intention has been observed by the institution of this annual lecture, which recognises the usefulness of an occasional divagation from the ordinary course of studies, an occasional invitation to the members of the University to ramble into fields which are not mapped out and enclosed for that careful and methodical tillage which a tripos examination necessarily entails.
The history of scholarship is generally disregarded. We commemorate our founders and benefactors without troubling ourselves about their immediate purposes and motives. It is enough for our gratitude to know that we are because they were. I fear that I may seem pedantic in having attempted the impossible task of condensing into an hour's lecture the beginnings of the New Learning in England. I did so from a sense of natural piety; and I hope that I have established some links between the present and the past. England in the past showed much the same characteristics as England of to-day. It was not to be captivated by brilliancy. It did not care for mere graces of style. It was unmoved by attractive novelties till they had showed a capacity for sending their roots below the surface, and gave promise of fruit as well as flower. Nor would England receive its learning from abroad. If there was anything worth having beyond the seas, let Englishmen go and bring it back, and adapt it to the shape in which it was fitted for home consumption. Patronage and court favour might foster an exotic culture, but in that shape it would not spread. Further, England in a dull sort of way trusted its national institutions, even when they were little worthy of trust. Learning was a matter for the
