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/■■"^ a. 1.1. ■> 
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 |>iA>l(»t> VI 1 
 
 BUiUOItihQL 
 
 .ADDRESS 
 
 AT THE CONVOCATION OF FACULTIES OF THE 
 
 ^ttivet^itg 0f %nu% 
 
 NAilONiUJE 
 
 MBoAlir 
 
 / 
 
 AND 
 
 IRttiveisitg College. 
 
 OCTOBER, 1st, 1889. 
 
 BY THE PRESIDENT, 
 
 SIR DANIEL WILSON, LLD., F.R.S.E., 
 
 TORONTO; 
 ROWSELL & HUTCHISON, PRINTERS. 
 
 4889. 
 

 
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 ADDRESS 
 
 AT THl', CONVOCATION OF FACULTIES OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, 
 
 ▲ND 
 
 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. 
 
 OCTOBER 1st, 1889. 
 
 BY THE PRESIDENT, 
 
 SIR DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 
 THE year on which we are now entering, in resuming the work 
 of the University, has been happily inaugurated hy the 
 meetings held in its halls during the past month by the American 
 Association for the Advancement of Science ; and the discussion 
 of many important subjects embraced by its sections. Eminent 
 men among the representatives of Science and Letters on 
 this Continent have taken part in the work, reviewing the most 
 recent advances in the mastery of abstract science, and estimating 
 the aims of their practical application to economic uses. Every 
 thing available for the special requirements of the Association has 
 been placed at the disposal of the Sections ; and we are gratified 
 by the assurance that at the close of a highly succe-ssful meeting, 
 our visitors have carried away with them pleasant memoiies of 
 their reception here. We cannot doubt that they leave for us 
 enduring impressions to which we confidently look for fresh 
 impetus in our own academic work ; while we trust that the 
 
meeting has awakened an interest in scientific investigations 
 among many who have hitherto regarded all such enquiries as 
 lying beyond the range of popular sympathies. 
 
 This meeting of the international representatives of Science in 
 our College buildings has been, in some respects, peculiarly oppor- 
 tune. The long felt need of adecpiately furnished and equipped 
 laboratories and lecture rooms for our scientific staff was anew 
 brought into prominence by the restoration to the University of 
 its Medical Faculty; and wo now enter on the work of another 
 year i)rovided with buildings admirably adapted for biological 
 and physiological study and research. Plans, moreover, have been 
 approved of, which when carried out to their full extent, will 
 furnish equally satisfactory accommodation for the departments of 
 Botany, Chemistry, Geology, and Pahoontology, along with labora- 
 tories, work-rooms, museum, and other requisites for efficient 
 instruction in the various branches of science. 
 
 In the efforts to accomplish this indispensable provision of 
 adequate appliances for science-teaching, we have keenly experi- 
 enced that insufficiency of funds which even the wealthiest 
 Universities realize when they contrast all that can be overtaken 
 €ven by their most ample endowments, with the ever widening 
 expansion of modern scholarship, science, and philosophy. Unfor- 
 tunately, moreover, the work has not been, even thus partially 
 accomplished without creating other needs. It is incumbent on 
 me very urgently to recall to the attention of the University 
 authorities and the Government the fact that the most recent 
 extension of the science buildings has involved the destruction of 
 the College gymnasium. Some little effort has been made to enli.st 
 the sympathy of the graduates in the restoration of this important 
 adjunct of daily academic life ; and no act could moi-e gracefully 
 mark the sympathy of the large body of graduates, and their 
 loyalty to their Alma Mater, than the gift of a gymnasium for the 
 healthful recreation of their successors in the old halls. But 
 from what ever source it is to be secured, its rest i ;> ' ion is indis- 
 pensable ; and that; too, with the least possible delay. It would 
 
Ml 
 
 3 
 
 indeed l>e a cruel piece of irony to provide for tlie study of 
 biology and physiology at the sacrifice of all essential provisions 
 for the healthful physical development of the student. The want 
 of a properly equipped gymnasium on the College grounds is 
 doubly mischievous; for it tempts the students to seek recreation 
 elsewhere ; and thus affects them morally as well as physically. 
 No claim, therefore is more urgent at the present time. With the 
 students of the Medical Faculty now availing themselves of 
 various departments of instruction in the Faculty of Arts, the 
 numbers in actual attendance on lectures exceed six hundred. 
 For these our accommodation was wholly inadequate; the necessity 
 for replacing the insufficient athletic appliances by others on '\ 
 much ampler scale was yearly becoming more urgent; and 
 therefore the desti-uction of the old gymnasium was the more 
 readily acquiesced in. Looking to the scale of the required 
 building, and the number to be ])rovided for, along with the pre- 
 vailinor character of the climate during our long Canadian winter 
 
 O CD CJ 
 
 term, I venture to add that no provision appears to me so well 
 calculated to ensure abundant physical recreation, in harmony 
 with the social intercourse of College life, as a good skating rink. 
 Every year students break down in the examination hall ; and 
 the Board of Examiners is asked to deal with applications for 
 an aegrotat standing, solely through the neglect to secure that 
 amount of exercise on which intellectual no less than physical 
 vigour depends. 
 
 It is further worthy of consideration on economic grounds that, 
 as experience has familiarized us with the ready adaptation of our 
 city rinks as public halls during the period of the year when 
 their primary purpose comes to an end, it may be possible in this 
 way to overtake the long felt inadequacy in our present available 
 space for College and University examinations, and for large 
 public convocations. Pleasant memories of the skating rink 
 might even have a beneficent influence in soothing the perturbed 
 spirit of the undergraduate, when he has left behind him the last 
 frosts of winter, and comes to face the trying ordeal of the examj- 
 ination hall just as May is passing into leafy June. 
 
4 
 
 I liave referred to the inadequacy of our income to meet those 
 and other urj^ent needs of the University. Wo note witli interest 
 the princely liberality with which the resources of older Universi- 
 ties, both in Europe and America, are beinj; augmented, and new 
 ones founded. At Manchester, Shettield, Liverpool, Dundee, and 
 other oreat connnercial centres, new colle<'es have been liberally 
 endowed by private niuniticence. The stately University build- 
 ings at Edinburgh devoted to the faculties of Divinity, Arts, and 
 Law, have recently been completed by means of a becjuest of one 
 of its citizens. A dome of noble proportions crowns the vestibule 
 of the great quadrangle, surmounted by a colossal bronze statute 
 emblematic of youthful aspiration in the intellectual arena ; and 
 now, by the liberality of another benefactor, additions are being 
 made to its science buildings, including an ample convocation hall, 
 at an estimated cost of not less than $250,000. Men of science 
 have looked on grudgingly at the enlistment of some of the latest 
 fruits of their research in the revolutionising of modern warfare, 
 at a cost that would more than suffice for their utmost needs. 
 Let us hope that the twentieth century will see the revenues of 
 states applied to wiser uses, with somewhat to spare for the 
 devotees of learning ; for science, as the handmaid of peace ; and 
 as a help to the scholar to indulge in all the sweet serenity of books. 
 The world will surely be the gainer by it. Yet even now we may 
 be encouraged to view hopefully the evidences which private 
 nmniticence supplies in proof of the development of a growing 
 estimate of the triumphs of mind. It has been recently stated 
 that the gifts to the Universities and Colleges of the United 
 States c'uring the past year have amounted to nearly three 
 . millions of dollars ; and yet this proves inadequate. Partly, no 
 doubt, the money has been unwisely distributed, cumbered with 
 wasteful restrictions, or fritered away on petty institutions. Presi- 
 dent Paton remarked in his inaugural addrc'ss at Princeton : ''A 
 million dollars would make a very meagre University, while half 
 a million may double the efficiency of one already established." 
 Yale has received during the past three years fully $7(^0,000 yet 
 
she is cripi)l('<l for lack of funds, iind ostiiiuites hor ncnds t<>-<lny nfc 
 $2,0()(),00() moro. to ((Uablo liev to officiently ovcrtakf University 
 work. Harvard, wlnle acknowlcdiufiiif; many lihoral ujifts, and 
 larf^e l)equesls, makes a nearly similar demand ; while Colninhia 
 College sni'passes both in her appeal for S4,()()(),0()0. In vimv of 
 this Canadians may hesitate between mirth and shame, as they 
 recall how comparatively recent is the date of that crisis in our 
 history as a University when influential statesmen openl}' advo- 
 cated the division of its altof^ether inad(!(piate endowment amonj; 
 five denominational colleges. 
 
 It is because we recognize all that this University has yet been 
 able to accomplish as falling far short of what Ontario and 
 Canada stand in need of tliat we ask foi* additional means. We 
 claim to have already accomplished much with the lesources at 
 our disposal ; but we caniK^ shut our eyes to their itiadeciuacy. 
 We are unwilling to occupy an infei'ior place among the Univer- 
 sities of this continent, j'^et our most recent acquisitions are the 
 best proof of how greatly we have bociu crippled hitherto from 
 lack of means. Let any one compare the well furnished labora- 
 tories and other appliances which our eneigetic Professor of 
 Biology, and his efficient fellow-worker in the Department of 
 Physiology, have just taken possession of : with the meagre 
 accommodation heretofore apportioned to them ; and it will be 
 manifest how greatly they have been impeded in their work. 
 
 A fortunate wind-fall due to the appropriation of the old King's 
 College site for that of new Legislative buildings enabled us to 
 meet this pressing w^ant. But the appliances for the equally 
 important science of Chemistry fall far short of those to be found 
 in the best equipped schools of sciences ; and as for Mineralogy and 
 Geoloo'v, the chief work of the Professor is carried on in a subter- 
 ranean apartment, not only utterly inadequate in space ; but one 
 which, with its unlighted access, is an impediment to the work of 
 the department, and a reproach to the University. Trutli is said 
 to lie at the bottom of a well. The gifted analyst who carries 
 on his mineralogical investigations in this subterranean retreat' 
 
6 
 
 vve can only hope «;tit.s a littlo neaier tlierohy to the profounder 
 (U'ptlis wlu'io truth lioH bid. 
 
 Happily, hovvuvor, coy as fortune is, she does smilo on us at 
 tiinos. 1 had occasion, last year, to refer with satisfaction to new 
 and friendly relations winch had heen established betwe'en the 
 University an<l the City authorities, at a time when we were 
 threatened with irritatin«,' and costly litigation. For this gratify- 
 ing change wo were largely indebted to the intelligent sympathy, 
 and impartial candour of tlie gentleman who still occupies the 
 civic chair. Under his guidance, in co-operation with Dr. Hoskin, 
 one of the Board of Trustees of the University, — whose services 
 have been fitly recognized by conlerring on him the Degree of 
 Doctor of Laws, — an amicable basis of settlement was adopted- 
 This has now been confirmed by th.e Legislatuie, and as its first 
 practical fruits, we welcome to-day the occupant of our new chair 
 of English Language and Literature, for which the City of 
 Toronto has provided an adequate en<lownient in perpetuity. 
 Dr. Alexander comes to us as a Canadian, who, after taking liis 
 place on our roll of matriculated students, was tempted by the 
 prize of a Gilchrist Scholarship to pursue his later undergraduate 
 studies, and proceed to a degree in Arts, at the University of 
 London. His degree of Doctor of Philosophy is the fruit of four 
 years of post-graduate work successfully devoted to classical 
 studies and comparative ])hilology at the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
 sity ; and since then, at the University of Berlin, he gave special 
 attention to Teutonic studies in their relations to the important 
 chair he now tills. Dr. Alexander comes to us with the reputa- 
 tion of an able critic, and a successful teacher, the estimation of 
 whose .services as Professor at Dalhousie College has been abun- 
 dantly indicated by the regret at his loss. Wt' accord him a 
 hearty welcome as a member of the Faculty. In co-operation 
 with the accomplished Lecturer in the same department, we have 
 now t\ie assurance that this all-important ^branch of studies will 
 be efficiently carried on. 
 
 The illustrations afforded by the history of the past year, in 
 
the cfHii|>Mu'nt of two lii<;lily important tlepiirtinonts, tluis placed 
 in a state of efficiency as tlie result of conipanitively moderate 
 ailditions to our finals, Niiflice to prove that it is no mere va;,Mie 
 cravin;,^ for larg.; enilowments that tempts us to plead for ampler 
 resources. It is because we believe that this Universitv is ijlavin*' 
 an important part in elevatinj^ the intellectual status of the 
 Dominion, and is makinjj; permanent contributions to Canadian 
 auvl American civilization, that we appeal for means to enable us 
 to accomplish nnich more. With tlu; exami)les of Coineli, Johns 
 Hoi)kins, and Clark rniversities, each with their ;,dfts of millions, 
 wo cannot doubt that our Provincial University has yet in store 
 tor it some ;^fenerous lai'^jfess to enable it to meet the evei- i^rowin^- 
 needs of a Dominion entiusted with the ])olitical or;,'ani/ation o^ 
 half a continent. In view of the responsibilities that thus open 
 up before ns, we may fitly borrow the invocation of the poet 
 Whittier on behalf <jf States separated from us by a mere frontier 
 line : — 
 
 •'Our Father's Uod, from nut whose hand 
 The centuries fall iiko grains of sand, 
 O ! make Thou us, tlirough eentiirios long 
 In peace secure, and justice strong ; 
 
 Around our federation draw 
 
 The safeguards of Thy righteous law, 
 
 And, east in some diviner mould. 
 
 Let the new cycle shame the old." 
 
 But changes of another kind invite our present c* sideration. 
 We meet to-day Jis a University entrusted anew, by t ' will of 
 the Legislature, with functions originally assigned to , by the 
 Royal Charter of 1827, and which have been in abej'ance for 
 thirty-six years. We welcome the action of the Provincial 
 Executive Vvdiereby the legislative enactments ot' 1887 are at 
 length brought into full operation, and the University enters on 
 a new cycle in its history, with its faculties of Arts, Medicine, and 
 Law, combining with the requirements of liberal culture those 
 of professional education. 
 
 By the Act which now comes into operation, there is 
 offered, not only to the Theological Colleges of the various 
 
 m 
 
8 
 
 CIiiucIk's, hnt to evei^y adequately acquipped University and 
 College of this Province that chooses to avail itself of its pi-o- 
 visions, a share in che government of this University, and an 
 important influence in maintaining its teaching in harmony v/itli 
 the wishes of a Christian community. This important step has 
 been effected without encroaching on the character of this Uni- 
 versity as a State institution available for every citizen, without 
 distinction of sect or party. It is indeed no more than a develop- 
 ment of the system which has already been satisfactoril}' tested 
 by experience; and if consistent!}^ adhered to, appears to me to 
 realize the itleal of the great Italian statesman, Cavour, — so far 
 at least as education is concerned, — of a Free Church in a Free 
 State. It is at any rate, an honest effort to establish on a satis- 
 factory basis a plan of higher education in harmony with the 
 existii^g scheme of public instruction which unquestionably com- 
 mands the approval of the people of this Province. 
 
 We are pi'one to congratulate ourselves, and not without reason, 
 on our freedom from the embarrassments of older states. The 
 nations of Europe, in re-adapting their institutions to modern 
 conditions, are constantly impeded by their inheritance of 
 medieval legacies, no longer compatible with the requirements of 
 modern civilization. But young as we are, we are taught to sym- 
 pathise with them, in the efforts required to undo the evih 
 engrafted on our fii,:t institution for higher education bj' a too 
 faithful adherence to-medieval models. Had King's College f'-om 
 the first been established on a liberal basis, accessible and accept- 
 able to all, we should not now be struggling to bring about a 
 hearty united action for the establishment of a uniform standard 
 of higher education accredited by the imprimatur of a national 
 Universit}'. 
 
 The multiplication of inadequately endowed denominational 
 Colleges, with Univer.^'ity powers conferred on them by local 
 Legislatures, has, in the neighboring States, tended to bring degrees 
 into contempt. A University degree to be of any practical worth, 
 must, like the stamp of current coin, be the guarantee of some 
 
specific value. Nor is fcliere any reason why the special charac- 
 teristics of church or denominational colleges should interfere 
 with their co-operation, under a federate system, in the common 
 aim at giving a uniform and high value to the degrees of this 
 Province ; and thereby furnishing an example for the guidance of 
 other Provinces in our young Dominion. The rivalry of com- 
 peting Colleges in the work of education, while each preserves 
 its own autonomy and specific individuality, is altogether 
 healthful The one which oflTers the greatest advanta^^es is 
 sure to attract to it the best students. But the reverse is 
 notoriously the case when rival Universities compete for 
 candidates for degrees. It is like setting up rival mints to 
 stamp what metal they please with the guarantee of unalloyed 
 gold. The University that maintains the lowest standard runs 
 a fair chance of out-bidding the rest and growing rich by degrees. 
 Repeated attempts have, accordingly, been made to bring about 
 such united action among Canadian colleges as would put an end 
 to this mischievous competition. By the Act of 185a, the heads 
 of the various denominational Colleges were invited to share in 
 the government of the Provincial University, as a step towards 
 the establishment of more intimate relations between them under 
 one degree-conferring board. Queen's and Victoria Universities, 
 along with other Colleges, so far responded to the invitation as 
 to bear a part for a time in the deliberations of the Senate ; but 
 the only result was a determined effort to accomplish a division 
 of the endowment among certain denominational Colleges. That 
 scheme was accoadingly superseded by the Act of 1873. The 
 theological and other Colleges in actual affiliation weie brought 
 into more intimate relations by being accorded representation on 
 the Senate. The more recent Act of 1887, which onlj' now comes 
 into full operation, aims at a comprehensi e federation of the 
 Universities and Colleges of Ontario under one Provincial Univer- 
 sity, with a view to securing a uniform standard of higher 
 education. It offers to all undergraduates of any federate College 
 who care t«) avail themselves of the instruction given by the 
 
10 
 
 University Professors the same privileges as those a'^corded to 
 the students of University College ; while it leaves to each 
 College full po>ver to reserve the teaching in any department for 
 its own faculty. In addition to all this the statutes of the 
 University accord to every affiliated College an important share 
 in the examinations for standing and degrees. 
 
 Few questions are of graver moment to a young country such 
 as ours, than the determination of the system of education for the 
 future. In Europe, with its national churches and favored creeds 
 'the Universities have inevitably been brought into close relations 
 with the dominant church. But the whole tendency of Univer- 
 sity development — whether we lock to Oxford, Cambridge, and 
 other Universities of the Old World ; or to Harvard, Yale, Prince- 
 ton, and to the princely endowed younger Universities of the 
 neighbouring States : — is distinctly adverse to the denominational 
 control of higher education. I look on this as replete with 
 promise for the future. The Professor of an English denomina- 
 tional college, in recently setting forth a Manual of Logic, com- 
 mends the rejection of Galileo's novel astronomical disclosures by 
 the ecclesiastical authorities of the seventeenth century on the prin- 
 ciple " that it is best to be tardy in accepting novelties of doctrine 
 till all possibility of their error has been definitely eliminated.'' 
 The attitude of theologians towards scientific progress has in all 
 ages tended to assume this over-cautious conservatism ; and with 
 no other result than to retard knowledge, and delay the triumph 
 of truth. Under the dread of their ban, the grand achievement 
 of Copernicus was withheld from nearly a whole generation ; and 
 that revelation of science kept inoperative, by which the Ptolemaic 
 system of astronomy was at length displaced, and the way prepared 
 for Newton to demonstrate the law of the tides of ocean, the 
 paths of comets, and the motions and figures of the planets. Yet 
 religion 1 id no interest in this retarding of knowledge. It 
 has nothi g to apprehend from true science. It cannot possibly 
 suffer from the trinmph of truth, however much the growth of 
 knowledge may compel a revision of old interpretations or mis- 
 
 i 
 
11 
 
 conceptions. This is being more and more widlej'- reco^mized ; 
 and to it is no doubt largely due the manifest tendency of popular 
 judgment in relation to our whole scheme of Canadian education 
 from the Public School to the University, which appears more 
 and more to incline towards a purely national system in which 
 the rising generation shall not only enjoy ami)le privileges of 
 intellectual training, fitting them for the duties of citizens'-. p in a 
 free state; but shall, as far as possible, mingle together in uncon- 
 straine<l equality in the impressible years of youth, and early 
 manhood; instead of growing up in isolated divisions, 
 trained to exercise the ordinary duties of citizenship apart 
 from those with whom their interests are, or should be, the same. 
 Nevertheless we cannot ignore the reasonable jealousy with 
 which many regard an avowedly secular system of education 
 under the apprehension that it must needs exclude from its 
 requirements some essential elements of moral training. It is 
 indisputable that the exclusive cultivation of the intellectual 
 faculties leaves out of account an important section of man's 
 requirements; and if, under oui special conditions, with no State 
 Church, or favoured sect, it inevitably involved that result it 
 would merit condemnation. But it is no less instructive than 
 encouraging to note that the gradual secularisation of the Scottish 
 and English Universities ; the appointment of laymen to the 
 Principalships in the former, and as Heads of Colleges and 
 Fellows in the latter, with the abrogation of tests and the lemoval 
 of enforced attendnnce on chajjel and other invidious restrictions 
 on ^nonconformists, instead of resulting in any tendency to 
 slight the ethical or religious element, has been accompanied by a 
 remarkable revival. The name of Professor Clark Maxwell, — a 
 student who combined the training of Edinburgh and Cambridge, 
 and who retained his position as an elder and an earnest worker 
 in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, while occupying his chair 
 in the University of Cambridge,— is associated with all that is 
 worthiest in scientific research, and in the earnest simplicity of 
 Christian life. That of Arnold Toynbee, a student of Balliol 
 
12 
 
 College, Oxford, has become identified with schemes of phikn- 
 thio|)ic enterprise undertaken by both English and Scottish 
 UTulergrad nates. Estimating rightly their own privileges, their 
 sympathies have gone forth on behalf of the heathen outcasts of 
 the east end of London ; and the pariahs of long-neglected city 
 wastes in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Young men who have been 
 awakened to a nobler life at the Universities have gone down 
 into those haunts of wretchedness and degradation, and estab- 
 lislied there what are known as " University Settlements" such 
 as that in Whitechapel, London, and at Fountain Bridge, Edin- 
 burgh. These are no mere assumptions of the ordinary functions 
 of the City Missionary. They derive their character and mode of 
 work from the experiences of student life. " Toynbee Hall " has 
 come to signify a club organized by University students, with 
 classes, lectures, a parlour, library, and genial friendly ministra- 
 tions to the moral and intellectual needs of that multitude which 
 in laige cities seems to lie wholly outside the compass of the 
 (/hurches, and baffles statesmen in their efforts to cope with the 
 brutalised mass. Yet this healthful outgrowth of underOTaduate 
 life has originated among University students at the very time 
 when they were being more and more emancipated irora denom- 
 inational control. 
 
 Nor has a similar spirit failed to manifest itself among our own 
 students. The members of our College Young Men's Christian 
 Association have for some years had their active hospital visitors, 
 their workers among the newsboys, and in other ways; and more 
 recently have followed the example of older Universities in enter- 
 ing on still higher undertakings. Responding to such quickening 
 influences, graduates and undergraduates of the English and 
 Scottish Universities have undertaken work in the foreign Mission 
 field ; and I note with peculiar satisfaction that the students of 
 this University have not been slow to follow their example. They 
 were visited in 1887 by Mr. Studd of Cambridge, England, and 
 by Mr. Wilder, a representative of the Alumni of Princeton, who 
 told of the efforts among their feilow-students; and now our College 
 
13 
 
 Association has its own representative, James Scnrth Gale, who after 
 taking his degree in 1888, was sent forth to labour as a Cliristian 
 Missionary in Korea. From that distant mission Held letters 
 come from time to time to " The Varsity," telling his old fellow 
 students of his first experiences in Japan. Herbert F. Laflamrae, 
 another of their number, addresses the " Dear Fellows" through 
 the same organ of student life, writing from Cocanada, in the 
 Presidency of Madras, describing his novel studies in the nmsteiy 
 of a strange tongue. " We have been here," he writes, "some 
 three months, and are saturated with Teliigu. The Fellows in 
 Mo'^orns and Classics would Liugh at out- method of getting the 
 language. It is not sitting down with a lexicon and text book ; 
 but with a turbaned Brahmin Murischi, who speaks fair English, 
 and wringing out of him as many new words as possible in two 
 hours daily. Then instead of turning up to recitation before a 
 learned Professor, who will correct mistakes, we simply pass into 
 the yard, intercept the unclad children in their play, and try our 
 Telugu by this very competent examination board." He then 
 adds: " Out of five men in our mission here, four are Toronto 
 University men." 
 
 Such refeiences to extra-academic woi-k in evidence of the 
 undercurrent of student life in this University, have a s])ecial 
 appropriateness at this time, wh^n the Federation Act has jusi, 
 come into operation, and we are able to invite the representatives 
 of denominational Universities to co-operate with us. Now that 
 the Legislature, with the entire concurrence of the University 
 auithorities, has provided every facility for Universities and 
 CoHeges. representing the various churches, to share in the Gov- 
 ernment of this University, and bring their influence to bear on 
 its intellectual and m^ral training : we have done our part. If 
 left alone to carry on the work of this State University, experience 
 has proved that, with an efticient faculty, there need be no doubt 
 as to our satisfying the just demands of the community. We 
 invite co-operation, not because we need it, but because webelieve 
 it to be in the interest of higher education. But it is with peculiar 
 
14 
 
 gratification tliat I am able to announce, at thisjuneture, in token 
 of the friendly relations alreatly subsisting between this University 
 and the Churches, the foundino- of the Lyle Medal in the Depart- 
 ment of Oriental Languages: the gift of the Central Presbyterian 
 Church of Hamilton to University College. As to the Universities 
 that have been organized on this continent under denominational 
 or other conti-ol, we would fain hope that it is not impossible to 
 revive among them something of the cosmopolitan fellowship of 
 the Medieval Universities. But whatever be tlie result in that 
 ampler field, we think we have a right either to ask of our own 
 Canadian Colleges to accept of the co-operaticn offered to them 
 on liberal terms ; or to enter on a fair and frienrlly rivalry in 
 which we shall be left unassailed to work out to its true issues 
 a system which is thus far acknowledged to have rendered to 
 the Province satisfactory results. 
 
 But it is impossible to review the gratifying evidence of higli 
 aims and noble endeavors among the students of this University 
 without recalling the great loss sustained by us in the death of 
 one who, as a member of the Faculty, ever manifested the warmest 
 sympathy in all that tended to elevate the tone of Academic life. 
 Few men have more thoroughly merited the designation of " a 
 born teacher " than the late George Paxton Young. Ho had 
 those peculiar gifts and aptitudes for the highest work of 
 Academic instruction, which University ti-aining may develop, 
 but which lie wholly beyond its compass to bestow. His heart 
 was in his work ; and his enthusiasm inspired his students with a 
 like spirit. He was a philosophic idealist, for whom ordinary 
 material interests presented a very secondary claim. In the 
 unobtrusive retirement in which he devoted himself to kindly 
 charities, and to speculation on the same mysteries that occupied 
 the thoughts of Plato and of Berkeley, it seemed no effort to him- 
 self to live the higher life ; and in its simplicity and purity it 
 exercised an elevating infiuence on all with whom he was brought 
 in contact. His analytical powers as a thinker, manifested as 
 
 ey were in association with an invincible candour and imparti- 
 
15 
 
 I 
 
 ality in the elucidation of systems from whicli he widely differed, 
 contributed largely to his success as a teacher. His clear exposi- 
 tion of such i^roblems as the doctrine of sensitive perception of 
 his old teacher Sir William Hamilton, and of the " Rational 
 Philosophy " of his fellow student Professor Fraser ; or of fieedom 
 and necessity as variously interpreted by Edwards. Locke, and 
 Mill, frequently condensed into an hour's summary the contents 
 of voluuies of argument, and prepared even the superficial student 
 to appreciate the critical analysis by means of which his own 
 views were enforced. I will only add that no one could enjoy 
 intimate intercourse with Professor Young without being struck 
 with the eminent fairness with which he dealt with writers and 
 systems most widely differing from him ; while his fidelity to 
 what he .vecognized as truth knew no limits. His influence on 
 College life was great. He held an equally high place in the 
 esteem of colleagues and students ; and it is with a mournful 
 pleasure I recall the latest of all his public utterances in which he 
 referred to the unbroken friendship maintained between him and 
 myself for upwards of thirty years. 
 
 It would have been gratifying to me to have been able to 
 announce on this the commencement of our Academic year that 
 the chair of Mental and Moral Science, left vacant amid so 
 many unavailing regrets, had been filled by one whom we could 
 welcome as a fitting successor of Professor Young. The vacancy 
 has attracted the notice and tempted the aspiratFons of numeious 
 candidates, including men of well approved ability. No time, I 
 trust, will be lost in selecting from among them one worthy to be 
 entrusted with the work. In anticipation of such an appoint- 
 ment, no more cordial wish can be framed than that he on whom 
 the choice rests may prove successful in winning for himself the 
 place held hy his predecessor in the esteem and affection of all, 
 alike as a colleague and a teacher; and may be able to maintjiin 
 the high character already won for the Department in this 
 University. 
 
16 
 
 Entering as we do on the work of another year amid congratu- 
 lations on the progress aheady made in providing the Science 
 Departments with adepuate accommodation, we feel it all the 
 more important that, with the requirements of Biology and 
 Physiology fully met, the Department of Psychology shall be no 
 less efficiently sustained. In every system of higher education 
 they must be recognized to be complementary subjects. To a 
 large class of thinkers, and especially to the numerous body of 
 students who will hereafter devote themselves to the legal profes- 
 sion, as well as to those who desire to enter the sacred ministry^ 
 Psychology embraces more important, as it certainly deals with 
 higher themes. The term Metaphysic, which had no other 
 significance when first employed by Aristotle than a mere index 
 of the order of place in his collected treatises, has come to signify 
 that which is beyond and transcends physics, even as Psychology 
 claims a higher rank than Physiology. United as they here 
 are with Ethics and Logic, the Department, as a whole, deals 
 not only with speculative thought, but with laws essentially 
 distinct from the sphere of the physical sciences. It gauges 
 from its own standpoint the space of the Physicist, and the time 
 of the Biologist and Geologist; it is the effective antagonist 
 of materialism, persistently urging on the attention of the student 
 an invaluable counterpart alike to the purely physical forces with 
 which the Astronomer and the Geologist deals ; and to the evolu- 
 tionary hypothesis now presented to the Biologist as a key to the 
 mysteries of his science: — 
 
 "For, though the giant ages heave the hill. 
 And break the shore, and evermore 
 Make, and break, and work their will ; 
 Though worlds on worlds in mvriad myriads roll 
 Round us, each with differing powers, 
 And ether forms of life than outs, 
 What know we greater than the soul." 
 
 In a well organized and equipped University the reflex relations 
 of the most widely dissimilar studies become apparent. Truth 
 
17 
 
 springs from truth, and all forin.s of knovvledrro coiitiihiito to its 
 triumphs. The psychologist cannot ignore physiology ; the his- 
 torical student is led back through arclueology to anthropology 
 and geology, as corelated studies; while on the other hand 
 political science claims as its own constitutional history, no less 
 than political i)hilosophy and economics. Hence, as we have 
 welcomed the restoration of our Medical Faculty, we no less 
 appreciate the va' le of a revived Facuky of Law, and its co- 
 operation with the Faculty of Arts in giving the needful compre- 
 hensiveness to the new honor department of Political Science. In 
 the Hon. Mr. Justice Proudfoot, and the Hon. David Mills, the new 
 Professors of Roman Law, and of Constitutional anil International 
 Law, we welcome valuable additions to the University Professo)-- 
 iate. To the able staff of honorary lecturers who have already 
 contributed valuable aid by their lectures on Criminal and Equity 
 Jurisprudence, Commercial and Maritime Law, Legal Ethics^ 
 and other branches of professional study, our grateful acknow- 
 ledgements are due. Not only may we indulge in the anticipation 
 of enlarged usefulness as the inmiediate result of such important 
 additions to our staff; but a fresh value is thus given to historical, 
 literary, and linguistic studies ; and to logic and metaphysics : by 
 their relations to the professional studies which now constitute 
 a legitimate part of our work. 
 
 One other subject claims special notice from us now. We con- 
 fidently appeal to our past record in proof of the fact that we 
 have kept constantly in view such thoroughness in all our training 
 and requirements as shall place the students of this University 
 abreast of the ever widening compass of highest academic stand- 
 ards. Every personal motive urges us to exclude from the number 
 of our undergraduates all who are inadequately prepai-ed for the 
 work of our junior year. Our incomes are in no degiee affected 
 by the increase of numbers ; and experience is scarcely needed to 
 assure us that a low standard of matriculation, by admitting 
 incompetent and inadequately prepared students, must prove a 
 source of burdensome drudgery to the pi-ofessor, an impediment 
 
18 
 
 to the woik of tho class-room, anfl a discredit to the University. 
 The Rei^istrar informs me that the number of candidates for 
 aihnission to the University rejected at tho matriculation exami- 
 nations of the present ycai", has amounted to upwards of tifty. 
 Whether or not this siftini,^ process has sufficed to exclude every 
 incompetent candidate, will appear ere long in the work of the 
 class-rooms. But it must never he lost sight of that a matricu- 
 lation examination differs essentially from all later tests for 
 standing or decrees. What is aimed at is to ascertain how far the 
 candidate possesses sufficient preliminary training to enable him to 
 enter successfully on higher University work. If he has not, it 
 is even more in his own interest than in that of his teachers that 
 he be remanded for further needfid training. But on the other 
 hand it is a wrong, and may inflict a grave injury on a gifted and 
 diligent young student, to reject him on the ground of his inability 
 to cope with some minutiae of a puzzling examination paper, where 
 the general knowledge available for subsequent study is sometimes 
 made to give way to obscure niceties of rhetoric, etymology, or 
 the like inadequate tests. There is this diffiirence, however, which 
 should never V»3 lost sight of, between the entrance examinations 
 in Arts and Medicine. For the Matriculant in Arts they consti- 
 tute a mere preliminary test in subjects on which he will be 
 examined anew in that and subsequent years. In Medicine the 
 requirements involve in part the sole evidence that the candidate 
 possesses certain indispensable prerequisites of a liberal education, 
 and especially a sound knowledge of the English language. So 
 high a stanrJard has accordingly been demanded for admission to 
 the University examinations in Medicine in past years that, prior 
 to the restoration of our Medical Faculty the number who suc- 
 ceeded in passing the matriculation examinations was insignificant 
 when compared with those admitted to other institutions, the 
 friends of which I can scarcely imagine would have the hardihood 
 to ascribe their larger numbers to the attractions of a higher 
 standard. 
 
19 
 
 But too imich inipoitnnco can .scarcely bo atlaclieil to the wiso 
 adaptation of niati-iculation tests to the sta;4<' of iiitelk'ctual 
 deveh)pnient of tlie averjio(i niatiienlant. The passa<^t; from 
 school to colle^'e is an all-important step in intellectuiil life. The 
 youth is for the first time to he entrusted with his own culture 
 a.s a work no longer of compulsion, hut C)f honorahle amhition. 
 A wi.se teacher will indeed strive to awaken this .spirit of emula- 
 tion at an eai Her stao-e. But tlie school hoy is nece.ssai i'v engatjed 
 to a lart;e extent in accummulating facts, mastering aiithmetical 
 tables, rules of grannnar and piosody, vocabularies, and other 
 useful mateiial, the value of which as the foundation of all 
 higher culture, it is vain to expect that he will adt'ipiately appre- 
 ciate. Yet this preliminary work cannot V)e dispensed with ; 
 and its imperfect accomplishment by the self-educated stutient 
 who begins the work in maturcr years has hampered many 
 a gifted aspirant in the pursuit of knowledge. But Bishop 
 Butler has truly said: "Of education, information itself is 
 ea 11 y the least part." The aim of the true teacher must 
 ever be to develop the reasoning faculty. The lote Matthew 
 Arnold, when reviewing his experience as a School Inspector, 
 remarked with reference to the pupil-teachers, from whom the 
 best results might be looked for : " I have been much struck in 
 examining them towards the clcse of their .studies, with the utter 
 disproportion between the great amount of positive information 
 and the low degree of mental culture and intelligence which they 
 exhibit." No doubt this is partly due to a premature stage of 
 undeveloped youth. But the mistake which lies at uie root of 
 many failures in education ; and which intrudes little le.ss mischiev- 
 ously into the examination hall than into the .school-room : is the 
 cultivation of the memory to retain facts, as of more importance 
 than the training of the reason to grasp ideas, or to comprehend 
 the relation.s of abstract science to visible phenomena. 
 
 Applied science and professional training come properly at a 
 later stage. But it cannot be too persistently urged that the Arts 
 course should be essentially educational and not professional. If 
 
•20 
 
 wo cannot create ^'ciiiiis, we on^^lit to l)0)il>lc to ediioate up to the 
 capacity of jippiociutin^ its worth ; and so to stinuihito those of 
 inferior f'ifts to live in tlie li'ditof lii'di endeavor. Ahoveall, wo 
 must erndicate th<! nusehievons error, tliat the Bacludor's deforce, 
 and tlio lionor lists of the fourtli yen)', art; the i^oal of intellectual 
 perfection. In reality the student has then only lenrned to 
 handle the tools. IT(( can grasp i^i^nei-al ideas, and <Mn[)loy his 
 reason in turninijj ae(;uniuljite(l information to wise account, but 
 education is a work that ends oidy with life. 
 
 But while thus ur<,dno; the pursuit of truth, of all truth, in the 
 love of it, and for its own sake, the University se'lieme is hy no 
 means visionary oi- unpractical. While avoidinjj^ the license of 
 unlimited elective scndies the several honor departments have 
 been systematized with a distinct aim at adapting them to the 
 proposed life-work of the student, and to the special requirements 
 of this young country 
 
 It is not only natural but becoming, that the Universities of 
 this New World should test anew th(! great modern exj)eriments 
 in education ; but I venture to affirm on l)ehalf of this Uiiiver- 
 sity that a spirit of progress sucli as the age and country 
 demanded has been temj)ered by a wise conservatism A course 
 of prescribed studies has been laid (h)wn for those who simply 
 aim at the acquisition of a good general education, partially 
 modified by certain limited options. Beyond this ample provi- 
 sion is made for a well-regulated elective system, embraced in 
 seven honor departments, ea-ih of which demands thoroughness in 
 the student as a specialist ; while it protects him from neglecting 
 auxiliary studies, the value of which will become apparent to him 
 at later stages in the work of his department; and enforces 
 attention toother branches indispensable to every educated man. 
 But the range of studies must be limited if thoroughness is to be 
 secured; while on the other hand thoroughness in any single 
 department is impossible without the aid of others. The thoughts 
 of men arc widening, the intellectual horizon expands on every 
 hand, and the most rarely gifted cannot dispense with many 
 
'21 
 
 auxiliary aids. Languages aro tho key to all pant and present 
 stores ; logic and nit.'taphy.sics cultivate the reason to turn them to 
 the Ijest aecount. The anxious expectancy with which wo now 
 await the s,'lection of a worthy occupant of the chair ofinentaland 
 moral pi dosophy quickens our estimate of its importance. The 
 student cannot safely neglect any needful coelKcient of intellectual 
 development. The ahstruse mysteries with which the psychologist 
 grapples may finnish the most healthful corrective to tho engross- 
 ing interest alike of mathenuitical and of morphological problems. 
 The poet, as the inspired thinkei-, is nearest akin to the scientific 
 discoverer when, with prophet-like intuition, he anticipates tho 
 truth which he has still to demonstrate by laborious research. The 
 imaginative side of our intellectual being; the ajsthetic faculty; 
 tho faith that reaches beyond what can be seen and bandied : 
 cannot be allowed to fall dormant without narrowing the compass 
 of mental activity and the force of nioral perception. 
 
 The life of the greatest of aiodern naturalists, Charles Darwin, 
 is at once a sfjlendid example of research followed out with 
 untiring patience, and an unswerving fidelity to truth, and 
 a warning to the specialist against limitation to even the 
 amplest single line of research. With the scalpel he dissected, and 
 with the microscope he searched patiently, through prolonged 
 years, into the mysterious relations of living organisms. But it is 
 with a melancholy sense of the limits of even the highest intellec- 
 tual compass, that we read the confession of the great evolutionist 
 who wrung from nature scirets which have revolutionized 
 thought, and given a new meaning to life : that, when in later 
 years he turned anew to Shakespeare, he found the greatest of 
 all poets so intolerably dull that it nauseated him. In modest 
 truthfulness he acknowledged the loss of the highest a'sthetic 
 tastes to be lamentable ; but ho added " my mind seems to have 
 become a kind of machine for grinding laws out of a large collec- 
 tion of facts ; but why this should have caused the atrophy of 
 that part of the brain alone on wdiich the higher tastes depend, I 
 cannot conceive." This confession of one, who as a student of 
 
w 
 
 22 
 
 nature has carried his assaults on many preconceived ideas into 
 the reahn of mind, cannot but impress every thoughtful specialist, 
 when he reflects that in tliose ver}' rejected pages of the great 
 •dramatist lay embodied the Caliban of Shakespeare's marvellous 
 creation, in which Darwin would have found his own most 
 daring impginings anticipated in the perfect realization of his 
 hypothetical missing link : the reasoning anthropoid merging into 
 humanity. Locke found in poetry " a pleasant land but barren.'' 
 To Darwin it had become a sterile waste. 
 
 Such a stace of inductive reason undei' the guidance of one of 
 the wisest thinkers oi" the age is manifestly no flnal one. We 
 "but see the crescent promise of an ampler future. We are soon to 
 dose accounts, and wind up the afiairs of this nineteenth century. 
 Its last decade is at hand. It has enriched the world with many 
 practical awards of scientific discovery. It is still richer in 
 unrealized pledges. Tt will seem fitting that the New World and 
 the new century should go hand in hand into the harvest field. 
 The Old World tempts us to retrace our steps with alurements of 
 medieval art, and the storied monuments of an historic past. 
 Harsh realities are so veiled in romance that even the critical 
 student is apt to yield to i'^asive dreams of its "good old times.'' 
 But you are safe from such illusions. Your dangei- i-ather is to 
 under-estimate the past, and fail to appreciate at its true worth 
 the debt you owe to elder centuries, and to that Old World of 
 to-day. All here is fresh and young, inexperienced, and eager for 
 ■change. Our Universit}^ is itself in the heyday of youthful 
 ■expectation and promise. 
 
 The old Greek, amid all his intellectual triumphs, looked back 
 regretfully on a lost golden age. But young Canada has no 
 legretful past. For you there stretches out the widening horizon 
 of this land of promise, with fresh Provinces to fashion, its waste 
 prairies to apportion as new centres of civilization, and all its 
 history to enact. Boundless as is the area, there is no room for 
 vain repinings. Here accordingly such nurseries of intellectual 
 life as this University, where the elite of new generations are to 
 
w 
 
 2.S 
 
 be trained for future action, must exercise an iiifluence, relatively 
 speaking, far beyond that of the Universities of older lands. 
 Youth is ever sanguine ; but to yon the future is radiant with 
 assured promise. The poet, Longfellow, when invited to a re- 
 union of the graduates of his University, including the survivors of 
 his own old college-mates after an interval of fifty years, borrowed 
 the salutation of the gladiators in the Roman arena : morituri salu- 
 tamus. Even so we who must so soon quit the scene, salute you 
 who to-day enter on your undergraduate course, as those wiio, 
 far on in the noontide of another century, are to reap the harvest 
 of this seed time of science and research.