Abstract
EVERY one knows that London was the last great capital city to be provided with a University. The reason for this is not obvious, but the fact remains that after the failure of Sir Thomas Gresham's great aspiration in the seventeenth century, the mere idea of a University seems to have been dropped until it was revived by the Benthamites in the nineteenth century. But not altogether: a solitary enthusiast now and again raised his voice. In 1647 there was a curious proposal launched in a pamphlet, now extremely rare, for remedying this deficiency. The proposal came to nought, like many educational projects, not only, we may surmise, because the country was in the grip of the Civil War, but, as will appear, by reason of certain difficulties inherent in the scheme. The title of the tract, or rather part of the title-for it is a true child of the seventeenth century, when long titles were the vogue-is “Motives grounded upon the Word of God, and upon Honour, Profit, and Pleasure for the present Founding an University in the Metropolis London, …” and the author chose to be known as “a True Lover of his Nation, and especially of the said City.”
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D., E. A Seventeenth Century University of London. Nature 112, 343–344 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112343a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112343a0