Legislature can give them ; proved of men."]

will be "acceptable to GoD and ap

Note (96) referred to in Pages 353 and 354.

[As the subject is one of considerable interest, and our Professor's notices are not all accurate nor very explicit, I thought it desirable to draw up a connected statement here concerning the books which enter the Oxford Examinations.

The system of taking up books distinguishes Oxford from Cambridge; and (though as an Oxonian, I may be partial) it appears to me to have great advantages. The candidate previously delivers-in a paper, stating in what particular books he is willing to undergo examination; and his list at once shows at what Class he is aspiring. The Statutes limit his choice to the Greek and Latin writers potioris note; and it is rarely that any student goes beyond a well understood circle of books. The effect of this arrangement, is, to enable Examiners to put questions concerning the substance of the Author; and although History and Philosophy have no separate place as Scholastic Faculties, yet a certain portion of both is in this way often learned very thoroughly. At Cambridge, as I have been informed by a judicious friend, it is not a very rare thing for students so to concentrate their attention on mere language and style, on the manual called "The Greek Theatre," and on books of Greek and Latin Antiquities, as to be quite unacquainted with the contents of any one work; having perhaps not read a single author through. This is a result of not offering any definite books. On the other hand, the abuse of the Oxford system, is, that as Examiners occasionally ask minute questions about dates, numbers and petty events, many candidates are led injudiciously to overtask their memory in learning such matters, not knowing perhaps how venial incorrectness in many of these will seem to the Examiner.

Confining my attention first to the Classical Branches, I propose to state the two extremes; that is, the minimum of what is required to obtain the Degree at all; and the muximum of what is ordinarily

taken up for a First Class. It must however be observed, that the minimum does not and cannot give much idea to scholars without, as to the real state of things; first, because it is the policy of both Universities to keep the minimum so low as on no account to frighten away the aristocracy, and yet it may be true, that a very handsome proportion of those who pass their Degree without distinction, pass considerably higher than the minimum ; which I believe to be the case. But secondly, all depends on the quality of the performance. No alteration has been made, I believe, in the nominal minimum for the last thirty years or more; yet through the gradual improvement of the Public Schools, and the improved material on which the Universities now act, it is not questionable that the standard has gradually risen of itself. Our Author's comparison of Oxford to Cambridge in the Note to page 361, is quite ill-grounded; for the average quality of a Degree is decidedly different in the two cases, and is believed to be higher at Oxford. Moreover the step upwards from the Oxford minimum to the Oxford Fourth Class, would seem to be much wider than that from the Cambridge minimum to the lowest name on the Cambridge list of honors.

The candidate must pass his Examination in Divinity, and gain his certificate for proficiency in that branch, before he can even be heard at all in anything else. Under the head of Divinity, the Statute includes a competent knowledge of the four Gospels in the original, the general Bible History, and an understanding of the Thirty-nine Articles and the Scriptural proofs on which they rest.

He must sustain an examination in Aldrich's Logic, as far as the section called Sorites; unless he exempt himself from this by taking the first three books of Euclid instead.

He must further offer to the Examiners three classical writers at least; ("tres ad minimum scriptores Græci et Romani, melioris ævi et notæ :") but as it is thought dangerous to offer only three, since failure in one would be the more disastrous, it is, I believe, nearly the universal practice to take up two Latin and two Greek books. What is meant by a book is not easy to define: but the following will serve as examples of different lists. Something historical seems generally needed : —

It will be observed that the second and third list here are decidedly superior to the first. Indeed the first probably sinks to

the minimum of that which is ever proposed.

The candidate, finally, must be able to translate from English into Latin without gross grammatical inaccuracy. It is difficult to judge by description what is in this exercise the real minimum of quality, which can be allowed to pass; but unless the standard has very much risen in later years, it must be very low.

Thus we have completed all that needs to be said concerning the most ordinary examination: let us proceed to a First Class List.

The "Divinity" is altogether as before stated, as in this branch honors are not allowed. It is not possible to supersede Logic by Mathematics, in the case of a candidate for a First Class, (nor indeed for the Second and Third Class,) and beside Aldrich and part of Whately's Logic, selections from Aristotle's Organon are usually taken up.

The following is a good but not extraordinary First Class List.

Many of these books might be exchanged for some others nearly equal in difficulty. The most unchangeable are Aristotle's Ethics and Rhetoric (or Politics), Thucydides, Herodotus, Eschylus and

Sophocles. Whatever the precise list of historical books, the candidate is expected to reply to questions in Greek History, as far as to the death of Epaminondas, and in Roman History to the end of the third Punic War, and again, the period comprehended in the Annals and Histories of Tacitus.

The Examination is partly vivd voce, but principally on paper. The four Examiners deliver the same printed paper to all* the candidates; but no candidate is expected to answer questions which refer to books which he has not taken up. The printed paper contains critical and historical questions, sometimes demanding of them short historical essays; beside numerous translations from Greek and Latin into English: also, translations* into Latin Hexameters and Greek Iambics. To write good Latin and Attic prose is likewise quite essential: deficiency in either would be fatal to the candidate's pretensions.

The most remarkable omission in all this, is in the names of Demosthenes and Cicero; whose works, and the period of History belonging to them, seem never to find a place in the List. This is no doubt due to the immense time and effort given to Aristotle. Whatever be the advantages gained by the acquaintance with his philosophy so inexorably demanded in the Oxford system, they are bought with great sacrifices: and the same may be said of the Latin and Greek Versification.

The regulations marked with an asterisk are, I believe, the most important of those introduced in 1830. That Versification was then for the first time brought into the Examinations, is to be ascribed to the influence of the University Scholarships, which, from the year 1825 onwards, have given a great impetus to Greek and Latin Composition at Oxford. When all the ablest students had been led to give so much of their time to obtain this accomplishment, it was no doubt found impossible to exclude it from the Public Examinations. Yet these Scholarships were founded by non-resident individuals! So easily may a University, by accepting endowments burdened with the stipulations of the Founder, yield up unwittingly the rights and responsibilities of government into the hands of private persons not always gifted with large and