The parts of this book that treat most intimately of Oxford life were written while in residence in Balliol College some six years ago. Most of the rest was written quite recently in London. Much of the matter in the following pages has appeared in "Harper's Weekly," "The Bachelor of Arts," "The Forum," and "The Atlantic Monthly." It has all been carefully revised and rearranged, and much new matter added. Each chapter has gained, as I hope, by being brought into its natural relation with the other chapters; and the ideas that have informed the whole are for the first time adequately stated.
CONTENTS
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| Introductory | [1] | |
| I. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COLLEGE | ||
| I. | The University of Colleges | [7] |
| II. | The Oxford Freshman | [10] |
| III. | A Day in an Oxford College | [17] |
| IV. | Dinner in Hall | [21] |
| V. | Evening | [28] |
| VI. | The Mind of the College | [37] |
| VII. | Club Life in the College | [52] |
| VIII. | Social Life in the University | [62] |
| IX. | The College and the University | [74] |
| II. OXFORD OUT OF DOORS | ||
| I. | Slacking on the Isis and the Cherwell | [81] |
| II. | As seen from an Oxford Tub | [96] |
| III. | A Little Scrimmage with English Rugby | [116] |
| IV. | Track and Field Athletics | [132] |
| V. | English and American Sportsmanship | [145] |
| III. THE COLLEGE AS AN EDUCATIONAL FORCE | ||
| I. | The Passman | [159] |
| II. | The Honor Schools | [171] |
| III. | The Tutor | [178] |
| IV. | Reading for Examinations | [184] |
| V. | The Examination | [190] |
| VI. | Oxford Qualities and their Defects | [193] |
| VII. | The University and Reform | [200] |
| VIII. | The University and the People | [206] |
| IV. THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY AND THECOLLEGE | ||
| I. | The University before the College | [215] |
| II. | The Mediæval Hall | [221] |
| III. | The College System | [223] |
| IV. | The Golden Age of the Mediæval Hall | [231] |
| V. | The Origin of the Modern Undergraduate | [236] |
| VI. | The Insignificance of the Modern University | [239] |
| VII. | The College in America | [245] |
| V. THE PROBLEMS OF THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY | ||
| I. | The Social and Athletic Problem | [255] |
| II. | The Administrative Problem | [272] |
| III. | The Educational Problem | [281] |
| IV. | The American Hall | [301] |
| APPENDIX | ||
| I. | Athletic Training in England | [313] |
| II. | Climate and International Athletics | [316] |
| III. | An Oxford Final Honor School | [319] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | |
| Tea on the Lawn at the Oxford Union (page 63) | [Frontispiece] |
| The Hall Staircase, Christ Church | [22] |
| Magdalen Tower from the Bridge | [30] |
| A Racing Punt and Punter | [84] |
| Iffley Lock and Mill | [90] |
| The Full Costume of an Eightsman | [100] |
| The College Barges: Tubbing in November Floods | [106] |
| The Last Day of the Bumping Races of the Summer Eights (1895) | [112] |
| An English Rugby Line-up | [120] |
| Throwing in the Ball | [124] |
| New College Cloisters, Bell Tower, and Chapel | [224] |
| New College Gardens—showing the Mediæval Wall of Oxford | [228] |
AN AMERICAN AT OXFORD
The great German historian of the United States, H. E. Von Holst, declares[1] that, "in the sense attached to the word by Europeans, ... there is in the United States as yet not a single university;" institutions like Johns Hopkins and Harvard he characterizes as "hybrids of college and university." In his survey of European usage, one suspects that Professor Von Holst failed to look beyond Germany. The so-called universities of England, for example, are mere aggregations of colleges; they have not even enough of the modern scientific spirit to qualify as hybrids, having consciously and persistently refused to adopt continental standards. The higher institutions of America belong historically to the English type; they have only recently imported the scientific spirit. To the great world of graduates and undergraduates they are colleges, and should as far as possible be kept so.
Yet there is reason enough for calling them hybrids. In the teaching bodies of all of them the German, or so-called university, spirit is very strong, and is slowly possessing the more advanced of our recent graduates and undergraduates. Let us be duly grateful. The first result of this spirit is an extraordinary quickening and diffusion of the modern ideal of scholarship, a devotion to pure science amounting almost to a passion. As to the second result, we may or may not have cause to be grateful. Our most prominent educational leaders have striven consciously to make over our universities on the German plan. We are in the midst of a struggle between old and new forces, and at present the alien element has apparently the upper hand. The social ideal, which only a few years ago was virtually the same in England and America, has already been powerfully modified; and the concrete embodiment of the new scientific spirit, the so-called elective system, has transformed the peculiar educational institution of our Anglo-Saxon people.
We have gone so far forward that it is possible to gain an excellent perspective on what we are leaving behind. In the ensuing pages I propose to present as plainly as I may the English university of colleges. I shall not hesitate to give its social life all the prominence it has in fact, devoting much space even to athletic sports. The peculiarity of the English ideal of education is that it aims to develop the moral and social virtues, no less than the mental—to train up boys to be men among men. Only by understanding this is it possible to sympathize with the system of instruction, its peculiar excellences, and its almost incredible defects. In the end I hope we shall see more clearly what our colleges have inherited from the parent institutions, and shall be able to judge how far the system of collegiate education expresses the genius of English and American people.