144: 17. (a) Thornton. (b) Volney. (a) An English writer on political economy, belonging to the nineteenth century. (b) A distinguished French author. His Travels in Egypt and Syria is a work of high reputation.
148: 12. Scythians. In ancient times the inhabitants of all North and Northeastern Europe and Asia.
149: 31. The Greek schism. Separation of the Greek Church from Rome. The schism was begun by the crafty, ambitious Photius in the ninth century, and consummated by Michael Cerularius in 1054.
154. Principle of superiority. A forcible proof that Christianity must be and is the religion of civilization. See Balmes on the Civilization of Europe.
WHAT IS A UNIVERSITY?
Introductory Note. Newman's purpose in these Essays is to set forth by description and statement the nature, the work, and the peculiarities of a University; the aims with which it is established, the wants it may supply, the methods it adopts, its relation to other institutions, and its general history. The illustrations of his idea of a University first appeared in the Dublin University Gazette; later, in one volume, Office and Work of Universities. In the present form the author has exchanged the title to Historical Sketches, but has retained the pleasantly conversational tone of the original, lest, as he says, he might become more exact and solid at the price of becoming less readable, in the judgment of a day which considers that "a great book is a great evil."
159: 14. A gentleman. Dr. Newman is unconsciously painting his own portrait in this passage.
161: 17. St. Irenæus. A Christian martyr of the second century. He was a Greek by birth, a pupil of St. Polycarp, and an eminent theologian of his day.
163: 19. Its associations. Universities are both the cause and the effect of great men; and these cherish their Alma with unlimited devotion. Read Gray's Eton, Lowell's Commemoration Ode, etc., as illustrations of this point.