ize fellowships is that they are the
only means by which a child of the working-class can raise himself to
the highest positions in the land. My answer to this would be that, in
the first place, it is of questionable expediency to invite the
cleverest members of any class to leave it--instead of making their
abilities available in it, and so raising the whole class along with,
and by means of, their own rise. Second, these prize fellowships will
continue, and must continue, to be carried off by those who can afford
time and money to educate their sons for the competition. Third, I
doubt the expediency--and the history of Oxford within the last
twenty-five years strikingly confirms this doubt--of giving to a young
man of any class what is practically a premium on indolence, and the
removal of a motive to self-reliant and energetic spirit of
enterprise. The best thing that I can think of as happening to a young
man is this: that he should have been educated at a day-school in his
own town; that he should have opportunities of following also the
higher education in his own town; and that at the earliest convenient
time he should be taught to earn his own living.

The Universities might then be left to their proper business of study.
Knowledge for its own sake is clearly an object which only a very
small portion of society can be spared to pursue; only a very few men
in a generation have that devouring passion for knowing, which is the
true inspirer of fruitful study and exploration. Even if the passion
were more common than it is, the world could not afford on any very
large scale that men should indulge in it: the great business of the
world has to be carried on. One of the greatest of all hindrances to
making things better is the habit of taking for granted that plans or
ideas, simply because they are different and approach the matter from
different sides, are therefore the rivals and enemies, instead of
being the friends and complements of one another. But a great and
wealthy society like ours ought very well to be able to nourish one or
two great seats for the augmentation of true learning, and at the same
time make sure that young men--and again I say, especially young
women--should have good education of the higher kind within reach of
their own hearths.

* * * * *

It is not necessary for me here, I believe, to dwell upon any of the
great commonplaces which the follower of knowledge