contrary, a constant change is going on. The commentator supersedes the original author, or at least becomes equally important: the systematizer is preferred to him who first threw out the same thoughts in a less regular form. Or else a revolution takes place; the old system is refuted; a new one is erected, to last its little hour, and wait its certain doom, like its predecessor. There is nothing old, nothing stable, nothing certain, in this kind of study. Change is constantly taking place; change is constantly looked for. Novelty is essential, in order to command attention or approbation. The car rolls on; old objects glide back; the point of view changes. The student knows, or at least cannot but suspect, that his teacher and his teacher's creed are but for a day; and that what is demonstrated to be true, will be found hereafter to be a truth so imperfect, that it is best put out of sight.

"Now I conceive it cannot be doubted that the mind of a young man employed mainly in attending to teachers of this latter kind, must fail to acquire any steady and unhesitating conviction of the immutable and fixed nature of truth, such as the study of Mathematics gives. This constant change in the system of received doctrines must unsettle and enfeeble his apprehension of all truths. He has no time, no encouragement, to take up the doctrines that are placed before him, and to study them till he is firmly possessed of them, secure that their certainty and value can never alter. He lives among changes, and has not the heart to labor patiently for treasures that may be ravished from him by the next revolution. The state of Germany, for instance, has of late years been as unfavorable to the intellectual welfare of its students, as the condition of the most unstable government of the East is, to the material prosperity of its subjects. A great philosophical conquest is made by Kant, and a universal empire is supposed to be on the point of being established. But Fichte, who began with being a follower of Kant, ends by deposing him. Schelling carries away the allegiance of Germany from Fichte; and then Hegel becomes more powerful than any of his predecessors; and a younger Fichte raises the standard against all these rulers. And thus, with dire shedding of ink, revolution after revolution succeeds.

"Now amid all this change and fear of change, how can any man eat tranquilly of the fruit of his own field, under his own vine and fig-tree? How can he cultivate his own thoughts, and possess in a tranquil and even spirit the knowledge and the habits of mind which he has acquired? He cannot feel or relish old and familiar truths, such as mathematical sciences deal with. He cannot be content with such conclusions as can be obtained by the way of demonstration. He becomes almost inevitably himself a wide and restless speculator; criticizing what has already been done in Philosophy; attempting to guess what will be the next step; and destitute, not only of those clear ideas, and those habits of exact thought, through which alone any real advances in knowledge can be appropriated by the student, but devoid also of that steady belief in the permanent nature and value of speculative truth, which is an essential virtue of the understanding.

“Again; another mode in which this speculative feeling operates unfavorably, as I conceive, upon students, is this;—it places them in the position of critics instead of pupils. In mathematical and other practical teaching, the teacher is usually and almost necessarily, much the superior of his scholar in the knowledge which they cultivate together; and the scholar cannot but feel this, and must consequently be led to entertain a docile and confiding disposition towards his instructor. On the other hand, when a system is proposed which offers its claims to him, and asks his assent, which he may either give or refuse, he feels himself placed in the situation of an equal and a judge, with respect to his Professor. And if, as is very likely to be the case with active-minded young speculators, he goes through several phases of philosophical opinion, and gives his allegiance to a succession of teachers, he can hardly fail to look upon them with a self-complacent levity, which involves little of respect. He will probably think of his masters much as the poet speaks of the objects of his transient admiration whom he chronicles:

The gentle Henrietta then,

And a third Mary next did reign,

And Joan, and Jane, and Audria;

And then a pretty Thomasine,

And then another Katharine,

And then a long et cetera.

Now this want of docility, confidence, and respect, when it prevails in the student towards his teacher, cannot, I think, be looked upon otherwise than as a highly prejudicial feeling, and one which must destroy much of the value and usefulness of the education thus communicated.

The difference of the subjects which are recommended by different persons as suitable for University teaching, does in fact depend upon an entire difference in the views and tempers of the authors of the recommendations. In the teaching of Universities, a spirit of respect, or a spirit of criticism, may be appealed to. According to the first system, we must select subjects which consist of undoubted truths, and works of unquestioned excellence, and must require the student to familiarize himself with these. Such subjects are Mathematical studies, and the best Classical authors. According to the other system, we take subjects in which we endeavor to draw the student's attention by our mode of treating them, and to carry his conviction with us by our arguments. In this system, we invite him to inquire for himself; to accept or reject according to his best judgment; to examine all doctrines boldly and thoroughly. This critical system it is which rejoices to have philosophy for its subject, and has shown alike its vigor and its tendency by the rapid succession of prevalent systems.

"I do not at all hesitate to say, that the respectful system appears to me the proper line of education. I conceive that the student ought to have placed before him, something which is of a stable and permanent kind; -in which it is a good mental exercise to struggle with the apparent objections, because it is certain that by effort and practice they may be overcome; - and in which it has been ascertained that admiration is not the result of novelty, or of some transient bearing upon the feelings of the age. The critical system seems to me to be properly addressed, not to students who are undergoing education, but to philosophers who have already been completely educated. Nor can I believe, that to put young

men in such a position, at a period of their lives when they ought to be quietly forming their minds for future action, can have any other result than to fill them with a shallow conceit of their own importance; to accustom them to deliver superficial and hasty judgments; and to lead them to take up new systems, with no due appreciation of the knowledge, thought, and gravity of mind, which are requisite for such a purpose. If this course educate a man for anything, it educates him to be a judge of philosophical systems; an office which few Englishmen will ever have to fill.

"I believe that this opinion of the effect of the two modes of University education has been confirmed by the actual result. The practical education of the English Universities has produced men fitted for practical life. I need not dwell upon this. I have already noticed how well the training of the College appears to prepare men to become good lawyers. I will add, that I conceive our physicians to be the first in the world, and that I ascribe their excellence mainly to the practical course of general culture which they receive in the Universities; which does what no merely professional education can do ; and of which the effects are seen, when the professional employments bring into play the intellectual habits. Our clergy derive inestimable advantages from the cast of their University education; and if clerical education among us be capable of improvement, this certainly will not be brought about by the substitution of the Philosophy of Schelling and Hegel for the Mathematics of Euclid and Newton. That our Universities educate men to be legislators, statesmen, and magistrates of some practical power and skill, no one can doubt, except he who thinks that this little island has, for the last three hundred years, run an unprosperous course, and held an undistinguished place in Europe. For the fortunes of nations are determined, under Providence, by their practical leaders, and men are formed by their education.

"In Germany and France, we are told that there prevails among the young men of the Universities a vehement and general hostility to the existing institutions of their country. I know not how truly this is said; but I conceive that such a consequence may naturally flow from an education which invokes the critical spirit,

and invites it to employ itself on the comparison between the realities of society and the dreams of system-makers.

"I shall not here prosecute this subject further, since my object is to hasten on to some principles which apply more intimately to that process of instruction which has hitherto existed in the English Universities. But I hope I have made it appear that, distinguishing the two systems of education as I have done, we may, with nearly equal propriety, treat of them as practical and speculative teaching; or on the one hand Mathematics combined with Classics, and on the other Philosophy; or College lectures and Professorial lectures; and may look upon them as exemplifying a respectful and critical spirit. And I hope I have satisfied the reader that (allowing fully the value and use of Philosophy and of Professorial lectures in their due place, of which I may afterwards speak) we could not abandon the practical teaching, the Mathematical and Classical Studies, and the College Lectures of our Universities, without great loss to the intellectual training of our youth, without destroying highly beneficial feelings which exist between them and their teachers, and without putting in serious and extensive jeopardy the interests of the civilization of England and of the world."

NOTE (98) WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN REFERRED TO IN PAGE 392.

Defence of the Universities from the charge of Immorality.

Luxury and display have very much increased at the Universities, as well as among the higher and middling classes in general in England; but the Universities have not become really more immoral on that account. On the contrary, many of the darkest spots of former days—as drunkenness and other debauchery—have greatly diminished, more particularly in Oxford. Gambling, however, appears in later times to have become more general and more desperate than before. In all these matters, the Universities follow pretty closely the varying fashions of the higher classes. Upon the whole, I am of opinion that things have rather improved than