Shadow of great britain

Arthur and Elder were standing in the old Carmarthen Square of the University of London. Looking up, they could see the school's landmark building, the Octagon, built by William Wilkins, the famous architect who designed the National Gallery. .

Although it was still early in the morning, the Athena sculpture in the square was already crowded with many supporters of Benthamism who were ready to listen to the speech.

In fact, it is not uncommon for the campus to be crowded with visitors, because no matter how it is evaluated in the newspapers, it cannot change the fact that the University of London is currently the most open university in England, because even its campus is usually open. of.

The University of London accepts students regardless of origin, race, belief, or political views. It treats everyone who wants to receive an education. As long as you can afford the tuition fee of 23 pounds and 6 shillings, you can enroll.

Although this amount still sounds quite expensive, compared with the fees of several hundred pounds at Oxford, Cambridge and those law firms, it is already much lower.

Just like the school motto written in Latin hanging on the red wall - Cuncti adsint meritaeque expectent praemia palmae.

If translated literally, this sentence means, let all those who deserve reward for their qualities run to us.

In elegant terms, it can also be translated as, to obtain the world's talents and educate them, or, to make all efforts to win the laurels.

Arthur's feelings about the University of London were somewhat complicated.

On the one hand, he felt that he had wasted four years here. After all, after finishing his studies, the school could not even issue a degree certificate, and he could not blame Arthur for complaining.

But on the other hand, he is also very grateful to his alma mater, because it did give him an equal opportunity to receive education.

Through four years of study here, he can not fall behind in the war of words with the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and he can also face the graduates of King's College, which was established by conservatives as their opponents of the University of London. They were chatting and laughing in front of them.

After all, it is not easy to receive higher education these days.

Generally speaking, Arthur is more grateful than complaining about his alma mater, because it taught him to see the world from an equal perspective and gave him the knowledge and ability to see the world as an equal.

In addition to visitors, you can also see some students rushing to class and some construction workers on the campus at this time.

The reason why construction workers can be seen on campus is because although the University of London has been established for more than four years, due to its unique open stance and questioned educational concepts, the school has been in a state of funding shortage all year round.

Although it occasionally receives donations from progressives, objectively speaking, the amount of donations received by the University of London every year is less than a fraction of that of Oxford and Cambridge.

Even King's College, which was established later than the University of London, has far more educational funds than the University of London.

The reason is also very simple. It can be seen from the name that the founder of King's College is the current King George IV. There are also a group of Tory bosses behind the school. Of course, they cannot be short of money.

Due to a shortage of funds, the University of London's campus buildings have been under construction. It took more than four years to build the teaching areas to a similar level. As for some decorative buildings or extracurricular activity areas such as galleries and libraries, there is still a step to take. Construction and expansion.

And even the current construction progress is thanks to the fact that most of the designers who planned the campus construction are also progressive people, so they did not receive much remuneration, and even completed it with voluntary labor.

If they continue to charge market prices, University of London may not have much hope of survival.

Perhaps two hundred years later, it is no accident that the architecture major here will be ranked first in the world, because you probably will never find a school where students can be so close to the construction site.

Students can even sit directly on the construction site for class if they wish.

Thanks to their alma mater, even history and classics students like Arthur and Elder know more about architecture than architecture students in general schools.

Maybe this is an exaggeration, but even if they don't understand architecture as well as those from the architecture department, at least they know the construction site better than those from the architecture department.

At this time, Arthur and Elder happened to pass by the classics classroom.

Seeing this, Elder excitedly pulled Arthur to stop outside the classroom door and looked inside.

At this time, the professor in charge of teaching had just stood on the podium. The pale-haired old professor first took out a handkerchief and wiped the rain from his face, and then threw away the several kilograms of books under his arm. Arrive at the podium.

There was only a thud, and a cloud of dust caused by chalk dust was splashed on the podium.

At this time, the students who were dozing under the stage suddenly became more energetic. They straightened their backs and faced the teacher.

The old professor raised his hand and slapped the dust mist, then his anger sank into his Dantian, his face flushed, and he roared with all his strength.

“What are the graduates of Oxford!”

The students excitedly pounded the table and shouted, "Son of a bitch!"

"Where's Cambridge!"

"So do they!"

When the old professor heard this, he nodded with satisfaction.

"Okay! I'm very energetic today! So, let's start the class now. Today we will mainly talk about the humanistic spirit in Shakespeare's tragedy, as well as the poetic and romantic aesthetics contained in it..."

When Arthur saw this, his eyelids twitched.

And Elder, who was standing next to him, was almost moved to tears.

Elder took out his handkerchief and wiped the corners of his wet eyes: "Oh, I knew that the education provided by the University of London is the best in England, no, in the whole of Great Britain, no, in the world!"

Arthur held it in for a long time, and finally couldn't help but ask: "Is your School of Classical Literature doing this kind of hate education every day?"

“Hate education?”

Elder frowned and shook his finger at Arthur: "Arthur, this is not hate education. If we don't scold Oxford and Cambridge, won't they go against us?"

Arthur shook his head and said: "Of course they will still fight against us. The difference between us and them is entirely a matter of educational philosophy. It has nothing to do with whether we scold them or not."

"now it's right!"

Elder smiled and poked Arthur in the chest with his elbow: "Since it doesn't matter whether you scold or not, why not scold? At least we feel pretty good after scolding, so why hold it in? We in the Department of Classical Literature have always been I'm not used to those idiots.

Have you forgotten? Our spiritual mentor at the University of London is Jeremy Bentham, who advocates equal education and utilitarianism. Our Department of Classical Literature has implemented these two points quite well. "

When Arthur heard this, he couldn't help wiping the sweat from his forehead: "Elder, you are not utilitarian, you are snobbish. As far as I understand, utilitarian and snobbish are two different things. Don't Oxford and Cambridge stand in the way?" We are on our own way, why don’t you scold them?”

"of course not!"

Elder said: "If they don't block our way, it means that our school's education charter has been issued. Since we have nothing to ask of them, of course I will scold them even more fiercely. "

Arthur glanced at him, shrugged helplessly and said: "In my opinion, you should have gone to Oxford. If you had gone to Oxford, the internal damage to their teaching reputation would have been greater than if you had gone to the University of London. "

"Arthur, damn you! If you let me go to Oxford, you might as well let me die."

"But after studying at Oxford, won't you join the Royal Navy? Who knows, you can even become a member of Parliament."

Elder was frothing with excitement. He slapped the wall and said plausibly: "Arthur! Being a member of Parliament is worse than going to the Royal Navy!"

Just when he wanted to argue with Arthur, he suddenly saw several people coming behind Arthur.

Elder took a deep breath, quickly took off his hat and said, "Mr. Horner!"

Horner?

Arthur remembered that this was the last name of the principal. He turned around and saw that the principal was walking towards the lecture hall with the deans of several colleges supporting a white-haired old man with a cane.

When Principal Horner heard someone greeting him, he turned around suddenly, and a helpless smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"Elder, haven't you graduated? Do you want to come back and study for a doctorate?"

The old man beside him also looked back at the corridor in front of the classroom. His eyes swept across Elder and finally fell on Arthur.

The old man touched his forehead and thought for a while, then suddenly pointed at Arthur and said with a smile: "Young man, I remember you. I never gave you an answer to the question you asked me last time. When I thought about it clearly, I came to you again, only to find that You little thing has actually graduated.

Look at your police uniform. It seems that my guess was correct. The Officer Arthur Hastings who appeared in the newspaper was indeed you! "

When Arthur heard this, he also smiled, took off his hat and nodded: "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Mr. Bentham."