sities put together. This is doubtless mainly due to the fact that Paris was the unquestioned intellectual center of Europe throughout the long period of the Middle Ages, though the intimate relations between England and France may also have had their influence. With the revival of learning Italian universities became attractive, and Padua long retained its preeminence as a center of medical study. During the seventeenth century the Dutch universities, Leyden and Utrecht, began to attract English students, and continued to do so to some extent throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century. It was not until the nineteenth century that English students sought out the German universities. Douai might perhaps have been included in the list as the chief substitute for university education for the eminent English Catholics who have appeared since the Reformation.[1]
While the fact of university education is easily ascertained, it is less easy to define its precise significance. The majority of our men of preeminent intellectual ability have been at a university; but it would be surprising were it otherwise, considering that the majority of these men belong to the class which in ordinary course receives a university education. It would be more to the point if we knew exactly what influence the universities had exerted, but on this our present investigation throws little light. In a considerable number of cases, at least, the university exerted no favorable influence whatever, the eminent man subsequently declaring that the years he spent there were the most unprofitable of his life; this was so even in the case of Gibbon, whose residence at Oxford might have been supposed to be very beneficial, for at the age of fourteen he had already been drawn toward the subject of his life-task. In a large number of cases, again, the eminent man left the university without a degree, and in not a few cases he was expelled. It is evident, however, on the whole, that university life has not been unfavorable to the development of intellectual ability, and that while our eminent men do not appear to have been usually subjected to any severe educational discipline, they have been in a good position to enjoy the best educational advantages of their land and time.
- ↑ It may be interesting to compare these results with those obtained by Mr. Maclean in his study of nineteenth century British men of ability. He found, that among some 3,000 eminent men, 1,132, or 37 per cent., are recorded as having had an English, Scotch or Irish university education. Of these 1,132, 37 per cent, were at Oxford, 33 per cent, at Cambridge, 21 per cent, at Scotch universities, 7 per cent, at Dublin, and the small remainder were scattered among various modern institutions. It will be seen that university education plays a comparatively small part in this group. This may be in part due to the lower standard of eminence, but it may also be due to the wide dissemination of the sources of knowledge. In no previous century would so encyclopædic a thinker:as Herbert Spencer have been able to ignore absolutely the advantages of university centers.
