On the whole, therefore, we concluded that if the
British Museum reading-room was in good economy, Oropa was so also; at
any rate, it seemed to be making a large number of very nice people
quietly happy--and it is hard to say more than this in favour of any
place or institution.
The idea of any sudden change is as repulsive to us as it will be to the
greater number of my readers; but if asked whether we thought our English
universities would do most good in their present condition as places of
so-called education, or if they were turned into Oropas, and all the
educational part of the story totally suppressed, we inclined to think
they would be more popular and more useful in this latter capacity. We
thought also that Oxford and Cambridge were just the places, and
contained all the appliances and endowments almost ready made for
constituting two splendid and truly imperial cities of
recreation--universities in deed as well as in name. Nevertheless we
should not venture to propose any further actual reform during the
present generation than to carry the principle which is already admitted
as regards the M.A. a degree a trifle further, and to make the B.A.
degree a mere matter of lapse of time and fees--leaving the little go,
and whatever corresponds to it at Oxford, as the final examination. This
would be enough for the present.
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