IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 11.25 IM ISA us u i Lo 12.0 IL8 Hiotographic Sdeiices CorpomHon 33 WEST MAIN STtEET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SM (716) •73-4903 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical IS^icroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques ;V ■^ Tschnical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas tachniquas at bibiiographiquaa Tha Instituta has attamptad to obtain tha bast original copy availabia for filming. Faaturas of this copy which may ba blDliographlcally uniqua, which may altar any of tha imagas in tha raproduction, or which may significantly changa tha usual mathod of filming, ara chackad balow. 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This itam is filmad at tha reductioi Ca documant ast film* au taux da 10X 14X 1 ratio cnackad Daiow/ reduction indiquA cidassous. 18X 22X 26X 30X / 1,,,^,^ ^^^ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada L'examplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6ro8it6 de: Bibliothdque nationaie du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the firbt page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. 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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds A des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes puivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 / ■i? ADDRESS I CAN *«>5L AT THE CONVOCATION OF lite f UutnjGitt) of iotonto AXD XTlnivevsit^ Colleoc- OCTOBER 19, 1888. BY SIR DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E., TRI'^SIDEXT. TORONTO: ROWSELL & HUTCHISON;, PRINTERS. 1888. / 1- 'c \ ADDRESS AT THE CONVOCATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OCTOBER lOTH, i88S, SIR DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E., Presidkxt. ANCE again we assemble as a University to enter on the work ^ of the academic year, and to welcom.e those who have a pre- eminent claim on our interest as the representatives of its future. When, upwards of a quarter of a century ago, the youthful heir of the throne was welcomed in this hall by the undergraduates of that time, it was with the gracefully significant salutation : Imperii spent spes provincice salutat. In the intervening j'ears some, at least, of that hope has been realised. Young as this University is, we are able to appeal with pride to a goodly list of alumni who have turned to wise account the advantages here enjoyed, and have reflected credit on their Alma Mater. Our experience as a University is thus far a reflex of that of the young Province itself. What we have accomplished is only the blossoming of an early spring. We dwell on the present chiefly for the promise it unfolds ; though I could wish myself young again that I might witness such another period of progress as I have shared in since this University was left free to develop itself as a national institution. :'• >'•*. ' " ' • t • 9 • * • • • • • I » We are indeed reminded in diverse ways that the symbolic tree of our University crest is still but a sapling. Our earliest graduates very recently joined with those of later years in paying their last tribute of respect to the distinguished scholar who first filled this presidential chair ; while invitations come to us from one after another University — some of them young in the reckoning of academic life,— asking us to unite with them in their grateful retrospect of centuries that have elapsed since their foundation. In 1884 the University of Edinburgh invited the representatives of kindred institutions to join in the tercentenary celebration of its founding. Two years later Harvard recalled the humble beginnings of the first New England University, two- and-a-half centuries before ; and the present year has outvied all preceding anniversaries in the festivities by which the venerable University of Bologna celebrated the completion of eight hundred years since its inauguration as the cradle of reviving Italian letters. Compared with even the youngest of those centres of academic culture we are but of yesterday. Yet, if we study minutely their early history, it is unquestionable that our advantages have been greater than theirs : greater in a generous endowment, inadequate though we already find it; greater by reason of privileges due to a century so rich in scientific discovery ; and to a period animated by a rare sympathy with education as the handmaid of constitutional freedom. The history of this University is identified with successive stages of progress from the first settlement of Upper Canada to the Federation of the Provinces of British North America into the Dominion. The varied phases thus presented are indeed note- worthy, considering the brief term of our existence. The student who reverts to the royal charter given by the last of the Georges, in 1827, might fancy it to be venerable with the dust of feudal centuries. The spirit in which revision was undertaken in the statute of 185 1 marks the rebound of an emancipated community in the first consciousness of constitutional freedom; v\hile in more recent legislation we \velcome the triumph of wise moder- ..ation, cogibiued with 4:he .liberality of a people who have t •••• • •• •••• •• **i. 1 ') outgrown the restraints of narrow sectarianism, without lessening their appreciation of the moral elements essential to healthy national life. The experience of a lifetime in which I have watched the progress of higher education under diverse systems, both in the Old and in the New World, has amply comfirmed my early convictions in favour of national education in the widest sense. The Universities of Europe were nurseries of scholarship, and the foster-mothers of science through dark ages, into the light of the new learning ; and their work is not yet done. The busy world is engrossed with the strife of politics, the preoccupations of industrial toil, and the eager pursuit of wealth. It stands as much as ever in need of such quiet retreats for the student, and for the youthful learner in training for his share in its engrossing cares. I rejoice in the evidence which becomes yearly more apparent, of the appreciation of the influence this University already exercises on the thought and life of the community. It is not, indeed, to University-trained men that we must wholly look for the fruits of that influence which radiates from such centres. Shakespeare " had small Latin and less Greek." Neither Gibbon nor Grote won a University degree. The names of Franklin, Watt, Faraday, Stevenson, and many others who have achieved like triumphs, appear on no graduates' roll. Never- theless, they could not have accomplished what they did had it not been for the influence of those academic haunts where intellect is left free to accumulate the resources of learning and the fruits of experiment for the use of all. There, moreover, the bias is given to many a bright young intellect, ignorant as yet of its powers, or of the wise uses to which they may be directed. It is, indeed, not the least among the grave responsibilities that rest upon the faculty, as each year we welcome the new entrants who crowd our halls, to realize how largely our influence may determine their future course. When returning from my summer holiday, I noticed as we passed on to the track of the Canadian Pacific Railway that it depended on the moving of a switch by only a few inches to the right or left whether we should continue • ^g" our journey by the valley of the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic, or pass by the transcontinental line to its terminus on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Even so is it with you who are now welcomed to the privileges of undergraduates of this University. On a choice, which may seem as insignificant as the inclining of the railway switch an inch or two to the right or left, may depend the whole character of your future career ; and realizing as we do the grave issues dependent on the bias given at this critical stage,,. I congratulate you, as I congratulate the University on the successful organization of our Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, with its efficiently equipped buildings on the College grounds, and its healthful moral and religious influences permeat- ing our whole academic life. I have found its operations most helpful to myself in the work of the College ; and I cannot doubt that many will, in later years, revert to its timely influence as having helped to arm them with the courage which sustained them in nobility of aim and purity of life. But if we take a just pride in the honors won by our alumni, we feel no less keenly any case of moral failure. Let the thought be both a stimulus and a warning to every undergraduate, that, as the successful student who wins distinction for himself reflects honor on his Alma Mater ; so the idler, who neglects his opportunities and squanders the irrevocable hours of undergraduate life in folly or dissipation, does a wrong to his fellow-students, and brings discredit on his University. On the use made by you of the priceless advantages here placed within your reach will largely depend your power to avail yourselves of future opportunities as they arise. This is a theme that is ever new, as we welcome fresh entrants to replace the graduating class that now goes forth with our best wishes. But also each year brings to the front some novel aspect claiming special attention, and by its very novelty furnishing evidence not only of vitality, but of progress. At our last anni- versary I was able to cong.atulate the friends of higher education on provisions in the University Federation Act which opened the way for a more comprehensive union of the intellectual and : s educational forces of Ontario in tiic promotion of a common aim. I rejoice that now the governing body of Victoria University has definitely accepted Federation, and we only wait the com- pletion of their buildings to welcome her as a member of the National University. I rejoice in it, above all, from the assurance that when this federal union is fully effected, the cordial welcome that Victoria will receive, and the free exercise of every privilege and function of an independent College of this University which will be frankly recognized as her right, will remove all apprehension and doubt from the minds of her graduates. Were we disposed in any degree to yield to a not unreasonable impatience, we might complain of the operation of an Act which practically abolished the Council of University College, and yet withholds the authoritative organ- ization of the University Council, to which the future discipline and government is assigned. But wc have been willing to wait, in the assurance that when Federation is fully effected its benficial results will commend it to all. We have already welcomed those provisions of the Act' brought into immediate operation, which restored to us the exercise of important rights and privileges conferred by Royal Charter sixty years before. The revived Medical Faculty has been effectively organized ; and, notwithstanding the unavoidable impediments incident to the resumption of such comprehensive work with inadequate accommodation and imperfect facilities, the results have so far surpassed our most sanguine expecta- tions. Early in the present year the necessary steps were taken for the erection of a building designed, when completed, to accommodate the science departments with adequate labor- atories and lecture rooms. The east wing, specially devoted to biology and physiology, is already far advanced toward com- pletion, and before our next Convocation it will be available for students both in the Faculty of Arts and of Medicine. The various important branches of science which have hitherto formed a part of our Arts curriculum will now, with greatly •extended facilities, increase the attractions of this University as a School of Medicine; and we can look forward to the establish- ment of that faculty on a basis which will extend its reputation, and prove of lasting benefit to the Province. But enlarged laboratories and new lecturers and demonstrators necessarily involve increased expenditure. Every step in our experience accords with that of other Universities in the demand for enlarged resources to enable us to overtake the marvellous expansion in nearly every department of letters and science. But just at this stage, when we have been tantalized with promises based on the proposed remodelling of Upper Canada College, whereby some portion of the large sums appropriated out of the funds of this University for that institution should be repaid, v/e are cheered by the prospect of valuable endowments from another source. It requires a strong effort of imagination for the graduates of the present generation to realize the unfriended and seemingly helpless condition in which the new staff of professors of 1853 found the University to which they had been called. The churchmen of King's College, with the venerable bishop, under whose indomitable zeal it had been organized after a model borrowed from institutions of the Old World which have them- selves since yielded to the spirit of the age, were realizing their own ideal in the founding of Trinity College. The members of other denominations having accomplished the overthrow of a College which aimed at combining the irreconcilable elements of a national institution with denominational organization, had lost all faith in any National University system ; and for the most part united in a crusade for the division of the endowment among themselves. It was at this critical stage, when some of the most influential among Canadian statesmen made no mystery of their willingness to abandon all idea of a National University ; and share the endowment (which is already found to be inade- quate for one,) among various denominational institutions : that a portion of the lands acquired as a site for King's College was leased to the City as a public park. It was hoped, by the alienation of a small portion of the University lands, held on. such tinccrtafii tenure, to enlist civic and popular symnathy on behalf of the University of the people. Thirty years have elapsed since that transfer was effected. Some temporary benefit was derived from the construction of needful approaches to the University buildin^^ ; but otherwise we looked in vain for friendly sympathy or aid from the City Fathers. The covenants of the lease were ignored, and our remonstrances remained unheeded. Hut meanwhile we had outgrown the stage of unfriended weakness. Increasing yearly in numbers, reputation, and influence, we found ourselves strong enough to assert our rights. The Courts were appealed to and sustained our claim ; the lease of the Queen's Park was adjudged to be forfeited ; and the civic authorities, tardily awakening to a sense of their loss, were preparing to take steps which threatened prolonged and costly litigation, when — happily alike for the City and the University,— the civic chair was filled by a gentleman of liberal sympathies and wise discrimination. To his worship Mayor Clarke, in co-operation with Mr. John Hoskin, one of the members of the University Board of Trustees, we owe the arrangement of an amicable compromise alike creditable to the City and beneficial to the University. Under the conditions now approved of, and only awaiting the confirmation of the Legislature, the City Council undertake the permanent endow- ment of two Chairs with the sum of $6,000. The .s cial subjects to be thus provided for have been matter of friendl> eliberation with his worship the Mayor and members of the C-.y Council, and I look forward with sincere gratification to the supply of a long-felt want in the founding of a Chair of English language and literature. The requirements of the ancient and modern languages have been met in some adequate degree by the appointment of lecturers and fellows in Greek, Latin, German, Italian, French, and Spanish ; but in the all-important depart- ment of English language and literature the urgent need for an adequate equipment still remains unsatisfied. It is no disparagement to the lecturer on whom the whole work of this department at present devolves,— and to whose painstaking zeal I bear willing testimony, — that, with the pass and honor work of four years more or less incumbent on every student in some part of his course, he cannot overtake its requirements. Attention need only be directed to the provision now made in other departments to show the necessity for additional instructors in this division of our work. The student cannot be too carefully trained to revert with the same spirit of loving reverence with which th., author of "The Fairie Queene" refers to That renowned poet, Dan Chaucer, well of English Ui-.>,tiletl ; to learn to appreciate the marvellous compass of Shakespeare ; and to sympathize in the feeling with which, in a great crisis of England's histor/, her poet Wordsworth, proudly reverting to the language associated no less with her political than her intellectual triumpiis, exclaimed ; We must be free or die, who speak the tongue That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold That Milton held. We cannot forget, moreover, how indissolubly the history of the language is identified m all ways with that of the English race. Hence we must aim at a system of study which in its honor work shall embrace the Mceso-Gothic of Ulphilas, the Icelandic, the Anglo-Saxon of Alfred and the Saxon Chronicle, and the Middle English of writers from the Ormulum and Layamon's " Brut" to Langland and Gower ; as well as the influence of the Scandinavian and the Romance languages on the English grammar and vocabulary. The student who wouki fully understand his own language must, indeed, master the whole process of evolution of the English of Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, and Addison, of Tennyson, Browning. Ruskin, and Arnold, from the rude inflexional dialects of the Low German tribes that displaced the Romanised Britons in the fifth and sixth centuries. The comprehensiveness of this work is now so clearly recognized that, in the best equipped Univer- sities, separate Chairs are provided for the English language and for English literature. If the endowment by the City of a Chair specially devoted to this important work lead to the selection of a Professor of the high character and eminent qualifications we have a right to expect, it cannot fail not only to affect beneficially the work of the University ; but will react no less t?ffectively on the Public and High Schools, and on the whole educational work of the Province. But, apart from the indis- putable advantages which must result to the student from the additional Chairs thus provided : I rejoice no less in the new and friendly relations established with the Mayor and Corpora- tion ; and look forward with highest anticipations to the good fruits which cannot fail to result from the active, interest they will henceforth be led to take, not only in the special Chairs founded by themselves, but in the University, which occupies a place second to none amonj the institutions located in Toronto. Such is the estimation in which the University of Edinburgh is held by its city corporation ; and, though King James VI. is its reputed founder, it owes far more to the liberality and fostering care of the city corporation than to any royal favour. The founding of two University chairs from other sources than the Provincial endowment marks a new era in our history. In no way can the patrons of learning more effectually encourage it. It would indeed be a singularly misleading idea to assume that, because a University has been organized with a State endowment, it is precluded from sharing in private beneficence. In reality nearly every great University, alike in the Old and New World, owes its largest resources to such beneficence. It has been wisely said that a million of dollars is a beggarly endowment with which to set up a new University ; but it will furnish invaluable means of expansion to one already well organized. It is just because we are now able to overtake so much that we more than ever feel the need of additional resources. We have reluctantly acquiesced in the confiscation of our foundation scholarships in order to meet still more pressing wants. But their value as a help to higher education is more apparent than ever. Mr. Leckie, in his "History of England in the i8th Century," makes this // 10 comment on their approved utility under circumstances closely- analogous to our own : — " Soon after 1640," he says, " the estab- lishment throughout Scotland of parochial schools v/as decreed ; and at the same tir*ie they largely extended the system of bursar- ships which has played so conspicuous a part in Scottish life, and has brought the advantages of University education within the range of classes wholly excluded from it in England." Happily there are still left to us scholarships gifted or bequeathed by generous donors ; and this year our esteemed Chancellor, to whom we have already been indebted for the " Blake Scholarship," has marked his approval of the newly-founded chair of Political Science by placing at the disposal of the University the sum of $2,500 to found additional scholarships in the same department of study. Only now, when the matriculation scholarships are withdrawn will it be realized how valuable was that contribution from the University funds for the encouragement of advanced studies in the High Schools of the Province. Yet this abolition takes place at the very time when the University is being brought into more intimate relations with the whole educational system of the Province. When I entered on my duties here, thirty-six years ago, the University had scarcely begun to realize any direct relations between it and the Grammar Schools of the country- Upper Canada College was alone looked to as the preparatory training institution for the University. The revolution is a notable one which has replaced that system by one, the fruits of which are seen in the annual competition of the Collegiate. Institutes and High Schools of the Province at the University matriculation examinations. It began when honor-men of our own training, one after another, succeeded to vacant masterships,, and entered into competition with Upper Canada CoPege in preparing studei s for the University ; but it is due to the present Minister >{ Education to accredit him with the systematic aim of bringing the studies and teachings of the schools into harmony with the prescribed University requirements; and of more clearly assigning to this University its true place as the II crowning feature in the national system of education an which the peope of Ontario feel so just a pride. The masters of our High Schools are now represented in the University Senate, and the matriculation requirements have been modified to meet their wishes. The result is, a healthful co-operation in the work of higher education. With the intimate relations thus established with the schools it cannot be out of place to review certain tendencies cT our school system, not without their influence on the Universit)-. With the elaborate organisation embracing Public Schools, High Schools, Collegiate Institutes, Normal and Model Schools, and a body of teachers now numbering in all 7,000, a uniformity in courses of study and specified text-books, jealously guarded by departmental examinations and inspection, has been ever more rigidly enforced. Much of this is unavoidable, but the present tendency is undoubtedly to excess in that direction. In the aim at uniformity we are in danger, not only of forfeiting the health- ful influences of special ability and enthusiasti in our best teachers; but of disgusting them v/ith the profession, and reduc- ing it, at best, to a respectable mediocrity. It is beyond the reach of the most efficient Normal School, or of any professor- ship of pedagogics, to beget the innate aptitude of the true teacher, such as animated an Arnold or an Agassiz. Men of such type will accomplish more with the worst programme than a bad teacher with the best. No prescribed course of study however excellent, will vivify itself That depends on the sympathetic fervor of the teacher, and he must have time for its free exercise. Frequent complaints are heard of over-pressure in the Public Schools, but much of this, I suspect, is traceable rather to the lack of interest, than to the amount of actual work done. The Infant School and the Kindergarten may be beguiled by singing, and by instruction disguised in sportive forms ; but with growing intelligence the powers of the mind must be called forth, and quickened by the animating influence of the teacher. And if this is true of the school it is even more so in relation to the higher work of the University. We have by no means 42 escaped this tendency to hamper the instructer with elaborately- detailed schemes of study and examination requirements. It necessarily affects some departments more than others ; and is accompanied by such a confusion of ideas, as is seen in applying the same term, " text-book," to a Homer, Virgil, Chaucer, or Shakespeare, which do actually furnish texts on which the utmost variety of philological and critical instruction may be based ; and to a Lingard, a Hallam, a Marsh, or Craik, whose chapters supersede the lecturer's work, rather than furnish a text for the student's analysis. But even where the term is recognised in its technical sense, the mistake is more and more made of dictating in mass a multitude of texts, irrespective of the time at the disposal of teacher or student : all the historical plays or the tragedies of Shakespeare, the whole or the chief works of Moliere, or those of Victor Hugo, which in our own library edition are comprised in forty-four closely printed volumes. Such a programme is at best incompatible with thoroughness, while it tends to give the examinations based on it not a little of the chance aspect of a lottery. One result of the affiiliation of St. Michael's College has been to remove from the University programme all prescribed text-books alike in mental and moral science and in mediaeval and modern history, with results eminently satisfactory to the professors emancipated from their constraint. In truth professors and students are alike in danger, under the modern system of elaborate programmes, of recognising the examiners' report and the place in the class lists as the supreme aim and final goal of an academic career. The educational system which drifts into such courses, is on the highway to become a mere machine, regulated by the clock-work of some central board to whom a grand paper programme is the primary essential. It leaves no room for the men on whom the reputa- tion of Universities have ever most largely depended ; and no time for the wider range of spontaneous and suggestive illus- tration, best calculated to stimulate the enthusiasm of the gifted student. The more latitude a thoroughly qualified teacher 13 enjoys, the greater will be his success in all hui routine work. His method may fall short of the Departmental standard, but it is his own, and the one by which he will produce the most successful resuUs. I have already had occasion to congratulate you on the efficient revival of the Medical Faculty. This year we hail with satisfaction the realization of a long cherished wish in the appointment of a Professor to the Chair of Political Science, not only as the first step in the reorganization of the Faculty of Law ; but as an indication that in that revival we aim at some- thing far beyond mere professional training. Political science, in its fi '1 compass, includes the results of Mie world's experience through all the centuries of civilized man. It embraces the philosophy of history, and aims at determining the basis of constitutional government and the obligations of the individual to the State. The principles recognized in the administration of justice and the determination of civil rights are among the highest tests of national p-ogress, and those it is its function to determine. It has, therefore, even more to do with the statesman and law-maker than with the judicial administrator. But, if adequately taught, political science, constitutional law, and juris- prudence, cannot fail to exercise an elevating influence alike on the lawyer and the .statesman. If the Bar of Canada is to advance in any degree commensurate with the progress of the country, so as to furnish men qualified to win for our Supreme Court the confidence now reposed in the Privy Council as a final Court of Appeal, they must have the opportunity of mastering the wide range of knowledge on which juris- prudence is based. So, too, if Canadian statesmen are to cope with the grave issues that must constantly arise, affecting the relations of the federal Provinces to the central Government; and the critical questions of international comity in which our own interests and those of the Empire are involved : it is no less indispensable that they shall be able to bring the experiences and the wisdom of past ages to bear on the discussions of the present. As an important step towards H !ll the accomplishment of this aim, we have now the pleasure of welcoming, in the new Professor of Political Science, a fellow and lecturer of Lincoln College, Oxford, who comes to us accredited by the most eminent of British historians, and by other high authorities of Oxford and Cambridge, as well as by distinguished professors of foreign Universities. The department of History has hitherto occupied a precarious place in the honor courses of this University. I welcome, there- fore, with peculiar satisfaction, the establishment of a Chair thus efficiently equipped, which will give a new significance and value to historical study. Happily at this same stage a rearrangement of the work has been effected, so as to bring ancient history into more direct connection with classical studies. The branches of Hellenic and Roman history will now be reviewed in their immediate relation to Greek and Roman literature. Thus, with increased facilities we enter on the work of a new year, .stimulated by fresh incentives to exertion in the treatment of a department of study which, under whatever limitations it may be placed, will baffle the efforts of the most diligent student to wholly master it. Grote found in the History of Greece the work of a lifetime ; in the experience of Gibbon, that sufficed for no more than the record of Rome's decline and fall ; while for Macaulay life proved too short for one pregnant chapter of England's national story. No subjects, moreover, call for more discriminating judg- ment in their treatment from the professor's chair than those now referred to. The remark of a distinguished Oxford professor applies no less to the teaching of political science than of history. " It is necessary," he said, "at starting, to warn the students that they come to him for knowledge, not for opinions ; and it will be his highest praise if they leave him with increased materials for judgment, to judge for themselves with an open and an inde- pendent mind." Yet, while such will, under certain limitations,, be the aim of every wise teacher, his instruction would become an abstraction as insubstantial as Prospero's vision, if he did not marshall the disclosures of history in such a way as to give some clear insight into their manifest teachings. The impartial histo- IS rian is he who manifests at all hazards an inexorable regard for truth, and a capacity for its unprejudiced discernment, however it may seem to affect the questions that divide the world. As to polit'cal science, it is inseparably associated with historical study ; for it must be, to a large extent, founded on induction from the experience of the past, and so embrace the whole philosophy of history. Two great names stand out in marked pre-eminence among the masters of Hellenic intellect who have bequeathed to later generations works of undying interest, those of Plato and Aristotle. To the Dialogues of Plato the student of ethical science and metaphysics reverts, as to the fountain- head of speculative thought ; and to the Politics of Aristotle the student of political science must be no less indebted for the wealth of national experience in the youth of the world's freedom, at one of the most memorable periods of political development. For it must not be overlooked to how large an extent the ethical and the political philosopher had as their common aim the reformation of existing society, and its elevation, as far as might be to the ideal standard of a perfect social organisation. The demands, moreover, made on humanity in the Republic of Plato, if more fanciful, scarcely surpass in stringency those of Aristotle's ideal State. Both clearly recognized that man is himself the prime factor in every social problem ; and with true Hellenic sympathies, both no less truly discerned that, intellectually at least, all men are not born with equal capacity for civic responsi- bilities. As to the modern literature of this subject, it is only too ample in its compass, and in its conflicting variety of opinions on those great social problems which are ever pressing for solution, yet are never finally solved. With such teachers as our guides, we shall be able to rise above that mere professional training which is the bane of" scholastic study, and dwarfs our best aims at higher education. Our Colleges must be centres of intellectual life, and not mere marts for retailing certain kinds of knowledge as wares available for professional advancement in life. Universities no longer monopolize the functions exclusively theirs in earlier centuries.. i6 The press encroaches alike on the pulpit and the professor's chair, and both preacher and lecturer more and more address themselves to that wider audience for whom it is available. For words are things, and a small drop of ink. Failing like dew upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. But all the more incumbent is it that the University shall maintain its high character as a centre of such pregnant thoughts. Genius is indeed independent of academic training, and stands in need of no University degree to accredit it. But the fact is of no slight significance that speculative thought, and those secrets of science within which lie all the grandest possi- bilities of the future, have found appreciative welcome there whilt as yet they seemed to possess no practical value. It is from such speculation that the ideas which rule the world have their birth, and from those abstract truths the great results proceed which have revolutionized the life of modern centuries. Henc the present cry for endowed research, and with it the recognition that the acquisition of a University degree should be regarded as but a higher matriculation, the close of preparatory studies and the entering on real work. The increasing number who are now following up post-graduate studies in our own University, at Baltimore, in England, or in Germany, is full of promise for the future. President Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, thus writes to me : — " We have such a noteworthy succession of your graduates among us that I should much like to see their Alma Mater." At the present stage of University organization on this continent, it is an important gain for us that the magnificent endowment of the Baltimore University has been devoted to such advanced studies as offer an inducement to the graduates of other Uni'^ersities to avail themselves of its special advantages. I have already expressed the hope that the day is not far distant when, from the generous liberality of its own graduates and friends, this University shall be endowed with adequate revenues, and constitute a centre of attraction for ■others besides Canada's most ardent students. But I cannot mfmrn 17 sympathize with those who deplore it as an evil that some of our best men, after winning high honors here, aspire to a fellow- ship at the Johns Hopkins University, or a degree in science or philosophy at Edinburgh, Berlin, or Leipzig. If it benefit us in no other way, it will demonstrate more clearly the need there is for the fostering care of a true Alma Mater at a later stage than that of the undergraduate; that the University must be some- thing more than an institution for providing certain later branches in the ed"cation of teachers, and furnishing some useful knowledge adapted for professional life. The professor who is a born teacher — and such alone are worth hearinc, — cannot fail to impress this conviction on impressible minds, even among those who have set for themselves no higher aim. He will inspire thought, stimulate genius, and quicken the dormant energies of the student into eager search for highest truths. Hence the all-important question of University patronage. For the first time in the history ot this University, chairs are being founded and endowed from other than Provincial resources.. On the appointment to every vacant chair depends the intellectual development of a whole generation in the department which it represents ; and the cry that would narrow the choice to the graduates of a single University, or the natives of a Province, is alike short-sighted and contemptible. The creation of a School of Science for New England, and the reputation which Harvard now maintains as a centre of scientific enthusiasm and systematic research, are alike traceable to the selection in 1848 of M. Louis Agassiz, then a foreigner on a a passing visit to the United States,, to the newly-established chair of natural history in the Lawrence Scientific School. In like manner the appointment of Friedrich Max Muller to the chair of comparative philology in Oxford has largely modified the whole aspect of linguistic study there, and so given a fresh impetus to the science of language, and to the capacity of a new generation of philologists trained under such influences. Nevertheless, we do not undervalue native talent. We have recently welcomed one after another of our own graduates as members of the Faculty of this University. It is with no less i8 sincere satisfaction that I congratulate you on the selection of two of our own men to fill important lectureships in the Uni- versities of McGill and Queen's College, Kingston ; at the same time that the latter has selected for another of its chairs a graduate of high repute from the University of Glasgow. In elder centuries, when the Universities of Europe were the sole nurseries of letters, their whole body of graduates constituted one brotherhood ; and in a wider, but not less liberal sense, we recognize the Republic of Letters c.s a federation of ampler range than any political limits, to which we may turn at every need in search of the true teacher. We want neither pedants nor scholastic drudges, but leaders of thought, men of refined culture and lofty aim, who will speak with authority, and whose personal influence will accomplish even more that their lectures in the development of a high standard. It is, moreover, no loss, but an important gain, if the professor is himself a worker, busied in literary or philological research, or largely occupied with scientific investigations. The teacher, who is himself a learner, will ever communicate most knowledge to others ; for he is in full sympathy with research, and is combating on a higher platform the same difficulties which beset the student in his daily work. On the other hand, I feel assured that it is all in our favor that we have our academic home in this centre of industrial life, bringing high thoughts and abstruse speculations into competition with the practical industries of a community just entering on the occupation of a domain stretching from ocean to ocean. It was my privilege, since lasi we met here, to be present at the installa- tion of the Rev. Dr. Francis L. Patton, an old student of this College, in succession to the venerable Dr. McCosh, as president of the Princeton University, and few more enviable haunts of letters and science can be conceived of than that academic grove of elms, sacred to the muses and their devotees. Doubtless the retired seclusion of such a classic haunt has its advantages. Princeton has won for itself an honorable rank among American Universities, and has further triumphs, I doubt not, to be won under the leadership of its gifted young president. But for our- 19 selves I vvelcome the home of this University amid " the hum and shock of men." The history of a Dominion, larger than Europe hes as yet unenacted in the commg time. It is no little stimulus to ourselves to believe that in this and other kindred .nst.tut.ons men are training as citizens, as statesmen, as hristian teachers, destined to turn to wise account the culture here acquired, in transforming our forest clearings and the vast pra.r.es beyound them into the Provinces of a great Confederacy, proud to emulate the triumphs of the Mother Land. Our free outlook into such a future is stimulating as " the breezy call of incense-breathing morn." In the communities of the Old World the very nobility of the great men, and the magnitude of the events, of past genera! "ons must at times beget a sense of despondency, with so much to do and to undo. But here the sanguine evolutionist sees behind him only the graves of an untutored barbarism, around him the ever-widening clearings of intelligent industry, and a golden age beyond. The means at his disposal are such as no previous age has known. Science beconies, in ever more marvellous ways, the hanomaid of industry. It needs no longer the ideal creation of " a Midsummer Nights Dream" to "put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes Our lot has been cast on virgin .soil, in a century of unparalleled progress. There is no limit to the possibilities of the future. The old legend of The Seven Sleepers repeats Itself in other forms as new generations Wake on science grown to more, On secrets of the brain, tlie stars, Aa wild as aught of fairy lore. What a single generation has witnessed since we cleared the site for these Univesity buildings, is the best index of what the twentieth century has in store for you. Our efforts seemed for a time like the labor of Sisyphus But if the friends of this Univer- sity are ever again tempted to despond, they have only to recall that mitial step when the founders of Upper Canada-amid all the engrossing cares of immigrants entering on the possession of 20 an uncleared wilderness, yet, with unbounded faith in the future. — betliought themselves of the intellectual needs of unborn ^venerations, and, while puttin^r the ploughshare into the virgin soil, dedicated a portion of it as the endowment by means of which this University is enabled t(. place within reach of all the priceless boon of intellectual culture. ^»;K-;i^Kimm-vm^i ■ili