ain heroic
temper in their thinking and acting, which give them power to engage the
emotions; and hence to deny them exceptional educational value is to
take a partial view. But even though we grant that the study of their
literatures is in certain respects the best intellectual discipline,
education, it must be admitted, means knowledge as well as training; and
thorough training is something more than refined taste. It is strength
as well, and ability to think in many directions and on many subjects.
Nothing known to men should escape the attention of the wise; for the
knowledge of the age determines what is demanded of the scholar. And
since it is our privilege to live at a time when knowledge is increasing
more rapidly even than population and wealth, we must, if we hope to
stand in the front ranks of those who know, keep pace with the onward
movement of mind. To turn away from this outburst of splendor and power;
to look back to pagan civilization or Christian barbarism,--is to love
darkness more than light. Aristotle is a great mind, but his learning is
crude and his ideas of Nature are frequently grotesque. Saint Thomas is
a powerful intellect; but his point of view in all that concerns natural
knowledge has long since vanished from sight. What poverty of learning
does not the early medieval scheme of education reveal; and when in the
twelfth century the idea of a university rises in the best minds, how
incomplete and vague it is! Amid the ruins of castles and cathedrals we
grow humble, and think ourselves inferior to men who thus could build.
But they were not as strong as we, and they led a more ignorant and a
blinder life; and so when we read of great names of the past, the mists
of illusion fill the skies, and our eyes are dimmed by the glory of
clouds tinged with the splendors of a sun that has set.

Certainly a true university will be the home both of ancient wisdom and
of new learning; it will teach the best that is known, and encourage
research; it will stimulate thought, refine taste, and awaken the love
of excellence; it will be at once a scientific institute, a school of
culture, and a training ground for the business of life; it will educate
the minds that give direction to the age; it will be a nursery of ideas,
a centre of influence. The good we do men is quickly lost, the truth we
leave them remains forever; and therefore the aim of the best education
is to enable students to see what is true, and to