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In Imperial Europe, Universities are the protectors of pupu-
lar justice; in Republican America, they are the safeguards
of order and law. Tyrants flourish, when Universities are weak.
Demagogues lose power, when Universities are strong.

When the advantages of Universities are set forth, it is common
to point to this, or to that great man, who never studied within the
walls of a University; and, thus, the challenge is made, that such
Institutions are not needed to promote the highest culture. This
objection is unfair in two respects; in the first, because instances
of minds, of the highest order, vindicating their ascendency, with-
out the direct aid of Universities, prove not, for their just training,
the severitly of collegiate instruction. In the second respect, the
objection is unfair, because minds, which have reached high
position and honor, without the individual culture of the Univer-
sity, have been greatly indebted for that eminence to the labors of
others, who have acquired mental strength and knowledge in
Academic halls. Besides, Universities have no stronger friends
anywhere, than those very men, who, having become eminent in
mental pursuits, though without the culture of the University, yet
have learned to acknowledge its power and use, and to deplore
their deprivation.

The self-made man, as he is called by eminence, as if learning
were an amulet, that, even in the best University, could impart its
power, without strength of will and severity of toil; the self-made
man cannot advance a step beyond the rudiments of knowledge,
without being guided by the works of University-scholars. Would
he study ancient literature or modern, in the original languages?
How little can he do, without the books of University-scholars?
The poets, the philosophers, the statesmen, the orators, the
generals of antiquity were laborious disciples of the schools of
Greece and Rome, the Universities of their day. A vast propor-
tion of modern literature has been written by University-scholars.
If the self-made man will content himself with translations, he
must depend upon University-scholars. Would he study Natural
Science? That owes as much as Literature to Universities. The
vast field of Natural Science has been ploughed, sown, tended,
reaped, garnered by University-scholars. He knows not how to
study accurately the bloom of the flower, the light of the star, the
force of the lightning, the tides of the ocean, the properties of the
soil, the intangible currents that thrill through space, without
being directed by the University scholar. If he would follow

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Newton among the starry worlds, to apply the great laws of mo-
tion and attraction, he must follow a University-scholar. If he
would ponder with Bacon on the advancement of learning, and on
the laws of induction, he must ponder with a University-scholar.
In the chief departments of practical science, the University-
scholar holds the wand of Prospero, to call forth the subtle forces
of nature, and bid them do the will of man.

The domain of imagination, as well as that of science, lies within
the realm of University-culture. The palace of ideal beauty, as
well as the stronghold of practical knowledge, is guarded and filled
by University-scholars. How many painters and sculptors, com-
posers of immortal verse and of immortal music, have had their
perceptions of the beautiful and the harmonious, nurtured and
brought to perfection by the generous culture, and by the rich
memories and traditions of the College! The greatest part of en-
during English poetry has been produced by men, whose intel-
lectual impulses were owing, in whole, or in part, to the develop-
ing culture of Universities. He who spurns the College, and yet
enjoys excursions in the realm of imagination, cannot revel with
Spenser among the embowered shades of the Court of the Fairy
Queen, without being guided by the glittering wand of the Univer-
sity-scholar. He cannot follow Milton through spiritual realms of
awful grandeur, without owning that a University scholar has
dared to "soar above the Aonian Mount," and in his sublime Epic,
to "justify the ways of God to man." Would he stand within
view of the ruins of the Parthenon, or contemplate the solemn
arches of the Coliseum, who will interpret for him the scene so
well, as Byron, wayward in life, yet ever great, ever sublime,
when true to the instincts of his University culture?

But, he may point triumphantly to Shakspeare and say, "he
was no University-scholar." Perhaps he was not; but, he was
surrounded by them; he studied them; they were his friends; he
obtained some of his best materials from the labors of University-
scholars. But, take a broader, more comprehensive view. How
could Shakspeare, as a great intellectual development ever have
been, but, for that accumulated force of ages of culture, directly
furnished by cloisters of learning to those under their care, and by
these to the world at large, which brought about that mental con-
dition of things, which made possible the expression of Shaks-
peare's mind? Shakspeare was as truly the result, intellectually
considered, of University culture, as if he had spent all his years