To do, in fact, as those old Norman
kings whom I have described to you--to raise a man out of the dirt and
mud where he is getting trampled, unworthily on his part, into some
kind of position where he may acquire the power to do some good in his
generation. I hope that as much as possible will be done in that way;
that efforts will not be relaxed till the thing is in a satisfactory
state. At the same time, in regard to the classical department of
things, it is to be desired that it were properly supported--that
we could allow people to go and devote more leisure possibly to the
cultivation of particular departments.
We might have more of this from Scotch Universities than we have. I
am bound, however, to say that it does not appear as if of late times
endowment was the real soul of the matter. The English, for example,
are the richest people for endowments on the face of the earth in
their Universities; and it is a remarkable fact that since the time
of Bentley you cannot name anybody that has gained a great name in
scholarship among them, or constituted a point of revolution in the
pursuits of men in that way.
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