=Introductory Note.= Newman's purpose in these Essays is to set forth by
description and statement the nature, the work, and the peculiarities of
a University; the aims with which it is established, the wants it may
supply, the methods it adopts, its relation to other institutions, and
its general history.
The illustrations of his idea of a University first appeared in the
_Dublin University Gazette_; later, in one volume, _Office and Work of
Universities_. In the present form the author has exchanged the title to
_Historical Sketches_, but has retained the pleasantly conversational
tone of the original, lest, as he says, he might become more exact and
solid at the price of becoming less readable, in the judgment of a day
which considers that "a great book is a great evil."
=159=: 14. =A gentleman.= Dr. Newman is unconsciously painting his own
portrait in this passage.
=161=: 17. =St. Irenæus.= A Christian martyr of the second century. He
was a Greek by birth, a pupil of St. Polycarp, and an eminent theologian
of his day.
=163=: 19. =Its associations.= Universities are both the cause and the
effect of great men; and these cherish their Alma with unlimited
devotion. Read Gray's _Eton_, Lowell's _Commemoration Ode_, etc., as
illustrations of this point.