University of London and the Academy at Sorø

1. University of London and the Academy at Sorø “For those who think about such trifles - which mankind's spiritual growth and education in our highly spiritual times must put up with being reduced to - it has too long been a riddle how the grand, adventurous English with all their industriousness could settle for such limited and in effect such small universities as Oxford and Cambridge. When one reckons that in London alone there must be around six thousand young men whose parents can afford to give them an academic education…30 pounds a year in university fees- then it is high time to build a more broad-based College than the present one… And whether smaller universities all around the country would not be of more benefit to the people and of more use to academic learning than such an incredibly large one as London is apparently becoming we can leave in the hands of the English, since they must know best what they need and thus whether they have enough of that driving passion which alone can bring the task to completion. What we must not fail to notice is the major idea that academic education should not be regarded as a purgatory for a number of the state's coming civil servants, but as a joy in which all parents who can [and] will give their sons a share”. (1827)