the refreshment of well-known faces, the majesty of rank or of genius,
the amiable charities of men pleased both with themselves and with each
other; the elevated spirits, the circulation of thought, the curiosity;
the morning sections, the outdoor exercise, the well-furnished,
well-earned board, the not ungraceful hilarity, the evening circle; the
brilliant lecture, the discussions or collisions or guesses of great
men one with another, the narratives of scientific processes, of hopes,
disappointments, conflicts, and successes, the splendid eulogistic
orations; these and the like constituents of the annual celebration,
are considered to do something real and substantial for the advance of
knowledge which can be done in no other way. Of course they can but be
occasional; they answer to the annual Act, or Commencement, or
Commemoration of a University, not to its ordinary condition; but they
are of a University nature; and I can well believe in their utility.
They issue in the promotion of a certain living and, as it were, bodily
communication of knowledge from one to another, of a general
interchange of ideas, and a comparison and adjustment of science with
science, of an enlargement of mind, intellectual and social, of an
ardent love of the particular study, which may be chosen by each
individual, and a noble devotion to its interests.

Such meetings, I repeat, are but periodical, and only partially
represent the idea of a University. The bustle and whirl which are
their usual concomitants, are in ill keeping with the order and gravity
of earnest intellectual education. We desiderate means of instruction
which involve no interruption of our ordinary habits; nor need we seek
it long, for the natural course of things brings it about, while we
debate over it. In every great country, the metropolis itself becomes
a sort of necessary University, whether we will or no. As the chief
city is the seat of the court, of high society, of politics, and of
law, so as a matter of course is it the seat of letters also; and at
this time, for a long term of years, London and Paris are in fact and
in operation Universities, though in Paris its famous University is no
more, and in London a University scarcely exists except as a board of
administration. The newspapers, magazines, reviews, journals, and
periodicals of all kinds, the publishing trade, the libraries, museums,
and academies there found, the learned and scientific societi