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III. IT is probable that though the main proposition here advocated, that original workers in the Sciences deserve, on public grounds, a recognised position and pecuniary support, will not meet with much opposition from any quarter, the means by which this desirable end is chiefly proposed to be attained will not be acquiesced in with equal readiness. Englishmen have been so long accustomed to regard their Universities as merely high schools of liberal education, and the independent growth of modern Science in this country has been so rapid and vigorous, that to many worthy persons it will seem nothing better than a Utopian dream to attempt to re-establish the genuine pursuit of scientific knowledge as an end in itself at our ancient seats of learning. Those, however, who know something about the system of a German University, and are acquainted with the former history of Oxford and Cambridge, will not consider the attempt to be of such a hopeless character. The present time also affords an admirable opportunity of urging upon public attention a fundamental reform in the direction above indicated. The Universities have of late years been losing many of the peculiarities which they once so warmly cherished, and at the same time their revenues have been increasing to an enormous extent. The same Government which passed a Bill to pronounce them national and not ecclesiastical establishments, has also issued a Royal Commission to inquire into the extent and distribution of their endowments. Now that the nation has established its claim to remodel the Universities solely with a view to the public interest, and is taking stock, as it were, of the property which has fallen under its disposal, the very occasion has come when scientific men should formulate their demands on behalf of those public interests which the practical politician is likely to neglect. It must, moreover, be borne in mind that the impulse in this direction must come from without, for although it will not be difficult to prove that no less benefit would accrue to the Universities themselves than to the cause of Science from the scheme herein advocated, yet the most advanced academical reformers do not seem to have got beyond the notion of extending and perfecting the professorial functions.
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C. The Endowment of Research . Nature 8, 237–238 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008237a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008237a0