Mr. Goschen's address as Lord Rector of the University of
Aberdeen was delivered on Tuesday, and was singularly in- teresting. The Chancellor of the Exchequer pleaded for carrying the intellectual temper not only into all studies, but into all work, and he explained that he meant by the intellectual temper, the temper which is determined to master the intellectual sig- nificance of a study or of work not for ambition's sake, not for the sake of profit, not for the sake of pleasing this man or that, but for its own sake, for the sake of the intrinsic interest attaching to the questions involved. He attacked vigorously the academic contempt poured upon men who talk about their academic studies in their leisure hours, upon men who "sap," as distinguished from men who make enjoyment the chief business of their lives. He attacked the spirit which in the professions condemns what is called "talking shop," and declared that it is an artificial spirit cherished by an indolent and pleasure-seeking class, a spirit of scorn for those who care more for their business than for their pleasures. He held that commercial clerks who have an eager interest in commercial movements or commercial law, are far superior to clerks who merely discharge punctually routine duties, and he discerned in the former temper the advantage of German commercial clerks over English commercial clerks. Mr. Goschen held up to admiration the example of his own father, who loved to have disputed questions of commercial law decided finally by the Courts, rather than that he should even save money by an arbitration which settled nothing ; and he declared that it is this disinterested devotion to the intellectual genius of a calling which makes it at once delightful and profitable to those who follow it. What England wants in order to recover her commercial ascendency, is something of the German passion for mastering the principles of commerce.
Previous page
