The movement is
thus one of the greatest movements for the 'raising of the masses.' With
a large section of the people there is, at the present moment, no
conception of 'rising' in life, except that of rising out of one social
rank into another. This last is of course a perfectly legitimate
ambition, but it is outside the present discussion: University Extension
knows nothing of social distinctions. It has to do with a far more
important mode of 'rising' in life,--that of rising in the rank to which
a man happens to belong at the moment, whether it be the rank in which
he started or any other. There is a saying that all men are equal after
dinner: and it is true that, while in the material wealth we seek in our
working hours equality is a chimera, yet in the intellectual pursuits
that belong to leisure there is no bar to the equality of all, except
the difference of individual capacity and desire. Macaulay tells of the
Dutch farmers who worked in the fields all day, and at night read the
Georgics in the original. Scotch and American universities are largely
attended by students who have had to engage in menial duties all the
summer in order to gain funds for their high education during the
winter. And every University Extension lecturer, highly trained
specialist as he is, will testify how his work has continually brought
him into contact with persons of the humblest social condition whom a
moment's conversation has made him recognize as his intellectual equals.
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