now than formerly between the contending parties. This is as it should be. Victory should rest neither with the uncompro mising advocate of the classics, nor with the Philistine who sees nothing in the humanities. How ridiculous the story seems now of the classical master at Harrow who had heard Huxley lecture there. To a friend who met him as he came away he explained his presence at the lecture somewhat 290 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS apologetically — " I just went to see what this Natural Science is like. There's nothing in it"! On the other hand little sympathy is now evoked by the scientist who is fabled to have said that if Greek and Latin are not dead languages, they ought to be ! But let no one imagine that the so-called classical contro versy is a new issue. In one form or another it is almost as old as the classics themselves. Mr. Sandys has recorded for us, in his History of Classical Scholarship, how at the outset the prejudices of the unduly orthodox had to be overcome. " Tertullian asked what had Athens to do with Jerusalem, or the Academy with the Church ; and St. Jerome what concern had Horace with the Psalter, Virgil with the Gospel, and Cicero with the Apostles ? " In a later age Honorius of Autun (c. 1120) wanted to know how the soul was profited by the strife of Hector, the arguments of Plato, the poems of Virgil, or the elegies of Ovid — " who, with others like them, are now gnashing their teeth in Hades ! " And we are told also that Jerome, who in his more unregenerate days had read Plautus and Cicero, falling ill of a fever, dreamed that he was dead and was haled before the dread tribunal of the Judge of aU men. Hiding his face before the brightness of the Presence, he heard the question, "Who art thou?" and made bold to answer " A Christian ". Whereupon a Voice was heard, " It is false : thou art no Christian : Thou art a Ciceronian : where the treasure is, there is the heart also ". Let editors of Cicero beware ! From that day Jerome renounced his classics, and went into the desert, where he lived as a hermit for the space of five years. More modern attacks upon classical teaching have had a somewhat different motive, whether they have proceeded from those who altogether dislike and despise classical studies, or from those who partly believe in their virtue and efficacy. The former include the large and perhaps growing number of persons who consider that the main object of education is to produce results " capable of being trans muted into the maximum of coin in the minimum of time," who confuse it with money-making, and think that its chief CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION 291 function is to show how a living may be earned. The latter are those of our own household, who go perhaps too far in conceding that classics have "had their day," and that the stress of international competition forbids us to consider the question any longer on its merits. You know the main ground of the attack. It is urged that the student of the classics is a " dweller among the tombs," studying " the meanings of words and expressions in ancient books, repre sentative of a once-living civilization," " dealing only with books, and having no touch with nature". The exclusive study of the past is said not to lead into life, but out of it, and the charge is pressed home that those educated on none but classical lines " often end their education very ignorant of their own country and language, and of the world of nature and men in which they have to live ". And again, on the formal side, to study a language for an unspecified number of years, and at the end to be unable to read a pas sage not seen before, of only average difficulty — ^this is de scribed as waste, especially when there are other subjects giving an equivalent discipline, such as it is, and in closer touch with the bread and butter needs of mankind. In answering this indictment it ought not to be for gotten that quite a large percentage of the classical " fail ures " are persons who would probably be unable to shine in any other form of intellectual exercise. A noble Lord the other day, addressing an English audience, held himself up as a shocking example of the results of ill-directed education. He had learned nothing either at school or college that could be said to have been of any use to him. The audience may perhaps have noted that he did not put any friend forward to say what he was fit for. At the same time it must be admitted that there is really a great deal of truth in what is so often stated. Even though the attacking party sometimes uses the language of exaggeration, and fails to appreciate the educational possibilities of the studies against which they direct their invective, — though they sometimes reveal their own ignorance of what can be said, on the ground of the general cultivation of the inteUigence, in support of the other 19* 292 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS side of the question, — there is so much in their argument that the friends of the classics must bow to the necessity of justifying their cause, and also of reforming their methods, in view of the changed educational situation. For all that, they need not strike their flag entirely. No doubt much can be done in the way of reform of methods, with the result that a classical course that is to be part of a general education for ordinary people will have to go without some things that are of interest only to specialists. But at the same time, apart from the factor of mental discipline, the classical curriculum can be "shown to be not only a good basis upon which a knowledge of the modern world can afterwards be built, but also itself a training in real and important aspects of life " ; it can be " proved capable of contributing a store of ideas and habits of mind which are of present value ". In every kind of conflict it is always well to look round for aUies. The real question at issue is not whether educa tion is to be ancient or modern, classical or scientific ; the antithesis is rather between those literary and inteUectual subjects which can roughly be grouped together under the head of "humanities" and the technical and commercial branches which — however necessary they may be in their proper place — must not be allowed to possess themselves en revanche of the whole field of modern education. In the effort to maintain the position that classical study is one of the best pathways to general culture, and an abiding source of the true humanity, we ought to have as allies, fighting in the van, our teachers of English. More will be said when I come to speak specifically of the study of Latin ; for I intend to maintain the seeming paradox that some acquaintance with the principles of Latin grammar is becoming, especiaUy on this continent, well-nigh indispensable for the proper pro tection of English. Meanwhile it is a pleasure to realize how fully the im portance of the alliance between classical and English teach ing is appreciated by those who are most competent to pronounce an opinion. Take the following from a recent paper by Professor Kelsey, of the University of Michigan, on the CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION 293 position of Latin and Greek in American education. " That a knowledge and appreciation of English literature should be among the resultant products of a liberal training wiU be denied by no one, and it is among the incidental advantages of the study of Latin and Greek that these contribute more richly than the modern languages to a sympathetic under standing of our literary masterpieces, European literature began beside the Aegean and the Tiber. Strive as we may to free ourselves from the spell of Homer, Sophocles, and Plato, of Horace and Cicero and Livy, we must hark back to them and own their sway, for their thoughts and imagery are in the warp and woof of our national expression. They set forth universal truths of human nature and experience in primary forms, as Euclid expressed once for all the^ element ary propositions of geometry. No second-hand or guide-book knowledge can give the reader of English literature the feel ing for reference and allusion which those of our writers had who were saturated with the classics, and which we must have if we would appreciate them fully " (Educ. Eeview, Jan., 1907). In turning over the lists of those who have become members of the Classical Associations recently founded in England and Scotland — which may be said to have been the forerunners of yours — I was gratified to note the hearty re sponse made to their appeal not only by teachers of English, but by teachers of other literatures and by many whose work hes generaUy in the field of literary and historical study. The advocates of the classics ought to be able to enlist on their side every teacher of any literature whatever in their appeal to all who believe in " the supreme value to the intel lectual life of the nation of the preservation of classical study as a means of the highest mental discipline for all such as have the natural aptitude and can afford the time needed to turn those studies to account ". As to modern languages, ^ I am not of course speaking of those who confine their aims 1 The only caveat that needs to be uttered in connexion with French and German has been framed as follows : "provided only that what they teach is taught in the true spirit of scholarship, and up to the same standard of thorough- 294 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES within the narrow hmits of commercial utihty. The ability to converse with couriers and waiters will always be practi cally valuable, and may even be an end in itself to those who wish for nothing more. But your real modern language teacher has pretty much the same aims as his classical colleague : he seeks to provide a literary and humane training. And he has the same criticism to meet : the man who protests against Greek as an utter waste of time will not fail to reveal his real bias if asked to pronounce an opinion, say, on Eomance Philology. It is against such an one that we have need to close our ranks. His attitude is a symptom of the changed conditions under which, in a more material age, the traditional respect for literary culture is tending to become diminished, our well-to-do classes being apt to consider as of prime importance that scientific or practical or commercial capacity which is the source of their own wealth. One compensation for the strong attacks that have been delivered on the classics during recent years is the high class of literature called forth in reply. It has been a real pleasure and an inspiration to look through this literature in the work of preparing this address. Take for instance, Professor Mackail's charming paper, read before the Enghsh Classical Association in 1904, on the " Place of Greek and Latin in Human Life ". " The classics appear before the world," says Mr. Mackail, " not, as once, candidate and crowned, but in a garb, an attitude of humihty, almost of supplication." Four centuries of classical training have produced an anti-classical reaction, but that reaction, he thinks, is being followed by another in favour of the classics. To quote a few of Mr. Mackail's sentences, he speaks of Latin and Greek as "medi ums of the most exquisite delicacy, precision, and finish " ; of the literature which they embody as " the original record of the history upon which our own history is founded, and the expression of the fundamental thought, the permanent as piration, and the central emotion of mankind " ; while the ness and delicate appreciation which have been applied to classics in the past ". And is it not the case that " the best teachers of modern languages insist that the work can only be done thoroughly on a classical foundation " ? CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION 295 surviving products of Greece and Eome in art, politics, rehgion, and the whole conduct of life are at once "the roots and the soil out of which the modern world has grown, and from which it draws life through a thousand fibres. He who truly knows both holds in his hands the keys of the past, which unlock doors in the house of the present." To the classics, therefore, he concludes we shall always have to come back, no matter how far afield we may range in trying to provide a substitute for them. Meanwhile Mr. Mackail urged on our English co-workers that the main object of their Association should be to " quicken the spirit and renew the methods of classical education, and remove from it a dead weight of indolent tradition ". It is all to a great extent a question of methods, and here we must certainly be prepared to make concessions. It cannot be denied, for instance, that there have been numerous cases where the time spent on Latin and Greek has been out of all proportion to the results obtained. It does not follow, of course, that the fault lies with the subjects. But there has been a growing conviction of late that we ought to simphfy our methods of dealing with the subjects, especially as regards the teaching of grammar and accidence. This may be done without endangering that quality of thoroughness which ought always to be one of the main features of classical study. Certainly in the schools, and to a large extent also in the universities, we should confine ourselves to what is of real and essential importance. Then we must endeavour to relate our methods to life ; they must in fact be "humane". We must "treat the Greeks and Eomans as living men and women like ourselves, who had cities and houses that can be reconstructed from their ruins, and used dress and implements of which a fairly clear idea can be obtained ". If we can make the literary and humane aspect of classical study felt from the very first, we shall be able to interest our pupils to a greater extent than was generaUy the case in the days when teachers concerned themselves too much with " obsolete and fictitious forms put together by the schoolmasters of the remote past," and when boys had to 296 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES say by heart so many paragraphs of the syntax before they read any Latin book in which they could find the rules applied, and before they had any real hold on the vocabu lary. And not only must we improve and simplify our methods, we must also try to improve the quality of our teachers. You will remember what Professor Gildersleeve said : " What we want is not less Latin and Greek, but less waste of time in learning or pretending to learn Latin and Greek. . . . We want teachers who have a living and breathing knowledge of the language which they profess to teach : a knowledge which the learner can bathe in as well as drink." That is another form of the old Pindaric maxim, to " sow from a full sack ". And to keep the sack full involves constant work, for which teaching duties often leave but little time. But in giving prominence to the interest attaching to the subject-matter, our classical teachers ought not to think lightly of the importance of training in form. That after all is one of the advantages of classical study. Along with mathematics — which some minds are, however, incompetent to grasp — it stands alone in this respect as an educational instrument. The question has been asked why the claims of mathe matics are never subjected to the same searching scrutiny as the linguistic disciphne provided by the classics. The answer must be made from several points of view. In the flrst place the study of mathematics lends itself to method, by a natural adaptation, and criticism of past procedure has been more apt to direct itself against the department where method was held to be most at fault. Again, the mathematics have not so many competitors belonging to the same genus. Moreover, many people vainly imagine that there is a practical value about mathematics that cannot be claimed, for example, by Latin. They regard mathematical study as founded mainly on arithmetic, and arithmetic touches the pocket ! It does not do to dismiss the study of form as mere mechanical gerund-grinding. On the contrary, much that is essential to literary study depends on a proper linguistic appreciation. CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION 297 Careful attention to words, their effect in combination, pre cision in their use, and accurate discrimination of their mean ings, all this may be said to be a factor in literary training. The great distinction between the diction of poetry and that of prose is a fact of language, the appreciation of which is a first step towards the cultivation of the literary sense. Those who have assimilated in their own mind the stately march of the Virgilian hexameter, and have become conscious, even by the memorizing of isolated lines, of the poet's perfect work will be the least likely to fail as regards standards of taste and literary appreciation. It is in our school teaching that special prominence should be given to training in form, and I am inclined to think that the general practice of composition should be most strongly insisted on in the earlier rather than in the later stages of the classical course. Those who are, as it were, to the manner bom may be permitted to spend further time on perfecting an accomplishment the practice of which, both in' prose and verse, is carried on in its best and highest form at the English Universities. But for the rank and file, given a sufficient basis of acquaintance with the language, the study of great authors should be made to take first place. The practice of written translations, with frequent reference to models of such work, is the best guarantee against shp-shod inaccuracy or careless and undiscriminating paraphrase. And in addition to bringing out the characteristics of the original, it has the merit also of teaching the student how to compose in English. You know what James Eussell Lowell said : " Translation compels us to such a choosing and testing, to so nice a dis crimination of sound, propriety, position, and shade of mean ing, that we now first learn the secret of the words we have been using or misusing all our lives, and are gradually made aware that to set forth even the plainest matter as it should be set forth is not only a very difficult thing, calling for thought and practice, but an affair of conscience as well. Translating teaches us, as nothing else can, not only that there is a best way, but that it is the only way. Those who have tried it know too well how easy it is to grasp the verbal 298 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES meaning of a sentence or word. That is the bird in the hand. The real meaning, the soul of it, that which makes it litera ture and not jargon, that is the bird in the bush which tantalizes and stimulates with the vanishing glimpses we catch of it as it flits from one to another lurking-place. It was those sly allurements and provocations of Omar Khayam's Persian which led Fitzgerald to many a peerless phrase and made an original poet of him in the very act of translation." In the colleges and universities of the United States it is possible, as a rule, to secure an Arts degree without either Greek or Latin. That is not the case with us. For various reasons Latin is given a preference over Greek and is made obligatory on all. Several compromises are being suggested in the interests of those who cannot follow after true per fection and take both ! Some argue that Latin should carry the main burden of mental discipline, and that Greek should be studied rather in the interests of literature and literary appreciation. With a limitation to Latin of almost all gram matical teaching and almost all practice in composition, something more might be done than is possible at present to give average students, possessed of the necessary taste and qualifications, at least some touch of interest in Greek litera ture. This is practically the recommendation made in con nexion with the lightening of the school curriculum by the Classical Association of England and Wales. Greek grammar is not to be discarded, not even such simple exercises in writing Greek as may be recommended with a view to the reading and appreciation of Greek authors : but both gram mar and composition are to be strictly subordinated to the practice of reading. If that is not enough in the way of concession, I have another prescription, which I have some times been able to follow out in the case of my own students. If Latin only is taken, give exemption altogether from the study of Greek, but offer a short course of lectures on Greek literature, and the history of Greek civilization. So far as literature is concerned, the first chapter of Quintilian's Tenth Book is an admirable basis for such a course, addressed to students who are reading Latin. Those who have lectured CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODERN EDUCATION 299 on Greek literature to audiences more or less innocent of Greek know by experience how fascinating the study can be made, advancing as it does through well-defined chapters, each co-extensive with a definite phase of the national history, and dealing with the marvellous way in which most of the higher forms of literature were invented by the Greeks and almost at the same time brought to perfection. Without some reference to the genesis of these types, much of what is best in modern literature is historically uninteUigible. The same method might be followed in dealing with Greek politics, Greek art, Greek life and thought ; and however exiguous such courses might be, they would at least guard against the danger of allowing students to become graduates in Arts without knowing the significance of such names as Homer and Sophocles, Pericles and Pheidias, Aristophanes and Plato. And now as to Latin, I had intended that this paper should contain a short argument for the study of Latin by all who vdsh to be considered educated persons, but it is already getting to be too long. Let me state it, however, as my own experience that when you find a boy coming up to the University without Latin, you will have some difficulty in making out what he has put his time on. It has been said that boys leave school nowadays in a " flabbier " con dition intellectually than was formerly the case, and some of us are disposed to attribute this partly to the neglect of Latin. No instrument of training ranks higher. " You may take it from me," said the late Lord Goschen, " that there are five times as many intellectual processes to under take in translating from Latin and Greek into English as there are in translating into English from any foreign lan guage". And a great chemist at Vienna, referring to school preparation for the study of his science, exclaimed, "Give me a student who has been taught his Latin grammar, and I wiU answer for his chemistry ". Latin is almost indispensable as providing a basis for general grammatical study. It gives what may be called the logic of grammar, every variation of form or syntax reflecting a corresponding difference in 300 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES thought. It has been proved to be the " best instrument available for teaching the science underlying the art of ex pression ". And Latin is specially important in its relation to the vernacular. I have said elsewhere that " there is no greater enemy of illiterate and ungrammatical English than an elementary knowledge of the principles of grammar, such as may be ob tained from Latin". It is by a mastery of Latin that Enghsh grammar is revealed, as it were, to the Enghsh-speaking student, " partly — as Professor Kelsey has put it — because it shows in a clear light those fundamental relations which in our mother-tongue are obscured by the loss of inflections, partly because the terms of our formal grammar are borrowed from the Latin and are understood in their full significance only in connexion with the study of the language for the analysis of which they were primarily devised ". It is just because it is their mother-tongue that young boys are so apt to imagine they know English already. What comes to them in a less familiar form makes a greater impression on their faculties, especially when it can be brought home by compari son and illustration. " What should they know of Enghsh who only Enghsh know ? " The Latinist smiles at the hot discussions that rage between disputants as to the comparative merits of such phrases as "averse from" and "averse to," "different from" and "different to". He 'has his doubts about " all of" and " considerable of," and when he reads in his newspaper that Greek is an " option on the curriculum," or that the learned judge "acquiesced to the demand," he can at once make the necessary correction. A recent educa tional report contains the following gem : " Eecognizing the rapid strides of the Dominion in material prosperity, the necessity for corresponding intellectual development has not been ignored ". Is any one so keenly alive as the Latinist to the horrors of the mis-related participle ? Such considerations help to explain why it is that there has been of recent years a rush "back to Latin ". You know how it is in the United States. In 1902 it was reported that the number of pupils taking Latin as a school subject had in- CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODERN EDUCATION 301 creased in nine years from 33-62 per cent to 49*44 per cent of the total number, this increase being fully twice as great as the rate of increase in secondary school pupils. In England, Latin was recently made obligatory on all candidates for entrance into the Navy, not because they wanted to keep the Navy aristocratic, as some have suggested, or because Latin is the language of ordinary conversation in the Navy, but for the reason that it is recognized as one of the most useful and effective instruments of mental training, the best possible gymnastics for exercising and strengthening the mental faculties. And it wiU enable a boy afterwards to " pick up " French and German and Spanish in a short space of time and with comparatively little effort. By the way, we never speak of "picking up " Greek ! , In such an attitude, adopted even in the face of the practical and utilitarian presuppositions of the present day, the advocate of the classics may find ample ground for en couragement and hope. He knows that as far as language goes Greek and Latin are unrivalled for their organic structure and exquisite precision. " The teaching of them admits," says Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, " of greater exactness than is possible with a living language, in which usage is constantly fluctuating, so that there is no absolute standard, either of accuracy or taste. The data, in a classical language, are virtually as complete as they can ever be ; the standards of style are ackhowledged ; the principles and rules of the language are worked out with scientific accuracy ; and hence, to a greater degree than in any modern tongue, it is possible to say with confidence what is right or wrong, good or bad." Again as regards their sub stance and content the classics include, as Mr. Mackail has said, "certain specific things which are unique in the world and without which human culture always must be incom plete ". The great classical style has the same relation to, and the same effect on our sense of literary appreciation as the language of Isaiah, and Job, and Paul, and the Hebraic style generally, has on our religious consciousness. Neither the one nor the other will ever pass away. Without alleging for a moment that the classics are the only needful element 302 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES in a liberal education, and without shutting our eyes to the new conditions which have been rendered possible by the march of modern science, their apologists may fairly advance the claim that, far from having been dethroned, classical study is constantly annexing new territory. Its crown is firmly set and will not pass away. In ancient literature he all the roots — no matter to what the tree may grow — of the world as we know it to-day, its letters, its art, its science, and its pohtics. The great thought of humanity began with the literature of the classical nations. Classical men do well to keep an open mind towards all worthy subjects of study, provided only that they are taught by methods which fulfil the fundamental conditions of thoroughness and accuracy on which all true education must rest. But as to the comparison between science and the classics, listen to what was recently said by a master of modern geology : "A training in science and scientific methods, admirable as it is in so many ways, fails to supply those humanizing influences which the older learning can so well impart. For the moral stimulus that comes from an association with all that is noblest and best in the literatures of the past, for the culture and taste that spring from pro longed contact with the highest models of literary expression, for the widening of our sympathies and the vivifying of our imagination by the study of history and philosophy, the teaching of science has no proper equivalents " (Sir Archibald Geikie, "Landscape in History," p. 286). And who shall say that a limit has been set to the influence which that classical literature wields ? Do we not live in an age when the discovery of a new papyrus roU — preserved through the centuries to be a link between our world and that which was before us — excites an interest that puts it at least on a level with the produce of the mine? The classics, even as we have them now, enshrine the hfe and thought of the world at once of its most interesting periods. And if we may speculate on what may still be in front of us, would not the discovery, say at Herculaneum, of a great library supplying many of the missing links of CLASSICAL STUDIES IN MODEEN EDUCATION 303 ancient literature — the poems of Sappho and the great lyric poets, more examples of the drama at Athens, the lost books of Livy and Tacitus — would not the recovery of such treasures as these fill the world vdth a fame that would make pale the glories of Klondyke and Cobalt ? It may well be that these studies are not for all, but only for all who have opportunity. But it is our part to see that to those who seek it the opportunity may never be wanting. It will not do to say that classics are all very well for leisured people. If it be the case — as it undoubtedly is — that through the portals of the old "fortifying" curriculum men have passed to the highest positions in the State and in public life, we must take care that no naturally gifted person suffer for lack of opportunity. While holding the balance evenly amid the conflicting claims of modern studies, we ought always to secure their due meed of recognition for the classics, as representing the literature and poetry, the history and antiquities, the politics, the life, and the thought of the ancient world. POETEY IN THE SCHOOL.^ It has been said somewhere that the three most character istic symbols of American civilization are the railroad, the newspaper, and the school. We all know about the railroad, and greatly admire the untiring energy — what is called with out a blush the " aggressiveness " — that has made it what it is to-day. As for the newspapers, well, perhaps it is danger ous to say much about them, except that we are always pray ing for their improvement. Of the school it may be said — as has been said also of journalism — that a community is not likely to have it much better than it deserves, or on the other hand very much worse than it can tolerate. Compared with the two others, the school suffers as a rule from want of competition. It is there, and in most cases, especially in the country districts, the children have to take it or leave it. But though rival institutions may not be avail able, a knowledge of other school systems can always be brought to bear on the problem. Some of the advances that have been made of recent years in our Canadian schools are indirectly traceable to the stimulating example of other countries. For further progress we must look in part to co-operation between the school and the home. This was strikingly illustrated in a very suggestive paper which I had the pleasure of hearing read before a recent meeting of a local Teachers' Association. The amount of criticism that the school comes in for is not altogether to be deprecated : it is the sign and measure of the underlying belief that if aU were well in the school the whole community would profit thereby. In this connexion I am in the habit of saying that 1 An address delivered before the Women's Canadian Club, Winnipeg, 11 January, 1908. 304 POETEY IN THE SCHOOL 305 the school should be regarded by all as part of a great social problem. It should be looked on not as affecting the indivi dual alone, but the community through the individual, in his social, commercial, industrial, professional and cultural rela tions. In this aspect it is surely an absorbing theme for all of us. And in some at least of our Canadian provinces it is doubly necessary to emphasize the conviction that that country will make the greatest progress which is the first to fully realize the importance of getting at the masses of the people through elementary and other public school teachers who have enjoyed a good liberal education of the broadest and most comprehensive character. The watchword now must be to make the most we can through education of all the brain power of the whole community, — not in the way of learning only, but of doing, creating, serving. A nation at school is the peaceful counterpart of a nation in arms. As an introduction to my subject to-night, it may be proper to observe that the trend of present-day education is perhaps too much in the direction of exercising the mechanical element at the expense of the intellectual. It is of course difficult to say anything about education without appearing to utter what are at best half-truths. Perhaps we have heard quite enough recently about the right way to a boy's brain being " not through his ears but by his finger tips ". Both are necessary. When a man exalts what are called the vocational studies, he may not mean altogether to ignore those that are cultural. And it is the same the other way on. Few of us who have watched the enrichment that has come to the school curriculum from the inclusion in it of vocational studies can be in any doubt that we are on the right way of reform. The whole trouble lies in the multiplicity of desirable subjects. I suppose we could all enumerate some twenty-five or thirty of them, and yet we all know that the attempt to bring the pupil into touch with more than eight or nine of these is bound to end in failure all round. But each has its avowed champions — champions sometimes who refuse to be interested in anything else. I once met a high official in the United States who saw 20 306 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES no need for the teaching of anything except agriculture in the country schools. Now this is a heavier penalty than we ought to be asked to pay for looking with favour on the enrichment of the curriculum, e.g. by what is known as nature study. By all means let us have manual training also in our schools, so long as it is duly co-ordinated with other disciplinary studies, and does not lead to the evasion of hard and continuous work. Among many other arguments in its favour is the fact that it will help us to overcome the distaste which many young people have for working with their hands. They don't always know, in early life, how much happier a skilled mechanic is likely to be than one who is predestined to be nothing more than a clerk in an office. A great headmaster, who has now passed to his rest, Almond of Loretto, used to say that there were five points in a good education — character, physique, intelligence, manners, and information. Note that information comes last, though I regret to say that in examination the bulk of the marking generally goes to information. In regard to aU the others the home may make its influence felt on the school. ShaU we speak of manners ? Or character ? Down in Boston the other day I was saying that " smartness " and " pushfulness " need no longer be idolized as the indispensable elements in American national character. And do we not need, equally with our American cousins, to instil in our school children more of the instinct of reverence? "There is one thing," said Mr. Euskin, " which I know, and which if you labour faithfully you shall know also, that in reverence lies the chief joy and power of life ; reverence for what is pure and bright in your own youth, for all that is true and tried in the age of others, for all that is gracious among the living, great among the dead and marvellous in those powers which never die." " Whatsoever career you embrace," said M. Pasteur to the Edinburgh students, in my hearing, " cultivate an elevated aim and a reverence for great men and great things." In a Canadian newspaper the other day I read an indict ment preferred against the Canadian national character by an English journalist, Mr. Harold Begbie. Though couched in POETEY IN THE SCHOOL 307 somewhat high-flown language, it seems to me to deserve our attention; and I shall deal with it on this occasion for the reason that, if there be any truth in Mr. Begbie's representa tions, it is obvious that we shall have to call in the aid of the women of Canada to help us to cure our defects. It is as follows : — " There are no Milton-minded men in Canada, no captains and fuglemen whose moral grandeur and fervour of imagina tion exalt the nation and throw a glamour about its destiny. In a young country whose brow is bright with the dawn, and whose feet move with strength on the high mountains, we look for the statesmanship of a Moses, the prophecy of an Isaiah, and the rejoicing poetry of a Shakespeare. We ex pect inspiration. We demand glory. But Canada disap points. She speaks to us in no solemn and majestic tongue. She sings to us with no lyrical sweetness. In the dawn streaming with increasing brightness on her path, she sees no outline of the Throne of God, she hears no quiring of the young-eyed cherubim. She is conscious of the greatness of her future, but that greatness is all of the market-place and the wharf. She goes forward to take her inheritance not with hymn and song, but with the grim masterfulness of a merchant entering his counting-house." The meaning of all this, of course, is that in the opinion of Mr. Begbie our civilization smacks too much of the count ing-house and the market-place. We have no song to give him, no lyrical sweetness. It is not in us. In reply, may we not ask for a little time ? Time is a great element in the evolu tion of culture, as Mr. Begbie ought to know. It has taken England nearly three centuries, since Shakespeare died, to produce him. Is it not a little odd that in his wholesale in dictment Mr. Begbie has altogether overlooked our Univer sities? In them, and through many other agencies, we are trying to build on the foundation of material prosperity other elements of thought and purpose and aspiration that wiU enable us to take our rightful place among progressive nations. In order to meet such criticism, and to take away the 20* 308 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ground for it, we must go on caring for the things of the mind. Huxley used to say that literature dealt with words, science with things. But surely that is not a fair division of the realm of the knowable. A thought is a thing, though we cannot see or handle it : so too is the lesson of a noble life, or some rule of conduct — set forth, perhaps, in imperishable verse. We must not exalt physics and chemistry and geology at the expense of literature and history. Nor can we afford to neglect language study — a branch of knowledge which seems so indispensable for teaching a nice discrimina tion in the use of words, for developing logical acumen and intellectual grasp, and for cultivating the faculty of hter ary appreciation. In connexion with the current neglect of language study, I am inclined to regret the comparative dis use of a practice which used to be well-nigh universal in my younger days. I refer to the habit of recitation, especially of English poetry. This seems to me to have gone out to such an extent — no doubt owing mainly to the congested condition of the curriculum — that even the word recitation is used on the American continent mainly in another sense. Is this subject encouraged in our schools as, in my opinion, it ought to be ? On board ship I once heard a recitation given by a little girl, but the subject matter was so tawdry that I could not help regretting that she had been at the trouble of learn ing the piece by heart. So I went away and compiled a book of verse for schools ^ — full of the great things of English poetry: for why let young people " go and gossip with the housemaid or the stable-boy when they may talk with kings and queens " ? Poetry to be felt must not merely be read, but read aloud and recited. The art of reading verse musically is not perhaps an easy accomplishment, but the teacher who possesses it and who has a real love of poetry has at least one qualification as vital as any other and one which carries many others with it. For it implies taste, judgment, and literary appreciation. Even with children who are still 1 "Longmans' School Poetry Book." POBTEY IN THE SCHOOL 309 learning to read, the "tinkling of the rime and the dance of the numbers " arrest attention and fall gratefully upon the ear. It is different with prose, where the attention has to be concentrated on the meaning. Verses for young children should be read or said in a style that is half-way between speech and song, more slowly than speech, so as to allow full value to the rhythm, and to bring out the fehcities of rime and versification. Here, too, is the chance for train ing in elocution. Later on, careful and appreciative reading becomes indispensable even for bringing out the sense of a poetical extract, whose full beauty is apt to be missed till it is recited by some one who is saturated with its rhythm and form and colour. " There is hardly an ear that wiU not respond with delight to some metrical effect— whether Milton, Swinburne, or Kipling — if only the music of the poetry can be made to ring clear." If there are some whose metric sense is defective — just as there are pupils who cannot make anything of music and singing — something can be done to cultivate a feeling of rhythm and ordered movement by the practice of reading in unison. It is obvious, however, that the finer effects can be brought out only by individual reading, whether on the part of the teacher or the pupil. This is a matter-of-fact age, and there may be some who consider poetry to be more or less a waste of time. It would be a great pity if this attitude of their seniors were reflected in the minds of the younger generation now at school. We know how fond they are of games, alongside of which fine poetry wiU stand a poor chance : and even at their work they are taught to value those studies most which will help them to get on in the world — arithmetic, for example. Arithmetic is an easy subject, and I am not sure that the teacher does not give it too much attention in our schools. Of course he knows that there will never be any complaint about arithmetic : people love the multiplication-table and all there is on it ! But it would be a mistake for any teacher to allow the impression to remain in the minds of his pupils that poetry is an artificial and unnatural way of saying things, embodying sUly sentimental dreamy views of life, 310 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES set forth in a manner that constitutes a "laboured deviation from the normal and sensible prose way of saying a thing " ; or as Mr. Henry Newbolt has put it, "a sort of sugary nonsense, a mummery which impedes the progress of business, an obsolete form of sentimentality ". One caveat must, however, be uttered in connexion with the advocacy of "Poetry in the School". It must be kept as far as possible from examination purposes. College entrance papers are said to "put a blight" on a school subject which should be the freest of all from the dominion of Dr. Gradgrind. We don't want to feel towards Shakespeare when we are grown up as Byron felt to Horace, or as a distinguished Frenchman felt towards Eacine when he said, " We have so much rabache (gabbled) Eacine at school that we are sick to death of him by the time we are grown up " Superior persons have urged that neither English poetry nor Enghsh literature in general can be taught at school. They hold that literary appreciation is a faculty that cannot be communicated to others. And certainly there is the danger that when literature is made obligatory in the curriculum, the pupil is less likely to turn to it for refreshment and recreation. There is also the bugbear of the examination paper. Information is rampant here, and mere information ought to stand lowest in the list of what is obtained at school. Literary biography, for instance, is of no great importance for lower forms. The pupil who can write from memory a beautiful passage of poetry may well be excused from answering the famous question, " 'Up to this date Burns was happy.' Describe his life before and after, accounting for the change." Some one has rightly said that you might as well ask a class in physics to " describe James Watt's personal appearance, and relate the principal events of his early life". But notwithstanding this danger, the position may be maintained that poetry may be made an educational agent of the most potent kind. Before illustrating what I mean by some readings let me resume the argument under three heads : first as to form, and the aid that may be derived POETEY IN THE SCHOOL 311 from the study of poetry in the battle for good English : second as to its influence on the imagination : and thirdly its moral and spiritual value. One of the greatest hindrances to good English in the school is the belief of both parents and children that they know English well enough. The father thinks, perhaps, that the kind of Enghsh that has served his purpose through life is good enough for his son, and where that is the case the home will not co-operate with the teacher in correcting what is bad and eliminating solecisms. In even touching on such a subject one runs the risk, of course, of posing as a sort of superior person, but after all the University ought to be the guardian of good English ! And it was not I, but a writer in the " New York Nation " ^ who penned the following : " Speaking or writing bad English does not discredit a man or woman socially, as speaking or writing the language of the country badly would in England or France. In most American towns success in life would furnish an ample answer to criticisms on one's speech or letters : in Europe it would only make the want of education more annoying." Now poetry is the sworn enemy of bad English. There is no room in it for any of the words one sometimes hears in current conversation — as for instance " tremendjous " for " tremendous," " somewheres " for " somewhere," " bene- ficient " for "beneflcent," "combatted" for "combated," "aeriated," etc. Even journalese goes down before it, — as when one reads in the morning paper that the judge " ac quiesced to the demand " or " counsel gave in his adhesion with the view," or "considerable of the money collected," "most always," etc., etc. Poetry will frown too on the various contortions which are taking the place of the straightforward English word Yes : its conversation is always Yea, Yea, and Nay, Nay. Whatsoever is invented to take the place of these cometh of evil 1 That is, however, an incidental benefit. More generally speaking, the study of poetry may be said to remind us of 1" College EngUsh," 4 Nov., 1897, p. 351. 312 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES the beauty and value of elevated language, and of a style that transcends the colloquialisms of ordinary life. It has been quite relevantly remarked in this connexion that Sir Walter Scott in his preface to " Tales of a Grandfather " takes the view that " children equally with adults must be addressed in words far above those of ordinary conversation," though as a matter of fact he had begun by trying to write dovyn to the level of their comprehension. Just like their seniors, children enjoy "trying to understand" things, and some verbal felicity which was not at once obvious will linger longer in the memory than pap served specially to tickle the childish palate. In the second place, poetry is a great stimulus to the imagination, which in childhood's romantic days will be apt to exercise itself on what is less worthy of attention if it be not fed with suitable material — with all the evil consequences that are so apt to result where the emotions are untrained and ill-regulated. To quote a recent writer in the " Christian Herald " : " Children hve in a wonderland. AU beyond their limited experience is full of mystery, is vast, beautiful or terrible, as their imagination — free as yet from the dominion of the senses — is clear, keen and effective. This is the time then in which to fill its chambers with pictures of beauty and purity. When a child is seven or eight years old, it is not too young to hang there the saintly Una, whose Angel face As the great Eye of heaven shined bright And made a sunshine in the shady place : or the lovely Christabel, so richly clad and beautiful exceed ingly : or that damsel whom Coleridge in strange vision saw — the Abyssinian maid playing on her dulcimer and Singing of Mount Abora. Take any little lad of eight years old and read to him the grand old ballad of ' Sir Patrick Spens,' and watch how his eyes will kindle and his cheeks glow to the brave story. Or let Macaulay tell him ' How Horatius kept the Bridge '. Or let him go with the ' Ancient Mariner ' into that silent sea, and learn with him the great lesson POBTEY IN THE SCHOOL 313 He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small." But lastly — and this is the point on which I desire most to insist — the teacher has no more potent aid than poetry in the task of instilling sound moral teaching into the minds of youthful pupils. For we have in poetry not merely the in spiring influence of beautiful thoughts expressed in beautiful language, though that is in itself a great gain : we have also a ready means of inculcating moral qualities as well. By it the teacher can broaden and deepen the child's spiritual nature, and by turning its thoughts to love, and sympathy, and reverence, and joy enrich in this way the soil in which these and other virtues are to grow. There is time for a few illustrations.^ Take as an instance of courage and high resolve Joaquin Miller's "Columbus"; or another American poem — Eichard Hovey's " At the End of the Day '' — which seems to me to breathe the very spirit of heroism and of devotion to a forlorn hope or a lost cause, depicting as it does the attitude of valiant men, with their backs against the wall. Henry Newbolt's " Vital Lampada " is even better known. He was a member of my College at Oxford, and this poem was a favourite of mine long before our late lamented friend Dr. Drummond had made it so familiar. Some of our professional hockey heroes have not yet learned, as you know, To set the cause above renown. To love the game beyond the prize. In athletics everything seems unduly subordinated to the desire to win, which is apt to become a positive passion. If Newbolt's poem had not referred to cricket — a game which has a hard struggle to hold its own with us — the teaching which it embodies might have been even more readily brought home to the hearts and consciences both of schoolboys and of college men. As it stands, it may be taken as a poetical embodiment of the saying, long attributed to the Duke of » See " Longmans' School Poetry Book," pp. 393, 257, 389, 246, 315. 314 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS Welhngton, that England's battles were won on the playing fields of Eton. I am not going to speak of hymns. " Every child," it has been well said, " ought to lay in a stock of good hymns. It is not necessary that they comprehend them ; their interpre tation will come. When the father is no longer there to ad vise, when the mother is no longer there to comfort, there will be many days and many crucial hours when the hymns learned at their knees will soothe their heart's great bitterness, or enter into and sanctify its joy " (" Christian Herald "). But there are hymns and hymns, and it implies no disparagement to the Salvation Army, or even to the work of men hke Messrs. Moody and Sankey, to say that not all hymns are literature. Set against hymns of the "namby-pamby, boiled curaty " type — such as we are sometimes made to sing in churches — Addison's " Ode to Creation," — " The spacious firmament on high," etc. Every child should know that by heart. You remember the last lines : — For ever singing as they shine " The Hand that made us is Divine ! " That suggested to me that in my Poetry-Book I should place alongside of the " Ode to Creation " a recent poem by Katharine Tynan Hinkson 'called " Singing Stars ". We are coming in sight of Christmas and I shall read it to you. It is a good exercise in versification and also in the pronuncia tion of classical names, beginning as it does with an address to Orion, the mighty hunter of whom it was fabled that he was fated to carry on as a constellation after death the pursuit of one whom he had loved on earth. Take again — though they are more suited perhaps to riper years — ^Edgar A. Poe's haunting stanzas entitled " To One in Paradise," the last of which especially is so deeply touched with the tender melancholy that inspires the heart in times of sad bereavement. And lastly, as I had to be so hard on Mr. Harold Begbie, let me read you his splendid poem entitled "Britons beyond the Seas," which might well be taken as a text on which to base an appeal to imperial as well as to POBTEY IN THE SCHOOL , 315 national patriotism. The man who could write the last verse of that poem may well be forgiven for his somewhat con temptuous criticism of Canada : — Come, let us walk together. We who must follow one gleam. Come, let us link our labours, And tell each other our dream ; Shakespeare's tongue for our counsels And Nelson's heart for our task — Shall we not answer as one strong man To the things that the people ask ? When teachers have access to such treasures as these — the poetry that, as Shelley says, " redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man " — they ought to have no difficulty, without going out of their ordinary beat, as it were, about importing into the school curriculum something that will help to counteract or at least to modify the somewhat materialistic and utilitarian trend of present-day education. There is a fine passage in Lowell's essay on Democracy with which I should like to conclude : — " The true value of a country must be weighed in scales more dehcate than the balance of trade. . . . On a map of the world you may cover Judaea with your thumb and Athens with a finger-tip, and neither of them figures in the prices current ; but they still lord it in the thought and action of every civilized man. . . . Material success is good, but only as the necessary preliminary to greater things. The true measure of a nation's success is the amount that it has con tributed to the knowledge, the moral energy, the intellectual happiness, the spiritual hope and consolation of mankind. There is no other, let our candidates flatter as they may." To gain such success for Canada, let us begin with the schools. And in the schools may the high thoughts and noble language of the best poetry ever find an honoured place. EDUCATION AND BUSINESS.^ When I received the invitation to be the speaker here to-day, I put before your secretary four or five subjects from which he was to be free to make a choice. It remains to be seen whether he chose the right one or not. Anyhow, if I fail to interest you in what I have to say, you wUl be able at least to imagine how much better I might have done with one of the others ! Canadian Club orators have come to be like our friends the parsons : they can preach from any text. That is speci ally true, as you must have noticed, of those among them who are Professors. You ask us to come before you and talk of what interests us most, and you take what we tell you "with your meals"! That is the prescription: as Mr. Eudyard Kipling said when he was in Canada, you " tie your victim to a steak," and then wait to hear whether he has anything to say. Well, the process has no terrors for me, for I have had much practice in these "aids to digestion," from Halifax at least as far west as Winnipeg. For some time I think I could even claim the record : on one occasion, after addressing the men at lunch, I had the opportunity of talking to the Women's Club on a different subject in the same afternoon. Perhaps I ought in a way to rejoice over the choice of subject made by your committee. One gets rather tired here and elsewhere of the constant differentiation which people make between academic and practical persons. To me the academic man is one who enjoys the great advantage of being able to cultivate a certain detachment of mind that leads him to look at a question from every point of view. He is not ' An address delivered before the Canadian Club, Ottawa, 7 January, 1911. 316 EDUCATION AND BUSINESS 317 necessarily dreamy and unpractical, or remote from affairs. Nor need he be what Lord Palmerston contemptuously called (speaking by the way of Germany) merely a " damned Pro fessor ". Cecil Ehodes, to be sure, said that college men were mere children in finance : but he was thinking of Ox ford : he had not seen — well, for instance, he had not seen McGill ! The modem University is, of course, in one of its aspects, intensely academic : what else would save us from the reproach that Mr. Harold Begbie tried to fasten upon us, when he said that Canada's greatness savoured too much of the market-place and the wharf, the counting-house and the railway shed ? But it is at the same time intensely practical. That is why in some of our western centres the University question has become so absorbing an issue, dividing public attention even with the railways themselves ! For myself, if I may add a personal note, I am accustomed to hold that there is no position — whether in bank, factory, or business corporation — that touches life and the practical interests of life at more points than that of the executive head of a great modern and up-to-date University. Perhaps it is this that makes me always ready to avail myself of the opportunity of being brought into contact with the members of our Canadian Clubs. They are largely com posed of business men, who can help to prevent the academic element in the community from being regarded, or from tending to regard itself, as a thing apart. Professor Seeley used to impress upon us the view that no criticisms are of greater value or deserve more careful consideration than those of practical men. There ought to be no great gulf fixed between us. That idea is an evil inheritance from the days when Universities were thought of only as preparing for the learned professions, — certainly not for those which control the world of commerce and industry. Surely it is well that in all our great and growing centres there should be a union between the men of thought and the men of action. They ought to hve alongside of each other in mutual sympathy, and with the feeling that both are necessary for the common good. What do I mean by the title of my address — Education 318 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES and Business ? Is it the educational side of business, or the business side of education ? Business is, as we all know — well, business is business ! and as to education, nobody is quite sure what it is or rather what it ought to be : there is in fact no subject about which there is so much general dis agreement. At the same time there is a profound conviction now abroad that education is a good thing for everybody, and that not only on its elementary but also on its higher side, it is indispensable to the development of a great people. My colleague. President Murray Butler of Columbia, thinks there is no more special characteristic of the American people than their " never-failing faith in the power of education to promote both individual and national happiness, efficiency and virtue ". Socrates taught that virtue is knowledge, and Americans are almost Socratic in their acceptance of the principle that knowledge wiU lead to right and useful action and conduct. It is in great measure the pressing demands of industrial and commercial life that are giving our colleges so intensely practical a turn at the present time, and in the effort to meet these demands, without sacrificing other interests, they seem to me to be strengthening from day to day their hold on public confidence. Here in Canada we are at present greatly interested, for instance, in technical education, which deals with the relation of science to industry, and has a direct bearing on the industrial efficiency of the people at large. Our manufactures are increasing and our education must be made to keep pace with their advance. Skilled labour has come to be more and more in demand. That is what our manufacturers need, while the operative on the other hand ought to have the opportunity of developing his industrial inteUigence and so making sure of a " steady job," as weU as of deserving and securing that increase of wages which should be the reward of progressive efficiency. Our aim all over ought to be " to give the people what they seek, the scientific basis of the occupation which is to be theirs in life ". This may be said to represent a new renaissance, or revival, con cerned this time with the scientific treatment of what belongs EDUCATION AND BUSINESS 319 not to the intellectual or moral or spiritual but to the material part of human well-being — the science that underlies and Uluminates human labour, and which, in vital relation to the workshop, aims primarily at "sharpening the faculties of observation and reasoning, and at giving an elementary knowledge of the laws that govern the material world in which the workman works, such as may enable him to reason about it rightly ". In our Canadian colleges, such as the Applied Science Faculty of McGill, technical education was begun at the right end — the German rather than the English end. There has first been provided the highest possible training for those who are to be the directors and captains of industry. It is in this application of science to manufactures on the part of men who have had the highest form of instruction that Germany has found so remunerative an investment for her industries. The next step is to spread the net wide for the masses, so as to add to the directive powers of the leaders mechanical skill and general intelligence on the part of the artisans, and to increase the number of those from whom foremen and higher officers may be chosen. This is all in line with the aspirations of democracy, which ought to seek to provide equal opportunities for aU. So far as our colleges and universities are helping to meet this and other practical needs, they are simply fulfilling their manifest destiny. The development of academic in stitutions might be sketched in such a way as to form a chapter in the history of evolution. New types of training have been introduced from time to time, called forth by new problems, and taking their rightful place alongside of the old curriculum ; and these new types all embody and give emphasis to the truth that knowledge is valuable, not for its own sake alone, but mainly as leading to action. In the beginning there was the traditional college programme that sufficed for centuries ; though it restricted its practical activity to the turning out of lawyers, and doctors, and preachers : for the rest, it aimed, and still aims, fundamentally, at train ing in faculty — not the application of knowledge, but the 320 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES development of every faculty, so that the student shall be able to use his powers successfully in any direction. The first radical change was effected by the introduction of courses in natural science — physics, chemistry, biology ; aiming at an increased and methodized knowledge of the laws and phenomena of the physical world. Largely as a result of this there followed the wonderful expansion that has been witnessed during the last half-century — the period of material development that reads like the fairy-tale of some wonder-working magician. In this period our higher educa tion has been undergoing constant changes, to meet the demands of commerce, and to keep pace with the marvellous inventions of science in every field of human endeavour, and with the growth also of applied art in every department of public service. In order to supply the special training and the variety of talent that the old institutions could not furnish, schools of technology and applied science — for engineers, chemists, electricians, etc.— have sprung up in scores. In Germany the number of students in higher edu cational institutions has more than doubled itself in the last thirty years, while in the United States the percentage has increased at a ratio twice the increase of the population. In the Universities of the West and Middle West — where the country has been in the course of settlement, and where the call for material development has been loudest — two-thirds of the whole student body are enrolled in the departments of Applied Science. Even the older Universities, on this continent and also in England, have expanded their curriculum to furnish the required training. And the partnership between technical school and University has been good for both. It symbolizes the rapprochement and even the reconciliation of the two great parties in the educational campaign : the champions of the "humanities" think more now than they used to do of the bearings of their studies on the actualities of modern life, while the so-called Philistine has at least a better chance of learning to see something, after all, in culture ! Certainly the technical student gains in general educational training. He breathes the wholesome and stimulating atmosphere of EDUCATION AND BUSINESS 821 work that reaches far beyond the limits of his own field, and incidentally — even unconsciously — he absorbs a wider culture which he could not find outside the University. In this way he acquires qualities that not only strengthen him for his later professional activities, but also contribute powerfully to his usefulness as an educated citizen. Engineering schools are firmly entrenched now within the University, and are as liberally supported as the older professional schools of law and medicine. That is what I have called the second stage of University development. Its fruits are everywhere apparent. Graduation in applied science has become a passport to success in professional work. It is a generally accepted opinion that within a few years of leaving college the college-educated engineer far outstrips in position and salary his average competitor who comes up from the ranks. In the great Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Works at East Pittsburg — where eighteen years ago there were only four or five college men in all — no fewer than 275 college graduates secured positions in 1906. We are mainly concerned with the third stage in the story of academic evolution. The wonderful advances in the way of scientific achievement, together vdth the concurrent expansion of our educational system, wiU doubtless be con tinued : but alongside of them have come changes in the conditions of the industrial and the commercial world — changes due to the "minute applications of science to the industries, to the practical annihilation of time and space in the business world, the subdivision of labour, and the more careful observance of the principles of economy, particularly in checking waste and the prodigal use of raw material and natural resources " . Hence it comes that higher education for business life is now claiming equal rank with courses in science and technology, and is suggesting modifications in curricula and methods of instruction. Here at once steps in the practical man with his objection " solvitur amhulando " .• you can learn business best by going into business. It must at once be conceded that the need of business experience will never be displaced by any instruction 21 322 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES that the college may give. But the practical man must look the facts squarely in the face. The late President Harper of Chicago — who was of all college Heads I have ever known the one most in touch with the business world — stated them as foUows : " College men are being sought out in practi cally every kind of business for positions of responsibility. Experience has shown that the college man, although he may not have the technical training for the particular business which he enters after leaving college, requires no long period of time in which to overtake the non-college man who started in the same business years before : and to over take means, of course, to outstrip." And again, "Great business concerns on every side are calling for men whose minds have been trained, and they are willing to give such men ample opportunity to learn the technique of the business which they are to enter, strongly confident that in the end those men will excel". And so college graduates are more and more choosing a business rather than a professional career. Statistics show that nearly one-third of the living alumni of Princeton are in business. The problem really is, not to try any substitute for business experience, but so to supplement it that trained men may pass by rapid promotion to the highest appointments. Many of those who take a humble position in the business world at too early a period in their lives are in danger of not rising. Their habits are apt to become fixed in a somewhat monotonous routine from which they cannot receive the inspiration and stimulus necessary to success. This is said without prejudice to the exceptional cases where train- despatchers, for instance, or telegraph boys, or conductors, have been known to raise themselves, in time, to the proud pre-eminence of the railway president. If it be objected, on the other hand, that the average man injures his prospects of success if he takes up work at too late a period in his life, we may reply that the average man generally has to reach the age of 30 or 35 before his powers are fully developed and his station in life more or less determined : if he goes into business after leaving the high school — say at 18 — he wiU EDUCATION AND BUSINESS 323 take his chances, whereas he may get two or three years more of higher commercial education and still have ten years left in which to mingle the knowledge thus acquired with the insight and practical wisdom derivable from actual business experience. It is from the knowledge, ideals, and traditions obtainable through higher study that young men may gain the spirit, the consciousness of abihty, that will uplift them in the exercise of their trade or profession. An eminent authority is of opinion that just as the age hmit for immature child-labour has been steadily raised in civilized countries, so an extension of the period of educational discipline prolongs the stage of mental plasticity before routine closes in on the worker — in the days while his out look may stiU be widened and his character strengthened ("Educational Eeview," March, 1905). The old view was that " apprenticeship is more valuable than a course of instruction," and that " the latter by delaying real, practical experience renders a mastery of business details more difficult ". (The same used to be said of teaching : learn how to teach by trying to ; but we are beginning to train our teachers now.) And the apprenticeship system belonged to an earlier period of our industrial development — when masters trained their apprentices, who were often their own sons, in the arts they had themselves acquired. This system has gone down before large-scale production and the differentia tion of its processes ; unskilled and rule-of-thumb work does not take a high place in the minute division of labour, in which large industries are, as it were, " stratified," with the conse quence, at least in the lower ranks, of stationary and narrow ing tendencies that lead to the repression rather than the encouragement of individuality. Executive positions are apt to be filled in such industries, not from the rank and file, but by men "fresh from the outside trained in another atmos phere ". So in place of the personal contact of apprentice and master we may put now the disciphne and ideals of educa tion : this will excite aspirations towards better work on the part of such as are qualified to rise beyond a certain dead level in factory or shop or office, to which dead level — with 21* 324 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES its fixed unvarying duties — the organization of modern in dustry too often tends to consign them. In these days then of extended educational facilities all round, and with the raising of the quahfications for admission to professional study, we may properly ask what is being done to secure higher standards for all who are to be leaders of industry, heads of departments, directing the work of others, whether as merchants, bankers, insurance men, railway- managers, etc. Let us glance for a moment at conditions in foreign countries before we come nearer home. Writing in the "Eevue des deux Mondes," M. Andre Siegfried — whose book on Canada deserves the attention of every intelligent reader — attributes to the American business colleges, and to the dozen or more university faculties of commercial education, a great deal of credit for the originahty of American business methods. The contrary view — that the commercial training is the result rather than the cause of the great industrial advance — has been advocated by others. The same problem has been debated as regards Germany, where an enormous growth in the number of commercial schools has come in the train of the great increase Germany has experienced in her foreign trade within the last twenty years. And it is a significant fact that a great part of this activity is due to private initiative, numbers of business men joining together, under the patronage of the Emperor, in a resolute and well-directed effort to capture foreign markets. Belgium also is well to the front, taking up higher commercial studies. Nor does England lag so far behind as one might perhaps have been inclined to expect. The new University of Manchester has established a Faculty of Commerce and Administration, the aim of which is to give a systematic training in advanced commercial subjects, in the study of methods of government and administration, and in economic and social investigation. It is a notable feature of this venture — and one which might very well be imitated here — that men engaged in business are associated on the staff of the Faculty of Commerce with professional teachers. The Council of the University of Birmingham has formed an advisory board of EDUCATION AND BUSINESS 325 business men, eight gentlemen, all of them engaged in active business life — aUof them indeed being heads of great industries, manufacturing and commercial enterprises — to co-operate with the Professors in the Faculty of Commerce, which con sists now of a Professor of Commerce, a Professor of Finance, and a Professor of Accounting, as well as a Lecturer in Com mercial Law. There are many students now seeking the Bachelor of Commerce degree, which the University first granted last year. A similar report could be made of recent action on the part of the authorities of Trinity College, Dublin. What are we doing in Canada ? Some years ago — to speak only of McGill — I outlined certain modifications of the Arts curriculum such as might lead to the establishment of a School of Commerce, and we have since instituted what is known as the " Two Years' Course for the Commercial Di ploma ". It includes a sound training in the essential branches of a liberal education— heginnrng of course with English. Then we must have mathematics, for logical and exact training, but in the first year only, for mathematics — apart from mental arithmetic and modern measurements (horse power, kilowatts, etc.) and accounting — are not so fundamental for the activity of the business man as for the engineer : history, in order to gain some insight into the ac cumulated experience of the race and an understanding of the main currents of civilization (always, of course, with special re ference to the constitution of Canada, Britain, and U.S.A.) : modern languages, not only for training in linguistics and in literary appreciation, but also as " facilitating an under standing of the international aspects of present-day trade " : science (physics and mechanics) for accurate observation and the study of nature's laws — also because of its close relation to machinery and the materials of industry and commerce. To these are added commercial geography and descriptive economics, dealing with business conditions in the world's markets, and with problems of finance and credit : for your business man ought to be both a geographer and an econom ist. We intend also to provide instruction in the principles and practice of accounting. Such teaching appeals to young 326 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES men who can give two years to such a great " utility course " without going on through the four years of the Arts curri culum. Some time ago one of my colleagues placed in my hands a memorandum in which he seeks to make provision — when practicable — for an even fuller scheme of commercial educa tion. Taking a leaf out of the book of our Faculty of Law, which is frequented by students who are giving the greater part of their time to apprenticeship with law-firms and atten dance in the courts, he asked if an Advanced Course of two or three years could not be laid down, leading to a degree, under conditions that would make attendance possible for students engaged in 'offices br works during the rest of the day. He calculates that nine hours weekly would be enough if the curriculum were spread over three years. Here are some of the courses suggested — Economic Problems, Public Administration, Mercantile Law, Banking and Foreign Trade, Tariffs and Trade, Markets and Market Organization, Collection and Utilization of Statistics. If this could be arranged, it would furnish a parallel to the methods which have been developed in connexion with the study of engineering. There used to be some discussion as to whether an engineering apprenticeship should precede or follow a college course. We have solved that problem at McGill by encouraging summer work in the shops, through out the curriculum. And now we learn that one of the Universities south of the line is making the two run concur rently — one week of lectures and laboratory foUowed by one week of the shops. The experiment is said to be very success ful. Its application to a School of Commerce would depend on the co-operation of the heads of business houses. There would, of course, be no attempt to give a practical knowledge of business methods and routine in the class-room. We should not follow the example of some prominent commercial schools which "play at business" — establishing miniature stock and produce exchanges, banking houses, etc., and even instalhng a "ticker" as part of the stage-setting of their business equipment ! EDUCATION AND BUSINESS 327 Some such arrangement would undoubtedly do much to obviate the only criticism of importance that I have heard made against the college graduate, viz. : that he takes too long to find his bearings and adjust himself to the greater rigour of a new business environment. Actual contact with work during the college course, and even competition with others who may be struggling for a living, would be the best cure for this. From all that has been said, you will be able to perceive the justice of the claim that the distinguishing feature of the modern and up-to-date University is its ability to keep in close touch with popular requirements. Its curriculum furnishes a training in citizenship and for the public service : its output of graduates proves that it is a source of supply for all forms of national activity that call for intellectual power. President Butler lately, in speaking of the basis of scientific training required even for the man of practice, said that he " looks forward confidently to the time when the management of a great machine-shop will be considered one of the learned professions". There is an element of truth even in such an exaggeration. It is difficult to cover every aspect of a subject in a single sentence or even in a single address ! I have not been speaking of all education, but simply education for business. It is not necessary, nor even desirable, that all education should have a directly utilitarian end. I have not been ex tolling the methods of the Business CoUege, for example, as good for everybody ; it assumes that a certain technical facility is practically all that is necessary to success. On the con trary, I agree with Professor Michael Sadler when he says : " It would be a blunder from the point of view of the later efficiency of the pupil to deprive him of a liberal education in order to impart to him an early knowledge of the technical ities of business hfe". The late Mr. Goldwin Smith once remarked with great truth : " the office boy of 14, if he de velops solely along that line, will in his later years not be a very noble creature or a partaker of the highest pleasures ". And again : " Much as education has to do with economic 328 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS efficiency, it can accomplish little unless from the first it aims at something higher than money-profit ". And we must remember that success in business does not necessarily mean success in life — especiaUy in that higher life which it is every man's duty and privilege to develop and cultivate to the utmost of his powers. You may be the proprietor or manager of a highly prosperous business and yet have failed to make your adjustment to that wider sphere in which all have equal opportunities. You may even be — like some professors I have known — a rather uninteresting person ! It is education that helps the individual to develop to the full all his native capacities. The spirit of commercial enterprise has been one of the greatest factors in human pro gress, but it must never be allowed to dominate and absorb everything else. We must not exalt the material and mechanical over the intellectual and spiritual. We must build up and around commerce and industry higher elements of thought and sentiment and aspiration — literary, scientific, philosophical, artistic. I know of no more effective member of society than the representative man of business — in daily touch with the actualities of life, and conversant with the whole body of organized commerce — who is also living the fuller hfe of the spirit and the intellect, almost as much as any scholar, scientist, or man of letters. It is as a prepara tion for this that the college course can be commended to those who are able to avail themselves of it. In its highest aspect, it deals with the things of the spirit. But the college is also " an intensely practical working agent — effective and worthy of support, not as a mere academic ornament, but only so far as it makes itself felt in the real life of the com munity ". It stands and must continue to stand, not only for learning and intellect, but also for earnestness in ideal and efficiency in practice. THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVBESAEY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVEESITY.^ The review of twenty-five years' strenuous service may well excite feelings of lively satisfaction — and of some emotion — in the hearts both of speaker and of hearers. For myself, I count it an honour to be associated with such a commemora tion and such a retrospect. To-morrow we are to be looking forward instead of backward, and I am sure everyone shares Dr. Gilman's confident outlook for the future, of which we are to hear more from his successor. Can it be because I am able to look in both directions that I have been honoured with an invitation to speak this afternoon ? Twenty-seven years ago while studying at Gottingen, in Germany, I re member hearing from American fellow-students that a new star had arisen in the West, a University which intended to begin where others left off. Since then I have " done twenty years " as a College Head, and like Dr. Eemsen and all other young men feel quite capable of going on for another half century. Or if I am to cast about for another reason, I may find it perhaps in the hypothesis that you did not want one of yourselves to praise Dr. Gilman and Johns Hopkins. You preferred to entrust this agreeable duty to a — foreigner ! My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth when — in such an assembly as this — I try to pronounce that estranging word. Well, if I must be what is called at University celebrations a "foreign delegate," let me at least figure as a composite and cosmopolitan example of the type. I have spoken of Gottingen, but I bring you also as a graduate of each, the compliments and congratulations of Edinburgh and Oxford, and St. Andrews — which, by the way, will soon be celebrating I Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 20 February, 1902. 329 330 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES its five-hundredth birthday — as well as messages from your Canadian sister up in Montreal. And here let me say at once how highly we in Canada appreciate your hospitality to our graduates : many of them owe much of their success in after life to the opportunities of further study which they have enjoyed here. If anything, you are too hospitable : you have kept and are keeping too long from us in McGill Dr. William Osier. And if I were privileged to speak, not in the name of these Universities alone, but also for all the centres of learn ing that have sent students on to Johns Hopkins — the number is stated as not far short of 200 — the homage that is now rendered would be rendered in identical terms by all. We have all been shining in the reflected glory of the high ideals with which you began your work twenty-six years ago, and we rejoice along with you over the great success which has attended your operations. You have raised to a higher level the whole conception of academic work on this continent, and the stimulus of your example has made itself felt in every department of University activity, and that too, not in the smaller colleges alone, but even in the oldest and most dis tinguished institutions. Nowhere has a more real expression been given to the view that the higher teaching cannot be fully inspired when it does not go hand in hand with zeal for extending the boundaries of human knowledge : that it is not enough to teach science and learning ready-made, as it were, instead of taking a hand in the making of them : that professors must never cease to be students : and that the crown and coping-stone of education comes only through training in research and independent investigation. The address to which we have listened is one more proof that if Johns Hopkins has been fortunate in her ideals, and in her ability to see these ideals realized, she has been fortunate also in her organizer and first President. Dr. Gilman seems to have been gifted with a double share of that supreme quali fication of a CoUege Head — the power of sympathizing with every department of academic work, linguistic, historical, literary, scientific, philosophical. It must have been this ANNIVERSARY OP JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 331 that made him so successful in his choice of men. Where could greater distinction be found concentrated in one place than in the institution which could boast the names that are to-day on the hps of all ? Newall Martin, whose physio logical experimentation — so ably carried on by Drs. Welch and Osier — made a new era in the history of medicine in America: or Adams for history, Eowland for physics, Sylvester for mathematics, Gildersleeve for classics, Eemsen for chemistry. I have met many who look up to and revere these men as masters and teachers : and the Journals which they founded in their several subjects are esteemed in all centres of learning as among the weightiest and most distin guished contributions to periodical literature. That college President does well who steadfastly refuses to look upon his University as a mere academic ornament, and strives to make it instead a centre of practical usefulness to the community. Nothing has done so much as this, during recent years, to draw towards University institutions the benevolent attentions of millionaires and practical men generally. Law, and Medicine, and Theology are no longer the only technical applications of academic studies. All the marvels of modem scientific activity rest on the basis of the abstract and theoretical learning that is fostered by the University. And besides, the new type of coUege professor can make his voice heard not only about bridges and rail roads and electrical supplies, but also about public finance, and currency, and banking — even about an international dispute over a boundary-hne. I am told that the sympathies of Johns Hopkins are so comprehensive that they extend from local industries like the oyster culture of Maryland and Virginia to a study of the economic conditions of Porto Eico! In all this we cannot fail to see the guiding hand of ex- President GUman. His well-known interest in such subjects as the working of municipal systems, and civil service re form, and his habit of bringing to Johns Hopkins from the outside those who had some practical message to deliver, show that he has always realized the view that learning and 332 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES science are and must ever remain incomplete and unsatis fying unless they can be adapted to the service and the use of man. And now he is to continue his fruitful and beneficent activity as a Trustee of the Carnegie Institute at Washington. A sum of money equal to that which he had previously divided among the four Universities of his native land, Mr. Carnegie has more recently made available at one centre in the country of his adoption. Truly it may be said of all departments, as Dr. Osier recently said of medical science, that at this rate of progress the centre of gravity is crossing the Atlantic and wiU soon be found in the United States ! The century on which we have just entered is big with issues of the highest importance for the life and progress of mankind. Under new conditions and with greater material means of betterment and enrichment, the work and office of our Universities will go forward on lines which Jowett, the late Master of Balliol, had at heart when he pictured the University not exactly as a ladder let down from heaven to earth, but rather as a bridge that might connect the different branches of knowledge — ^so apt to become estranged from one another — and that might unite the different classes of society, and at the same time bring about a more friendly feel ing among the different sects of religion. That is an ideal which I am sure the Johns Hopkins of the future, as well as the Carnegie Institute, will do much to realize for this for tunate, free, and highly favoured land ! THE HAEVAED CANADIAN CLUB.^ " HiSTOET is said to repeat itself, and the visits which mem bers of one University are privileged, in these modern days, to pay another resemble, in a way, the visits made by wandering scholars during the Middle Ages — under conditions how dif ferent ! — to the various centres of learning on the European continent. They were allowed, from time to time, to lift up their voices, and travelling from place to place, to speak the word that might be in them. There were also student migra tions in these days, as there are with us. This Club represents, I understand, a body of students who come mainly from Canada, but also from other parts of the British Empire. I take it that you are at Harvard for pretty much the same reason that the students of long ago attached themselves to some particular institution : you are getting here what you cannot so easily get nearer home. I congratulate you on your opportunities at Harvard. For 140 years Harvard was British, and to-day it may be said to be cosmopolitan as well as purely national John Harvard's College has trained many Canadian professors and has several Canadians now on its staff, just as McGill, for example, has many Americans. And may I say, in reference to the guest who addressed you here at your last monthly meeting, that I have always regarded President Eliot as one of the most dignified figures in contemporary American Ufe ? How interesting it is to reflect that 300 years have passed and gone since John Harvard was born. Set along side of that the other historical fact that next year we in Canada are going to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of Champlain's foundation of Quebec, and you will see how easy it is to connect the fortunes of the two 1 An address deUvered at Cambridge, Mass., 14 December, 1907. 333 334 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES countries, as I am going to try to do both to-night and in the address which I have undertaken to give to the Intercolonial Club on Monday. I am told that there are about 180 Canadians at present studying in American Universities in post-graduate departments. We are very much indebted for this hospitality. Scholarship and learning know no bound aries ; reciprocity is the word there, and never has there been nor ever can there be a tariff upon intellectual produce. And it is in post-graduate work, where the student is, so to speak, something of a fellow-worker with his teacher, that we can find the best line for developing inter-communication between Universities. It may be admissible, on my part, to say a single word of the efforts that are being made by Canadian Universities themselves to extend this part of their work. In Toronto, the other day, at the inauguration of the new President, it was a pleasure to see how many alumni of that University came forward as representatives of American Universities, in which they had distinguished themselves. And for McGill, I may be allowed to say that, though we have been by no means premature or hasty in the well- considered step we have taken, the eminence of our professors has already, within the two years of its separate existence, attracted students in considerable numbers to what we now boldly caU the ' McGiU Graduate School '." * * ^ After some reference to incidents in previous visits to the United States, Dr. Peterson went on to discuss Canadian re lations with the United States. In reference to the Dominion, he said that he would not dwell on that favourite theme of politicians, her material resources, her fisheries, her mines (including coal), her timber, her agricultural products, her iron and steel, her pulp and paper. He wished rather to echo, in the first place, the large view expressed by President Eliot when he was in Montreal recently to the effect that the final word as to the ideal of free government had not yet been said even by the American Eepublic. They believed that the Canadian constitution was, on the whole, superior. Certainly it suited Canadians better, and its elasticity had been proved by the fact that instead of the four THE HARVARD CANADIAN CLUB 335 Provinces covered by the original Act of Confederation, the Dominion now included nine. After referring to the well- known feature of difference, that whereas in Canada the pro vinces have specified powers and the Dominion Govemment takes all the residue, in the United States the contrary is the case, he went on to say, that the Government of Canada, like that of Great Britain herself, was in closer touch with the public pulse. With them the popular will could more speedily assert itself. The power of absolute veto, moreover, given to the American Executive, for a period of four years, carried with it privileges which not even the Emperor-King could arrogate to himself. Again the Canadian judiciary and other public officials did not depend for appointment to office on public favour, and might, therefore, perhaps (d priori) be ex pected to conduct themselves more impartially than:is some times the case under the elective system. A feature, again, on which he noted that President Eliot had laid considerable stress was the fact that the Dominion ministers on a dissolu tion could in Canada go anywhere for re-election. This gave the country the benefit of more continuous service on the part of their best men. He quoted from President Butler, who speaking of the United States, had lately recorded his conviction that " the system, unfortunate in high degree, of small constituencies having individual representatives in state and national legislatures, who are almost uniformly residents of the districts for which they are elected, has reduced to a minimum the truly representative capacity and efficiency of those bodies and has deprived them of many elements of power. For it is well-nigh a political axiom that large con stituencies make independent representatives and that small constituencies make tools and ciphers." Canada has other and very special difficulties to which he could not venture to make any detailed reference. He ad vised his hearers to read Siegfried's recent book, which was the most complete presentation of existing conditions that could anywhere be found. Life in the grand old province of Quebec was certainly full of interesting features. It might be said, with some degree of truth, that the entente cordiale. 336 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES of which so much is heard in England to-day, had really been invented in the Province of Quebec. It was the special duty of every resident in that province to join in the endeavour to make French and English alike forget their ancient contro versies and unite ever more and more in bonds of mutual sympathy and national fellowship. No one had spoken more eloquently on this subject than His Excellency the present Governor-General, and it was a pleasure to listen to his in spiring words at the meeting held the other day in Montreal, when he had lent his countenance and support to the new Women's Canadian Club. Compared with a recent very im portant pronouncement from another quarter. Lord Grey's speech was certainly a powerful contribution to the work of nation-building. " And now a word or two about the conditions of our uni versities. It is a favourite reflection of mine," Dr. Peterson went on to say, " that while we are waiting for the parlia ment of man and the federation of the world, a great deal may be actually achieved by drawing together in feeling and sentiment such representative institutions as our universities. They receive within their halls, as here at Harvard you very well know, all sorts and conditions of men, and women too, of every nation and every creed, creating thereby a real brotherhood of learning and intellect. And our universities are gaining an increasing hold on public interest, especiaUy here in the United States. They are training now for every walk in life, including the higher branches of commerce. It is a remarkable fact, as stated by President Eliot, that at Harvard last year the majority of the Arts students went into business. That shows the extent of appreciation that is to-day entertained for well-educated men. Slighting refer ences are sometimes made to institutions like Oxford and Cambridge, where learning had been so long cultivated mainly for 'its own sake, but even in the days when our universities are coming into nearer relations with practical affairs, we ought to aim at preserving something at least of the spirit of those ancient foundations, bringing it at the same time into closer touch with modern life and affairs. In all the countries THE HARVARD CANADIAN CLUB 337 of the world, the universities can do their part in laying the foundations on which may be erected the structure of a thoroughly well-informed and competent public opinion. " There are many agencies at work for developing the com munity of interests of which I have spoken. On this continent college news is a feature of the weekly edition of one of your greatest newspapers ; it is sometimes included, by no means inappropriately, in the financial section ! Other agencies for unification and for what may be called standardization are at work." In this connexion Dr. Peterson gave some account of the work of the Carnegie Foundation under the able leader ship of President Pritchett, and alongside of that called attention to the last report of the trustees of the Oxford Ehodes Trust. Incidentally he said that Lord Eosebery's appreciative speech at the unveiling of the tablet which had been erected at Oxford in memory of Mr. Ehodes gave a better account of the great idea which Mr. Ehodes had embodied in his last will and testament than the remarkable utterance of an American editor who said, a year or two ago, in the pages of the " Cosmopolitan " that " Cecil Ehodes had not wished to send American youth to Oxford to be educated, but rather to educate Oxford in the ways of a great republic ". In regard to Canada, Dr. Peterson gave some account of McGill's activity in British Columbia and elsewhere, and of Mr. Sar- gant's lectures, which might be taken as an introduction to the work of the British Association at Winnipeg in 1909, when the question of comparing educational conditions throughout the Empire, and securing such uniformity as might be desirable or practicable in the midst of so much obvious diversity of conditions, was expected to be fully ventilated. " Let me express the hope," he continued, " that most of you will find your way back to the country of your origin. For tunately that promises to be the case with our Canadian Ehodes scholars. It would be a distinct loss to Canada if they were to remain permanently away from her. The opportunities of Uni versity work in Canada are on the increase, and you will be all the better qualified for the privileges you have enjoyed while 22 338 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES here. I hope there may be room for you aU. Do not, how ever, think that you have already established a claim upon any appointments that may be going, whether or not you can show that you are the best available candidate. The policy of McGill in this respect, while sometimes challenged, is quite impregnable ; as between two candidates, one a Canadian and one an outsider, who are in all respects equal, it will always give the Canadian the preference, but not otherwise. This is the pohcy of Harvard herself. Otherwise how would she have been able to send a Canadian professor, Schofield, to represent her this year in Berlin, and to rise above the narrow petty criticism which that action drew upon her in some quarters ? When you come back to Canada bring with you the best you have received and leave any untoward ele ments behind. If I may venture on one criticism of American manners and institutions, I may say that their worst feature, at present, seems to be a certain want of reverence and re spect for authority which sometimes amounts to positive lawlessness. The tendency of modern democracies to exalt equality above everything else, leads to a false sentiment that should be combated and corrected in the earlier stages of school life. " I have I no admiration for the boy not yet out of his teens who will tell you that he ' takes off his hat to no man '. He should be taught better manners. Pushfulness and smart ness are not really great qualities. Take again the question of athletics. Some of us are surprised when we read of a football team practising behind closed doors so that they may astonish their adversaries with secret and unexpected tricks. There is an epigram about football which you may not have heard. It bears the unmistakable stamp of its English origin. ' In England they play the ball ; in Canada they play the man when they cannot get the ball ; and in the States they play the ball when they cannot get the man.' That, of course, is a humorous exaggeration, but it points to certain practices, which if they could be corrected in the minds of the young, might be eliminated also from much that is even more important in later life. We might have THE HARVARD CANADIAN CLUB 339 cleaner pohtics if we could do more to train the youth of the country in fair play and good form." The address concluded by the recitation of Henry Newbolt's well-known poem, which Dr. Peterson said was a great favourite with the late William Henry Drummond, " Play up and play the game ". 22 THE INAUGUEATION OF PEESIDENT LOWELL.^ This is really a great compliment — to a near neighbour ! For more than a decade I have been attending university cele brations in this country, and on occasions where delegates were divided into two great classes — American and European — it was not always easy for me to see where Canada came in. The only thing I was always clear about, in my own mind, was that Canada is not in Europe ! It is indeed on many grounds a peculiar pleasure to ap pear to-day as the representative of Canadian education. Perhaps among other capacities I am here as a hving witness to the doctrine of presidential succession ! Thirteen or four teen years ago President Eliot was good enough to journey to Montreal in order to take part in a much less imposing ceremonial than this. He may be said, in fact, to have "laid hands upon me" when I arrived in Canada to take over the administration of McGill University ; and now I in turn am helping to lay hands — not violent hands ! — on his successor. And just about the time when you were celebrating, quite recently, the 300th anniversary of John Harvard's birthday, we were commemorating, up in Canada, the 300th anniver sary of Champlain's foundation of Quebec. The course of events has been somewhat different in the two countries. We cannot forget that for 140 years Harvard was British. And in listening to a Canadian address you cannot but remember that Canada shares with you the majestic inheritance of a common language and that she has forged a strong link in the chain which still binds the United States to the United Kingdom. 1 Harvard University, 6 October, 1909. 340 THE INAUGURATION OP PRESIDENT LOWELL 341 Down in St. Louis, at the time of the Exposition, they asked me for a ten minutes' address on " The University ". I could not go, and felt inclined to ask, with a dehberately assumed f acetiousness, whether by "The University" they meant McGill ! I have a strong, even a passionate belief in McGill, but there is room in my heart for Harvard too. The marvellous growth of this University, which has now as many teachers as fifty years ago it had students, is the mirror and reflection of the unexampled development of this country and nation. One of your own professors has said that the most prominent characteristic of modern America is its devotion to education, a devotion so intense as to be almost " super stitious " in character. I admire that superstition. Your enthusiasm for education, alike in your public schools and in your universities, is based on the living conviction of its value as the greatest and most important factor in national well-being. No doubt something remains to be done in order to give full expression and right direction to your educational aspirations, I could easily exhaust the time allotted to me by taking up some of the moot points referred to in your new President's address, and some perhaps which he did not refer to — your relation to the secondary schools, and the opportunity you have of influencing them by the character and standard of your entrance requirements, your grading of pass and honour students, and all the mysteries of what is known as the elective system. But I prefer to refer in a single word to a wider subject, the international sympathy which is being built up on the foundation of closer relations and more frequent intercourse among our various universities, with the result of a fuller knowledge of each other and a better mutual appreciation on the part of our university men. If we are ever to realize the parliament of man and the federation of the world, I believe it will be in great part through the agency of university institutions. The more resolutely we set ourselves to know what is going on in the universities of other countries, the work they are doing and the methods by which it is done, the trend of academic thought elsewhere, the more success- 342 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ful shall we be in fostering that spirit of academic brotherhood which may help — especially in times of stress and difficulty — to give a right direction to the forces which control the destinies of the world. I shall not speak of the exchange of professors, or the interchange of students ; nor shall I refer to the Ehodes scholarships, though the subject is tempting to an Oxford man. The great obligations should, however, be specified which wein Canada feel to Harvardfor the hospitality she has shown to Canadian students, especially in the various departments of her Graduate School. And now that Toronto and McGill are rapidly developing graduate schools of their own, we are happy to merit and to receive a return of the compliment ! Scholarship and learning know no boundaries : reciprocity is the only word there, and no tariff has ever yet been invented that will shut out the produce of a nation's intellect ! Your new President is taking over to-day a great adminis trative burden, a load so heavy for one man to carry that I am sometimes tempted to think that the Presidency of a great University ought to be put in commission. It is really work for a firm of partners rather than for an individual. Which of us can fully and fitly play the part ? Or rather which of us can fill the various r6les that go to the making of agreat President? He has to be scholar, writer, speaker, diplomat, financier, organizer, administrator, in addition to being able to show a genuine interest in every department of work undertaken by his colleagues, place himself always at the students' point of view, and represent the institution also in the wider life of the community. These are the requirements. None but the most capable and the most versatile need apply ! But when they get to work they will find that they never knew what education was till they took in hand to be College Presidents ! It is then that they realize what it is to be a learner still ! The Presidential burden can be greatly lightened by the active co-operation and sympathy of the Alumni. They are a necessary and essential part of a University constitution. For Professors by themselves no more make up a University THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LOWELL 343 than the clergy do the Church. The close association with College interests that is cherished by such a body as the Harvard Alumni is one, of the distinguishing features of the American University system. Possibly it is in part, or was originally, founded on business considerations, the desire e.g. to repay the College for what it did for you by getting students togo to your College and to no other. And certainly the American President has a wonderful way of coaxing the money from the pockets of his alumni, even if he has to travel across a whole continent in pursuit of wealth ! It is to you that he appeals when he wants to found a new chair, perhaps the newest of all. Aeronautics, or " high-flying " generally 1 You are the aristocracy of America. For it has been calcu lated that, even in this land of " democracy in education," only one per cent of your school population finds its way to College, though that is a more generous proportion than the one in every 9000 of the total population that frequented Oxford and Cambridge fifty years ago. And you are conscious of the debt you owe to your Alma Mater. Whether you have taken up some professional calling or have gone into business, you know that it was from the College you derived your ideals and methods of work, your power of clear, honest, and im partial thinking and the habit of looking dispassionately at all sides of a question before undertaking to pronounce judgment. You have benefited by the great expansion that has been given to the idea of the University in these latter days. The task of the University has grown greater and greater with the ever-widening aims of society, until, as President Eliot says in his latest volume, " it touches all human interests, is con cerned with the past, the present, and the future, ranges through the whole history of letters, sciences, arts, and pro fessions, and aspires to teach all systematic knowledge ". Let me set alongside of that quotation the words of the Prime Minister of England when, speaking of their Uni versity to the students at Glasgow, Mr. Asquith said: "It will be judged in the long run not merely or mainly by its success in equipping its pupils to outstrip their competitors in the crafts and professions. It will not be fully judged 344 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES even by the excellence of its mental gymnastic or its contri butions to scholarship and science. It wiU be judged also by the influence which it is exerting upon the imagination and the character; by the ideals which it has implanted and nourished, by the new resources of faith, tenacity, aspiration with which it has recruited and reinforced the untrained and undeveloped nature ; by the degree in which it has helped to raise, to enlarge, to complete the true life of man, and by and through him the corporate hfe of the com munity." AMEEICAN INSTITUTE OF AECH.^OLOGY.i It says a great deal for our devotion to the cause that we ar range to meet together at this time of the year so far away from our homes. Certainly we Canadians have made quite a journey in order to be present with you to-night. The Archaeological Institute has in fact annexed the Dominion, and we come here as your willing slaves, captive and in chains. Considering how difficult it is nowadays to get into the United States at all, this wholesale feat is worthy of record. On the cars they have a way of trying to get a head- tax of four dollars out of you, unless you can say that you are an American citizen. And they ask other questions. You know how the Bishop of London was asked if he had ever been in jail, and how quickly came the brief retort, "Not yet"! Next time Iam called to give an account of myself, I shall say I am a Vice-President of the Archaeo logical Institute, and if that is not enough for any official he will indeed be hard to please ! My colleagues from Canada can join me in reporting that the movement in which you and we are interested is going forward with much success. While we have seen fit to ask you to let us exercise a certain degree of " Home Eule " for what is known as the Department of Canada, and while we have retained the right to affiliate with any British society professing similar aims, we have never regretted the action we took a few years ago at Toronto in casting in our lot with you. There is no need to enlarge at this time of day on the advantages of overleaping in such matters all international boundaries, or on the catholic spirit which we must all unite to cherish if we are to realize to the full extent and value ' Annual Meeting of the Institute, Baltimore, 30 December, 1909. 345 346 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES the intellectual heritage that has been handed down to us. I have always been a believer in co-operation, and in some forms of reciprocity. The plain-dealing busy man of affairs, engrossed in the occupation which directly appeals to him, often asks what is the value of old history to him. The answer to that is that every one is born to-day several thousand years old. The present is charged with the past and it is useless to attempt to get away from it. No all-round education is possible to-day if it fails to impart to the student what may be caUed a true sense of historical perspective. The studies which set before us the unity and continuity of history, of human life and human knowledge, are surely among the most valuable of their kind. As between such studies and those to which we have more recently been indebted for the great advances of modern science. Dr. Samuel Johnson held the balance evenly when he said, " Whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present advances us in the dignity of thinking beings ". The fact is that those who speak with contempt of what they call dead studies are in danger of not realizing that it is they themselves who are — well, not quite alive ! And so the plain busy man can be made to appreciate, by means of our work, the interest of archaeology, when he has the opportunity of learning that fresh discoveries often dis close long buried knowledge, and that there is literally no new thing under the sun. I shall not enlarge on the fact that there are many things in connexion, for example, with town-planning that were better done in many cities of the ancient world than we do them to-day, especially as regards playgrounds and public baths. If the appeal is to be made mainly through material remains, let me mention how in one and the same copy of " The Times " I read the other day that the excavation of a tumulus at Belmonte on the Adriatic had brought to light some prehistoric horse-chariots, and how a certain incident in the Acts of the Apostles had been illustrated by the discovery near Lystra of an inscription recording the dedication of a statue of Hermes in the temple AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOLOGY 347 of Zeus the Sun-God. And hardly a year passes without the emergence in the dry sands of Egypt of some treasure- trove in the way of literary fragments from works of classical antiquity that might otherwise have remained altogether un known. We are not concerned, however, with material remains only. The " pots and pans " exhibited in museums of archae ology are interesting and valuable from many points of view, some of which would hardly strike a careless visitor at first sight. Our studies embrace the social habits, manners, and customs of the ancients, their dress, their games, their arts and manufacturing devices, their laws, their institutions (kinship, marriage, inheritance), their medicine and surgery, their religion, their ways of life and their outlook upon death. Especially to students of history and literature a knowledge of the recent triumphs of archaeology is well-nigh indispens able. Is it not something that whole dynasties of Babylonian Kings, hitherto unknown, have now been recovered from inscriptions ? that material remains unearthed in Egypt can be ascribed to a date as far back as the seventh millennium (B.C. 6500)? that our knowledge of the Kingdom of Crete, the Empire of the Hittites, and the connexion between Egypt and iEgean civilization has been going forward lately by leaps and bounds ? Especially in the realm of classical scholarship, archaeology has vindicated for herself an abiding place alongside of the traditional departments of philology, philosophy, and history. Here she is a colleague rather than a handmaiden, an in tegral part of classical learning, valuable in and for herself, and indispensable at the same time for the full understanding of her sister-branches. I do not need to refer to the great improvements that have taken place in the editing of classical texts, especially in the way of illustrations that throw hght from archaeology on meanings and allusions in ancient authors, and enable us at the same time often to realize some scene or picture to the life. It is in fact chiefly to literature that archseology holds up the " lamp that may be said to illumine even the obscure corners of the treasure-house of antiquity. 348 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES and bring to light rare gems that might otherwise have altogether escaped the searchers' quest". As regards history, the new study has shown itself to be on the whole distinctly a vindicator of tradition. A long- buried world comes to light again in connexion with Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Troy. The splendour of Priam's palace shines again from its ruined walls, and the shield of Achilles becomes a genuine work of art. For the continuance of the work on these and other sites nothing is so indispensable as intelligent co-operation among various societies. The sphere is really international in its scope, and as such it ought to assist in the development of that feeling of unity and brotherhood which is the beginning of better things for the world at large. THE DEDICATION OF THE GEADUATE SCHOOL.^ As a Princeton man — at least as an honorary graduate of many years' standing — and let me say an " American Whig" to boot, I rise most willingly to obey the call that has come to me on this occasion. I always cross the boundary line with the greatest satisfaction in order to be present at such celebrations as this. As a matter of fact where learning and scholarship and Universities are concerned there is no boundary line ; and since the failure of Eeciprocity I have been more assiduous than ever in my attendance — just to avert possible misunderstanding and to show that there is no ill-will ! Why, did we not make Mr. Taft an Honorary Graduate of McGill the other day, along with Lord Haldane, when he took occasion to tell us that we Canadians " -wexe heaping coals of fire upon his head " ? Mr. Taft in fact abolished the boundary line altogether when he came up to Montreal with the American Bar Association, and annexed the whole country in the name of " neighbourliness ". But whfle I always rejoice to assist at such festivals in the United States, I do not remember any occasion when I have been more glad to come among you than at the present time. I know something of the progress that has been made at Princeton since the great Sesquicentennial in 1896 — progress that has shown itself not only in new buildings, greater numbers, and improved equipment, but also in the development of new forms of collegiate life, and the creation of what may be called an atmosphere of increased studious- ness and higher intellectual vitality. I have kept somewhat in touch with the way in which you have faced your pro blems — entrance requirements, prescribed or semi-prescribed work, conditions of graduation and the like. You have 1 Princeton University, 21 October, 1913. 349 350 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES remained true to your scholarly ideals, and in the great ex pansion that has taken place you have not forgotten the lessons you learned when you were but a small college. Yours is a true brotherhood of learning, a genuine partner ship between teachers and taught, where students benefit by the closest possible contact with their instructors, while the latter rejoice in the degree of personal attention they are able to give their students. It was not long after the memorable celebration in 1896 that I met Dean West wandering in the classic shades of Oxford, where he had evidently been delegated to see what he could of Oxford tutors, and both the exterior and interior of Oxford colleges. He visited also my other academic parents, Edinburgh and St. Andrews, so that his education on the other side of the Atlantic must be taken to have been, like mine, complete. And it was with great satisfaction that I was able to quote, at the Luperial Universities Congress held in London last summer, the eloquent words in which he foreshadowed, in a recent paper, the ideals he would fain see realized in Princeton's Graduate School. He called for " young men, young in spirit, rich in intellectual and moral worth, responsive to scholarly impulses, eager to seek and to find, able to perceive, take and use the more valuable as distinguished from the less valuable material of knowledge, wiUing to do all and dare all to make themselves master- students . . . the sons of knowledge who are best fitted to hve not for themselves alone, but first in the household of knowledge, and then in the larger society of the world ". Princeton proclaims in these words her adherence to the truly American ideal that learning must go hand in hand with preparation for citizenship. It is through the enlarged opportunities of the Graduate School that the youth of this University will be enabled to form more fully those habits of mind on which the soundness of public opinion so greatly depends. Along with a wide outlook on hfe, and with aspirations for disinterested service to society, they will acquire that faculty of clear, honest, impartial thinking that is so essential for the solution of present-day problems. THE DEDICATION OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 351 Your Graduate School is to be dedicated to the pursuit of the liberal arts and sciences, with special emphasis, I take it, on literature and history, philosophy and economics, art and social studies. There is to be no sacrifice here, nor any disparagement of what we know as the humanities in favour of a narrower professional or technical training. Princeton has never turned a deaf ear, and will not do so now, to the mighty voices that speak to us from the pages of the past, or to the teachings of poets and bards, singers and seers, philo sophers, dramatists, orators, and statesmen. Physical and biological science will of course continue to bulk largely in your curriculum, but rather as departments of the knowledge that is cultivated for its own sake than in the spirit of any limited specialization. And in these days when there is simply no end to the scientific discoveries for which the world is ripe and ready, we shall be reminded by the results of your work in these fields that many of the greatest triumphs of modern invention have owed everything to the patient and unselfish researches of the professor in his laboratory. You have before you an immense range of work, and one that is not likely to diminish or grow less as know ledge advances. But your reward will be great. It is because Princeton is giving fresh guarantees for her contribution to national value and national success that Princeton's friends are with her to-day. They recognize her activity as one form, and a most important form, of national service. They seek to strengthen her hands while she is proclaiming her high ideals of learning and scholarship and impressing those ideals on the minds of those whom she is sending forth to be leaders of thought and action in the world. If it be true that the university in these latter days is one of the highest expressions of the soul of a people, providing the community with the moral and intellectual equipment that links it with all that is best and greatest, and rendering possible the attainment of the nobler aims of life, Prince ton may be trusted to continue to " deserve well of the republic". McGILL CONSEEVATOEIUM OF MUSIC.i May it please your Excellency, — Without wishing to delay the gracious words in which you will be pleased — as Visitor of the University— to declare this building open, and to dedicate it to the purposes which it is now to serve, it may not be inappropriate if I should venture to offer a few introductory remarks. They will bear, in general terms, on the art to which this house is consecrated, and on the relations in which a Department of Music must stand to the varied activities of what I hope I may be permitted to characterize as a modern and progressive University. In a recent work of fiction entitled " An Impossible Visit," the writer brings an angel down to earth, and describes the heavenly visitant's astonishment at the works and ways of mortal men. Everything about them seemed strange to this celestial being, the clothes they wore, the food they ate, the houses they dwelt in, to say nothing of the language they spoke. One thing, and one thing only he recognized, and at once made himself at home with — a violin. There is a pro found truth in such an imaginary situation. Music has been well said to be the speech of angels. It is more than that, it is a universal language. Nature has made provision for music everywhere. The laws of sound are the same for all. They are fixed and rooted in the very heart of nature herself. You know what Byron says : — There ia music in the sighing of a reed, There is music in the gushing of a rill, There is music in all things, if men had ears. Their earth is but an echo of the spheres. ' Address deUvered at the opening of the Conservatorium, 14 October, 1904. 352 McGILL CONSERVATORIUM OP MUSIC 353 And surely there is something satisfying to our fancy in the thought that music, which is so human, is also more than human — that it may follow the same laws in all inhabited worlds, and even in Heaven itself. It may in fact be cosmical. Speaking of the music of the spheres, a recent writer has ad vanced the daring thought that one day perhaps our hearts may be attuned to hear "planetary anthems and sidereal symphonies ". The range of the visual faculties has been ex tended by the telescope and the spectroscope : why may not some magnifying instruments still be invented such as shall enable us to catch the choral harmonies of the created universe, the stars, "for ever singing as they shine," and all the other instruments of the celestial orchestra ? Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that music is valuable to mortal man from a twofold point of view. First, as bringing a veritable culture to the individual, besides furnishing a means of pure and healthful enjoyment. We all know, too, what a solace it is in times of trouble and distress. Plato rightly said that music was given to men not with the sole view of pleasing their senses, but rather for appeasing the troubles of their souls. And in the same way Luther, using another language, tells us, " It drives away the devil, and makes man joyful ". Long ago it was recognized as the panacea for the ills of human life: "when Orpheus played upon his lyre the heart of Pluto relented, Eurydice escaped, the wheel of Ixion stopped, the vultures ceased to torment Tityos, the thirst of Tantalus was forgotten, and the goddess of death did not remember to call away the infant or the aged from sweet life ". Secondly, music is a valuable factor in the development of our social nature, and in promoting social organization. Human, intercourse is not dependent solely on the spoken or the written word. Music has its part to play as one of the means of expression by which we bridge over the distances that tend to separate individuals in human society. Even that somewhat arid phUosopher, the late Mr. Herbert Spencer, admitted that " in its bearings on human happiness this emotional lan- 23 354 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES guage which music develops and refines is only second to the language of the intellect, perhaps not even second to it. It brings us very close together, soul to soul, touching us in all our common feelings, and ehminating all the accidents of birth, race, speech, station, or different walks in life." A thoughtful American writer says, " Music is one of the most valuable auxUiaries in the work of human civilization and refinement, preparing the heart for all else that is beautiful, opening up avenues of pleasure in other arts, inspiring a quicker sensibility to all the loveliness of nature, and soften ing our feelings to one another. More than any other art, more than painting, sculpture, architecture, or even poetry, music — perhaps the least material of them all — passes directly to our consciousness, expresses the spiritual element that is in us, giving utterance to our deepest feelings, our ideals, our aspirations." " The meaning of music goes deep," said Thomas Carlyle, " a kind of inarticulate unfathomable speech which leads us to the edge of the Infinite, and lets us for a moment gaze into it." Eecognizing this power to awaken, even in the hearts of many who may be inaccessible to any other form of high emotion, a sense of beauty, order, and harmony, the great Napoleon held that music was the art to which the law-giver should give most attention. Long ago, too, Confucius is re ported to have said in language which anticipates the well- known dictum of Fletcher of Saltoun about the laws and the songs of a country — " Desire ye to know whether a land is well governed, and its people have good morals ? Hear its music." Such reflexions may well serve to deepen the wonder which I ventured to express in this hall some weeks ago at the fact that music in many centres should be left to take its chance as an instrument of education. For the most part it is relegated to establishments for the board and edu cation of young ladies. To me it is a personal satisfaction this day to be able to recaU the fact that in the Inaugural Lecture delivered at McGill nearly nine years ago, I stated my conviction that music is as necessary, along with other McGILL CONSERVATORIUM OP MUSIC 355 art studies, as counteractives to the exclusive cultivation of the intellect, as are the indispensable exercises in which nerve and muscle are strengthened and developed on the campus. Our function as educators does not stop short at the accumu lation of knowledge. We must strive for beauty as well as truth. We must cultivate imagination and sympathy as well as intellect. Otherwise, how shall we attain to Plato's ideal of spiritual culture — though the world ought to have been moved forward since his day ? Certainly the Greeks had a better appreciation than many modern nations of the value of music as a mental and moral discipline. Hear what the great philosopher says in his Eepubhc : " And therefore I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the secret places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul graceful of him who is rightly educated, or ungraceful of him who is ill- educated ".^ At the same time it must be conceded that the relation of music to the University curriculum is a subject not free from difficulty. If I may venture to speak for McGiU, I shall say here and now that our aim in connexion with this study is a twofold aim. Firstly, we desire to give improved opportuni ties to those who may wish to follow music as an element of a liberal culture. Secondly, in this Conservatorium, and in the more advanced Faculty of Music which we trust will grow from it, we intend to provide for the needs of those who wish to specialize in music, and make it their life-work. There is no reason why Montreal should not have a School of Music, where everything that the composer, performer, and teacher needs shall be taught, taught methodically, taught efficiently, taught thoroughly. May I add that we look for an added 1 So John Milton — " Scheme of an Improved Education for Boys," 1644. " The solemn and divine harmonies of music ... if wise men and prophets be not extremely out, have great power over dispositions and manners to smooth and make them gentle." The last words are a reminiscence of — Emollit mores nee sinit esse feros. 23* 356 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES interest also in the life of the University, through its rela tion to this department? We want to bring our students, and our staff too, more into actual contact with music, so that we may, in due time, undertake something in the way of guiding the music of this city, and of the community at large. I have said more than once before that it is to me a most sur prising phenomenon that a city of the importance of Montreal should still be without any Grand Organ in a pubhc hall, where recitals of music might be given from time to time. I do not know how long it will take us to achieve such a practi cal aim as the arranging of symphony concerts, and generally providing by our own efforts here, orchestral and choral music of the highest class. If we can follow in the steps of Yale University where I have had some conversation with Mr. Horatio Parker on this subject, we shaU be doing well. In his last report Professor Parker gives an excellent statement of the objects which he has already succeeded in reahzing down at New Haven : " Besides giving instruction to its own students, a wider aim of the department of music is to touch both the University and the community at as many points as practicable, in the belief that each new contact may strengthen the bond between the University and the Town, and elicit from each a larger sympathy with the things of the other". One word to those who are immediately connected with the work of teaching in this institution. I shall speak it in the language used in addressing a company of young musi cians by the great Italian patriot and statesman, Mazzini. In endeavouring to set before his audience high ideals such as would not only secure them artistic success, but also enable them to realize the true end of living, Mazzini said : " The art you cultivate is holy, and you must render your lives holy if you would be its priests. The art entrusted to your ministry is closely bound up with the progress of civilization, and may become the very breath, soul, and sacred in cense of that civilization. Music is the harmonious voice McGILL CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC 357 of creation, an echo of the invisible world, one note of the Divine concord, which the entire Universe is some day to sound. How can you hope to seize that note if not by lift ing your minds to the contemplation of the Universe, viewing with the eye of faith things invisible to the un believing, and compassing the whole creation in your study and affection?" ST. ANDEEW'S SOCIETY OF NEW YOEK.^ This is a great day for Scotland ! I should have been glad to come even further than from Montreal, in order to take part in such a celebration. It is always a pleasure to visit New York. This is not the first time I have had to thank the official position which I hold up in Montreal, rather than any individual merits of my own, for the opportunity of getting into close touch with considerable sections of your people, both here and in other important centres. I am a great admirer of the American nation — I suppose I may still use that designation, unless you tell me that you want to adopt the brand-new combination which Sir Edward Clarke has so obligingly designed for you on the other side. I am especially an admirer of the Scottish portion of your people. We all know what Scotchmen have been privileged to do for the building up of these United States. As for Canada, it was a Scotchman who made us a present of that country — the Fraser Highlander who guided Wolfe's army up the Heights of Abraham. Speaking before this audience, I may say I am glad he was not a hated Hessian ! And to-night Scotchmen all the world over are drawn together in the bonds of a joyous and a loving brotherhood. Let me begin, therefore, by thanking you for the opportunity you have given me of taking part in the proceedings of so large and representative an assemblage of those whom I am proud to claim as my Scottish kinsfolk. There is something inspiring in the sense of contact with others of the same origin — with fellow-countrymen — in a land that is warmed by another sun than that which shines — or '¦ An Address delivered before the Society, New York, 30 November, 1904. 858 ST. ANDEEW'S SOCIETY OP NEW YOEK 359 very often refuses to shine — upon the country that is so much in our thoughts to-night. Why is it that, in spite of the many jokes which have been made about their preference for other countries, Scotchmen are so intensely patriotic, and so keenly, so passionately tenacious of all their national traditions ? Probably no other people on the face of the earth — except perhaps the Jews, to whom we sometimes hear ourselves compared — has ever given so strong proof of a well-marked and unmistakable national character and in dividuality. We stand by our country and by each other. No matter where we may roam, Scotland is with us still : " the old land," as Stevenson says, "is still the true love, the others are but pleasant infidelities ". Hence it is that no saint in the calendar — not even St. Peter himself — holds a wider sway over the hearts of men than Andrew, this patron saint of ours. He seems, in fact, to have solved the problem of universal empire. From Bonnie Scotland, which was given him for a special possession, he has passed with wandering Scots to every country of the known world, till we may say of his original diocese, as was said of ancient Eome, that " Scotland is the whole world and all the world is Scotch ". For me no more sacred spot exists in the land of my birth — not even lona itself — than the wind-swept headland to which the bones of Scot land's patron saint are fabled to have been borne, long cen turies ago. I once heard a former Lord Eector of St. Andrews University, the late Marquis of Bute, discourse learnedly on the precise character of the bones, three fingers and the frag ment of an arm, that were brought to St. Andrews via Con stantinople and Eome in the eighth century of our era. From that day to this the city of St. Andrews has been part and parcel of our Scottish annals, civil, ecclesiastical, and educa tional. And now in our own time, even since I left it, it is enjoying the ministrations and the patronage of a new Lord Eector — another Andrew — one of your own citizens, whose absence to-night has been regretted by your President, but who is helping St. Andrews to live up to its high traditions and to secure to it the place which it most rightfully holds 360 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES in the hearts and affections of our countrymen at home and abroad. From the printed report of your last year's proceedings — which the Chairman was good enough to send to me, by way of strengthening me, I suppose, for the ordeal which I am now undergoing — it is easy to discover that your New York Society proceeds on pretty much the same lines as those with which I am famihar elsewhere. Like other Scots abroad, you seem to have taken to yourselves one of our national mottoes "Dinna forget"; do not yourselves forget, and take special care that you do not aUow anyone else to overlook the fact that there is such a place as Scotland. Speaking figuratively, we Scotchmen in America are wearing the kilt all the time. There are gatherings of the clans, especially at national festivals such as this, and also in connexion with our Caledonian Societies and our Burns' Clubs : and we have always with us the tartan, and the pipes, and golf, and curling, and haggis, and heather, and grouse, and oatmeal porridge, and I suppose whisky too. And then the Scottish type ! In all our assemblies you will find a goodly number of the representatives of that grave, serious, thoughtful, provident, kindly type of national character that has been evolved out of our Scottish past, with a curious blending of the Shorter Catechism and the Multiplication Table, the Paraphrases and strong drink ; often a " bundle of contradictory qualities — greedy and generous, worldly and pious, practical and idealistic, prejudiced and open-minded ". But many-sided, and there the Scotsman's strength lies. A long career of conflict and hardships at home made him a citizen of the world. Owing to past associations, he was acceptable on the continent of Europe in times when Englishmen were not. Here in New York you know your multiplication table off by heart, and with its aid you have — most of you — managed to bring yourselves, not to put too fine a point on it, beyond the reach of want. Around this festive board the Scots wha' hae are in a distinct and obvious majority : as to those wha' hae na, if they have to remain outside, they at least get the benefit of the annual collection ! ST. ANDEEW'S SOCIETY OP NEW YORK 361 But I must not be led into speaking of the Scottish people before I have paid my tribute to the land that gave them birth. This—the Land o' cakes — is really the subject of the toast to which I have been asked to respond. Well, gentlemen, I am sure you will agree with me in the view that there is no finer land under the sun — though, as I have said already, the sun often neglects to shine on it. Scotland is simply one of the best made countries in the universe, and it must have taken a lot of planning ! It is in fact a sort of epitome of the world's geography. Where will you find in such small compass grander mountain ranges, deeper glens, more fertile straths, more lovely rivers and rippling burns, more romantic lochs, or such a charming combination of smiling cornfields and unfruitful, but by no means un attractive, moorland ? What of the islands of the west, set like jewels in a diadem of summer seas ? When my mind takes me back to the perfection of loveliness I have seen from the top of some Scottish hill, I begin to regret that distance makes it increasingly difficult to emulate the example of good old Professor Blackie, who solemnly registered a vow, in the earlier days of his long life, that he would never allow a year to pass without making the acquaintance of some new part of the land he loved so well. We canna break the bonds that God decrees to bind But aye we'll be the children of the heather and the wind : Far away from home, oh, it's still for you and me That the broom is blowing bonnie in the North Countrie. And surely the Scottish national character has taken its colour and tone from the land in which our Scottish fathers were born and bred. There are those who think that praise is harmful and unlucky, and that after eulogy certain formulas should be employed to avert the evil eye. But what is some times complained of as excessive self-laudation on the part of the Scotch is really forced upon us by the failure of others to appreciate our real merits ! I think it was from Capetown to Edinburgh that on the occasion of such a festival as this there was once flashed along the wires " Here's tae ye : wha's hke hiz : damned few ". The hostile critic says that Scotch- 362 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES men do not really need to pray for a " guid conceit " of themselves, not knowing that the proverbial surgical operation should be performed, not on Scottish folk, but on his own wooden head. How can we stand up against the gibes of an envious world — or of that part of it which we have not yet succeeded in annexing — unless we make it plain that we believe in ourselves, and in each other ? You know that they even go the length of saying that the reason why St. Andrew is our patron saint is that he was one of the apostles who discovered the boy with the loaves and fishes. That spiteful person, Dr. Samuel Johnson, used to maintain that there was no road a Scotchman liked so well as the road to London. And there are some who will describe a Scotchman to you as one who keeps the Sabbath and everything else he can lay hands on ! That would amount to positive dishonesty, and such a phenomenon as a dishonest Scotchman is altogether unknown. No doubt there is a certain strain of what is known as " canniness " or " pawkiness " in the Scottish national char acter. In this connexion I always think of the prayer, which does not find a place either in Dean Eamsay's " Eeminiscences " or in Sir Archibald Geikie's recent collection of Scottish anec dotes — the prayer in which a Scottish minister tries to make, as it were, a bargain with the powers above, a sort of " celes tial contract" : " Lord give us grace : for if thou give us not grace we wiU not give thee glory : and wha' would win by that Lord?" Who will say that the Scotch are not full of humour — albeit sometimes of the unconscious kind? You might as well insinuate that we are wanting in feeling and sentiment. Of course we know when to put sentiment aside — especially in matters of business — but it is true to say that our people have been cradled and reared in an atmosphere of sentiment. Take our songs, our history, our mUitary annals, including the Jacobite uprising, and our romantic litera ture. We are not, to be sure, a demonstrative people by nature : on the contrary we have the advantage of a certain imperturbabihty that often stands us in good stead when, as a matter of fact, our hearts are deeply charged with feeling — when the lump rises in our throats, and the eyes begin to ST. ANDREW'S SOCIETY OP NEW YORK 363 swim, and for all that the exterior is grave, placid, and im perturbable as before. We are not demonstrative, but we are clannish where kith, kin, and kintra are concerned : shoulder to shoulder has been the motto of " brither Scots " all the world over. Apart from the feeling of attachment to our native land, which accounts for a patriotism that is not questioned even by our detractors, the link which binds us together is a certain community of sentiment, inspired in us from our earliest years by the influences which surround us even in our cradles. I do not for a moment mean to imply that all Scotchmen think alike. Far from it. Scotchmen would have a much lower opinion than they have of each other if they all saw eye to eye on ordinary topics of current contro versy, to say nothing of those subjects of theological and " metapheesical " import which are so dear to their disputa tious hearts. But hsten to what a recent writer in the " Scotsman " has said of the present ecclesiastical dispute : — "We have had enough of it. We have had more than seventy years of it. It is time we tried to realize what we are and what is our relation to the things that are not seen. There is a picture drawn by Louis Stevenson on which every one has looked at one time or another. It is that picture he depicts in the Picturesque Notes of Edinburgh of the two sisters, inhabiting a single room, who quarrelled over a knotty point of theology. Never a word was there spoken between them, black or white, from that day forward. " A chalk line drawn upon the floor separated their two domains. So for years they existed in a hateful silence . . and at night, in the dark watches, each could hear the breathing of her enemy. Never did four walls look on an ugher spectacle. ... A figure this of much that is typical of Scotland ! there is but a street between the Assembly Halls, and yet there they sit enchanted, and in damnatory accents pray for each other's growth in grace. . . . The chalk lines are thickly drawn, and run through the midst of many private houses. . . . How many of the bells might rest silently in their 364 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES steeples, how many of these ugly churches might be de molished and turned into useful building material, if people who think almost exactly the same thoughts about religion would condescend to worship God under the same roof. But there are the chalk lines. And which is to pocket pride and speak the foremost word? Ah! the chalk lines have multiplied since then, and have grown thicker and more glaring than ever ! The great writer voices the feeling of the man in the street, of the great multitude who have no stock in sectarianism. Let the protagonists ponder the picture: or else it needeth no seer to tell that ecclesiasticism in this ill-fated country will have meted out to it a measure of the wine of astonishment which will make it stagger to its doom." But when all is said as to the points that divide us, it must still be remembered that the influence of scenery, of history, of poetry, and of song have all gone to the moulding of our national character, and have produced a type which asserts itself, to a large extent, in the individuality of almost every member of the race. Shrewdness and sagacity, the faculty of acquisitiveness — with a strong under-current of generosity — tenacity of purpose, which is sometimes mistaken for aggressiveness, power of adaptation to unfamiliar circum stances, and a passionate clinging to tradition : these seem to be amongst the main characteristics of our national genius. It is to qualities such as these — along with the power of making a little oatmeal go a long way — that our countrymen owe the position they have made for themselves in this and other lands. Their patriotism is not a limited patriotism. They are loyal not only to their own country, not only to the land they left, but also to the land they love. They are all over the British Empire, and the Empire could not very well get along without them. And beyond the limits even of the Empire the Scotch are well to the front everywhere. They are citizens of the world. From the beginning of time they have been pressing onward, overstepping the narrow bound aries in which other nations are content to be confined. Long ago the conquering Eomans built a wall from the Sol- way to the Tyne, which they hoped would keep our Caledonian ST. ANDREW'S SOCIETY OP NEW YORK 365 ancestors from passing southward to vex and disturb the country — more highly favoured by nature — which they were gradually bringing under the influence of their civilization. That barrier crumbled away and became ineffective for its purpose, though it remains in part to this day as a lasting monument of the thoroughness with which the Eomans did their work in the world. But neither it nor any other ob stacle, material or immaterial, availed to keep back the onward march of the persistent and pertinacious Scot. After annex ing England, he looked abroad : and lo I America, Australia, India, Africa — all are his ! And on St. Andrew's night he is busy celebrating, all over the world which he has conquered, the greatest of his national festivals. Not in the spirit of vainglorious braggadocio, but with something of a definite practical purpose. The whole duty of Scotsmen is not fulfilled in boasting of their ancestry : they must endeavour to catch the spirit also of their fore fathers, and to preserve and reproduce in their descendants the virtues which have made their country great. That is why to-night they are mindful of all who, whatever be their rank in life, and wherever their lot may be cast, can claim that they bear the Scottish name. Everywhere to-night the thoughts of loyal Scotsmen go forth to the country of their birth or origin, and to their brethren throughout the world — " in all changes of fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another". These are the words of Eobert Louis Stevenson's prayer, now engraved on the bronze tablet erected to his memory in St. Giles' Cathedral. In far away Samoa — an exile in death as in life from the " old land and the old kindly people " — ^he lies low upon his mountain bed. He had fled from the " quaint grey castled city " that he loved so well, " where the bells clash of a Sunday, and the wind squalls, and the salt showers fly and beat". But he never forgot his dearly loved native-land. " I do not even know," he said, "if I desire to live there; but let me hear, in some far land, a kindred voice sing out ' Oh, why left I my hame,' and it seems at once as if no beauty under the kind heavens, and no society of the wise and good, can repay 366 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES me for absence from my country. And though I think I would rather die elsewhere, yet in my heart of hearts I long to be buried among good Scots clods." You know how he puts it in his poetry : — Be it granted to me to behold you again in dying, Hills of home ! and to hear again the call ; Hear about the graves of the martyrs the peewees crying And hear no more at all. So it is with aU of us. When we have exhausted all the glories of our common ancestry, there remains for each one among us — no matter how deeply rooted he may feel in the country of his own or his father's adoption — a blank that can only be filled by a reference to the personal ties that bind us to the land of our fathers. Where friends and kinsfolk are concerned, that is a blank that each and all of us must supply in the sacred solitude of his own heart. Such personal ties are not the least potent of the bonds that unite us to each other and to the land we love — bonds which together with the other things I have spoken of generate a feeling of affec tion for Scotland in the hearts of Scots abroad that may be said to be unique in its intensity. Surely, gentlemen, we may unite our voices and speak to Scotland to-night across the ocean, saying in the language that Burns applies to what was with him at least a less enduring form of human affec tion : — Till all the seas gang dry, my dear. And the rooks melt wi' the sun : I will love thee still, my dear. While the sands o' life shall run. MEMOEIAL SEEVICE HELD IN CONNEXION WITH THE FUNEEAL OF LOED STEATHCONA.1 Seest thou a man diligent in his business ? He shall stand before kings. — Prov. xxii. 29. Just thirteen years ago we met in this hall to join in the national mourning for a great and good Queen : to-day we have, as a University, personal and intimate reasons for sharing in the general grief for the most distinguished Canadian of his time — our Chancellor, who built this College, and caUed it by Victoria's royal name. Before I speak these words, the grave will have closed, in the homeland, at the heart of the Empire, over the mortal and perishable remains of him whom we all revered. He had been " crowned," to use the words of the Psalmist, ' ' with glory and honour " ; and he died, as he would have wished, in harness — thinking up to the last, as I shall tell you later on, of what he could do for others. Throughout our wide Dominion, and indeed all over the English-speaking world, it may be doubted if any individual has ever been more greatly mourned. And if it now devolves on me, as the chief executive officer of the University, to pay a fitting tribute to his memory, I can at least advance the qualification that for nearly twenty years I have been con stantly associated with him, and that from the first I learned to appreciate his noble qualities, in particular his whole hearted devotion to the cause of education. But does it not at once convey some impression of his won derful career to be reminded that when I met him first— when nearly two decades ago he asked me to come to McGill — he had already passed the allotted span of three-score years and 1 Eoyal Victoria College, January, 1914. 367 368 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS ten ? The date of his birth takes us back to the close of the reign of George the Third, and he came to Canada in the year after Queen Victoria ascended the throne. At the pubhc meeting which the citizens of Montreal held at the Board of Trade in 1900, and which resulted in the erection of the Strathcona monument in Dominion Square, he told us that he could then look back on more that sixty years of work in Canada. Already for some time past, he had held his high office as the nation's representative in London — an office which would have sufficed in itself, even apart from his great personality, to mark him out as one of the most distinguished citizens of the Empire. But it was easy to see that at the root and foundation of the high position he had won lay the long years of preparation for it. From his native Scotland he had taken to the Labrador all the best results of a careful home training, which revealed itself in the remarkable rapidity with which he rose to the very top in the service of the Hudson Bay Company ; and when the call for action came to him in connexion with the troubles in the North west, it found him a resolute and experienced man of affairs, who knew the hearts of others as they knew his. Then came the period of service at Ottawa and Montreal, which com pleted his preparation, and gave him such a place in the esteem and affection of his fellow-countrymen that none but he could be looked to when there was a need for some one to take up the role of Canadian representative in London. I pass lightly by the historical aspects of the various stages of his long and honourable career. In conversation, what he liked most to dwell upon was his experiences as trader, factor, and commissioner of the Hudson Bay Com pany. Of that connexion he was very proud, beheving as he did that the wise rule of the Company had much to do with the possession by Canada of the Great Lone Land, Prince Eupert's Land. And he used to refer with very special satisfaction to the services which he had been privileged to render in the way of obtaining what he called a " proper and moderate solution " of the difficulties resulting from the first Eiel rebelhon. As to the Canadian Pacific Eailway, in con- MEMOEIAL SEEVICE POE LOED STEATHCONA 369 nexion with which the popular imagination has always in clined to exalt him above all others — probably because of the historic picture of the driving of the "last spike," and by reason of the fact that since its successful completion he has bulked so largely in the public eye — let it be stated that he well knew what was due to others as well as to himself, and remembered to give credit where credit was due. In accept ing a presentation in London in November, 1907, he used these words : " had it not been for the cordial co-operation of all my colleagues who undertook the contract, it would have been impossible to have carried it through. Happily we were all in perfect accord." In the same generous spirit I have heard him more than once, when acknowledging com pliments for his great contributions to educational interests, remind those to whom he was speaking that another Canadian had done even more than himself — Sir William Macdonald. I shall say nothing of his services to the Dominion and the Empire in connexion with the Pacific Cable, and faster Atlantic transportation. But there are two aspects of his contributions to education that ought here to be specified : they are sufficient in themselves to prove that his was no stereotyped or conventional form of benevolence. I refer first to scientific medical education, and secondly to the higher education of women. In both of these departments he was a pioneer, and showed a power of initiative from which this University and this community will long continue to derive practical benefit. The last stage of Lord Strathcona's varied career was spent, as I have said, in London ; and there must be few Canadians who can have failed to appreciate the great benefit we have derived from having him as the official representative there of the first of the " new nations within the Empire ". It gave the Dominion added prestige and dignity. I am not introducing any controversial topic when I say that, in the days when Mr. Chamberlain was Colonial Secretary, he heartily sympathized with that statesman's aspiration that our Empire should become more conscious of itself. Of course he kept scrupulously aloof from anything of the nature 24 370 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEESSBS of party politics. But I think he would have accepted the definition of the problem given the other day in the " Specta tor" — the "unprecedented problem of a central democracy settling its terms of association with younger democracies so that the union of the whole, while symbolizing Freedom, may become more intense and more apt for self-defence ". His most notable act in this connexion was the provision, equipment, and maintenance for service in South Africa of the regiment known as Strathcona's Horse, a project con ceived and carried out in the grand spirit of an ancient Athenian liturgy. Indeed I often think of Lord Strathcona as the modern incarnation of the virtues which students of Aristotle's "Ethics" know as "magnificence" and "high- mindedness". There was a crisis in imperial affairs, and our ChanceUor seized the psychological moment for action. I have a photograph which might be fitly framed alongside of the driving of the last spike in the Canadian Pacific rail road. Both are historic. It represents the scene at Buckingham Palace when in April, 1901, King Edward presented his colour to our Canadian Troopers, the scene of which a memorable word-picture was painted at the time by Mr. A. G. Hales. " Once more," says that writer, "the warlike music flooded the air with sound that fired the blood ; then over the terrace came an old man, whose white beard rivalled the snow on which he trod. He reached the spot where Alexandra stood, and bowed before the Queen ; then, turning, walked towards the King, and Edward met him with extended hand, and gave him a kindly greeting, whilst Eoberts, Buller, and a dozen more vied with each other to do him honour. It was the man who raised the regiment, the loyal Strathcona, whose name the regiment bears ; and, if he leaves no other monu ment, his name will live in English hearts when many another name has been forgot. The King and that old man stood side by side, the sunbeams chased the shadows from the snow, the flag, rich in its wealth of colouring, flaunted bravely in the breeze ; then all the echoes rang and rang again to the cheering of our sons who came to us across the seas." MEMOEIAL SEEVICE POE LOED STEATHCONA 371 Some are asking (you may already have seen the question stated in an English journal) whether men who have been so fortunate as Lord Strathcona are really entitled to all the wealth that has passed into their possession. I make no judgment upon that, except to say that it is well for the world when great wealth is in the hands of those who have anything like the sense of responsibility that animated him, and any thing like the same desire to serve the public interest. These were the heroic days of Canadian history, when individual pioneers were privileged to write their names in large char acters across the whole breadth of a continent. And after all he was no mere sordid seeker after gain, nor did his material prosperity ever blunt the edge of his moral and social ideals and aspirations. In a word, his soul was not sub merged, as is sometimes unfortunately the case, by the gather ing tide of worldly success. Duty was his guiding star — duty and conscience. We ought to be glad too — ought we not? — in our day and generation, that Canada can boast of him as a man of unspotted integrity. His word was as good as his bond. But he carefully weighed pretty nearly every word he uttered, and most certainly every word he ever wrote. None could apply the pruning knife more remorselessly than he to the language of any document for which he was expected to make himself in any way responsible. He was above everything accurate even in the use of words. I fancy he had done most of his reading in early life, when in the lone silence of the Labrador he acquired that stock of ideas, and that power of expression, which stood him in such good stead when he had to address himself, comparatively late in life, to the difficult art of public speaking. And he could appreciate a telhng phrase, or the pointed turn of a sentence. I remember when he asked me to supply him with a Latin motto for his new coat of arms, which had hitherto contained the one English word " Perseverance ". When I inquired what idea he would hke to have expressed, he half -whispered " In the van ". I gave him " agmina ducens," and there it stands to-day. And yet for all his eagerness to be " in the 24* 372 CANADIAN ESSAYS AND ADDEBSSES van," one can never think of him as anything but essentiaUy modest and unassertive. You all know what his bearing was on the various occasions on which he was seen in our midst, inwardly glad, no doubt, to receive the homage of our love and praise, but genuinely anxious at the same time that no one should be put to any inconvenience because of him. And all the quahties of which he gave evidence in public were familiar to those who knew him in his home. The death of his wife, but ten short weeks before his own, was naturally the greatest sorrow of his whole life. One who saw much of him at the time has told me how it seemed to shake his soul to its depths, and thereafter he was as a stricken man. The friends who met the aged pair on the occasion of their last visit to Montreal will recall some of the instances of the kindly humour that always characterized their intercourse with each other : and it is a satisfaction to remember, now they are both gone, that through their loving and devoted daughter their lineage is continued in the third generation. Lord Strathcona lived a strenuous and a useful life. I have said that it was characterized by courage and high resolve in critical and anxious times. As some one said the other day, he always showed that he could rise to the height of great occasions. But alongside of that should be placed the continuous response to constant apphcations for pubhc and private charity, to which his resources were fortunately adequate — a charity that was never exercised, be it remem bered, in mechanical fashion, but always with some personal touch of kindly courtesy and consideration. Even in his latest days he was thinking of what he could do for others : and it ought to be mentioned here that, evidently remember ing of his own accord a certain payment which he was in the habit of making to the Eoyal Victoria CoUege about the time of the New Year, he cabled me the sum of $45,000 this day last week, practically on the very day before he died. He was given to hospitality ; and his Montreal home was long a recognized place of meeting for many who, under the divided conditions of our civic hfe, seldom met anywhere else. MEMOEIAL SEEVICE FOE LOED STEATHCONA 373 He was full of the conviction that in our province French and English must perforce agree to live together, for the very good reason that here neither of the two races can live with out the other. And now his eager and indomitable spirit is quenched in death. Low lies that good grey head that all men knew. But his works will live after him, and the record of his life, from the days of his pioneering in the Labrador to his funeral service at Westminster. They offered as you know to bury him in the Abbey, and right worthy would he have been to mingle his dust with England's mighty dead. We may be glad and rejoice that such a compliment was paid to him, while we need not regret in the circumstances that the dictates of natural affection were allowed to prevail. He sleeps in the grave that was opened for his wife little more than two short months ago, so that in death they are not divided. EspeciaUy in McGill University Lord Strathcona's mem ory will ever be cherished. Generation after generation will continue to look back on his life and his work as an inspira tion to high endeavour. It has created for us, as indeed for the whole of Canada, a great and stirring tradition. Venerable patron of learning, philanthropist, patriot, statesman, man of affairs, magnificent and high-minded public servant, the University which has owed so much to your wise counsel and your unfailing generosity bids you a last and sad farewell ! ABBRDBEN ; THE UNrVEESITT PRESS