after-impulse, and so at last amply rewarded the patriotic and far-seeing State, for its first heavy bill of cares and costs, by the greatness of the country's future. The effect of this system also, to level, by its quiet action, the hereditary class walls of an old society, and to assure everywhere the healthful predominance of personal merit and public usefulness, has always powerfully contributed to our political contentment, and to the stability of the social fabric.
Even material progress may be largely aided by social and moral advance. Such was our experience after the nineteenth century, when, happily, our youth required no longer to quit the amenities and protective surroundings of home, in order to complete their education at the university. The wider range of female education, which came in with the twentieth century, had much to do with this improved aspect of the university question. The attendance of both sexes, as regarded this higher education, became so large and general, that additional universities were necessary over all the country. Every dwelling was thus so near to one or other of these institutions, as to render unnecessary a permanent residence at the university, or elsewhere than at the parental home; and thus a practice, but too fertile of deteriorating influences for after-life, was wholly given up. The "University Express," filled morning and evening, going and returning, with the fresh young life of the rising race, was one of the stirring and characteristic railway spectacles of the time.
