BY LORD PLAYFAIR, CANON BROWNE, MR. GOSCHEN, PROFESSOR MAX MÜLLER, THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1894 All rights reserved PREFACE THE Addresses included in this volume were delivered to the students of the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching at the Annual Meetings held in the Mansion House from year to year by the courtesy of the Lord Mayor. These gatherings were first instituted in 1886, the tenth year of the Society's existence. By means of them the Council of the London Society sought to attain two chief ends. On the one hand they hoped through the medium of Addresses by men of distinction to hold before the students a high ideal of educational purpose, and on the other to promote and foster a sense of corporate educational life among the workers from the various Extension Centres in different parts of London. The importance of these objects will be readily acknowledged. Men and women desirous of carrying on studies in which they are interested, but unable to give their whole time to education, find at the University Extension Lectures stimulus, guidance, and oppor tunities for intellectual training which the conditions of adult life render it impossible for them to seek at a College. The Annual Meetings have brought these scattered workers together, and have helped them to realise that they are taking part in a great movement. That the opportunity of hearing the Addresses was highly valued could not be doubted by any one who witnessed the crowded state of the hall on each occasion, and the Council hope by the publication of this volume to extend the inspiring and helpful influence of the Addresses to a larger audience and over a wider area. The growth and development of the University Extension movement, since it was inaugurated by the University of Cambridge twenty-one years ago, has been remarkable, and its history is peculiarly interesting and instructive. The purpose of the originators was to promote the development of student life side by side with business life-to create a new type of students, carrying on into mature years their higher education concurrently with the occupations of everyday life. The members of the London Society are able to recall with satisfaction that the foundation of that Society in 1876 was the first step taken outside Cambridge to follow the lead of that University in this new sphere of educational activity. Two years |