PREFACE. IT is hardly necessary to premise that this publication has been suggested by the Oxford and Cambridge Essays published by Mr. Parker, a series to which it is in aim and plan substantially similar. The main peculiarity and advantage of that plan is, that it demands no conformity to any one standard in matters of opinion, each writer being individually responsible for his own statements. The term "Members of the University" requires a word of explanation. Properly speaking, that phrase includes only Professors and Matriculated Students; here, however, it is used merely as the briefest mode of indicating that the writers have been alumni of the University, or now hold office in it. To have narrowed the circle of contributors within more formal limits would have deprived the publication of any just claim to that representative character which is one of the objects aimed at. It may be necessary to add, for the information of those unacquainted with the peculiar constitution of our University, that Graduates enjoy no academic privileges. Degrees in Arts, in particular, are elevated above any consideration of advantage to the possessor; they are strictly Honours, and, as a natural consequence, attract few candidates.1 1 How little a Degree in Arts can be regarded as a fair criterion of distinction at Edinburgh may be judged from the following Table of the numbers of Students and Graduates during five years :-- B. O CONTENTS.. I. Plato. By JOHN STUART BLACKIE, M.A., Professor of PAGE I |