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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA • SAN DIF.GO 
 
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 FIVE Y E A K S 
 
 ENGLISH UNIYERSITY. 
 
 CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED, 
 
 LATE FOUNDATION SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 dXX uT txOpCiv Srjra noWa iiavOavovcriv 6i <TO(pdi. 
 
 Aristoph. Aves, 376. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 G. P. PUTNAM & Co., 10 PARK PLACE. 
 
 1852.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM & Co., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.
 
 tresident of yale college, &.c., &c. 
 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 It is now fourteen years since I fell under your notice, and you 
 did me the honor to take an interest in my welfare, which subsequent occurrences 
 authorize me to regard as still subsisting. I know of no one to whom I can 
 dedicate this book ■with more propriety than yourself, or by whose perusal of it 
 I shall feel more honored. If you read it, the trouble it has cost me will not have 
 
 been thrown away. 
 
 Verj' tnily yours, 
 
 C. A. BRISTED.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I WRITE this book for three reasons : 
 
 First, very little is accurately known in this country about the English 
 Universities. 
 
 Secondly, most of what we hear respecting those institutions, comes 
 thi'ough the medium of popular novels and other light literature, fre- 
 quently written by non-University men, and almost always conveying an 
 erroneous and unfavorable idea of the Universities. 
 
 Thirdly and principally, there are points in an English education which 
 may be studied with profit, and from which we may draw valuable 
 hints. 
 
 Few Americans have the opportunity of growing up into manhood 
 among half a generation of the most highly educated class in England ; 
 nor is it indeed altogether desirable that many should have. I myself 
 owed it to an accident. There are few persons among us qiialified by 
 their knowledge of the subject to do it justice. Had I ever seen even 
 a decent review article on EngHsli University education, this book 
 would not have been wiitten. 
 
 It has been my object to give a picture of English University life 
 just as it is ; to do which correctly, I have been obliged to mingle gaie- 
 ties and gravities — ttoXAu jtcv yfX(7ia ttoWH SI nKovSaTa. Should the reader 
 not assent to my conclusions, he will at any rate have a tolerable idea 
 of the facts. The same motive — a desire to depict accurately what I 
 saw and experienced, and the impres'^ions which such a life makes on 
 an American — has obliged me to speak of myself more frequently than 
 is altogether pleasant for either reader or author. 
 
 Of the bad arrangement and want of system displayed in the book, 
 I am as conscious as the severest critic can be. Tliese faults must be 
 attributed to want of ability, not want of care. To deal with the minu- 
 tire of a system so complicated as that of several independent Colleges 
 combined in one University — rejecting what is unimportant, and lucidly 
 setting forth what is worthy of remark — becomes an extremely difficult 
 task where everything is so different from the corresponding arrange- 
 ments among ourselves. My original intention was to present merely 
 a series of sketches, witliout any attempt at filling up the connecting
 
 viii i'1ikfa(;k. 
 
 links throughout. I began the sketches, anil two tlifferent Magazines 
 at dillerent times began to publish tlieni, but were very soon afraid to 
 go on, because I did not pretend to conceal our inferiority to the Eng- 
 lish in certain brai.ches of liberal education. I tlien resolved to refrain, 
 not merely from publishing, but from Avriting any more, until as many 
 years as I passed in England had elapsed since my return thence. 
 With the exception therefore of the first nine chapters, the -whole of 
 this work has been written during the past summer, and I can truly 
 .say that my opinions on all the matters discussed in it liave imdei'gone 
 no important change for the last five years; all my observation has 
 tended to confirm them. 
 
 Should this book fall into tlie hands of any Cambridge man, he may 
 condemn it as abounding in petty and uninteresting details. If so, I 
 would commend to his attention a brief apologue : — 
 
 An Arab traveller had occasion to visit London. ' On arriving there 
 his attention was attracted by a great crowd in the street. He drew 
 near, and found to his surprise and disappointment that the object of 
 Cockney curiosity was a camel, belonging to the caravan of some Bar- 
 num of the day. He wrote home to his friends, "the frivolity and 
 childishness of these English are intense. Yesterday I beheld a large 
 concourse of people staring at an ordinary camel, that one of our boys 
 would not have turned his head to look at." 
 
 Ilarneshook, HeUgate, Sept. 1, 1851. ^
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First Impressions of Cambridge ....... l 
 
 Some Prelimioaries, rather Egotistical, but very Necessarj'^ . . 6 
 Introduction to College Life . . . . . . . 10 
 
 The Cantab Language . . . . . . . . .23 
 
 An American Student's First Impressions at Cambridge and on 
 
 Cambridge ... ....... 27 
 
 Freshman Temptations and Experiences — ^Toryism of the Young 
 
 Men, and Ideas Suggested by it 39 
 
 The Boat Race 44 
 
 A Trinity Supper Party 60 
 
 The May Examination ......... 61 
 
 The First Long Vacation. — A Bad Start. — The Cambridge Credit 
 
 System 77 
 
 The Second Year. — A Change of Dynasty. — The Little-Go. — Con- 
 flict of Univei'sity and College Systems. — Various Examina- 
 tions 85 
 
 Third Year. — A Change of Position. — Scattering Shot, that 
 Some may hit. — College Declarations. — Literary Friends. — 
 "The Apostles." — Accidents of the Mathematical Tripos, 
 and of the University Scholarship. — A Deserter from the 
 Field of Battle. — An Outsider Wins. — University Lectures. 
 — Plato Lectures. — Union Rows. — Disappointments and 
 
 Consolations. — A Visit to Oxford 114 
 
 Pi'ivate Tuition . . . . . . . .145 
 
 Long Vacation Amusements. — Introduction of an Illustrious 
 
 Stranger .......... 157 
 
 A Second Edition of Third Year. — A Crack Classical Coach. — 
 
 Commemoration Speech. — I bet on the Winning Man . .163 
 The Scholarship Examination. — Neque semper Arcum tendit 
 
 Apollo 188 
 
 The Reading Party 199 
 
 Sawdust Pudding with Ballad Sauce 204 
 
 Ev Siifiju 'Atfiy .......... 224
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 How 1 ciimc lo Take a Doi^ree . 
 
 The TTuAAui aud the Civil Law Classes . 
 
 Tiic Classical Tripos .... 
 
 A A^'isit to Eton. — English Public Schools 
 
 Being Extinguished .... 
 
 Reading for a Ti-inity Fellowship 
 
 The Study of Theology at Cambridge 
 
 Recent Changes at Cambridge . 
 
 The Cambridge System of Education in its Intellectual Results 
 
 Physical and Social Habits of Cambridge Men. — ^Their Amuse- 
 ments, <fec 
 
 On the State of Morals and Religion in Cambridge . 
 
 The Puseyite Disputes in Cambridge, and the Cambridge Cam- 
 den Society 
 
 Inferiority of our Colleges and Universities in Scholarship 
 
 Supposed counterbalancing Advantages of American Colleges . 
 
 The Advantages of Classical Studies, particularly in reference 
 to the Youth of our Country ...... 
 
 What can we, and what ought we, to do for our Colleges . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 240 
 250 
 253 
 2C2 
 280 
 284 
 292 
 300 
 312 
 
 32Y 
 339 
 
 2B5 
 370 
 380 
 
 398 
 423
 
 FIVE YEARS 
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY 
 
 FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 "The sage council not being able to determine upon any plan for the building of their 
 city, the cows, in a laudable fit of patriotism, took it under their peculiar charge ; and, 
 as they went to and fro from pasture, established paths through the bushes, on each side 
 of which the good folks built their houses." 
 
 Knickerbocker's New York. 
 
 " And round the cool green courts there ran a row 
 Of cloisters, branched like mighty woods, 
 Echoing all night to that sonorous flow 
 Of spouted fountain floods." 
 
 Tennyson's Palace of Art. 
 
 Imagine the most irregular town that can be imagined, 
 streets of the very crookedest kind, twisting about hke those in 
 a nightmare, and not unfrequently bringing you back to the 
 same point you started from. Some of these tortuous lanes 
 are without trottoirs, like the streets 'of old Continental towns ; 
 but it is more common to find a passage or short street all 
 sidewalk —[\ii we call what the English call cmiseway — without 
 any cari-iage i-oad. The houses are low and antique ; some- 
 times their upper stories project out into and over the narrow 
 pathway, making it still narrower ; and their lower stories are 
 usually occupied as shops — tailors and booksellers being the 
 predominant varieties. Every now and then your road passes 
 over a muddy little river, not larger than a tolerable canal, 
 which rambles through and about the town in all sorts of 
 ways, so that in whatcikr direction yau walk from antj point, 
 
 1
 
 2 FIVE VKARS IN AN 
 
 you are pretty sure to come to a bridge before long. Such is 
 the town of Cambridge — the bridge over the Cam. 
 
 Among these narrow, ugly, and dirty streets, are tumbled in, 
 as it "weie at random (for the whole place looks as if it had 
 been dancing to Amphion's music, and he had left off in 
 the middle of a very complicated ligure) some of the most 
 beautiful academical buildings in the world. However their 
 style of architecture may vary, according to the period at 
 ■which they were built or rebuilt, they agree in one essential 
 feature : all the colleges are constructed in quadrangles or 
 courts ; and, as in course of years the population of every 
 college, except one*, has outgrown the original quadrangle, 
 new courts have been added, so that the larger foundations 
 have three, and one (St. John's) has four courts. Sometimes 
 the " old court," or primitive part of the building, presents a 
 handsome front to the largest street near it ; but frequently, as 
 if to show its independence of, and contempt for, the town, it 
 retires from the street altogether, showing the passer-by only 
 its ugliest wall, and smallest, shabbiest gate. This is particu- 
 larly the case with the very largest and most distinguished 
 colleges. 
 
 You enter, then, by a portal neither particularly large nor 
 very striking in its appearance, but rather the reverse, into a 
 spacious and elegant square. There are neat grass-plots and 
 Avalks, a fountain in the centre ; on one side stands a -well 
 proportioned chapel, in one corner you catch a glimpse through 
 a tantalizing grating of a beautiful garden, appropriated to the 
 delectation of the authorities. In a second court you find 
 sounding and venerable cloisters, perhaps a veritable structure 
 of monkish times, if not, a satisfactory imitation of that period. 
 And as you look on the walls, here rich with sculptured orna- 
 ment, there covered with trailing and festooning ivy, the 
 theory and idea of the college edifice begin to strike you — its 
 front is inside for its own benefits ; it turns its back upon the 
 
 * Downing College, which only went into operation in 1800, and 
 may be considered Btill in its infancy.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 
 
 vulgar outside. But you have not yet fathomed and sounded 
 its spirit of seclusion. The entries are narrow and low ; the 
 staircases narrow and tortuous ; the iron-bound doors, closed 
 by some mysterious spring, or open only to show another door 
 within, look like the portals of a feudal dungeon. But up 
 those break-neck stair-cases, and inside those formidable doors 
 (sometimes with the additional preliminary of a small, dark 
 passage), are luxurious suites of rooms, not exactly like those of 
 a Parisian hotel or a " double-house" in the Fifth Avenue, but 
 quite as beautiful and much more comfortable. The apart- 
 ments and the entrance seem made in inverse proportion to 
 each other ; a mere hole in the wall sometimes leads you to 
 half a house of rooms ; and most cosy rooms they are, with 
 their prodigiously thick walls that keep out the cold in winter 
 and heat (when there is any) in summer, their impregnable 
 sporting -doors that defy alike the hostile dun and the too 
 friendly " fast man," and all their quaint appurtenances, such 
 as book-cases of the true scholastic sort, sunk into and forming 
 part of the wall, so that it would not be easy to appropriate 
 them or the space they occupy to any other purpose : queer 
 little nooks of studies, just large enough to hold a man in an 
 arm-chair and a big dictionary ; unexpected garrets, which the 
 very occupant of the rooms never goes into without an air of 
 enterprise and mystery, and which the old priests used for 
 oratories — perhaps ; the modern Cantabs keep their wine in 
 them. 
 
 Late in October, 1840, a young New Yorker was losing 
 himself among the impracticable streets, and admiring the 
 remarkable edifices of Cambridge. He was surprised at the 
 number and variety of the academical buildings and their 
 distance from one another ; for, though knowing that the 
 difierent colleges were separate and independent foundations, 
 connected only by a few general ties, he had expected some- 
 thing like contiguity of location, and was not prepared to find 
 them scattered over an area of some miles. Nor was it with- 
 out some degree of curiosity that he inspected such of the 
 population as he met, a curiosity which they were not slow to
 
 4 FIVE YEARS IN' AN 
 
 retaliate with abuiidaiice of eye-glasses. Dressed in the last 
 Gothainito fashion (then, as now, a reproduction of the pre- 
 ceding year's Parisian), with the usual accessories of gold 
 chain and diamond pin, the whole surmounted by a blue cloth 
 cloak, he certainly bore no resemblance, in point of costume, 
 to any of the academical public whom he encountered. The 
 Cantabs' garb generally consists of a not too new black coat 
 (frock or cutaway), trousers of some substantial stuff, grey or 
 plaid, and a stout waistcoat, fref[upntly of the same pattern as the 
 trousers. Straps are unknown to liim, and instead of boots 
 he wears easy low-heeled shoes, for greater convenience in 
 fence and ditch jumping, and other feats of extempore gj'^m- 
 nastics which diversify his " constitutionals." The only showy 
 part of liis attire is the cravat, which is apt to be blue or some 
 other decided color,* and fastened in front with a large gold- 
 lieaded pin. During the middle of the day this outfit is com- 
 pleted by a hat of the average ugliness of English hats, but 
 before 12 a. m., and after 4 p. m., you must superadd the aca- 
 demical costume. This consists of a gown, varying in color and 
 ornament according to the wearer's college and rank, but 
 generally black, not unlike an ordinary clerical gown, and a 
 square-topped cap, which fits close to the head like a truncated 
 helmet, while the covered board which forms the crown 
 measures about a foot diagonally across. It is not by any 
 means a sine qua non tliat the cap and gown should 
 be in good order and condition ; the latter is often sadly 
 torn and faded, while the former retains but few traces of its 
 original form after the rough usage it has undergone. To 
 steal caps and gowns is no more an offence against the eighth 
 commandment in Cambridge, than to steal umbrellas is with 
 us — an additional reason for their appearance being little 
 thought of. In one thing only is the Cantab particular — the 
 
 * Words of this class I spell without the w, because the practice of 
 good writers varies sufficiently to leave their orthography an open 
 question and allow any pei'son to adopt whichever form lie prefers ; 
 not because Webster, who is no authority at all among scholars, spells 
 them thus.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 5 
 
 one nicety of every English gentleman, however clumsy or 
 shabby the rest of his dress may be — his linen is always fault- 
 less. A dirty shirt, or even a badly got up one, is a pheno- 
 menon in the University. Peculiar as the academic costume 
 is, its effect is by no means unbecoming ; on the contrary, it 
 adds, in a majority of cases, to the dignity and style of the 
 wearer. 
 
 Nor' must it be supposed that the gownsmen are thin, study- 
 worn, consumptive-looking individuals. The stranger's first 
 impression was, that he had never seen so fine a bod}^ of 
 young men together. Almost every man looked able and 
 ready to row eight miles, walk twelve, or ride twenty " across 
 country," at the shortest notice, and to eat half a leg of 
 mutton and drink a quart of ale after it. One would hardly 
 suspect them to be students at all, did not the number of 
 glasses hint that those who carried them had impaired their 
 sight by late reading. 
 
 The young American who noted these particulars felt some- 
 what bashful among a crowd of strangers, even as he does 
 now on making his appearance before you, reader. Yet it is 
 necessary that he should go on, however painful it may be to 
 his modesty, to tell how he came there, and for what purpose, 
 which he will do as briefly as possible in the next chapter.
 
 FIVE YEARS IN AN' 
 
 SOME rUEI.IMIKAUIES RATHER EGOTISTICAL BUT A'ERY 
 NECESSARY. 
 
 Oro te, quia tu cs?— CiCERO to Trehatius. 
 
 I AVAS fifteen years old wlien 1 went to New Haven to entei* 
 tlie Fresliman class, at Yale College. In the scliool wliere I 
 prepared, one of the masters was an Englishman, and the 
 instruction given partly on tlie Englisli model. I had been 
 fitted for Columbia College, the standard for the Freshman 
 class in which institution was then nearly equal to that for the 
 Sophomore at Yale. (I never met a New Englander who knew 
 this, or could be made to believe it, but it is perfectly true not- 
 withstanding.) The start which I had thus obtained confirmed 
 me in the habits of idleness to which a boy just emancipated 
 from school is prone, when he has nothing immediately before 
 him to excite his ambition. During the first year I did little 
 but read novels and attend debating societies ; and the compa- 
 rison of my experience with that of others leads me to conclude 
 that this is the case with most boys who enter well })repared at 
 a New England College ; they go backwards rather than for- 
 wards the first year. In the second year came on a great deal 
 of mathematics, laborious rather than difl^icult ; mucli of it 
 consisted in mere mechanical working of examples in trigo- 
 nometry and mensuration, which was nearly as great a bore to 
 the best mathematicians in the class as to the worst. I never 
 had any love for or skill in pure science, and my health, more- 
 over, being none of the best, I very early in the Sophomore 
 year gave up all thoughts of obtaining high honors, and settled 
 down contentedly among the twelve or fifteen who are brack- 
 eted, after the first two or three, as " English Orations." There 
 were four prizes, one in each year, which could be obtained by 
 classics alone, and of these I was fortunate enough to gain
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 7 
 
 three. But they were very imperfect "tests ; indeed there was 
 at that time no direct means of determining who was the best, 
 or second, or third, classical scholar in any class. 
 
 Most of our young countrymen are eager to rush into their 
 destined profession immediately on leaving college, at the age 
 of eighteen or nineteen. Several of my contemporaries did 
 not wait for Commencement day to begin, nominally at 
 least, their professional studies; but I was by no means in a 
 hurry to finish my education, thinking that a long start is 
 often the safest, especially as I was looking forward to a pro- 
 fession which, above all others, should be entered on after 
 much deliberation and mature judgment. Meaning, then, 
 with God's help, to be a clergyman, I wished iirst to make 
 myself a scholar, and for this jnirpose resolved to sj^end some 
 time at a European University. But when it came to start- 
 ing, my courage failed me ; I was afraid to expose my igno- 
 rance abroad, and determined to stay at home another year. 
 This year I would willingly have spent in my native city, as 
 aftbrding some advantages for study ; but those who had the 
 disposal of me thought it best that I should remain at New 
 Haven, where accordingly I took np ray quarters again as a 
 resident graduate — a very rare animal in those parts. Poor 
 Mason, who was to have been our great American astronomer, 
 was my only companion in that position. The experience of 
 that year fully justifies me in asserting, that if I wished to 
 immake a partially formed scholar, and to divert the attention 
 of a young man who had a taste that way from such studies, 
 I would send him to reside in no place sooner than in a New 
 England college town. There was no one able to instruct me 
 or inclined to sympathize with me, except two or three gen- 
 tlemen whose professional duties in the college rendered it 
 impossible for them to give me any regular assistance ; but 
 there were plenty of debating societies nil about, and no end 
 of young debaters. Without being considered much of a 
 " speaker" or " writer" as an under-graduate, I had figured 
 to some extent in the Yale Literary^ and had just attained 
 that beau jour de la vie when a young man gets his first
 
 8 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 " piece" into a city magazine. All this fostered the habits 
 of semi-literary idleness which the (so-called) studies of the 
 senior year appear purposely framed to encourage. Moreover, 
 I formed rather an intimate acquaintance with a Mississippian 
 (it was before the days of repudiation), who was always 
 anxious to talk politics, and we used to read about a dozen 
 newspapers a day, and throw the contents of them at each 
 other. When it is stated that I was an ultra abolition Whig 
 and he a slaveholding D'^mocrat, the quantity of belligerent 
 nonsense we interchanged, and the valuable result of our dis- 
 cussions may be easily imagined. The only tangible residuum 
 that I ever realized from our debates was a pretty large bill 
 for cakes, ice-cream, and sherry-cobblers. Indeed, so put to 
 it was I for some daily work to balance me, as it were, and 
 give me regular habits of study, that for the last three 
 months of the year I joined the Law School, and then find- 
 ing Avhat I ought to have known before, that I should never 
 make any progn-ess in scholarship by myself at New Haven, I 
 packed my trunks for England. 
 
 Still it would be unjust to myself to say that I had abso- 
 lutely wasted the twelve months. They were only compara- 
 tively lost. I did about as mucli in them as I ought to have 
 done in three or four. I had broken ground in Juvenal, 
 Thucydides, Aristophanes, and Pindar, authors who then 
 seldom entered into the reading of an American college stu- 
 dent : on the whole, it may fairly be said that I was a favor- 
 able specimen of a giaduate from a New England College, 
 and rather above the average than below it. Of mathema- 
 tics I kww only a little Euclid and algebra, having gone 
 through the college course of Mechanics, Conic sections, &c., 
 to as much purpose as some travellers go through various 
 countries. 
 
 As to the rest of my education and accomplishments, they 
 were the usual ones of an American student ; that is to say, 
 I could talk a little French and Spanish, and read a little 
 German, had a boarding-school girl's knowledge of the names 
 and rudimentary formulae of two or three sciences, could
 
 ENGLISH INIVEKSITY. 
 
 write newspaper articles in prose or verse, had a strong ten- 
 dency to talk politics, and never saw a crowd of people 
 together without feeling as if I sjiould like to get up and 
 make them a speech about things in general. I had read 
 abundance of novels, poetry, and reviews, a fair share of 
 English history, and a great deal of what the school books 
 and the newspaper reporters call " specimens of eloquence." 
 I had a supreme opinion of my country (except in matters of 
 scholarship), and a pretty good opinion of myself. To com- 
 plete the list, it should be added, that I could black my own 
 boots, and, on a pinch, wash my own handkerchiefs. In 
 short, with the exception of easiness of manner and presence 
 of mind (two qualities in which I have always been deficient), 
 I made a very tolerable representative for the reading section 
 of Young America to send among English scholars. 
 
 It is very awkward to write these things about one's self, 
 but it seems impossible to dispense with them. In the course 
 of this book, different standards of education, and the com- 
 parative knowledge of instructors, as well as pupils, in differ- 
 ent places, will be very freely spoken of; and the reader who 
 comes to these comparisons will naturally ask, what were my 
 qualifications for forming any opinion on these subjects at all. 
 And unless I tell him, it would not be easy for him to find 
 out ; for though the internal evidence of this book may suffi- 
 ciently expose my fitness or unfitness for the task at present, 
 still in order to estimate my progress or profit at the Univer- 
 sity he must know something of the foundation I had to 
 build upon, which such indirect internal evidence would not 
 supply.
 
 10 FIVK VKAKS IK AX 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO COI.LEGK LIFE. 
 DiflcipliniB bonis operam dato. Cambridge Statutes. 
 
 The first lliinc^ tliat tlie Amorioan reader has to impress 
 on his mind is, that tlie several Colleges are distinct and 
 independent corporations. They are on different foundations, 
 that is to say, the funds which support them are derived 
 from different sources ; their officeis are distinct, their lecture- 
 room subjects different, though with a general resemblance ; 
 their very gowns vary. The confederation of these inde- 
 pendent corporations constitutes the University, which may, 
 in its relation to the colleges composing it, be compared to 
 our Federal Government in its relation to the separate States — 
 with this important historical difference, however, that the 
 Colleges sprang into existence subsequent to the founding of 
 the University. Indeed, the only practical connexion that the 
 Under-graduate usually has with the University in its corpo- 
 rate capacity (unless he should be of a riotous turn, so as to 
 bring himself under the Proctor's notice) consists in his pre- 
 vious examination, alias the " Little Go," and his final ex- 
 amination for a degree, with or without honors. Robinson, 
 of Trinity, may be three years in the University with Brown, 
 of Corpus, and never come in contact Avith him, or be aware 
 of his existence, till in the last Long Vacation, when he is 
 putting on all steam and " coaching" violently for the Clas- 
 sical Tripos, he hears suddenly one day at a wine party that 
 " Bennedy has a Corpus man reading with him, who is likely 
 to be among the first five." Then, for the first time, has Brown 
 an existence for him. 
 
 When, therefore, a boy, or, as Ave should call him, a young 
 man, leaves his school, public or private, at the age of eighteen 
 or ninotoon, and " goes up" to tlie Universit\', he neeessai'ily
 
 EXGLISII UNIVERSITY. 11 
 
 goes up to some particular College, and tlie first academical 
 authority lie makes acquaintance with in the regular order of 
 things is the College Tutor. This gentleman has usually taken 
 high honors either in Classics or Mathematics, and one of his 
 duties is naturally to lecture — only you may be sure that if he 
 has a turn for Classics he is not set to lecture on Mathematics, 
 or vice versa, as used to be the case at Yale. But this by no 
 means constitutes the whole or forms the most important part 
 of his functions. He is the medium of all the students' pe- 
 cuniary relations with the College. He sends in their accounts 
 every term, and receives the money through his banker ; nay 
 more, he takes in the bills of their tradesmen, and settles them 
 also. Further, he has the disposal of the college rooms, and 
 assigns them to their respective occupants. \\Tien I speak of 
 the College Tutor, it must not be supposed that one man is 
 equal to all this work in a large college — Trinity, for instance, 
 which usually numbers four hundred under-graduates in resi- 
 dence. A large college has usually two Tutors — Trinity has 
 three — and the students are equally divided among them — on 
 their sides the phrase is — without distinction of year, or, as 
 we should call it, of class. The jurisdiction of the rooms 
 is. divided in like manner. The Tutor is supposed to stand in 
 loco 2^<^^'cntis — but having sometimes more than a hundred 
 young men under him, he cannot discharge his duties in this 
 respect very thoroughly, nor is it generally expected that he 
 should. 
 
 To the Tutor, then, you go in October. Your name has 
 been on the books since July. Mine Avas not, as I was a 
 stranger. But that is merely a form. Before you are fairly 
 in your college, you must pass an examination. At many 
 of the colleges, this is little more than nominal, any Master 
 of Arts being qualified to admit a candidate ; but at Trinity 
 there is a regular test, though it must be owned the standard 
 is not very high. The candidates for admission are examined 
 in the First Book of the Iliad, the First Book of the JEneid, 
 some easy Greek and Latin Prose, Arithmetic, the elements 
 of Algebra, two Books of Euclid, and Paley's Natural Then-
 
 12 FIVE YKARS IN AN 
 
 logy. Any one fitted for tlie Soplioinore Class at Yale 
 could pass hero without trouble. The candidates are gene- 
 rally well prepared, and the examiners lenient ; out of one 
 hundred and thirty or more who oflfer themselves there are 
 seldom more than four or five rejected. The principle seems 
 to be, " Let in every one, and if they can't keep on, that is 
 their look-out." In this way, various initiation fees are 
 secured which would otherwise be lost. On a rough esti- 
 mate, out of one hundred and twenty who enter every year 
 at Trinity, more than twenty drop off by the beginning of 
 the second year. This is the only entrance examination, and 
 however much you may know, there is no such thing as 
 entering in advance of the Freshman year, save only for men 
 migrating from Oxford, who are allowed their Oxford terms, 
 and can take second or third year rank at once. The regu- 
 lar examiners are the Dean and the Head Lecturer. The 
 latter functionary was busy about some other matters when I 
 presented myself several days after the beginning of the term. 
 Accordingly, I was told that my classical examination would 
 be postponed to some convenient opportunity, and mean- 
 Avhile the Senior Dean would admit me on passing the 
 mathematical part of the examination privately to him. 
 This was the very thing I did not want, for I had literally 
 not opened a mathematical book for two years. In a mixed 
 examination I hoped that my classics would carry me 
 through, but now I was called on to put the worst foot fore- 
 most at once. However, there was no help for it, so to the 
 Dean's room I went next morning, and scribbled away for 
 three or four hours, doing Quadratic Equations, and the Pons 
 Asinorum, by dvafjuvTjtfij, as a Cantab says of doing anything 
 which you learned so long ago that it seems to have been in 
 a different stage of your being. Paley, I had read within a 
 year, and worked out an elaborate picture of the human eye 
 to complete my performances. Somehow I nearly floored 
 the paper, and came out feeling much more comfortable than 
 when I went in. I might have been easy about it any way, 
 for the Deans are always ready to smooth the entrance for a
 
 ENGLISH UXIVEKSITY. 13 
 
 Fellow-Commoner, and it was among this class of students 
 that I enrolled myself by the Dean's advice. 
 
 These Fellow-Commoners are " young men of fortune," 
 as the Cambridge Calendar and Camhridge Guide have it, 
 who, in consideration of their paying twice as much for every- 
 thing as anybody else, are allowed the privilege of sitting at 
 the Fellows' table in Hall and in their seats at Chapel ; of 
 wearing a gown with gold or silver lace, and a velvet cap 
 with a metallic tassel ; of having the first choice of rooms ; 
 and as is generally believed, and believed not without reason, 
 of getting off with a less number of chapels per week. 
 Among them are included the Honorables not eldest sons — 
 only these wear a hat instead of the velvet cap, and are thence 
 popularly known as Hat Fellow-Commoners. The noblemen 
 proper, or eldest sons (of whom there are never many in 
 Cambridge, Oxford presenting more attractions for them), 
 wear the plain black silk gown and hat of an M. A.,* except 
 on feast days and state occasions, when they come out in 
 gowns still more gorgeous than those of the Fellow-Com- 
 moners. A Fellow-Commoner of economical habits (and it 
 is not easy for oae of them to be of such habits) requires 
 £500 a-year, and for the generality of them £800 is not too 
 much. I made the experiment with £400, partly from igno- 
 rance, partly from the dashing way an American has of going 
 at anything and trusting to Providence to get through.f 
 The not surprising result was that at the end of seven months 
 I found myself a thousand dollars in debt. Indeed, so great is 
 the expense neccssaribj incurred by this class, to say nothing 
 of their greater temptation to unnecessary expenses, that even 
 eldest sons of peers sometimes come up as pensioners, and 
 younger sons continually do. 
 
 Pensioner is the name given to the main body of the stu- 
 
 * Tlie initials of English academical titles always correspond to the 
 English, not to the Latin of the titles, B.A., M.A., D.D., D.C.L., <fee. 
 
 f I was recommended to enter as Fellow-Commoner, because it would 
 open to me the society of the Fellows and older men, Avhich indeed is 
 the only real advantage of the position.
 
 14 FIVK VKAKS IN AN 
 
 dents. Sizars answer to the beneficiaries of American col- 
 leges. They receive pecuniary assistance from the College, and 
 dine gratis after the Fellows on the remains of their tahle.* 
 In former times they waited on the Fellows at dinner, but this 
 practice has long been abolished. A similar one still prevails 
 in some of our institutions. 
 
 The P'reshman, when once safe through his examination, is 
 first inducted into his rooms by a gyp, usually recommended 
 to him by his tutor. The ffi/p (from yv-^, vulture, evidently a 
 nickname at first, but now the only name applied to this class 
 of persons) is a college servant, who attends upon a number of 
 students, sometimes as many as twenty, calls them in the 
 morning, brushes their clothes, carries for them parcels and the 
 queerly twisted notes they are continually writing to one other, 
 waits at their parties, and so on. Cleaning their boots is not 
 in his branch of the profession ; there is a regular brigade of 
 college shoe-blacks. The new-comer generally finds his apart- 
 ment ready prepared for him, it being the custom for him to 
 take the former tenant's furniture at a valuation by the college 
 upholsterer, and make such subsequent additions to, or altera- 
 tions in it, as his convenience requires or .his fancy suggests. 
 Thus the movables and fittings of a room are not generally 
 renewed all at once, but piecemeal, from time to time. The 
 appearance of a student's apartment, though by no means 
 splendid, is decidedly comfortable ; it is well cushioned and 
 sofaed, with a proper proportion of arm chairs, and a general 
 air of respectability — much better on the whole than our stu- 
 dents' rooms ever are. Fifty pounds would not be a high esti- 
 mate for the iisual value of the furniture. But the new occu- 
 pant finds one deficiency. All the glass, china, and crockery 
 of the man going out become, by immemorial usage, the bed- 
 maker's propertj'' ; accordingly our Freshman's first business is 
 to provide himself, usually under the gyp's guidance, with a 
 tea-set, and other like necessaries, among which decanters and 
 
 * These "remains" are very liberally construed, the Sizars always 
 having fresh vegetablo?, and frequently fresh tarts and j^uddings.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 15 
 
 wine-glasses figure conspicuously. An American student is 
 somewhat surprised at having these articles recommended to 
 him, as it were, by the college authorities. This is only the 
 beginning of what he has to learn. 
 
 The bed-makers are the women who take care of the rooms ; 
 there is about one to each staircase, that is to say, to every 
 eight rooms. For obvious reasons they are selected from such 
 of the fair sex as have long passed the age at which they 
 might have had any personal attractions. The first intimation 
 which your bed-maker gives you, is that she is bound to report 
 you to the tutor if ever you stay out of your rooms all night. 
 
 And now having fairl}' installed the Freshman in his quar- 
 ters, let us begin the day with him. Morning chapel goes in 
 at seven, and as the English student does not pretend to the 
 railroad speed of the American in making his toilet, the gyp is 
 directed to call him at half-past six, or a little earlier. The bell 
 tolls slowly for five minutes and strikes rapidly for five more 
 before seven. Our Freshman is sure to be early, and does not 
 require the three or five minutes grace allowed after the clock 
 strikes before the gates are shut. 
 
 However much the chapels of the various colleges may differ 
 in size and architectural beauty, they agree in their arrangement. 
 On entering that of Trinity, you find yourself in the ante- 
 chapel, surrounded by monuments of distinguished scholars and 
 divines, eminent among which stands out a fine statue of New- 
 ton. Passing through an oaken screen you walk down the long 
 marble floor, between rows of movable benches, upon which 
 the Pensioners, sit, without distinction of year or person. The 
 Scholars, Bachelor or Undergraduate, sit on seats behind and 
 above the Pensioners, and above them again, along the walls, 
 are the seats of Noblemen, Fellow-Commoners, and Fellows, 
 and the desks of the Dean and college oflicers. The students, 
 as they enter, are marked with pins on long alphabetical lists, 
 by two college servants, who are so experienced and clever at 
 their business that they never have to ask the name of a new- 
 comer more than once. 
 
 It is in the chapol that the tyro generally begins to get defi-
 
 16 FIVK VKAHS IN AN 
 
 nitc ideas of the powers that bo in tlic college, and this is 
 accordingly the fittest place for introducing them. 
 
 The college authorities (in University slang-phrase the Doris) 
 are designated in the most general terms as the Master and Fel- 
 lows'. The Master of the College, or " Head of the House," is a 
 D. D., who has been a Fellow. He is the supreme ruler within 
 the college walls, and moves about like an Under-graduate's 
 deity, keeping at an awful distance from the students, and not 
 letting himself be seen too frequently even at chapel. Besides 
 his fat salary and house (technically known as the Lodge), he 
 enjoys many perquisites and privileges, not the least of which 
 is that of committing matrimony. 
 
 The Fellows, who form the general body from which the 
 other college officers are chosen, consist of those four or five 
 Bachelor Scholars in each year who pass the best examination 
 in Classics, Mathematics, and Metaphysics. This examination 
 being a severe one, and only the last of many trials which they 
 have gone through, the inference is allowable that they are the 
 most learned of the College graduates. They have a handsome 
 income, whether resident or not ; but if resident, enjoy the ad- 
 ditional advantages of a well-spread table for nothing, and good 
 rooms at a -very low price. The only conditions of retaining 
 their Fellowships are that they take orders after a certain time 
 and remain unmarried. Of those who do not fill college offices, 
 some occupy themselves with private pupils ; others, who have 
 property of their own, prefer to live a life of literary leisure, like 
 some of their predecessors, the monks of old. The eight oldest 
 Fellows at any time in residence, together with the Master, have 
 the government of the college vested in them. 
 
 The Dean is the presiding officer in chapel, and the only 
 one whose presence there is indispensable. He oversees the 
 markers' lists, pulls up the absentees, and receives their excuses. 
 This office is no sinecure in a large college ; at Trinity they 
 have been forced to divide the work, and appoint a Junior Dean. 
 It is rather surprising that there should be so much shirking of 
 chapel, Avhen the very moderate amount of attendance required 
 is considered. Tiie Under-graduale is expected to go to chapel
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 17 
 
 eight times, or in academic parlance, to hcep eight chapels 
 a-week, two on Sunday, and one on every week-day, attending 
 morning or evening chapel on week-days at his option. Nor is 
 even this indulgent standard rigidly enforced. I believe if a 
 Pensioner keeps six chapels, or a Fellow-Commoner four, and is 
 quite regaJar in all other respects, he will never be troubled by 
 the Dean. It certainly is an argument in favor of severe disci- 
 pline, that there is more grumbling and hanging back, and un- 
 willingness to conform to these extremely moderate requisitions, 
 than is exhibited by the sufferers at a New England college, 
 who have to keep sixteen chapels a-week, seven of them at un- 
 reasonable hours. Even the Scholars, who are literally paid for 
 going, every chapel being directly worth two shillings sterling 
 to them, are by no means invariable in attending the proper 
 number of times. 
 
 Other officers are, the Vice Master, the Bursar, i. e. the 
 College Purse-bearer or Treasurer, and his assistant ; Lecturers, 
 assistant Lecturers, and assistant Tutors to the number of nearly 
 twenty (some of these, however, are non-residents, and only 
 appear at examinations) ; four Chaplains, and the Librarian. 
 These last five are the only officers not Fellows. They are 
 usually selected from the Bachelor Scholars Avho have just 
 missed Fellowships. 
 
 The Chapel service occupies, as nearly as may be, half an 
 hour. After tliis, it is the ■custom to take a fifteen minutes' 
 walk in the college grounds, for the purpose of aftbrdino- the 
 bed-maker time to get the rooms in good order, and of giving 
 the student an appetite for his breakfast. By eight, he is seated 
 before his comfortably blazing coal fire (how diflferent from our 
 scorching, smouldering anthracite!), with his kettle boiling 
 merrily, and the materials for his morning meal on a diminutive 
 table near him. These are of the simplest description — rolls, 
 butter, and tea : an excellent preparation for a morning's read- 
 ing. The mention of breakfast conveys to a Cantab no ideas 
 of ham and beef-steaks ; and if reminiscences of cold game pie 
 and hot cutlets are ever called up by it, it is on account of those
 
 18 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 occasional breakfast parties, wliicli from tlicir late hour (eleven) 
 bear more resemblance to a luncheon. 
 
 At nine, Lectures begin, and continue till twelve. There are 
 some ten or eleven going on at once. The established length 
 of each lecture is one hour. For the Freshmen there are two, 
 a classical and a mathematical, both which they are required 
 to attend ; the Second and Third-year men have their choice of 
 one lecture among three or four. The lecturer stands, and the 
 lectured sit, even when construing, as the Freshmen are some- 
 times asked to do; the other Years are only called on to listen. 
 The practice of taking notes is very general ; there is plenty of 
 stationery ready jtrovidcd on the desks, but the students usually 
 bring tlieir own note-books and pens. 
 
 Having mentioned Second and Third-year men, it may be 
 well for me to state at once that there are no such beings as 
 Sophomores at an English University.* The Under-graduate 
 course is three years and a third, and the students who have 
 completed their first year are called successively Junior Sophs 
 (abbreviated for Sophisters), Senior Sop)hs, and Quesiionists ; 
 or, more popularly. Second-year men, Third-year men, and 
 Men ivho are just yoiny out. 
 
 It is generally some time before one, when the student re- 
 sorts to his private tutor. This gentleman, being a most im- 
 portant personage, is to have justice done him hereafter at 
 length. Suffice it to say, for the present, that he is by no 
 means an " aristocratic appendage," as a wise professor on this 
 side the water once imagined, but an ordinary and almost 
 absolutely necessary feature in the college life of every student, 
 rich or poor. With this tutor, who is either a Fellow, or a 
 Bachelor trying for a Fellowship, our Freshman reads a portion 
 of some author he has prepared, or undergoes an examination 
 (by pen, ink, and paper, as all examinations here are) on some- 
 thing he has not jjrepared for the purpose. With a mathe- 
 
 * At Trinity College, Dublin, tliere are fonr classes of Under-gradu- 
 ates : the first two arc called Junior Freshman and Senior Freshman.
 
 EXGLISII UXIVERSITV. 1 9 
 
 matical tutor, the Lour of tuition is a sort of familiar examina- 
 tion, working' out examples, deductions, &c. 
 
 From two to four is the traditional time of exercise, two hours' 
 hard exercise a-day being considered (as it is) little enough for a 
 man who wishes to keep his body in proper vigor. The igno- 
 rance of the popular mind has often repi-esented academicians 
 riding, travelling, Asc, in cap and gown. Any one who has had 
 experience of the academic costume can tell that a sharp walk on 
 a windy day in it is no easy matter, and a ride or a row would 
 be pretty near an impossibility. Indeed, during these two hours 
 it is as rare to see a student in a gown as it is at other times to 
 find him beyond the college v/alks without one. The most usual 
 mode of exercise is walking — constitutionalizing is the Cantab 
 for it. The country for miles around is very flat, and the 
 roads are very good, two circumstances highly encouraging to 
 pedestrianism. After walking comes rowing, which may 
 indeed be called the distinguishing amusement of Eno-lish 
 University students. Cricketing, and all games of ball, are 
 much practised in their respective seasons. 
 
 During the quarter of an hour preceding four p. m. the 
 students come flocking into tlieir colleges and rooms to prepare 
 for dinner. The academic cap and gown are resumed, and the 
 hall crowded with hungry Under-graduates, who are not, how- 
 ever, admitted within the screen until the Fellows and Fellow- 
 Commoners have aissembled. Then a Latin grace is read by 
 two of the Dons, and forthwith the demolition of eatables pro- 
 ceeds. The tables of the Under-graduates, arranged according 
 to their respective years, are supplied with abundance of plain 
 joints, and vegetables, and beer and ale ad libitum, besides 
 which, soup, pastry, and cheese can be " sized for," that is, 
 brought in portions to individuals at an extra charge ; so that 
 on the whole a very comfortable meal might be eflected but 
 for the crowd and confusion, in which respect the Hall 
 dinner much resembles our steamboat meals. The attendance 
 also is very deficient, and of the roughest sort. But some of 
 the company are better ofl'. At a raised dais at one end of the 
 TIall the Fellows, Noblemen, and Fellow-Commoners are ban-
 
 20 FIVK VKARS IX AN 
 
 queting on a dinner of three courses, with port and sherry, in 
 addition to the malt Hquor, and abundance of orderly and well- 
 dressed waiters. Along tiie wall you see two tables, which, 
 though less carefully provided than the Fellows', are still served 
 with tolerable decency and go through a regular second course 
 instead of the " sizings." The occupants of the upper or inner 
 table are men apparently from twenty-two to twenty-six years 
 of afe, and wear black gowns with two strings hanging loose 
 in front. If this table has less state than the adjoining one of 
 the Fellows, it has more mirth and brilliancy ; many a good 
 joke seems to be going the rounds. These are the Baclielors, 
 most of them Scholars reading for Fellowsliips, and nearly all 
 of them private tutors. Although Bachelors in Arts, they are 
 considered, both as respects the College and the University, to 
 be in statu puplllari until they become M. A.'s. They pay a 
 small sum in fees nominally fur tuition, and are liable to tlie 
 authority of that mighty man, the I'roctor. The table nearer 
 the door is filled by students in the ordinary Under-graduate 
 blue gown; but from the better service of their table, and per- 
 haps some little consequential air of their own, it is plain that 
 they have something peculiar to boast of. They are the Foun- 
 dation Scholars, from whom the future Fellows are to be chosen, 
 in the proportion of about one out of three. Their Scholar- 
 shijis are gained by examination in the second or third year, 
 and entitle them to a pecuniary allowance from the college, and 
 also to their commons gratis (these latter subject to certain 
 attendance at and service in chapel), a first choice of rooms, 
 and some other little privileges, of which they are somewhat 
 proud, and occasionally they look as if conscious that some 
 Don may be saying to a chance visitor at the liigh table " those 
 over yonder are the Scholars, the best men of theii- year." 
 
 Hall lasts about three quarters of an hour. Two Scholars 
 conclude the performances by reading a long Latin grace. 
 The Dons are too full after dinner to read their own grace — 
 such at least is the jesting traditionary explanation of the cus- 
 tom ; and certainly on one or two occasions, when the officiating 
 Scholars liappened to be non iiiventi, I have heard the presid-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 21 
 
 ing dignitary return thanks in just two words, to wit, Bene- 
 dido henedicatur. 
 
 After Hall is emphatically lounging time, it being the wise 
 practice of Englishmen to attempt no hard exercise, physical 
 or mental, immediately after a hearty meal. Some stroll in 
 the grounds if the weather is fine, many betake themselves to 
 the Union Society Reading-room to glance over the newspapers 
 and periodicals, and many assemble at wine parties to chat 
 over a frugal dessert of oranges, biscuits, and cake, and sip a 
 few glasses of not remarkably good wine. These wine parties 
 are the most common entertainments, being rather the cheapest 
 and very much the most convenient, for the preparations 
 required for them are so slight as not to disturb the studies of 
 the hardest reading man, and they take place at a time when 
 no one pretends to do any work. 
 
 At six p. M., the chapel bell rings again. The attendance is 
 more numerous now than it was in the morning. On Satur- 
 day evenings, Sundays, and Saints' days the students wear sur- 
 plices instead of their gowns, and very innocent and exemplary 
 they look in them. It must be owned that their conduct in 
 chapel is very orderly and proper, considering the great oppor- 
 tunities aft'orded for subdued conversation by the way in which 
 the}^ are crowded together when kneeling. After chapel the 
 evening reading begins in earnest. Most of the Cantabs are 
 late readers, so that supposing one of them to begin at seven, 
 he will not leave off before half-past eleven, thus clearing more 
 than four hours' consecutive work, his only intermission being 
 to take a cup or two of tea, sometimes, but not often, accompa- 
 nied by a slice of bread and butter. One solid meal a-day is 
 the rule ; even when they go out to sup, as a reading-man does 
 perhaps once a term and a rowing-man tAvice a week, they eat 
 very moderately, though their potations are sometimes of the 
 deepest. Some students go to their private tutors in the 
 evening ; not unfrequently two or three meet in one another's 
 rooms, alternately, to read some classical author or talk pro- 
 blems together — a very sociable way of acquiring learning.
 
 ^^ FIVK VKARS IN AN 
 
 • Such is the roading-.nau's day; as to how the ro^v^n.-.na,. 
 passes Ins I say nothing, for the present. He is the abiTonnal 
 develoj„nent ot the type, and the consideration of his pursuits 
 need not now be dwelt upon. 
 
 i£r-man
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 23 
 
 THE CANTAB LANGUAGE. 
 
 "A quoy Pantagniel dist; Que diable de languais:e est cecy? Par Dieu, tu es quelque 
 hereticque. 'Seigiior, non,' disl I'escholier, car libentissenient des ce qu'il illucesce 
 quelque minutule lesche du jour je deiiiigre en quelqu'ung de cea taut bieu arcliitectez 
 raonstiers." — Rabelais, Liv. IL Chap. 6. 
 
 One of the first and most necessary things to be acquired 
 by a resident in a new country is some knowledge of its 
 language. Even in the few pages we have thus far gone 
 through, terms have frequently occurred which require ex- 
 planation ; and without some insight into the Cambridge 
 vocabulary, it would be impossible to describe Cambridge life 
 intelligibly, or to understand a true description of it. I there- 
 fore subjoin a list of the principal cant terms and phrases in 
 use, translating them, when possible, into equivalent slang of 
 our own. 
 
 Gownsman. — A. student of the University. 
 
 Snob. — A townsman as opposed to a student, or a blackguard 
 as opposed to a gentleman ; a loafer generally. 
 
 Cad. — A low fellow, nearly = snob. 
 
 Reading. — Studying. 
 
 A reading man. — A hard student. 
 
 A rowing man — [ow as in cow). — A hard case, a spreer. 
 
 Shipioreck. — A total failure. 
 
 Mild, \ Epithets of depreciation, answering nearly to 
 
 Shady, V the phrases, "no great shakes," and "small 
 
 Slow, ) potatoes." 
 
 Fast. — Nearly the French cxpansif. A fast man is not neces- 
 sarily (like the London fast man) a rowing man, though 
 the two attributes are often combined in the same person ; 
 he is one who dresses flashily, talks big, and spends, or 
 aifccts to spend, mojiey very freely.
 
 To the n"- 
 To then-\-l"'- 
 
 24 FIVE YKARS IN AN 
 
 Seedy. — Not well, out of sorts, done up ; the sort of feeling 
 tliat a reading man has after an examination, or a rowing 
 man after a dinner witli the Beefsteak Chib. 
 
 Bumptious. — Conc(>ited, forward, pusliing. 
 
 Brick, — A good fellow ; what Americans sometimes call a 
 clever fellow. 
 
 To kee2i in such a place, — To live or liave rooms there. 
 
 Hang-out. — To treat, to live, to have or possess (a verb of all- 
 work). 
 
 Like bricks, | Intensives to express the most energe- 
 
 IJke a brick or a bean, I tic way of doing anything. These 
 
 liike a house on jire, y phrases are sometimes in very odd 
 contexts. You hear men talk of a 
 balloon going up like bricks, and 
 rain coming down like a house on fire. 
 
 No end of. — Another intensive of obvious import. They have 
 no end of tin, i. e. a great deal of money. He is no end 
 of a fool, i. e. the greatest fool possible. 
 
 Pill. — Twaddle, platitude. 
 
 Hot.— Ditto. 
 
 Bosh. — Nonsense, trash, cpXvapla, 
 
 Lounge. — A treat, a comfort (an Etonian importation). 
 
 Coach. — A private tutor. 
 
 Team. — The private tutor's pupils. 
 
 Subject. — A particular author, or part of an author, set for 
 examination ; or a particular branch of Mathematics, such 
 as Optics, Hydrostatics, (fee. 
 
 Getting up a subject. — Making one's self thoroughly master of 
 it. 
 
 Flooring a paper. — Answering correctly and fully every 
 question in it. 
 
 Book-work. — All mathematics that can be learned verbatim 
 from books — all that are not problems. 
 
 Cram. — All miscellaneous information about Ancient History, 
 Geography, Antiquities, Law, &c. ; all Classical matter 
 not included under the heads of Translation and Compo- 
 sition.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 25 
 
 Comjjosition. — Translating English into Greek or Latin. 
 Original Composition. — Writing a Latin Theme, or original 
 
 Latin verses. 
 Spirting/. — Making an extraordinary effort of mind or body 
 
 for a short time. A boat's crew make a spirt, when 
 
 they pull fifty yards with all the strength they have left. 
 
 A reading man makes a spirt, when he crams twelve 
 
 hours daily the week before examination. 
 Commons. — The students' daily rations, either of meat in hall, 
 
 or of bread and butter for breakfast and tea. 
 Sizinr/s. — Extra orders in hall. 
 Don. — A Fellow, or any College authority. 
 Little-Go. — The University Examination in the second year, 
 
 properly called the Previous Examination. 
 Tripos.* — Any University Examination for Honors of Ques- 
 
 tionists or men who have just taken their B. A. (The 
 
 University Scholarship Examinations are 7i0t called Triposes.) 
 Posted. — Rejected in a College Examination. 
 
 * " The names of the Bachelors who were highest in the list ("Wran- 
 glers and Senior Optimes, Baccalaurei quibus sua reservatur senioritas 
 Comitiis prioribics, and Junior Optimes, Comitiis posterioribus) were 
 written on slips of paper ; and on the back of these papers, probably 
 with a view of making them less fugitive and more entertaining, was 
 given a copy of Latin verses. These verses were written by one of the 
 new Bachelors — and the exuberant spirits and enlarged freedom arising 
 from the termination of the Under-graduate restrictions, often gave to 
 these effusions a character of buffoonery and satire. The writer was 
 termed Terrae Filius, or Tripos, probably from some circumstance in 
 the mode of his making his appearance and delivering his verses ; and 
 took considerable liberties. On some occasions we find that these 
 went so far as to incur the censure of tlie authorities. Even now, the 
 Tripos' verses often aim at satire and humor. [It is customary to 
 have one serious and one humorous copy of verses.] The Avriter 
 does not now appear in person, but the Tripos paper, the list of 
 honors with its verses, still comes forth at its due season, and 
 the list itself has now taken the name of the Trijjos. This being 
 the case with the list of Mathematical honors, the same name has 
 been extended to the list of Classical honors, though unaccompanied 
 by its classical verses." — Wlitividl on Cambridcfc Education, preface to 
 Part 2.
 
 20 VIVE VEAKS IN AN 
 
 Plucked. — Rejected in a University Examination. 
 
 Proctors. — The Police Officers of the University. 
 
 Bull-dogs. — Their Lictors, or servants who attend them when 
 on duty. 
 
 Wrangler, Senior Optime, Junior Oplime. — The First, Second, 
 and Third Classes of the Mathematical Tripos. 
 
 Senior Wrangler. — The head of the First Class in Mathema- 
 tics. 
 
 Add to these some words previously explained, as ggp, sport- 
 ing-door, qucstionist, &c., and a number of London slang 
 words with which Punch has made us familiar, e. g. lash and 
 grub, for meat and drink; weed, for cigar; tin, for money; 
 governor, for father; sold, for exceedingly disappointed or 
 deceived ; and a few pure Greek words, of which the most 
 generally used are, voiJ^ (sense) and yiZdog (credit, reputation), 
 and you have a tolerable idea of the Cambridge vocabulary — 
 chiefly confined to the Under-graduates (except in the tech- 
 nicals like proctor, iorangler, &c.), but understood and acknow- 
 ledged by the stiflfest Dons. Nor must it by any means be 
 supposed the peculiar property of the rowing-men ; on the 
 contrary, the jargon of the reading-men is less intelligible to 
 the uninitiated than that of any other class — for they piece out 
 their conversation with Greek words, just as some would-be 
 fashionables do theirs with French, until the "Babylonish 
 dialect" becomes nearly as bad as that of the student in 
 Rabelais, and it takes a pretty good Greek scholar to under- 
 stand their English. Thus I have heard propemp fami 
 liarly used for escort, and seen in a letter ackmaze for to be 
 at the highest point. And this is not altogether affecta- 
 tion ; to many of these men the strange words they use 
 have become more familiar and convenient than the corres- 
 ponding English ones, especially technical terms of the Greek 
 philosophical writers (such as ((Jiwttjj, ^'Tkj't^juiii, \Uix), just as 
 those who have lived much in France often find it more 
 convenient to express certain ideas by French words than 
 English ones.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 
 
 AN AMERICAN STUDENt's FIRST IMRRESSIONS AT CAMBRIDGE 
 AND ON CAMBRIBGE, 
 
 ^Hv 6i ovSi aSivaroi, o>i AaKC&atfi6vLos, eirretv. — Thucydides, Book IV. 
 
 There are not a few persons in tliis community of ours, 
 some of them not deficient in intelligence nor entirely destitute 
 of the spirit of benevolence, who think it a most desirable and 
 praiseworthy thing to stir up all the mischief they can between 
 England and America. These well-disposed individuals doubt- 
 less have their rewar<^, which I never felt inclined to envy them, 
 my own ideas always urging me to a directly opposite course, 
 either from some mental blindness which kept me behind the 
 progressive democracy of this advancing age, or because I 
 fiever intended to put myself in a position which would oblige 
 me to propitiate or toady Irishmen or slaveholders. Ever since 
 my early boyhood it had been a leading idea with me that the 
 great branches of the Anglo-Saxon family, distingtfished by 
 their language, by their ethical principles, by their judiciously 
 liberal political institutions, from the rest of the world, ought 
 to work harmoniously together ; that a great deal of the bad 
 feeling between them arose from ignorance, and was therefore 
 removable by mere contact and information ; and that a citizen 
 of either country who had the opportunity was doing his duty 
 much better by endeavoring to promote a mutual knowledge 
 of each other between the two peoples, and thus dispel many 
 antipathies having more a hypothetical than a real foundation, 
 than by laboring to revive and foster old germs of animosity 
 which time and the natural course of events were already 
 doing much to kill. In wishing therefore to stand well and 
 make a good impression at Cambridge from my first entry, I 
 was actuated not merely by a desire after the promotion of my
 
 28 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 own xufJo^ (to speak Civntabrigically), Init by ;ni lionest wisli to 
 represent my country well, and make the name of American 
 respectable to many young Englishmon who had no personal 
 experience of it. Indeed it was partly on this account that I 
 had put myself in a position so disproportionate to my financial 
 resources as that of a Trinity Fellow-Commoner. 
 
 I was well aware that in this endeavor there was consider- 
 able up-hill work to do, and sufficient discouragement to 
 encounter ; that as tlie American admirer of England is sure 
 to-get some hard knocks at home, so the American in England 
 i^ apt to be looked at in a false light by the individuals of a 
 nation to which he is well disposed. 
 
 Mere mistakes of ignorance I Avas always prepared for, and 
 it is but justice to my English acquaintances to say that they 
 were generally as glad to have such mistakes corrected as I 
 was eager to correct them. This charge of ignorance is, as we all 
 know, sometimes denied and sometimes slighted by Englishmen ; 
 but it is rather understating the case to say that the majority of 
 English gentlemen know less than they should about the con- 
 dition and institutions of a people so nearly related to them, 
 and whose political and social movements they might study to 
 so much advantage in reference to their own country. In our 
 past history, short as it is, we would hardly expect them to be 
 well up, coming into rivalry as it does with the more univer- 
 sally exciting events that took place in Europe contemporane- 
 ously, and other reasons may combine with national pride for 
 making Waterloo a more familiar name to them than New 
 Orleans ; but surely an English gentleman who has attained 
 his majority, might be expected to know that we have two 
 Houses of Congress and that New York is not a slave State. 
 
 The old joke of presuming that a New Yorker or New Eng- 
 lander knows any man Avho may have gone out to Canada, St. 
 Louis, or Texas, is really no joke at all, but a very common 
 occurrence, which every American wlio has travelled or resided 
 much in England must have verified for himself. Sometimes 
 I have remarked instances where it might well be suspected 
 that much of this ignorance was put on, and that — ^just as our
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 29 
 
 public men assent to tlie roniancings of Irish " sympathizers," 
 and wonder how England can be so blind and unjust as not to 
 grant repeal, knowing better all the time — the Tory journalist 
 when he asserted that bread was actually dearer at times in 
 American than in English cities, because he had seen a New 
 York shilling loaf which was not larger than a London ten- 
 penny one, perfectly understood, the relative value of the New 
 York and English shillings. But in many cases no such expla- 
 nation was admissible. The Liberals whom I met did not seem 
 very much better acquainted with us than the Tories, but they 
 were more anxious for information and better disposed towards 
 us. The general bearing of such Tories, and that not merely 
 young men or Dons at Cambridge, but Londoners, was very civil 
 to me personally, but mingled with a sort of implied pity for 
 my belonging to a country where a gentleman was out of place, 
 could not get his deserts, and must necessarily be xaxo'vou? rw 
 ^>),aoj. For with the English Tory I found it a fixed idea that 
 all our " Upper Ten" are bullied and plundered by the mob, 
 just as it is with the American Radical that all the mass of the 
 English people are miserable serfs, and all the landed aristo- 
 cracy bloated tyrants. With men of this sort I took a very 
 summary course, neither more nor less than the ordinary Ame- 
 rican dodge of stoutly asserting and imperturbably maintaining 
 our national superiority in morals and intelligence. Take the 
 following as a specimen. B. at the Dean's table, enjoying the 
 beneficial provender thereon. Enter (rather late) Straff'ord 
 Pope, a young aristocrat with £30,000 a-year, and a large 
 assortment of the most antediluvian politics. P. has heard 
 that B. is an American, and takes a seat alongside him half 
 intentionally ; B. knows P. by reputation as one of the few 
 reading Fellow-Commoners. They strike up a conversation in 
 the pauses of the dinner ; by and by the discourse takes a poli- 
 tical turn. 
 
 P. A republic may be very well when we can make all men 
 angels, but till then it can't answer. 
 
 B. Why, we make one answer very Avell, though our men 
 don't pretend to be angels, and only some of our women.
 
 30 FIVE YKARS IN AN 
 
 P. Answer very well ! You liave no law — or, at least, no 
 means of enforcincj the law, you know. [An Englishman 
 always appends " you know" to the very thing- you douH know, 
 and wont admit.] 
 
 B. Oh, that's altogether a mistake on your part. I can see 
 how it arises very naturally. You look around on your own 
 lower orders and think how unfit they Avould be for political 
 power ; and so they are now, no doubt. But wait till virtue 
 and intelligence are dilTused among your ])eople as generally as 
 they are among ours, and then you will be ripe for a republic, 
 and will have it too. 
 
 Whether I believed in this magnificent formula of our supe- 
 riority in virtue and intelligence to the rest of the world or not, 
 it answered its purpose at the time completely, utterly putting 
 down the Englishman, who was so upset with indignation at 
 my quiet assumption that he could not deliver himself of an 
 articulate reply. 
 
 Some of the Fast men among the Fellow-Commoners and 
 tlieir toadies, whose love of deviltry was much greater than 
 their wit, as soon as they heard of my nationality, determined 
 to have some fun out of me, and accordingly invited me to 
 various entertainments with the laudable intention of making 
 me drunk and otherwise putting me through my paces. But 
 these fellows gave me very little trouble ; I may say it without 
 vanity, for getting the better of them in anything which 
 required the smallest exertion of voC^ was like being first in a 
 donkey-race. In all repartees and wordy warfare I gave them 
 quite as much as they could manage. As to the fluids, I had 
 the fortunate or unfortunate natural gift, not unimproved by 
 practice, of a rather strong head, and could imbibe a pretty good 
 share, even of the villanously doctored Cambridge wines, with- 
 out disturbing my bodily or mental equilibrium ; so that the 
 men who had jjromised themselves the treat of seeing a 
 drunken Yankee, only made themselves very comfortably tipsy 
 in their attempts to intoxicate me, especially as I was too 
 prudent to rely entirely on my natural capacities without hav- 
 ing recourse to an occasional artifice. On one special occa-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 31 
 
 sion, I recollect there was a dead set made at me, almost every 
 one present out of fourteen diners challenged me to drink 
 repeatedly. I stuck to the Hock — or, more critically speaking, 
 to something in a green bottle — the bottle and glass were 
 colored, that was the main point ; the colored glass enabled 
 me to fill and empty, in appearance, many times, while in 
 reality I only poured out and tasted a few drops ; the result of 
 which stratagem was that two or three of the party put them- 
 selves completely hors du combat, and were deeply impressed 
 with a sense of my capacity. 
 
 Never but once did I even come near getting into any diffi- 
 culty on account of my country. One night after a dinner 
 party, a Fellow-Commoner of older standing, who was leaving at 
 the same time, carried me off to " show me another set." This 
 other set consisted chiefly of the Beef-steak Club, some six or 
 eight men who used to dine together once a week for the pur- 
 pose of consuming incredible quantities of an extraordinary 
 liquor called Cambridge port, and having performed their usual 
 duties, were then in what the Irish call a very high state of 
 civilization. Among their guests was, to my horror and dis- 
 gust, a Fellow of the college, just about to take orders. Before 
 I could find a decent pretext for evaporating, one of the most 
 " civilized" undertook to banter me on my non-appearance in 
 the classic regions of Barnwell. It is not very difficult to quiz 
 a drunken man, and I showed this one up so completely before 
 his friends, that he became quite furious, and proceeded to make 
 some very personal remarks upon " Yankees," which provoked 
 me to give him a rather dogmatic extempore lecture on the 
 requisites of a gentleman and the duties of hospitality and 
 courtesy. He of the Beefsteak, comprehending dimly what 1 
 said, and being at a loss for words, made, by way of answer, a 
 belligerent demonstration, to which, in self-defence, I was com- 
 pelled to make signs of responding. But before hostilities were 
 actually interchanged, several men seized hold of each of us, 
 and the scene which ensued was sufficiently ludicrous. I had 
 from the first been more amused at than angry with the ob- 
 streperous individual, and had not the slightest idea of fighting-
 
 32 IIVK YKARS IN AN 
 
 him unless lie actually struck nie, besides 1 was perfectly sober, 
 which could not be said of any other person in the room except 
 the old stager who brought me, so that I could observe quite 
 coolly what was going on. One very well disposed and very 
 tipsy man, who was great upon boats but very slow at books, 
 endeavored to pacify me by relating the results of his own ex- 
 perience with moral deductions, but in four several attempts 
 could get no farther than to inform me that he had been " f-five 
 years in this u-university." Another, who evidently gave me 
 credit for the most belligerent propensities, was expounding to 
 me the laws of the University, which forbade duelling under 
 penalty of expulsion for all concerned, and insisting that there- 
 fore it was impossible to call a man out, &c. Meanwhile the 
 other party was surrounded by his group of friends, who at 
 length succeeded in persuading him. that he had been guilty of 
 a great breach of decorum, so that in the end he began apolo- 
 gizing to me, and continued his excuses till they were almost as 
 great a bore as the original offence. This incident did not fail 
 to be repeated, and partly from the muddled condition of those 
 who witnessed and assisted at it, partly from the inaccuracy of 
 gossip, from which even Englishmen are not entirely exempt, 
 it was repeated with various exaggerations, and finally settled 
 into the form that I had drawn a knife on the asperser of my 
 countrymen, and threatened him Avith instant annihilation. 
 
 Some trifling New York accomplishments, from which no 
 one in ray position could have expected much a priori, now 
 came into play, and tended to give me consequence. It may 
 seem ridiculous that a knowledge of particular meats and drinks, 
 or the possession of "a stock of well-cut trousers, should have 
 any effect on a man's position in a community professedly lite- 
 rary ; but it was these trifles more than anything else that 
 tended to raise the opinioji which the younger portion of my 
 new associates formed of me, and through me of the country. 
 
 One of the first things which surprises a young man from 
 our Atlantic cities on visiting England, is the inferiority of the 
 English in certain refinements of civilization, in which he was 
 prepared to find them infinitely superior. It is with no small
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 33 
 
 astonishment tliat the New Yorker, or Philadelphian, or Bos- 
 toniau finds it ahiiost impossible to get clothes made to fit in 
 England. ; nor, while doing justice to the mutton and ale of the 
 country, is he less disappointed to find that there is no variety 
 — the eternal steak, chops and potatoes, and big joints every- 
 where ; and that the national taste in wine is of the most bar- 
 barous description, most of the fluid consumed under that honor- 
 able appellation being half brandy. Moreover, having usually 
 mixed more with Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Germans, and 
 speaking what he knows of their languages more fluently than 
 the Englishman of the same age, he has a decided advantage 
 when any native of the Continent happens to be present, or 
 when Continental matters are under discussion. After recover- 
 ing from the first surprise of these facts, I cherished them as 
 great facts, which enabled me to show my superiority to the 
 " benighted British" when they least expected it ; and more 
 than one youth who thought to astonish the American savage 
 by a display of the mysteries of civilization, was rather astonished 
 in his turn at my summary condemnation of English tailors 
 and cooks, and my ostentatious learning in French wines and 
 dishes. It may be supposed that the Fellows Avere not moved 
 by any vanities of habiliment, but their epicurean and convivial 
 tendencies led them to respect any hints in the matter of edi- 
 bles and potables. A more intellectual way of becoming known 
 was in the University debating society. I had, more by prac- 
 . tice than natural ability or inclination, acquired that knack of 
 speech-making which about every third graduate of an Ameri- 
 can college possesses, and accordingly, at the first meeting of 
 the Union after our admission, extemporized an argument on 
 the Chinese war. In this way, however, it was not possible to 
 gain much renown, the debating society being a very third-rate 
 afiair : mere oratory is about as much valued with the English 
 as mere scholarship is with us. But in the legitimate business 
 of the place I was not without resources. In accordance with 
 the impulse first given by Newton, strengthened by other great 
 scientific names, and only partially counteracted by such 
 scholars as Bentley and Porson, Mathematics are made a neces- 
 
 2*-
 
 34 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 sary foumhitiou for everything p.t Cambridge ; and the only 
 road to Classical honors and their accompanying emoluments 
 in the University, and virtually in all the Colleges, except 
 Trinity, is through Mathematical, all candidates for the Classical 
 Tripos being obliged as a preliminary to obtain a place in that 
 Mathematical list which is headed by the Senior Wrangler and 
 tailed by tlie Wooden Spoon.* This preliminary passing in 
 science being a terrible bore to the Classical men, and failure in 
 it sometimes shipwrecking them for life, they consider them- 
 selves, and claim to be considered by others, victims and mar- 
 tyrs. Now I hated Mathematics as cordially as any Cantab of 
 my contemporaries, and with more experience, if not more 
 knowledge of the subject, while I really was fond of Classics ; 
 so as naturally to fall into the ranks of the aggrieved and com- 
 plaining minority (there are about three Mathematical students 
 for one Classical), and this helped to give me a position among 
 those with whom I sympathized. In composition and cram I 
 was yet untried, and the translations in lecture-room were not 
 difficult to acquit one's-selfon respectably. Finally, whatever I 
 did, derived, additional lustre from the blue and silver gown, 
 the Fellow-Commoners generally being more disposed to row- 
 ing than reading, and not particularly distinguished in any 
 Avay for their intellectual performances. Indeed, they are popu- 
 larly denominated " empty bottles," the first word, of the ap- 
 pellation being an adjective, though were it taken as a verb 
 there would be no untruth in it. 
 
 And now, what impression did my new associates make 
 upon me ? With those of my own standing, and nearly my 
 own age, I was much disappointed and somewhat disgusted. 
 These youths of eighteen or nineteen seem precocious enough 
 in vice, but the veriest schoolboys in everything else — making 
 a noise and throwing about pens and paper in the lecture-room, 
 waxing uproarious at night over the worst liquors, working- 
 like schoolboys when they did work, translating with awkward 
 
 * See the chapter on Recent Changes for an alteration in this re- 
 spect.
 
 ENGLISH uxiVERsrrv. 35 
 
 literalness, and shifting most of the burden on the Lecturer 
 when it came to Mathematics. In everything but physical 
 development and vicious tendency they seemed years behind 
 American students considerably their juniors, except that 
 some — and only some of them — executed beautiful Latin 
 verses with great facility. 
 
 In some respects, my generalization was very imperfect and 
 incorrect. It had been my mishap, partly from my position as 
 Fellow-Commoner, partly from local accidents, to fall among a 
 bad set of Under-graduates. Had I, in the situation of my 
 rooms, or of ray seat at lectures, lighted among some of the 
 best Eton, or Eugby, or Shrewsbury men, my first impressions 
 would have been considerably modified. But in one important 
 point they were correct. The English student of eighteen is 
 more a boy than the American of the same age, in manners, 
 in self-possession, in world-knowledge, in general knowledge of 
 literature even. How far this precocity on our part is an 
 advantage, is a question of which we shall have more to say 
 hereafter. At that time, deeming it an unmixed benefit, I Avas 
 not a little proud of it, individually and nationally. 
 
 But while not particularly pleased with those of my own 
 immediate standing, I took great delight in the society of 
 another class — the Bachelor Scholars. These men, averaging 
 about twenty-three years of age, the best Classics and Mathe- 
 maticians of their years, were reading for Fellowships — that is, 
 they were putting themselves through the best existing course 
 of intellectual training and polish. Most of them well ground- 
 ed in the grammar, and copiously learned in the vocabularies 
 of the Ancient tongues, so that they read Latin and Greek 
 more readily than one usually does French, were now working- 
 over their Classics to the utmost pitch of accuracy, branching 
 them out into philological discussions, enriching them with 
 historic lore, and illustrating them from the literature of other 
 languages. Some were carrying up the results of their mathe- 
 matical drilling to the highest walks of pure science ; and all 
 were imbuing themselves with the sufficiently wide course of 
 reading included within the limits of the metaphysical, or, as it 
 
 V
 
 36 FIVE VEARS IN AN 
 
 is also and more correctly called, the (joxcral paper — a course 
 which embraces Logic, Political Economy, Historical and Tran- 
 scendentai Metaphysics, and Ethics. Unsuccessful candidates, and 
 others who wanted to laugh at the papers, used to call them 
 examinalioiis on WheweWs books ; which, had it been strictly 
 true, was saying a good deal for them, since the Professor of 
 Casuistry has written no small quantity about various subjects. 
 The classical sympathies and mental symmetry of these men 
 could be fully perceived only by a student like themselves, but 
 any person not grossly illiterate must have been struck by their 
 acquaintance with the literature of their own tongue — not the 
 ephemeral and superlicial part of it, but the classics of the 
 language. For their relaxation, instead of cheap novels, 
 political diatribes, or newspaper scandals, they read the old 
 Dramatists, and the standard Essayists- of bye-gone days. 
 They formed Shakspeare clubs, to read and study the Dra- 
 matist — not exactly like those " Shakspearian Readings," in 
 which the actor or actress is the chief attraction. The criticism 
 displayed in their conversation was much superior to the 
 majority of what is lauded when read in print ; and when 
 they talked, it was not declamation, or pamphleteering, or 
 sophistical exhibition, aiming only to gain the victory and 
 produce an effect on the listeners, but a candid communication 
 of knowledge and opinion, and a search after truth. The 
 regular and hearty exercise they took every day, maintaining 
 their bodies in vigorous health, kept their minds elastic, and at 
 the same time drove out all moroseness and peevishness, render- 
 ing them eminently genial. And, while generally in moderate 
 circumstances, and living on (for England) a very moderate 
 income, they had a taste for some of the enjoyments of art, 
 which they gratified in their temperate, honest way. Without 
 the means of luxury, they preserved a gentlemanly sestheticism. 
 Their dress was simple, not to say economical, but its cleanli- 
 ness and freedom from pretension dispelled any disposition to 
 criticise it. They could not afford valuable paintings, but 
 their rooms were hung with choice engravings, the accumula- 
 tions of their undergraduate years, a few pounds' worth at a
 
 KNGLISII UNIVERSITY. .'?7 
 
 time. They lived habitually on plain and substantial proven- 
 der, but on festive days, when an old friend turned up unex- 
 pectedly, or an examination resulted triumphantly, or on any 
 other occasion that provoked revelry, they enjoyed a recherchd 
 dinner, and a bottle or two of good wine as much as the most 
 scientific epicure. They had not the command of an opera, or 
 indeed any place of public amusement, and for a great part of 
 the year were confined to the somewhat monotonous country 
 about Cambridge, but for a month or six weeks in the " Long" 
 they rambled otl" to see the sights of Paris, or the galleries of 
 Belgium, or the natural beauties of the Ehine and SAvitzerland, 
 and came back far more delighted with their brief expedition 
 than can be conceived by those who make it their business to 
 worry from place to place in pursuit of diversion and excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The great change and improvement effected by a few years 
 of collegiate life was to me one of the first problems connected 
 with the English Universities. Home experience had not led 
 me to expect such a start between the ages of twenty-two and 
 twenty-five. My own pursuit of classical study had been 
 founded more on predilection for it than on a very strong 
 conviction of its general utility ; but now I began to consider 
 whether there might not be in it more of this practical quality 
 than I had ever yet given it credit for. 
 
 As to the Fellows, some of the younger men displayed 
 much the same characteristics with the Bachelors ; others of 
 the older stock seemed to have grown somewhat rusty in their 
 retirement ; which led me to suspect what indeed is a common 
 opinion among the Fellows themselves, that the University is 
 an excellent place for the regular seven years, or perhaps a few 
 more, but after that time it is better for a man to leave it, 
 unless he is strictly devoted to some purely scientific pursuit. 
 And in this lies the value of the Trinity Fellowships, that being 
 tenable (in the case of laymen) for seven years more (not 
 involving residence) they aftbrd a young man support until he 
 can get fairly started in his profession, while the three years he 
 has spent in reading for the Fellowship, themselves directly
 
 38 FIVK YEARS IN AN 
 
 contribute to liis getting tlie start by tlic regular and powerful 
 mental training they put him through. But unfortunately 
 many not otherwise so inelinoJ are tempted into orders to keep 
 their Fellowships.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 39 
 
 FREgHMAN TEMPTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES. TORYISM OF 
 
 THE YOUNG MEN, AND IDEAS SUGGESTED BY IT. 
 
 Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis 
 Pugnare Thracum est. 
 
 Horace. 
 
 English boys remain at school until the term hoy is hardly 
 applicable to them (according to our notions, at least), and 
 the academy-prospectus designation of "young gentlemen" 
 becomes more appropriate ; that is to say till eighteen or 
 nineteen years of age. It is impossible that for youths of that 
 stature (and they grow faster in England than in our Northern 
 States) the school discipline should not be relaxed a little from 
 its extreme strictness ; still even for them it is pretty severe. 
 From this state of close restraint they are suddenly thrown into 
 a condition of almost entire freedom, in which they can go 
 where they like, order what they please, and do almost anything 
 they please, only about two hours and a half of their daily time 
 being demanded by the college authorities, and from midnight till 
 seven in the morning the only period when they must be in their 
 rooms or lodging-houses. Tradesmen of all sorts give them un- 
 limited tick ; they can fill their wardrobes with clothes and their 
 cellars with wines ; they may gi'atify the " small vice" of smok- 
 ing, and any greater vices they are so unfortunate as to have, 
 provided they do not openly outrage public decorum. 
 
 Having had a little more worldly experience than most 
 Cambridge Freshmen, and being moreover fortified by a some- 
 what more refined taste (occasionally a valuable auxiliary to a 
 man's principles) I kept clear without difficulty of all such 
 boyish excesses. But there were seductions and dangers in the 
 life I was leading, all the more perilous for not being appre- 
 ciated by myself or others, and Avhile passing for a terribly
 
 -s 
 
 40 KIVK VKAKS IN AN 
 
 hard reading man, and a *' Sim"" of the straitest kind with the 
 " empty bottles," and enjoying a very exemplary character with 
 most of the Dons, I was fast lapsing into a state of literary 
 sensualism. The life about me was in many respects my ideal 
 of worldly enjoyment. The studies wliich I preferred in just 
 sufficient quantity to amuse and excite without fatiguing me, 
 abundance of good cheer for the body, pleasant literary com- 
 panions, some reputation for talent obtained by very little exer- 
 tion, and a ]-eputation for goodness obtained by no exertion — 
 everything combined to put me on good terms with myself. I 
 became lazy, and addicted to sleeping over morning chapels, and 
 consuming much claret after dinner ; I also wasted many hours 
 at billiards, indulging myself in this fascinating game as a 
 compensation for having denied myself a horse on economical 
 grounds. AVhen a young man becomes fairly engaged at bil- 
 hards, he seldom does anything else very regularly. 
 
 The life of a Freshman, after he has become fairly settled in his 
 quarters, is not a very diversified one. The chief incidents of 
 a University man's life are his examinations, and of these the 
 Freshman has none worth mentioning until the end of his 
 third term (unless he be a clergyman's son, and thereby enti- 
 tled to go in for the Bell scholarship). One or two matters 
 occurred during my first winter, that were of interest as giving 
 me an insight into the political feeling of the University. 
 Towards the end of our first term there was an election for 
 High Steward, the officer who represents the University in the 
 House of Lords. Lord Lyndhurst was the Tory candidate ; 
 his abilities and reputation, and the conservative majority 
 among the members of the University, afforded little prospect 
 of any successful opposition being oftered to him. It hap- 
 pened, however, that a few years before, a young Whig noble- 
 man (Lord Lyttleton) had come out head of the Classical 
 Tripos, and being, though a Whig, a strong High-Churchman, 
 and of unimpeachable character, it was thought that the High 
 
 * 7. e., Simeonite, a nickname given by rowing men to Evangelicals, 
 and to all religions men, or even qniet men generally.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSnV. 41 
 
 Church, Whig, and moral interests together miglit enaLle him 
 to beat Lyndhiirst. But the Tories stood by their man — Higlt 
 Church, Low Churtib, or no church, moral or no moral — 'and 
 elected him by a vote of all but two to one. The voters 
 ill these elections are all the M. A.'s who keep (Iiclr names on 
 the Boards (of their respective colleges) by paying an annual 
 sum. While the voting went on in the body of the Senate 
 House, the galleries were filled with undorgi'aduates, who gave 
 cheers and groans for a great many things and people, and 
 hissed unmercifully the prominent voters for Lyttleton. About 
 this time I first had full personal experience of the iincharita- 
 bleness shown by these youthful Tories tov>'ards their liberal 
 countrymen. Many of them, who seemed to have taken up 
 the Romish idea that a blind devotion to their church esta- 
 blishment would atone for any irregularity in their lives, looked 
 upon a Liberal as no better than a Dissenter, and a Dissenter 
 as only one step above an Atheist. A professed Radical Avas 
 regarded as a strange monster, always to be suspected. 
 Though not generally prone to gossip, they could not help 
 inventing and repeating absurd calumnies about him. It was 
 told me of a man whom I knew slightly, that he had once 
 said, when the subject of Church extension was under discus- 
 sion, " he would as soon subscribe for a brothel in every parish 
 as a church." I very much doubted his even having uttered 
 so atrocious a sentiment, and was not surprised to learn acci- 
 dentally, some time after, that this was a standing bit of scan- 
 dal which had been attributed to all the presidents of the 
 Liberal club successively for many years. 
 
 I could not help contrasting the Jacobitism (Toryism is not 
 a strong enough term for it) then prevalent among the stu- 
 dents, not only with the political character of the University in 
 other days, but with the general republican tendencies of 
 young men of fashion under the Tory 2)remicr, William Pitt. 
 I was also led to compare it with the strong conservative spirit 
 of our own collegians, and the Democratic longings of the 
 German students ; and was led to the somewhat hasty gene- 
 ralization that the majority of highly educated young men
 
 42 FIVK YEARS IN AN 
 
 under any government are opposed to the spirit in whicli 
 that government is administered. Hasty and imperfect as 
 the conclusion is, it certainly does hold ^|ood of many coun- 
 tries, and is a fact worthy consideration. I'erhaps we may 
 thus account for the phenomenon. Barbarous and ignorant 
 nations magnify themselves and their country above all the 
 rest of the world, and regard foreigners with contempt or aver- 
 sion. So do, though in a less j^egree, the ignorant classes of 
 all counti'ics. The first ofi'ect of education is to open a man's 
 eyes, and let him see his nakedness. lie sees the defects in 
 the government of his country ; lie exaggerates them with the 
 ardor of youth, and takes that side which promises to remedy 
 them, without reflecting at what cost the remedy may have to be 
 purchased. Be the reason of the thing what it may, 1 am not 
 disposed to view the thing itself as altogether worthy of 
 lamentation ; nor whatever harm it may sometimes do the 
 individual, do I regard it as mischievous to the community, but 
 rather the contrary. The position has been well maintained by 
 at least two able philosophical writers of the present day,* that 
 complete consistency is not to be desired in a state ; that for 
 the sake of counteracting the inherent evils of every form of 
 government the j^restir/e is often in fevor of arrangements 
 which do 7iot follow from the general principle of the govern- 
 ment. And it is clear that such counterbalancing measures 
 will never be proposed by those who carry out to extremes the 
 fundamental principles of the govej-nment, whether democratic 
 or aristocratic. The existence of a minority holding certain 
 opinions may be very desirable, when the conversion of that 
 minority into a majority would be a thing especially to be 
 deprecated. Nor does it even follow that such a minority will 
 carry out their ideas so seriously as to aim at a radical change 
 in the government. The founders and supporters of the Edin- 
 burgh Review were theoretical admirers of a republic, but 
 when the English Whigs get into ofHce they do not endeavor 
 to subvert the monarchy. 
 
 * Mill ap7td Lewis, Influence ofA^itkoriii/ in Matters of Opinion, p. 23*7
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 43 
 
 To return from this digression, tlie next thing that particu- 
 larly struck me was what may be called to an outside observer 
 or non-studious resident the great feature of English University 
 life — the boat races, which begin towards the close of the 
 second term, and continue all through the third. Boating is 
 the University amusement par excellence. The expense of it is 
 small, and the Cam so convenient — just behind the Colleges. 
 At all times of the year you may see solitary men in wherries, 
 taking their shilling's or two shillings' worth of sculling up 
 and down ; while the boat-clubs for the formal Spring races are 
 a convenient outlet for College emulation, the top of the river 
 being an honor contended for nearly as strenuously as the 
 Senior Wranglership or the head of the Classical Tripos — and 
 not always by a very different set of persons. Will the reader 
 accompany me to my first race, and see it just as I saw it?
 
 44 FIVIC VKARS IX AN 
 
 THE BOAT UACE. 
 
 "Row, brothera, row!" — Lady of the Lake. 
 "Go it, ye cripples!"— IL Walker, Esq. 
 
 " Dear B. — To-day the first race of the season conies off. 
 Be at my room not later than two, and I will show you the 
 way. D. I. II." 
 
 Such were the contents of a curiously twisted note which 
 I found upon my breakfast table one morning on returning 
 fiom lectures. The writer was a Bachelor Fellow of Trinity, 
 Avho knew more about America and Americans than any other 
 Cantab then resident, l^oor fellow ! lie had rather too much 
 intercourse with us for his own profit : when the U. S. Bank 
 blew up, " Danny IT" was in for some £1000, or it may have 
 been more — he never would own how much. 
 
 But I am digressing. There was not much time to lose, for 
 it wanted but a quarter of two, and " Dunny" was a punctual 
 man. So, arming myself with an umbrella (it has a habit of 
 raining at least once a day in England), I sallied forth to 
 witness for tlie first time that exciting spectacle, a University 
 boat-race. 
 
 There is one great jioint where the English have the advan- 
 tage over us : they understand how to take care of their health. 
 Not that the Cantabs are either " tee-totallers" or " Graham- 
 ites." There is indeed a tradition that a "total-abstinence" 
 society was once established in Cambridge, and that in three 
 
 * This chapter was originally published as an article in the Yale 
 Literary Magazine, during the year 1841. In 1841, it was republished 
 in a city magazine ; on which occasion, one of our wise newspaper 
 critics discovered that it was copied from an article in Blackwood, 
 written about two years after mine was in print.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 45 
 
 years it increased to two members ; whether it be still in exist- 
 ence, liowever, I have not been able to learn. Bnt every 
 Cantab takes his two hours' exercise ^5e?- c/zem, by walking, 
 riding, rowing, fencing, gymnastics, &c. How many colleges 
 are there here where the students average one hour a day real 
 exercise ? Our Columbia boys roll ten-pins and play billiards, 
 which is better than nothing, but very inferior to out-door 
 amusements. In New England (at least it was so ten years 
 ago at Yale), the last thing thought of is exercise — even the 
 mild walks which are dignified with the name of exercise there, 
 how unlike the Cantab's constitutional of eight miles in less 
 than two hours ! If there is a fifteen days' prayer-meeting, or 
 a thousand-and-first new debating-society, or a lecture on some 
 specialite which may be of use to half-a-dozen out of the 
 hundred or two who attend it, over goes the exercise at once. 
 And the consequence is — what ? There is not a finer-looking 
 set of young men in the world than the Cantabs, and as to 
 their health — why, one hundred and thirty Freshmen enter at 
 Trinity every year, and it is no unfrequent occurrence that, 
 whatever loss they sustain from other causes (accidents will 
 happen in the best regulated colleges), death takes away none 
 of them during the three years and a half which comprise their 
 undergraduate course. Whose memory can match this at 
 Yale ? If our youngsters exercised their legs and arms just 
 four times as much as they do, and their tongues ten times as 
 little, it would be the better for them every way. But I am 
 not now reading a lecture on dietetics, so let us come back to 
 the shores of the Cam. 
 
 Classic Camus being a very narrow stream, scarcely wider 
 than a canal, it is impossible for the boats to race side by side. 
 The following expedient has therefore been adopted : they are 
 drawn up in a line, two lengths between each, and the contest 
 consists in each boat endeavoring to touch with its bow the 
 stern of the one before it, which operation is called humjnng ; 
 and at the next race the bumper takes the place of the humped. 
 
 The distance rowed is about one mile and three quarters. 
 To be " head of the river" is a distinction much coveted and
 
 4G FIVE VKARS IN AX 
 
 liard fought for. Each college has at least one boat club ; in 
 Trinity there are three, with three or four crews in each. 
 About nine races take place in the season ; they are of great 
 use in preparing the men for the annual match with Oxford, iu 
 which the Cantabs are generally victorious.* Indeed, they are 
 the best smootli-water oars in England, if not in the world. 
 
 The Caiusf boat at this time was head of tlie river, the First 
 Trinity second, the Third Trinity the third. Some hard pull- 
 ing was expected among the leading boats. The Third Trinity 
 Avere confident of bumping the first. 
 
 While you have been reading the above, you may suppose 
 
 H and myself viewing the scene of action, distant about 
 
 two miles from the town. The time of starting is at hand, and 
 gownsmen [not in their gowns) are hurrying by us on all sides, 
 some mounted, but the greater part on foot ; some following 
 the beaten track, others taking a shorter cut over fields and 
 fences. Ilere comes a sporting character, riding his own 
 " hanimal." See with Avhat a knowing look man and horse 
 approach the fence. Ilip 1 he is over, and six inches to spare. 
 Ah ! here is another, who, though not very well mounted, must 
 needs show his dexterity at the same place. Not quite, 
 stranger 1 The horse has his fore feet clean over, but it by no 
 means follows that he will do the same with the hind ones. 
 Crack ! he has hit the top bar and carried it off" several yards. 
 Not so bad after all. He might not do it again so neatly. 
 
 Bang ! there goes the first gun ! In three minutes there will 
 be another, in two more a third, and then for it ! What are 
 those men laughing at ? Ah ! I see ; no wonder. An ambi- 
 tious character on a sorry hack has driven his Rozinante at a 
 ditch. No you don't, mister ! The horse, wiser than his rider, 
 refuses the leap, with a sagacious shake of the head. He is 
 hauled back for a fresh start, and the whip applied abundantly. 
 
 ■^ But once the Oxonians beat our eight oars with seven, which is 
 rightly judged equal to half-a-dozen ordinary defeats. 
 
 •f- Familiarly pronounced Keys. There is an old joke about a man 
 named Bunch haying belonged, to tliis college, and being called accord- 
 ingly, " Bunch of Keys."
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 47 
 
 Same result as before. The tittering of the passers-by reaches 
 our hero's ears : he waxes wrathful, and discharges on the 
 reluctant steed a perfect hurricane of blows ! 
 
 Spla-ash ! with the utmost composure imaginable the old horse 
 has stepped into the ditch, say three feet deep, casting his rider 
 headlong by the abrupt descent. Serves you right, my friend. 
 We can't stop to see what becomes of you, for there goes the 
 second gun, and we must make haste to secure a good place. 
 Well, here we are, at the upper end of " the Long Reach." 
 We can just spy the head of the first boat below yonder 
 corner. As the hardest pulling always begins here we shall 
 have a good view of it. Ha ! do you see that pull ? The 
 eight stalwart Caius men bent to their oars the moment 
 the last gun flashed, and its report reaches our ears as 
 they are stooping to the second stroke. Here they come at a 
 rapid rate, and with them the whole cortege of horse and foot, 
 running along the bank and cheering the boats. Take care of 
 yourself! A young colt, frightened by the uproar, is exhibiting 
 some very decided capers, to the manifest discomposure of 
 those around him, and finishes by jumping into the river, for- 
 tunately not near enough to the boats to disturb them. His 
 rider maintains his seat throughout, and they emerge some- 
 what wet, but otherwise apparently uninjured. And whether 
 they were or not, no one cared, for the leading boats Avere now 
 rounding the upper corner of the Reach. On they come at a 
 good rate, the Caius men taking it quite easy, and pulling 
 leisurely, as much as to say, " what's the use of hurrying our- 
 selves for them P Indeed the First Trinity had lost half a 
 length, and were therefore in some danger themselves. 
 
 Caius passed me, for I was far from a good runner, so did 
 the two Trinity boats and " Maudlin " (Magdalen), when sud- 
 denly there uprose a mighty shout, " Trinity ! Trinity ! Go it, 
 Trinity ! " and there was First Trinity shooting forward with a 
 magical impulse, away, away from the threatening Third 
 Trinity, and up, up, up to the head boat. The poor Caius 
 crew looked like men in a nightmare : they pulled without 
 making any headway, while the others kept fast overhaul-
 
 48 FIVE YEARS IN" AN 
 
 iiig tliem at every stroke. The partisans of the respective 
 boats filled the air with their shouts. " Now Keys !" " Now 
 Trinity !" " Why don't you pull, Keys ?" " Now you have 'em, 
 Trinity !" " Keys !" " Ti-inity ! Trinity !" " Now's yonr chance, 
 Keys !" "Save yourself, Keys !" And it did really appear as 
 if the Cains men would save themselves, for, with a sudden, 
 mighty effort, they made a great addition to their boat's 
 velocity in a very short time. I began to fear they had been 
 " playing 'possum " all the while, and could walk away from 
 us after all. 
 
 The uproar and confusion of the scene were now at their 
 height. Men and horses ran promiscuously along the banks, 
 occasionally interfering with each other. A dozen persons 
 might have been trampled under foot, or sent into the Cam, and 
 no one would have stopped to render them as^istance. The 
 cockswain of the Caius boat looked the very personification of 
 excitement ; he bent over at every pull till his nose almost 
 touched the stroke's arm, cheering his men meantime at the 
 top of his voice. The shouts rose louder and louder. " Pull, 
 Trinity !" " Pull, Keys !" " Go it. Trinity !" " Keep on. Keys !" 
 " Pull, stroke !" " Now, No. 3 !" " Lay out, Greenwell !"— for 
 the friends of the different rowers began to appeal to them 
 individually. " That's it. Trinity !" "Where are you. Keys ?" 
 " Hurrah, Trinity !" inity ! ! inity ! ! !" and the outcries of 
 the Trinitarians waxed more and more boisterous and trium- 
 phant, as our men, with their long slashing strokes, urged 
 their boat closer and closer upon the enemy. 
 
 Not more than half a foot now intervened between the bow 
 of the pursuer and the stern of the pursued, still the Caius crew 
 pulled with all their might. They were determined to die 
 game at least, or perhaps they still entertained some hope of 
 making their escape. Boats have occasionally run a mile 
 almost touching. But there is no more chance for them. One 
 tremendous pull from the First Trinity, and half that distance 
 has disappeared. They all but touch. Another sucli stroke, 
 and you are aboard of them. Hurrah ! a bump ! a bump ! 
 
 Not so ! The Caius' steersman is on tlic look-out and with
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 49 
 
 .1 skilful inclination of the rudder lie lias made liis boat fall 
 off — ^just the least bit in the world — but enough to prevent 
 their contact. The First Trinity overlapped, but did not 
 touch. 
 
 Exulting shouts from the shore hailed the success of the 
 dexterous evasion. Enraged at being thus baffled, the pursu- 
 ers threw all their strength into a couple of strokes. The Cains 
 men, knowing that this was their last chance, were doing their 
 best to get a^vay, but the other boat was upon them in a 
 moment. Again the skill of the coxswain was brought into 
 play, and again the pursuing boat overlapped without touching. 
 But it was now clear that they were only delaying their fate, 
 not averting it, for the Trinity men, going four feet for their 
 three, were running them into the further bank in a way that 
 left no room for change of course. " Hurrah for Trinity !" 
 shouted I, in the fulness of my exultation, and at that moment 
 a horse walked against me and nearly threw me off the bank. 
 
 When I regained my feet, it was all over. Both boats had 
 hauled off on one side, and ours had hoisted her flag. Trinity 
 was the head of the river once more, and great was the joy of 
 her inmates. 
 
 Alas for human expectations 1 When the season ended, 
 Caius was first and the First Trinity — No. 4.
 
 50 FIVE YKAKS IN AK 
 
 A TKINITY SUPPEU PARTY. 
 
 " Qui plenos Imusit cyallios madidusque quiescit, 
 lUe bonam degit vitam moriturque facetus." 
 
 ICiNOTUS aUIDAM. 
 
 The social entertainments of a community are ahvays an 
 object of interest to the stranger, and many things may be 
 learned from them. It certainly gave me a new idea or two 
 when, on the Commemoration Da}'^ in November, I attended 
 a Supper of the Dons in Combination Room (an apartment 
 over the liall, devoted to the suppers and desserts of those in 
 authority), after which meal, we, that is such of the Fellow- 
 Commoners as preferred grave society, sat with these college 
 dignitaries round the fire playing whist for shilling points, 
 and drinking bishop (mulled port), and a very enticing inixture 
 appropriately called silky, the component parts of which, so 
 far as I could judge from internal evidence, appeared to be 
 made of rum and madeira. 
 
 Of ordinary Undergraduate wine-parties there is no need to 
 say much. Thackeray has summed them up according to 
 their deserts : " thirty lads round a table covered with bad 
 sweetmeats, drinking bad wines, teUing bad stones, singing 
 bad songs over and over again." The younger Fellows, 
 Bacbelor Scholars, and some of the more knowing among 
 the older Undergraduates, understood the thing better ; had 
 good wine, with the simplest accompaniments, such as biscuits 
 and oranges ; and when they extemporized a supper, did it 
 with equal simplicity. At such regales, one met with the three 
 conditions of a perfect symj^osium : good dishes and wine, an 
 entire absence of display and pretension, and the genial con- 
 versation of clever men. Some exquisites may be disposed to 
 turn up their noses at people who never uscU claret jugs or
 
 KXGLISn Ci\IVEK?ITY. 51 
 
 siijrMi- ton^s,* but the richest plate and cliiiia seldom witness 
 the enjoyment which those primitive and yet dainty repasts 
 afforded. 
 
 Occasionally, when the C^vsto'i mix in with the ordinary rnn 
 of men, if their viands do not become less choice, their conver- 
 sation may ; and their fun at times verges on the fast and 
 furious, as the reader shall judge f(ir himself. 
 
 "Shady rather this composition: you never know where to 
 put vour av's. I think we ma]j get you a First though, by a 
 triumph of art, that is — How are you off for Mathematics ?" 
 
 " Very mild." 
 
 " Ever read Euclid ?" 
 
 "Rather. Say eight years ago. Can get that up in two 
 days." 
 
 " And Algebra ?" 
 
 " AVhen I was a boy, but never very brilliant in it." 
 
 "If you can get ten marks out of five hundred, it is better 
 than nothing. Better go to Dunny (Dunbar) first and see 
 what he can do with you. Don't try too mucli at once. I cut 
 the Algebra and Trigonometry papers dead my first year, and 
 came out seventh." 
 
 " Verremos. a-rirsov." 
 
 " Nay, stop the revolving axles of your feet a minute. 
 Have you anything to do after tea ? No ? then come uj) and 
 you'll find a few men at supper." 
 
 I went back to Letter E, New Court, read 80 lines of 
 Aristophanes, and did a few more bits of illustration, such as 
 noting down the relative resources of Athens and Sparta when 
 the Peloponnesian war broke out, and the soiu-ces of the 
 Athenian revenue (we had a book of Thucydides for one of 
 our subjects), all which occupied me till half past nine. 
 
 " There Avill be some quiet Bachelors there, I suppose," 
 
 * How the custom of taking sugar with tlie fingers should prevail 
 at the University and nowhere else in England, is somewhat singular, 
 especially as almost every man owns a sngar-tongs when lie comes up ; 
 but ^cli is the case.
 
 52 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 tliouolit I, " iind .1 Junior Fellow or two, some of those I have 
 met in combination," and so thinking, I substitutcil <i dress 
 coat and boots for the loose slippers and George-Sandish half 
 frock-coat, half dressing-gown, -which figured prominently in 
 my ordinary evening costume. It was about six steps across 
 New Court, and three to Travis's staircase in the cloisters. 
 lie kept in the third story, but long ere this ascent was com- 
 pleted the sound of voices and clatter of knives and forks gave 
 token that the grub was under discussion. The outer, or 
 " sporting" door was of course wide open : passing through an 
 interior one of green baize, I blundered up a narrow and 
 totally unilluminated passage, and rapped instinctively at where 
 the third door ought to be; then, scarcely waiting for the 
 emphatic " come in," plunged into the jovial assemblage. 
 Dead sell for the Nugee and patent leathers ! Abandon 
 reigned throughout. One man was in a blouse, another in his 
 shirt-sleeves, the amphitryon himself in a shooting-coat. There 
 were not a dozen of them, but they made noise enough for 
 thirty. As qv.ietly as possible I slipped into the chair reserved 
 for me at the host's right hand. 
 
 " Ah, B !" and Travis squeezed my hand with a solemn 
 
 and business-like aftection. '"Just in time. What Avill you 
 take ? Ducks — grilled fowls — lobster grating^ as our cook , 
 calls it — Lawson, here's a young gentleman will trouble you 
 for some duck. Try some champagne — not so good as you 
 get in America, I'm afraid ; we're waiting for free trade." 
 
 The duck and champagne went to their appropriate place, 
 and then, as every one was fully occupied, I had time to look 
 about me and study the company. At the head of the table 
 sits our Avorthy " coach," Tom Travis. His fine person is not 
 displayed to full advantage in a loose plaid shooting-coat, and 
 his very intellectual but decidedly ugly features are far from 
 being improved by a black wool smoking cap of surpassing 
 hideousness. Take him as he is, he is a rare fellow — with 
 American versatility and English thoroughness. lie knows 
 nearly a dozen ancient and modern languages, more or less 
 correctly, and when you bring him out on Greek be would
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 
 
 astoiii.sli a room-full of Yankee rrofessors. His mathematics 
 are decidedly minus, but the use for them is past long ago. 
 Two vears ayo he got up enough of his low subjects to go out 
 among the Junior Ops, and then the way was easy to a high 
 First Class in the Tripos ; and, as he is well up in metaphysics, 
 you may count on him for a Fellowship, probably his second 
 trial. And after that what w'ill he do ? He is gay ; a puritan 
 might call him dissipated, but it is not wickedness afore- 
 thought, but an incurable passion for seeing character which 
 drags him into all sorts of society — once he went off among 
 the gipsies, Borrow-fashion, and stayed there long enough to 
 learn their lingo. He is independent in politics andjtcste milieu 
 (by his own account) in church matters, very fond of law and 
 equally so of theology — fonder of the theatre than either. 
 Perhaps he will be a nominal barrister and an actual writer 
 for Punch and the Magazines. Perhaps he will go quite mad 
 and write a tragedy. Perhaps some of his liberal fiiends at " the 
 University we've got in town," profanely called Stinkomulce 
 by Oxonians and Cantabs, will make him Professor of Greek — 
 or English or Zincali, it's all the same to him — in that great 
 institution. Or perhaps (here the reader, if a New-Englander, 
 is requested to pull out his handkerchief, and borrow a Jl<icon 
 of salts) he will stay here for three or four years as an M.A. 
 pupillizing constantly, and his clothes will gradually grow 
 blacker and his cravat whiter, till some day there will be stuck 
 up on the Hall screen a small notice to the effect that " Mr. 
 Ti'avis requests the college testimonials for orders." And after 
 all there are worse parsons than he would make — yea, even in 
 old Connecticut — for there is great earnestness in the man 
 and benevolence extraordinary ; he takes much interest in the 
 poor and is very generous to them — too generous, indeed, for 
 he sometimes gives them his tradesmen's money — and he 
 always minds his own business, but to be sure that is 
 not so rare and Phoenix-like a virtue in England as with us. 
 Any of these things Tom Travis may be (I ought not to omit 
 the opinion of his gyp, who holds him in absolute veneration, 
 that " ^Ir. Travis will leave the college a Fellow, and come
 
 ii-i FIVK YICAKS IN' AV 
 
 bac-k a .liuln'c''), at present lie is a I'aelielor Scholar ami a 
 "coach" of rising re[)Utati()n, in wliidi last capacity it is that 
 B — has the most intimate euiine.xiuns with him, that 
 younj^ man beinn,- in a violent state of cram for the May 
 examination, and very nervous about the result. 
 
 'i'he Vice is Etlingham Lawson, who puts you in mind of 
 Bob Sawyer, "a dissipated Kobinson ("rusoe," generally 
 dispensing with gloves and wearing a red I'-coat, and au 
 enormous stick. JUit under that unpromising exterior there 
 is much learning, more common sense, and even considerable 
 warmth of feeling. J-Jreak in upon him during the day, his 
 deportment will be brusque and his re})lies monosydlabic ; but 
 give him n cigar and some whiskey-toddy on a winter night 
 and after the third tumbler he will "discourse most ex(juisite" 
 politics, literature, or theology, till mcjrning chapel. lie is 
 older than Tom by a few years, say three, wliicli will make 
 twenty-six, and lias only one more chance for a Fellowship, 
 wdiich, liowever, he is pretty safe for, as he will do very well 
 all round, his classics being good enough to let his mathematics 
 in, and his metaphysics brilliant. 
 
 On his right, diagonally opposite me, is a liandsome little 
 man with a predominating aquiline nose. Quite a youth, to 
 look at, is Horace Spedding, but he is considerably older than 
 you would take him to be — older in every way — and a very 
 liard customer you woukl find him, not at all easy to sell or 
 come over. He was an Etonian, and of course is an elegant 
 Latin versifier, and captivatingly innocent of mathematics, 
 wdiich does not in the least prevent him from being an acute 
 and dexterous logican. The most remarkable thing about hhu 
 is his fiPwviia. This is a peculiarly Cantab quality, inexpres- 
 sible in English save by a periphrasis; you may call it the 
 opposite vice to hj/pocriai/. Thus to hear Spedding talk in a 
 mixed company (particularly if there are any freshmen or 
 country clergymen to astonish) you would think him a monster 
 of depravit}', just fit for one of luigene Sue's heroes : whereas 
 he is in private life a very quiet and temperate man, of high 
 principles and stcadv practice. The Rugby men can't abide him,
 
 ENGLISH L'NIVKUSITV. 55 
 
 taking this siPujviioc for natural wickedness ; lie in return laughs 
 at them, and calls them Arnold and -water. There is Ameri- 
 can blood in Horace, but you will not easily find a man with 
 a more thorough abhorrence of democratic institutions. N. B. 
 His father lost £20,000 by the U. S. Bank. To-morrow he is 
 going in for a Scholarship, and is sure to get one ; for, much 
 as the Dons dislike him, they always elect the best man. No 
 one ever dared charge them with unfairness. And his Fellow- 
 ship will follow in time. Then he will probably invest his 
 small income judiciously, for he has a great talent for statistics 
 and finance, and in some four or five years you may find him 
 in town, coming home from 'Change to read Plato. After a 
 while, his connexion, which is a good one, will procure him 
 some attache or legationship, and then woe to the foreign 
 diplomat who comes in his way, for a leerier man than Horace 
 is not on this side sundown. 
 
 That escaped-convict looking man, next Spedding, is the 
 Hon. G. Dutton, Captain of the First Trinity. Though a 
 peer's son, he has come up as a pensioner, not an unusual step 
 now, the expenses of a Fellow-Commoner being so great. He 
 is an Eironiast, like Horace, but with him it takes a more prac- 
 tical turn. There never is a gay boating supper party without 
 George Dutton. The Barnwell girls know him well, and the 
 Dons look askew at him. But the man is always walking 
 through the fire and never getting burnt. Immovably capa- 
 cious of liquor, cold and passionless as Pitt or Paracelsus, he is 
 the wonder and the admiration of his Aveaker companions. 
 To hear him talk now, you would think his only object on 
 earth was the Boat ; working his men up the Long Reach at 
 the top of their speed ; running round the hall after dinner to 
 see that none of them take sizings (pastry is bad for the wind, 
 say the knowing ones) ; j^rowling about in all sorts of places, by 
 night, and pulling them out of all sorts of places to send them 
 oft" to bed at a proper hour. Yet that rowdy, reckless boat- 
 captain manages to clear his seven-hours' reading every day, 
 and no one stands a chance for Senior Classic alongside of him, 
 except one steady, well-trained Shrewsbury man. (Marsden
 
 56 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 and ])iitton are sworn friends, by the Avay, eacli worshipping 
 the other; so much for the evil eftects of emulation, (fee.) In 
 more thorough bodily and mental training you cannot conceive 
 a man to be; and there is no doubt of it that he will take a 
 high stand at the bar — probably be, as was his father before 
 him, a law-lord, some day — if there are any lords at all by that 
 time — which there will be, the Democratic Review to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. 
 
 And who is next Dutton ? Who but the redoubted Romano? 
 Is that man an Englishman, or an Anglo-Saxon at all ? Short, 
 dark, and much bewhiskered ; his name too — Romano. Yes, 
 he is very foreign, but an Englishman, for all that, though 
 he has lived much on the Continent, where lie learned to 
 speak three or four languages, play an instrument or two 
 passably, and not only tell French dishes but absolutely cook 
 them. Clever enough is Romano, but his university course has 
 been a shipwreck, and he will probably end by going out 
 unnoticed among the ffoXXoi. He stood well his first year ; chose 
 to be vexed his second, because he did not get a Scholarship at 
 the first trial 4 migrated to a Small College ; couldn't stand that, 
 and came back again — ^just too late for a Trinity Scholarshijj. 
 The only tangible result of his migration and re-migration Avas 
 a joke from Spedding. B — had unthinkingly asked, one day, 
 " What could have made Romano migrate to Pembroke?" 
 
 " Why," quo' Horace, " when Rum'un obtained the dignity 
 of a Junior Soph, he suddenly became religious ; so much so, 
 indeed, that he thought of going as a missionary to the South- 
 Sea Islands, when it was suggested to him that there existed an 
 extensive field nearer home, in the Small Colleges," 
 
 Finally, on Travis's left sits Wilkinson, another shipwreck, so 
 far as University distinctions are concerned. He came from 
 Eton capitally prepared. Even now the classic poets are at the 
 tip of his tongue, and when the fit is on him he will reply to 
 you in extempore verse. For instance, I once met him in our 
 beautiful grounds just before four, our early dinner hour. 
 
 " Well, Wilkinson, are you going to devour beef in the hall, 
 or shall we take a stroll here in the sun ?"
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSITV. 57 
 
 "Suave vorare bovem, sed suavius apricari," 
 
 replied tlie unliesitating raaiuifacturer of longs and sliorts. 
 Could there be a prettier spondaic line ! ]>ut alas I Wil- 
 kinson has little ability and less taste for mathematics, lie 
 will never get up enough of his lovv subjects to pass the 
 Senate-house ; so the Tripos is a sealed book to him. Still he 
 must get his Scholarship, and may get his Fellowship ; for in 
 Trinity mathematics are not a sine qua non, though imperious 
 Whewell is doing his worst to make them so. ]3ut it is more 
 probable that he will take a disgust at the whole business, and 
 do something very mad ; learn the flute, fall in love, or turn 
 Romanist. 
 
 And now who is there on my side of the table ? A stray 
 Freshman or two like myself; a fat beer-drinking captain of 
 one of the second crews — Marsden ; a quiet Scotchman irre- 
 proachable as a classic and a whist-player, but not very 
 brilliant in any other department ; and — yes ! that man asleep 
 on the other end of the sofa is Fowler the Australian. He has 
 just got out in a bye-term after being plucked once, and he 
 
 has been getting something that begins with D or I, on 
 
 the strength of it. The effects of the first spree he is sleeping 
 off; by and by we may perhaps see him in his glory. 
 
 While my survey was going on the substantial have been 
 consumed, the last morsel of the indispensable cheese demo- 
 lished, the last stoup of beer emptied. The decks are cleared ; 
 Porcher, Tom's faithful gyp, appears with a mighty bowl. 
 That oT^rj^r, rafiia, Mrs. Porcher, produces the lemons and 
 other punchifying appurtenances, and Travis himself hauls out 
 from a " wee sly neuk" two potent bottles. 
 
 " Do they make punch in America ?" says my fellow-pupil, 
 Menzies (pron. Ming-ee), opening his mouth for the first time. 
 " Oh, yes ; and other drinks manifold. Egg-nog — sangaree." 
 " What is sangaree ?" 
 " What you call negus." 
 
 " Negus is ne ffustandum" broke in Wilkinson. 
 "i)o open the window, Horace, and let that pun out." 
 " Sherry cobbler, mint julep, and — "
 
 58 FIVK YEARS IN AN" 
 
 " Do tell us how mint julop us made ;" and Travis in his 
 curiosity actually looked up from the bowl, M'ith -whose 
 contents lie had been busy for the last five minutes ; the third 
 lemon remained uncut in his hand, and the knife fell vacantly 
 on the table. 
 
 " You don't know I" I took confidence and drew myself up 
 in conscious superiority of knowledge. " It's the driidc of 
 Elvslum. The gods combined their energies to concoct it. 
 Uacchus gave his most potent si)irit. Venus sweetened it 
 with her mo>t precious kiss. Pomona contributed her most 
 piquant fruit, Flora her most aromatic herb, and Jove shook 
 a handful of hail over all." As I concluded this prose version 
 of Charles Holfman, a burst of applause went round the 
 table. 
 
 " Bravo !" quoth my coach. " Fancy Flora walking up 
 with both bands full of mint like Demcter in the Thalusia — 
 
 (Jfav/xara xai jxaxwvaj ev diJ.q>0Tipri<fi\j i'^oitfa. 
 
 " 13 — , what does (J^ay/xara xa.i jxccxwva^ mean ?" 
 I gave tlie proper answer, and Travis stirred up the beverage 
 for the last time. 
 
 A growl from the vice interrupted us. Lawson had been 
 for riie last ten minutes ornamenting the fine features of the 
 sleeping Australian with a huge pair of burnt cork mous- 
 taches. He now looked up from giving his victim the last 
 touch, and muttered, " Don't talk shop ! Let's have a song !" 
 " Very well !" responded Travis, to whom nothing ever came 
 amiss, " Romano has just got a new one by letter from Oxford, 
 Come, Rum'un !" And Rum'un did as he was bid. Be it 
 premised, for the benefit of the uninitiated, that Oxonians call 
 the sporting door " the oak." 
 
 '■Here's a song to my oak, my brave old oak. 
 That was never yet left ajar; 
 And still stands he a stout bit of tree, 
 
 All duns and intruders to bar! 
 There's strength in his frown when the sun goes down, 
 
 And duns at his portals shout; 
 And he showeth his might in the broad daylight 
 
 By selling the tutor's scout.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSITY. 59 
 
 Then here's lo my oak, my brave old oak! 
 
 That no heels, sticks, or pokers can mar? 
 And still may he last as in days long past, 
 
 All duns and intruders to bar. 
 
 AVhen 1 came up to Queen's I knew I was green, 
 
 But I swore I would ne'er be gay, 
 So I sported my oak and read for a joke 
 
 Full sixteen hours in the day : 
 But care comes to all, being' plucked for my small, 
 
 And finding but grief for my pains, 
 I next like a brick ran up all sorts of tick, 
 
 So sported my door remains. 
 
 Then here's to my oak, tc. 
 
 I once knew the times, when the silvery chimes 
 
 Of a well-plenished purge met my ear. 
 When 'yoursmall account, sir,' and 'very large amount, sir, 
 
 To make up,' for me had no fear. 
 Now duns rule the roast, as I find to my cost. 
 
 And a merciless set are they ; 
 But they ne'er shall get in to ask for their tin 
 
 While my door can keep them at bay. 
 Then here's to my oak, my brave old oak! 
 
 That keeps me all safe alone. 
 And still may ho last, as in days long past, 
 
 Till a hundred duns are gone!" 
 
 After some applause and a moderate pause, Duttou was 
 called on to volunteer (to speak Hibernice), and promptly 
 came forth with " Vilkins and Dinah," a rich Cockney ditty, 
 one version of which may be found in Bentley's Miscellany for 
 '43 or '44. It goes oft' very musically, even like a chime of 
 bells, somehow thus ; 
 
 " It vas a licker-marchant in Londing did dwell, 
 Who had one only darter, a beautiful young gal — " 
 
 " Ob-serve the accuracy of the rhyme," says Travis, 
 
 " Her name it vas Di-nay, 'bout sixteen years old. 
 Who had a fine fortune of sillivere and gold ;" 
 
 and then proceeds to relate, with much humor and pathos, 
 liow " Villikius" wooed the lovely Dinah ; liow the governor 
 (as governors always do) had another " lovyere" waiting for 
 her ; how he mildly expostulated with his refractory offspring 
 in these movina: terms :
 
 60 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 llOW 
 
 " O Dinay, my daughter, 1 pray you don't vox mc, 
 For if you do, 'tis ten to one, I die of the apoplsxy;" 
 
 " VillikinB, vile vollocking (walking) her garding around," 
 
 discovered tlie " cold corpus" of his true love, and thereupon 
 drank up the " pison" always provided in such cases ; and 
 then the melancholy conclusion was speedily relieved by a 
 chccur foudroyant, so long, so loud, that it actually woke the 
 Australian. Being waked up, Fowler was satisfactorily put 
 through his paces, talked an indefinite amount of nonsense, 
 rubbed his face in happ)'' unconsciousness of its extraordinary 
 appendages, and thereby blacked it all over, to the inexpressi- 
 ble delight of the Freshmen ; sang a Parhyponcean song 
 which will hardly bear transportation, and finally extemporized 
 a vigorous hornpipe, doubtless to the great comfort of the 
 small, precise Don, keeping immediately underneath, whom 
 Tom had dubbed " Bloody Politeful," and was in the habit of 
 paying various delicate attentions to, such as stealing his bread 
 and drowning mice in his milk jug. This concluded the 
 evening's entertainments, and the company broke up at half 
 past twelve, except Lawson and the American, who stayed 
 •with Travis till three, talking theology. Fortunately no one 
 in Cambridge need go to morning chapel unless he chooses. 
 Who shall say, after this, that England is not a land of 
 liberty ?
 
 EN (J Lisa UNIVERSITV. 61 
 
 THE MAY EXAMINATION. 
 
 " Paper, paper everywhere, 
 
 And all our hearts did shrink, 
 Paper, paper everywhere, 
 Paper, and pens, and ink." 
 
 Rhyme of the Oxford Bachelere. 
 
 It may have been observed from some allusions in the 
 preceding chapter that, although still occasionally attendant at 
 a jollification, I had partly shaken off my habits of idleness 
 and set to work, and that this beneficial change vpas brought 
 about by pressure of an approaching examination. In Cantab 
 phrase I was suffering examination funk. This was my first 
 chance of distinction. True, we had undergone occasional 
 examinations in Euclid and Greek, but these were entirely at 
 the option of our individual College tutors, and without any 
 public result. Knowing but little as yet of the complicated 
 system, I had paid but little attention to its workings in 
 Triposes and University Scholarship examinations, though 
 some knowledge of them was forced upon me by conversations 
 in hall. When the great degree examination for mathematical 
 honors came off in January and a " Small-College" man was 
 Senior AVrangler, the announcement of this unusual occurrence 
 did not particularly interest me ; nor, just returned as I was 
 from a winter expedition into Dorsetshire, did I even go to see 
 the ceremony of degi-ee-taking and behold the lion of the day. 
 The classical Tripos next month I knew and cared something 
 more about, partly because it was a subject that more 
 concerned me, and partly from the very uncommon circum- 
 stance of there being no Chancellor's Medals adjudged that 
 year. 
 
 All candidates for Classical Honors are first obliged to 
 obtain a place among the Junior Optimes^ that is to say in 
 the third class of the three into which the Mathematical Tripos
 
 (V2 FIVE VKAUS IN AN' 
 
 is divided. Hut hosidos this, two golden medals arc given 
 unnually for classical prolicieucy tu Bachelors, who are at 
 least Senior Optimcs or Second Class men in mathematics. 
 It generally happens that one of tlie best two classical men in 
 the vear has this preliminary requisite, hut an interval of three 
 or four fre(piently occurs on the Tripos between him and tlie 
 second Medallists. These Medallists then are the best scholars 
 among the men who have taken a certain mathematical 
 standing; but as out of the University these niceties of dis- 
 crimination arc apt to ha dropped, they usually pass at home 
 for absolutely the first and second scholars of the year ; and 
 sometimes they are so. Now it hap])ened that this year the 
 mathematical examination Avas very difficult, and made great 
 havoc among the classics. Three Trinity men, and four from 
 other colleges, all likely candidates for the First Class, were 
 utterlj'^ plucked, and several more " gulfed," that is to say, 
 they did just well enough to save their degree, but not well 
 enough to be placed on the list of Mathematical Honors ; so 
 that ^Ae«r chance, also, for the Classical Examination was forfeit- 
 ed. As the First Class of the Classical Tripos seldom exceeds 
 twelve, to knock out seven probable men considerably reduces its 
 fair proportions ; in fact, on the present occasion, it numbered 
 only five. Jiloreover, of these five, the first three were Junior 
 Optimes, and could not go in for the medals. There remained 
 but two, bracketed at the foot of the Class, and these acquitted 
 themselves so moderately that the first two of the Second Class, 
 who had been tempted into the Medal examination by the 
 scarcity of candidates, did just about as well. No one was good 
 enough, according to the usual standard, for the First Medal ; 
 they could not give a Second, or two Second, without a First, 
 and so none were adjudged. This caused a new^ outcry against 
 the injustice to which Classical men were exposed, and frighten- 
 ed one Third year man away to Oxford, while several declared 
 that they w^ould go out in " the Poll" (among the ■roXXoi, those 
 not candidates for Honors). 
 
 In March, about the same time as the Medal Examination, 
 took place that for the Bell (University) Scholarships, which
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 63 
 
 concerned several men of my year, but not me. These 
 Scholarships are open to Freshmen, who are sous of clergymen, 
 and in moderate circumstances. The papers are chiefly 
 Classical, a little Mathematics, as high as easy Mechanics, 
 entering into it chiefly for the sake of determining between the 
 best candidates whose classical merits are nearly equal. The 
 Classical papers, being for Freshmen, do not include the more 
 difficult authors, Thucydides, Pindar, Aristophanes, Plautus, 
 &c., or Composition in Greek ; but there is always enough 
 Latin Composition, both in prose and verse, to frighten the 
 uninitiated. A good deal of Homer is set, and generally a 
 fair allowance of Cicero. There is also a paper in Scripture 
 History and Greek Testament. Two of these Scholarships are 
 vacant every year. Trinity generally gets the first, and 
 frequently both. This year, the first man Avas a Johnian. 
 
 The examination which was now approaching, and which 
 particularly interested me, Avas the College Easter Term 
 Examination, familiarly spoken of as " the May." The Easter 
 is the third Collegiate Term, the other two being respectively 
 called the Michaelmas and Lent. The nominal vacations are 
 very long, and the actual ones still longer, so that there are 
 not more than twenty-two weeks of real term time in the 
 year — that is, lectures are delivered and residence required for 
 that period only, and a gownsman not disposed to study has the 
 rest of the year to himself. For the reading men, the vaca- 
 tions are the busiest time, there being so much less temptation 
 to idleness when all the idle men are away. The terms are 
 still further divided, each into two parts, and, after " division" 
 in the Michaelmas and Lent terms, a student, who can assign 
 a good plea for absence to the College authorities, may go 
 down and take holiday for the rest of the time, having already 
 kept enough of the term to answer the University requisition. 
 So, also, a student who is prevented by any accident from 
 coming up at the beginning of either of these terms, may appear 
 just before division, and keep the latter half. But with the divi- 
 sion of the Easter term, the Collegiate year virtually ceases ; for, 
 though the statute terra does not end till the Commencement
 
 64 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 in July, tlic Commencement practically takes place in the 
 Long Vacation, all lectures having concluded with " the May," 
 and most of the men gone down. 
 
 The " May" is one of the features which distinguishes 
 Cambridge from Oxford ; at the latter there are no public 
 College examinations. The Freshman is examined on the 
 Classical authoi-s which have been his lecture-room subjects for 
 the year, and on First-year Mathematics, i. e. Euclid, Algebra, 
 and Trigonometry. The higher years are similarly examined, 
 only with this diflference, that, whereas in the Freshman 
 examination Classics count twice as much as Mathematics, for 
 the Junior and Senior Sophs Mathematics preponderate in an 
 equal or greater ratio. There are slight differences in the 
 details at different Colleges. Some divide the Classical and 
 Mathematical Examinations, putting them a month apart; 
 some have no examination for the Senior Sophs ; some include 
 in the Freshman Mathematical papers some Second-year sub- 
 jects, such as Conic Sections ; the Johnians give the most 
 marks to Mathematics from the start : but the general scheme 
 is nearly the same in all. 
 
 So much by way of preliminary. 
 
 " What a paper this has been for Menzies ! By Jove ! how 
 he must have walked into that Athenian navy ! He's safe 
 now — that is, if they can read his writing. Who set this ?" 
 
 " Goulburn." 
 
 "Ah! He's been studying Arabic lately, and may be 
 warranted equal to any kind of hieroglyphics. I'm afraid this 
 wasn't in your line altogether. How is it ? Have you been 
 performing with credit to yourself and satisfaction to your 
 coach. What did you do with the navy ?" 
 
 " Not much — it quite swamped me, except the Trierarchy 
 business." 
 
 "Did you tell them the Attic Tribes and the Attic and 
 Spartan Months ?" 
 
 " On the contrary."
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. G5 
 
 "Did yoii draw that map of rd intl 9paxv]j and Brasidas' 
 campaign ?" 
 
 " Still less." 
 
 " What did you do ? Did you explain the £i5'(/'opa, and tlie 
 other sources of revenue V 
 
 " Three pages of Bockh bodily." 
 
 " And gave them a nice little life of Thucydides, of course." 
 
 " Like bricks." 
 
 " And no end of Aristophanes ?" 
 
 " Any quantity." 
 
 " Come, that's not so bad after all. If you did that, and 
 the Constitution, and Aegina, and Nicias, and explained these 
 passages, you may have got two-fifths' marks." 
 
 It was the third day of our May examination. Travis and 
 myself were in the identical room that had witnessed the festivi- 
 ties recently recorded. The subject of our discussion was a 
 printed sheet, all four sides of whicli were closely filled. I 
 can't give you a better idea of it than by copying the first 
 page verbatim et litaalim. 
 
 THUCYDIDES. LIB. IV. 
 
 Trinity College, June^ 1841. 
 I. (1.) "What do we learn of the life, station, and character of 
 Thucydides from his own writings? (2.) What is assigned as 
 the date of his birth ? (3.) What account is given of his first 
 ^ocation to write history, and with what probability? (4.) Is 
 it probable that he survived the end of the war ? (5.) What 
 opportunities had he of acquiring information ? (6.) AVhat 
 period of time is embraced by his histor}' ? (7.) By whom 
 was it continued; and from what writers do we derive our. 
 knowledge of the history of Greece down to the time when it 
 became a Roman province ? (8.) How far do you concur in 
 the opinion expressed of Thucydides in the words Soxs't m-oXka. 
 ■)(_api^S(fSai [liv Aa-xsSaiixovioig yMrrj-yopsTv SPA6riv6i.iuv'i (9.) Quote 
 from this book instances of the ivapyiia, the Xs'^sig *oiy]Tixa(, and 
 the -rapovfioiijo'sjj, ■jrapio'wtfeij, dvridetfeig, and Trapovofiarfiai, attri- 
 buted by Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus to tlie style of Thucy-
 
 <;0 FIVE YKAKS IN' AS 
 
 Uidos i (10.) Wliat wi'itens have imitated Tliucydides ? Quote 
 instances of iinitaticMi. 
 
 11. (1.) (iive, an account of tlic vVtlieniau constitution as it 
 existed at the period of the I'elopoiinesiau war. (2.) llow did 
 it ditler from that estabHshed by Solon ? (3.) What were the 
 principal political measures introduced by Pericles ? and what 
 was their effect upon the Athenian character and polity ? (4.) 
 What were the principal parties at this time at Athens, and by 
 whom respectively led .^ (5.) What is meant by rj (Jvjjxayw^i'a ? 
 Whom do we hear of as filling that station ? 
 
 ]II. (I.) What is the date of Aristophanes' play of the 
 lirirhs ? Give a brief account of its plot. Translate the follow- 
 ing- lines and refer to the passages in this book which illustrate 
 thein. 
 
 (2). xai "Tpijigv y 'ifxcJ 
 
 'I*. 54, 599. 
 (3). £'kdov(fJ. q^r,(fiv ocuTOfxaTV) pisra. rdv Ili^Xw 
 tf-TrovcJiv (jps^ourfa r/) ^oXsi xidrriv irXiav 
 
 'Ei^. 665, 899. 
 (4.) Quote any other passages from Aristophanes which have 
 reference to or illustrate events recorded in this book. (5.) 
 Mention any instances in the tragedians of such allusions to the 
 )»olitical events of the daj^ (6.) Quote the lines in Euripides 
 supposed to have reference to Clcon, and the passage in Plato 
 relating to tlie battle of Delium. 
 
 IV. NiVctiav xai U-fiyas xat T^oj^z/va xa/ Aj^aiav, a ou -rroXsVyJ 
 sXa/3ov [oi Aaxsoaijxdvioi] dXX' aTo t/;^ if^orieag lufju/Satfcwj. Cap. 2 1 . 
 
 (1.) What was the situation of Nitfaia and Uriyal ? Explain 
 their importance to the contending parties, and refer to any pas- 
 sages of Thucydides which illustrate it. (2.) What was the poli- 
 tical condition of T^oi^igv and Ap^aia ? (3.) Wliat is meant 
 by '/J T^^ori»a Ij/x'Sarfij ? Give its date and the circumstances 
 which le<l to it. Wh;it was its effect upon tJie Athenian empire ?
 
 EXCI.ISII rXIVERSITV. G7 
 
 There, reader mine ! Is tliat last jxige grave and solid 
 enough for you ? If not, I only wish you had to cram for 
 these " Thucydides Questions," as I did, and to write out forty 
 2>ages save one of scfiUdiag pirper (a trille larger than foolscap) 
 about them in four hours. 
 
 Examinations in our Colleges are seldom considered very 
 important affairs to either party concerned in them. But at 
 Cambridge the College and University Examinatious are the 
 staple and life of the whole system. They are the 
 only recognised standards of merit, except a few prizes 
 for essays and poems ; their results are published in all the 
 London papers, as regularly as the English Queen's last drive, 
 or the Spanish Queen's last revolution ; their rewards are not 
 only honorary but pecuniary, coming to the successful candi- 
 dates in the shape of books, plate, or hard cash, from the value 
 of five dollars to that of five hundred or more ; and in extent 
 of reading requisite, accuracy of execution demanded, and 
 shortness of time allotted, they are surpassed by no examina- 
 tions on record. At the detail of the requisites which they 
 exact, and the performances which they elicit, I have seen 
 grave divines and professors on this side the Avater shake 
 their heads doubtingly ; so I do not startle you too much 
 at first, but begin gently with the first year's one, ranking as 
 you might suppose among the easier examinations, for it is 
 limited in its range and you have a general idea of the work 
 before you, whereas in a Tripos the only thing you can be 
 certain of is that there is nothing which you may not be 
 asked. 
 
 During the three terms of your collegiate year, extending 
 from the twentieth of October, or thereabout, nearly to the end 
 of May, you have been lectured on three classical subjects, a 
 Greek Tragedy, a book or speech of a Greek historian or 
 orator, and a ditto of a Latin ditto. Of course you are able to 
 translate them anywhere, and exj)lain all the different readings 
 and interpretations. But this is not half the battle — scarcely 
 a third of it. You require a vast heap of collateral and 
 illustrative reading after this fashion.
 
 G8 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Our play was tlie AG^aniPinnon of yEscIij'Ius. Now for the 
 question paper, or, as it is often called, tho " cram" paper, you 
 must first make yourself master of everything connected with 
 the Greek stage arrangements, and the history of the Greek 
 drama, for which yon make large draughts upon Donaldson's 
 Greek T/icafre, Midler on the Eameiiides (translated), and 
 Midler^s History of Greek Literature. Next, you get up all you 
 can find relating to the history of the dramatis persona; ; then 
 all the parallel passages collectable wherein Greeks, Romans, or 
 English may be supposed to have imitated old JEschylus. Then 
 you fortify your Greek geography, inake maps of the signal-fires' 
 route from Troy, etc. Finally, you ought to have read the 
 other two plays of the Ti-ilogy, for you are likely to be asked 
 something about them ; perliaps there may be a nice little bit 
 of the Eunicnides set, which is not to be understood by the 
 light of nature. Similarly for the fourth book of Thucydides, 
 you cram up everything you can about everybody mentioned 
 in Thucydides generally, and this book particularly, taking in 
 much Thirlwall, and Bockh, and Miiller's Dorians, and the 
 like. And for the Tenth and Eleventh Books of Cicero to 
 Atticus (that was our Latin subject), all your knowledge of 
 the great men of that period, and of the legal matters inciden- 
 tally brought in {e. g. marriage, inheritance, Comitia), will be 
 put into requisition. One little bagatelle I had almost for- 
 gotten. You will have to turn English prose into Greek and 
 Latin prose, English verse into Greek Iambic Trimeters, and 
 part of some chorus in the Agamemnon into Latin, and 
 possibly also into English verse. This is the " composition," 
 and is to be done, remember, without the help of books or 
 any other assistance. 
 
 Now either of the three subjects opens a pretty wide field 
 before you, quite wide enough to bewilder a tyro, and here it is 
 that the genius of your pi'ivate tutor comes into play. 
 
 Private tuition is nowhere alluded to in the university or 
 college statutes; it is entirely a personal and individual matter; 
 yet it is, after the examinations, the great feature of the univer- 
 sity instruction, and the public lectures have come to be entirely
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 69 
 
 subordinate to it. The English private tutors in many points 
 take the place of the German professors ; true, they have not 
 the same explicit university sanction, but an equivalent for this 
 is found in the final examination for degrees which they have 
 all passed, and no man who has not taken a good degree, 
 expects or pretends to take good men into his team. Of course 
 inferior coaches will do for inferior men — ttoXXo/ for ifoWoi. 
 Of late there has been some outcry against private tuition ; but 
 if not absolutely a vital, it is certainly an important element in 
 the whole system, nor should it be suffered as a necessary evil, 
 but admitted as a positive good. One effect of doing away 
 with it would be to throw all classical honors into the hands of 
 the public-school men. Your "Eton boy" is a young man of 
 nineteen, at least two years in advance of a Yale or Harvard 
 Valedictorian in all classical knowledge, and in all classical ele- 
 gancies immeasurably ahead of him. The only way in which 
 you can bring up an inadequately prepared man to " hold a 
 candle " to such competitors is by diligent personal attention to 
 him. Travis certainly put more into me in seven montlis than I 
 could have acquired by my own unassisted labors in two years ; 
 and of his exertions in my behalf, I shall always retain a grateful 
 memory. But even with the best tutor — and it is not every man 
 who can get a Travis to coach him — you must make up your 
 mind to read six times as much as you can make use of on the 
 papers, since 3^ou can only calculate the general run of the ques- 
 tions in them without being able to make sure of any individual 
 one.* 
 
 All this time not a word of mathematics. The question has 
 often been put to me, " Why did you, with your classical tastes, 
 go to Cambridge rather than Oxford ?" To which I always 
 reply that there is more classical learning to be picked up at 
 Cambridge than T could ever hope to acquire. The truth is 
 that the Cantabs are just as good scholars as the Oxonians, the 
 
 * All examination papers are printed at the Pitt Press in the most 
 mysterious way, and only leave the printer's hands about five minutes 
 before they are submitted to the students, when they arc sent to the 
 examiner in a scaled packet^ by a trusty messenger.
 
 70 
 
 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 former oxcelliiiGf in Greek, (lie latter in Latin ; only at Cam- 
 bridge you are dosed with mathematies into the bargain. But 
 the College lectures and examinations for the first year embrace, 
 as has been said, only Euclid, Algebra, and Trigonometry. 
 The mathematical men have read these before they came up, 
 and the classical men don't wish to read them till just before 
 they go out. So between too much knowledge and too little 
 inclination to know, the mathematical lectures are but carelessly 
 attended, and as the three mathematical papers count little 
 more than half as much as the six classical, this part of the 
 examination is comparatively disregarded. A classical man 
 may cut all the mathematics but Euclid, while the prospective 
 Senior Wrangler dare not take such a liberty with the classical 
 papers. In the upjier years all this is reversed. 
 
 I bad not opened a mathematical book for more than two 
 years, and certainly never intended to trouble the exact sciences 
 again, but as the " May " approached I began to feel nervous, 
 and in accordance with Travis's suggestion put on a mathema- 
 tical tutor for the last month. But " Dunny " soon found, 
 there was not much to be got out of me on so short notice. 
 My analysis was just sufficient to make it probable that I had 
 at some period of my life seen the inside of Wood and Pea- 
 cock* So I had to fall back upon the Euclid. A great god- 
 send is Euclid to the classical men ; not only here, but in the 
 scholarship and the awful, accursed mathematical Tripos, does 
 he stand them in good stead. Our troubles were to begin on 
 Wednesday ; I devoted the two days immediately preceding to 
 getting up the first four books and the sixth, and by eight on 
 Tuesday evening had them ready for immediate use. 
 
 At nine next morning, the Hall doors were thrown open to 
 
 * The two principal text-books in Algebra. It must be borne in mind 
 that Algebra, Trigonometry, Ac., as taught and examined upon at Cam- 
 bridge, are very different from the things that go by the same name in 
 our colleges. Thus, for instance, from one third to one half of the 
 Algebra paper (to which five hours are allotted), is composed of such 
 questions as they call problems at Yale, and give specific prizes for. So 
 too, out of the 22 propositions in the Euclid paper, five or six are original 
 one^ — "deductions" they call them.
 
 EXGLISH UNIVERSITY. , 1 
 
 US. The narrow passage between the screens and the buttery 
 was as full as it usually is just before 4 P. M., but the Trinita- 
 rians were thronging to a different sort of a banquet. The 
 tables were decked with green baize instead of white linen, 
 and the goodly joints of beef and mutton and dishes of smoking 
 potatoes were replaced by a profusion of stationery. Even the 
 dais shared the general tate. At that high table where I had 
 recently been feasting on spring soup and salmon, ducklings 
 and peas, rhubarb tart and custard,* with old sherry quaiitum 
 suff. to imbibe, and the learned wit of the Dons for seasoning, I 
 was now doomed — such is the mutability of human aifairs — to 
 write against time for four mortal hours. In those days it was 
 not easy to throw me off my balance, for if a boy has any 
 modesty in him, the training of a large American college, 
 speaking continually to largeish audiences, writing about 
 everything, and reading your writings in public, (fee, is pretty 
 sure to knock it out of him ; yet I did feel rather nervous that 
 Wednesday morning, and could not for five minutes begin 
 composedly to write out the Pons Asinorum which headed 
 our paper, though it had been familiar to me ever since my 
 school days. The pen-and-ink system of examination has 
 been adopted partially at Oxford and almost entirely at Cam- 
 bridge,f in preference to the viva voce, on the ground, among 
 others, that it is fairer to timid and diffident men. The advan- 
 tage in this respect is somewhat exaggerated': the excitement, 
 though not so greaf for the moment, is more constant, and the 
 scratching of some hundred pens all about you makes one 
 fearfully nervous. Then, too, any little slips you make in a viva 
 voce may be allowed for, or may even escape observation, but 
 litera scripla manet ; everything that you put down here will 
 be criticised deliberately and in cold blood. Awful idea ! 
 
 At one, " close your papers, gentlemen," says the examiner, 
 who has been solemnly pacing up and down all the time. 
 
 * The English eat tart and custard together, pouring the latter over 
 the former. If we did this they would call it a dirty habit. 
 ' f We had a little viva voce in this examination, perhaps equivalent 
 t9 a twentieth or twenty-fifth part of it.
 
 72 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 (This examiner is never your college lecturer or tutor, ^nd of 
 course never your private tutor.) At two the hall assumes its 
 more legitimate and welcome guise, dinner being thrown back 
 two hours ; at four the grinding begins again, and lasts till 
 eight; at night there is a supper put on specially for the 
 occasion, llow that supper is demolislied ! what loads of 
 cold beef and lobster vanish before the examinees ! Young 
 ladies sometimes picture to themselves students as delicate, 
 pale youths who live on toast and tea. Never was there a 
 greater mistake. Men who study in earnest eat in earnest. 
 A Senior Wrangler sat opposite me one summer at the Scholars' 
 table, and to see that man perform upon a round of beef was 
 a curiosity. 
 
 Thus passed four days; eight hours a-day tliinking and 
 writing together at full speed ; two or tliree hours of cramming 
 in the intervals (for though the principle and theory is never 
 to look at a book during an examination, or indeed for two or 
 three days before, that your mind may be fresh and vigorous, 
 few men are cool enough to put this into practice) ; and long 
 lounges at night, very difterent from the oi'dinary constitutional. 
 Thus far I had rather exceeded my expectations, but there was 
 still impending Monday's Algebra paper, and the thought of 
 that left me very little rest on Sunday. A friend who had 
 obligingly backed me to the extent of ten shillings, endeavored 
 to comfort me ^ith the assurance that if I had done my 
 Classics properly, I must be safe without the Algebra, and if I 
 had not, all I could do on Monday would not make much 
 difference. But this satisfactory assurance did not afford me 
 full consolation. Far more refreshing was our stroll through 
 the Trinity grounds, where Travis and I spent the greater 
 part of the day. Would that I could borrow D'Israeli's pencil 
 for five minutes — or I could even be content with Poe's — to 
 describe these grounds as they really are. The north and 
 south walks are natural arcades, thickly canopied with the 
 boughs of glorious horse-chestnuts that fling their arms out 
 fifteen feet, clear across the path, and down almost to the rails 
 of the low paddocks in the midst. The west walk is protected
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. (3 
 
 from the high-road by a broad ditch and a double row of 
 limes ; and the east walk lies along the green sloping banks 
 of the little Cam, which is so little here, and so regular even in 
 its irregularities, that it looks more like an artificial stream in 
 a pleasure ground than a real river. Come upon this bridge ; 
 it is before Wiiewell's reign, so you need not fear that that 
 very worthy but somewhat dictatorial man will ride up to you 
 ■with the information that " a bridge is a place of transit and 
 not of lounge." Eastward you have just in front of you the 
 Gothic gateway of the New Court ; and north of it the 
 College Library, a simple and chaste structure, built of a fanci- 
 fully tinted orange and yellow stone, unequalled for beauty and 
 durability. Look still further north, and over a bend of the 
 Cam, on a spreading, sloping lawn, you see a large castellated 
 building of the same yellow stone, with turrets and pinnacles 
 in abundance. That is the "New building" of St. John's. 
 Southward are two more antique bridges and a profusion of 
 green, with the majestic towers of King's looming above it. 
 Turning westward, you look up the central path through an 
 arching avenue of lime trees. It is not long, perhaps the eighth, 
 of a mile, but as you look up it from the bridge it seems to 
 join with the Fellows' Garden beyond the road,* and continue 
 in a straight line to the very steeple of Coton Church, which 
 terminates your view several miles oft'. 
 
 The picture is not complete without the " men," all in their 
 academicals, as it is Sunday. The blue gOAvn of Trinity has 
 not exclusive possession of its own walks : various others are 
 to be discerned, the Pembroke looped at the sleeve, the Christ's 
 and Catherine curiously crimped in front, and the Johnian with 
 its unmistakable " Crackling."f There is also here and there 
 a town snob to be seen and a fair sprinkling of servant-maids 
 
 * Our fellows rejoiced in two gardens, one within, the other without 
 the college grounds. 
 
 f All the different Collegians used to have slang names, derived 
 from various animals; none of these have stuck except the "Johnian 
 pigs." Their new bridge is popularly called the Isthmus of Sues, and 
 the three ?tripes of velvet on their sleeves, cracklii^-g. 
 
 4
 
 74 riVE YEARS IN AN' 
 
 and children. Here it was 'vve walked, adding marks, and 
 calculating the chance of my First ; and thus we made our 
 calculations. 
 
 All the papers together are worth 3000, l)ut no one gets full 
 marks. This is owing partly to the great extent of the " cram" 
 papers, Avhich are purposely made to cover as much ground as 
 possible, that every one may find something in them he can do ; 
 and partly to tiie fact that the same man is seldom (I may say 
 never indeed) first both in classics and mathematics. The best 
 man of the year has from 2000 to 2400. The ordinary limit of 
 the First Class is 1200, but this standard is sometimes raised, 
 for one feature of Cambridge examinations is, that they go by 
 breaks rather than by actual number of marks, that is, by rela- 
 tive rather than positive merit ; and it is this Avhich makes it 
 so difiicult to predict your place with anything like certainty. 
 As the greatest accuracy is required by all the examiners, and 
 the greatest elegance by most of them, you must not only be 
 solicitous for how much you have done, but for how you have 
 done it. A little Avell polished up is worth more than a great 
 deal turned off carelessly, and you often find in the fourth or 
 fifth class, unfortunates who have covered as much paper as 
 the head man. There are, say 130 Freshmen, wlio are 
 arranged in nine classes, the First Class varying from twenty 
 to thirty. Fifty marks will prevent one from being " posted," 
 but there are always two or three too stupid as well as idle to 
 save their " Post." These drones are posted separately as " not 
 worthy to be classed," and privately slanged afterwards by the 
 Master and Seniors. Should a man be posted twice in succes- 
 sion, he is generally recommended to try the air of some 
 Small College, or devote his energies to some other Avalk of 
 life. 
 
 " You will get full marks or very nearly, for your transla- 
 tions," said Travis, " I hope. Put that down, 600. And it is 
 safe to say half marks for the cram-papers — 450. About your 
 composition I don't know. Did you do any Latin Verse ?" 
 
 *' There wasn't time." 
 
 " Just as well there wasn't ; and your Greek Iambics won't
 
 ENfiLISn IMVKHSITY. (5 
 
 come to much. Then your Greek pro?e Avill count something 
 — not a great deal, and your Latin prose is pretty fair : you 
 miqht get two-thirds for it. Altogether, taking in your English 
 verse, which will bring you some xu^ng from Bunbury, — you 
 may have quarter marks on the whole — *lb out of 300. Put 
 in forty for the four viva voces. How much is that altogether ?" 
 "1165." 
 
 " How much Euclid did yo\i do ? Fifteen ?" 
 " No, fourteen ; one of them was a deduction." 
 " Suppose one wrong : there are twenty-one on the paper, 
 and the six deductions count half. Perhaps you have half 
 marks and I should think not so much — say 170 out of 
 400." 
 
 " Then I did three whole questions in Trigonometry." 
 " Throw them in in case of accidents. This gives you 1300. 
 You ought to be safe. Take my advice and don't fret about 
 the Algebra." 
 
 But this, very good advice the young man couldn't take, and 
 did fret himself about the Algebra, so much that he slept not 
 a wink all night ; for if the paper was an easy one it might be 
 possible to pile up a hundred marks or more on it, which would 
 make the First safe beyond a doubt. Of coui-se the paper was 
 not an easy one, and I did perhaps four questions in it after 
 staying in as many hours, then came out in a fit of disgust, 
 and threw it into the fire ; but my labors were over, at anv 
 rate, which was a great consolation. That day I eat dinner for 
 two, went to bed before nine that night, and slept ^fifteen hours 
 and a half. Some of my friends say I have never been fairly 
 awake since. Next day I took a long gallop ; ditto ditto on 
 the days succeeding, and when not in the saddle read the new 
 magazines, for May had passed into June, while we were in full 
 scribble. By these relaxations I brought myself to a tolerably 
 comfortable state of mind and body by Friday, so as to be 
 prepared for the result. Meanwhile reports began to spread. 
 Mistranslations leaked out, how one man had rendered novas 
 tabulas " new furniture," and another oux iSpxs dxiiri, " there is 
 no top to the scat." Discussions were raised about the first
 
 76 FIVE VKARR IN AN 
 
 mail of the yeiir*, whether it would be I'arsoiis, tlio Captain of 
 Shrewsbury,! or Rothermann, the Newcastle scholar from Eton, 
 or Ilenslowe of King-'s College, London, or Macintosh, from 
 Glasgow (for there comes up a first rate Scotchman occasion- 
 ally). At length, late on Friday evening, as I was preparing a 
 solitary cup of tea, one of my friends came tumbling into the 
 room with the gratifying intelligence that " we were all right." 
 So I was paraded in all the Cambridge and London papers with 
 twenty-three more, as First Class men in the Ti'iiiity Freshman 
 Examination, which honor moreover entitled us to a prize of 
 books at the Commemoration, next November, towards which 
 the college gave lis nineteen shillings and sixpence sterling, and 
 we added as much as we liked, for this kind of humbug is 
 common to English and American Colleges. 
 
 * The names are placed a]phabetlcally in the class-lists, but tlio first 
 eight or ten individual places are generally known. 
 
 f The head boy of a public school is called the captain of it.
 
 ENGUSII UNIVERSITY. 77 
 
 THE FIRST LONG VACATION. A BAD START. THE CAMBRIDGE 
 
 CREDIT SYSTEM. 
 
 "A friend in need is a friend indeed." 
 
 Virgil. 
 " Conticuere omnes." 
 They all went on tick together. 
 
 Free Translation. 
 
 Thoroughly recruited by a "week's rest, and additionally 
 inspirited by the favorable result of the examination, I went 
 down to London for a fortnight to deliver various letters of 
 introduction and see a little of the Great Metropolis. It Avas 
 the pleasantest and liveliest time of the year, the beginning 
 of June, when even London boasts of a little sun, and the 
 subterranean-looking wilderness of houses and interminable 
 mazes of muddy streets are kindled up with a few stray beams. 
 But I did not know people enough " in town" to dine out 
 every day, and the stranger in London who does not is apt to 
 find the time hang heavy on his hands — even if there is a 
 general election going on, as there then was ; so before fifteen 
 days had elapsed I was back again at Cambridge studying. 
 
 Studying in a vacation ! Even so ; for you may almost 
 take it as a general rule that College regulations and customs 
 in England are just the reverse of what they are in America. 
 In America you rise and " recite" to your instructor Avho is 
 seated ; in England you sit and construe to him as he stands 
 at his desk. In America you go sixteen times a w^eek to 
 chapel or woe be to you ; but then you may stay out of your 
 room all night for a week together and nobody will know or 
 care. In England you have about seven chapels to keep and 
 may choose your own time of day, morning or evening, to 
 keep them ; but you cannot get out of College after ten at 
 night, and if being out, you stay till after twelve, you are very
 
 /b FIVIC YiCAKS IN' AN' 
 
 likely to hear of it next iiioniiiig. in America you may 
 go about in any dress that does not outrage decency, and it is 
 not uncommon for youths to attend chapel and " recitation- 
 room" in their rai^fgod dressing gowns, with ])erhaps the pretext 
 of a cloak; in England you must scrupulously observe the 
 academical garb while within the College walls, and not bo 
 too often seen wearing white great coats or other eccentric 
 garments under it. In America the manufacture of coil'oe in 
 your room will subject you to suspicion, and should that 
 bugbear, the tutor, find a bottle of wine on your premises, he 
 sets you down for a hardened reprobate ; in England you may 
 take your bottle or two or six with as many friends as you 
 please, and unless you disturb the whole court by your 
 exuberant revelry, you need fear no annoyance from your 
 tutor ; nay, expand your supper into a stately dinner and he 
 will come himself (public tutor or private) like a brick as he 
 is, and consume his share of the generous potables, yea, take a 
 hand in your rubber afterwards. In America you may not 
 marry, but your tutor can ; in England you may marry, and 
 he can't.* In America you never think of opening a book in 
 vacation ; in England the vacations are the very times when 
 you read most. Indeed, since the vacations occupy more than 
 half the year, he who keeps them idle, will not do much work 
 during his College course. Then in the vacations, particularly 
 the Long, there is every facility for reading, that is, no tempt- 
 ation not to read or interruption to your reading — no large 
 dinners, or wine or supper parties, no rowing men making a 
 noise about the courts, no exciting boat-races, no lecturers 
 (owing to the private-tutorial system, the public lectures are, 
 
 * The married men at Cambridge are usually sucli as take Orders 
 late ia life; they are men of some proj^erty and become Fellow 
 (Jommoners of a S i all College. A father and son were undergraduates 
 together at Peterhouse in my time. There are some traditional jokes 
 about this class of students, such as that one of them failed repeatedly 
 in his endeavors to obtain a degree, -and his son used to come running 
 into the house with "Ma, Pfi's plucked again!" A married student is 
 obliged to dine in Hall like the rest, and onlv freed from "gate" rules.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 79 
 
 with some happy exceptions, rather in the way of than any 
 help to the best men), the chapel rnles looser than ever, the 
 town utterly dull and lifeless. When I Avas ill at Cambridge 
 during the greater part of two Longs, and could only read a 
 few hours each day, I thought it the most lonely and desolate 
 of places. It seemed a town without inhabitants. All the 
 tradesmen who can, leave Cambridge, and of the 1800 
 students not 200 remain. Those that are left in each College 
 (from half a dozen to forty as the size of the College may be) 
 are all bound by the common tie of their studies ; their very 
 lightest talk has some shoiJ in it, and if not personally 
 acquainted at first they generally become so before the three 
 months are over. Indeed, so attractive is the Vacation-CoUege- 
 life that the great trouble of the Dons is to keep the men from 
 staying up during the Long. In the Small Colleges it makes 
 a serious dift'erence, for the few dignitaries of one of these 
 lesser institutions often want to take a tour en masse and shut 
 up the College, "like a boarding-school," say the Trinitarians 
 and Johnians in ridicule. But at Trinity the scholars and 
 sizars have a right to remain in residence just as much as the 
 Fellows themselves, being equally " on the foundation ;" and 
 here the Undergraduate ranks are augmented by the Bachelors 
 reading for Fellow^ships. But as the College authorities are in 
 small force, sometimes not more than two or three Fellows 
 being left, all students except Scholars and Sizars are warned 
 off, save some few who obtain permission to stay by particular 
 favor, and among these are always some Freshmen who have 
 done well in the May. So assiduously does the reading-man 
 set himself to his work from the very beginning. 
 
 I spent some six weeks in this way, reading ^schylus and 
 Euripides and taking copious notes thereon. I had few 
 acquaintances of my own standing ; they were nearly all 
 Bachelor Scholars ; my private tutor was one of them, and 
 we lived very quietly and pleasantly, knee-deep in books all 
 the morning till two, and then strolling about the beautiful 
 grounds in the environs of the town. What little approach to 
 out-door amusements one ever sees among the lower orders
 
 80 KIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 here is to be found at tliis season in tlie outskirts of 
 Cambrid2^o. About the end of June and beginning of July 
 was a fair,* and we mingled among the people and went 
 through the popular sports, rode in swings, attended the six- 
 penny itinerary theatres, and laughed at the tragic performance 
 of " Ennery, King of Hingland," and Fair Rosamond. I 
 remember the date from the Fourth of July occurring just 
 afterwards, which I celebrated by a " hang-out," and my 
 Englisli guests drank claret with as much liberality as if they 
 had had a personal or patriotic interest in the reminiscence. 
 Our after-dinner meetings two or three times a week were 
 very moderate, never exceeding a couple of hours, after which 
 we fell to work again. It was a quiet and virtuous existence, 
 plenty of occupation without fatigue or excitement, and enough 
 relaxation to keep us in the best condition. The only draw- 
 back to our felicity was that during the Long, the Cambridge 
 confectioners, like those of Little Pedlington, made no ice- 
 cream unless it was ordered the day before ; and this was not 
 such a deprivation as it would be in New York, the English 
 summers being not quite so warm as ours. I recollect being 
 obliged to build a fire one day in this very July. 
 
 This kind of life had grown upon me so, that I resolved, 
 though somewhat older than I could have wished, and a year 
 above the average age of those in my standing, to go through 
 the whole course, and consequently give up my original pro- 
 ject of spending but one year at Cambridge and then proceed- 
 ing to a German University. A very good resolution so far 
 as the intention to make myself a scholar Avas concerned ; 
 unfortunately, immediately after it was taken, I went to work so 
 as to destroy most of the benefits of it, by suddenly taking a trip 
 homeward over the Atlantic, imder the excuse of having to attend 
 to my affairs. At my departure I was in perfect health, stronger 
 and nimbler than I ever was before or have been since, having 
 practised vaulting over gates and leaping ditches, and other 
 extempore gymnastics in vogue at Cambridge, till my performan- 
 
 * Kot Sturbridge Fair founded by King Jolin, and formerly very 
 celebrated, but a smaller one called Midsummer or Pot Fair.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 81 
 
 ces actually astonished myself. But I left the thermometer at 70° 
 in Liverpool and found it 90° at Boston, nor did it fall much 
 below that for the two months I was in America. Finally, the 
 confined air of a small state-room completed what the change of 
 temperature had begun, and deranged my system so as to bring 
 on a severe illness -which manifested itself just as I was fairly settled 
 at Trinity again in my new quarters, a very nice suite of 
 Fellow-Commoner's rooms* (for having come up late the first 
 year, I was then obliged to take whatever I could get). 
 
 For seven months I lay in a precarious state, and for more 
 than two years was exceedingly feeble, and unable to return 
 home or to travel any distance from my place of residence. A 
 palpitation of the heart, brought on by derangement of the 
 liver and stomach, made it impossible for me to undergo any 
 physical or mental exertion, and hardly allowed me to eat 
 enough to support life. Having, as the first resource in this 
 deprivation of ordinary employment, attacked all the miscel- 
 laneous reading I could lay hands on, my eyes began to fail and 
 I was totally helpless. In this strait an opportunity was 
 afforded me to test the value of English friendship, and obtain 
 an insight into the best side of English character which other- 
 wise I might not have done. Time was of great value to all 
 my acquaintances that were Undergraduates or Bachelors (the 
 idle men whom I had known in my first year were now absent, 
 having been eliminated by the usual process), and the Fellows, 
 though more at leisure, had still their routine of study and 
 amusement which had not fitted them for, and was not agreea- 
 bly varied by, the task of amusing an invalid who could do 
 nothing to amuse himself and was even forbidden to talk. 
 But these men sacrificed hours to me night after night, doing 
 all in their power to divert and alleviate my unpleasant situa- 
 tion. Pecuniary embarrassments Avere added to my other 
 
 * There is always a great demand for the rooms in College. Those 
 at lodging-houses are not so good, while the rules are equally striet, the 
 owners being solemnly bound to report all their lodgers who stay 
 out at night, imder pain of being "discommonsed," a species of College 
 excommunication. 
 
 4^v
 
 oL' FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 troubles at this time. It was just after the failure of the U. S. 
 Bank of Peinisylvania, when a disti-ust of American securities 
 and American debtors was beginning to spread in EngUind, and 
 my College tutor, to whom I was indebted, liad no certain 
 knowledge of my ultimate solvency, yet he acted towards me 
 with the utmost delicacy. Great as the accommodation was, it 
 never struck me so much as the kindness of those who used to 
 visit me six or seven in an evening, and whose interesting and 
 cheering conversation made the tedious hours of my illness 
 move lightly by. It would make too long a list to enumerate 
 them all, but there was one so particularly kind to me that I 
 cannot help making mention of his name here. If John 
 Grotk ever sees this page, will he accept this j^^blic acknow- 
 ledgment of my obligations to him, and this testimony to his 
 kindness towards a sick and helpless stranger ? The goodness 
 and amiability associated in all private relations with the name 
 of Grote, rival the talent and learning which have long been 
 publicly connected with it. More cannot be said ; and had I 
 said less, I should have to tax myself with ingratitude. 
 
 While thus unable to take part in the studies and occupa- 
 tions that were going on about me, I nevertheless observed and 
 heard not a little respecting them. " Shop," or as it is sometimes 
 here called " Calendar,^''* necessarily enters to a large extent 
 into the conversation of the Cantabs, and it was one of my 
 weaknesses to be amused by it. Of all kinds of personal gossip 
 it is certainly the most harmless — what degree such a man 
 took in such a year, who are likely to be the next SchoUars 
 and so forth. But, besides, I looked beyond this, to the light 
 which such matters threw on the general system ; indeed, the 
 only way I had of improving my time, was to pick up all the 
 particulars I could about the various colleges, and the most dis- 
 tinguished private tutors, and the modifications of study pur- 
 sued at and under each. But before proceeding to detail any 
 of these, a recent remark requires some explanation. I have 
 spoken of being in debt to my tutor. 
 
 * Because the Camhridge Calendar contains all tlio list,'* of Triposes, 
 Prizemen, A-o,
 
 EKGUSH UNIVERSITY. 83 
 
 It is pretty generally known that young men at tLie English 
 Universities often contract debts as Undergraduates which 
 seriously impoverish their families, or cripple themselves in 
 after life. The University authorities have often been blamed 
 for this, but it is easier to blame them than to state what they 
 ought to do and can do to prevent it. The parties most in 
 fault are the tradesmen, who without taking any pains to 
 ascertain beforehand a Freshman's means and wants, tempt, 
 solicit, and worry him into making purchases. The academical 
 powers have made a rule that all bills shall pass through the 
 college tutors ; for the students' further protection they have 
 enacted that any tradesman bringing a suit against an Under- 
 graduate shall be " discommonsed," i. e. all the Undergraduates 
 are forbidden to deal with him. Many suspicious or doubtful 
 characters are similarly treated, so as to warn the students that 
 if they will hold any communication with them, it must be at 
 their own risk. It is indeed said that the Dons set a bad 
 example, by living extravagantly themselves. If all the loose 
 exaggerations are jiared away from this charge so as to bring it 
 down to its nucleus of truth, the amount of it is that the Fel- 
 lows eat and drink rather more luxuriously than is necessary. 
 But this does not justify the Undergi-aduates in doing the 
 same, any more than a son has a right to spend as much 
 money as his father does. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that extravagant and 
 imprudent young men are the only ones who get into debt. 
 There is another and less mischievous development of the credit 
 system. When a young man of scanty means shows good 
 'talents and disposition it is common for his college tutor to 
 trust him for a portion (half or more of his college bills, fre- 
 quently including the sent-in tradesmen's bills), during his 
 second and third years, so that he may be free to avail himself 
 of private tuition and other advantages, and in no respect crip- 
 pled during his competition for honors. When the student 
 takes his degree, he obtains by pupilizing enough to render 
 further assistance unnecessary, and soon begins to pay off his 
 debt, and when he gets his Fellowship, he clears himself very
 
 84 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 speedily. It is in fact pledging his labor and time two or three 
 years ahead, and though such a mortgage may in some cases 
 prove an awkward incumbrance, the general result is good : it 
 enables many first-rate men to get a fiirst-rate education, whicli 
 they could not otherwise have obtained. Sometimes a young 
 man in this position falls ill or acquires bad liabits, and his 
 tutor loses the whole. 
 
 The tradesmen are in the habit of complaining that the tutors 
 receive from their pupils money to pay them, and then keep it 
 back for months or years, thus defrauding them of large sums 
 in interest. Hearing this charge repeated beyond the Univer- 
 sity limits, I took the trouble to investigate it myself. The 
 result of my inquiries was that the tutors' bills are paid on an 
 average one term before the tradesmen's — and that the tutor 
 on the average of his pupils has to wait five terms, so the 
 tradesman must wait six, or two years, and the tutor gains from 
 two to four months' interest, which makes at English rates 
 about 1^ per cent, commission on all the money that goes 
 through his hands — little enough for his trouble, even putting 
 his occasional losses out of the question.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 85 
 
 THE SECOND YEAR, A CHANGE OF DYNASTY. THE LITTLE-GO. 
 
 CONFLICT OF UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE SYSTEMS. VARIOUS 
 
 EXAMINATIONS. 
 
 Jnclytus Albertus, doctissimus atque disertus, 
 QuadriTium docuit et omne scibile scivit. 
 
 After the trial lieat of the first May examination, the field 
 of candidates for Honors begins to assume something like a 
 calculable form. The ruck falls off rapidly, and the good men 
 settle down to their pace. Many of them are now for the first 
 time under crack private tutors — for it frequently, indeed 
 usually happens, that a " coach" of reputation declines taking 
 men into his team before they have made time in public. 
 When the Freshman has not a public-school reputation, and 
 sometimes even when he has, the result of the May decides 
 whether he will go out in Honors or not — that is, whether 
 he will be a reading or a non-reading man (for with all 
 but the very badly j)repared, going out in Poll is equivalent 
 to doing nothing — so for as University studies are concerned — 
 for at least half the course). If his success be such as to 
 encourage him, he begins his work again, as has been observed, 
 early in the Long vacation, towards the close of which, how- 
 ever, he takes a real vacation of a month or so (generally pro- 
 vided for in all engagements with private tutors, or for reading- 
 parties), so as to come to his work fresh at the beginning of the 
 college term. Though not so decisive in its results as the third 
 year, this second year is the turning point for not a few. Some 
 who have done very well in low mathematics, break down after 
 passing the Differential Calculus,* Some grow indolent and 
 
 * The Differential is considered the first step in a really mathematical 
 education; the next is to attack Geometry of Three Dimensions, One of 
 our mathematical coaches used to divide mankind into two classes, those 
 who had read Geometry of Throe Dimensions and those who had not.
 
 86 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 fall oft' from depending too iniicli on their first year's success. 
 Sonic Trinity men are disgusted by not getting a Scholarship 
 at the first trial, and strike work in consequence. 
 
 A Foundation Scholarship being the requisite stepping-stone 
 to a Fellowship,* is naturally one of the first objects of our 
 reading man's aim. At several of the colleges these Scholar- 
 ships are given to the students who acquit themselves best in 
 the first May. At Trinit}' there is a special examination, held 
 about the beginning of the Easter term, in which all Second 
 and Third-year men are eligible candidates. To an American 
 Collegian who has no motive for anticipating the routine of a 
 fixed course, such a competition must seem singular. Sopho- 
 mores and Juniors he would consider a very unfair match ; and 
 he would be still more surprised to hear that in these contests 
 for Scholarships, the successful Second-year men beat all the 
 Third-year — it is a sine qua non that they should — those who 
 have not another chance being naturally favored above those 
 who have, cceteris paribus. But this is partly accounted for by 
 the fact that five or six of the best men in the third year are 
 out of the w^ay, having themselves been chosen scholars in 
 their second year. The whole number of men making up the 
 two years is about one hundred and seventy, and some seventy 
 of these usually present themselves for the vacant Scholarships, 
 which are from twelve to twenty in number, but generally less 
 than fifteen. The successful candidates of the second year are 
 usually to those of the third in the proportion of five to eight. 
 This examination does not difter from the May merely in being 
 optional ; another very important distinction consists in the 
 absence of subjects fixed beforehand ; the candidates go in 
 trusting to their general knowledge. At the same time there 
 is not an unlimited selection from the Classics, as in the Tripos 
 and the University Scholarships ; the candidate need not expect 
 to find any Pindar, Aristophanes, or Aristotle, any Persius, or 
 Lucretius, on the papers ; and seldom will there be any Plato, 
 
 * Except in some rare cases, as when a member of anotlier college is 
 c-liosen Fellow.
 
 ENGLISH CNIVEKSITV. 87 
 
 ^scbylus or Theocritus, Plautus or Juvenal. lu Greek, 
 Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, 
 Xenophon, and Demosthenes ; in Latin, Virgil and Horace, 
 Cicero, Livy, and Tacitus, are the authors usually selected 
 from ; and this still leaves a pretty wide range, some of these 
 authors being sufficiently voluminous. The Mathematical pa- 
 pers do not go higher than may be supposed to fall within the 
 ordinary reading of a Third-year aspirant to Mathematical 
 Honors. They are only half as many in number as the Clas- 
 sical papers, and probably do not count more than half as 
 much ; at any rate the examination is more favorable to Clas- 
 sical than to Mathematical men ; a good Classic may get a 
 Scholarship with the least possible quantity of Mathematics — 
 say twenty marks out of four hundred — a Mathematician 
 equally deficient in Classics must be first-rate indeed in his 
 branch to succeed. In the present year (1842) it looked as if 
 these proportions were to be somewhat more equahzed, owing 
 to a change in the head of afi"airs. Our master, Dr. Christopher 
 Wordsworth (brother of the poet), had resigned and was suc- 
 ceeded by Dr. AVhewell. 
 
 Dr. Whewell's accession to the Mastership of Trinity might 
 well have been an era in the history of that " royal and reli- 
 gious foundation." The new Head was a gentleman of most 
 commanding personal appearance, and the very sound of his 
 powerful voice betokened no ordinary man. He was a 
 remarkably good rider even in a country of horsemen, and. the 
 anecdote was often told, and not altogether repudiated by him, 
 how in his younger days, about the time of his ordination, a 
 pugilist in whose company he accidentally found himself while 
 travelling, audibly lamented that such lusty thews and sinews 
 should be thrown away on a parson. AVith these physical 
 advantages was combined a knowledge almost literally uni- 
 versal. Some people are said to know a little of everything ; 
 he might be truly said to know a great; deal of everything. 
 Second Wrangler of his year. Professor of Mineralogy, and 
 afterwards of Moral Philosophy,'-'' author of a Bridgewater 
 
 * Technically onlleil Coxiii.ifru in th" T'niversify, and sniripfimes 
 Moral Tfieoloc/i/.
 
 88 TIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Treatise, and writer on a diversity of sulijects, scientific and 
 ethical, ho kept up liis Classics to an extent unusual for a sci- 
 ontilic man, and did not neglect the lighter walks of literature. 
 His name is on tlie list of the Cambridge Prize Poets, and is 
 also known in connexion witli several translations from the 
 German. In conversation it was scarcely possible to start a 
 su})ject without finding liim at home in it. A story is current 
 about him, not absolutely authenticated, but certainly of the 
 se non vero ben trovato sort, that some of the Dons who were 
 tired of hearing him explain everything, and enlighten every- 
 body in Combination room, laid a trap to catch him in this 
 wise. They determined to get themselves up thoroughly in 
 some very out-of-the-way topic, and introduce it as if by acci- 
 dent on the first convenient occasion. Accordingly they pitched 
 upon something connected with China, either — for there are 
 two vei'sions of the story — Chinese musical instruments or the 
 Chinese game of Chess. Various odd books, and particularly a 
 certain volume of a certain Cyclopaedia, were dragged out of 
 their dusty repose and carefully perused. Next Sunday when 
 the College dignitaries and some stranger guests were marshalled 
 over their port and biscuit, the conspirators thoroughly primed, 
 and with their parts artistically distributed, watched their time 
 and adroitly introduced the prepared topic. One after the 
 other they let drop most naturally a quantity of strange erudi- 
 tion, marvellously astounding, no doubt, to the Small-College 
 Dons present, and apparently puzzling to the object of attack, 
 for he actually remained silent for a full quarter of an hour, till 
 just as the parties were congratulating themselves on their 
 complete success, he turned to the principal speaker, and re- 
 marked, " Oh, I see you've been reading the article I wrote for 
 such a Cyclopsedia in such a year." They gave it up after 
 that. 
 
 A man that knows so many things cannot know them all 
 perfectly, and is scarce likely to know any one of them with the 
 accuracy attainable by a man Avho has made that particular 
 branch his sjoeclalite ; and in England where the division of 
 mental, like that of mechanical labor, is carried out to a degree 
 which must be witupssefl and experienced to be conceived, it
 
 EN'GLISH UNIVERSITY. 89. 
 
 easily happened that Dr. "Whewell was looked down uj)on in 
 each of his pursuits by the man who had no other pursuit but 
 that one. In this respect he has been compared to Lord 
 Brougham, the extent of whose knowledge has destroyed all 
 chance of his accuracy and polish in any one branch of it ; but 
 there is this important difterence in Brougham's favor, that in 
 one thing — oratory — he stands among the first of his ago, 
 while it could not be said of Whewell that he had attained a 
 similar pre-eminence in any one branch. The mass of his gene- 
 ral knowledge, taken together, constituted his strengtli. There 
 •were few men of like pretensions to weigh or appreciate the 
 strength of this ; he Avas judged piecemeal, and part of him 
 taken for the whole, by men whose whole development and 
 training was partial. Sydney Smith's saying of him, "that 
 omniscience Avas his forte, and science his foible," was very 
 generally circulated and applauded. 
 
 But this ridiculed omniscience well fitted him for the head 
 of a great College, numbering among its members and pupils 
 men of so many different pursuits. In liberality and reach of 
 study, and acquaintance with general and foreign literature, 
 Cambridge is always before Oxford, and the Trinity men consider- 
 ably in advance of the other Cambridge collegians. It might 
 have been supposed that Whewell's accession to the Mastership 
 Avas the very thing they Avanted. Yet this event was anything 
 but Avelcome to the majority of both FelloAvs and Undergra- 
 duates, who, if their Avishes and votes could haA'e influenced the 
 matter,* Avould certainly have chosen either Dean Peacock or 
 Professor Sedgwick to rule over them. This repugnance 
 toAvards a gentleman so distinguished arose from some unfor- 
 tunate propensities of his, Avhich had been conspicuous enough 
 during his Tutorship, and Avhich it Avas correctly supposed 
 would be rather intensified than diminished by his elevation. 
 The Professor of Casuistry Avas an intolerable /ussy man — a 
 rigid martinet, Aveakly punctilious about trifles. Such a man, 
 hoAvever great his learning, or talents, or merit of any sort, 
 
 * Most of the College Headsliijis are at the <li?posal of the Crown.
 
 90 FIVK YEARS IN' AN 
 
 may perluips make a great Schoolmaster, but can never be a 
 good presiding officer over students of mature years. By 
 treating like schoolboys those nearly or quite arrived at the 
 age and dignity of men, he chafes and worries them to no 
 purpose, and some portion of the annoyance must at times 
 react upon himself. While leaving untouched actual abuses 
 (of which Trinity, like most old institutions, could boast a few 
 fat ones), our new master enforced petty and long neglected 
 regulations about walking over grass-plots, and crossing the 
 court without a cap and a gown at certain hours ; he revived 
 obsolete laws against the domestic variety of tiger, which 
 interdicted the possession of that useful animal to any but 
 Noblemen or Fellow Commoners ;'* he exacted the most rigor- 
 ous personal etiquette, causing it to be openly promulgated or 
 secretly circulated by the tutors that when Undergraduates 
 were invited to the conversaziones at the Lodge, they were 
 expected never to sit down in the Master's 2:»resence. By 
 these and similar proceedings he made himself very unpopular 
 with the mass of the students, and the classical men were 
 particularly annoyed at an avowed intention of changing the 
 plan on which Scholarships had been given. It was semi- 
 officially announced thi'ough the various tutors and other 
 College officers (the Master is not supposed to hold any 
 'personal communication with the Undergraduates in his 
 official capacity), that a certain modicum of Mathematics (I 
 forget how many marks, but certainly more than many of the 
 Classical men had been in the habit of aspiring to) — would be 
 absolutely insisted on, and the Classical papers of those who 
 did not come up to this standard would not be looked at. 
 The discontent that ensued was not of much importance in 
 itself, but has some interest as illustrating the antagonism of 
 Classics and Mathematics, and the absolute detestation in 
 
 * There were but few pensioners who " hung out" servants of their 
 own, which gave a worse air to the rule, as it seemed like a privilegium 
 against those few. Fellow-Commoners used to be an exception to 
 all laws, human and divine, at all the Colleges. I am not sure but 
 ihev are so still at some of the small ones.
 
 ENGLISH VNIVEHSITV. 91 
 
 which a majority of Classical men hold purely scientific studies. 
 Even in our colleges this is easy to remark, but in a foreign 
 University where both branches are carried out much further 
 and more thoroughly, the line is very strongly drawn. 
 " Double men," as proficients in both Classics and Mathematics 
 are termed, are very rare ; to make one, not only diversity of 
 talent, but a strong constitution is required. The work 
 demanded of a man reading for high Honors in both Triposes 
 is tremeadous, and every year increasing ; and the Calendar 
 does not show an average of two " Double Firsts" annually for 
 the last ten years out of one hundred and thirty-eight gradu- 
 ates in Honors and more than twice that number of graduates 
 altogether.* 
 
 The Classical men found the University Tripos regulations 
 which required them to go out in Mathematical Honors before 
 they could sit for Classical, exceedingly oppressive, but they 
 endured them as sturdily as their elders do the taxes ; it was 
 some compensation and consolation to be able to do without 
 the much disliked study at Trinity, and get Scholarships and 
 Fellowships by dint of Classics alone. For Trinity scholars 
 had been so utterly unmathematical as to go out among the 
 *oXXo/, and yet w'ere elected Fellows after it. The cases were 
 not very common to be sure, but they were numerous enough 
 for a precedent. To introduce into the College examinations 
 any restrictions like those which embarrassed the University 
 ones, was invading the votaries of Classic lore in their 
 very citadel. What particularly annoyed them was the 
 threatened loss of time — having to get up a certain quantity 
 of mathematics twice or three times instead of once; since 
 whatever they imbibed would be lost again in tlie intervals 
 from the middle of the second to the middle of the third year, 
 and thence to the last Long, or the term before the Degree ; 
 the intermediate presence of Classical work being sufficient to 
 drive it out, even if it had interest enough in itself to stand 
 any chance of being retained — which was not the case. They 
 
 * There v>'e.rQ fourteen Double Firsts between 18-40 and 1850.
 
 92 FIVK Vr.AllS IX AS 
 
 were willing to midorgo the unpleasant dose once for all at 
 the end of three years, but to take it once a year for three years 
 in succession, "svas imendurable. Even tlie Mathematicians did 
 not all agree vith the Master, their College pride getting the 
 better of their Professional and scientific amour propre. Not 
 believing that Trinity could be brought up to the Mathematical 
 point of Johns, they feared he would only endanger its 
 Classical superiority by his experiments. Ultimately this 
 requisition of a stated amount of Mathematics in the Scliolar- 
 sliip, after being enforced for a year or two, came to be 
 practically a dead letter. 
 
 But there is another inteiTuption to which all students 
 whether Classical or Mathematical, and whatever college they 
 belong to, are subject in the middle of their second year: and 
 which is note-worthy as showing the mutual independence of, 
 or in fact conflict between tlie public and private instruction 
 often to be observed at Cambridge. This interruption is the 
 Previous Examination commonly called the Little Go (at 
 Oxford the Smalls), being the former of the only two examina- 
 tions required by the University for the B. A. degree. It is 
 held near the end of the Lent (second) Term. The subjects 
 are partly constant and partly variable ; the variable ones, of 
 which notice is given c year in advance, are a Greek author, a 
 Latin author, and one of the four Gospels ; the only constant 
 subject at this time was Paley's Evidences. Author in the last 
 sentence must be taking in a limited sense, as denoting one 
 Book of Homer, Herodotus, Livy, or Tacitus, two short dia- 
 logues of Plato, one Greek Tragedy, or the like. The exami- 
 nation involves a little viva voce, and it was said that if a man 
 did his viva voce well, none of his papers were looked at but 
 the Paley. As it is only a pass examination, the examinees are 
 arranged alphabetically, except a comparatively few, perhaps a 
 fourth or fifth of the whole number, who have only just passed, 
 and for whose special benefit a Second Class is provided. 
 
 It will be seen from the above statement that there is 
 nothing in the Little Go to occupy a good school-boy of fifteen 
 more than three or four months ; and for a Second year Cantab
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 93 
 
 of good standing, there is really nothing to prepare except the 
 Paley ; he might without danger trust to the hght of nature 
 for his Classics, or if scrupulous to run no risk, read them up 
 sufficiently for practical purposes in three days, and the same 
 time properly applied would make him master of his Eviden- 
 ces.'* Nevertheless the Classical men do grumhle a little, 
 chiefly I imagine on account of the two or three daj^s con- 
 sumed in the examination which some of them can ill spare at 
 that juncture, and because they can gain no credit in a pass 
 examination and may get disgraced by dropping into the 
 second class through some carelessness in Paley. Ou the 
 Mathematical men it comes rather harder; some of them, 
 especially in the Small Colleges, are much behindhand in their 
 Classics, and require some time to get up their subjects. But I 
 believe no one of any mathematical eminence ever was plucked 
 for the Little Go, though some have been placed in the second 
 class ; and it is so obvious that a Second-year collegian ought 
 to know Classics enough to pass such an examination, that no 
 attempt has ever been made to alter it in the Avay of diminution. 
 But within the last three years, as one of a system of changes 
 tending to equalize the requirements from ISIathematicians 
 and Classics, two books of Euclid and ordinary Arithmetic were 
 added ; and about the same time a knowledge of Old Testa- 
 ment History was made a requisite. 
 
 There is a Third Examination during the Lent Term, in 
 which Second-year men may be candidates, though the number 
 who avail themselves of the opportunity is not large — The Uni- 
 versity Scholarship. I say Scholarship, for though there are 
 several on difterent foundations, it has been so arranged that 
 one is vacant every year and seldom more than one ;f the 
 
 * Some of the technical memory artifices for getting up Paley were 
 not unamusing, for instance the eleven proofs of New Testament 
 authenticity were abbreviated into two barbarous Hexameters, thus : 
 Quoted, sui generis, distinct tit., publicly, comment. 
 Both sides, gospel, epist., adversa., catalogue, apocry. 
 \ There have been two vacancies together three times in the last ten 
 years. The Foundations are four, the Craven, Battle, Davies, and Pitt, 
 to which a new one, the Parson, has just been added. The annual 
 emolument vaines from £30 to £V.5.
 
 94 FIVE VKAKS IN AX 
 
 exaTiiiners and stylo of examination are tlie same for them 
 all, and they may be practically considered as one and the 
 same. The examination is open to all Underfjradnates, butthe 
 competition lies chiefly among those of the Third year. It 
 includes more Latin composition than the Tripos, ajid even a 
 ■wider range of authors, embracing Athenai'us, the comic frag- 
 ments, and such out-of-the-way subjects which enter into no 
 other examination. Yet it sometimes happens that a Second- 
 year man is the successful candidate, and there are rare instan- 
 ces of a Freshman gaining the prize. A large proportion of 
 the candidates are from that year ; the Freshman, not being 
 definitely settled to his work, or having his relative place at all 
 assigned him, tries more experiments than the Junior Soph, 
 who, having more definite and immediate objects in view, is 
 unwilling to bo drawn aside by a useless competition with 
 better men. It might be supposed that the exercise and prac- 
 tice afforded by the examination would attract many in all the 
 years, and so no doubt they would, if the individual results 
 could be got at; but as only the best ten or twelve have any 
 means of hearing even in the most indirect way how they liave 
 acquitted themseves, the great end of an examination — to cor- 
 rect errors and ascertain progress — is not attainable. Where 
 but one man's standing is to be decided out of some eighty, of 
 course the first object is to eliminate the candidates who have 
 no chance, and whom a few of the Composition papers may 
 effectually dispose of Probably there are never more than a 
 dozen or fifteen whose papers are carefully collected, and 
 whose comparative standing the examiners themselves could tell 
 with accuracy. This year (1842), a Johnian gained the Scholar- 
 ship, which usually falls to a Trinity, or King's man. 
 
 All the examinations above mentioned take place after the 
 first term. But the Johnians have split their May, throwing 
 back the easier subjects into an examination at the end of the 
 Michaelmas term. In the third year of Whewell's administra- 
 tion he introduced a somewhat similar examination into Trinity, 
 but only for the Junior Sophs. These half examinations, from 
 being partial and not very difficult, have only a moderate im- 
 portance attached t<5 them. They make their First Class ra-
 
 ENGLISH INIVERSITV. 95 
 
 ther smaller than that of the Freshman May. When it is stat- 
 ed in addition that some of the Small Colleges also split their 
 Second-year examination as well as their Freshman, and that 
 some of them have a volmitary Classical examination, Ave have 
 completed our enumeration of the tests, College and University, 
 voluntary and compulsory, to Avhich the Second-year man or 
 Junior Soph is liable, and in v^hich he is personally interested 
 up to the end of his Lent Term. But these do not usually oc- 
 cupy his attention so entirely as to prevent him from taking a 
 lively interest in the great University examinations, the Mathe- 
 matical Tripos in January, and the Classical Tripos in February. 
 For he now begins to understand more of the working of these, 
 and to know, by reputation at least, the prominent candidates 
 for Honors from his own College, and to be anxious about this 
 Mathematical friend who hopes to be among the first Ten, and 
 that Classical acquaintance who is in danger of the gulf. 
 
 It has been mentioned that the University Scholarship was 
 this year borne off by a Johnian. En revanche we triumphed 
 in both Triposes, having in Mathematics the Senior Wrangler 
 (who is almost always as a matter of course a Johnian), and in 
 Classics the Senior Classic and Senior Medallist, as usual. 
 Some circumstances worth mentioning attended these exami- 
 nations. Our Trinity Senior Wrangler (we have one so seldom 
 that he is prone to be an object of curiosity and a pet) was a 
 crooked little man, in no respect a beauty, and not in the least 
 a beau. On the day of his triumph, when he was to receive 
 his hard-earned honors in the Senate House, some of his friends 
 combined their energies to dress him, and put him to rights 
 properly, so that his appearance might not be altogether 
 unworthy of his exploits and his College. He had generally 
 the reputation of being a mere Mathematician, which did him 
 great injustice, for he was really a man of much varied infor- 
 mation, and that on some subjects the very opposite of 
 scientific — for instance he was well up in all the current novels, 
 an uncommon thing at Cambridge, where novel reading is not 
 one of the popular Aveaknesses. His Johnian competitor, who 
 was a fearfully hard reader, and had once worked twenty hours
 
 90 FIVK VEARS IN AN" 
 
 a-day for a week toj>;etlier at a College cxaiuination, almost 
 broke down from over exertion just as the time of trial was 
 coming on, and found himself actually obliged to carry a 
 supply of ether and other stimulants into the examination, in 
 case of accidents. Nevertheless he made a good light of it, 
 and having great pace as well as style in addition to his know- 
 ledge, beat the Trinity man a little on the bookwork, but was 
 beaten two hundred marks in problems, which decided the 
 contest. One of the low bookwork papers to which three liours 
 were allotted happening to be rather shorter than usual, the 
 Johnian, either as a bit of bravado to frighten his opponent, or 
 because liaving done all that could be done he had no reason 
 for waiting longer, came out at the expiration of two hours, 
 having floored the paper in that time, llis early exit did not 
 escape notice, and the same evening a Trinity Senior Soph 
 rushed up in great fear to the room of his fiiend, on whom the 
 
 hopes of our College depended. " C ! C ! they tell 
 
 me S floored the paper this aftei'noon in two hours. Is it 
 
 so !" The Mathematician, who was refreshing himself after 
 the fatigues of the da}?- with the innocent and economical luxury 
 of a footbath, looked up at the querist from his tub with the 
 equanimity of a Diogenes, and replied : " Likely enough he did. 
 I floored it myself in two hours and a half." The examination 
 for the Smitli's Prizes which takes j^lace immediately after the 
 result of the Mathematical Tripos is declared, and which serves 
 to rectify or confirm the arrangement of the first three or four 
 Wranglers, had a similar result ; our man beat liis opponent, 
 but with nothing to spare. 
 
 The Senior Classic was a nobleman's son, also distinguished 
 as one of the best oars on the river. He had moreover been 
 Captain (Head) of the Poll, for it is a privilege of noblemen's 
 sons that they go out in Classics by first passing the ordinary 
 degree examination instead of the Mathematical. This, and 
 ^obtaining a degree by seven terms residence instead of ten 
 (making just a year's difFerenee)," are the only unfair privi- 
 leges they enjoy. The reason assigned for both is the same—: 
 
 * This also involves their exemption from Little Go.
 
 EXULISU UNIVERSITY. 97 
 
 that they may be wanted in public life at an earlier age than 
 the other students ; and the intention evidently was, that those 
 going out in Classics through the Poll should do so after a 
 residence of two years and a half. But as this, though the 
 spirit, is not the letter of the law, some of them take advantage 
 of the double chance, and enjoy the same length of time for 
 Classical preparation as the other students, without being 
 hampered by the Mathematical examination. On the other 
 hand there are instances of young men who have chivalrously 
 refused to avail themselves of this advantage, and have gone 
 out in the Mathematical Tripos along with the mass of Classi- 
 cal students. The privilege holds good, even if the nobleman 
 has entered as a Pensioner, but it does not extend to the 
 Chancellor's Medals, all candidates for which are requii-ed to be 
 Senior Optimes. The great damage done to the Classical men 
 the year before, and the outcry it occasioned, made the Mathe- 
 matical examiners very lenient this time. No Classic was 
 plucked, and the Senior Optime list stretched down to include 
 as many as possible. But some of our Scholars had already 
 gone out among the ifoXkol through fear of the result. Both 
 the Medallists were Trinity men ; the Second Avas only sixth on 
 the Tripos. 
 
 When the examination for the Trinity Scholarships arrived, 
 it may be su^jposed I was in no condition to present myself. 
 Indeed I had a double disqualification exclusive of illness. 
 First as a Fellow Commoner, for they, being considered men 
 of fortune, are not eligible to a Scholarship or Fellowship 
 involving a stipendiary emolument. (This is not the case 
 everywhere ; Fellow Commoners can be scholars at some of 
 the Small Colleges.) Secondly, as a hye-term man or one 
 between two years. Although I had entered into residence at 
 the same time with those men who were to go out in 1844, 
 my name had not been placed on the College Books, like 
 theirs, previous to the commencement of 1840. I had there- 
 fore lost a term, and for most purposes was considered a 
 Freshman, though I had been in residence as long as any of 
 
 5
 
 98 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 the Juniur Sophs.* In fact I was between two years — a posi- 
 tion rather advantageous to a man who comes to the Uni- 
 versity witli little knowledge of it, for after measuring and 
 testing his acquirements and capacity, he can choose whether 
 he will go out in Honors a year earlier or later, and thus 
 virtually degrade.f And if he becomes a Scholar of Trinity, 
 and wishes to go out along with the men with whom he 
 entered into residence, he will have an additional year to read 
 for his Fellowship, for though he may pass the Mathematical 
 examination with them, his B. A. and consequently his M. A. 
 come later than theirs. 
 
 At the time of the examination I was not in Cambridge at 
 all. I had gone to Paris for medical advice, in company with 
 my friend and former coach, who having gained his Fellowship 
 the October previous, and not being quite decided as to his 
 future plans, was not a very regular resident, and had not 
 overburdened himself with pupils. He took care of me and 
 bantered me alternately — a treatment which did me no harm 
 in the end, and amused him greatly for the time. An invalid 
 who cannot ascend two pair of stairs without feeling the worse 
 for it, is not exactly in a condition to appreciate or enjoy the 
 pleasures of the gay French capital ; my stay was only long 
 enough to consult (without benefit) the physician to whom I 
 had been recommended. 
 
 I shall not easily forget the difference between this and my 
 next visit to Paris. It was in the Spring of 1845, when I was 
 restored to almost perfect health, and had just been recruiting 
 after my final examination (the Classical Tripos), by a month's 
 idlness and generous living. For eight days I had been 
 lionizing Belgium under the disadvantages of continual rain, 
 
 * Twelve terms are required to be kept by the vStatutes, but that 
 during which the name is entered, and that during which the degree 
 is taken, are included in the number, making only ten terms of actual 
 residence. 
 
 \ Degrading, or going back a year, is not allowed except in case of 
 illness (proved by a Doctor's certificate). A man degrading for any 
 other reason cannot go out afterwards in Honors.
 
 ENGLISH UXIVERSITV. 99 
 
 and during those eight days had worn out more tlian one i)air 
 of boots over the pavements of Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp. 
 The rainiest day of all was tliat on which I left Brussels in the 
 Diligence for Paris, and a weary trip I had, arriving some- 
 where about midnight at my destination. The next morning 
 was Sunday. The sun shone out as brightly as if he had been 
 undergoing repairs and decorations during his temporary 
 retirement — warm but not sultry, as an April sun is wont 
 to shine between the rains. My entresol looked out on the 
 gardens of the Tuileries, which I could see were thronged with 
 people in their holiday clothes. I began to ha\e recollection 
 of the time when I used to play exquisite in Broadway, and the 
 thought occurred to me as I proceeded to overhaul my trunks, 
 that a man Avho had hardly been out of his University for 
 three years was likely to be somewhat behind the Parisian 
 fashions — or any other. However 1 did the best I could with 
 myself, and strolled into the crowd. It seemed as if all the 
 inhabitants of Paris had poured into those gardens — men, 
 women, and children, all equally well dressed, gay, happy, and 
 as sparkling as the beautiful fountains that were flashing in the 
 sunshine. Such a contrast to my English associations, and to the 
 Belgic mud and rain I had just encountered ! On, on I 
 walked, through the Place de Concorde, and up the Champs 
 Elysees, among the stalls, and the itinerant merchants, and 
 the goat-omnibuses full of rejoicing children, and the children 
 of a larger growth who looked so merry on every side ; and it 
 was only at the foot of the Arc d'Etoile that I began to feel 
 the want of that necessary fortification for the day which 
 consists in the matutinal repast. Certainly there is no city or 
 place in the world like Paris for pure amusement, no such 
 place to recruit after hard work, when you have a few weeks 
 to devote to idle enjoyment, good dinners, and collecting 
 apparel for the outer man, and trinkets for your friends. How 
 far it is a place for a foreigner to reside in who has any rational 
 and permanent object of life in this world, or any serious 
 thoughts of the next, is another question. 
 
 The result of the Scholarship Examination had just been
 
 100 FIVE VEAItS IX AN- 
 
 dechired when I retuined to Cambridge, and the Master's 
 threat had been partially executed. Some Classical men of 
 the third year, and one in particular' of tlie second, had been 
 thrown overboard for doing no Matlieinatics. Besides this, there 
 Avas the usual number of disappointments. One of the 
 unsuccessful candidates iiilgraled — a common event on tliese 
 occasions. A migration is generally tantamount to a confession 
 of inferiority, and acknowledgment that the migrator is not 
 likely to become a Fellow of his own College, and therefore 
 takes refuge in another where a more moderate Degree will 
 insure him a Fellowship. A great deal of this migration goes 
 on from John's to the Small Colleges ; Sidney is almost a 
 colony of second-rate Johuians ; at Christ's for three years 
 successively wdiile I was an Undergraduate, the first man was 
 an emio-rant from John's. Sometimes the miijratintr man turns 
 out a dark horse, and stands very high at last ; it proved so in 
 the present case. More rarely it happens that a good man 
 from the start migrates out of John's or Trinity to save himself 
 trouble, because at another College he will be given a Fellow- 
 ship merely for his Degree — that is, for his place in the 
 Mathematical or Classical Tripos, without having to undergo 
 the additional subsequent examination. Sometimes also, a 
 Bachelor migrates for the same reason. The Small College 
 Scholarships and Fellowships, it may be remarked, are not 
 inferior to those of Trinity in pecuniary value ; on the contrary 
 they are generally more lucrative. It is a question of profit 
 against honor.* 
 
 The five or six Second-year men who gain Scholarships at 
 their first trial are considered to have won some honor thereby, 
 and to have a fair prospect of being among the best men of 
 
 * There are some Bije-Fellowships liowever in tlie small colleges, 
 whose value is merely nominal — some £5 or £6 a-year. These are in 
 no great demand and are usually given to inferior men. Sometimes 
 they serve to keep good men from being siiperannuated (in Colleges 
 where a man cannot be made Follow after he has attained a certain 
 [University] age), since a Bye-Fellow can be elected to one of the 
 regular Fellowships when a vacancy occurs.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 101 
 
 their year in the University. But this does not invariably fol- 
 low. It frequently happens that some of them take a lower 
 degree than those who arc chosen Scholars at their second 
 trial. Clever and industrious men who have come up not too 
 well prepared sometimes take nearly two years before the 
 effect of their " coaching" shows itself, and then take a great 
 start and develop rapidly in the third year ; while those who 
 begin on an excellent preparation are not unfrequently rendered 
 lazy by their second year's triumph. The cases Avhich have 
 occurred of a man who missed his Scholarships altogether beat- 
 ing in the Senate House one who gained his at the first trial, 
 may be in a great measure attributed to this, want of success 
 having piqued the former to exertion during the important 
 " last Long," while success, perhaps unlooked for, at an early 
 period has made the other careless and indolent. Something, 
 however, is due to the difference of the examinations in some 
 essential particulars. The narrower range of authors in the 
 College Scholarship has been already noticed. But besides 
 this, it contains no Greek composition, and Greek composition 
 in the Tripos counts more than Latin, and is indeed one fifth of 
 the whole examination. Then the time is allotted on a much 
 more liberal scale. You are allowed four hours for a less 
 amount of work than that to which the University assigns 
 three. In the Classical Tripos 2^(^<^^ is of the greatest conse- 
 quence ; a slow man stands a bad chance. In the Trinity 
 Scholarship there is plenty of time to polish up. Sometimes it 
 liappens that a Second-year Scholar does badly in the Univer- 
 sity examinations, and then acquits himself well for the Trinity 
 Fellowsliip. Three out of the six successful candidates in the 
 present year thus fell and recovered themselves, owing to the 
 combined influence of both causes. 
 
 When the new Scholars are declared, but a few weeks remain 
 before the May examination. The printed lists of this show 
 the telling of the pace in more ways than one. In the first 
 place the whole number of men in the year is sensibly dimi- 
 nished, about one fifth having fallen off. While from a hun- 
 dred to a hundred and twenty go in at the first year's examina-
 
 102 FIVE yrARS in an 
 
 tion, only from eiglity to a. liundrod present tliemselvos at that 
 of tlie second.* Then the first class is cut down to half or less 
 than lialf its original dimensions, averaf^iiiu^ about eleven. This, 
 however, is not altogether owing to the hard work having its 
 effect, and men giving up or breaking dt)\vn in the second year 
 who were industrious and successful in their first. The examin- 
 ation this year is principally Mathematical. The only strictly 
 Classical paper is one on some dialogue of Plato. There is 
 another on the Diatessaron (the Four Gospels) chiefly " cram," 
 and three short papers in " morals" — Paloy's iVaiwraZ Theology, 
 Stewart's Outlines, and Jhitler^s Three Sermons on JIaman 
 Nature. These three, with the Eleventh Book of Euclid, are 
 put into one long session of five hours. The other six papers 
 are INIathematica], Statics, Dynamics, Theory of Equations, 
 Conic Sections, Spherical Ti'igonomctiy, Difi'erential and Inte- 
 gral Calculus, and one paper of Problems on all the su1)jects. 
 Now it is quite possible for a Classical man, by polishing up 
 carefully the Morals and Greek Testament and Plato (with the 
 aid of the Euclid wliich is given him as a sort of sop), to get 
 marks enough for a First Class, especially as the standard is 
 two hundred marks lower than it was the first year. But the 
 prize is not generally considered worth the expenditure of 
 time. The votar}^ of Classics is now beginning to keep a 
 single eye on the Tripos, and is not easily drawn aside from 
 Ills pursuit of a high place in that, and no one thinks the worse 
 of him for being as low even as the Sixth Class in the May 
 examination. Indeed, so far from success now insuring it to 
 him hereafter, to stand high in the second May is rather 
 against his chance of a good position on the Tripos, as the 
 time which has been dovoted to the particular " cram," is so 
 much taken from his general practice in translation and com- 
 position. On the whole there is not very hard working for 
 this May as compared with the first, except among the best 
 two or three in Mathematics, who are beginning to struggle 
 
 * The number of posts, cegrotats, men absent on leave, <feo., no more 
 than seven or eight in any case, is about the same for both years.
 
 ENGLTSH UNIVEHSITT. 108 
 
 for their places, and with them it is rather the result of their 
 contemporary reading with their private tutors than of special 
 study for the examination. If he who has been decidedly the 
 best Mathematician in his first year comes out as decidedly 
 superior in this, he may be considered pretty safe for the high- 
 est Wranglership out of Trinity ; but if one or two others who 
 were then close behind him are now a second time not far 
 in his rear, there is a very good chance that their places may 
 be changed next year, or at any rate in the Degree examina- 
 tion. Some men drop out of a good place this year by tempo- 
 rary misdirection and want of concentration of their powers, 
 and not having their Mathematical abilities as yet fully deve- 
 loped by steady and exclusive application. These come up 
 again in the third year and are ultimately among the high 
 Wranglers. From a variety of causes, the principal of which 
 have been enumerated, the standard of marks is comparatively 
 low ; frequently the first man has not more than fifteen hun- 
 dred. 
 
 Once or twice during the winter, as fallacious symptoms of 
 recovery showed themselves, I had vague thoughts of readino- 
 for this examination ; but I never was well enough to master 
 even the Classical subject, and after reading a few pages of the 
 Phaedo, and attending three or four lectures on it, was obliged 
 to give up from sheer weakness and inability to sit an hour in 
 a crowded room. It was a great deprivation to me, for our 
 Plato lecturer was a remarkable man, and though his readings 
 had not at that time the University celebrity which they after- 
 wards acquired, for it was only the third year of his course, 
 they had already deservedly attracted a large attendance. I 
 was compelled to remain in the busy place an idle looker-on. 
 The dancer with a sprained ancle, the horseman with his bridle- 
 hand disabled, the rower with a broken oar, the epicure con- 
 demned by his physician to hospital diet — are all to be pitied 
 for their tantalizing plight ; but none of them are so deserving 
 commiseration as a young man eager for the acquisition of 
 knowledge, with everything around tempting him to it, and 
 every one about him engaged in the pursuit, yet forced by the
 
 104 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 instinct of self-preservation to be systematically idle, and lie 
 like a boat aijround, seeing others float by liira. Something of 
 this has been my lot ever since ; I cannot even now write or 
 study eight hours a-day for six days consecutively (even with 
 the most eimple and abstemious regimen), without being quite 
 worn out and obliged to strike work at the end of the week. 
 
 The examination was over and the students dispersing. 
 One who has continued to be a reading man up to the end of 
 the second year is generally pretty safe to go on as such, but 
 it not unfrequently happens that he now drops the intention of 
 being a " double man," and concentrates himself upon Mathe- 
 matics. I was left for a while almost alone. Some were going 
 on reading parties, some taking a holiday before settling down 
 to their work in the " Long." About this time I did one wise 
 thing, which was to " throw physic to the dogs," and thence- 
 forward I began slowly to improve. Recovery being evidently 
 a work of time, I resolved to stay quietly where I was, and 
 some mental occupation being necessary, began to read a little 
 again merely for diversion. First I attacked Aristophanes, as 
 the most amusing author, and working a couple of hours every 
 morning Avent through seven plays, which, added to my former 
 knowledge, enabled me to say that I had read the old Come- 
 dian all through, and though from the circumstances of the 
 case my reading was not very thorough, still it laid a founda- 
 tion for future revision, and I had mastered the author's voca- 
 bulary, no small part of his difficulty. My work was done at 
 a standing desk ; I was not able to stoop or bend over a table. 
 Very many of the students, even those in the best health, have, 
 as a means of keeping so, adopted the plan of reading on the 
 feet, which I believe is also very common in Germany. It is 
 certainly the healthiest way, and after a few trials not at all 
 fatiguing even to an invalid, though one is apt to think it must 
 be before trying it. In the evening I used to take Horace and 
 revive my old recollections of the Satires and Epistles, using an 
 edition with copious notes, which I could look over while lean- 
 ing back in my arm-chair, and seldom having occasion for a 
 dictionary. This was light occupation, in which an hour or
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 105 
 
 sometimes more passed away pleasantly. After fiuisliing in this 
 Avay the review of Horace, I took up the Tusculau Questions, 
 the First Book of which I had read before (indeed had stood 
 an examination at Yale on the whole five), but even in that 
 First Book I had enough to learn. Still the verbal difficulties 
 were not numerous ; and to read Cicero leisurely, translating 
 his elegant Latin into the choicest English you can find, is an 
 interesting and not unprofitable occupation. After Aristophanes, 
 I took up Thucydides, and read the Sixth and Seventh Books, 
 but not in a way to know much about them — indeed, it is not 
 until after having gone over it for the third time, and that very 
 carefully, that you can feel at all sure of any difficult passage 
 in that author. With the Ilippolytus of Euripides I did more, 
 getting it up well, and not merely in a philological, but also in 
 a literary point of view, for the purpose of comparing it Avith 
 Seneca's Hippolytus and Kacine's Phedre, which I read imme- 
 diately after, and made a comparative synopsis of these three 
 plays on the same subject. This sketch I found among my 
 papers while writing these pages, and insert it here, as it may 
 not be without interest to some. I have never seen the three 
 plays collated in detail elsewhere. 
 
 Euripides' hippolytus. 
 
 The scene is laid at Troezene. 
 
 Aphrodite prologizes. 
 
 Hippolytus brings a crown of flowers to Artemis (thence the 
 name of the play 'ItfTroXuToj STsqoavrj^opo?). An attendant ad- 
 vises him to pay homage to Venus, which he refuses to do. 
 
 The chorus mourns the condition of Phaedra, and wonders 
 whether it is caused by some off'ended Deity or by bad news 
 of her husband. 
 
 The nurse extorts with difficulty her secret from Phaedra. 
 The Queen cannot bring herself to pronounce the fatal name, 
 but draws it from the nurse by a question. She confesses to 
 the chorus her irresistible passion, and resolves to die. The 
 nurse endeavors to persuade her that her desires may be grati- 
 fied, but failing to do so, pretends that she has a potion which 
 
 5*
 
 106 FIVE YICARS IN AN 
 
 can alleviate thoin. The chorus sings the power of Aphrodite 
 as illustrated in the cases of lole and Semele. 
 
 llippolvtus enters reviling the nurse, who implores him not 
 to betray her. Here occurs tlie famous line, 
 
 (^[y tongue has sworn it, but my mind has not.) 
 
 lie accuses the whole race of "women, and leaves them in 
 horror. Phaedra reproaches the nurse. The chorus laments 
 her fote. She liangs herself. 
 
 Theseus returns from Delos whither he had gone as a dsupog. 
 He finds a letter from his wife accusing Ilippolytus of having 
 forced her. He imprecates the curse on liiin. Ilippolytus is 
 loaded Avith reproaches and driven away. The chorus prays 
 for a humble fortune, and laments his banishment. 
 
 A messenger announces the death of Ilippolytus (the 
 monster is simply described as ruv^og ay^iov ri^ag). The chorus 
 confesses the powder of Aphrodite and Eros. 
 
 Artemis appears, and discloses the truth to Theseus. Hippo- 
 lytus is brought in dying. ,He forgives his father, and Artemis 
 declares that she will avenge him, and that due honors shall be 
 paid to his memory. 
 
 THE PSEUDO-SENECA's HIPPOLYTUS. 
 
 It is the most simple of the three plays in its action. 
 The scene is laid at Athens (not Troezene as in Euripides 
 and Racine.) 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Hippolytus gives his servants directions for the chase- 
 Phfedra and the nurse enter. The fatal secret of Phaedra's 
 passion is already/ known to the latter. She exhorts the Queen 
 to subdue it. Phnedra still clings to the idea that it may be 
 gratified, but at length, convinced by the nurse, prepares to 
 kill herself. The nurse is now overcome and departs to broach 
 the subject to Ilippolytus. The chorus sings the power of love.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. lOY 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Phaedra directs her servants to attire her as an Amazon. 
 The nurse implores the aid of Hecate (!) and addresses Hippo- 
 lytus, advising him to taste the joys of social life. He replies 
 with a beautiful panegyric on rustic felicity, one of those 
 purpurei paimi which frequently occur in the pseudo-Seneca, 
 winding up with a general condemnation of the fair sex. 
 Phsedra enters and faints in his arms. She avows her love 
 herself. He is about to slay her, but at her entreaties spares 
 her life, throws away his sword as polluted by her touch, and 
 flies horror-struck. The nurse cries for help, and accuses him 
 of having violated his step-mother. The chorus prays that the 
 beauty of Hippolytus may not prove his ruin. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Theseus returns from Hades, where he has been four years. 
 He finds Phredra about to slay herself. She herself accuses 
 Hippolytus. Theseus imprecates the curse of Neptune upon 
 him. Hipiiolytiis and Theseus do not meet. The chorus 
 complains that the gods do not regulate the affairs of men so 
 carefully as they do those of the inanimate world. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 A messenger announces the death of Hippolytus. The mon- 
 ster is described with great minuteness of detail. The question 
 of Theseus which leads to this description (" Quis habitus ille 
 corporis vasti fuit ?") has a bad effect, as it breaks the unity of 
 the narrative. The death of Hippolytus is also described in 
 detail. He is represented as literally torn to pieces and his 
 body scattered in so many fragments that it is impossible to 
 find them all. The chorus sings the instability of fortune, in- 
 troducing, inter alia, this queer conceit : 
 
 " Metuens cceIo Jupiter alto 
 
 Vicina petit" (strikes the places that approach it in height.) 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Phaedra confesses her falsehood, and kills herself before The-
 
 308 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 seus, wlio laments his condition, and 2m is tor/ether (he pieces of 
 his son's bo(b/ for burial. This is enough to show that the 
 play Avas only intended for the closet. 
 
 The chief peculiarities of this play are, 1st, that the author 
 makes no attempt to diminish I'luudra's culpability, hut rather 
 strives to set it forth in all its odiousness. She laments not so 
 much the unholiness of her passion, as that it meets with no 
 return. Nor does tlie nurse prevail on her to do Avrong (as in 
 Euripides and Racine) but on the contrary she persuades th© 
 unwilling nurse to aid her. 2d, that the nurse knows Phaedra's 
 love from the first. 3d, that Theseus and Hippolytus do not 
 meet after the accusation. 
 
 Three great defects. 
 
 racine's phedre. 
 
 Racine has followed Euripides more closely than the pseudo- 
 Seneca did. 
 
 The scene is laid at Troezene. 
 
 There is a secondary plot, the love of Hippolytus for Aricia, 
 the sole surviving descendant of Pallas. 
 
 ACT r. 
 
 Hippolytus declares, to his preceptor Theramenes, his inten- 
 tion of going in search of his father, from which the other vain- 
 ly endeavors to dissuade him. 
 
 Qj^none, Phjedra's nurse, wrings from her the fatal secret. 
 (It is disclosed by means of a question as in Euripides.) Phse- 
 dra declares that she has long struggled against her passion, 
 but in vain, and must die. 
 
 Panope, an attendant, announces the death of Theseus. 
 (Enone suggests a marriage with Hippolytus. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Hippolytus, who has asked an interview with Aricia, de- 
 clares his intention of making her Queen of Athens, himself 
 taking Trcezene, and Phaedra's son, Crete. He also confesses 
 his love.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 109 
 
 PLpedra, ^vho Las likewise asked an interview with liim, con- 
 fesses her passion herself (here Racine has followed the pseudo- 
 Seneca). He does not load him with reproaches, but what he 
 says is to the point. She implores him to kill her, or at least 
 to lend her his sword, which she takes. Qj]none carries her 
 off. Theramenes announces that Phaedra's son has been chosen 
 king, but that there is a rumor of the return of Theseus. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Ph.Tdra and OEnone resolve to try Hippolytus with the offer 
 of empire. On learning that Theseus has returned, CEnone 
 persuades the Queen to let her accuse Hippolytus of having 
 attempted to violate her. 
 
 Theseus returns from Epirus^ whence he has escaped after 
 being imprisoned there six months by the Molossian king, 
 whose dogs had devoured Pirithous. (Racine here follows the 
 Euemerizers.) Pheedra shuns his embrace, and Hippolytus 
 declares his intention of quitting Troezene. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 CEnone accuses Hippolytus. Theseus reproaches him and 
 imprecates the curse on him. Hij^polytus in defending himself 
 confesses his love for Aricia, and hints that Phaedra by her 
 descent is more likely to be moved by unnatural passions than 
 himself. (He may say this, not being bound by an oath as in 
 Euripides.) Phredra, on learning that Hippolytus loves Aricia, 
 becomes desperate and drives Q^none from her presence. 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Hippolytus promises Aricia that he will wed her at a temple 
 beyond the gates. She endeavors to convince Theseus of his 
 error. He begins to doubt and demands Q^]none, But she has 
 drowned herself. Theramenes announces the death of Hip- 
 polytus. (The monster is described with much spirit, more 
 minutely than by Euripides, less so than by the pseudo-Seneca.) 
 Hippolytus is represented as having lived only long enough to 
 address a few dying words to his preceptor. Phaedra confesses
 
 110 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 the falsity of lior accusation and dies, liaving poisoned herself. 
 Theseus declares his intention to adopt Aricia. 
 
 All such diversions would have l)een illegitimate for a regu- 
 lar reading man, but I read only for healthy mental occupation, 
 and because I could not leave the place which I sliould have 
 been too glad to abandon, could I by any possibility have 
 reached home. 
 
 As my work, even in the dilettante manner in which it was 
 carried on, had to be limited to less than four hours a day, 
 some of the time during which I was forced to be idle on prin- 
 ciple used to hang heavy on my hands. Miscellaneous novel 
 reading I had been pretty well surfeited with in my younger 
 days in New Haven. Exercise I could take none worth speak- 
 ing of; I could not ride, nor run, nor row, nor even handle a 
 billiard cue, and my walk was not more than a saunter. I used 
 to stroll about the College grounds, thinking of my native city, 
 which distance, and the impossibility of returning thither, had 
 invested with a coloring of romance and sentiment for me. 
 When I received a letter or newspaper from over the water, it 
 was a white day in my calendar. The next greatest pleasure 
 was the hebdomadal appearance of Punch, then in its very 
 prime. I can recollect every article of Thackeray's, and the 
 circumstances under which I read them — the hour of the day 
 (it was just after my scanty dinner that the paper used to 
 arrive), the green-curtained window looking out on the 
 grounds, the big-arm chair I sat in, and the little compromise 
 between a stand and a table in front of it. It happened that 
 there were fewer men up this Long than usual, and of the 
 Dons besides the Librarian, only one Fellow, who was supposed 
 to be at work on an endless book always advertised by the 
 University booksellers, but never likely to appear in actual 
 type. Even his company T could seldom enjoy, being scarcely 
 even able to dine in the Hall. 
 
 There was one event which broke in on the monotony of 
 this vacation. The Commencement, usually little more than a 
 form, was made a grand show by the Installation of a new 
 Chancellor. The Chancellor is the nominal Executive of the
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. Ill 
 
 University, but all his duties are performed by the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor, one of the Heads chosen in rotation, so that the office is 
 merely an honor to compliment some nobleman with. The 
 Commencement takes place during the first week in July, and 
 is the nominal ending of the Easter Term, which has vir- 
 tually concluded a month before. The real business done is 
 conferring the M. A. degrees, and reading the prize composi- 
 tions — that is to say, the Classical ones and the English poem, 
 for the recitation of the Theological Essays would be rather a 
 tedious affair, as they sometimes make a tolerably sized book. 
 The Latin Essays are read a few days before Commencement. 
 Almost the only parties in attendance are those personally inte- 
 rested. A few of the reading-men xip for the Long may drop 
 into the galleries, and some straggling townspeople be in the 
 body of the house. But on this occasion the scene was changed. 
 Cambridge was turned into a show place for that day only. 
 Gold-embroidered gowns of noblemen mingled with the red 
 gowns of Doctors of Divinity and Physic. Crowds of well- 
 dressed strangers thronged the beautiful College grounds, look- 
 ing as unamused as the great Anglo-Saxon race usually does 
 when it gets together in a crowd. The Senate-House Avas 
 thronged. All manner of big-wigs graced the scene and aug- 
 mented the dignity of the Duke of Northumberland. Some 
 one of the royal family was there — I forget who, but recollect 
 two oflttcers pushing the people out of his way. Prince Albert 
 came up to be made something or other, and put on some 
 extraordinary dress. Illustrious foreigners were not wanting. 
 Everett and Bunsen were created D. C. L's, and had red gowns 
 put over their diplomatic uniforms. The scandalous conduct 
 of some members of the other University to our distinguished 
 countryman when the same degree was conferred on him there 
 some time later, is unhappily notorious, but it is not so gene- 
 rally known that a difficulty — though of a different sort, founded 
 not on religious but on political grounds — was near occurring 
 at Cambridge. Some precise member of the Senate started 
 this objection : " We give Honorary Degrees only to persons 
 of royal blood, and Ambassadors are admissible to them merely 
 in their quality of representatives of crowned heads. Now Mr.
 
 ]12 FIVE YEAKS IN AN 
 
 Everett does not represent {i crowned bead ; how then can we 
 give liim a Degree ?" Fortunately some one recollected that 
 the American Minister was a D. C. L. of Trinity College, Dublin, 
 members of wliieh are admitted ad eiindcm f/radum at Cam- 
 bridge, which solved the difficulty at once ; indeed it was settled 
 so quietly that not many people were aware of its existence. 
 
 The unusual throng made the winners of the Browne medals, 
 the Porson, the Camden, and tlie Chancellor's English medal, 
 extraordinary lions, as instead of an audience of half a dozen 
 old Dons, and twice as many Undergraduates, they had a 
 crowded house of beauty, nobility, and fashion to recite before. 
 The Browne medals are three in number, for an ode in Latin 
 Alcaics, an ode in Greek Sapphics, and a brace of epigrams in 
 Greek and Latin. The Porson prize (of books) is for a trans- 
 lation from Shakspeare into Greek Iambics ; the Camden medal 
 for an exercise in Latin Hexameters. The subjects of these 
 exercises are announced at the end of the First Term, and the 
 candidates have about three months to write them in. These 
 * prizes are sometimes taken by the best men in the year, some- 
 times by second-rate ones. The continually recurring reason 
 that they make too much inroad into the preparation for the 
 Tripos, prevents many of the first Classics in the year from 
 trying for them, particularly in the case of the Greek ode, which 
 is an altogether out of the way exercise, Greek Sapphics not 
 being written in any of the examinations. On the whole I 
 believe the Porson was considered the most honorable, and 
 there was more competition for it among the good men. But 
 there is a generally prevailing idea in the University that suc- 
 cess in an extensive examination on general knowledge of lan- 
 guage, not specially prepared for, is a fairer test of merit and 
 ability than gaining a prize which has been elaborately worked 
 up in private, and it not unfrequently happens that the Senior 
 Classic has never written for a medal or Porson. The general 
 run of the English poems may be guessed at. There are some 
 good men among the Prize Poets — Praed, Macaulay, Tennyson. 
 The last was for a long time the only one who broke loose 
 from the trammels of Heroic couplets. He wrote in blank 
 verse with &, forged motto from Chapman. It was said that he
 
 BNGLIBH UNIVEHSITY. 113 
 
 gained the prize by mistake. Sm3'th, the Professor of History, 
 had been long looked up to by the other examiners, who were 
 accustomed to be guided by his decision. Having lit on Ten- 
 nyson's poem, and being much puzzled by it (it was something- 
 out of the common, and just the thing to astonish an ancient 
 Don) ho pencilled on the outside, " Look at this /" meaning 
 thereby merely to call the attention of his brother examinei's to 
 it as a curiosit3\ But it happened that he was taken ill or 
 called away from Cambridge on business, and the others were 
 obliged to meet and decide in his absence. His note of admi- 
 ration was mistaken for a sign of approval, and the palm' 
 adjudged to the future Laureate. Such is the legend ; some 
 say that the poet's apostolic friends invented it to palliate the 
 discredit of his having gained a prize poem. Some years ago 
 another bold youth wrote a poem' in Spenserian stanzas, which 
 took the prize. This broke the charm, and a variety of metres 
 have since been attempted with success — the success that is of 
 getting the Chancellor's medal. 
 
 On the present occasion the six prizes were divided among 
 three men, and five of them between two of our year. The 
 Greek ode and epigrams were carried off by the Trinity man 
 who had headed the first May, and was one of the three favor- 
 ites (all from our College) for Senior Classic ; the two Latin 
 prizes, and the English poem by a Small-Colleger, whom this 
 triple success introduced to the University world in which he 
 was destined to make a distinguished figure. 
 
 As the Long vacation drew to a close, I gave a symptom of 
 returning vitality by jjassing my Little-Go. There is a post- 
 examination for this in the beginning of October — a sort of 
 appendix to the regular one for the benefit of plucked men and 
 cer/rotais. As the former constitute the greater portion of the 
 thirty or forty who present themselves, the {qw reading-men 
 whom sickness or other accident has placed in their company, 
 show particularly well by comparison. A man passed at this 
 examination who had been plucked three times. One does not 
 know whether such a person's want of capacity is more worthy 
 of pity, or his fortitude and perseverance of admiration.
 
 114 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 THIRD YEAR. A CHANGE OF POSITION. SCATTERING SHOT, 
 
 THAT SOME MAY HIT. COLLEGE DECLARATIONS. LITERARY 
 
 FRIENDS. " THE APOSTLES." ACCIDENTS OF THE MATHE- 
 MATICAL TRIPOS, AND OF THE UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP. 
 
 A DESERTER FROM THE FIELD OF BATTLE. AN OUTSIDER 
 
 WINS. UNIVERSITY LECTURES. PLATO LECTURES. UNION 
 
 ROWS. DISAPPOINTMENTS AND CONSOLATIONS. A VISIT TO 
 
 OXFORD. 
 
 'Ou 77(0 (r0(v l^iTri\ov aijia Antjinvr'ti'. 
 
 iNCERTi Frag, apud Platonem. 
 
 "Abiit, evasit, excessit, enipit." — Cicero. 
 
 "They love the \vinner of the race, 
 ' If only he who prospeie, looks 
 
 At prizes with a simple grace." — Anon. 
 
 Quand on n'a pas ce que I'on aime 
 II faut aimer ce que I'on a, 
 
 " We start, for soul is wanting there." — Byron. 
 
 When the collegiate year recommenced once more, I threw 
 off the bkie and silver, and turned Pensioner. It was rather an 
 uncommon step, but there had been a precedent for it not long 
 before. A friend of mine after one year's experience of Fellow- 
 Commoner life, had changed his grade, partly from pecuniary 
 motives, and partly to be eligible to a Scholarship. I had 
 both these inducements, and a third still more pressing — my 
 health, which made it necessary for me to shun the luxurious 
 dinners of the upper table. It was coming down a step in life, 
 and a sort of confession of poverty on the face of it, but I had 
 the satisfaction of finding that none of my old acquaintance 
 among the Dons, to Avhose friendship I attached any value, 
 changed their conduct and bearing towards me in the least. 
 And I have generally observed this to be the case, that when 
 a man freely confesses his pecuniary inability to maintain a
 
 EXGLISH UNIVERSITY. 115 
 
 certain position, he is not held at any discount for it, but Lis 
 honest determination is ratlier applauded. It is your keeping 
 up appearances, Spanish grandee shift and deceit, trying to be 
 what one is not, that provoke sneer and coldness. My most 
 intimate friends generally congratulated me on the step, as now- 
 having a better opportunity to profit by the advantages which 
 the main body of the students enjoyed. 
 
 Being now able to work a httle in earnest, I started on the 
 principle of shying for several things at once, in the hope of 
 getting some of them ; a proceeding which better suited my 
 physical condition, more fitted to accomplish small separate 
 pieces of work than to aim steadily at a remote end, and a task 
 of indefinite amount. To a Trinity student in his third year, 
 more opportunities of this sort are open than in his first two. 
 He has a chance for all the University prizes open to the 
 Freshmen and Junior Sophs, with additional training for them, 
 and the Members' Prizes for Latin Essays besides ; and in his 
 own College, an English Declamation, a Latin Declamation, and 
 an English Essay. I determined in the coming year to make 
 shots for all these four, and also for a College Scholarship and 
 a First Class in the May ; and as I ultimately attained three 
 out of the six objects, the speculation was not altogether a bad 
 one. 
 
 The Declamations are what in Yale College language would 
 be termed Disputes. At the beginning of the Michaelmas 
 Term a number of questions are given out " on subjects con- 
 nected with the History of England," say the terms of the foim- 
 der of this prize, but as the intervention of England in European 
 affairs has taken a pretty wide range, so these questions take a 
 pretty wide range in European history. Every third-year-man 
 chooses his question, and writes on it, giving in his exercise at 
 the end of the term ; during the next term ten or twelve of the 
 best are publicly recited in the chapel, and about the time of 
 the Scholarship examination silver goblets are adjudged to the 
 best three, the first worth $20, the others $10 each. To the 
 best two Latin Declamations prizes of books are adjudged. 
 The "moral, antiquarian, or literai-y" subject of tlie English
 
 110 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Essay, is publicly notified at the beginning of tlie Collegiate 
 year, wlieu the prize for the former year's essay is adjudged, 
 and tlie exercises need not be given in till next July, so there 
 is no lack of time to the Senior Soph who makes a point of 
 getting it. But he must take care not to attempt compassing 
 liis object by mere quantity and weight of paper. That woidd 
 be fatal to liis success, even were his production in other re- 
 spects worthy of favor. It is distinctly required that the essay 
 be not of greater length than can be conveniently read aloud 
 in lialf an hour ; and much shorter limits are assigned to the 
 Declamations. Two cases came under my observation where 
 very good men lost their chance because they had "written a 
 book," as one of the examiners expressed it. Questions refer- 
 ring to the History and Policy of the Stuarts, the Wars of 
 William and Anne, the History and Benefits of Colonies, the 
 Crusades, the Monastic institutions, the Social, Political, and 
 Literary condition of the English people at different periods, 
 distinguished characters in English History compared with one 
 another or with illustrious foreigners; such were the ordinary 
 subject-matter of the English declamations. The Latin ones 
 were usually on some topic of Classical history. For the 
 English Essay I recollect such subjects as the Life of Erasmus, 
 the Influence of Alexander the GreaCs Conquests on the Arts 
 and the Literature of Earope^ the Platonic clement in Cicero's 
 Philosophy, the Abuse of Political Theories, the Military Or- 
 ders of the Middle Ages, the Colonial Policy of the Ancients. 
 They generally lean to the historical or antiquarian, but are 
 sometimes purely literary or philosophic. The prize, ten 
 pounds, is generally converted (part of it at least) into books 
 by the prizeman. 
 
 The competition for these English prizes is remarkably mode- 
 rate ; sometimes, indeed I may say generally, there are not more 
 than three or four competitors for the essay. Even the Latin 
 Declamations are not always taken by the best Classics of the 
 year. 
 
 The Members^ Prizes of fifteen guineas each, given by the 
 representatives of the University in Parliament, are four in
 
 ENGLISH UXIVERSITT. 117 
 
 number, t\YO open to all Bachelors, two to all Senior Soplis, 
 or all men loho have resided seven terras^ even though Bye-term 
 men like myself. Thesubjects are on all possible topics — his- 
 torical, moral, theological, literary, philosophical. 
 
 The preparation of these exercises, coming as they did suc- 
 cessively, and not all at once, did not hinder me from going on 
 with my more regular classical work to a certain extent. I put 
 myself under my old friend and coach Travis (I suppose I may 
 as well continue to call him by that name), and worked up two 
 plays of vEschylus, besides reading Juvenal, not too thoroughly, 
 as I afterwards found by sad experience in the Tripos, and by 
 myself I ran over some Cicero and Livy, to get up my Latin 
 style for the Declamation and Members' Prize. Still, being as 
 yet able to average only about four hours' work daily, and 
 compelled to abstain from all study at night, I had to cast 
 about for waj-s of passing my evenings amusingly, and not 
 altogether unprofitably. 
 
 And first I took up the " Union" again, for I was not only 
 able to talk, but to make myself heard, and the moderate ex- 
 citement of making a speech proved rather a beneficial exercise. 
 
 Any American Collegian who may chance to read this book, 
 will have wondered long ago why I have said nothing about 
 the " speakers" and " writers." Equal if not greater would be 
 the surprise of an Englishman, when told of the imj^ortant 
 position which those two classes of students — or as he woidd 
 deem them non-students, non-reading men — occupy at an 
 American College. 
 
 " Only think !" said* Travis once to an acquaintance after I 
 had been trying to explain to him the state of things at Yale 
 College, "it is there just as if we were to consider the Presi- 
 dent of the Union a greater man than the Senior Wrangler." 
 "How strange!" replied the other. Writing English as a 
 means of acquiring reputation or lionor is almost unknown 
 among the Undergraduates. The only incentives to it are 
 Declamation Prizes in a few of the Colleges, for the University 
 prizes for Moral and Theological Dissertations go by learning 
 more than style. To tell a Cantab that such an Undergradu-
 
 118 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 ate had .1 fine lilnolish style, would seem as irrelevant as tlie 
 information that he knew a good deal of law or plij-sic. Even 
 when a precocious politician cunti-ibutcs to the London papers 
 (as one did about this time), it does not materially enhance his 
 reputation. I was once talking to a friend about my exercises 
 for the Trinity prizes, and how difficult I found it to practise 
 one style for an oration and another for an essay ; he was much 
 surprised that 1 had had sufficient practice in English compo- 
 sition even to attempt such a variety. This same man under- 
 stood perfectly the difference between Aristotelian and Thucydi- 
 dean Greek prose, and could write either as occasion required. 
 With public speaking the case was nearly similar. Conceive 
 one general debating Society for the whole University, which 
 has about twelve hundred Undergraduates in residence for two 
 terms, and sixteen hundred for the third. What protracted 
 debates our students would have in such a case, and what 
 scrambling for the seven offices every term. But at Cambridge 
 not half the Undergraduates are members, and many of these 
 are attracted solely by the reading-room. The debates are 
 sometimes adjourned in half an hour for want of speakers ; the 
 offices frequently go a begging, and at a contested election 
 there are seldom more than three hundred and fifty votes polled, 
 and not often that number. Occasionally, however, on ex- 
 citing public questions of the day an animated debate would be 
 got up, and I have heard very good amateur speaking. The 
 Union has its periodical fits of brief excitement, and at this par- 
 ticular period its affairs were at a favorable crisis. The rooms 
 had just been newly fitted up and enlarged, and there hap- 
 pened to be an influx of men in the new Freshman year who 
 were just the very persons to give the thing a start. These 
 were of no great numerical force, but a few men with a will can 
 do a great deal in such matters. Poor Henry F. Ilallam was 
 one of them, though he seldom spoke in the Union himself. 
 But he was instrumental in getting up a small debating society of 
 about forty members, called the Historical^ at which tolerably 
 lively debates were kept up, and the members of which attended 
 the Union pretty regularly so as always to form the nucleus of 
 
 I
 
 ENGLISH UNlVERSITr. 119 
 
 an audience there. Another was a peer's son, now a Member 
 of Parliament, who had a love of public affairs and a precocious 
 seriousness almost American. A third Avas a Dissenter, some- 
 what above the average age of Freshmen (two peculiarities 
 which made him a character at once), having a flow of speech 
 and a facidty of thinking on his legs which an Englishman sel- 
 dom possesses unless he is a professional talker — i. e. a bar- 
 rister or an ^f. P. of long standing — and not always even then. 
 There were other aspirants to the name of orator, ambitious 
 Small-College men, and a hard-working Trinity Scholar or two 
 carried away by the novel impulse. We got up stirring politi- 
 cal debates — democracy against aristocracy, toleration against 
 church exclusiveness, old common sense against Young Eng- 
 land — and soon had crowded houses for nights in succession. 
 A debate on such an evening was an animated and interesting 
 sight. The doors were open to all University men, members or 
 not, and the audience amounted at times to four or five hun- 
 dred. The English style of speaking and of hearinrj is very 
 different from ours. Expressions of approbation and disappro- 
 bation on the part of the audience being frequent, the speaker 
 aims more at points than with us, and when he has said a good 
 thing or what he means to be such, looks out for the hear ! hear! 
 as a matter of course. It is much more agreeable to him (ex- 
 cept at the very beginning of liis career) than our solemn 
 silence. The applause cheers him, the disapprobation piques 
 him ; both rest him and give him time to take breath — or a 
 glass of water — and arrange himself for a fresh start. 
 
 Whenever there was a contested election for the Presidency 
 of the Union, it turned more on the personal popularity than 
 on the actual services and reputation of the candidate, and 
 generally came to be a contest between the reading and " row- 
 ing " men. When it came to a hard fight the former usually 
 succeeded ; the same industry and ability that aided them in 
 their studies, generally enabling them to triumph in the canvas. 
 There was but ( ne exception to this rule. When the rowing 
 men were lucky enough to get hold of a title who would run 
 for them, they were safe to win. There is no resisting John
 
 120 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Bull's lord-worship. Charles J. Vaughan, one of Arnold's 
 favorite pupils, a University Scholar and Senior Classic, at pre- 
 sent Head-master of Harrow, and altogether a gentleman of 
 great abilities and merits, was put up for the Union presidency 
 wlien an Undergraduate, and beaten by a Johnian nonentity 
 ■who had Sir before his name ; and the exception was verified 
 a second time at my own expense this very year. 
 
 But as the Union and Historical only took up two nights in 
 the week, there was some other amusement to be looked out 
 for, as my friends who used to hold what at one time we called 
 " Whig parliaments" in my rooms, now that I was able to take 
 care of myself, had left me to myself. In some cases it was 
 only transJerring their trouble from one place to another, as I 
 would lounge about into the rooms of those whom I knew for 
 general literary conversation — even to talk Calendar if there 
 was nothing else to do. Sometimes I would tumble in upon a 
 reading set who were amusing themselves in their way, after a 
 hard day's fagging at Composition or Mathematics, with Aris- 
 tophanes or Ovid, in a knot of three or four together, making 
 an extempore addition to their temporary club. But this was 
 too much like work for me, and my style of reading and com- 
 ment too desultory for them, so I did not practise it often. It 
 was more in my way to find some one who had done his day's 
 work entirely so far as Classics or Mathematics were concerned, 
 and chat quietly over endless cups of tea — or even potations 
 more generous. Now at Trinity there was more cultivation of 
 general literature than at any other College, and there were an 
 unusual number of Freshmen at this time who took an interest 
 in rhetoric and public speaking as well as subjects of general 
 literature, in Avhich matters I had some rei^utation, on the 
 strength of my country ; so that there was not much difSculty 
 in finding places to spend my evenings in.* Several of the 
 men with whom I was most intimate, belonged either at this 
 time or subsequently to a society which although a strictly 
 
 * The English now rather exaggerate our facihty of speaking in 
 public and believe that every American is born a debater.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 121 
 
 private club, and in no way putting itself prominently forward, 
 has exerted and does exert a very considerable influence on the 
 literary train of thought in the University of Cambridge, and 
 on the opinions of the English literary public — the Cambridge 
 Apostles. 
 
 This is an association founded by the contemjjoraries of the 
 late John Sterling, and called from him the Sterling Club. It 
 comprises among its members men distinguished in various and 
 somewhat difierent walks of life : theologians, like Maurice of 
 King's College, London, and Stanley, Arnold's biographer ; 
 poets like Tennyson and Milnes ; novelists like Thackeray ; 
 some universal geniuses. They are mostly Cambridge men, 
 Stanley and some few Oxonians, Thomas Carlyle, I believe, the 
 only non-university man among them. By way of school or 
 nursery to this club, there Avas a club at Cambridge of Under- 
 graduates, popularly called the Ajiostles (it was said because 
 they had usually thirteen members in residence).. Some of 
 them took high Honors, more generally in Classics than in 
 Mathematics ; some of them did not compete for Honors at 
 all ; but they all had a certain fondness for literary and meta- 
 physical pursuits in common, and none of them were solely 
 reading men. They were always on the look out for eligible 
 members to supply the place of those who had left the Univer- 
 sity and stepped into the regular club, and were very ingenious 
 in making the acquaintance of men that were in any respect 
 lions, and drawing them out to ascertain if they were of apos- 
 tolic material. Sometimes they were very successful in catching 
 celebrities just as they began to dev^elojie themselves. At one 
 time, for four years in succession, the University Scholar was 
 an apostle ; but shrewd people remarked that in three cases the 
 lucky man had been elected into the club after it was pretty 
 certain that he would be University Scholar. These men did 
 not make any parade of mystery, or aim at notoriety by any 
 device to attract attention ; they did not have special cham- 
 bers for meeting, with skeletons in the corner, and assemble in 
 them Avith the secresy of conspirators ; nor did they wear 
 breastpins with initials of bad Greek sentences or other sym- 
 
 6
 
 122 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 bolic nonsense on them, as our young Collegians do. They did 
 not attempt to throw any awful veil of secresy over their pro- 
 ceedings ; it was known that they met to read essays and hold 
 discussions, Avith occasional interludes of supper. I have more 
 than once seen the compositions which were prepared for these 
 meetings : the authors did not seem to think that either the 
 interests or dignity of their club suft'ered materially from letting 
 an outsider so far behind the scenes. 
 
 Their immediate and tangible influence in the University 
 amounted to just nothing. But imperceptibly they exercised 
 much. Their association together had a great mutual effect 
 on the formation of their minds and characters, and thus indi- 
 rectly on the whole body of men, since an apostle was not cut 
 olf from his other friendships by belonging to this Society ; and 
 the parent club taken in connexion with its embryo, formed a 
 most innocent and eftective camaraderie. 
 
 It is just possible that some of my apostolic friends would 
 not be over-flattered at the application of the term innocent to 
 them, as they usually prided themselves on being leery, and 
 having such virtue as they possessed rather Platonically by 
 s<r(i(iTriii.'f\ than through original instinct and want of experience 
 like a child or a woman. But what I mean by calling the 
 Sterling Club an innocent and effective camaraderie, is that its 
 members, controlling as they did among them many avenues 
 of approach to the public and means of influencing the public 
 mind, were able to benefit one another and help on one 
 another's reputation very much, while at the same time they 
 did so with a fair and legitimate partisanship, not by blowing 
 up factitious renown with wholesale puffery, or in any way 
 imposing on the public and corrupting their taste and judg- 
 ment. Thus when a member of the club publishes, one of the 
 fraternity has a footing in the Edinburgh, another in the 
 Quarterly, a third in Fraser, a fourth in Blackwood, and so on 
 — among them all there is a pretty good chance that his beau- 
 ties will not be hid, or the reading community allowed to over- 
 look his merits. Nor is it by such formal and systematic efforts 
 only that they set forth his claims. In ordinary casual conver-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY, 123 
 
 sation they have continual opportunities of putting tbem for- 
 Avard. One man, I remember, who was a remarkably good 
 reader (for a small room), used to have a knack of bringing in 
 Tennyson so as to read portions of him, and the poet lost 
 nothing in his mouth. Tennyson and Thackeray may be par- 
 ticularized as owing much to their comrades for setting them 
 prominently before the woi-ld. But in all this there is no felse 
 pretence or decepiion. Let any, for instance, look at Sterling's 
 review of Tennyson in the Quarterly, or the review in the Edin- 
 burgh also by a brother apostle ; there is no daubing or Avhite- 
 Avashing in them, no putting on the butter of adulation with 
 the knife of profusion — none of the extravagant and unmiti- 
 gated praise with which the members of a Mutual Admiration 
 Society here would criticise one another's productions. 
 
 It is not possible for any cHque, however excellent and liberal 
 its individual component members, to be without some shop 
 and cant of its own. The cant of these men was inveighing 
 against cant. It must not be supposed that they were mere 
 imitators of Carlyle in this — the names of some of the members 
 are enough to show that they had plenty of original men 
 among them ; but they all affected much earnestness and a 
 hearty dislike of sham and formula, which rendered them far 
 from popular with the Hi(ih unci Dry in literature, politics, or 
 religion. The younger members at the University were eyed 
 w^ith terror by grave, plodding Johnians, as something foreign, 
 German, radical, altogether monstrous — they hardly pretended 
 to know what. About the Society proper — the Sterling Club 
 — some immense mares' nests were discovered at different 
 times, and I am sorry to say that some Evangelical newspapers 
 let loose a great deal of trash on the subject once or twice — 
 indeed they talked as much nonsense as the Puseyites. The 
 Society was represented as established for the promotion of 
 infidelity on the German plan, the denial of Christ, Templar- 
 fashion, and other things " horrible and awful," but which the 
 accusers did not deem it " unlawful" to name at length. As 
 many of the members were in Orders, and some of them indeed 
 dignitaries of the Church, the chai-ge became a pretty serious
 
 124 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 one. All the ground for it was that poor Sterling, who, though 
 the eponymous hero of the club, does not seem to have been 
 the leading man in it, was shaken in his religious faith towards 
 the close of his life ; therefore, the association must bean infidel 
 one. If he liad gone mad and cut his throat, it might with 
 equal justice liave been called a suicide club. Wliat particular 
 great and chief end the Society liad I do not pretend to say — 
 it is not exactly necessary that it should have had any. I sup- 
 pose a number of literary men may club together in a quiet 
 way without any other purpose than that of mutual amuse- 
 ment and improvement. At any rate, whatever objects tliey 
 had were literary, not religious or irreligious ; religion only 
 entered into their discussions as it must into those of all serious 
 men and real jy/dlosophcrs — lovers of wisdom. Nor was their 
 faith exposed to any peculiar danger beyond that which 
 threatens all men engaged in high intellectual cultivation and 
 living in a literary atmosphere — the danger of rating the intel- 
 lectual too high in comparison with the moral. 
 
 The heresy which I found in these men was a purely intel- 
 lectual one — an utter under-valuation of and almost contempt 
 for rhetoric and oratory. My acquaintance was chiefly con- 
 fined to the younger men, my contemporaries or juniors at 
 the University, but the influence of the older men was visible 
 in the younger — and it certainly was a general feature of 
 them all that they looked down upon the art of public speak- 
 ing as something necessarily shallow, insincere, and ignoble. 
 They owned that the ideal orator was a great man, perhaps 
 the greatest man conceivable ; but the actual attempts at 
 approximation to him they deemed mere charlatanism, and 
 this dislike seemed to be accompanied (as is often the case 
 with our dislikes, physical or intellectual) by an unfitness for 
 success in that line — a turn of mind not popular, more philo- 
 sophical than oratorical. Besides Hallam, I never knew but 
 one of the members who was really born and cut out for a 
 public speaker, and that one was never an enthusiastic mem- 
 ber of the Society, and seemed to have been taken into it when 
 they wei-e short of recruits, or in some other way to have got
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 125 
 
 in by mistake. AYith Hallam the opposing influences were 
 curious to observe. He was made for a debater, the very- 
 neatest and most elegant extempore speaker I ever heard. 
 His unprepared speeches were more critically and tastefully 
 worded than most men's written compositions ; and this 
 elegance of manner was based on great power of thought, the 
 polish never impairing the strength, and supported by startling 
 dexterity in argument. Most of his collegiate friends urged 
 him forward in the career for which he seemed so signally 
 marked out. But his co-apostles threw cold water on his 
 taste, and I have* little doubt it was their influence which so 
 long held him back from speaking at the Union. They doubt- 
 less really believed it to be an inferior occupation for him. 
 "When I mentioned to some of them in no measured language 
 my opinion of his talents for public speaking, they regarded it 
 as little as if I had praised him for riding well, or getting up a 
 supper with taste. I seemed to them to pick out one of his 
 minor excellencies as a subject for praise. However, we 
 debaters had the best of it for a time, and our great triumph 
 was w]ien an M. A. Fellow Trinity, perhaps the most anti- 
 rhetorical in his professions of all the apostles, actually came 
 down to the Union, and made a long speech in which he 
 showed much anxiety to acquit himself Avell. 
 
 With the New Year came on the great University examina- 
 tions, which excited the usual interest. The Senior Wrangler 
 this time was Adams of John's, since celebrated as the other 
 discoverer of Le Verrier's planet. He won in a canter, so to 
 speak, having three thousand marks to the Second Wrangler's 
 fourteen hundred, so that there Avas more numerical difterence 
 between them than between the Second Wrangler and the 
 spoon. A singular case of funk occurred at this examination. 
 The man who would have been second (also a Johnian), took 
 fright when four of the six days were over, and fairly ran 
 away — not only from the examination but out of Cambridge, 
 and was not discovered by his friends or family till some time 
 after. As it was, he came out ninth in the list of Wranglers, 
 the high papers of the last two days aft'ecting sensibly the
 
 12G FIVE VEATIS IX A\ 
 
 places of only the first ten or fifteen. ]5y getting the Second 
 Smith's Prize lie might have retrieved his prospects of a Fel- 
 lowship, but here our best man from Trinity, who was only 
 Third Wrangler, and but for the accident would have been 
 fourth, cut him out. AVe wanted some little consolation of the 
 sort, being in a terrible minority this year. Jn the Chissical 
 Tripos where we generally looked for one or both Medallists as 
 a matter of course, we had but one man in the First Class, and 
 he only eighth of the eleven composing it. People began to 
 put the blame on our Master, unjustly enough, as the men of 
 that year had not entered under his auspices. The fact was, 
 that a few years before there had been a great scarcity of 
 Trinitj'^ Fellowships, so that men to whom the emoluments 
 of learning were an object had become afraid to enter there 
 until the supply of good candidates was thinned out a little. 
 But in the University Scholarship where the Third-year men of 
 crack reputation came into play, our College met with a worse, 
 because more unexjjected disappointment. There were four 
 Trinity men expected to fill the first four places in the Classical 
 Tripos of 1844, and three of these were now to fight for the 
 Craven, with no danger except from one Kingsman. King's 
 College stands in an anomalous position with regard to the 
 rest of the University. It is a mere prolongation of Eton 
 School. Its half-dozen Undergraduates, who have been the 
 best " Collegers" at Eton, become Scholars and Fellows of the 
 College as a matter of course, and also get their degree from 
 the University without j^assing any examination for it. As a 
 necessary consequence they have no opportunity of distinguish- 
 ing themselves in either Tripos. But the University Prizes 
 and Scholarships are open to them, and here they prove formi- 
 dable rivals of the Trinity men. As the dangerous Kingsman 
 was in his Second year, it was calculated that besides the 
 chance of three to one against him, the not unjust preference, 
 ccctcris paribus, shown to candidates who have no more oppor- 
 tunity left, would turn the scale against him. But now an 
 outside competitor appeared in the person of the Pembroke 
 Third-year man who had carried off three prizes at the last
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 127 
 
 Commencement. I was almost the only man in Trinity who 
 knew him personally, and having very early in our acquaint- 
 ance formed a high idea of his ability, and especially his 
 quickness and 2J«c6 (an important element of success),* ven- 
 tured to talk of him as a likely candidate. The idea of a 
 Small-Colleger beating all Trinity was deemed preposterous, 
 and such a hint looked upon as a sort of treason to the College. 
 Nevertheless it proved true ; he came out the winner, with the 
 Kingsman and one of our three close at his heels, and all the 
 rest nowhere. Thereupon he became quite a lion. Still there 
 was a sti'ong party not prepared to admit that he would be 
 Senior Classic, and the Trinity man with whom his College had 
 declared to win (he who had been next to the successful candi- 
 date for the Craven), was regularly booked and entered for the 
 head of the Tripos against him. It bid fair to be a very pretty 
 race. The Trinity man was the best in Greek, the other in 
 Latin ; and Greek, especially Composition, counts more than 
 Latin, in the Tripos. On the other hand, the Pembroke man 
 had the prestir/e of the Scholarship, and superior rapidity of 
 work, while his opponent had more accuracy and polish. Then 
 again, he of Trinity was already well prepared in Mathematics, 
 and the other had all his to get up, and as he must be a 
 Senior Optime to contend for the Medal, this was a great dead 
 weight upon him. But again, the Trinity man's knowledge of 
 Mathematics might tempt him to read for a Double First, and 
 thus distract his attention from the one object. Friends of the 
 candidates made bets (not very large ones to be sure : I ulti- 
 mately won seven pounds on my man) and the whole aiFair 
 with its calculations and contingencies was like a race or an 
 election — except that there was no foul play. 
 
 I went in to this examination in common with some sixty 
 more outsiders, chiefly to find out by experiment if I was strong 
 enough to sit through the Trinity Scholarship next term, and 
 
 * la this examination, we had thirteen lines of Milton for Latin 
 Hexameters, fifteen lines of English prose to translate into Latin, and 
 nine lines to translate into Greek, and but two hours and three quarters 
 for the whole.
 
 128 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 also to become used to the feel of an examination, as I had 
 not passed one since my first May, with the exception of the 
 short and easy Littlc-Go. Beginning thus -with the most difh- 
 cult examination in the University, I probably wrote a great 
 deal of trash, but no one seeing it except the examiners, it was 
 of little consequence. During the rest of the Lent term I was 
 reading and writing fur the Members' Prize, which, besides the 
 labor of Latin Composition, required much Roman History 
 "cram." Also I read with a friend some low Optics with a 
 view to the May examination — a very foolish speculation, as I 
 had been over no Second-year Mathematics, and was not in a 
 state to get up the subject in a reliable way. I moreover 
 attended the Greek Professor's Lectures on Pindar and the 
 College lectures on Plato to the Second year. 
 
 The small number of students attending Professors' Lectures 
 has often been remarked upon, and the most unfavorable con- 
 clusions drawn thence as regards the character of the instruction 
 given, and the diligence of the instructed. The Divinity Lec- 
 tures are crowded, because attendance on them is necessary to 
 insure testimonials for orders, but otherwise the Professors' 
 rooms are apt to exhibit a beggarly account of empty benches. 
 Dr. Whewell, notwithstanding his high reputation, had com- 
 paratively a small class when I attended his Lectures on Moral 
 Philosophy, probably not more than fifty. Very possibly it has 
 been much increased since the establishment of the Moral 
 Science Tripos. Professor Sedgwick had an attendance of not 
 more than thirty at his Geological Lectures in the year 1841. 
 The Greek Professor's Class in 1843 was rather under than 
 above thirty. Li all this there was nothing so bad as Buck- 
 land's lecturing on Geology to three hearers at Oxford ; but I 
 was actually myself one of a class of three who attended Pro- 
 fessor Cumming's supplementary course of Chemistry in the 
 3'ear 1841. 
 
 But there could be no greater error than to take the 
 attendance at Professorial Lectures as any test or indication of 
 the studious or non-studious propensities of English University 
 men. It is because they are working so hard that the great
 
 EXGLISn UXIVERSITY. 129 
 
 body of reading-men do not come to the lectures — -working 
 with their private tutors (who correspond to German professors 
 in some respects, as has been observed) for the Tripos, the 
 Schoharships, or the College Mays. If the Greek Professor 
 were really called on to teach the University Greek, he would 
 be lost at once — he could not even attend to the hundred or 
 hundred and twenty men of the three years who intend to go 
 out in the Classical Tripos. There is no Latin Professorship in 
 the University. The number of men likely to take up and 
 pursue any one of the single Natural Sciences, Botany, Che- 
 mistry, Geology, 3ic., for use or amusement in after life, is pro- 
 bably not greater than the proportion who really attend the 
 lectures on these sciences. 
 
 AVith regard to the College lectures delivered to the Junior 
 and Senior Sophs, there is frequently, it must be owned, a very 
 moderate attendance at them also. Sometimes this is owing to 
 the limited nature of the subject. For instance, one of the 
 best Mathematical Fellows at Trinity or John's is lecturing on 
 some high branch of Mathematics — something of which the 
 Differential Calculus is merely the alphabet ; none but high 
 men can take interest in, or derive profit from such lectures. 
 Now as there are only on an average twelve Wranglers from 
 John's, and nine from Trinity every year, the class is of neces- 
 sity limited to a dozen, and the lecture takes very much the 
 form of an examination. In Classics it depends chiefly on the 
 lecturer whether he has a good class or not. The lectures, 
 though mainly for the benefit of a particular Year Avhich is to 
 be examined at the May in the subject lectured upon, are open 
 without extra fee to all the College, and a lecturer Avho has 
 made one author his spccialite, and can translate and explain 
 him in an interesting manner, will be sure to have a large 
 attendance. Our Plato lecturer at Trinity furnished a striking 
 example of this. His room was always crowded ; his audience 
 comprised not only the Junior Sophs for whom the lecture was 
 specially intended, but Senior Sophs, Bachelors, and even Fel- 
 lows. Nay, some men of other Colleges applied to be admitted ; 
 but this, if I remember rightly, was contrary to the College
 
 130 FIVE YEARS IN AI? 
 
 rules and usages. The lecturer was tall and handsome, of a 
 coninianding and dignified appearance ; when he played bowls 
 the grace of his attitudes reminded one of an ancient statue. 
 Ilis translations were exquisite ; he would preserve tlie force of 
 every Greek particle (except, of course, such as jxav and 5e, 
 which only served the Greeks for points) while using the most 
 elegant English ; but his illustrative comments were the great 
 attraction. The knottiest philosophical theories were illumined 
 by liis dry jokes, which lavished equal satire on ancient and 
 modern speculators. I attended three of his courses for three 
 successive years, with unabated pleasure. Of the Protagoras, 
 which was the subject this year, I had been careful enough to 
 provide myself with an interleaved copy, and the notes then 
 taken are among my most cherished manuscripts. 
 
 This term I w^as called on to recite both my Declamations, 
 English and Latin, in the chapel. Every Senior Soph is nomi- 
 nally required to write an English and a Latin Declamation, 
 but many beg off one or both ; probably about fifty of' each 
 are sent in. The eight best of each had been selected for reci- 
 tation, to five out of which sixteen, the five prizes were to be 
 awarded. It was officially intimated in the Lecture-rooms that 
 the Master would be pleased by a general attendance of the 
 students, but in spite of this manifesto we had a very slim 
 audience, not more than a dozen. I recollect poor Hallam 
 posting himself right opposite the high desk or tribune, where 
 I stood, keeping me under fire of his eye-glass the whole time ; 
 and when I came to a period of which I had given him a 
 private rehearsal during a constitutional on the previous Sun- 
 day, going off into a quiet laugh that almost disconcerted my 
 gravity even in the awful presence of Whewell. 
 
 The Union Debating Society, which had taken such a start 
 at the beginning of the academic year, was now growing too 
 lively, and evincing an L-ish sort of vitality by a succession of 
 rows. To keep up an interest in the debates, we had persuaded 
 men of reputation to come forward as candidates for the offices, 
 and a Trinity Bachelor Scholar of high standing was put up 
 for the presidency of the Lent Term. He was carried after a
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV, 131 
 
 hard contest, and the defeated party tried to console themselves 
 by making- a disturbance, and annoying the assembly, especi- 
 ally on business nights, I may say here that English young 
 gentlemen at a public meeting are more ungentlemanly than 
 any class of our people (for a meeting of Irish or other foreign- 
 ers in New York is not to be considered an American meeting) ; 
 they never look upon the occasion in a serious light, but seem 
 to consider it the most natural one for a lark. Two of the 
 members got into a dispute on the floor of the house, which was 
 afterwards continued out of doors. The whole affair at length 
 would make a very pretty bit of Trollopania ; but when gentle- 
 men by birth and education do not behave as such, it is not plea- 
 sant to dwell on their disgrace, even for the pleasure of retaliating 
 on Mr. Dickens. Suffice it to say, that one of them promised to 
 horsewhip the other, and the threatened man assaulted his 
 threatener with a " life-preserver," knocking him down and 
 nearly killing him ; which coming to the ears of the College 
 authorities (both parties were Trinity men), the wielder of the 
 bludgeon was dismissed — not expelled* — from the College, and 
 subsequently took a degree at one of the Halls in Oxford. An 
 attempt was made to turn him out of the Union also, which, 
 after a noisy discussion of two or three nights, ended in our 
 getting a large majority, but not the requisite two thirds vote. 
 This happened just at the end of the term, and immediately 
 after the " rowing men " put up for the next term's presidency 
 a Freshman who had no qualification in the world but being an 
 Honorable. Our side had become so disgusted at the late tur- 
 moil that no prominent man would come forward ; at last I 
 volunteered to stand the fight, for the express purpose of keep- 
 ing out the other. But the title was a talisman not to be over- 
 come, and I was left in a minority. After this the debates fell 
 off, and did not rally till late in the next year, when the Young 
 England and the Monastic questions brought them up again. 
 About this time came the College Scholarship Examination, 
 
 * An expelled man is shut out from the learned professions, as -well 
 as from all Colleges at either University.
 
 132 FIVK TKARS IN AN' 
 
 at which I presented myself, but having somewhat arrogantly 
 underrated the Classical standard and scarcely attempted to 
 prepare myself in Mathematics, I cut no very distinguished 
 figure. The Declamations also were now adjudged, and I 
 missed both the Latin, but was consoled with the first English. 
 It was my first success since returning to work, and about the 
 showiest prize I could have taken. The best Mathematical man 
 of the Second year having failed to get a Scholarship for want 
 of Classics, it was taken as an earnest of the Master's intention 
 to require " double men," and some Freshmen were frightened 
 and migrated in consequence, whereby we lost a high Wrang- 
 ler or two for 1846. 
 
 There was an amusing mistake made in the Scholarship 
 examination. One of the extracts for translation began — " In 
 equo Trojano scis esse in extremo ; sero sapiunt," which one 
 man — and he was a clever fellow too, but hable to be muddle- 
 headed at times like many clever people — translated " You 
 know it was on the tail of the Trojan horse," &c. These mis- 
 translations are part of the by-play of and relief to an examina- 
 tion, and the accumulation of them foi-ms a soi-t of University 
 Joe Miller. Travis is resj^onsible for this one ; I suspected him 
 of inventing it, but he assured me that it was really made by 
 a schoolmate of his younger brother. 
 
 " Caesar captivos sub corona vendidit." " Caesar sold the 
 captives for less than five shillings." 
 
 And this one he credited to a pupil of his own — 
 
 " Est enim finitimus oratori poeta ; numeris adstrictior paul- 
 lo verborum autem licentia hberior." " For a poet lived next 
 door to the orator, loo licentious in his language, but more cir- 
 cumspect than numbers." 
 
 In the Tripos of 1841, a beautiful passage from Theocritus 
 was set. It is in the Thalusia (7th Idyll), where the poet and 
 his friend, after a hot summer walk, sit down to repose in a 
 sylvan retreat ; trees over their heads, running water at their 
 feet, birds singing above them, bees humming around, cicadae 
 chii'ping, loads of fruit dropping into their very mouths ; and 
 then says the jolly bard —
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 133 
 
 " •TSrpasvsg Ss itlt^uv aTsX'.'sro xparlg aXsifap." 
 
 " The cement of four years' old "was loosed from tlie top of the 
 jars," nempe, to have a merry drinking-bout of it, as the con- 
 text goes on to show ; but with this line the examiner had 
 stopped his extract, leaving the matter somewhat obscure ; and 
 one man, deceived by the zoological character of much that 
 had gone before — the mention of various kinds of insects and 
 birds — rendered the line thus : " And the ape was removing 
 from his head the dirt of four years' standing" — the beauty of 
 Avhich is that, so far as syntax and construction are concerned, 
 the words might have this meaning : ocrsXCsro might be a de- 
 ponent, and there is a form ifi6uv for 'Trldrjxog. 
 
 In the " Moral Papers" very odd answers are sometimes 
 given. Paley is an author quite capable of being turned into 
 nonsense by a slight mistake, and he and some other " moral" 
 authors come much into play in the Poll and Little Go, where 
 a large number of the examinees are likely to make more than 
 slight mistakes in attempting to Avrite out what they have at- 
 tempted to get up. One unfortunate who had confounded to- 
 gether the opening paragraphs of the Evidences and the Natu- 
 ral Theology, having " cut" a paper in despair, the examiner 
 found at his desk, on one of the sheets which he had been 
 vainly trying to fill, only this commencement of a sentence, 
 " If twelve men find a watch." 
 
 Another luminary gave as Paley's definition of virtue, " Man 
 acts more from habit than reflection." 
 
 During the short Easter term there is not much hard work 
 done among the Senior Sophs, except by two or three of the 
 best Mathematicians who are fighting for the head of the year. 
 Those who have got their Scholarships are inclined to indulge 
 themselves a little, those who have lost them usually get a fit 
 of pique, and don't care where they are in the Examination. 
 The Classical men generally are looking to their Tripos, up to 
 which they now have a straight course of nine months before 
 them, and are not willing to break in upon their routine by 
 preparing " Morals," Greek Testament, and Mathematical sub-
 
 134 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 jects ahead of tlieir regular order, for the ^Ifiy. The Mathe- 
 matics at this, the last regular College examination, are pretty- 
 high — Astronomy, Integral Calculus, the most difficult Dyna- 
 mics, and the latter part of the Principia, geneial Questions and 
 problems in all branches — nothing that can be done without 
 Difterential, except parts of the Optical and Ilydrostatical 
 papers. To give the 'XoKkoi and Classical men something to do 
 wliile the Astronomy, Problems, and high Dynamics are going 
 on, they have two papers of translation from tlie subjects for 
 the ordinary degree examination of next year, and one of low 
 Mathematics, on which papers marks are given enougli to keep 
 a man from being " posted," but not enough to influence per- 
 ceptibly his standing in the classes. The papers not Mathe- 
 matical correspond nearly to those of the Second-year examina- 
 tion — one on the Acts, two half papers on " Morals" (Butler's 
 Analog}/ and Paley's Evidences), and one on some portion of 
 Aristotle. Our Aristotle lecturer was a master of his subject, 
 and his lectures were well attended. They came in very apro- 
 pos, after those on Plato of the term before. Every man, it 
 has been said, is either a Platonist or an Aristotelian ; and the 
 Trinity students had a capital opportunity of making their 
 choice, by hearing the distinctive merits of the two great phi- 
 losophers set forth to the best advantage by their able and 
 enthusiastic admirers. It has often surprised me, considering 
 the very practical character of Aristotle's greatest extant works, 
 and the perfection of common sense which they display, that 
 no attempt has ever been made to introduce any part of them 
 into our Academical course. A great many of the suggestions 
 in his Rhetoric and Politics are perfectly true to the present 
 day, and have never been improved upon ; and his Ethics, 
 however inferior to those of the Christian dispensation, may, 
 whether regarded in an ethical or a metaphysical point of 
 view, teach much to our new-light reformers. True he is a 
 difficult author, but not more so than others that have a place 
 in our course, Sophocles for instance. Verb. sajj. sat. I hope 
 I may live to see the experiment tried. 
 
 The First Class in this year's May examination varies from
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 135 
 
 five to eleven, tlie whole number of examinees being about 
 eighty. Its usiial number is eight. The standard for 
 admission into it had fallen rather low about this time, for 
 while the firet man in it could, and sometimes did get twenty- 
 four hundred marks, the last had on some occasions less than 
 eight hundred and fifty. This emboldened me to work for a 
 First Class, though I had but three papers out of nine to rely 
 on, as all the Mathematics I could hope to do were a few 
 questions in Optics, some elementary propositions of the science, 
 and the description of an instrument or two, perhaps fifty 
 marks in all. So I ground away, cramming Acts and 
 " Morals" and polishing up three Books of the Nicomachean 
 Ethics as well as I could, and also writing Greek prose, which 
 entered into the paper. The experiment was not successful. 
 I had underrated the range of the New Testament paper and 
 did not clear one half of it, and on the Morals I afterwards 
 found that my answers, though correct, were not long and 
 expHcit enough. In the Aristotle paper I did better, standing 
 third on it. It Avas the only paper of the last day, and as 
 snch had five hours assigned to it, and five hours hard work it 
 took, comprising as it did translations of the most difiicult 
 passages, critical illustrations, questions on the history of 
 Aristotle himself, the history of his works, the history of 
 metaphysical and ethical schools, and to finish off with a nice 
 little bit of English to be translated into Greek. Our best 
 Classic had not time to floor the paper. To destroy any chance 
 I might have left, the standard of the First Class was run up ; 
 it contained only six men, the lowest of whom had above 
 eleven hundred marks. Several candidates for Wranglerships 
 kept me company in the Second Class, and I was given to 
 understand that I ought to think myself very well oft' in not 
 being lower. 
 
 Wliile the result of this examination was pending, I went 
 for a few days to Oxford, where the virtual term ended rather 
 later than ours. My stay being only three days, I had no 
 great opportunities of personal observation, but by comparing 
 what I did see with the result of my knowledge obtained at
 
 13G t'lVE VEAUS INT AN 
 
 various times through others, I could note very considerable 
 differences. •* 
 
 The general impression that we in this country have of the 
 two Universities is that, Mathematics are studied at Cambridge, 
 and Classics at Oxford. The reader has seen that there is no 
 want of Classical Study at Cambridge. The Cantabs are 
 stronger in Greek, the Oxonians in Latin,* but they both read 
 Classics; the Cambridge men liowever read Classics and 
 Mathematics^ the Oxford men Classics and Logic. This is the 
 great pervading difference, j, 
 
 There is but one Undergraduate gown for all the Colleges 
 at Oxford, and a gold-tufted cap which at Cambridge only 
 designates a Johnian or Small-College Fellow-Commoner is 
 here the mark of nobility. Instead of Pensioners and Fellow- 
 Commoners, the students are called Commoner^ and Gentle- 
 men-Commoners. 
 
 The academical year is divided into four terms — Michaelmas, 
 Hilary, Easter, and Trinity — instead of three as at Cambridge ; 
 but as they are proportionally shorter, the period of residence 
 is about the same. 
 
 There are two annual periods of general admission for 
 students, and correspondingly two great University Degree 
 examinations, one at the end of the Michaelmas Term, the 
 other at the end of the Easter. The Honor and Poll men are 
 all examined together, as they used to be at Cambridge, 
 and the candidates are arranged in five classes, the fifth and 
 largest of which corresponds to the Cambridge Poll. The 
 Aristotelian mental and moral philosophy, as found in the 
 Ethics and Rhetoric, constitute the base of the necessary part 
 of this examination. Next in importance come Herodotus and 
 Thucydides. Beyond this the Classical part of the examination 
 
 * It might also be said that the Oxford Scholarship was more elegant, 
 the Cambridge more accurate. The mutual banter of the Uuiversities 
 well illustrates both these distinctious. The Oxonians used to say that 
 the Cambridge men never could write good Latin prose ; the later 
 retorted that there never was nn Oxford man who knew the 
 difference between oi and /u:.
 
 ENGLISH rXIVERSITT. 137 
 
 is in a great measure voluntary; a student sends in a list of 
 the hooks, i. e. authors on which he will be examined — twelve 
 I have understood to be a sufficient number for a First Class, 
 though of course it is possible to take in more than this and only- 
 get a third — and the viva voce, which forms an important part of 
 the examination, is confined to them. Composition there is 
 of course, but more Latin than Greek, and some original 
 Composition. " Morals" also come in to a certain extent, as 
 arising out of the Aristotle. The cram is tremendous, the authors 
 being read for matter more than language, which constitutes 
 another great difference between it and the Cambridge Univer- 
 sity examinations; the College IMays at Cambridge are more like 
 the Schools at Oxford. The First Class averages six, which, as 
 the examination is half-yearly, makes it about equal to the 
 average of the First Class at Cambridge. The examination in 
 Mathematics takes place subsequently, being a voluntary 
 after the Classical, just as at Cambridge the Classical is a 
 voluntary after the Mathematical. The candidates are not 
 numerous^about ten in each examination, or twenty in the 
 year. The First Class does not average more than three. 
 The standard of it, so far as I could learn, corresponded to 
 that of a low Wrangler in Cambridge. The whole number of 
 candidates for Honors is nearly the same at Oxford as at 
 Cambridge ; if there is any difference, the average at the 
 former is a trifle less. Both in Classics and Mathematics the 
 men of each class are alphabetically arranged, so that there is 
 nothing corresponding to the Senior Wrangler or Senior 
 Classic. 
 
 How the standard of a First Class in Classics at Oxford com- 
 pares witli one at Cambridge is a much disputed point. The 
 Oxford men claim that theirs is much higher, and allege as one 
 proof that several crack Classical men who were either abso- 
 lutely plucked in the slaughter of 1841, or frightened away on 
 the same occasion, migrated to Oxford, and after remaining 
 there some time came out only in the Second Class. But as it 
 was, though probable, by no means certain that these men 
 would have been in the First Class at Cambridge, this argu-
 
 138 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 ment does not go for a great deal. Even if such a thing were 
 to happen as a Cambridge University Scholar migrating to Ox- 
 ford and taking a Second Class, it would be no more than has 
 liappened to the Ireland University Scholar at Oxford, which 
 shows that the Degree examination there has peculiarities of 
 its own, independent of general Classical ability. 1 knew an 
 Oxford Second-Class man who certainly was a first-rate scholar 
 in several things. lie could not be floored anywhere in Pindar, 
 even if put on in the middle of a sentence ; and it was told me 
 that when called upon to viva voce in the Latin poets, he knew 
 by heart all the passages given him to construe, so that merely 
 glancing at the first line lie repeated the rest in the original, 
 and then translated it without further reference to the book. 
 He said he had been floored in the Logic and Morals. Now 
 I do not think breaking down on one paper would keep a man 
 out of the First Class in the Cambridge Tripos, if his perform- 
 ance in the others was first-rate. But on the other hand the 
 range of authors for the Cambridge Tripos is wider — in fact is 
 only limited by the limits of the Classical ages in Greek and 
 Roman literature ; while I have heard of an Oxford First Class 
 man who had read no Plato, and another who had read no 
 Demosthenes ; and this I fancy could hardly happen at Cam- 
 bridge. 
 
 Of the four classes which are considered Honors, the Fourth 
 is in popular estimation preferable to the Third, because it is 
 customary when a student only goes in to pass, but does veiy 
 well in some of his papers, to lift him up out of the Fifth Class 
 into the Fourth. You cannot tell therefore, from a man's being 
 in the Fourth Class, whether he has broken down in Honors or 
 done well in the Poll, while a Third Class is an unmitigated 
 failure to Honors ; those only being in it who have tried for 
 Firsts and Seconds, and sent in their lists of authors accord- 
 ingly. While on this point I may mention the fate of a per- 
 sonage somewhat notorious by name among us, the Rev. Isaac 
 Fidler,\\\\o once wrote a book about his experience in America. 
 On our side the water he is not unfrequently classed with 
 Trollope and Dickens, but in his own country is a prophet alto-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 139 
 
 gether without honor and never mentioned in such good com- 
 pany. I fancy that abusing America only gives a man a sort 
 of prestige in certain quarters in England, a kind of 2)rima facie 
 claim to be heard, like doing well at the University ; but will 
 not be sufficient of itself to make his reputation, unless he fol- 
 lows it up with something better ; and Mr. Fidler having writ- 
 ten his book of abuse, but not backed it by any other fictitious 
 productions, made no renown for himself. This gentleman, 
 with all his pretence to learning, had never taken a University 
 Degree at home, and when he attempted the experiment, rather 
 late in life, and considerably the senior of his examiners,* he 
 came out in the Third Class, and his name is there to this day 
 on the list for the Easter term, 1840, as any one may see who 
 possesses a copy of the Oxford Calendar. The best of the 
 joke is, that, according to the delightful geographical and po- 
 litical confusion of ideas which Europeans now and then ex- 
 hibit in reference to things American, he was taken at the 
 University for a countryman of ours ! because he hailed last 
 from Canada ! ! and I had some difficulty in persuading an 
 Oxford man that this was not the case. In the minor exami- 
 nations at Oxford the same general features are observable in 
 distinction to those at Cambridge ; the presence of viva voce as 
 an important element, the absence of Mathematics, and the 
 student's selection of the books on which he is to be examined. 
 At the Smalls, as the previous Examination is here called, each 
 examinee sends in his Greek and Latin book ; but the term 
 book must be taken in a larger sense than that of author at 
 Cambridge — for instance three or four plays might be required 
 at Oxford to make a book. It follows that the Smalls is a 
 more formidable examination than the Little-Go. The rest of 
 it consists of Logic, for which the student may, if he please, sub- 
 stitute two or three Books of Euclid. The College examina- 
 tions, called collections, are strictly private. Each student 
 
 * At Oxford as at Cambridge, tlie Degree Examiners are all of the 
 Young Don species. The Scholarsliips and Fellowships are examined 
 for by older men.
 
 140 VIVK YEAliS IK AN 
 
 chooses ;i Greek luul a Latin book once a terra, Jiiid is examined 
 on them by his College tutor. No rewards are given for pro- 
 ficiency in these examinations. Prizes for essays, verses, 
 &c., citlier at the particular Colleges or in the University at 
 large, are much fewer than at Cambridge, indeed the 
 great point at Oxford seems to be to concentrate all the 
 interest of the three years and a half upon the final examina- 
 tion. 
 
 Some particulars of separate colleges are worth noticing. 
 Christ Church, the great college of Oxford, answering to Trini- 
 ty at Cauibridge, which might be as populous as Trinity if it 
 chose, confines itself to about a hundred and fifty Undergradu- 
 ates, wishing to keep up a reputation for being aristocratic and 
 exclusive. You cannot get into Christ Church without having 
 good connexions and influence, so it is said. Trinity men also 
 are wont to distinguish themselves in the University examina- 
 tions, which is another diftcrence between tliat college and 
 Christ Church. 
 
 All Souls has 710 Undergraduates ; nor does this arise from 
 any corruption or abuse : it was originally founded for Fellows 
 only, who, according to the statutes, are to be " bene nati, bene 
 vestiti, el moderate docti in arte musical It is in fact a plea- 
 sant club of well-born, gentlemanly men, with some literary or 
 scholastic tastes, who reside or not, just as they please, and are 
 paid £100 a year for no particular merit or act, except the 
 negative one of not marrying. 
 
 All the Colleges at Cambridge have equal privileges and 
 rights, with the solitary exception of King's,* and though 
 some of them are called Halls, the diflerence is merely one of 
 name. But the Halls at Oxford, of which there are five, are 
 
 * The peculiar position of King's has been alluded to. Besides the 
 privilei^e mentioned of taking a degree without passing any examina- 
 tion, its members, when on their own premises, are not subject to the 
 Proctor's authority. The government of the College is very pedantic 
 and despotic, at least it was in my time. Exeats, or permission to go 
 down during term, were never granted but in cases of life and death> 
 and an unusual number of chapels were exacted.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSITY. 141 
 
 not incorporated bodies, and have no vote in University mat- 
 ters, indeed are but a sort of boarding houses at which stu- 
 dents may remain until it is time for theon to take a degree. 
 I dined at one of those establishments ; it was very like an 
 officers' mess. The men had their own wine, and did not wear 
 their gowns, and the only Don belonging to the Hall was not 
 present at table. There was a tradition of a chapel belonging 
 to the concern, but no one present knew where it was. This 
 Hall seemed to be a small Botany Bay of both Universities, 
 its members made up of all sorts of incapables and incorrigi- 
 bles ; one man had been dismissed from St. John's, Cambridge, 
 for driving a tandem into the college grounds, and over a Don 
 or two ; another from Trinity College, Cambridge, for some 
 equally gross offence ; a third from an Oxford college for a 
 third flagrant misdemeanor ; and a fourth had been plucked an 
 incalculable number of times, and stayed long enough at the 
 University, he said himself, to be a Doctor of Divinity. 
 
 The Oxonians profess to be more of gentlemen than the 
 Cantabs ; they certainly have more wealthy and titled men 
 among them, and therefore more luxury, and possibly njore 
 refinement of manners. On the other hand, I shall not be 
 suspected of envy or accused of misrepresentation, when I 
 assert a notorious fact, that they are, as compared with the 
 members of the other University, unacquainted with general 
 literature, unpractical and very antediluvian in all matters of 
 politics and world-knowledge. A Cambridge friend of mine 
 who had migrated from Oxford, told me that he did so because 
 there were only two sets of men there, one who fagged unre- 
 mittingly for the Schools,* and another devoted to frivolity and 
 dissipation ;f that he could find nothing between the two — no 
 literary men who knew something besides their cram-books and 
 shop — no half reading half literary men of leisure, as at Cam- 
 
 * The place of examination, as the Senate House is at Cambridge. 
 
 \ It is the character of the Oxford idle man to be less violently dis- 
 sipated than the rowing Cantab, but more frivolous than the fast one. 
 The exquisite in dress, a rare bird on the banks of the Cam, is not 
 uneommcrti on those of the Isip.
 
 142 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 britlg'e. I have never met ■with persons wlio knew so httle of 
 ■what was going on out of doors as the Oxonians I had tlie for- 
 tune to encounter at my visit there. Even of the question 
 which was then agitating tlieir University — tlie Puseyitc move- 
 ment — they seemed to possess no certain knowledge. " We 
 leave all that to the M. A.'s," said one to whom I put some 
 query respecting the state of feeling among the Undergradu- 
 ates on the subject. The question was asked in a room full of 
 Christ Church men, twelve at least, and I do not think the 
 same number could have been brought together at Trinity Avho 
 Avould have showed such incompetence to amuse or be amused 
 by, to teach something to or learn something from, a stranger. 
 
 There is an absurd, irritating, boarding-school-like system of 
 petty rules prevailing at most of the Oxford Colleges, making 
 a state aftair of the mei'est tritles, such as getting half a cold 
 fowl from the buttery, which must belittle the minds of all con- 
 cerned either in enforcing or suftering it. Confectioners are 
 not allowed to send ice-cream to a student's rooms ; it has to 
 be smuggled in. On asking the cause of this peculiar prohi- 
 bition, I was told in sober seriousness that the enactment was 
 first made at the time of the cholera in 1832, and that as it 
 was not the custom to alter any laiv at Oxford that had once 
 been jwssed, it had remained in force ever since. 
 
 Even in their specialities of Classics and Logic, the Oxonians 
 have given few outward signs of vitality. Take away Scott 
 and Liddell's Greek Lexicon, a valuable book certainly, and 
 Linwood's Lexicon of ^schylus, and all the rest is owing to 
 men like Whately and Arnold, anti-Oxonian in feeling and 
 opinion, and quite out of place there. 
 
 A determined radical might attribute this backwardness of 
 the Oxford men to the old Tory character of the University and 
 the greater number of noblemen and rich men here than at 
 Cambridge ; nor is it improbable that these causes have some- 
 thing to do with it. An admirer of science and contemner of 
 the dead languages might account for the different intellectual 
 condition of the two Universities by the compelled study of 
 Mathematics at Cambridge, and their almost entire absence at
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITT. 143 
 
 Oxford. But unfortunately for this solution, it liapj^ens that at 
 Cambridge the Classical men are usually the ones most distin- 
 guished for general literary knowledge and enlightened views. 
 Trinity, the great Classical College, is the great Whig College 
 also, and St. John's, the nursery of Senior Wranglers, is equally 
 the hot-bed of bigotry. Indeed it was this that always puz- 
 zled me when speculating on the subject ; the general plan of 
 the Oxford system seemed more liberal and liberalizing than 
 that of the Cambridge. No compulsory Mathematics ; what 
 was compulsory the study of one of the most practical and 
 acute authors, not merely of his own age, but of any age, suf- 
 ficient viva voce to give readiness and confidence, yet the 
 actual result proved just the other way, whether I relied on 
 my own experience or trusted the testimony of others ; there 
 was far less general knowledge and love of literature, and infi- 
 nitely less liberality of sentiment at Oxford than at Cambridge. 
 Without pretending to explain the discrepancy, I shall make 
 bold to hint at one or two things that may have something to 
 do with it. 
 
 There is one way in which the Mathematical element at 
 Cambridge may make that University more progressive than 
 the other. The higher branches of Mathematics certainly 
 require and exercise originality more than Classical studies, and 
 accordingly, the good Mathematicians who come up to Cam- 
 bridge (for making a man a mathematician who is not so 
 naturally I consider a very exceptional case, and we must there- 
 fore look rather at the influence which the Mathematicians have 
 on the University than the influence which it has on them) 
 may infuse more originality of thought and speculation into 
 the whole body. Against this, however, must be set off" the 
 engrossing nature of the study of Mathematics, which demands 
 the learner's whole concentrated attention, and gives him a 
 perilous bias one way ; but this does not apply to the Gradu- 
 ates and Fellows, who have leisure to turn their thoughts to 
 other subjects. Again, there is an evident tendency at Oxford 
 to read authors too much in reference to their matter only, so 
 that with the exception of the Composition — and that depends
 
 144 FIVE VKARS IX AN 
 
 in a great measure on early practice and drill — a memory of 
 extraordinary capacity is the great reliance in the Schools. 
 Now our feeling at Cambridge was rather against an extraor- 
 dinary memory, unless it was accompanied by extraordinary 
 talent: as standing insteadof talent, it was looked down upon, 
 and deemed an accomplishment for a boy rather than for a 
 man. Such a one would do better, I ofter heard it said, if he 
 had not so good a memory ; he depends too mucli upon it, and 
 does not think enough. I suspect, too, that tlie absence of 
 College examinations at which honor can be gained, and the 
 paucity of College and University prizes at Oxford, have an 
 unfavorable effect. Moreover, the Scholarships and Fellow- 
 ships are, with some noble exceptions,* usually close; they 
 depend on favor or locality of birth-place or school. It must 
 happen that many good men grow tired of reading three years 
 for a single end, without intermediate diversion or stimulus, 
 and are tempted into the ranks of the idle and dissipated ; 
 while those who continue their reading become cramped and 
 rusty from the fixed pursuit. 
 
 These remarks on Oxford are very imperfect and unsatisfac- 
 tory, I am well aware. The incurious nature of most Oxford 
 men, and the difficulty of getting any information out of them, 
 must be my excuse. 
 
 * Such as the Balliol Fellowships, open to the whole University by 
 examination.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 145 
 
 PRIVATE TUITION. 
 
 ttvv re Sv ipxofiivui, Kai re rrpo S rov tv6)i<!tv.--lLl&T) X. 224. 
 
 On returning from my short visit to Oxford, I set to work 
 for the English Essa}', and soon after finishing and sending in 
 my exercise (name under seal as usual), was encouraged by 
 taking solus the University Latin Essay Prize. Before this, 
 however, I had started with the intention of going out next 
 year in both Triposes, and had accordingly put on two coaches. 
 My old friend Travis being no longer a resident, I had recourse 
 to a Johnian, one of the few Classical men of that College, as 
 different a man from Travis as might be, but quite a character 
 too in his way. He was so large and dignified in person as to 
 have acquired the sobriquet of Jupiter — in those miserable, 
 drizzling, spitting days of which the English climate boasts an 
 extra share, we used to appeal to him, by this name, to exer- 
 cise his influence with the clerk of the weather — one of the 
 best-natured and one of the laziest of mortals : his end and 
 occupation and pleasure seemed to be to lie all day on a sofa, 
 writing Greek and Latin verses, which he did beautifully, or 
 reading English poetry. For Mathematics — having to begin 
 from the beginning, the six months before me were not too 
 long a time — I took shelter in a great refuge of Classical men, 
 who had a wonderful reputation for putting through incapa- 
 bles, and worked some thirty or forty pupils regularly. This 
 "putting on two coaches for the last Long," is an ordinary 
 practice ; and there are few terms or vacations during which a 
 student is not engaged with one tutor at least. Being so 
 important a feature in the University system, private tuition 
 demands a more particular examination and description than 
 the occasional references to it hitherto incidentally made supply. 
 
 7
 
 146 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 The private tutor at an English University corresponds, as 
 has been already observed, in many respects to the Professor 
 at a German. The German professor is not nece><sarUy 
 attached to any specific chair ; he receives no fixed stipend, and 
 has not public lecture rooms ; he teaches at his own house, and 
 the number of his pupils depends on his reputation. The Cam- 
 bridge private tutor is also a Graduate, who takes pupils at his 
 rooms in numbers proportionate to his reputation and ability. 
 And although, while the German professor is regularly licensed 
 as such by his University, and the existence of the private 
 tutor as such is not even officially recognised by his, still this 
 difference is more apparent than real ; for the English Univer- 
 sity has virtually licensed the tutor to instruct in a particular 
 branch by the standing she has given liim in her Examinations. 
 Thus a high Wrangler may be considered ipso facto a compe- 
 tent instructor in Mathematics, and so on. But the private 
 tutor's oflice is somewhat peculiar in the details of instruction, 
 owing to the causes which first called the system into being 
 and now perpetuate it. 
 
 The publicity given to College and University Honors, and 
 the importance assigned to them, have been already more than 
 once alluded to. They exceed anything of which we have any 
 conception in our academical institutions. True, the publicity 
 does not come in the same way ; there is no crowding of Com- 
 mencements to hear the young men make speeches ; but if a 
 comparatively small number of the public come to gaze at the 
 successful student, his name goes forth to all who read the 
 papers — for in every newspaper not only the results of the 
 Degree Examination and the University Prizes, but all the 
 College Examinations and College Prizes are conspicuously 
 reported. When T was elected Scholar of Trinity, Dr. Whevvell 
 thought it worth while to write express to Mr. Everett, announc- 
 ing the fact in advance of the press, as if our Minister w ould be 
 justified in regarding it as a sort of national matter. When 
 an acquaintance of mine, who was related to a member of the 
 Cabinet, wished for a start in the diplomatic liiie, the states- 
 man's first advice to him was, " be sure to get a Wranglersliip."
 
 ENGLISH CNlVKnSITY. 147 
 
 As to the first men of the year, they are no end of celebrities 
 for the time being. A small biography of the Senior Wrangler 
 is usually publislied in some local paper near his native place, 
 thence transferred to the Cambridge papers, and from them 
 cojiied Avidely into other journals ; ■while the School which 
 sent up the University Scholar and Senior Classic generally 
 takes care that something sliall be said about him. But the 
 honor is far from being the only point of the temptation. All 
 these Examinations, except the two Triposes,'-* bring with them 
 some solid testimonial in the shape of books, plate, or money 
 — more generally the last, and sometimes to a very consider- 
 able amount. A Trinity Scholarshij) is worth £60 a-year, if 
 the holder remains constantly in residence — £40 to most men, 
 according to the extent to which they usually avail themselves 
 of it. Some of the Small-College Scholarships are worth £100 
 ■per annum. A Fellowship gives an income of from £'200 to 
 £400. A friend of mine was, during his third year, between 
 School "Exhibitions," College Scholarships and Prizes, and the 
 Univei'sity Scliolarship, in the receipt of more than Seventeen 
 Hundred dollars ; and as his expenses did not exceed half that 
 sum, he was a gainer to the amount of the other half by receiv- 
 ing his education. Indeed, it is a common saying, and hardly 
 an exaggerated one, that a poor student by taking a high 
 degree supports not only himself, but his mother and sisters 
 for life. 
 
 Now it is evident that students come up to the University 
 with all degrees of preparation — some from the public schools, 
 already accomplished Classics, and requiring only to enlarge 
 their sphere of reading, get more philosophical conceptions in 
 syntax, and increase their pace in Composition ; but Avith very 
 scanty knowledge of Mathematics — some from private tutors, 
 who have perhaps read two years ahead in Mathematics, but 
 are rather shady in Greek and Latin — others from private 
 schools or tutors, not too well prepared in anything. More- 
 
 * And even these indirectly, as thsiy lead to Small-College Fellow- 
 ships. /'"''J
 
 148 FIVE YEARS IX AX 
 
 over, while the publio-school luan lias liad a previous traininpf 
 for the Classical examinations of the University in those of his 
 own school, many of his fellow-students are not in a position to 
 apply their knowledge with the best effect to the system in 
 which they find themselves. To make uj) for former deficien- 
 cies, and to direct study so that it may not be wasted, are two 
 (Icsiderala which ]irobabiy led to the introduction of private 
 tutors, once a partial, now a general appliance. Now, it is 
 true, that the extent of ground to be gone over in Classics is 
 too great for any one who enters veri/ deficient in them to be 
 worked up by any means so as to take a good degree, yet even 
 here a great deal may be done, and a very inaccurate and 
 superficial knowledge be filled in and polished up to a surpris- 
 ing extent ; while in Mathematics, the student who comes up 
 knowing only his First-year subjects, but with a very good 
 capacity for science, has time enough, under proper direction, 
 to get a place among the first twenty Wranglers, or even the 
 first ten. And it is through his tutor's aid that many a Classi- 
 cal man, who could never have passed of himself, saves his dis- 
 tance in Mathematics, or is even pushed into the Senior 
 Optimes, so as to be qualified for a Medal ; and that many a 
 Freshman takes a First Class in the IMay Examination, and is 
 thereby encouraged to go on reading for Honors, instead of 
 being disgusted and killed off at the outset. Moreover, even 
 for the subjects in which a student enters Avell prepared, the 
 coach is most useful to keep him at his work and prevent him 
 from losing ground. The daily or ter-weekly attendance has 
 a beneficial effect in making the pupil work regularly, nor is 
 the tutor in most cases at all slow to blow up any of his team 
 who give signs of laziness. Indeed this was an acknowledged 
 
 requisite of a good coach. " I am afraid of going to T ," 
 
 you may hear it said, " he don't slang his men enough^ In 
 working up a clever man whose previous training has been 
 neglected, in cramming a man of good memory but no great 
 brilliancy, in putting the last polish to a crack man and quick- 
 ening his pace, so as to give- him a place or two among the 
 highest in either Tripos— in ^hcb feats a skilful tutor will exhibit
 
 KNGi.isii r.NivKusn V. 149 
 
 consummate jookeyship ; he seems to tlivow a part of himself 
 into his pupil and work through him. 
 
 The student reading wifeli a Classical tutor translates to him 
 from some (prepared) author, lirings him composition prepared 
 at home, and writes out in the tutor's I'ooms, examination 
 fashion, both translations and compositions, wliich, after being- 
 corrected, are compared with the tutor's models. As much of 
 the pupil's reading must be done by himself, the great object 
 of the tutor is the Composition, but he also serves as a general 
 commentator and last resort in difficulties ; it is also his business 
 to make selections of hard passages from authors whom the 
 student may not have time or inclination to read the whole of, 
 and to point out proper books for " crani" and philological 
 information. 
 
 In Mathematics, examinations — that is, working examples 
 and problems — are the principal exercise, most " book-work" 
 difficulties being sufficiently explained in the books, though 
 some tutors consider their own manuscri})ts better than any of 
 the books, and make their pupils copy them. The men are 
 continually writing out book-work, either at home or in their 
 tutor's rooms ; they practise it to get pace as well as accuracy. 
 
 An ordinary tutor takes five or six pupils a-day, giving an 
 hour to each. One of great celebrity will have twice as many 
 if a Classic, or four times ns many if a Mathematician. A 
 mathematical tutor can drive a much larger team than a classi- 
 cal ; the latter cannot well have more than three men constru- 
 ing to him at a time, nor can he look over and correct the 
 Comijositions of more than ten in- a day with the care and 
 accuracy desirable ; the former can be making explanations 
 and setting examples to a squad of eight or ten together. 
 The one to whom I now resorted used to give his thirty pupils 
 regular " fights" as he called them ; he would set ten or twelve 
 of them to write out a paper on some subject, and give them 
 inarks for it just as in an examination ; and the results of 
 these fijhts papered the room during a whole term or va- 
 cation, till there was no place left on the walls for any more. 
 
 The men who have taken the very hiirhest degrees do not
 
 150 HVE VEAItS IN AX 
 
 always make the best tutors. The most celebrated coach for 
 high Mathematical men was a seventh Wrangler; our friend 
 of the fghts an eighth Wrangler. 
 
 To many of the TroXXo/ coaches are no less necessary, though 
 the quality in demand is of an inferior kind. The chief requi- 
 site of a Poll coach is patience, as his ])upils are likely to be 
 very stupid or very lazy, and in either case very ignorant ; a 
 man of any ability and knowledge going out in the Poll is able 
 to be his own tutor for the occasion. 
 
 The regular fee of a private tutor is £7 a term, if you go to 
 him on alternate days, or £l4 if every day. Noblemen and 
 Fellow-Commoners pay more, and Sizars about one half. The 
 charges for the vacations are ])roportional. 
 
 The intercourse between the private tutor and his jnipil 
 varies of course according to the character and age of both 
 parties, but it is usually of the most familiar kind, the former 
 seldom attempting to come Don over the latter. When they 
 are personal friends, as is not unfrequently the case, it becomes 
 very free and easy, sometimes blending amusement with 
 insti'uction in a rather comical way. When I was recovering 
 from illness sufficiently to " put on" Travis again, he used to 
 come to me, to save me the ascent of his three ])air of stairs, 
 and a man who had been my fellow pupil with him from the 
 beginning of our Freshmanslup, would meet him there. We 
 were reading uiEschylus, and something had possessed lis to 
 attack the SuppHces, which we afterwards concluded was 
 rather a waste of our time, the corruptions and difficulties of 
 the play being so great that it is scarcely ever set except in 
 University Scholarships, and the poetiy not of a character to 
 repay the trouble of making out its meaning. Here is the sort 
 of scene we three used to have. 
 
 \^A cosih/ furnished room about ticeloe feet square. Present 
 Travis and his two piipils ; also any number of Lexicons, sei'en 
 German commentators, and two English ones, scat.'ered about in 
 various places. The owner of the apartment attired in a. veri/ 
 old dressing-gown and slippers, half buried in an arm-chair,
 
 ENGLISH UXIVEHSITT. 161 
 
 and lookinrj what some young ladies call interestinc/, i. e. pale 
 and seedy, and hardly able to support the two or three books 
 which he is holding at once. Menzies, a little vian ivith a very 
 ^iositive eye-glass, perched on a so/a, and just visible among a 
 pile of learned tomes surrounding him. Travis standing up 
 with a much interlined and dog'' s-ectred ^schylus in his hand, 
 and occasionally walking about, or rather turning round, for 
 the limits of the chamber do not admit more. The manner of 
 instruction is this: — the pupils construe five or six lines alter- 
 nately, the construer stopping himself or being pulled up short 
 by Travis, at th2 end of every line, and a long discussion and 
 annotation intervening between that line and the next, accom- 
 panied with consultations of some or all of the nine commenta- 
 tors. One of the sufferers has just been reading half-a-dozen 
 lines of the almost unknown tongue, and takes a long breath be- 
 fore attacking the translation^ 
 
 Travis. Now tlien, Bristed, go on ! 
 
 B. " But respect thy suppliants, O earth-holding, almighty 
 Zeus, for the male race of JEgyptus, intolerable in their inso- 
 lence ;" u/3^iv an accusative, with xaro. understood, isn't it ? 
 
 T. Don't say xara. understood ; call it an accusative of 
 reference. 
 
 B. " Pursuing me in a," — can you say hurriedly for o^d^oidi, 
 as you would for (5f ofJLw, in Herodotus ? 
 
 T. Yes ; what's the construction of jxsra ? 
 
 B. Tmesis with (Jtofjisvoi. " Seek to take forcibly me a fugi- 
 tive ;" /3iaia adverbial, I suppose. 
 
 T. Of course ; go on ; 'roXu^pooi^ (xccTaiii'i. 
 
 B. MiTaKfi is an a.'gu.^ Xjy o/ASvoy, isn't it ? 
 
 T. No, I believe not. 
 
 \^A hunt for [jArri among the commentators and lexicons. 
 Menzies, who las the Linwood nearest him, announces that it 
 occurs also in the Choephora;, meaning a crime, and ho-emenns 
 wanderings.] 
 
 B. " Noisy wanderings " — will that do ? 
 
 T. Marrjv — (juaTaiof — it may mean o'imes, or rashness, here,
 
 152 FIVE YEARS IN" AN' 
 
 perhaps. 1 thought it flich (^Scribbles down a memorandum 
 for future reference on the marr/iii of his book.) I'll think of 
 it. Go on, Monzies. 
 
 [Menzios reads nevcn or c'u/hl lines ; the first two or three are 
 not very di^cult, and he charges them ivilh f/rcat determination.^ 
 
 M. "The beam of thy bahxnce is over all, and what without 
 thee is accomplished to mortals ? ! O ! ah ! ah !" 
 
 T. Xevcr mind tlie interjections. 
 
 Menzies makes a lonr/ pause. "Oos ^A^irris, " this snatcher," 
 vaiog " at sea," yoCio; " on land." I'm at sea altogether myself. 
 
 T, " This snatcher from the ship is now on hind." Don't 
 ■go to sleep, Bristed. Well, Menzies. 
 ■M. " May you labor for these things." 
 
 T. " Before these things, snatcher, may you perish," that is, 
 before you carry me off. 
 
 M. 'Icfp o/x is Egyptian, isn't it ? 
 
 T. Probably ; not Greek, at any rate. (Some one knocks at 
 the door.) 
 
 B. I thought my sporting door was shut. 
 
 T. Never mind, don't answer ; he'll go away. 
 
 M. Here's some more Egyptian, or something — xu.xy.a5 vo 
 
 (JjtCtV. 
 
 B. \Jookinr/ up out of a German edition^ Haupt reads 
 xa(Bj5ag. A very good emendation. It is the herald, then, 
 that speaks, xa^f2ag " come down here," jSoxv ctfji-qDaivGj, " I tell 
 you." 
 
 M. And what about vo (JJiav ? 
 
 T. Suiav must have something to do with Sjti, but vo — vo, no, 
 I don't know what that means. 
 
 B. [^Diving up from among three editors with an air of great 
 exultation.^ They all give it uj) as hopeless. 
 
 T. Well then we'll give it up as hopeless. 
 
 [Outsider knocks at the door^ Our friend don't give it up 
 as hopeless. " Come down, I tell you." 
 
 \^The outsider probably- hearing the last words imperfectly, 
 and construing them into an invitation to come in, enters with- 
 out more ceremony i\
 
 T;sf;i.i8ii rxiVKKPirv. lo3 
 
 B. Ah, Dunbar, how are yoxi ? 
 
 [Dunbur, a grave luavy Scotchman^ ivalks inlo the viiddle 
 of the room [which only requires one ste]j), becomes ctnrtre of 
 what is r/oinp on, says " oh, you're busy," and is slowly turning 
 to go oicti\ 
 
 T. Don't go. We'll soon be through. Sit down and take 
 a book. 
 
 \B. hands Dunbar a Niebuhr's Home, stuck full of ragged 
 bits of paper, to mark places where cram is to be got up. Dun- 
 bar opens it at the largest of these marks, and sils doivn to a dis- 
 sertation on the nexus and addictus — about as interesting as 
 Fearne on Contingent Remainders. B. reads some more Griek 
 and proceeds to translate.^ 
 
 " I see these preludes are introductory of forcible miseries to 
 
 me. Go in flight to the protection of the shrine " that's 
 
 what they say dXxav means — " Ferocious he revels " — xki5a. 
 active here ? 
 
 T. No, no ; take both your adjectives adverbially. 
 
 B. " He revels ferociously of purpose, in a way intolerable 
 both at sea and on land. O king, anticipate him by your 
 orders " — 
 
 T. There you go again ! AMiat voice is nooraddm ? 
 
 B. Middle. 
 
 T. Well then, " arrange yourself before us — stand before 
 us." Now, Menzies ! ouxouv o-JxoCv. 
 
 M. \_Making a desperate dash at the passage and rendering 
 it with a literalness that would have gladdened the heart of a 
 New England tutor ^ " AVon't there be, -wont there be pull- 
 ings, pullings, and stickings, very bloody, murderous cutting 
 off of the head ?" 
 
 [Dunbar shuts up his book, looks at Menzies as if he had 
 some doubts of his sanity, and walks solemnly out of the room.^ 
 
 M. Whom does she say that of, herself or the herald \ 
 
 B. Which you please, my dear, as the man said of the 
 puppet-show. 
 
 T. She says it of the lierald — threatens him with the king's 
 vengeance. That will do for you.
 
 1.54 FIVK VRARS IN \S 
 
 [Z?. reads a few lines and 2)roceed-t to translate^ — " Go, yc 
 curscil ^Vl•etcll(>s to the cursed" — I say, Travis, aaiV means 
 matclla. It's very improper and besides doesn't agree with the 
 context. Anntlier loii<j turning over of commentators — ulti- 
 mate!// it is decided on Dindorfs authority tltat d^j-ioa has crept 
 into the text ridiculo errore /or diici6a ivhich Hesychias explains 
 to mean a ship occro roJ d,aav Tr^v aka, because it sweeps the 
 brine. 
 
 " Then along the briny path of many currents with a mas- 
 ter's insolence, yea, all bloody from my studded staft' will I put 
 you" — pattses and looks up, suspecting sometliing wrong because 
 Travis has let him translate four lines without interrupting 
 him. 
 
 T. \ioho has been looking out of the toindow for the last ttoo 
 minutes?^ — O Menzies, there's such a pretty girl just gone by ! 
 Bristed, have you had your walk to-day ? Put on your boots 
 and let's go out and see her. [Exeunt Travis and Menzies.] 
 
 It should be observed in palliation of their haste, "that a 
 pretty face is a rare sight in Cambridge. You don't see one 
 once in three months on an average. 
 
 Scenes like the above make coaching appear rather a farcical 
 performance, and must not be taken as a general type of the 
 operation. Yet even where the communication of knowledge 
 takes this jocose turn, it is not the less true that much know- 
 ledge is communicated. 
 
 It would indeed be too much to say that every private tutor 
 is a conscientious man ; probably that could not be affirmed of 
 any body of instructors amounting to several hundred. Some 
 of the instances where men who have gone out in the Poll 
 take Poll pupils, especially to go on a reading party, are the 
 grossest cases of governor-doing, being merely associations for 
 the more convenient pursuit of idleness and dissipation on the 
 part of all concerned, tutor as well as pupils. But such cases 
 are happily exceptional. Nevertheless advantage has been 
 taken of them by a College dignitary here and there, jealous 
 of the lucrative and independent position enjoved by some 
 of the tutors who have married (either giving up tlieir fellow-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 155 
 
 ships or not waiting to get them, or even liaving failed to 
 get them, tor the competition at Trinity and John's some- 
 times excludes very good men), and support a family on 
 the proceeds of their teams. But there is little likelihood 
 that the practice Avill be abolished or essentially modified 
 tmless the -whole system of the University and College exami- 
 nations should undergo a fundamental change. The present 
 staff of College Lecturers could not, except in some few of the 
 smallest Colleges, supply the demand for instruction ; in the 
 large Colleges their number would require to be multiplied by 
 a very large factor. Nor, even were they thus increased, could 
 any public lecturer have the intimate knowledge of his pupils' 
 acquirements, deficiencies, capacities, and wants, that the private 
 tutor has, nor would he be likely to take so strong a pereonal 
 interest in each individual of them. The etiquette and official 
 distance between the two parties go a great way to prevent this. 
 Moreover any College arrangements would leave the vacations 
 unprovided for, and it is in the vacations that the greater por- 
 tion of a reading man's work is done. For my own j^art I am 
 sensible of having derived the greatest advantage fi-om the 
 gentlemen with whom I read at different periods, and am con- 
 vinced that, without them, I should have gained but very 
 moderate benefit from the public instruction of the College ; 
 and I believe every man except those from the public schools 
 would say the same thing. They, having undergone a similar 
 drill previously, could better do without private Classical 
 instruction, but even many of them would be hard put to it 
 without a Mathematical coach. Nor would it be possible, even 
 were it desirable, to put down private tuition in fact, though it 
 might be done in name. It could not be made unlawful for 
 two men to assist each other in Classics and Mathematics reci- 
 procally. A little of this goes on as it is. A B.A. friend of 
 mine reading for a Fellowship, coached me very successfully in 
 Mathematics for one examination, and I paid him in kind by 
 assisting him in Classics the next Long. Were the legitimate 
 private tutors abolished, this sort of arrangement would become 
 more frequent, and it would carry with it many of the alleged
 
 156 FIVE VEAUS JN AN 
 
 evils of private tuition as now existing — such as its being unau- 
 thorized, interfering with the public lectures, (fee. — with the 
 additional evil that the work would not be so well done. 
 
 It certainly must be annoying to a College Don that a man 
 who has perhaps taken a lower Degree than liimself, and has 
 no legal or formal place in the University, should yet enjoy a 
 larger income and a greater local reputation in addition to the 
 comforts of a family. But the latter is a penalty which the 
 Don must pay for his official dignity and extra-local reputation ; 
 out of the University the private tutor is only B. A. or M. A. 
 or at most " late Fellow," the Dean or tutor of a College is 
 always somebody on a title page, whether he edits a Classic or 
 publishes a sermon. And as to the former, it has been 
 already shown that a lecturer who wants a large clasg and a 
 reputation for lecturing, and has the ability to deserve them, 
 need never fail to have a crowded room. On the whole we 
 may say that, admitting the p^'esent examinations as fixed facts, 
 the private-tutorial is the best mode of preparing for -them. 
 It is dear — but England is a dear country, and everything 
 connected with an English University education is expensive — 
 and there is this peculiar compensation in the case of the 
 expense of the private tutor, that it repays itself hy its own 
 operation. The poor Undergraduate Avho pays his £1 or £14 
 a term to his tutor, receives the same amount from his pupil 
 when himself a B. A.
 
 F.S OLISil UNIVKIISITY. 15 7 
 
 LONG VACATION AML'SEMENTS. INTRODUCTION OF AN ILLUS- 
 TRIOUS STRANGEll. 
 
 "Judicious drank." — Pope. 
 
 I HAD set to work in earnest to read for both Triposes. AVith 
 my Classical tutor I attacked the Q^]dipus Tyrannus of Sopho- 
 cles, an author into whose difficulties I was just heginning to 
 have a little insight, and also wrote Composition, not in his 
 rooms like an examination, but leisurely at home, as well as 
 translations of the most difficult passages in the Third Book of 
 Thucydides. With my other coach I began Mathematics from 
 the beginning — that is to say from Algebra. It was a melan- 
 choly reflection that I had first been set to work on the mys- 
 tery of X and y eight years before. During that space of time 
 my advance in literature and general mental development had 
 been definite and appreciable ; in Mathematics I seemed to 
 have been standing still. This was the fourth time I had begun 
 Algebra, and essayed with no weakness of purpose to get it up 
 properly. But it was as slow and disagreeable work as ever, 
 and one day after I had been blundering along for a fortnight 
 without getting into Trigonometry, I suddenly resolved to give 
 up the idea of going out in Honors, for that year at any rate. 
 Being a hye-term man I could choose the year below without 
 formally degrading, and this would put me on an equality with 
 other men by giving me a second chance for a Scholarship. 
 So I threw Mathematics up, and having only Classics to devote 
 myself to, read with my tutor five plays of Sophocles, and some 
 Demosthenes, and by myself, all Theocritus and all the twenty 
 plays of Plautus — which was one of my weakne.sses and con- 
 sidered a great loss of time, as Plautus is no help in Compo- 
 sition and few men read more than three or four plays to get a 
 vocabulary. As my healtli gradually improved under the even
 
 158 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 temperature of an English summer, 1 also began to look about 
 for some little amusement, not a very easy thing to find in 
 a 'Cambridge Long. Discovering that I was strong enough to 
 pLay billiards,* I entered into the exercise with much ardor, 
 but it soon became so fascinating and took up so much time 
 that I was obliged to wean myself of it. 
 
 It liappened that there Avas this summer, beginning before 
 the vacation and lasting to the end of it, an unusual influx of 
 American visitors, no less than seven, at as many different 
 times, some just landed on the shores of Europe, others on their 
 way back from the East, and each of these visits was an inci- 
 dent in my tolerably monotonous life, and an occasion of festi- 
 vity. But the most marked and important feature of this Long- 
 was my introduction to another stranger, which took place 
 thus. 
 
 Among the men up this Long, who were all reading-men of 
 course, I was especially intimate with two sets. One consisted 
 of three or four Apostles, men who belonged to different Col- 
 leges but were united by the bond of their club, and most of 
 whom I had known previous to their joining it, indeed I had 
 introduced some of them to each other. For I had become at 
 this time a medium — not exactly in the signification in which 
 the term has become popular in our newspapers (yet somewhat 
 in a spiritual sense too), but a man who knew and " hung out 
 to " clever and pleasant people, and introduced agreeable lions 
 to one another. These men were all immediate aspirants for 
 high Honors and consequently in a fearful state of work. The 
 Peinbroker was booked to lead the Tripos, and at the same 
 time had the pleasant prospect of getting up all his Mathema- 
 tics for a place among the Senior Ops ; the Kingsman was the 
 favorite for the next University Seliolarship ; and one of the 
 Trinity men, tempted by an unusual number of vacancies, was 
 making a tremendous rush for a Fellowship, though it was not 
 his last chance. I noticed these men's habits of reading, and 
 
 * Billiard-rooms were not legal at that time, but their existence was 
 generally winked at They are now regularly licensed both at Cam- 
 bridge and Oxford.
 
 EXRLISn rMVKRSITV. 159 
 
 it was curious to mark the ditferencc. The Pembroker had not 
 physiqtie enough to work more than nine hours daily, which 
 indeed is one beyond the average time allotted by experience 
 and tradition. He would have atten^pted more, but I used to 
 haul him out by main force, and compel him to take an hour's 
 walk every day, under the plea that I had money on him and 
 was bound to look after his training, besides making him talk 
 and be idle for an hour or so occasionally of evenings. He of 
 King's, a most regular and well ordered man in mind and body, 
 with a clear head, a good digestion, and a sound conscience, 
 read straight on his ten hours a day, and assured me that he 
 never felt better, and Avas ready to run and jump like a boy 
 when he went out for his constitutional. The Trinitarian had a 
 peculiar style of his own. He differed from most reading men 
 in keeping late hours. He rose at ten, read from eleven to 
 half-past three, then took a short walk ; after dinner, he lounged 
 or read the papers till seven, when he fell to work and never 
 stopped till two in the morning. This man (he is the Horace 
 Speddmrj of the supper party) might almost be said to know 
 the Greek Drama by heart ; if you gave him a line of any pro- 
 logue, or soliloquy, or messenger's speech, he could go on with 
 the next. • 
 
 Of mv other set of acquaintances I saw more from meeting 
 them every day in hall. They were Trinity Senior and Junior 
 Sophs, some Scholars, some candidates for Scholarships next 
 time, were chiefly reading men without any pretence to litera- 
 ture, or metaphysics, or " earnestness " of any sort except in 
 work ; and all looked up to tlie Trinity candidate for head of 
 the Tripos as their great man. They took their work more 
 leisurely, though getting through a fair share of it ; even the 
 Coryphaeus, who had most at stake, was not inclined to give 
 tip his rubber when there was a chance of one in the evening ; 
 and they found time to get up continual breakfast, wine and 
 supper parties. One of the foremost in these agreeable varia- 
 tions of academic exercises, was a man considerably the senior 
 of his year — probably close upon thirty. He had entered his 
 name on the books nearlv ten vears before, then turned Metho-
 
 160 FIVE VrAUS IN- AN 
 
 dist, and actually became a Metbodist preacher, after Avhicli lie 
 changed back again and entered the University, as a prelimi- 
 nary to taking Orders in the Church of England. In all ordi- 
 nary topics -whereon men arc apt to disagree, he and I dis- 
 agreed, for he was Yoimg England in politics and Puseyite in 
 Church matters, but we had a kindred bond of union in a love 
 for, and a certain knowledge of that branch of the fine arts 
 ■which relates to the testhetics of the table. He was a connois- 
 seur in venison and mutton, and a judge of old wine (one of 
 the only three Englishmen I ever knew to have good Madeira), 
 and possessing sufficient property of his own to indulge in these 
 innocent tastes, bid fair to make a worthy member of the 
 Church jovial. It was a very early weakness of mine to be 
 curious in good dishes and drinks,"* and I was just now dab- 
 bling in the science with all the zest of a man who has been for 
 twenty months obliged to weigh and ponder over every morsel 
 he eats and drop he drinks, and is at last beginning to be able 
 to live like other people. At this very time the anti- American 
 part of Martin Chuzzlewit was in course of publication, in 
 which occurs, it will be remembered, a description of sherry 
 cobbler. This description struck F's fancy amazingly. After 
 meditation upon it for some time, he broke out one day, 
 when six of us were discussing in his rooms the luxuries of the 
 season — strawberries, and raspberries, and various other sorts of 
 berries, which in England flourish all together, and the whole 
 summer through — and imbibing the eternal port and sherry — 
 one fine summer afternoon I say, while Ave were thus occupied, 
 he broke out with, 
 
 " Bristed, did you ever drink sherry-cobbler ?" 
 
 I confessed that I had. 
 
 " Can you make it ?" 
 
 This was a question that took longer to answer. Though it 
 
 * According to Grahamite and tee-total rules I ought to have been a 
 confirmed drunkard and glutton long ago, yet I never find any diffi- 
 eulty in living on vegetables and water for a week at a time, when 
 I want to work hard in hot weather, or have any otlier reason for fol- 
 lowing a spare diet.
 
 ENGLISH UNiVf:i;siTV, IGl 
 
 was many years since I had last been engaged in the process 
 (on which occasion a young hidy from the neighboring nation 
 of South Carolina had particularly insisted on my putting in 
 enough sherry), I probably recollected enough of the theory to 
 put it into practice again ; but there was a difficulty in procuring 
 some of the requisite materials — ice for instance. Here they 
 looked astonished, ice, as it is commonly understood in Eng- 
 land, that is ice-cream, being a very common article of consump- 
 tion at Cambridge, l^ut simple ice, sufficiently clear to be put 
 into a beverage, was at that time unknown in England ; they 
 have become familiar with it since, thanks to Lake Wenham. 
 However, the original mover of the matter tliought he had suffi- 
 cient influence with the confectioners, or, failing that, chemical 
 knowledge enough of his own to obtain the rare luxury by arti- 
 ficial means ; and two others of the party undertook to procure 
 the necessary description of straws. So I invited tlie company 
 to meet in my rooms three days from that time and try sherry- 
 cobbler. 
 
 It was not necessary to put a private laboratory at work for 
 freezing the ice. The crack confectioner of the jilace under- 
 took to supply it, though somewhat puzzled by the order, 
 coupled as it was with one for soda-water glasses, or tumblers 
 of the largest size ; and equally puzzled were the milliners' 
 girls at the application of our foraging party for straws. But 
 all these preliminary difficulties being happily overcome, the 
 six assembled on the appointed day, in my summer room (I 
 was luxurious enough to have two) to test the transatlantic 
 beverage. I was conscious of ten cui-ious eyes watching my 
 every movement, as I proceeded to concoct the cobbler. 
 Having at length arranged it to suit my taste, I took an experi- 
 mental suck, put in another straw and handed the glass over 
 to our authority, who, grave as a judge, proceeded to the trial. 
 The eyes of the party Avere now directed to him with an 
 anxiety in which I alone did not participate, the few drops 
 imbibed having satisfied me that tlie national beverage was 
 
 able to take care of itself. F laid hold of the straw and 
 
 applied his lips to it for a few seconds without manifesting any
 
 102 FIVE VEAH8 IN AN 
 
 emotion in his features. Tlion he paused a moment, took a 
 longer draught and rolled up his eyes, making u great display 
 of the whites — a trick he had learned during his excursion into 
 the Methodist Church — then removing his lips reluctantly from 
 the straw, he uttered his oracular decision, " II tvill doy 
 Forthwith every man seized a knife and a lemon, and the 
 manufacture of cobblers went on. I do not undertake to say 
 that these were the first made in England, but they 
 certainly were the first made at either University : it did not 
 take long to naturalize them at Cambridge. As the beverage 
 is a much weaker one than the Cantabs had been in the habit 
 of drinking, besides that it requires to be imbibed more slowly 
 than unmixed wine, I may congratulate myself on having done 
 something to promote the cause of sobriety, as well as of 
 table (esthetics. But republics are not the only communities 
 that show themselves ungi'ateful to their benefactors. In less 
 than three years the origin of the drink was forgotten. Before 
 I left the University, an Eton Freshman at a wine party, asked 
 me, -if we drank sherry-cobbler in America !
 
 KNGLISII UNIVERSHT. 103 
 
 A SECOND EDITION' OF THIRD YEAR. A CRACK CLASSICAL 
 
 COACH. COMMEMOKATIOX SPEECH. 1 BET ON THE WINNING 
 
 MAN. 
 
 Ki'ifiilai ctii\ov Barepov Kw\oy iraXiv — jEsCH. ACAM. 3-44. 
 
 Just at the end of the vacation every one feels it a duty to 
 liiinself to go soinewhere for a little while. I went to visit a 
 friend residing near Cheltenham. Mesmerism, the Water Cure, 
 and some other German novelties, had just then possessed the 
 good people in that part of the country, and I was induced to 
 try tlie prevaiHng panacea, which I imderwent five days — and 
 never before did I fully appreciate the force of the metaphor, 
 to throw a wet blanket on anything. Even now it presents a 
 sadly ludicrous spectacle to my mind's eye, as I recall myself 
 helplessly swaddled in seven blankets over a wet sheet, power- 
 less to move hand or foot ; or squatted in a sitz bath, trying to 
 keep myself warm by reading the fire in Schiller's Bell-Song. 
 At tlie end of the fifth day, the process had to be given up in 
 self-defence, as, in addition to certain physical obstructions, it 
 brought on a lowuess of spirits which rendered life a burden 
 to me. 
 
 I am av/are how dangerous a thing it is for a layman, with 
 necessarily limited knowledge, to meddle with professional sub- 
 jects. In delivering any opinion upon them, he runs a great 
 risk of stultifying himself. But it must be recollected that the 
 Water Cure was essentially unprofessional in the outset; that 
 it was invented — its differentia or specific features, that is to say 
 — by an illiterate peasant ; and, though some of the faculty 
 have been induced partially or entirely to countenance it, pro- 
 claimed itself from the first antagonistic to the ordinary treat- 
 ment of regular physicians. In making, therefore, a very
 
 1G4 FIVE VEAIiS IX AN' 
 
 brief digression on tlie Water Cure, I do not consider myself 
 intruding on finy professional or scientific ground. 
 
 The idea of drawing bad humors out of the body, through 
 the action of the skin, excited by the aj^plication of cold ■water, 
 is a neat, simple, and plausible theory ; but its disciples over- 
 look one important counteracting fact, the tendency of con- 
 tinual external applications of cold to produce congestion and a 
 stoppage of the animal functions. A person with a tendency 
 to imperfect circulation, and the ordinary consequences of it — 
 cold extremities, constipation, irregular action of the heart, 
 (fcc, will find all these symptoms fearfully increased by any 
 attempt at the Water Cure ; indeed the operator ui)on me con- 
 fessed, after I had thrown him up, that those in whom the last- 
 mentioned symptom existed ought not to attempt undergoing 
 the treatment, although he had admitted me as a patient, with 
 full knowledge of what my chief difficulty was. No doubt, 
 great benefit has been derived from the treatment in some 
 cases. When a man with a naturally strong constitution has 
 fallen into idle or sedentary habits, and by luxurious living and 
 insufliicient bodily exercise has clogged a machine originally 
 good, the shock and irritation produced by the cold applications 
 may give him a fresh start, which is aided by the altered regi- 
 men. Literary men with means enough .to live well, and 
 addicted to a profuse use of tobacco, are often in this plight. 
 But the rough-washing which succeeded so admirably with the 
 hide-bound cow that was the first hydropathic patient, and 
 answers for many a strong man who has hide-hound himself by 
 working his stomach and brain too much and his legs too little, 
 will be death to a weak man or a delicate woman. And it may 
 further be questioned Avhether these strong men grown rusty, 
 do not derive most of the benefit they gain from the accessories 
 of the system — from the regular hours, the long walks, the 
 simple and unstimulating diet ; and wliether, if they adopted 
 the same early rising, the same out-door exercise — enough to 
 give a man a good sweat every day, tvhich evert/ man oiujht to 
 have — the same temperate regimen, with such use of cold 
 %vater as cleanliness and comfort prompt — they might not
 
 ENGMSII UNIVERSITY. 16o 
 
 receive just as inucli benefit Avithout going througli the daily 
 purgatory of wet sheets, sitz baths, and the like, and with less 
 waste of the vital powers.* Certain it is that those who have 
 been at a Water Cure Establishment, and profess and really 
 appear to have received much temporar}'- relief, are apt, after a 
 few years, to re-apply to it, which can only arise from one of 
 two things, or the combined influence of both. Either a great 
 pai't of tlie benefit derived from the treatment is owing to the 
 attendant regimen, and when that regimen ceases the original 
 evil returns ; or else the Water Cure gives, in some cases, a 
 temporary excitement to the system, which, like other excite- 
 ments, is followed by a corresponding reaction, and requires to 
 be renewed. 
 
 On returning to Cambiidge, at the commencement of the 
 Michaelmas Term, I was stimulated by gaining the English 
 Essay Prize, and soon after set to work with one of the two 
 crack Classical tutors. For as tliere were two Mathematical 
 coaches of eminence, so were tliere two Classical ; only the 
 former had a reputation for different styles of men, while 
 between the latter there was somewhat of rivalry, especially 
 this year, when each was coaching a candidate for the top of 
 the Tripos. It was doubtful whether these professed trainers 
 of "men among the first five" were exactly suited for me, or 
 whether I was likely to do credit to their mode of instruction ; 
 but a desire of seeing all I could of the different ways of 
 teaching, and some little curiosity as to what stand I could 
 possibly hope to take (which a tutor of such experience would 
 probably be able to determine pi-etty nearly), induced me 
 
 * A man's whole system is renewed (pliysiologists tell us) once in 
 abont seven years. One effect of Hydropathy seems to be to produce 
 this change in a quicker period, and — as we may suppose every man 
 good for so many changes, unless cut short by accident — to burn the 
 candle faster. 
 
 A literary friend once wrote to me about the great good he had 
 derived from the Water Cure. It came out that at the same time he 
 was in the habit of taking daily horse exercise, which I begged him to 
 practise years before, as the only effectual remedy for constant 
 biliousness, •
 
 160 FIVE TEARS IX A\ 
 
 to read witli llio oracle of tlie Rlirewsbury men vlio had 
 in hand at that time nearly all the Trinity set mentioned 
 in the last chapter. I must have puzzled this gentleman 
 exceedingly, my reading ran in so dilferent a line from 
 that of most of his pupils, and my way of doing tilings 
 was so ditferent. When he gave me Elegiacs or Alcaics to 
 write, I used to sit looking very desperate at them for a 
 long time, and then produce something exceedingly lamentable, 
 not exactly in the way of false quantities, but very unclassical 
 and prosaic; and as he was not backward in slanr/irif/ — one of 
 the requisites of a good coacli, as has been remarked — he 
 would give it to my unfortunate composition right and left. 
 Once I let some verses fall into the fire, and was going to pick 
 them out. " Let them go !" quoth he, '• that's the best place 
 for them." On the other hand, 1 used at times to liit off 
 translations from Aristophanes, and other difficult authors, in 
 a style that won commendation from him, I recollect once 
 doing a long bit from the Amphitruo of Plautus into blank 
 verse, and handing it up to him with an air that said, "There ! 
 you must admire tliat whether or no.*' Our way of working 
 with him, I should say, was this. There were three rooms on 
 the first lioor of the house, the upper part of which he and his 
 family occupied : in one of these he used to hear sometimes 
 one pupil construe, sometimes two or three in a class on 
 Pindar or some other favorite author ; and in the other two 
 his pupils were writing Compositions and Translations, with 
 nothing but the usual amount of stationer}' to assist them. 
 Sometimes, however, Ave could not help asking one another for 
 a word. Occasionally, but rarely, we took extra Composition 
 to do at home. I read part of the llapa'n'pscflSeia, one of 
 Demosthenes' Orations that everybody reads ; and then he 
 broke off in the middle, said I could do that well enough, and 
 had better go on with Aristotle — which I did, taking up the 
 Nicomachean Ethics where I had left them off in tlie Spring, 
 and continued with the Fourth and Fifth Books. He had his 
 little diversions, too, as well as Travis, and sometimes would 
 break out in the middle of a long sentence with some
 
 ENGLISH UXIVKRSITY. 167 
 
 question about Y/ebster or Calhoun. I read this Term like a. 
 man with a sole eye to the Tripos; the only -jrapsppv I had 
 was delivering my Commemoration Speech — not writing it ; that 
 I had done at Cheltenham — and attending an Epigram Club 
 that some of us had started. The Speech is delivered by the 
 author of the First Prize Declamation. He chooses his own 
 subject. I took for mine The Princijyle of LiheraUty, chiefly 
 for the pleasure of Laving a fling at the Antediluvians in 
 Church and State. It did vex a few, and by way of losing 
 none of the effect, I had it printed. Of this Composition I 
 felt a little proud — not for any particular merit that even 
 myself could discern in it, but because it was the means of 
 my making a valued acquaintance. 
 
 There was one of our P^ellows whose rejtutation with the 
 University at large Avas that he had been Senior Wrangler 
 some years before ; with his friends, under which term a very 
 small body of men was comprehended, this was the least of 
 his claims to regard. He was of old family and good for- 
 tune, a liberal in politics, and had his physical strength and 
 development at all kept pace with his mental, would probably 
 at this moment be representing the City of Bath in Parliament. 
 But his health had broken down from too much study and 
 thought; even before he entered the University, and Avhile an 
 Undergraduate, he read but three or four hours daily; being, 
 however, one of those Mathematical geniuses who are born to 
 be Senior Wranglers, he carried oft" the prize to the particular 
 discomfiture of the Johnians. But whereas geniuses of this 
 kind are frequently one-sided and very much abroad in 
 other subjects, he had knowledge enough of other branches to 
 have given him a reputation without his Mathematics. He 
 was an excellent Metaphysician, Avhich caused him to be 
 distinguished for his proficiency in the Doctrine of Chances, 
 where a mere Mathematician is almost sure to fail ; a very 
 good Latin and Italian Scholar, and not deficient in French, 
 while his acquaintance with the literature of his own language 
 was wide and varied. Still it was not so much the extent of 
 his iuformatioji — for there were several men in the University,
 
 IfiS FIVE YEARS IX AX 
 
 Jolin Crrote fur instance, wliosc range covered more ground — 
 lliat .struck one so much as the power he had over it. His 
 mind w;is tlie best arranged and most symmetrical I ever 
 encountered. Whatever he knew was in its pLncc and 
 ready fur use. As to his moral qualities he was a thorough 
 gentleman, with a suavity and amiability that no bodily 
 suffering could disturb, the purest taste, the loftiest principle. 
 Though of moderate stature and so thin ami fragile that it 
 seemed as if a violent gust of wind miglit blow him bodily 
 away, his personal appearance Avas dignified and commanding. 
 His features were very regular and very expressive (a rare 
 combination), and a fancy he had of parting his long hair 
 down the middle, gave his head an exceedingly picturesque 
 appearance. Once an Oxonian dining at the Trinity Fellows' 
 table, was impressed by the intellectual and interesting 
 countenance opposite him, and asked if it did not belong 
 to a poet ; Avhen informed that the object of his curiosity was a 
 Senior Wrangler, he could hardly conceal his disappointment. 
 
 But E did have reputation for poetry, so far at least as 
 
 writing verse translations went. 
 
 It was a day or two after Commemoration (about the middle 
 of November), that on entering the College gate, after a post- 
 prandial lounge at the Union, I was informed by moonshine — 
 such was the sobriquet of our rubicund-nosed porter — that Mr. 
 
 E had been at my roojns inquiring for me. How he knew, 
 
 it was hard to say, as E lived two courts otf and I three ; 
 
 but these College servants, like some others, have a knack of 
 finding out all that is going on. Now in a place where 
 intellect and acquirements are the highest standard of nobilit}^, 
 such a call was like the summons of a prince, or to take a com- 
 parison nearer home, I felt as the editor of the might, if 
 
 his Excellency the President of the United States had sent him 
 a special messenger to request his presence. I crowded sail 
 
 immediately for E 's quarters, which were up in a turret, 
 
 literally, for the entrance was, and by a most bieak-neck stair- 
 case, too ; though when you were fairly inside the second door, 
 about half a house opened upon you. There was the usual
 
 E\GUSH UNIVERSITY. 169 
 
 amount of awkwardness and hesitation on botli sides, while I 
 stated the reason of my visit, and he informed me that his 
 object in calUng was to look at my Commemoration Discourse, 
 if a copy was visible, as he had heard its delivery very imper- 
 fectly. (No wonder, for the pulpit had been placed in exactly 
 the most inaudible situation, and the Hall, however well calcu- 
 lated for purposes of feeding, and holding- examinations, was a 
 most unacoustic place to speak in.) We gradually fell into 
 conversation upon other matters, till lighting on old English 
 Ballad Poetry which happened to be rather a hobby with both 
 of us, we kept up an animated conversation to a late hour, and 
 after that night frequently exchanged visits. 
 
 The Epigram Club was an idea started one evening by six 
 or eight of us. The number was increased to thirteen, none of 
 whom, I am happy to say, have gone to the " land o' the leal " 
 yet, notwithstanding the omen.* Some of us were very heavy 
 men to all appearance, and our first attempts mild enough, but 
 Cantabs have a thorough way of taking up and carrying out 
 anything they lay hold of, and we made rapid progress. It 
 surprised me to see how much wit could be knocked out of 
 materials so solid. Ultimately some of our productions were 
 informally requested for Punch, and some for other publica- 
 tions. But with true English reserve the Society came to an 
 agreement that all their transactions should remain in manu- 
 script. Our rival candidates for Senior Classic were both 
 members of this club, as they are now both contributors to the 
 same Magazine. They were the best of friends, and both 
 wrote very good verses ; the Small Colleger was felicitous in 
 imitating Macaulay and Coleridge, and the Trinitarian elabo- 
 rated perfect burlesques of the Popian versification and the 
 University Prize Poems. 
 
 They were very good friends ; but their supporters and 
 seconders sometimes clashed a little. The Trinity set, who 
 
 * There was a rich bull committed by one of this Society. The club 
 having to meet in his rooms on a certain evening, he wrote twelve 
 notices, and then wearied himself for half an hour trying to recollect 
 who the thirteMh m&inb&i' u'n-'*. 
 
 8
 
 170 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 had put me down as wanting in proper feeling for the honor 
 of my College, still professed strong hopes that our man would 
 lead the Tripos, and being much bantered by them I occa- 
 sionally resorted to the true English argument " What'll you 
 bet?" The odds were certainly against me, as I backed my 
 man to be not only Senior Classic, but First Chancellor's 
 Medallist, and to be a Medallist at all he must be a Senior 
 OpI.ime in Mathematics. This part of the business he accom- 
 plished with that tight shave which is rather gratifying to a 
 Classical man, as it shows that he has thrown away no more 
 time on Mathematics than was absolutely necessary. The 
 Trinity man, who might easily have been a Wrangler, was also 
 among the Senior Optiines, but twenty-four places higher. 
 
 The Mathematical Tripos this winter Avas remarkable for the 
 total bouleversement of all the results of all the College exami- 
 nations. The favorite was Senior Wrangler, but scarcely 
 another man of the thirty-seven Wranglers occupied his pre- 
 sumed place, positively or relatively. Our best man from 
 Trinity was only sixth, but he beat two others of the College 
 who were expected to be among the first five. 
 
 It was about this time (the middle of January), that my tutor, 
 having made up his mind about my chances for next year, took 
 occasion to deliver his opinion upon them. " You can get a 
 First Class in the Tripos,"^' said he, " but you will have to 
 Avork for it." I told him that Avorking hard Avas Avith me out 
 of the question, that I could only read about five hours a day, 
 and had to get up all my Mathematics Avhich Avould take the 
 Avhole last Long. He intimated that I ought to Avork at Com- 
 position five or six hours a day for six months to bring me up 
 to the standard, " and as you can't do that," said he, " actum 
 esty Then he advised me to go out in the Poll. This is the 
 course Avhich many a man. Mathematical as Avell as Classical, 
 takes out of pride, when he finds that from early idleness, ill- 
 health, or any other cause, his degree Avill not be equal to Avhat 
 
 * The Classical Tripos is generally spoken of as the Tripos, the 
 Mathematical one as the Degree J^jcami nation.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. l7l 
 
 lie thinks his abilities deserve. The subject was discussed by us 
 at intervals for several days, but my mind was pretty well made 
 up. After the first two or three months of my illness, when it 
 was evident that recovery would be a work of years, and pro- 
 bably never complete at that — from that time I gave up per- 
 force ambitious desires, and contented myself with playing such 
 second part as I could. I would not be ashamed of trying for 
 the best of everything, and failing. So I told my tutor that I 
 was willing to take my chance ; at any rate I would have a shy 
 at a College Scholarship, though that involved another dose of 
 Mathematics. By waj of taking a surfeit of Classics previous 
 to beginning this disagreeable work, I went in to the Univer- 
 sity Scholarship examination, which was a hollow thing, as 
 sporting men say. The Kingsman, who had run last year's 
 successful competitor so close, was the favorite, and won in a 
 canter. He too was one of the lights of our Epigram Club, 
 and afterwards became an Apostle. The examination was a 
 very fair one ; less cram and fewer out-of-the-way passages 
 than are usual in a University Scholarship. 
 
 Just after this came on the Classical Tripos, for the head of 
 which our two friends were running, neck and neck. The Pem- 
 broke man, of an excitable disposition naturally, and rendered 
 unusuallj^ nervous by indifferent health, scarcely gave himself 
 sufficient food or rest, ransacked all manner of note-books and 
 collections of marked passages, and seized upon all the eligible 
 English verse he could find to translate into Greek and Latin, 
 till he had acquired a pace which was astounding to behold. 
 Ilis rival went on in the same quiet way as ever, doing his 
 Avork beautifully, but just at the old rate, and never missing his 
 Saturday night whist or breaking in on any of his old habits. 
 It requii-ed some philosoph}^ in a man to care so little whether 
 he was first or second. 
 
 On the first day of the Examination, one of the thirty candi- 
 dates for Classical Honors was frightened at the leading paper 
 and fairly ran off, not appearing at any of the subsequent ones. 
 lie was a sharp man enougli, and had taken a very respectable 
 Mathematical degree.
 
 172 FIVE VRAKS IX AN 
 
 I was now undergoing for the third time since I entered the 
 University, and the I-don't-know-how-many-eth time in my Ufe, 
 a course of low Mathematics. A liaclielor friend who felt an 
 interest in my success, undertook to coach me quite en ami, 
 which kindness I partially repaid afterwards with Classics for 
 his Fellowship. It really seemed as if the repeated eftorts of 
 years had made some impression on the repulsive subject. I 
 knew more Algebra than I had ever done befoi-e — indeed I felt 
 rather a proficient in it, and a little circumstance happened 
 about this time to confirm such a half serious, half mock infa- 
 tuation on my part. Our Kingsman, after having attained his 
 University Scholarship, suddenly took it into his head to learn 
 Mathematics, and to persuade the other four or five Undergra- 
 duates of his College to learn with him — for which purpose they 
 were obliged to procure a new College Mathematical lecturer, 
 the old one being a Classical man, and, so far as his Mathema- 
 tics were concerned, a fiction. As these Etonians had never 
 read anything before in the way of science, except ordinary 
 arithmetic, they were in the very infancy of Mathematical con- 
 ceptions, and I used, in my evening wanderings, to drop into 
 my friend's room now and then and give him a little assistance 
 in the mystery of equations. When I repeated this to my 
 coach, he burst out into an Homeric inextinguishable laughter 
 at the idea of my being able to teach any Algebra — finding in 
 the lowest deep a lower still. I may here mention, incidentally, 
 that my occasional pupil, somewhere about this time, left off 
 being a Puseyite, and adopted more liberal and Arnold-like 
 views on Church matters. Any one who has great faith in the 
 pure sciences, may attribute this important change to the 
 Algebra if he chooses. After Algebra, I took up low Trigo- 
 nometry, which I had never probably studied before, and cram- 
 med it into me as far as De Moivre's theorem, and some other 
 pleasant little formulae of the same nature and magnitude, 
 measuring half a page long a-pieee ; and all these I certainly 
 understood — that is to say, could trace the working of them, 
 and see how they were arrived at — but never could perceive 
 any particular use or discern the least beauty in them. I
 
 ENGLISH UNiVEnsnv. 173 
 
 thought of making an attempt on Conic Sections (which are 
 read tnialyticaJly in the Cambridge books), but never got fur- 
 ther than copying sundry manuscripts of my former coach (him 
 of the large team), for my attention was required by the First 
 Three Sections of Newton, which, Avith Euclid, were to be my 
 great dependence. The Euclid I knew by experience was to be 
 got up in two days, so I put it oft' for the last two ; the New- 
 ton I polished up with great zeal — it was something new to 
 me and not altogether uninteresting. The book, which for a 
 long time existed only in the manuscripts of Johnian lecturers, 
 contains a series of English demonstrations of the Lemmas of 
 the Principia, which are only affirmed in the original Latin. 
 I forget whether it was before or after this that I assailed low 
 Statics, and, after getting up the Mechanical Powders, Vis Viva, 
 and other formul;Te, mostly from Whewell's books, went so far 
 as to attempt several problems, but I never remember doing 
 a whole one. A very poor array of Mathematics this, to take 
 in to an Examination, but it was only as a sort of pass to give 
 my Classics a chance. On them I could bestow but little time ; 
 what I did assign to them proved to be very badly laid out, for 
 having only time to attempt getting up one kind of verse Com- 
 position, and calculating that Hexameters were likely to be set, 
 1 read straight through Six Books of ^neid, and then wrote 
 some hundred Hexameter lines for practice. Of course. Elegiacs 
 Avere set. 
 
 These verses are hardly in the line of a man who has not 
 been brought up on the English public-school system, but as 
 they have great weight in the Examinations, one cannot aft'ord 
 to neglect them entirely. Their importance was particularly 
 impressed upon me just then, by the result of the contest for 
 Senior Classic, which was declared in favor of the Pembroke 
 candidate, thus endorsing the decision of the University Scho- 
 larship examiners the year before. His success Avas chiefly 
 owing to a very superior copy* of Elegiacs. As these verses, 
 
 * " Copy " is applied exclusively to papers of verse Composition. 
 It is a public-school term transplanted to the University.
 
 174 
 
 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 written ill a limited time, under tlie eye of examiners, and with 
 no means of assistance beyond the requisite stationery, aftbi-d a 
 better example of what a crack versifier can do than any of 
 the Prize Odes, which are carefully and leisurely composed at 
 liome, I make no apology for inserting them here. 
 
 Unda repercussEB radiabat imagine Lunae, 
 
 Nee vox per noctem quantulacunque fuir, 
 Saxeaque allisi fliictus ad littora, blando 
 
 Nescio quid visi niurmure dulce queri. 
 Hue illuc rapido pede Laodamia vaguta est, 
 
 Devia per sunrem, sii'ivior ipsa, locum ; 
 At gena, nam stevo flos est demessus Aniori 
 
 Mutarat pura lilia cana rosa. 
 Uoscida cajiuleo stut gutta tacentis ocello ; 
 
 Scilicet est iniseras vaticinata vices ! 
 Saepe aliquis moriens somni est sub imagine visu» 
 
 Plangere ; qui periit I'rotesilaus erat. 
 Iverat iunumero stipatus milite princeps, 
 
 Fortibus intererat Ibrtior ille puer. 
 Ilia quidem, excidiis quaerens sacra mneniaTrojae 
 
 Coutulit infesto cum Phryge sigua manus. 
 Plurima sed totum nova Luna impleverat orbem 
 
 Et gyros annus versus in ipse sues; 
 At neque vir sancta rediens nee epistola Troja 
 
 Nuntia quo fato militet ille venit. 
 
 The making of Greek and Latin verse is one of the most 
 showy manifestations of English scholarship, and certainly the 
 most surprising one. To read an ordinary Classical author ad 
 aperturam libri, certainly implies a good acquaintance with his 
 tongue ; but it is readily accounted for by practice and study, 
 and is only more difficult than reading any book in a modern 
 language by as much as the ancient language is the liarder of 
 the two to acquire. To write Latin and Greek prose with 
 facility and elegance, though involving a further command of 
 the two languages, has also its parallel in our experience with 
 respect to modern tongues. But to write verse in any language 
 seems to imply such a familiarity with all its niceties as can 
 only be acquired by one who makes it as it were his second 
 mother-tongue. Many a person who can converse freely in 
 German, or read an Italian book with nearly the same ease as 
 an English one, or write a correct letter in French, Avould 
 shrink from the idea of attempting poetry or verse in either 
 of these languages. And there are two additional features
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSIXr. 175 
 
 which increase the surprisiiigness of the performance. First, as 
 tlie Classical languages are no longer habitually spoken in the 
 English schools, the scholars lose one of the principal ordinary 
 means of acquii-ing the knowledge of a strange tongue — con- 
 versation. Secondly, the standard of these verses, as specimens 
 of metrical composition, is very high. In mere smoothness and 
 elegance they absolutely surpass the majority of the ancient 
 models. To end a Pentameter with a trisyllable, as Propertius 
 does 2^(^ssi^ ', to make Ctesuras which are common with 
 Lucretius ; to put the enclitic after a verb instead of the pre- 
 ceding substantive or adjective of a clause, as Ovid himself 
 does — like mwstus adestque dies — all these are inadmissible 
 licenses. One thing the reader will be apt to infer, that such an 
 accomplishment can only be the fruit of long and special training 
 — whicli is emphatically the case. A public-school boy begins 
 certainly as early as ten years of age, if not earlier, to grind at 
 " longs and shorts." The first step is to make him do nonsense 
 verses, that is to say, the scheme of a line is given him thus — 
 
 which lie may fill up with any words that will scan without 
 regard to their meaning or want of meaning, Pergite praeciintes 
 quos 2>rklevi Jupiter inquit, or even greater nonsense than this. 
 Then an exactly literal translation of a Latin line is given him 
 in the precise order of the original, then a line with the words 
 transposed, and so on through several intermediate steps, till 
 he has fairly launched upon translating English verse into 
 Hexameters and Pentameters, or " Longs and shorts," as the 
 Elegiac metre is commonly called. This is the stanza at whicli 
 they are most practised, and at which they acquire the greatest 
 facility. After this they are most worked at Alcaics. Hexa- 
 meters are also written, but not so frequently (Eton is almost 
 the only place where they do them well), and Sapphics very 
 rarely. It is a sort of traditionary prejudice, that Hexameters 
 and Sapphics are hardly ever good, and the theory verifies 
 itself by causing them to be less cultivated. An Eton boy 
 sends up a copy of Longs and Shorts once or twice a Aveek for
 
 176 FIVE YEAnS IN AK 
 
 seven years of his school life. Probably three fourths of these 
 boys never thought of Avriting a couplet of English verse, or 
 could do it if set at it. But we have not yet done with the 
 complications of this singularly artificial system. A false 
 quantity is the unpardonable sin, yet the actual pronunciation 
 affords no clue tvhatever to the quantity of the penults of 
 dissyllables ; cano / sing, and ciino the ablative of canus hoary, 
 regis of a kiny, and regis thou rulest, being pronounced exactly 
 alike.* And lest the swing and intonation of the voice itself 
 should give any assistance, it is the custom to read Classical 
 verse as much like prose as possible. Having noticed this 
 during the recitation of some of the Commencement Odes, 
 which, as the successful candidates read them, could never have 
 been taken for verse by a person without the printed book, I 
 inquired about this peculiarity from men of three or four 
 different schools, and they all certified to the generality of the 
 practice, without, so far as I can recollect, giving any reason 
 for, or defence of it. Tlie consequence of all this is that Latin- 
 verse writing becomes totally a matter of eye, though some versi- 
 fiers fancy, from never having analysed their own mental per- 
 ceptions and the growth of this acquired faculty, that ear has 
 a great deal to do with it. An Eton Captain will write 
 twenty Elegiacs in an hour, and twelve or fifteen Hexameters ; 
 
 * As the subject of pronunciation is one which excites some little 
 interest with us, and about which I have often been asked questions, 
 it may as well be stated briefly that students in England pronounce as 
 they do in IS'ew England, with tlie exception that they do not make 
 false quantities in the penults of trisyllables, for instance they never 
 say habSbam, or Ccesdris, or Consules, or Quirites, all Avhich were com- 
 mon at Yale, in my day. Neither do they pronounce ieQCTut fesserat, 
 which was considered a point of such importance at Kew Haven, that 
 one of the Professors wrote a pamphlet to insist on the shortening of 
 long vowels in the first syllable of Dactylic words. But they give the 
 vowels their English power, and in dissyllables lengthen by accent, not 
 by quantity, thus they say rndnus domus, not mdnus domus. In Greek 
 also the vowels have their English power, and the same exceptions pre- 
 vail as in Kew England — the pronunciation of ai and £< like I, instead 
 of a, and the preserving y hard throughout. Only they do not call 
 t'crh and Kara metre and cater, as the New Haven tutors used to.
 
 ENGLISH U.MVERSITT. IVV 
 
 ATliile at the University this pace is seldom increased, but the 
 quality improved. From what has been said of this school 
 drilling, it may be guessed that no man who begins to write 
 Latin verses late in life can hope to make much hand of it. I 
 used to take the line of laughing at the whole aftair, and 
 denying the sense or use of it. Sometimes I turned the tables 
 on the over-critical ones, as to what was, or what was not 
 classical The reader may perhaps remember Captain 
 Medwin's story about the schoolmaster who heaped contempt 
 on a line which Shelley sent up, 
 
 " Jamjam tacturos sidera celsa putce," 
 
 not knowing that it was taken verbatim from Ovid. A some- 
 what similar case fell under my own observation. I was show- 
 ing to a very precise Etonian some Elegiacs by a Scotch friend 
 of mine, which I rather liked — a translation of Herrick's beau- 
 tiful lines — 
 
 " Gather ye rosebuds while j^e may, 
 Old Time is still a-flying," kc. 
 
 The second line was — 
 
 "Nam fugiunt, freno non remorante, dies." 
 
 The verses were by a Scotchman, and, of course, must be bad. 
 My Etonian objected to the phrase /reno non remorante, as not 
 authorized. I thought it good Latin, and said so, but not 
 being able to find an instance, was obliged to give it up for the 
 time. While going through Ovid's Fasti several months after- 
 wards, I found in the Sixth Book this couplet — 
 
 "Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis, 
 Et fugiunt freuo non remorante dies." 
 
 The Caledonian beina: taken short for a Pentameter had basrsred 
 the whole line. At the first public opportunity I proclaimed 
 my discovery to the Etonian. There is nothing like sticking to 
 your principle. He held out that it was inelegant Latiu, never- 
 theless — Ovid had been nodding on that occasion. 
 
 The above instance might induce a suspicion that there is a 
 little ccntoism about this Latin-verse making. Such is indeed 
 the case, and the more you read aud write Latin verse, the 
 more of this centoism do you discover. One of the great 
 effects, objects, and merits of the seven years' more or less 
 
 8^'
 
 178 FIVE YKARS IN AN 
 
 grinding at scliool is, tliat it stores the student's mjnd with 
 common-phices of verse, lines and lialf-Iines and quarter-lines 
 descriptive of such familiar objects and occurrences as the sun 
 or a lark rising, the nightingale singing, tlie grass growing and 
 trees budding at the approach of Spring, &c., <fec. ; and the 
 faculty of utilizing this store of treasure is much increased by 
 the character of the verses usually set to translate. There is a 
 kind of Enghsh pastoral poetry — a school of which Shenstone 
 is perhaps the most favorable specimen — which I never found 
 out the use of till I was at Cambridge. It was made and 
 invented expressly to be translated into Latin Elegiacs. 
 
 Even where phrases and half-lines are not copied bodily, 
 there is often a resemblance in structure and form, the new line 
 being built after the old one ; thus — 
 
 " Primaque ut aeria Bcandat alauda via," 
 
 recalls Ovid's 
 
 " Protinus eetheria toilet in astra via;" 
 
 just as in Bailey's " Festus " the line, 
 
 " The mind hath phases as the body hath," 
 
 is modelled upon Shakspeare's 
 
 " The earth hath bubbles as the water hath." 
 
 But it must be said, in fairness, that there is, at the same time, 
 much original and elegant poetry to be met with among these 
 compositions. Our Trinity man, who was second Medallist 
 this year, had taken a Porson and excelled in Greek Composi- 
 tion ; but this January, as if anticipating his rival's excellence 
 in Latin, he distinguished himself in the same way by an 
 original copy of Elegiacs, written for the Tripos Paper* — a 
 mythological account of the birth and progress of Love, and 
 his reconciliation with the Muses, that would not have disgraced 
 old Naso himself. One couplet was particularly admired — 
 
 " Flava calescenlem mal6 dissimulabat Amorem 
 Luna — calescebat dissiraulatus Amor." 
 
 As to the style of translation, it is of a very free order ; in 
 fact, should in many cases be called imitation rather than 
 
 * See Note to the word Tripos, in tlie vocabulary of Cambridge 
 terms.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 179 
 
 translation. This may Le seen by comparing tlie specimen 
 first quoted with its original from Kirlce White ; — 
 
 " The night it was still, and the moon it shone 
 Serenely on the sea, 
 And the waves at the foot of the rifted rock 
 They murmured pleasantly, 
 
 When Gondoline roamed along the shore — 
 
 A maiden full fair to the sight, 
 Though love had made bleak the rose on her cheek, 
 
 And turned it to deadly white. 
 
 Her thoughts they were drear, and the silent tear 
 
 It filled her faint blue eye, 
 As oft she heard in fancy's ear 
 
 Her Bertrand's dying sigh. 
 
 Her Bertrand was the bravest youth 
 
 Of all our good king's men, 
 And he had gone to the Holy Land 
 
 To fight the Saracen. 
 
 And many a month had passed away 
 
 And many a rolling year, 
 But nothing the maid from Palestine 
 
 Could of her lover hear." 
 
 One of the usual changes, the substitution of Classical names 
 for modern ones, is amply illustrated here ; and other additions 
 to and improvements on the original are ob\'ious. I must not 
 be misunderstood as using the word imivovements with any 
 sarcastic intent. Seriously, there can be no doubt that the 
 Latin imitation is, in this case, better than the original, which 
 contains much bad grammar to begin with. Note particularly 
 the Ovidian turn of the line italicised. 
 
 About this freedom of translation there is one thing to be 
 observed, that it is a freedom of addition and not of retrench- 
 ment. As a general rule, you are required to express all the 
 ideas of the original, and may then add any ornaments to fill 
 out the measure. The Translations express all that is in the 
 English, and a little more. I could not understand this for 
 some time, and used to err by trying to translate too literally. 
 Thus, when my Johnian coach, in the summer of 1843, set me 
 for the first time to write Elegiacs, and gave me as the subject 
 of the experiment Moore's Lost Rose of Suimner, I took one
 
 180 FIVE TEAnS IN AN 
 
 line of the Latin for every two of the short English lines, and 
 began — 
 
 Ultimus, en, solus, calicum florescit ah oeetti. 
 Ah ! comitum marcet totu venusta cohors! 
 
 In his copy, each of the short lines was expressed by a long line 
 of Latin, thus — 
 
 '■ Ultimus acstira tenerarum e genie rosarum 
 Flos desolatis eminet illp comis ; 
 Lucida de toto circuni vicinia pralo 
 Vanuit, et sociic deperiere roscc." 
 
 Only one case of packing the Latin into less space than the 
 English by a good versifier ever came under my observation : 
 it was where a Senior Classic translated three lines from 
 Byron — 
 
 "Where the hues of the earth and the hues of the sky, 
 Though different in color, in beauty may vie, 
 And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye," 
 
 by this couplet, 
 
 " Qua coelo et terrae varius color, una venustaa 
 Et latices nigris subrubuere vadls." 
 
 I have often fancied, in making comparisons of poetical 
 translations from the German and other modern languages, 
 that our countrymen succeed better than the English, and that 
 the reason of this may be found in the fact of most English 
 translators being taught by their school experience to aim at 
 imitation rather than translation, and put in ornaments of their 
 own. Certainly the most accurate and vigorous translator of 
 German poetry in England is Carlyle — a non-University man. 
 Such a principle, however, must be laid down cautiously, and 
 Avith allowed exceptions. Merivale's Schiller is a most com- 
 mendable specimen of accurate rendering. 
 
 Having given one superior specimen of Latin verse, I shall 
 conclude what I have to say about it here with a sample from 
 the other end of the piece. A few days before going in for the 
 Tripos I wrote a translation from the opening of Byron's Para- 
 sina, of which my tutor said, " If your verses were always as 
 good as these, you might get some marks for them." The fol- 
 lowing may, therefore, be taken as the lowest standard of what 
 would pass muster in an Examination : —
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEliSITT. ISi 
 
 " It is the hour when from the boughs 
 
 The nightingale's high note is heard," &.c. 
 
 Nunc, prima in terras ducente crepuscula nocte, 
 
 Clarior e ramis vox, Philomela, tua est; 
 Nunc majore v-idetur umans dulcedine vota 
 
 Dulce susurrauti fundere soepe labro. 
 Nunc ventique leves et aqute vicinia moestis 
 
 Auribus intendunt suppeditare melos; 
 Purpurei modico calicesnunc rore madescunt 
 
 Conveniunt coelo sidera clara sue; 
 Et magis in tuscos jam jamque abiere colores 
 
 Oceanoque latex, arboribusque comse. 
 
 Greek verse stands on a somewhat different footing from 
 Latin. It is of later date as an element of school education. 
 Probably it came in with Porson, and the establishment of the 
 Porson Prize by his executors did much to encourage it. 
 King's College London men, and other Classics not from the 
 public-schools, evince a preference for Greek Iambics ; they say 
 this sort of Composition is more dependent on, and more a test 
 of Scholarship. For my part I could never see much differ- 
 ence between the two in this respect ; there always seemed to 
 me as much knack and centoism in the one as in the other. 
 Sometimes in the Porsons you will find a wdiole line, bodily 
 transplanted from a Greek Tragedian. Once in looking over 
 one, I met with 
 
 OTot ^apuKTi'io iii.iTiij)VKC aw^ari. 
 
 which I marked as a good line, and well might, for when I 
 came to read the Medea two years after, there it was. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is certain that many begin to write Iambics 
 after entering the University, or but a short time before. A 
 first-rate man, who was first Bell Scholar in a very well con- 
 tested year, and a candidate for Senior Classic until he broke 
 down from ill health, told me he had never written any Greek 
 verse till a year before he came up. It was one of the instances 
 he was giving of his insufficient preparation on account of his 
 invalid state. The fact too of all having a fairer start, encou- 
 rages more men to practise Iambics. But it must be owned 
 that the best — those which get full marks at examinations, and 
 are handed about and copied as models, are the productions of 
 men Avho have had abundant traininaf. There is one school
 
 182 FIVE VliAKS IN AN 
 
 famous for sending up writers of Iambics — Shrewsbury — whioli 
 indeed has a great reputation for Scliolarship generally, and 
 particularly for grammatical accuracy. 
 
 The difliculties of Greek verse are of a higher kind than 
 those of Latin, and the sort of English set to be translated of 
 a liigher character. Shakespeare and Milton, Ben Jonson, 
 Henry Taylor, Shelley's Cenci, the best English translations of 
 Faust and Wallenstein — such are the books which usually fur- 
 nish passages. You will seldom find anything very seedy set 
 for Iambics. The reading and study of Shakespeare and the 
 old English Dramatists generally, has been much promoted at 
 the University by the practice of writing Greek verses — per- 
 haps it is one of the best things that can be said for it. The 
 style of translation, like that used in writing Latin verse, is 
 very free, the main object being to show a knowledge of the 
 Greek Di-amas, and adopt plirases from them corresponding to 
 the English ones — as if in translating Sophocles into English, 
 one were to go out of the way to introduce as many Shakespea- 
 rian words and phrases as possible. Even Avith great license of 
 paraphrase, it is often exceedingly difficult to express the Eng- 
 lish idea in Greek, and the very best men are put to some 
 straits. Thus I have seen Ben Jonson's 
 
 "Temp* ring his gi-eatness with his gravity," 
 
 rendered by (and the translator was a man of reputation in this 
 way) 
 
 aePai tc wai'Tai ^y</uX(oj inpa^aro 
 
 literally translated " and he exacted respect from all with good 
 taste." 
 
 The pace attained in writing Greek verses never equals that 
 acquired in Latin, j^artly from the practice being begun later in 
 life, partly because the work is intrinsically more difficult. 
 Twelve an hour is considered very fast. About twenty-eight 
 English lines are usually set in the Tripos, which in rendering 
 into Greek would naturally be expanded into thirty-five, and 
 very few of the candidates finish them in the allotted two hours 
 and a half. Sometimes a First-Class man does not write more
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 183 
 
 than fourteen. One year when the first four men on the Tripos 
 all finished their copy and got nearly full marks, was considered 
 an extraordinary one. 
 
 I have spoken of Greek Iambics only, because they are the 
 only Greek verses habitually written, Anapsests have 
 occasionally been set in the Tripos, Anapaests and Long 
 Trochees in the University Scholarships. Sapphics are never 
 written except for the Greek Ode ; Homeric Hexameters, very 
 rarely in the College, and never I believe in the University 
 examinations. 
 
 The following Anapaests were written by the Senior Medal- 
 list in 1 840, who was also bracketed Senior Classic. 
 
 '0(5' 'HpaxX>iff ^p|sv jSiorou 
 ^po/xov i|avusjv xoM npors'kiioig 
 
 Saiiiuv og I'jxsXXsv sdsd^ai. 
 oVtij (Bpicpog uv yaXccdrivov, o^ug 
 ifovov ■/jvrXyjfl'sv ycai xivSuvovg 
 
 (frvyvfjv "Hpag Sia fxr^viv, 
 xdvrau^a /xaj^/j^ ■>5-|/aT-o m'pCjTov 
 Tw /3apu5ai/xovi •n'OTfji.w, p^sptfi'vr' 
 droLkaig UToKog m'aTg uv osivCJv 
 
 o<piuv CupiyfjiaT ' gVautfsv. 
 ovTO) xks7va Z>5voj sSpcKffiaTa 
 iroXka iioyrji^ag ^X6s tsXsutojv 
 
 /Satfavi^Sj ix.-ri (fs/juvo'v tj q^povsTv 
 
 T7}v T 'dpST/^v s'uvo/xov o.dxsTv,'^ 
 
 * "Alcides thus his race began; 
 O'er infancy he swiftly ran, 
 At first the future God was more than man. 
 Dangers and trials, and Juno's hate, 
 E'en o'er his cradle lay in wait. 
 And there he grappled first with fate. 
 In Ills young hands the hissing snakes he pressed, 
 Thus early was the deity confessed. 
 Thus by degrees he rose to Jove's imperial seat, 
 Thus difficulties prove a soul legitimately great."
 
 184 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 And now, it may be asked, liow far is this Latin and Greek 
 verse-making really a test of scholarsliip, and is it, as such, 
 worth the time spent on it ? My own answer would be imfa- 
 vorable, but I may be somewhat prejudiced by the detriment 
 Avhich the want of the accomplishment caused myself. Cer- 
 tainly it docs not always follow that a good versifier in Greek 
 and Latin is a good scholar. It befel me at the time of my 
 final extinguishment in tlie Tripos, to be sandwiched between 
 one of the best Latin versifiers and the best Greek versifier of 
 the twenty-four candidates, and the best copy of Latin verses 
 has been more than once sent up by a Second Class man — 
 although in this examination the verse Composition papers 
 count one fifth of the whole. And sometimes high First Class 
 men get but few marks for their verses. In the former case, it 
 may be supposed that the pai'ties have come up very well pre- 
 pared, and been idle during part of their course ; the school 
 knack of making verses has stuck by them, while their 
 acquaintance with different authors has not been sufficiently 
 kept up and extended. A Scholar of Trinity, some of whose 
 Lyrics were thought sufficiently good to be included in the pub- 
 lished collection of verses called the Arundines Cami, was last 
 in the Second Class ; he had probably neglected his Classics to 
 study Mathematics, since he stood well among the Wranglers. 
 As to the converse branch of the proposition, it will hardly be 
 doubted with Germany in view^, that a man may be a very 
 good scholar without being able to write Latin and Greek 
 verses elegantly and fluently. The eft'ect of practice in such 
 matters may be illustrated by the habit of conversing in Latin, 
 which German students do much more readily than English, 
 simply because the former practise it, and hold public disputes 
 in Latin, while the latter have long left oft' " keeping Acts," as 
 the old public discussions required of candidates for a degree 
 used to be called. 
 
 Classical prose Composition is of course an important point 
 in the training of a candidate for Classical Honors, and there 
 are few men, even of those who ultimately go out in Mathema- 
 tics alone, but have had some drilling in writing Latin. Greek
 
 ENGLISH UKIVEnSIlV. ISo 
 
 prose is the hardest of all Composition, and marked highest 
 in the Tripos ; there are seldom more tlian iive or six men in a 
 year who write it well. The difficulty of accentuation — a sub- 
 ordinate art requiring no small practice in itself* — it shares 
 with the composition of Iambics, so it would seem to do the 
 difficulties arising from the abstruse syntax of the language ; 
 but these latter difficulties make themselves more felt in prose 
 than in verse, perhaps because there is less opportunity for 
 centoism in the former. In the mere matter of words, too, a 
 serviceable poetic vocabulary is much easier to collect and 
 retain than a prose one. 
 
 Though tlie method of translation is of course more literal 
 than that adopted in rendering verse, there is still sufficient 
 mai'gin left for embellishment, and much importance is attached 
 to displaying a knowledge of idiom. A man will frequently 
 go a little, or more than a little out of his Avay to bring in a 
 bit of what, in stage phraseology, would be called business. 
 And among single words those most unlike the corresponding 
 ones in English are preferred. Thus, you must not say ad- 
 minislrare rempuUicam for taking part in public atiairs, but 
 capessere rempublicam, though the former word is used by good 
 Roman authors as mncli as the latter. When I was at my 
 best for Latin prose, I had a collection of idiomatic phrases, six 
 or eight of which I would have engaged to bring into the 
 translation of any half-page of ordinary' English that could be 
 given me ; and those who were better skilled in Greek prose 
 than myself could do the same with that. The term Compo- 
 sition seems in itself to imply that the translation is something 
 more than a translation. 
 
 Oriijinal Composition — that is, Composition in the true sense 
 of the word — in the dead languages is not much practised. 
 There is a Latin essay written in the University Scliolarship 
 Examination, and another in the Medal Examination ; there 
 
 * Where qnantiiy is the guide to pronunciation, aeeentuation must 
 be mere matter of eye and raemoiy, and the general rules to which it 
 is reduced are subject to numerous and arbitrary exceptions,
 
 186 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 are the Coininencement Exercises and tlie College Declamations 
 already mentioned, and there are verse prizes for Second and 
 Third-year men iu most of the Colleges. At Ti'inity there are 
 three open to all the three Years. Composition in Greek there 
 is none except the Browne Ode. 
 
 The present is not an unfit occasion for saying something 
 more about the style of translation required from Greek and 
 Latin into English. It might be supposed froin the frceness 
 ^vIlich characterizes the Composition, that a like license of 
 paraphrase and ornament was allowed in translating from the 
 de'id languages as well as into thom. But such is not the 
 ease. The greatest accuracy is required, under pain of "losing 
 marks ;" the meaning of the smallest particle must be ex- 
 pressed, the least shades of difterence between nearly synony- 
 mous words strictly conveyed. This accuracy, however, not 
 only does not require, but absolutely forbids had English, 
 which would be surely visited with the loss of a large per 
 centage of marks " for style." Whenever a difficulty occurs 
 of sucli a nature that it cannot be entirely set forth in the 
 translation, explanation in a note is allowable — in some cases 
 required. 
 
 A particular instance or two will give a more intelligible idea 
 of the accuracy required than any general description. 
 
 I had been translating for my private tutor a passage iu the 
 Medea, where she asks Jason, 
 
 Ti (^^uJ3'a ; (xuv yafxouCa xa* <7i'?o5ou(3'a tft ; 
 
 When he came to ray translation of this line he said, " But 
 you haven't marked the peculiarity here. What's the differ- 
 ence between a man's marrying and a woman's ?" I replied 
 that in Greek the respective terms were ya/xsrv and /a/xsKT^ai, 
 as in Latin duco and nuho. " Well, but you see Medea uses 
 the active here ; you should have explained in a note that this 
 is because she puts herself in Jason's place, otherwise an 
 examiner might think that you didn't know the distinction." 
 
 In the Classical Tripos of our year occurred these lines from 
 the Andromache of Euripides —
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 187 
 
 Oi;x ouv sxci'vou Tajxa raxsi'vou t'Jjx«, ; 
 
 wliioli most men would translate offhau<.l, 
 
 "And are not my thinijfs his, and his mine? 
 Yes, to do them good, not ill, nor slay by violence." 
 
 And this would be right were /x>i the negative employed, but 
 the use of oJ (in rather a singular position here) shows that 
 the negation refers not to the infinitive in the second line, but 
 to the indicative {ii(fi understood) in the first, so that the 
 translation should run, " To do them good they are, to do 
 them ill or slay by violence they are not." And the knowing 
 ones, who were in this case the best men of our year, and the 
 best scholars generally (for the last examination papers become 
 objects of immediate interest to all the reading circle) declared 
 at once that the whole passage — thirteen lines — had been set 
 for this one catch. 
 
 These two cases fell within my own experience, a third was 
 matter of tradition. In the Tripos of 1840, the Trinity man 
 who was bracketed Senior Classic translated, probably from 
 inadvertence, h fiPv;v-/], ^jeacc, in a passage from Thucydides, 
 where the article was of importance. When the examiners 
 came to compare notes, and he was found to be on an equality 
 with his -lohnian competitor, one of them, a Shrewsbury man, 
 held out a long while against the bracket, saying it was a shame 
 to make a man Senior Classic who could translate -/) si^rjVT], 
 2)eace, without the article.
 
 188 nvE VEAr.R in ax 
 
 TIIK SCnOI.AKSIIIP EXAMINATION NEQUE SEMPER ARCUM 
 
 TENDIT APOLLO. 
 
 >)f TToroj aiii. — TlIKOCU. IdyLL. XVI. 
 
 The result of tlie examination for the Chancellor's Medals 
 is declared very soon after that of the Tripos. The two old 
 competitors had a hard fight for it again, and again the Pem- 
 broke man came out first hy a neclc. It now Avanted hut a 
 month of the College Scholarship, and I was in the agony of 
 Newton and Statics, as before stated. The only diversions I 
 had were the Plato Lectures, which I could not lose, happen 
 what would, and occasionally attending a talk at the Union 
 (where the debates were beginning to look uj)), or at our little 
 Historical. The latter was beautifully arranged as regarded 
 different sets of opinions for keeping up lively discussions ; it 
 had been founded chiefly by Liberals, but there were Tories and 
 Conservatives enough in it to defend their side vigorously in a 
 political question. The Union was very one-sided. Its major- 
 ity professed a species of mixture of old Toryism and Young 
 Englandism, a fusion more bigoted than either of its bigoted 
 elements. Will it be believed that they actually passed, and 
 by a considerable majority, a vote affirming that it would be 
 expedient to re-establish monasteries in England ! Such Libe- 
 rals of us as there were, however, did not by any means let 
 this or any other question go by default. We lifted up our 
 voices pretty loudly, nor indeed did we confine ourselves 
 entirely to the ordinary course of debate. A queer friend of 
 mine wrote a ballad ludicrously showing up the would-be 
 monks ; two of us had it printed, sent it round as a circular to 
 the whole University, and wound up the joke by getting it 
 attributed to Travis, to his utter disgust, both because he was
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 189 
 
 just at that time dubitating whether he might not go into tlie 
 Church after all, and because the doggrel was not quite equal 
 to Ingoldsby, and popular prejudice pronounced it even worse 
 than it really was. 
 
 And now, somewhere about the end of March or the begin- 
 ning of April (for it was just after Easter, and according to 
 the old saw — 
 
 " Let Easter liappeu wlieu it will, 
 It's always iu March or April,") 
 
 the important time for us Senior Sophs of Trinity drew nigh. 
 There are three or four different sets of men among the Third 
 Year Candidates, with different interests and aspirations. 
 First, those who are looking forward to Fellowships. It might 
 be supposed that, as the Fellows are only in the proportion of 
 one to three of the Scholars, any man with a reasonable pros- 
 pect of a Fellowship ahead would be sure of the Scholarship 
 introductory without much trouble. Yet it sometimes happens 
 that men who have ultimately come out as high as second or 
 third in the Classical Tripos, or among the first eight Wranglers 
 in the Mathematical, and who therefore, it is reasonable to sup- 
 pose, might have stood a good chance for Fellowships, miss 
 their Scholarships from some accident, perhaps a feeling of 
 security. This has even befallen men who afterwards took 
 good double degrees — Senior Optimes in Mathematics, and First 
 Class men in Classics. It is not, therefore, prudent in any man 
 to take his Scholarship for granted, and the best men of the 
 Third Year are generally the most nervous from the recollection 
 of their disappointment the year before. 
 
 Next to these come another class whose final expectations are 
 less lofty. They may be decent Wranglers, or high Second 
 Class men, or Double Seconds ; that is the limit of their uni- 
 versity views, and the Scholarship the limit of their college 
 ones. If they stay up at all as Bachelors, it will be only to 
 enjoy the full benefit of their income from the Scholarship, and 
 for greater convenience in taking pupils : or to attend Divinity 
 Lectures. Others, again, are Classical men not yet decided
 
 190 FIVK YKAKS IN AN 
 
 whether they will nro out in Honors, bein^r doubtful if their 
 probable place on the Classical Tripos can wairant the exertion 
 and drudgery of getting through in jMathoniatics, and their 
 success or failure in this examination will go far towards de- 
 termining them. And yet others, Classical men also, are not 
 anxious to go out in Honors at all, but would like to get a 
 Scholarsliip as a, sort of compensation to their friends and 
 themselves, and a handsome way of retiring from the other 
 contest with flying colors. 
 
 We liad a large opening this year — seventeen vacancies. 
 To counterbalance this advantage, the lower year was a very 
 strong one ; it contained a Mathematician of great pace and 
 endurance, who was afterwards Senior \y rangier, and several 
 capital Classics. Hallam was one of these, and so was the 
 future Senior Medallist, who was of a family of several brothers 
 that all wrote Greek Iambics by instinct. Our year was Aveak 
 enough. After taking out the five men who gained their 
 Scholarships at the first trial, we had only one very good Ma- 
 thematician left, and no very good Classic. The one in most 
 repute was a son of the late Sir R. Peel, now M.P. for Leo- 
 minster, and his father's j^olltical successor. All those little 
 personal matters, and many more, were as thoroughly can- 
 vassed as the history, merits, and chances of horses before a 
 race, or office-seekers before an election. 
 
 Finally arrived the Wednesday. The Hall was opened at 
 nine, and seventy or eighty men rushed in to scribble. Our 
 first paper was Greek translation, and, to my surprise and 
 joy, contained a long bit of Plato and a hard bit of Theocritus — 
 authors not usually set in the Scholarship, and therefore likely 
 not only utterly to confound the Mathematical men but to 
 trouble some of the Classical ones, particularly of the Second 
 year. The extra length of the paper, there being five selections 
 instead of the usual four, was also of considerable benefit to 
 me, for my pace, though not very good, was such as to leave a 
 comfortable margin in four hours, and some of the others 
 might be crowded by the additional extract. But in spite
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSIfr. 191 
 
 of these advantages a morbid feeling of disgust came over me 
 soon after I sat down, and I was on the point of throwing up my 
 papers and walking off. Luckily I thought better of it, and 
 on gradually reflecting how favorable to me this iirst morning's 
 examination was, I felt a fresh stimulus, and worked diligently 
 the whole four liours, taking care not to tlirow away any 
 chance by going out before the time, as I had done the pre- 
 vious year. 
 
 The bit of Plato set us was from the Tenth Book of the 
 Laws. An American Professor's edition of this Book contains 
 by his own confession two mistakes of construction in the notes 
 to this very passage. I translated the whole extract, which 
 I had never seen before (nor had any of lis, for the Laws is 
 seldom read even by Bachelors, on account of its many corrup- 
 tions and the want of proper editors), correctly throughout, 
 and as some of the Junior Sophs were marked higher than 
 myself upon it, tliey must have done so too. I mention this 
 because it illustrates what will be more fully treated of hereafter, 
 the difference between the English and American way of 
 learning things. No doubt the Professor in question had 
 read three times as much Plato as any of us three or four men 
 who were best on this extract ; perhaps it might be said, that 
 in a rough and imperfect way he liad more general knowledge 
 of the Platonic philosopliy ; but it is long odds that any of us 
 would have translated an ordinary selection from Plato — one 
 where knowledge of language as well as matter came into 
 play — much more correctly than he could. 
 
 The examination lasts but three days and a half, the number 
 of papers being seven, two translation, two Latin composition, 
 two Mathematics, and one general questions in Classical history 
 and philology, <fec. — a paper which of late years had become 
 somewhat unjustly slighted — Ave were therefore through our 
 toils by Saturday noon. I had done quite as much Ma- 
 thematics as I expected, but my performances on the Latin 
 verse paper were very shady. 
 
 The candidates were now left to a week of suspense. This 
 week I filled w^ with writing, not for, but rather at or against
 
 192 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 tlie Universitv Latin Essay, for wliich as a sort of twice Third 
 year man, I had a right to compete a second time. It has 
 been mentioned that there prevailed in the University at this 
 time a feeling of the most awful bigotry, combining all the 
 worst parts of Young England Puseyism and old " high and 
 dry" Toryism. This feeling was not confined to the Under- 
 graduates, but was aided and abetted by many of those in au- 
 thority. One of its manifestations was a continual attempt at 
 reviving all manner of long-buried absurdities and obsolete rules. 
 Many of the University Statutes having been enacted when the 
 Undergraduates were boys of fourteen, had been tacitly thrown 
 overboard with the new order of things. Some of them it was 
 attempted to revivify — always such as admitted an arriere 
 pensee. Thus there was a regulation, ' ne ad diversas ecclesias 
 discipuU vafientur'' or something to that effect — a very proper 
 one to prevent boys from running about to different places 
 of worship, and escaping the observation of their tutors. But 
 this was now sought to be restored with an aim at some of the 
 Parish Churches, particularly that of Trinity (not to be con- 
 founded with Trinity College Chapel), Simeon's Parish Church, 
 where Simeon's successor and biographer Carus, the Senior 
 Dean of Trinity College, always had a number of Under- 
 graduates among his congregation. And it was maintained 
 that these did wrong in attending any other place of worship 
 than the University Church, Great St. Mary's. A sensible 
 man on the other side quoted another clause of the Statutes by 
 which Undergraduates are forbidden to walk in the town, unless 
 accompanied by an M.A., and showed conclusively that the 
 two regulations were called forth by the like state of things 
 and stood on the same footing. It was doubtless with re- 
 ference to this contest that the subject now given for the Un- 
 dergraduates' Latin Essay was " Qucenam henejicia a leglbus 
 prcEScrrptis diligenter ohscrvatis Academice alumni percipiant .^" 
 After four pages of grave introduction, I took a ridiculous 
 view of the whole question, and not content with showing up 
 the purists in construction of the Statutes, took the opportunit}'' 
 of letting off" a little of my dishke to Mathematics. So far as
 
 EXGLISII UNIVERSITY. 193 
 
 any chance of the prize was concerned, it was a waste of time, 
 unless the Vice-Chancellor or his deputy had been Hberal to 
 excess ; but it took just a week to compose, and filled up the 
 2>eriod before the result of the Examination was declared, after 
 which I was to recommence reading Classics with another new 
 coach — my Pembroke friend, who, having just gone out Avith 
 all the honors, was to experiment on me for his first pupil. 
 
 The decisive morning arrived. I had invited seven or eight 
 friends to breakfast — to rejoice or condole with me as the case 
 might be — at ten, the usual hour of a breakfast party, and after 
 leaving morning chapel at seven, went pacing about the 
 grounds in a great state of fidget, supported by my amateur 
 Mathematical coach, and trying to fortify myself with a report 
 I had heard two or three days before from a friend of one of 
 the examiners, that my translation papers were ahead of the 
 rest of the year. The examiners (the Master and the eight 
 Senior Fellows, one or two of whom usually do their work by 
 deputy) meet after chapel to compare results and elect the 
 Scholars. About nine, A.M., the new Scholars are announced 
 from the chapel gates. On this occasion, it is not etiquette for 
 the candidates themselves to be in waiting — it looks too 
 " bumptious ;" but their personal friends are sure to be on 
 hand, together with an humbler set concerned — the gyps, coal- 
 men, boot-blacks, and other College servants — who take great 
 interest in the success of their masters, and bet on them to the 
 amount of five shillings and less. This time the conclave was 
 prolonged rather later than usual ; there was evidently a difii- 
 culty in deciding between some of the candidates. It usually 
 happens that about two thirds are elected unanimously, while 
 for the remaining vacancies there are many of nearly equal 
 pretensions, among whom it is not so easy to decide. Just 
 before nine, my coach went ofi" to chapel to wait for the 
 announcement of the result; and I returned to my rooms to 
 superintend breakfast arrangements. My friend of the sherry- 
 cobblers, in a greater state of excitement than one would have 
 deen)ed a man of his years capable of, popped in ujoon me 
 while thus engaged. We began to sing, or make a noise 
 
 9
 
 194 I'lVfc; YKARS IN AN 
 
 (liinly approximating to singing, to conceal our feelings. A 
 long, very long fifteen or twenty minutes elapsed, and tlien my 
 gyp, first to bring tlie tidings, rushed in at full trot to assure 
 me that it was all right ; and seeing my convivial friend, took 
 occasion to congratulate him also on his election. Then 
 appeared the special messenger, Avho had been delayed a few 
 moments by taking down the names of the new Scholars. 
 Soon after, our Plato lecturer, my College tutor, stalked in 
 direct from the scene of action (he had been one of the exami- 
 ners) in his full academicals, like Tragedy in gorgeous pall, to 
 tender me his congratulations in a majestic and Don-like man- 
 ner ; and after him Professor Sedgwick. By this time, too, 
 the breakfasters had begun to assemble, and we made a merry 
 jiarty, three or four of us being among the new Scholars. 
 Chicken salads and cutlets vanished right and left. The 
 quondam Methodist parson was in glorious condition, and 
 before we broke u]3 arranged a supper for that evening. 
 When we strolled out into the grounds, more than one group 
 was lounging about and discussing the result of the examina- 
 tion. As generally happens, the best men in the lower year 
 had beaten ours both in Classics and Mathematics. As also 
 generally happens, some Senior Sophs, considered quite safe, 
 were thrown out. Peel was one of these, and. his failure strik- 
 ingly proved the fairness with which these examinations are 
 conducted; for, had the electors been disposed to favor his 
 name, they might have done so without suspicion, as he was 
 considered a good scholar, and proved himself such in the end. 
 That night we reproduced the "jolly revel" of Theocritus 
 in a free practical translation. Our host, elated by a double 
 triumph, for the College Declamations were just declared, and 
 he had gained one of the Latin ones, had exhausted all his 
 Amphitryonic resources to do justice to the party and the 
 occasion. Turkey-legs devilled in wine, curried oysters, lobster 
 au gratin (the Trinity cook used to call it lobster grating^ just 
 as he had converted i)ouJet grille mio pulled and grilled fowl), 
 and other appetizing condiments, graced the board, and that 
 rare luxury in England, good Madeira, flowed abundantly.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 195 
 
 We were just enough to make two whist tables, and it must 
 have been pretty well into the morning when we separated. 
 
 Indeed, my life for the next fortnight was somewhat sensual 
 and luxurious. I lived well, played billiards frequently in the 
 day time, and whist occasionally at night, and did not work 
 much for my coach. I got up various aesthetic little dinner 
 parties for my friends, both Fellows and Undergraduates, to 
 celebrate my success. Our cook was really a good one, and 
 could arrange almost any French j^laf in very respectable style, 
 and there were some real English dishes which he achieved to 
 perfection : I remember teiK-h stewed in claret, that would 
 console a frequenter of the Cafe Anglais for the loss of his 
 turbot ^creme f/rafin. I had gained such a reputation for 
 dinner-giving, that men going to "hang out" sometimes asked 
 me to compose bills of fare for them. I boasted a good wine- 
 merchant, not a Cambridge one of course. Some of the duties 
 of my new position actually favored this sybaritism. One of 
 our privileges as Scholars, Avas a separate table in Hall. The 
 meat and vegetables were supplied gratis ; over the sizings, for 
 
 Avhich Ave paid, we had full control ; and F and myself 
 
 used to be studious in puddings and sauces (receipts for which 
 he had picked up in Germany while on a reading-party) for 
 the benefit of the whole table. 
 
 Yet let it not be supposed that this was all mere animal en- 
 joyment. Some of the most intellectual conversation I ever 
 listened to, or participated in, has accompanied and succeeded 
 the claret at these little dinners. Like Homer's heroes who 
 
 "ff&Vio^ xal i6r}Tvog s^ t'pov svto, 
 
 as a preparation for any important discussion, the cleverest and 
 most brilliant men among my Cambridge friends were at the 
 acme of their conversational power after a well-arranged 
 banquet ; and not the least renowned for their care of the good 
 things they took in and the good things they uttered, were the 
 apostolic coterie. I have some of these after-dinner groups in 
 my mind's eye now — Travis, a sort of small Borrow all but the 
 belligerency, knowing all manner of out-of-the-way languages
 
 196 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 and out-of-the-way places, ready to talk about any subject, : 11 
 things by turns and nothing long ; now making a pun, now 
 telling a gipsy story, now joining in a grave critical and now 
 in a graver theological discussion, always very brilliant and 
 plausible, but not always very logical — the tall, grave, statuesque 
 Plato lecturer, half admiring, half ashamed of his apostolic 
 confrere, dropping his magisterial decisions in polished sarcasms ; 
 E the poetic-looking Senior Wrangler (who Avas an ex- 
 quisite in his dinner costume, and always got himself up as 
 carefully for a bachelor party as if he were to meet a roomful 
 of ladies), conspicuous in his crimson waistcoat, speckled stock- 
 ings, and very symmetrical Avhite tie, occupying the most com- 
 fortable chair in the room, seeing through everything and 
 everybody with his searching eyes, and occasionally with two 
 or three of his close sentences tumbling down all that Travis 
 liad been saying for the last half hour — Henry Hallam, main- 
 taining a modest silence as the youngest man present, but 
 looking so eloquent that every one wanted him to talk, till at 
 last he loould talk wonderfully — the Pembroke man, also back- 
 ward to speak before his elders (he had the rare merit of being 
 either a talker or a listener as circumstances demanded), but, 
 when he did speak, putting in keen and rapid remarks that 
 told like knock-down blows — now and then a Rugby man, 
 some pet pupil of Arnold's, a youth earnest in his convictions, 
 innocent without folly, learned without conceit, uttering senti- 
 ments that from their simplicity might have come from a child, 
 but which a clever man would find it hard to gainsay or con- 
 trovert. How those men would converse ! What fertility of 
 illustration ! what discriminating subtlety ! what original appli- 
 cation of laboriously accumulated learning ! They made gospel 
 of Walter Mapes' assertion — 
 
 " Poculis acce-nditur animi lucema. 
 
 Cor imbutum ncctare volat ad superna." 
 
 To recur to such men and such scenes with a fully appreciating 
 recollection, one must have had some winters' experience of a 
 different sort of society, where the frivolities of fashion and the 
 malicious details of personal scandal form the staples of con-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 19*7 
 
 versation ; where mind is frittered away in gossip or prostituted 
 in slander, and the best appliances of the table only draw forth 
 coarseness instead of wit ; where sincerity is deemed a cloak 
 for shabbiness and any manifestation of the natural affections 
 a mark of vulgarity — till at last, talking to a horse-jockey 
 about fast trotters becomes a decided relief and a comparatively 
 noble occupation. 
 
 All this time I was nominally going on with my new tutor, 
 though not fairly settled at work for the first fortnight. I 
 went over the Theatetus, that most difficult dialogue of Plato, 
 very slowly and carefully with him ; but my chief business 
 was to prosecute Composition, in which I was very much 
 behindhand, a three months' cessation from any practice of the 
 kind in Greek having left me in a most forlorn state as to Iam- 
 bics, and not very well off for prose. In the evenings I read 
 some of the harder Orations of Cicero, to get up Roman law. 
 Important as this short term was, since I should soon be 
 obliged to devote my best energies entirely to Mathematics, I 
 was tempted to give three or four hours a week to playing 
 coach myself, and superintending the Greek Testament of a 
 friend whose ambition was confined to passing among the 
 ifoXkoi, and who was anxious to read with an acquaintance in 
 preference to a stranger. I always rather liked this sort of 
 work in moderation, and could even now amuse myself any 
 day after dinner with coaching a pupil, if he were not a very 
 stupid one ; and the habit of teaching, when it does not 
 engross too much of a man's time, is of direct benefit to him- 
 self by lielping him to learn better. There was the additional 
 advantage that I made enough to pay my own coach. 
 
 I had some curiosity to see how this tutor of mine, so 
 young as he was, about two years my junior, and fresh from a 
 team himself, would get on at first, and whether his known 
 cleverness would help him or be in his way. The result 
 removed all doubts and surpassed my most sanguine expecta- 
 tions. I could feel that I was being admirably jockeyed. He 
 had the greatest dexterity in impressing his knowledge upon 
 others, made explanations that came to the point at once and
 
 198 nVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 could not be misunderstootl, corrected mistakes in a way that 
 one was not apt to forget, supplied you witli endless variety of 
 liappy expressions for Composition and dodges in translation — 
 in short I was conscious of malcing progress with him every 
 day, and only regretted that I could not continue with him 
 through the Long. 
 
 Dui'ing this term I attended another course of Aristotle lec- 
 tures — they were on the Rhetoric this year — hut not Avith any 
 express view to the May examination, which I had no intention 
 of going in to, if it could be lielped, and which I eventually 
 escaped by an cegrolat from my pliysician. He might be said 
 to have done his best towards putting me in a tit state for one, 
 as not long before he had kept me six hours at table, on the 
 occasion of a dinner which he gave to four or five of the new 
 scholars as an appendix to and return for some of my " hang- 
 ings out." The ostensible excuse for the certificate was a sliglit 
 cold which I caught a few days previous to the examination, 
 while showing two compatriots — a literary and a diplomatic 
 lion — the curiosities of the place. It was a raw morning, and 
 by way of doing the precise in costume I had put on a white 
 tie, without which the academic dress is not strictly complete. 
 Hence my cegrotath worth of cold.
 
 ENGLISH UNTVERSITr, 199 
 
 THE READINa PARTY. 
 
 Lucus a non lucendo. 
 " A pleasant laud of drowsyhead it was." 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 After reading as well as I could by myself Plato's Sophista, 
 which comes in natural order after the Theatctus, and paying 
 a brief visit to London, I started some time about the end of 
 June to join a reading-party in Brittany. 
 
 A too easy temper, or ennui, or mere wantonness, often 
 makes men take a step with the perfect consciousness that they 
 are doing a very foolish thing. It is notorious matter of tradi- 
 tion and experience that not one in a hundred of those who go 
 on reading-parties makes a profitable use of his time — 
 nay, that scapegraces who wish to " do their governors" and 
 delude them into the belief that they are " reading" while do- 
 ing anything but read, adopt this very plan as the most efficient 
 — nevertheless it happens every year that some hard-working 
 and well-disposed youths wander off in these parties. Perhaps 
 the unfortunate has stayed two whole Longs at Cambridge 
 already, and finds the prospect of a third summer there too 
 dreary, or he thinks a change of air may do him good before 
 the struggle of the last term, or some nice Bachelor friend 
 of his is making up a nice party and wants to bring him into 
 it ; so, though he knows that the majority of men who join in 
 such excursions do very little reading, he hopes to be one 
 of the minority who form the exceptions. For it is not im'possihle 
 to read on a reading-party ; there is only a great chance 
 against your being able to do so. As a very general rule, 
 a man works best in his accustomed place of business, where 
 he has not only his ordinary appliances and helps, but his 
 familiar associations about him. The time lost in settling down 
 and making one's self comfortable and ready for work in a new
 
 200 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 place is not inconsiderable, and is all clear loss. Moreover the 
 very idea of a reading-party involves a combination of two 
 things incompatible — amusement and relaxation beyond the 
 proper and necessary quantity of daily exercise, and liard Avork 
 at books. Any trip, excursion, or sojourn aAvay from home 
 (the University is the Undergraduate's home while he belongs 
 to it) whether for the purpose of benefiting the health, 
 refreshing the mind, or acquiring new ideas from contact 
 with difterent people and scenes, presupposes as a neces- 
 sary condition to its full enjoyment and profit the liberty 
 of the dolcefar niente. You must be able to ramble in woods, 
 or ride along beaches, or climb hills, or lionize churches, 
 or follow up casual acquaintances, or even lie on your back 
 dreamilv watching clouds sailing over head and shij^s gliding 
 by on rivers, without being pulled up every half-hour by the 
 thought of that chapter of Conic Sections to be read before 
 dinner, or the melancholy reflection that this evening you have 
 to undulate.* 
 
 Nevertheless men go on reading-parties in despite of this 
 better judgment, and so did I on this occasion, though 
 what made it an additional imprudence on my part was, that it 
 being my business now to get through the Mathematical 
 Tripos with the least expense of time and trouble, so as to save 
 as much as possible of my energies for the Classical, I required 
 very careful handling by an experienced coach, whereas the 
 head and tutor of our party was a Bachelor of the present 
 year, a high Wrangler himself, but with no practice as yet 
 in the art of communicating information to others. Reading- 
 parties do not confine themselves to England or the Island 
 of Great Britain. Sometimes they have been known to go as 
 far as Dresden. We had decided to fix ourselves at some 
 small town in France, and finally pitched upon Dinan in 
 Brittany. Sometimes a party is of considerable size ; when 
 a crack tutor goes on one, which is not often, he takes liis 
 
 * This expression has no reference to unsteadiness of after-dinner 
 movement, but merely to the Undulatory Theory of Light.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 201 
 
 wliole team with him, and not unfrequently a Classical and 
 Mathematical Bachelor join their j^upils. We Avere but a 
 small lot ; tutor and all only numbering five. A day was fixed 
 for meeting at Dinan, the shortest route to which place was by 
 Southampton, but having a desire to visit the picturesque 
 old town of Rouen, I crossed at Folkstone, and traversed 
 the whole w^idth of Normandy and Brittany. The passage 
 through the latter province is not one of my most enchanting 
 reminiscences of travel — the Diligences going five miles an 
 hour exclusive of stoppages, and the country as uninteresting as 
 if it had been made by one of " nature's journeymen." With 
 delusive hopes of enjoying the scenery I had taken my place en 
 banquette, and travelled like one of the very people, breakfasting 
 in cellars with the conductor on three sous' worth of cafe 
 au lait or rather lait au cafe ; gossipping with an English pilot 
 who had somehow got out of his element thus lar into the 
 bowels of the land, but who spoke the language better than 
 many of his more refined countrymen ; falling asleep at night 
 on the rough seats of the imperial, and putting my feet into the 
 hats of ruflianlv commis-voyarieurs, who on awaking poured 
 upon me a profusion of oaths, which I received with a compo- 
 sure that immediately procured me the reputation of being an 
 Englishman, fortunately for me perhaps, as their respect for le 
 hoxe restrained them from proceeding beyond verbal hostilities. 
 But with all this I was obliged to fall back on a pocket Homer 
 before reaching Dinan. For the first time I began to read the 
 Odyssey through from the beginning. It had for me all 
 the interest of an old Romance, and forcibly recalled the boyish 
 ardor with which I originally perused Robinson Crusoe. It 
 may be supposed that I did not get it up very accurately, 
 having neither Buttmann's Lexilogus, nor Scott and Lidde I's 
 Lexicon at hand. All the doubtful words and passages I met 
 with now, and during the succeeding month in Jersey, I marked 
 for future reference and looked them out in a heap on my 
 return to Cambridge — a wholesale process productive of any- 
 thing but accurate knowledge, as I found to my cost in the 
 Tripos. But of this I thought little at the time. The book 
 
 9*
 
 202 FIVE YKAKS IN AN 
 
 liacl ;i perfect cliarm for nie, and wlieu we arrived at Dinan I 
 Avoke up from it uud tliouglit of the coming Mathematics with 
 a shudder. 
 
 But at Dinan there was no more trace of our party than if 
 the eartli had swallowed them up. As the hotels of the town 
 were not numerous, and the whole place easily run over, I 
 could soon satisfy myself of this without applying to that ordi- 
 nary substitute for Providence in a Continental town, the Police. 
 However, I waited for two or three days, the environs being 
 rather pretty, and then, in a great puzzle, proceeded to St. 
 Malo (which dirty little spot, by the way, contains, or at least 
 did contain then, one of the best hotels in Europe), and there 
 took boat for Southampton. There was an hour's landing at 
 Jersey. I went on shore with an officer ; we jDlayed two 
 games at billiards, had returned on board, and the boat was 
 just going to start, when my coach suddenly laid hands on me, 
 and hurriedly stated — there was no time for a long explana- 
 tion — how they had found it so dirty at St. Malo that they 
 never went on to Dinan at all, and Jersey being a very nice 
 place, they had determined to stay there. Jersey was just the 
 place where I did not want to stay, having heard much of its 
 abundant oj^portunities for idleness. But the whole thing 
 passed in a moment, and before I could well open my mouth, 
 I found myself and luggage on shore. In going ten steps we 
 met a very pretty woman, soon another, then I saw a third in 
 a shop ; and one reason for staying at Jersey which had not 
 been assigned flashed upon me. 
 
 The little island is emphatically a place for female beauty ; 
 I doubt if any spot on earth can claim a superiority to it in 
 this respect. Nor is it deficient in other comforts and embel- 
 lishments of life. Being very important to England in case of 
 war with France, it is sedulously petted. Its inhabitants then 
 enjoyed the benefits of free trade and protection together, 
 actually selling the corn which they raised at protection prices 
 in England, and importing corn for their own consumption, 
 duty free, from the Continent. French Aviues, and gloves, and 
 silks, they liave without duty at French prices. The tempera-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 203 
 
 tiire of the island is very pleasant and equable all the year 
 round ; its scenery is necessarily on a small scale, the longest 
 diameter of Jersey being but twelve miles, but it is exceedingly 
 pretty. There are good saddle-horses to be hired, a pheno- 
 menon existing in few parts of the world. In short, it is a 
 particularly nice little spot for a man of leisure to enjoy himself 
 in, and one of the very Avorst for a man professing to study to 
 pursue his studies in. The principal occupation of the inhabit- 
 ants appears to be playing billiards, a practice which they are 
 not backward to inculcate on strangers. The prettiness of the 
 scenery and cheapness of the excellent hacks tempts one to be 
 in the saddle half the day ; the balmy and enervating air 
 invites to early repose. It was a lucky thing for me that, 
 before the end of a m.onth, I quarrelled with my coach, which 
 gave me a good excuse for leaving the party and the island ; 
 otherwise I should have come out a featherless biped indeed 
 from the Decree Examination.
 
 204 FIVE VKARS IN AN 
 
 SAWDUST PUDDING WITH liAI-LAD SAUCK. 
 
 IloXvaTovov 6i K^nidv' dpix6^u>v H/ta 
 Madfinar' rjv yap J{J|<f(£rpoj TraOfinaaiv. 
 
 Madrjiiaroyovia. 
 
 On returning to_ Cambridge, near tlie end of July, I Avas 
 fortunate enough to find a place in the team of a capital tutor, 
 a Small-College man who liad but six pupils, all going out this 
 time, and five of them " low men." My sojourn at Jersey had 
 only brought me through Algebra once more, and now, 
 beginning with Plane Trigonometry, I resolutely encountered 
 that nightmare of most classical men, the prej^aration for the 
 Mathematical Tripos. 
 
 When the Classical Tripos was instituted (which was so 
 lately as 1 824), it was thought fit to impose as a condition on the 
 candidates for it, that they should previously " take Mathemati- 
 cal Honors," a phrase somewhat facetiously applied in their 
 case, as it meant for most of them obtaining a place- among 
 the Junior Opiimes, or lowest class. The idea of this 
 restriction was probably suggested by the previously existing 
 one in reference to the Chancellor's Medals, the candidates for 
 which were required to be Senior Opiimes. Thus the Mathe- 
 matical Tripos became, in fact, at the same time a test of merit 
 for the Mathematicians and a pass examination ft)r the 
 Classical men, since none of the latter cared anything about 
 being one place or twenty places higher or lower among the 
 Junior Optimes ; indeed, being a Senior Optime or not generally 
 made very little difterence to a Classic, unless he were a 
 candidate for one of the Medals, it being so small a matter to 
 him compared to his place in the other Tripos. Bearing in 
 view the real difficulty which a majority of the Classical men 
 had in getting up their Mathematics, as well as the uncon-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSIXr. 205 
 
 genicil nature of the study, it is evident that the Mathematical 
 Tripos could only be made useful as a pass examination by 
 keeping the standard of a Junior Optima very low in com- 
 parison with Avhat might be expected from men pretending to 
 Mathematical Honors^ and claiming to show a proficiency in 
 Mathematics. The " low" questions* were chiefly confined to 
 the first day's papers, but there was enough of them for a man 
 knowing his low subjects only, but those perfectly, to become 
 a Senior Op., and not one of the last ones either. And this 
 did sometimes happen by good fortune to an aspirant for 
 Classical Honors, who had read only, as he supposed, Mathe- 
 matics enough to get through. But as from thd longest of 
 these subjects not more than six or seven questions were set, 
 an unfortunate who had spent some time on one of them 
 might nevertheless very possibly fail to answer a single question 
 proposed in it. If a man is " plucked," that is, does not get 
 marks enough to pass, his chance of a Fellowship is done for, 
 even at Trinity, for Trinity Scholars when plucked lose their 
 Scholarships. Some ten or fifteen men just on the line, not 
 bad enough to be plucked or good enough to be placed, are put 
 into the " gulf," as it is popularly called (the Examiners' phrase 
 is " Degrees allowed"), and have their degrees given them, 
 but are not printed in the Calendar, nor were they at this time 
 allowed to try for the Classical Tripos. Being gulfed was 
 therefore about as bad for a Small-Colleger as being plucked, 
 since it equally destroyed his chance of a fellowship, but a 
 gulfed Scholar of Trinity did not lose his Scholarsliip. 
 
 The requirement of Mathematical Honors from Classical 
 men was the great question of University Politics, so to speak, 
 at this time. The sufferers' complaint may be briefly stated 
 as follows : — 
 
 * Tlie " low subjects," as got up to pass men among the Junior 
 Optimes, comprise — Euclid, first four books, sixth, and eleventh ; 
 Algebra, including Logarithms ; Plane Trigonometry, Conic Sections, 
 first three Sections of Newton, Statics, Dynamics, Hydrostatics, and 
 Optics, so far as these can be carried without the Differential 
 frequently Spherical Trigonometry an 1 more rarely tlie rudiments of 
 As'rononv,
 
 20G FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 "This restriction is unjust to us and partial to the Mathe- 
 maticians, who are under no corresponding obligation. 
 It is true tliat they have to pass their Little-Go, but the 
 acknowledged main difficulty in that is the Paley^ which is as 
 much a difficulty for us as for them. The Classical part of 
 that examination is fixed and defined in all its details long 
 beforehand ; it is not more than a man with ordinary school- 
 boy knowledge can get up in six weeks ; a failure in it is not 
 irremediable, for should a man be plucked (which very seldom 
 happens) at the first Previous Examination, he can pass in the 
 October one without endangering his ultimate prospects ; 
 lastly, it comes in the middle of his University career, and leaves 
 him his last and most important twenty months clear to devote 
 to his ffivorite studies. Whereas the pressure of the Mathe- 
 matical Examination comes upon us just at the time which we 
 most want for our Classics. It is very general in its range of 
 subjects, and very limited in the number of questions from 
 eacli subject, so that to make sure of passing, we are obliged 
 to get up twice or three times the amount that would be 
 necessary if the range of questions were more accurately 
 defined beforehand, or the low papers were longer. If of two 
 men equal in classical talent and knowledge one has a better 
 mathematical capacity than the other, so that he can get up 
 the requisite quantity in four months, while it takes his 
 competitor eight, he gains four months' advantage over him 
 in time to polish up his Classics, so that an irrelevant and 
 unfair element is introduced into the test of classical merit. 
 If any study has a prescriptive right to a privilege or bounty, 
 it is ours, for we continue to study after entering the University, 
 while many of the Mathematicians only begin there. A man 
 may be a Wrangler the commencement of whose Mathematical 
 knowledge was contemporaneous with his admission. But no 
 one was ever placed in any class of the Tripos who came up to 
 the University knowing only the elements of Greek grammar. 
 The Classical man, if plucked, loses, so far as the tangible 
 pecuniary recompense is concerned, the work of ten years or 
 more ; the Mathematician is not obliged to put in peril the
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 207 
 
 result of four years' labor. Nor is it a small grievance, though 
 sinking into insignificance alongside some others, that we are 
 obliged to stand up to be knocked down — are published as 
 ' Wooden Spoon,' perhaps, or a few places above it, in an 
 examination which for us is merely a pass, while on its face it 
 professes to be only a test of merit, and is so for the majority 
 of those in it. 
 
 " However, we should not complain of these evils did the 
 result of the compulsory study afford any compensation for 
 them. But so far from our being able to perceive any mental 
 benefit arising from the Mathematical course, whatever effect 
 we are conscious of is absolutely injurious. We are puzzled 
 and worried over intricate propositions, the truth of which we 
 readily admit, but in which we can see no beauty and take no 
 interest. The mind refuses to swallow the loathsome dose 
 forced upon the memory. We forget Classics without learning 
 any Mathematics. What we do get up for the examination we 
 cannot be properly said to hiow — it is only held in solution, 
 and when we have passed the ordeal for which it was destined, 
 is precipitated immediately. Our very first object is to turn it 
 out of our minds as soon as possible, that they may recover 
 their classical tone." 
 
 To this the Mathematical Dons would reply — so far as they 
 condescended to express themselves verbally or in writing, 
 for many of them, being in possession, were content therewith, 
 and deigned not to give reasons — " The object of a University 
 is not to reward distinguished talent in any one particular 
 branch, but to give a thorough and complete education to the 
 mental faculties. The Mathematics are necessary to improve 
 and develope the reason, as the Classics are to improve and 
 develope the imagination. If the Mathematical experience of 
 many begins after their entering the University, so much the 
 more reason is it why we should make uj) for the neglect of 
 the Public Schools, which have been and still are notoriously 
 deficient in this respect. And it is the circumstance of having 
 to begin here with the rudiments of Mathematical science, that 
 makes the subject so distast(?ful to Classical men, compared
 
 208 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 with the languages of which they have long ago passed the 
 rudimentary difficulties. If they would go back in recollection 
 to their early school days, they would find tliemselves suffering 
 as much then from grammars and nonsense verses, as now from 
 roots and cosines. The small quantity of Mathematics required 
 to pass a man among the Junior Optimes, need not at the most 
 liberal allowance require for its preparation more than nine 
 months of the thirty-nine which complete his course for the 
 B.A. degree. If any instances of failure after honest applica- 
 tion occur, these are exceptional cases, owing to nervousness, 
 bad luck, or otlier causes, exactly such as sometimes throw a 
 candidate for one of the Medals down into the Second Class of 
 the Tripos, and which cannot be guarded against in any sys- 
 tem. Moreover, there is a double moral advantage arising from 
 the compulsory study of Mathematics. In the first place, it 
 checks an arrogant tendency on the part of Classical men to 
 consider their knowledge as the knowledge of all others and the 
 one test of ability and cleverness, by exhibiting their deficiency 
 in an equally extensive and important intellectual department. 
 In the second place, having to overcome a difficulty and dis- 
 charge a disagreeable task by steady application, gives a lesson 
 of patience and confidence very serviceable in after life!" 
 
 Such, I fancy, would be admitted by those members of the 
 Senate upholding the restriction to be a pretty fair summary of 
 their arguments in favor of it. The dispute is a nice one to 
 decide, for it is not easy to find a judge at once competent and 
 impartial. A man with a natural talent for Mathematics can- 
 not easily so far put himself into the place of one naturally 
 averse to and incompetent in them, as to appreciate the effects 
 of their compulsory study upon the latter's mind. On the 
 other hand, a Classical man has no right to decide against the 
 use of Mathematics to himself until he has given them a full 
 and fair trial. This I can certainly claim to have done. Hav- 
 ing been initiated into Euclid and Algebra at school ; having 
 somehow gone through the Mathematical Course at Yale Col- 
 lege without being able to perceive that I derived the slightest 
 possible good from it ; having faithfully attacked Algebra again
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY, 209 
 
 from the very beginning, during the term previous to my first 
 May Ht Trinity, and made an almost total failure ; having 
 renewed the attack three times subsequently, the last for six 
 months together, and with so much success that I accomplished 
 my object of getting through in Honors — I may say with jus- 
 tice that I have tried the experiment, and must say with truth 
 that, so far as any intellectual discipline or improvement is con- 
 cerned, a very large portion of the time so spent — certainly 
 almost all of that spent in Analysis — was clear waste. But as 
 the case of an individual, however well investigated in itself, 
 may be anomalous and not available for general rules, let us 
 examine carefully the positions of those who advocate the com- 
 pulsory study of Mathematics to the end of the Undergradu- 
 ates' career, and also the effect of the two courses of study — 
 the Classical and the Mathematical — in developing the difterent 
 faculties. 
 
 The fundamental assertion that Mathematics develope the 
 reasoning powers, as Classics do the imaginative (or, as it is 
 sometimes expressed, that Classics make men elegant and 
 Mathematics make them accurate), is one of those stereotyped 
 sayings which a great many people take on trust, but which 
 will not stand the scrutiny of a vigorous inspection. In fact, it 
 does not characterize either branch correctly. It may well be 
 doubted whether any direct study can properly be said to im- 
 prove the imaginative iaculties — to increase the original stock 
 of them possessed by any individual, or implant them Avhere 
 they do not already exist. If there is any such study, it cer- 
 tainly is not that of the Classics, which leads to the criXicisra 
 and imitation of others' models rather than the creation of new 
 ones. Taking imagination in the sense of invention or origi- 
 nality, it enters much more into Mathematical than into Classi- 
 cal pursuits ; and if this invention, as exhibited in the working 
 of problems, etc., could be imparted by study and practice to 
 those naturally destitute of it, then we might say that Mathe- 
 matics, and not Classics, imj^roved the imagination. That 
 Classical studies correct the imagination, is another proposition, 
 and I believe a very true one ; they give taste and style ; their
 
 210 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 office is eminently lestlictie. If asked what are their eftects 
 and benefits, I should name this as the first ; and for the second 
 I should assign what is genorally attributed to Mathematics — 
 accuracy and discrimination in reasoning. That Mathematical 
 propositions are in most cases perfect specimens of ideal 
 demonstration and pure reasoning, is rather against than for 
 them in this respect. There are, as a general rule, no shades 
 of reasoning in Mathematics : a demonstration is either right 
 or it is wrong. Sometimes, indeed, it may be arrived at in 
 several different ways ; but these are distinct processes, not 
 modifications of the same one. The two most general forms of 
 reasoning which we need and encounter in the practice of life, 
 discrimination between quasi-synonyms and judgment from 
 probabilities, are unprovided for by Mathematical training. 
 The niceties and difficulties of Classical, particularly Greek 
 syntax, are much better calculated to teach practical accuracy. 
 AVhat, then, are the qualifies of the mind most necessary 
 for and most brought into play by Mathematical study ? I 
 should answer (setting aside the inventive power already men- 
 tioned, which, I think it will generally be conceded, is rather 
 a pre-requisite for than a development of Mathematical pro- 
 ficiency) method and concentration ; and I believe it will 
 usually be found that those persons who are deficient in ability 
 to acquire Mathematics, are also deficient in method and con- 
 centration. For myself, I always find the want of an orderly 
 and regular sequence of ideas one of my greatest troubles in 
 treating of a subject — what thought to put first, and how to 
 connect the dift'erent heads. So much so is this the case, that, 
 when younger, I used generally to write an essay in fragments 
 and piece them together as best I could ; and even now, what- 
 ever I write about, I am continually obliged to leave out some- 
 thing pertaining to the subject, for want of being able to find 
 an appropriate place for its introduction. And the next great 
 difficulty is a want of concentration, an inabihty to keep my 
 attention fixed upon one subject at a time until I have done 
 with it. Now, one of the essential characteristics of Mathema- 
 tical demonstration is the i-egular sequence of steps following
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 211 
 
 one another in order ; disturb this order, and the demonsti'ation 
 is not only vitiated but destroyed. Sometimes, indeed, "where 
 tlie solution is given beforehand, you may begin at both ends 
 and work the equivalents till they meet, but even then the pro- 
 gress both ways is in regular and methodical order. Equally 
 true is it — indeed it almost follows as a matter of course — that 
 a J\Iathematical demonstration requires the concentrated and 
 undivided attention of the person who is engaged on it ; it is 
 not like reading a passage in Classics, where, if you do not un- 
 derstand one line or sentence, you may j^ass it over for the 
 time, go on to the next, and return again to the original 
 difficulty after having made some progi'ess elsewhere. 
 
 But now, it may well be asked, since method and concen- 
 tration are two most desirable qualities to gain, if those are 
 particularly brought into play in Mathematical operations, is 
 not the study an exceedingly useful one ? The difficulties 
 attendant on au answer to this question I am not disposed to 
 underrate ; that my answer will satisfy the reader I can hardly 
 expect, as it does not in all particulars satisfy myself. Firmly 
 convinced as I am that all the Mathematics which I read after 
 a certain point were a sheer waste of time, still I cannot explain 
 so fully as I could wish why this was the case, and is the case 
 with all men of similarly constituted minds. 
 
 One thing is open and on the surface — the insuperable 
 disgust to Mathematical study which a man of this class feels 
 (and in this class I include not only those who like myself just 
 scraped through, but a number of those who by dint of sheer 
 cram or good luck succeed in becoming Senior Optimes). He 
 cannot work himself up to an interest for the pursuit. When 
 he succeeds in writing out a long formula with perfect correct- 
 ness, he does not feel the same satisfaction as when he has 
 turned off a good copy of verses, or a neat translation, or an 
 essay that pleases him. The only gratification present to his 
 mind is the consolation of having shot so much rubbish. Nor 
 can this nausea be altogether accounted for by mortified vanity 
 and the discouragement caused by want of progress, for in many 
 cases it absolutely increases with the progress made. I never
 
 212 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 felt so tlioroiiglily sick of everytliing like <a Mathematical book 
 as just before the " Great Go," when my knowledge of Mathe- 
 matics was greater than it ever was before or has ever been 
 since — if we can apply the term knowledf/e to the quantity of 
 Mathematics requisite to get a place among the Junior Optimes. 
 ]3ut in truth such a man never has and never can have any 
 Mathematical knowledge in the true sense. The amount of 
 alien matter violently obtruded upon his mind never assimilates 
 itself to his mental composition, is never unconsciously remem- 
 bered, never becomes a part of his habitual associations. It is 
 only held on to temporarily by an incessant mental effort ; as 
 soon as that effort is relaxed it departs, and there is no wish or 
 impulse of tlie mind to retard its departure. He looks upon 
 the Mathematical examination as a sort of fight with the ex- 
 aminers, in which he is to get through or get a Senior Oj)time 
 as the case may be, with the least amount of knowledge and 
 trouble ; should he come out high among the Senior Ops, and 
 beat a number of single men, he rather enjoys it as a joke 
 upon the examination, a sort of irony of fate, and views it 
 much as a billiard player would a racroc — a piece of luck but 
 not at all a matter of pride. Cases are on record of Classical 
 men who by a happy combination of labor and luck have be- 
 come high Senior Optimes, consequently beating several candi- 
 dates for Wranglerships, and nine months after have taken in 
 no Mathematics to the Trinity Fellowship examination. And 
 not only is the progress in this uncongenial study, slow, dis- 
 agreeable, and elusive, but, so far from its strengthening the 
 mind of the scholar for more appropriate employments, it 
 actually weakens and unfits it. Fagging at Mathematics not 
 only fatigues, but hopelessly muddles an unmathematical man, 
 so that he is in no state for any mental exertion. It was the 
 general complaint of men who had been working up Mathe- 
 matics for the Trinity Scholarship, or going through a longer 
 probation for the Senate House, that it took several days to 
 recover the spring and tone of their minds when they set to 
 work on Classics again. Indeed the infliction of a Mathemati- 
 cal course upon non-Mathematicians has always seemed to me
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 213 
 
 like an atteinjit to implant in the mind new qualities, not to 
 develoj) those whicli it already possesses. No doubt a man 
 who can acquire a real knowledge of Mathematics is better off 
 jyro tanto for it, and if he has the requisites for this as well as 
 those for being a good scholar, his mind is clearly more valu- 
 able than if it were only fit for Scholarship. But when a man 
 has not these requisites, and after several fruitless attempts and 
 eight or ninfe months final fagging, can only just achieve a 
 Junior Optmie, qucere if his time would not have been better 
 employed in other studies allowed to be useful, more to his 
 taste, and in which he makes infinitely more headway. By 
 the time a youth has arrived at the age of eighteen or nineteen, 
 supposing him to have received any sort of decent preparatory 
 education, he will generally have found out what he can do, 
 and what he cannot, and in which direction his forte lies, and 
 it is then certainly the best individual economy to make the 
 most of what is in him. 
 
 To the moral argument in favor of Mathematics, quizzical as 
 it may appear to some, I am seriously inclined to attach con- 
 siderable weight. That Classical men, loving and adoring 
 their favorite studies, proud of their excellence in them, and 
 thinking it a surpassing excellence, may often be tempted to 
 look upon Scholarship as the one great test of merit, and that 
 it may prove a beneficial corrective to step out into another 
 mental region and find themselves mere children there, may be 
 readily admitted. Equally must we admit the benefit derived 
 from overcoming a ditiiculty of long standing and getting 
 through with an unpleasant duty. It teaches patience during 
 the struggle, and gives a healthy self-confidence after it. But 
 it must not be forgotten that there are moral evils involved as 
 well. One of them is the very serious trial of temper occa- 
 sioned by Mathematical annoyances. The petulance and irri- 
 tability thus engendered were matter of notoriety ; indeed you 
 could always tell when a Classical man was under the influence 
 of a Mathematical examination in prospect, merely by observing 
 his ordinary demeanor. There was also a great sense of 
 unfairness — a feeling as if we were sacrificed to the Mathema-
 
 214 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 ticians, ami the compulsory passing in Mathematics was a sort 
 of bounty or protection upon them at our expense — which in 
 some cases rose so high as to make it ahnost a personal matter. 
 I have heard a man say he felt like going out and kicking the 
 first Mathematiciiin he met. 
 
 One undeniable and uudenied effect of the restriction on 
 Classical Honors at Cambridge was that it prevented a number 
 of men from going out in Uonors at alL These are generally 
 not the very best Classics, for in their case the prize at stake is 
 worth a great effort ; but the 13. No. 1 men, who bid fair to be 
 low first-class men or good seconds. One of these men has 
 been reading on for two years and a half, more or less regularly, 
 till just as the men of the year before him are about to try 
 their fortune, he begins to determine seriously on his own 
 views and prospects. He takes his coach into council, who 
 says, " You ought to be a First Class, if you work for it ; you 
 must read so many hours a-day for this next year." Oft' goes 
 the student to his Mathematical tutor to see how much time 
 must be taken off for the " Mathematical Honors." He, after 
 due examination of his pupil's ignorance, informs him that so 
 many hours a-day for two or three terms will be necessary. 
 With this report our Third Year man travels back to his Clas- 
 sical tutor, who replies, " If this be the case — if you have to 
 give up so much time to Mathematics, your First Class will be 
 in danger, and on the whole I would advise you to go out in 
 the Poll. Unless you are pretty sure of a First, it don't pay 
 to go through the trouble of getting up Mathematics for the 
 chance of a Second" (the coach himself has probably a lively 
 reminiscence of his own labors to obtain a place some eight or 
 ten above the Spoon). The pupil takes his advice, gives up 
 reading for Honors, and goes out in the Poll, which is as much 
 as saying that he does nothing for the last year of his College 
 life. 
 
 I have said this is undented. As an offset, however, it is 
 asserted that the Mathematical Tripos is increased by numbers 
 who, but for the compulsory restriction, would not go in it. 
 But we have good reason to doubt whether these forced volun-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 215 
 
 teers confer any very great honor or benefit on the jSIathoma- 
 tical Tripos. It is certain that they lower the standard of it, 
 that is, of the lower places in it, and it is probably on this 
 account that the inferior places are so little thought of in com- 
 parison with those of the Classical Tripos, a Senior Optime, for 
 example, compared with a Second Class in Classics. Were the 
 Mathematical Tripos confined to Mathematicians, there would 
 be less disparity between the standard for the Wrangler and 
 for the other Classes, and the lower places would be more 
 honorable than they are at present, and more on a par with the 
 corresj)onding ones of the Classical Tripos. 
 
 What, then, is our inference from the above ? That to a 
 large class of students, Mathematics are not only useless, but 
 injurious, and should therefore be turned out of their education 
 altogether ? That in the University of Cambridge it would be 
 desirable to open the Classical Tripos entireljs and allow Clas- 
 sical men to take their degrees without having read a word of 
 Mathematics ? By no means. So peculiar and extensive a 
 department of reasoning as the Mathematical no liberally-edu- 
 cated student should be without some experience of, even 
 though his experience may never fructify ipto knoAvledge, 
 We must also remember that a boy is not exactly qualified to 
 judge of what he can do or what he is fit for ; it is at a more 
 advanced age that the student is able to reason on the progress 
 and capabilities of his own mind, that he can elect his forte 
 and reject what is unprofitable. I am inclined to think that, 
 supposing a boy begins to study the dead languages at eleven 
 or twelve (which is early enough), he may well begin Euclid 
 a year after, and Algebra at fourteen or fifteen ; and from that 
 age to go on for two or three years devoting about as much 
 time to Mathematics as' is now usually done in our Colleges, 
 that is to say, from one fourth to one third of the whole period 
 assigned to study. But if at the end of that period he be 
 found to make little progress and take no interest in the study, 
 he should be allowed an opportunity of passing a final exami- 
 nation in the lower branches, and then be permitted to take 
 leave of pure science at the age of eighteen. And here again
 
 216 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 ■SVC should make a distinction as to the kind of Mathematics. 
 That geometry is generally more popular and more easily 
 understood than andysls is a tolerably familiar truth to all who 
 have had much to do with liberal education ; the simjilest 
 expression of this truth is the preference of Euclid to Algebra 
 shown by Freshmen and schoolboys, and their quicker progress 
 in the former study. The great power which Analysis gives 
 renders it superior for high Mathematical purposes in any case 
 where both methods are applicable ; but as a fixed element of 
 general education, geometry must be preferred.* 
 
 As to tlie course most desirable at Cambridge, it is well 
 known that many young men come up with no knowledge of 
 Mathematics except a very httle Algebra and Euclid. It is a 
 wise arrangement of the separate colleges to examine at the 
 end of the first eight months on these subordinate branches, 
 with the addition of Plane Trigonometry, thus giving the tyros 
 plenty of time to study the rudiments without neglecting their 
 Classics. By this time the student, with his tutor's assistance, 
 has usually succeeded in giving the Mathematics a fair trial, 
 and discovering whether he can go on with them to his own 
 comfort aiid improvement, or not. It would appear then just 
 and beneficial to all parties to ^m< the Mathematics into the 
 Little Go, as a Cantab would say ; in other words, to demand 
 such a modicum of low Mathematics as ma)'^ be deemed a 
 sufficient test, from all the students at the previous examina- 
 tion, and then leave the Classical men free to pursue their own 
 peculiar study, and develop themselves in their own way, for 
 the last year and a half without interruption. 
 
 The two great hardships complained of by the Classical men 
 were, first, that the Mathematical degree examination was too 
 diftuse in its character to enable them to calculate accurately 
 on passing it, and secondly, that it occurred just at the very 
 time when it was most inconvenient. The first evil has been 
 to a great extent remedied within a few years, and it is not im- 
 
 * For a thorough comparison of the two processes see Whewell on 
 Cambridge Studies, Part I., pp. 38-63.
 
 ENGLISH UNiVERsrrr. 217 
 
 probable that the second grievance will be abolished at no very- 
 remote period. 
 
 After the result of the Scholarship examination many of my 
 friends had advised me to give up competition for Honors, and 
 retire gracefully with flying colors. But I had several induce- 
 ments to attempt going out in Honors. A little feeling of 
 chivalry had something to do with it ; I wanted to give one or 
 two men whom I had beaten at the Scholarship a chance of 
 doing better in the Tripos. A better reason was a natural 
 curiosity to test ray knowledge and fix my relative place more 
 definitely. Partly from originally defective preparation, partly 
 from the irregular and interrupted manner in which my studies 
 had been prosecuted, my Classics were in the most unequal 
 order, in some things standing very fair, in others hardly well 
 enough to be placed at all. I could not assure myself or others 
 of my probable standing, the classical tutor's decision of last 
 winter appearing in some measure contradicted by subsequent 
 performances. Moreover, I really was very desirous of a Fii-st 
 Class, and though not willing to risk my health reading for 
 one, thought the chance worth some trouble as well as the risk 
 of failure. But more than all, I was influenced by a sense of 
 pique. There was a general impression that I could not get 
 through, " that is," said the Mathematical tutor in whose team 
 I had ineff'ectually tried to work the summer before, " not that 
 you are unable to pass, but you will get disgusted and sick of 
 the work, and throw it up before the time comes." For this 
 very reason I was resolved to get through. From my Jersey 
 trip I had brought back only the discovery that I was strong 
 enough to ride, and this greatly consoled me for all Mathema- 
 tical afflictions. After cramming, and fussing, and " writing 
 out" three, four, five hours in the morning, it was a delicious 
 luxury to mount a blood mare and gallop over that carpet-Hke 
 turf which one finds nowhere but in England. A friend, who 
 did not intend to go out in Honors, but was staying up this 
 Long to study Hebrew, he gave out — the uncharitable said for 
 another purpose — used to accompany me. 
 
 Even with this favorite amusement, restored after a depriva- 
 10
 
 218 FIVK VKAUB IN AN 
 
 tiou of three year?, it was hard to keep one's spirits up under 
 tlio Matliematical burden. The feeling was exactly like that of 
 eating sawdust. My mind could extract neither pleasure nor 
 nutriment from the food presented to it ; and yet this work did 
 not occupy more than four hours a day of my time, some days 
 not even so much. But those few hours daily exhausted me 
 more than twice the time spent on congenial studies would 
 liave done. Apparently I had time to spare for Classics, and 
 my Pembroke friend, who was now working a nice little team 
 of three or four, begged me to come into it, or, at least, attend 
 ])is examinations on Saturdays. But this I was forced to 
 decline. To keep up the amount of energy requisite to carry 
 me through the Senate House, it was necessary to abstain 
 from any hard and systematic work during the rest of the day. 
 It was desirable to unbend as much as possible. I read heaps 
 of old ballads and romantic poetry — Motherwell, Shelley, Miss 
 Barrett, sometimes Homer, soared up as high as I could from 
 the disagreeable daily necessities of x and y into the cloudland 
 of fancy and rhyme. Still it was not in human nature for a 
 Classical man living among Classical men, and knowing that 
 there were a dozen and more close to him reading away " like 
 bricks," to be long entirely separated from his Greek and Latin 
 books. My library stood in the small room Avhich was my 
 winter snuggery. The summer apartment contained only a 
 big standing-desk, the eternal " scribbling paper," and the half- 
 dozen Mathematical works required. A wise precaution, but it 
 did not long avail. At first I admitted Homer to share my 
 after-dinner hours with the old English ballads. Then, as I 
 was anxious to do a good bit of Greek prose in the Tripos, 
 wishing to make that one of my strong points, and liking the 
 composition itself, and it had been told me by Travis, that the 
 best way to acquire facility and elegance in it was to read 
 plenty of good Greek prose — the Republic, for instance — I took 
 the advice, a7i 2ned de la Ictire, and began to read the Republic 
 an liour after breakfast every day before attacking my Mathe- 
 matics. In this way I cleared five books of it ; after reading 
 two or three I was tempted to try my composition, and used
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEUSITr. 219 
 
 on the oft-days, AvLen I had no Mathematical paper to do 
 with my coacli, to -work at Greek prose, chiefly with a view to 
 pace^ until I could beat the ordinary examination time. It 
 turned out rather a bad speculation in the end, for practising 
 first for rapidity and then for spicy words, I came to disi-egard 
 accuracy of Syntax, and to make wrong or slovenly construc- 
 tions. All my compositions (they Avere not confined to Greek 
 prose) I put down in a book to have them corrected afterwards, 
 but the three weeks intervening between the two Triposes was 
 a very insufiicient time to wash so much dirty linen either with 
 comfort to my coach or profit to myself. Had I given less 
 time to composition, and gone on more slowly and carefully 
 under the supervision of a tutor, it might have turned out 
 much better for me. But the fear that I should not be able to 
 limit my time in Classics if I once began them with a coach 
 always frightened me off ; and my Mathematical friends assured 
 me I was perfectly right. " If you try to go on reading 
 Classics with a tutor," said they, " you may give up the idea 
 of getting through in Mathematics." 
 
 And now Avhat does this troublesome Mathematical course 
 amount to ? Of hoAV much does it consist ? Some general 
 hints of its extent and scheme have already been given ; let 
 us now go over them in greater detail. 
 
 The subjects for a man who is merely a candidate to pass 
 in Honors, whose only object is a place somewhere — Wooden 
 Spoon if he can do no better (and not unfrequently he Avoukl 
 as lief have that place as any other, particularly if it can be 
 obtained at a comparatively small outlay of time and trouble) — 
 are broadly defined as everything inside the Differential, which, 
 however, is characterizing the schedule too liberally, as there 
 are several matters from the Theory of Equations in Algebra 
 to various introductory propositions in Astronomy Avhich are 
 quite independent of the Calculus, and nevertheless do not 
 usually come into the future Junior Optime's scheme. What 
 I prepared is a fair specimen of the usual amount, as follows : — 
 
 Euclid, first Four Books, Sixth and Eleventh. 
 
 Algebra; as far as the Theory of Equations.
 
 220 five years in an 
 
 Plane Trigonometry. 
 
 SniERicAL Trigonometry. 
 
 NE^VTON's Principia : first Three Sections. 
 
 Conic Sections. 
 
 Statics; I 
 
 1^ . . I So f;ir as tliey can be carried without the 
 
 i^YNAMICS , ! •' 
 
 nYDROSTATics; ^ Differential. 
 
 Optics ; 
 
 [Descriptions of instruments enter largely into tliesc four 
 sulijects, and are great godsends to the Classical men.] 
 
 Ten subjects in all. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that most of these subjects are 
 read very differently from what they would be with us. Thus, 
 in Trigonometry, the Sines, Cosines, &c., are not lines, but 
 ratios. Conic Sections are read entirely by analysis ; thougli 
 there may be a "jncture" to each proposition, the relations of 
 the lines are expressed entirely by Algebraic formulae. But 
 for the occasional recurrence of the terms "parabola" and 
 " ellipse," a tyro wdio had read Bridge would not be able to 
 discover that Hamilton was writing on the same subject. As 
 Classical men, Avith very few exceptions, take more kindly to 
 Geometry than to Analysis, this makes it all the harder for them. 
 
 On the other hand, it is admitted that the getting-up of a 
 subject does not involve the knowledge of every page and 
 every proposition in the ordinary text-books treating of it. As 
 there is a certain run of questions from which examiners do not 
 vary, these are marked for study and the others for omission 
 (R. and O. are the usual marginal designations in pencil) ; and 
 here it will be seen that much depends on the judgment 
 and experience of the coach. Still it must not be suspected 
 that there is any lack of generality in the Examinations. Sup- 
 pose, for instance, there are seventy-five propositions in Conic 
 Sections from among which questions in the Mathematical 
 Tripos are usually set, and that the average number of questions 
 is seven ; this evidently leaves a pretty wide range. To make 
 sure of the two (piestions in Spherical Trigonometry, on the
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSITT. 221 
 
 first morning's paper, the candidate must have mastered forty 
 pages of close print. Then, again, besides the text-hooks, there 
 are manuscripts containing variations and different methods 
 not to he found in the books, with which every man has some- 
 thing to do at some period of his course. Any such changes 
 would not be allowed in Euclid or Newton, but in other places 
 men are sometimes enabled to make a show of originality with 
 them. On the whole, then, it may be safely said that the 
 getting up of a subject is equivalent to getting up any one 
 of the ordinary books upon it. 
 
 The library required for such a course is not very extensive. 
 On each of the subjects comprised in it there are two or three 
 books written by Mathematical Dons, and used indifferently 
 according to the taste of different tutors and the previous pur- 
 chases of different pupils. My stock consisted of — I really 
 forget whose Euclid, Wood's and Hind's Algebras, Snowball's 
 Trigonometry, Hamilton's Conic Sections, Evans' Newton, 
 Earnshaw's Statics, Earnshaw's Dynamics, Miller's Hydro- 
 statics, Grifl'en's Optics, two or three other elementary works 
 on Mechanics (one of them by Dr. Whewell), and two vo- 
 lumes of MSS. In addition to these I borrowed a huge 
 volume, called Pratt's Mechanical Philosophy. Most of 
 these Avorks were purchased at second-hand, some of them at 
 fourth or fifth hand, an indignity which rarely befals Clas- 
 sical books. 
 
 The manner of going to work is somewhat this. As the 
 public examination is to be all pen and ink, the private in- 
 struction to prepare you for it necessarily involves much similar 
 practice. So you arrange with your coach, according to his 
 ideas of what you ought to get up and your ideas of what you 
 can or luill get up, that you will be prepared next day or 
 the day after in the Ellipse, or the First Section of the 
 Principia, or all Algebra, as the case may be, and on that day 
 he sets you in his own room a paper, perhaps of his own composi- 
 tion, perhaps an old College Examination one, on the agreed 
 subject, containing ten or fifteen questions. You do as much 
 of this as you can and as fast as you can, and leave your papers
 
 222 FIVK YEARS IN AN 
 
 to bo looked over in your absence by the tutor, who on your 
 return next day explains the errors in tliem. Any difllculties 
 in the text-books it is of course also Lis business to explain, but 
 these are not of frequent occurrence ; the trouble usually is not 
 to understand but to rcmcmher. 
 
 IIow far is the candidate ac(piaiuted with these ten subjects, 
 which we have intimated that he cannot properly be said 
 to hnoio ? If his temporary mastery of them were complete, 
 that is, if he could be sure of doing all the bookvvork thiit 
 might be set from them, he would get just questions enough 
 to make him a low Senior Op ; even supposing he did no 
 problems. But it may be supposed that, as a general rule, this 
 never happens : so safe and thorough an ac([uaintance with the 
 low subjects implies some ability to make use of their principles 
 in problems, a Mathematical power, in short, which has already 
 led the student to seek high Mathematical Honors. (T say as 
 a general rule, for there are some cases of men with a low Ma- 
 thematical or half-Matliematical sort of talent, so to speak, who 
 can be absolutely perfect in low subjects, and break down when 
 they come to higher ones.) A non-Mathematical man must 
 read for twice as much as he expects to do ; he can seldom 
 make anything except Euclid and Newton quite safe, or calcu- 
 late with certainty on doing much more than half of a subject 
 Avhich he has got up. Nor can he make sure of solving even 
 one 2)roblem, though he may find as many as three within his 
 capacity. His ambition is generally limited to doing " liders," 
 which are a sort of scholia, or easy deductions from the book- 
 work propositions, like a link between them and problems ; in- 
 deed the rider being, as its name imports, attached to a 
 question, the question is not fully answered until the rider 
 is answered also. My experience was that I could floor a 
 Euclid or a Newton paper, and in any other subject taking 
 bookwork and riders together, do enough for half marks. The 
 highest degree I ever heard of as being taken without the Dif- 
 ferential was 10th Senior Optime, or in the first quarter of the 
 Second Class. It was a case of extraordinary good luck as 
 well as cleverness. In general, a man who has any pre-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 223 
 
 tensions to a Senior Op's place, even one of the lowest, just to 
 let bim in for the Medal, will have made some little progress 
 in the Differential Calculus (the term Fluxions is never used), 
 so that he can do a few questions in the subject itself, and 
 make some slight application of it in other branches. 
 
 As my Mathematics began to feel a little less shaky, and 
 the desire of working up my Classics increased, and the pace of 
 the men about me carried me along, and my health was 
 decidedly improving, I now attempted a " spirt," or what was 
 one for me. Beginning with five hours and a half, I put on an 
 extra half hour to my working time every three or four 
 days until I had reached seven hours, at which point I re- 
 mained for a week, and then suddenly gave way, broke down 
 all at once, and was obliged to lie idle and recruit for some 
 days. After that, I did not attempt more than five hours a-day 
 till the Mathematical Examination ; till then also I bid good-bye 
 to my Classics. This was about the end of the Long, and the 
 beginning of our last Undergraduate term. 
 
 It was not an unpleasant life after all, that last Long ; a 
 good grievance which always gives one something to talk about, 
 delightful weather, pleasant rides, occasional cobblers, and the 
 mild excitement, like an innocent sort of gambling, which 
 a man feels when working to save himself in one Examination 
 and get credit in another.
 
 224 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 'Ev Svpou ^Ax^^. 
 
 Acvo'craji' i' tt -rov yvoirt craruv Cis xSo>p, 
 
 SOPUOCLES' PimoCTETim. 
 
 Seeing if by any possibility he knew liis IlydrostaticB. 
 
 Very Free Translation. 
 
 A BUSY time indeed is the term before going out to tlie 
 " Questionists Candidates for Honors." Ants, bees, boat-crews 
 spirting at tlie Willows, jockeys nearing the post and getting 
 the last half inch out of their nags (though this last simile is 
 perhaps more appropriate to the private tutors than to their 
 pupils), are but faint types of their activity. They even break 
 in upon their cherished hours of exercise. Lucky is the man 
 who lives a mile off from his private tutor, or has rooms ten 
 minutes' walk from chapel ; he is sure of that much constitu- 
 tional daily. They have little appetites for their not very 
 tempting dinners, and grudge themselves their usual hours of 
 sleep. The Classical men are rather the busiest ; they have a 
 double burden to undergo, and a most critical achievement 
 before them — to get up Mathematics enough to pass, without 
 sacrificing the time necessary to keep up their Classics to the 
 proper point — the minimum of knowledge in the one case, the 
 maximum of acquisition in the other. Of those rarce aves who 
 are aiming, and with a fair prospect, at success in both Tri- 
 poses, one hardly knows what to think. The reported saying 
 of a distinguished judge, who had himself taken the highest 
 Honors of his year, in reference to a young relative of his then 
 reading double, " that the standard of a Double First was get- 
 ting to be something beyond human ability," seems hardly an 
 exaggeration. We must suppose such men to be so strong- 
 minded and hard-headed that they make their Classical reading 
 an amusement and relaxation after their Mathematical work.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 225 
 
 But the mere and single Matliematician has anything bnt a 
 holiday ; indeed, as all his interests are concentrated in the 
 approaching examination, he is the most anxious about the 
 immediate result. To one danger Mathematicians are more 
 exposed than either Classical or Double men — disgust and 
 satiety arising from exclusive devotion to their unattractive stu- 
 dies. A high Wrangler once told me, just before the examina- 
 tion, that he felt like -wishing he had never opened a Mathema- 
 tical book, and that he never wanted to see the inside of one 
 again, so sick did he feel of the whole business. This was 
 only a temporary state of mind, for he resumed his books in a 
 few months, and ultimately became Lecturer in his College. 
 This, of itself, shows how fatiguing the final spirt must be, 
 when it could thus disgust a man with what was his favorite 
 pursuit and final profession. 
 
 Some previous remarks may have tended to give the impres- 
 sion that the standard of the Mathematical Tripos is throughout 
 a low one. I hasten to disabuse the reader of any such mis- 
 conception. The standard of the lower places is low, because 
 the last class has become in a great measure a pass Class for 
 the Classical men, and the lower half of the second Class has 
 not quite escaped the same fate ; but to be among the first 
 twenty or twenty-five Wranglers a man must have read Mathe- 
 matics professionally, besides possessing a good natural capacity 
 for them ; and to stand among the best eight or ten he must 
 be remarkahly clever at Mathematics, with considerable indus- 
 try and a good memory into the bargain. As expressed by 
 numbers, the disparity between the top and bottom of the 
 scale is not so enormous, the Senior Wrangler having perhaps 
 3,000 or 3,500 marks to the Spoon's 200 ; but the actual dis- 
 proportion in knowledge is much greater, because, from the 
 shortness of the time allowed, the highest men, rapid as their 
 pace is, seldom have time to do all they know. And now 
 comes an important question. When we speak of a standard 
 as high or loiv, we have necessarily before our minds some test 
 of comparison, and the one most naturally presenting itself in 
 the present case is the standard of Mathematical attainment in 
 
 10* ^
 
 226 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 otlier institutions renowned for tlieir Matliematical teacliing. 
 How, for instance, would the Cantabs compare witli tlie pupils 
 of the Polytechnic ? It is rather a delicate query for any one 
 to answer, but especially for a non-Mathematical man, -who can 
 only form an opinion of liis own throug-h iiujuiries from others, 
 and comj^arison of their answers. A Cambridge man, wlio 
 was Sixth Wrangler, once said publicly (in tlie columns of the 
 Times), that perhaps the first eight or ten men on the Tripos 
 might be considered respectable Mathematicians in France, and 
 all the others would be laughed at ; but what data lie had for 
 this opinion, or what qualification for judging beyond the fact 
 of having been a high Wrangler himself, I was never able to 
 ascertain. Another, who also stood high in Mathematics, and 
 was a Fellow of Trinity, who had lived some time in Fi'ance, 
 was acquainted with several French savans, and had witnessed 
 examinations at several French schools, went so far on the 
 other tack as to maintain that one of the first eight or ten 
 Senior Optimes would be a high man at the Polytechnic. 
 These are the extreme opinions, somewhere between which the 
 truth probably lies. A gentleman of the highest Mathematical 
 attainments, who has had an extensive foreign scientific cor- 
 respondence, and wrote in Continental scientific journals when 
 a mere youth, assured me as the result of his experience abroad, 
 that the standard Avas nearly equal in the two places ; that a 
 high Senior Optime would be a resjDcctable man at the Poly- 
 technic, and a high Wrangler a very good man ; that the best 
 man of the Polytechnic might be Senior Wrangler, and vice 
 versa. The unmathematical reader may perhaps be disposed to 
 accept this opinion as that of a man having some authority ; 
 the scientific one may form an idea of the Cambridge standard 
 for himself in a very simple way. Let him procure a set of 
 the Mathematical Tripos papers (say those for the year 
 1845) and study them carefully, bearing in mind the limited 
 time allotted to each paper, so limited that he can scarcely 
 appreciate its shortness without the actual experiment of writ- 
 ing one or two of them out ;* and then consider that it is an 
 
 * Manv of tlie Itigli moii write out tlieir bookwovk fi'om inemovv
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 227 
 
 ordinary thing for a man among the first ten Wranglers to 
 lloor the bookwork of tlie first four days ; that it is not 
 unusual fcr a man among the first six to do as many as twelve 
 problems on one paper ; that the Senior AVrangler of that very 
 year did all the bookwork except three questions, and more 
 than forty problems out of sixty, clearing nineteen on one paper 
 in three hours — and he will then have some little notion of the 
 extent of preparation and competition. 
 
 It usually happens that the Senior Wrangler is a long way 
 ahead of the year, the opposite of what is observable in 
 the Classical Tripos, where there are generally two men 
 closely balanced and nearly equal. Among the first dozen 
 seldom more than two very decided gaps occur, and frequently 
 after the Second Wrangler nine or ten lie together so closely 
 that, in sporting phraseology, a blanket might cover them. As 
 there is no provision in the printed lists for expressing the 
 number of marks by which each man beats the one next below 
 him, and there may be more difference between the twelfth and 
 thirteenth than between the third and twelfth, it has been 
 proposed to extend the use of the brackets (which are now only 
 employed in cases of literal equahty between two or three men), 
 and put together six, eight, or ten, whose marks are nearly 
 equal. But the penchant of the general system is for keeping 
 every man's individuality of place as much as possible, and the 
 proposed change has not met with encouragement. 
 
 The usual number of Wranglers — whatever Wrangler may 
 have meant once, it now implies merely a First Class man 
 in Mathematics* — is thirty-seven or thirty-eight. vSometimes 
 it falls to thirty-five, and occasionally rises above forty. Perhaps 
 from twenty-five to thirty of these men are known to have fair 
 Mathematical standing, and generally set down as probable 
 
 faster than an ordinary person could copy the formulje from a book 
 placed before him. 
 
 * The Questionists used formerly to keep acts, deliver Latin disputa- 
 tions, &c., which entered as an element into the result of the examina- 
 tion. All this is now agreeably compromised by the payment of two 
 shillings,
 
 228 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Wranglers, or having a right to expect to Lc. The otliers 
 are outsiders, Avhose reputation before the examination did 
 not equal, or whose luck in the examination more than 
 equals their desert. A few of the Small Colleges will give a 
 Fellowship for any place among the Wranglers, but most 
 of them require the Questionist to bo among the first fifteen or 
 twenty. Different Colleges assign different limits, which some- 
 times vary according to the number of vacancies and the 
 supply of good men, though if there be a dearth of high 
 Degrees among the B.A.'s of any college for some years in 
 succession, the Dons of it usually make up the deficiency 
 by electing Biembers of other Colleges to their Fellowships. 
 About six Wranglers on an average go out subsequently in 
 Classics, and half of these are in the Third Class. 
 
 The Second Class, or that of Senior Optimes, is larger in 
 number, usually exceeding forty and sometimes reaching above 
 sixty. This class contains a number of disappointments, many 
 who expect to be Wranglers and some who are generally 
 expected to be. It has a fair spriukHng of Classical men, 
 either candidates for the Medals, or who have made sure 
 of getting through and had something to spare. The Third 
 Class or that of Junior Optimes, is usually about as numerous 
 as the first, but its limits are more extensive, varying from 
 twenty-five to sixty. A majority of the Classical men are in it ; 
 the rest of its contents are those who have broken down before 
 the examination from ill-health or laziness, and choose the 
 Junior Optime as an easier pass degree under their circumstances 
 than the Poll, and those who break down in the examination ; 
 among these last may be sometimes found an expectant 
 Wrangler. As the gulfed and plucked men do not appear on 
 the lists, and there is no particular reason for their being 
 talked about unless they happen to be Classical, it is not 
 very easy to arrive at their number. I fancy from ten to 
 fifteen men are gulfed every year and about the same number 
 plucked. This will make the average number of candidates 
 for Honors rather above than below one hundred and fifty. 
 
 The mention of gulfed and plucked men brings me back to
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 229 
 
 myself. About six weeks before the examination, Laving gone 
 over all my subjects and beginning to review them, I wrote 
 out all I could in several old degree papers, with a view of as- 
 certaining how many questions I could answer. The result of 
 my inquiries led me to the conclusion that twenty-four full 
 questions or their equivalent, would get me safe through, while 
 twenty would just land me in the gulf; and the result of 
 my practice was that I could do just about the latter 
 number. So there I was on the verge, touch and go. I 
 had already thrown aside my Classics entirely, and now 
 applied myself to the much execrated Mathematics with new 
 diligence, polishing up my longer subjects with great zeal. At 
 this time a lucky inspiration led me to get up Spherical Trigo- 
 nometry ; it was only a few days' work, and I have reason 
 to believe saved me. 
 
 About ten days before the examination, just as I was 
 beginning to make a visible impression on my work, and 
 absolutely expecting not merely to pass, but to pass high 
 among the Junior Optimes — not that it made much difference 
 if I did, except for some small bets on my place — there came 
 upon me a feeling of utter disgust and weariness, muddle- 
 headedness and want of mental elasticity. I fell to playing 
 billiards and whist in very desperation, and gave myself up to 
 what might happen. At the same time or a little earlier, one 
 of our Scholars who stood a much better chance than myself, 
 gave up from mere " funk," and resolved to go out in the 
 Poll. 
 
 It was a sort of melancholy satisfaction to me that there 
 was a mortality, so to speak, among the examiners this year. 
 Two out of the four* were taken ill, one some weeks before 
 the examination, the other only a few days. In place of the 
 
 former was appointed my friend E , not to his extreme 
 
 satisfaction so far as I was concerned, for the idea of helping 
 to pluck me was not at all agreeable to him ; instead of the 
 
 * Two of them are oalled Examiners and two Moderators, but tlicir 
 duties are substantially tlie pame.
 
 230 FIVE YEAKS IN AX 
 
 lattei', wliose illness took the authorities quite by surprise and 
 obliged them to choose at the last inoiueut Avhoniever they 
 could get, was put on my own private tutor, lie had five men 
 going out besides myself, and certainly would not liave been 
 chosen, only it liappened that the examination papers were 
 already in type, so that he had nothing to do Avith setting 
 them and was only called on to examine. 1 had therefore the 
 opportunity of saying in joke that to pass so desperate a case 
 as myself the Dons were obliged to put on my most particular 
 friend and my actual private tutor. 
 
 The first Tuesday in January chanced to be an unusually 
 fine morning. Every Questionist who could find a four-legged 
 animal mounted that day for a ride, as a luxury warranted and 
 an exercise demanded by the occasion. There was not a beast 
 to be found in the livery stables, I borrowed a friend's 
 horse — the emergency of the case justifying the atrocity — and 
 rode him till I could hardly keep myself on his back, or he 
 himself on his legs. Next morning before the clock struck 
 nine, I was among the nervous throng at the Senate House 
 doors, and it had hardly ceased striking when 1 was writing 
 out at full speed the first proposition that caught my eye on 
 the paper. The particular time of the year when the exami- 
 nation is held gives rise to an occasional source of failure of a 
 rather odd sort. The Senate House being a large, airy, stone- 
 floored building, can be but imperfectly warmed if the weather 
 be damp or severely cold. Thus a man with any tendency to 
 imperfect circulation becomes chilled, especially in his hands, 
 and with chilled hands, he is disabled to a considerable extent 
 from writing. The first year 1 was at Cambridge, one of our 
 best Trinity men, afterwards a Fellow, lost fifteen or eighteen 
 places among the Wranglers, as he believed, and as his pre- 
 vious and subsequent successes entitled him to believe, solely 
 from being frozen up. Fortunately the present January was 
 remarkably mild and pleasant throughout, to the great comfort 
 of us Questionists, The low questions being nearly all com- 
 prised in the first day's papers, that day usually decides the 
 fate of the doubtful men. They have, however, a few remaining
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY, 231 
 
 chances in tlie following days of this week ; among others, two 
 propositions from the Eleventh Book of Euclid, invariably set 
 on Friday morning. Having achieved about twenty questions 
 on Wednesday correctly, as I lioped, among them two in 
 Spherical Trigonometry which are supposed to pay well, I 
 began to feel tolerably confident. Next day I did nothing, 
 but Friday morning I made sure of the two propositions in 
 Euclid, and that afternoon actually hit off a Euclid deduction, 
 which, as it stood at the head of a problem paper, might be 
 dignified with the name of problem. Greatly elated with this 
 exploit, I copied it out in the most elegant penmanship I could 
 achieve, and wrote under the Q. E. F. about the only decent 
 Greek Iambic I ever composed — 
 
 The same day I met E walking, who gave me to under- 
 stand that I was probably safe ; the only possible danger was 
 that they might draw the line high up, and sacrifice a large 
 number. This is one way, and probably the only way in Avhich 
 an examiner may befriend an examinee. Any attempt to mark 
 unfairly or change relative places would be detected and 
 exposed at once,* but the dividing lines between the Classes 
 are not rigidly fixed by a certain number of marks ; some 
 slight variation is allowed according to the general standard of 
 the year,f and here he may take his stand for including the 
 greatest possible number. It happened once that two of the 
 Mathematical examiners were particularly interested in two 
 Classical men ; one had a Trinity friend who was pretty sure 
 of a Chancellor's Medal if he could get a Senior Optime, the 
 
 * Something of this kind occurred Avhile I was in the University. 
 A Classical examiner hiiving marked two Candidates belonging to his 
 own College much higher than the other three examiners did, was 
 suspected of partiality to them, and non-placetcd (rejected) next year 
 when he came up for approval. 
 
 \ This is the chief obstacle to calculating a man's place beforehand 
 Avitli accuracy. He or his tutor may know almost to a fraction the 
 number of mai-ks he is likely to get, but they cannot tell how all the 
 other men of the venr will d(\
 
 232 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 other a Cains friend who was safe for a First if lie could pass 
 among the Junior Ops. The two desiderata played exactly into 
 eacli other's hands, for the further the lower line of the Senior 
 Optimes could be brought down, the more men must be let 
 through to make the last class of the ordinary size, and the 
 more men were let through altogether, the larger number of 
 Senior Optimes might be decently made. Between them they 
 passed about twenty men who would otherwise have been 
 gulfed, if not plucked outright, increased the Senior Optimes to 
 the same extent, and indirectly added thirty per cent, to the 
 Classical Tripos of the year. 
 
 E had been studying character in the Senate House, 
 
 and watching the faces, expressions, and modes of work of 
 different men. An examiner has ample opportunity for this, 
 having little else to do. His chief business is to see that no 
 one brings in books surreptitiously. Any attempt at copying 
 the self-interest of the candidates is suflBcient to prevent 
 among the higher men. Sometimes, however, when a Classic 
 struggling to get through, sits next to an acquaintance Avho is 
 to be a Wrangler, I fancy the latter may write his papers in a 
 larger hand than usual and lay them " convenient," as the Irish 
 say, to his friend in difficulty. The general i-esult of the alpha- 
 betical arrangement, however, is to place you between two 
 strange men of two strange Colleges. Even in the lucky junc- 
 tion above mentioned, a good deal of discretion is requisite in 
 the copyer. It would not do for him to " realize " any high 
 bookwork or difficult problems. Not unfrequently — perhaps 
 once in two or three years — a clumsy attempt of the sort is 
 made ; the ready apprehension of the examiner detects it at 
 once, and the unlucky culprit is filled with confusion by being 
 called on to explain his own papers — which, of course, being 
 unable to do, he is plucked without mercy. 
 
 Sometimes an examiner is asked to explain the meaning of 
 a question; but such a demand, which conveys an indirect 
 criticism on the perspicuity of expression of him who set the 
 paper, is not common, nor has an examinee usually any time 
 to waste in asking for explanations. So E , having nothing
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 233 
 
 better — indeed notliing at all to do during the two and a half 
 or three hours a-day -whcu he was in attendance, studied the 
 men at Avork and their difterent ways of looking and writing. 
 We had three men out of Trinity, each aiming to be first of 
 the College, but one had over-read himself and looked pale and 
 ill, another was seated next a Small-Colleger who wrote about 
 as much and as fast as himself — he was likely to be made 
 nervous to a detrimental extent by this j^i'oximity. These 
 speculations were justified by the result; the third man, who 
 liad not been first in any of the College Examinations, but was 
 now in perfect order, healthy, and cool, beat his opponents by 
 two and four places, respectively.'"' But E 's great fasci- 
 nation was the head Johnian. The best man from John's is a 
 candidate for Senior Wrangler pretty much as a matter of 
 course, that College having a patent as it were for turning out 
 Senior Wranglers, just as Trinity has for Senior Classics. This 
 present year, however, one of the Small College men was a real 
 Mathematical genius, one of those men who, like E him- 
 self, are said to be " born for Senior Wranglers," Avhile the 
 Johnians were believed to be short of good men and owned it 
 themselves. But now their best man suddenly came up with 
 a rush like a dark horse, and having been spoken of before the 
 Examination only as likely to be among the first six, now 
 
 appeai'ed as a candidate for the highest honors. E was 
 
 one of the first that had a suspicion of this, from noticing on 
 the second day that he wrote with the regularity and velocity 
 of a machine, and seemed to clear everything before him. And 
 on examining the work he could scai-cely believe that the man 
 could have covered so much paper with ink in the time (to say 
 nothing of the accuracy of the performance), even though he 
 had seen it written out under his own eyes. By-and-by it w'as 
 reported that the Johnian had done an inordinate amount of 
 problems, and then his fellow-collegians began to bet odds on 
 him for Senior Wrangler. But the general wish as well as 
 belief was for the Peterhouse man, who, besides the respect due 
 
 * One full question in ///(//( bookwoi'k will often give a man two or 
 three places among the Wranglers?.
 
 234 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 to liis celebratod scientific ,it(ainmonts (lie was known to tlie 
 French Matlieniaticians by liis writings while an Undergraduate), 
 liad inauy friends among both reading and boating men, and 
 was very popular in the University. His backers were not 
 disposed to give him up. " One problem of his will be worth 
 half a dozen of the other man's," said they ; and there were 
 grounds for tliis assertion, some of the problems Ijeing more 
 difficult, and therefore marked higher than others, so that four 
 on a paper may pay more than ten. 
 
 Saturday afternoon finishes the work for the majority of the 
 candidates. The papers set on the Monday and Tuesday of 
 the week following contain only about one low question a-piece, 
 to amuse the mass of the Questionists during the half-hour 
 before the expiration of which they ai-e not allowed to leave 
 the Senate House. At the end of this half-hour a general rush 
 is made, and five sixths of the men take their departure. The 
 last two days, in fact, serve chiefly to deteimine and arrange 
 the places of the first twelve or fifteen men. To a low 
 Wrangler, not to say a Senior Optime, they make no material 
 difference. On Wednesday morning the coaches used to be 
 crowded (it is tlie rail now) with Questionists going down, 
 home, or elsewhere to amuse themselves and divert their anxi- 
 ety, as they best can during the nine days that intervene. A 
 few of the Classics fall to work immediately, even during the 
 last two days of the examination. 
 
 I went down to London — the Cockney talks of his Metro- 
 polis as the place to which all the world comes up ; the Uni- 
 versity man, with equal arrogance, makes his head-quarters the 
 liighest part of the earth, and goes down everywhither from it — 
 taking a Theocritus in my pocket; dined about with friends 
 and went to see Antigone^ which was just then one of the 
 lions, and received with a furore that showed how extensively 
 Classical tastes are diffused among the educated classes in 
 England. One interesting effect of the acting on a modern 
 stage of this ancient play was, that it brought out the points, 
 and showed how far Sophocles wrote for the galleries ut i/a 
 dieam. One line which drew down the liouse,
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 235 
 
 " That is no State where oiilj' one man rules," 
 
 jiffon.led a ludicrously iiieJancholy example of popular incon- 
 sistency. The very people who cheered this sentiment had, 
 but a few weeks before, been " hoorayiug for His Majesty the 
 Emperor of all the Rooshas."* 
 
 Before the Mathematical list came out, I was back at 
 Trinity, and trying to put my Classics in order ; the only 
 thing I had then to attend to was Composition, in which, 
 except Latin prose, I had never been good, and was now teri'i- 
 
 * I may be panloned for introducing liere a little anecdote connected 
 Avith this potentate's visit to London, "which, though not particularly 
 relevant to anything in tlie present book or chapter, strikingly illus- 
 trates the durnminess of a certain class of the English population. A 
 fashionable snip, -ftlio had authority for calling himself "breeches- 
 maker to II. R. H. Prince Albert," had an order to prepare some 
 finery for the Emperor. A Polish officer, the ruin of whose country 
 had not so far involved his own as to deprive him of the ability to 
 sjjort a good coat sometimes, was having his measure ta'-:en at this 
 aristocratic establishiiieut, when the glitter of a sumptuous, gold- 
 embroidered pair of unmentionables caught his eye, and he inquired 
 for whom the gorgeous garment was intended. The shopman, in a tone 
 of awe befitting the subject, informed his customer of their exalted 
 destination. " For the Eiuperor, eh !" said the Pole, bottling up his 
 patriotic indignation as he best could, " well, I hope they will suit 
 him." Having said which in an accent of extra sarcasm, lie stalked 
 haughtily away. Unfortunately, the gallant exile's imperfect pronun- 
 ciation, or the excited imagination of the shopman, liad erroneously 
 provided the prominent verb of the sentence with an initial aspirate, 
 and the terrified underling hastened to his master, declaring that tlie 
 officer had just left the shop with fell intent to shoot the Emperor ! 
 As soon as the astounded master-tailor recovered the use of liis faculties 
 and legs, he ran off to the police, and tlie police ran off after the 
 conspirator, whom they speedily brought to the nearest magistrate, and 
 ■with him "a couple of daggers," wlii«li, as proofs of his wickedness and 
 part of his apparatus for shooting the Emperor, they had taken into 
 custody also. After the worthy magistrate had been sufficiently 
 horrified at these implements of artillery, they turned out to be orna- 
 mental paj)er-k)iives, such as are common enough in ladies' writing- 
 desks. The Pole had no difficulty in making a satisfactory explanation, 
 and the tailoi's and policemen were heartily laughed at — and served 
 them right; don't you think so, reader mine?
 
 23G FIVE YEARS 15 AN 
 
 Wy rusty. My Pembroke friend (now promoted to tLe Tutor- 
 ship of another College) was absent on business, to the great 
 disgust of liis five pupils, of none more than myself, for I had 
 relied very much on his assistance. We tied in different 
 directions ; I took refuge with one of my former coaches, tlie 
 majestic "Jupiter." About the result of the Degree Examina- 
 tion I felt no disquietude, having pretty well made up my mind 
 that I was to get through, and tvhere I was made little differ- 
 ance — the Wooden Sj)oon would answer as well as anywhere 
 else. Indeed, I gave out that it was the place I had read for, 
 and some hints let drop gave me reason to suspect that the 
 examiners would assign me that distinguished situation if they 
 
 could find a reasonable excuse for so doing. E had, 
 
 indeed, a theory of his own " that no clever man could be 
 plucked, if he gave himself any trouble not to be," which he 
 applied to myself in a fiattering enthymem, " You need not be 
 afraid, for" &c ; while, on the other hand, I was conscious of 
 not having done too much, nor all that little too correctly. 
 On the whole, there seemed a probability of my being selected 
 to represent the minimum amount of knowledge, even leaving 
 out of considei'ation that the examiners prefer, cceieris paribus, 
 to put a Classical man into the forlorn hope, as he may make 
 a joke of it, while a " single man" coming out at the end is 
 only made a joke of himself. 
 
 At nine on Friday morning, just sixteen days from the liour 
 Avhen the examination began — an interval which will not 
 appear too long when it is remembered that nearly one hun- 
 dred and fifty men have to be placed in individual order of 
 merit — the list, signed by the examiners, is posted up outside 
 the Senate House. The friends of the candidates, gownsmen 
 and gyps commingled, throng^ about it, the result spreads in all 
 directions, and in a very short time the book-sellers have it 
 fairly printed in two or three forms, among others on sheets of 
 letter paper ready prepared for mailing. I was quietly seated 
 at breakfast, when ray gyp entered to announce thati stood 1 1 2th, 
 and also that the Johnian was Senior Wrangler. Soon after, the 
 same friend who had reported the result of the Scholarship to
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 237 
 
 mc cainc in and stated, with some naivele, that ho had begun 
 to look from the end of the Ust up, knowing he wouhl come to 
 my name sooner in that way, and that lie had arrived at me 
 veri/ soon. After which, he proceeded roundly to anathematize 
 the Johnians, who had completely stolen a march on the rest 
 of the University, and were not satisfied with their unexpected 
 gain of the first honor. " Some Johnian, invented on pur- 
 pose," was third, to the extreme discomfiture of another high 
 »Sm all-Colleger and of our best three Mathematicians, the 
 highest of whom stood only fifth, with a third Johnian just 
 below him. When I obtained possession of a list, about mid- 
 day, I found there was only one man between me and the 
 Spoon. It is not every Questionist that hits so near his place. 
 There were fourteen plucked and fifteen in the gulf, so that of 
 143 candidates 31 did less than myself, that is, less than the 
 equivalent of twenty-four questions. There were but five 
 Classical men victimized, two of them probable First Classes. 
 
 A new Tripos list aftbrds a man well up in Calendar and 
 College gossip a good half-hour's amusement in studying the 
 lucky hits and the disappointments, the outsiders who have 
 come up, and the men who have been sold. Many of the last 
 suffer either from wilful idleness, or egregious over estimation 
 of their own attainments, fostered perhaps by want of judgment 
 and perception in their tutors. Only two places above me was a 
 Small-Colleger who had been confident of a high rank among 
 the Senior Optimes ; he was so upset by the disappointment 
 that he dared not communicate the result to his father or show 
 his face at home. Several supposed Wranglers had tumbled 
 down to Senior Optimes, and some whose hopes and expecta- 
 tions di<l not rise above high Senior Optimes found themselves 
 elevated into Wranglers. More than one Questionist saw, to 
 his disgust, another man who had sat next him in the exami- 
 nation and covered much less paper, come out twenty places over 
 his head. The very worst man in a Cambridge examiner's eyes 
 is he who does a great deal, but much of it wrong, and much 
 of it inaccurately. Probably fifty questions and eight average
 
 238 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 ]irobloms,* so done as to get full marks, will bring- a Ques- 
 lionist comfortably among the Wranglers, but a great many 
 who think they have done more than this find themselves low 
 Senior Ops, or even worse. 
 
 The unexpected award of the vSenior Wranglcrship was the 
 great surprise of the year, and subject of conversation for some 
 time. It w^as said that the successful candidate had practised 
 writing out against time for six months together, merely to 
 gain pace, and had exercised himself in problems till they 
 became a species of bookwork to him, and tluis he attained 
 the prodigious rapidity in solving them which enabled him to 
 do nineteen on one paper of three hours, thirteen on anothei", 
 and nearly as many on the third — more than two thirds of the 
 whole number set. The Peterhouse man, Avho, relying on liis 
 combined learning and talent, had never practised particularly 
 with a view to speed, and perhaps had too much respect for liis 
 work to be in any very great hurry about it, solved eight or nine 
 problems leisurely on each paper, some of them probably 
 better ones than the other man's, but not enough so to make 
 up the difference in quantity. Both men floored all the 
 early bookwork, the Johnian presumably getting full marks, 
 and T perhaps some extra marks for style. f In the high 
 
 * The proportion of problems to bookwork done by the candidates 
 is very various. The latter shows more reading, the former evince 
 more natural Mathematical ability. It is by them that an outsider 
 who has not read high, frequently gets a good place ; his bookwork, 
 for instance, might only be good enough to make him thirtieth Wrang- 
 ler, but he does twenty good problems, and so climbs up among the 
 first ten. On the other hand it sometimes happens that the third or 
 fourth Wrangler does no more than five problems on all the three 
 problem papers — in fact, is beaten in problems by some Senior Optimes 
 — but such a man will floor the bookwork of the first four days, and 
 do a fair proportion of that set on the last two. 
 
 f It is possible to beat a paper or get more than full marks for it. 
 This apparent Hibernicism is thus explained: — The ordinary text- 
 books (Earnshaw, Griffon, Wood, (fee.) are taken as the standard of 
 excellence, and a very good man will sometimes express the operations 
 more neatly and cleverly than they are worded in these books, in 
 which case he is entitled to extra marks for style. This was the case
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 239 
 
 Avork of the last two days the Peterhouse man beat his oppo- 
 nent, but he could not have been very far ahead, as the John- 
 ian did all but three questions out of the four papers, and 
 came out in the result of the whole examination three hundred 
 marks in advance. 
 
 The disappointed candidate, however, was not without a 
 chance of partially retrieving himself the very next week in 
 the examination for the Smith's Prizes, which is considered by 
 the knowing ones a better test of excellence than the Tripos, as 
 it embraces a higher class of subjects, and the element of speed 
 
 does not enter into it to such an extent. T 's friends, as 
 
 well as himself, awaited the result with a mixture of hope and 
 fear. In the end he had it all his own way, and beat the 
 Senior Wrangler in the proportion of three to two. But this 
 was a subsequent consolation ; for the 2^i"esent the triumph 
 rested with the Johnians. 
 
 with E in his Senate House exainlnation. One of the examiners 
 
 gave him extra marks for all liia bookwork.
 
 240 FIVE YEAR3 IN AN 
 
 now I CAME TO TAKE A DEGREE. 
 Oi/>j(ji:ei Si vinTii pXaaTUict o'dniTTia. — SoPUOCLES. 
 
 When I put on ray Baclielor's gown next day in tlie Senate 
 House, it was with a feeling of some satisfaction at liaving 
 mastered a formidable difficulty, and the little margin I had to 
 spare rather enhanced tliis satisfaction. Looking upon the 
 Mathematical examination as Classical men often do, in the 
 light of a fight with the examiners, I had gained the day. 
 Moreover, I felt entitled to say that, low as the standard of a 
 Junior Optime is compared with the j^rofessional acquirements 
 of the upper men, I had gained a knowledge, though indeed 
 but a temporary one, of a considerable amount of low Mathe- 
 matics, more than the majority of our students ever grasp at 
 one time, more than when at Yale I should have considered 
 myself or been considered capable of ; for to cram up certain 
 pages of a subject and recite them from day to day, is a very 
 different thing from being able to write out any question 
 at random in the subject. And I repeat it, that for an unma- 
 thematical man it is not an easy thing to become even a 
 Junior Optime, and as it demands a fair acquaintance with the 
 low subjects, so it requires a considerable expenditure of time 
 and trouble. 
 
 I was then rather proud of my Bachelor's degree ; and yet 
 there were circumstances connected with it that ought to have 
 made me rather ashamed of myself. 
 
 That certain political and religious oaths are among the con- 
 ditions of some of the English academical degrees is generally 
 known to the American reader ; the particulars are not so well 
 understood. We are all aware that at Oxford the Thirty-nine 
 Articles must be signed in advance. Hook's irreverent jnke 
 has taught us that. At Cambridge it is different. When the
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 241 
 
 Fresliman puts clown liis name on the College books he is not 
 required to sign anything. During his first term he matricu- 
 lates, and then affirms [projitetur) that he will keep the 
 statutes and maintain the privileges of the University to the 
 best of his ability,* which does not mean much, a great portion 
 of the statutes, both College and University, being notoriously 
 in point of fact and practice obsolete, and never thought of 
 except when some theological squabble or ultra martinetism on 
 the part of a new Don brings them into notice. A Trinity 
 Scholar on being elected swears that he will take the Bible for 
 his rule of faith, and that he believes the royal authority to be 
 supreme, and by no means subject to the jurisdiction of foreign 
 bishops (externorum Episcoporum jurisdictioni minime subjec- 
 tam), a hit at the Pope, which I imagine any good Protestant, 
 republican or not, would rather go out of the way to swear 
 than otherwise. But on taking his B. A., the Questionist must 
 sign a declaration that he is a bona fide member of the 
 Church of England, and also take the oaths of allegiance and 
 supremacy. 
 
 Before taking the degree^ it will be observed, not before going 
 in to the examination for Honors. The effect of this is, that 
 though a Dissenter or a foreigner cannot take a degree, he may 
 be Senior Wrangler or Senior Classic, for the admission to the 
 Classical Tripos depends not upon having taken the B.A. 
 degree, but upon having passed the examination for that 
 degree ; indeed he may take all the University Honors except 
 the Smith's Prize and Chancellor's Medal, the institution of 
 which prizes is so worded as to make only Bachelors eligible 
 
 * Here is the Professio faithfully copied, no punctiiatiou and ail, from 
 the printed form. " Cancellario procancellarioque aeademife Canta- 
 brio;iensis qnatenus jus fasque est et pro ordine in quo fuerim quamdiu 
 in hac republica degam comiter obtenn>erabo leges statuta mores 
 approbates et privilegia Cantabrigiensis aeademia>. quantum in me est 
 observabo pietatis et bonarum literarum progressum et hujus academise 
 statum honorem et dignitatem tuebor quoad vivam meoque suffragio 
 atqne consilio rogatus et non rogatus defendam. Hscc omnia in me 
 recipio et polliceor me fideliter esse praistiturum." 
 
 11
 
 242 FIVE YKAKS IN AN 
 
 for them, und a theological prize or two of iiu great repute. 
 But as the Fellowships are given to none but Bachelors, he is 
 ineligible to them. This is not merely a possible case, but has 
 actually occurred ; a Jew was Second Wrangler in 1837, and a 
 Quaker Fourth the year before. 
 
 The origin and reason of this restriction are evident. It was 
 at first intended as a safeguard against the Romanists, and 
 afterwards kept up tu prevent them and Dissenters generally 
 from obtaining a share in the government of tlie JJniveraUy, 
 For as the University is governed by those Graduates who 
 choose to retain their names on the boards, giving degrees to 
 Dissenters would be putting a portion of the University's des- 
 tiny into the hands of men who might be hostile, and at best 
 are not necessarily friendly to the religion which the University 
 professes and is bound to uphold. It appears to me that this 
 restriction has been subjected to much unmerited abuse, and 
 that it is not antediluvian or bigoted, but simply self-defensive. 
 If the connexion between Church and State were dissolved, 
 and the Established Church abolished, this restriction would of 
 course be swept away, and many other things with it ; but so 
 long as the Established Church exists I do not see how the 
 Church Universities can admit Papists or Dissenters into their 
 Senates. 
 
 In regard to foreigners belonging to the same church the 
 restriction is less necessary and defensible, but it must be 
 remembered that such cases are of very limited occurrence, and 
 that the institutions of England are not in general encouraging 
 to foreigners ; everything, from a University to a hotel, is solely 
 calculated for the wants and benefit of the natives. Selfish 
 and barbarous as such ideas must seem to the disciples of uni- 
 versal philanthropy and fraternity, a reflective native-horn 
 American, in view of the eftects which an indiscriminate reception 
 of foreigners, so as to place them almost immediately on a 
 level with the original inhabitants, has wrought in his own 
 country, may perhaps suspect that the prudence of the 
 English practice goes a great Avay towards making up for its 
 unloveliness.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 243 
 
 It may indeed be urged that the University and College 
 regulations might be so altered that a degree should not neces- 
 sarily confer a vote ; and that, as in the case of Fellowships, 
 the presumed original idea and intention that the Fellows 
 should be in Holy Orders, has been so far departed from that 
 in some Colleges the Fellows need not take Orders at all, in 
 others not for seven years, while there are actually B)je Fellow- 
 ships which give their holders the dignity of the title without 
 a voice in the College government, some rules might easily be 
 generalized to apply to the parties under consideration. To 
 this it may be answered that whatever real and desirable 
 distinctions the University confers consist not in the degree 
 itself, but in the place occupied on the examination list, since 
 the M. A. degree can be obtained by any one who has taken a 
 V>. A., on paying a certain sum and performing some trifling 
 ceremonies, and the ordinary B. A. implies only an amount of 
 knowledge of which, if it be harsh to call it contemptible, 
 it may at least be said that it is nothing for any person to 
 be proud of ; and that such half measures as giving degrees 
 which should not confer the full customary privileges, or Bye- 
 Fellowships with their nominal salaries and inferior position, 
 would not be accepted as completely satisfactory, and would 
 only encourage i-enewed demand for a more thorough change. 
 
 Originally intending to leave the University as soon as 
 the Classical Tripos list was out, my only anxiety about 
 the question of a degree had been whether the want of 
 one would prevent me from going out in Classics, and having 
 once ascertained that it would not, I had taken no further 
 thought about the matter. But this autumn my views under- 
 went an important change. I wanted to keep my Scholarship, 
 and thought what a nice little head-quarters my Trinity rooms 
 would be while making excursions upon the Continent. 
 Sometimes I had hopes that my jjlace in Classics would justify 
 my reading for a Fellowship. The Enemy always knows 
 Avhere to have a man, and is fertile in sophistic and Jesuitical 
 snares to delude moral men. At first I had serious intentions 
 of taking the oaths without scruple or pause. I was in
 
 244 FIVK YEAUS IN AN 
 
 an awful state of disgust with matters at homo on account of 
 the recent Presidential election. The' consternation and despair 
 into which a large portion of the Whig party were thrown by 
 the defeat of Henry Clay will not readily be forgotten by any 
 one who was old enough to take an interest in public matters, 
 which in our country does not imply a very advanced age. 
 But the terrible prostration of heart with Avhich it affected 
 a certain class in the Northern States, and particularly in New 
 York, has not been generalljr appreciated out of that class, nor 
 am I aware that it ever found distinct public expression ; 
 perhaps the nearest approach to such expression Avas contained 
 in the concluding numbers of the most elegant, gentlemanly, 
 and every way respectable journal that our city ever boasted, 
 which expired in pure disgust and despair, as it were, a few 
 months after Polk's election. 
 
 I was one of those who, in popular phrase, swore by Henry 
 Clay, and the blow fell upon me with peculiar force for two 
 reasons. First, being a non-resident, I had not an opportunity 
 of observing those sudden premonitions of calamity which did 
 something towards preparing those at home for the shock ; 
 secondly, I had been in the habit of making Henry Clay's election 
 the universal answer to all objections against America. " We 
 were unfortunate. Harrison died, and the other man betrayed 
 us. Consequently, there has been a great temporary demora- 
 lization. Only wait till Clay is President, and you'll see how 
 gloriously we shall get on." When, therefore, the much 
 desired steamer brought defeat instead of victory, when the test 
 which I had myself selected turned out against me, the exulta- 
 tion of my anti-Republican acquaintances was undisguised, and 
 my dejection utter and unmitigated. I had not a word to 
 throw to a Puseyite. 
 
 Already in an unfavorable mood of mind, I was not likely 
 to have my spirits raised by such epistolary intelligence as I 
 received from home. Cicero's letters at the worst time of the 
 Cresarean and Pompeian troubles could hardly present a more 
 melancholy and disheartening picture. The feeling of our 
 New York Whigs was very difterent from what it would have
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 245 
 
 been in the event of Martin Van Buren's re-election. That 
 would have been Paradise in comparison. By the elevation of 
 Polk they saw themselves given up to the mercy of Irish aliens 
 and rampant slaveholders. War with England and the indefinite 
 extension of slavery were all but inevitable. They put no 
 longer trust in anything, not even in their leaders. Nor did 
 Whigs only feel inclined to despond. There were inany 
 Democrats who thought the casting-off of Mr. Van Buren 
 by his party a foul wrong, as they afterwards testified at 
 the ballot-box, and who at the same time saw in the anti-rent 
 agitation — an agitation encouraged by professed members of 
 the Whig party — a local evil more dangerous than any federal 
 one. In short, a large proportion of the wealthiest, best 
 educated, and most estimable men in our State seemed 
 verily to have despaired of the Republic. And what gave 
 an apparent confirmation to their doleful views was the 
 absence, except in a very few cases, of any immediate personal 
 calamity or wrong to induce a prejudice of grief. I was seized 
 with the infection, and dreaded little less than proscriptions and 
 novce tabulce. 
 
 Could the croakers of that time have looked forward six 
 years, and seen the political sky cleared of almost every cloud 
 that then overhung it — our credit restored abroad, our influence 
 and name respected, a Noi-thern Whig President in 
 power, Daniel Webster at the head of the Cabinet, in their 
 own state a gentleman like Hamilton Fish filling suc- 
 cessively the gubernatorial chair and a seat in the Federal 
 Senate — could they have foreseen these things, their fears 
 might well have appeared childish and unfounded. Yet were 
 these fears not altogether groundless and chimerical. The 
 dangers they dreaded did really exist; theii' error was not 
 putting sufficient faith in the counteracting Providence of God. 
 We were truly threatened with the indefinite extension of 
 slavery and preponderance of the slave power. The romantic 
 discovery which placed California on the side of freedom, 
 making that State at once a barrier and antagonist force, could 
 not have been anticipated by any calculation ; and we may
 
 246 FIVE YEAHS IN AT<r 
 
 Lope tliat some equally efteetive interposition of the Divine 
 arm, to crush the intrigues of Romanism, will ere long manifest 
 itself. The desponding ought to have trusted tliat God would 
 not forsake a land containing so many Christian men, and so 
 much true religion and philanthropy ; that our country, raised 
 up for great political and religious ends, would not be lightly 
 forsaken by the Supreme ]^>eing. 
 
 But that winter was a time of darkness at home and abroad. 
 We had a lamentable foreign reputation, especially among those 
 who had been our warmest friends. The two great parties in 
 England liad undergone a singular change of feelings towards 
 us. The Liberals talked and acted as a man might to an 
 ungrateful friend or frotege who had turned out badly. The 
 more an Englishman had leaned towards Radicalism, the 
 prouder he had been of any instance of good government and 
 prosperity in the United States, as they tended to promote his 
 principles at home, and the more bitter was his disappointment 
 when the conduct of some parts of our Union furnished the 
 Conservatives with an argument against our institutions. The 
 mosl hitter tilings that were said against America at this time 
 proceeded^ with scarce an exception, from English Liberals. 
 The Tories and conservatives, on the contrary, as if grateful to 
 our Republic for having unwittingly furnished them with 
 weapons against Democracy, were far more inclined than 
 formerly to be just and generous to the individual citizens of 
 it, especially when such individuals belonged to the minority 
 party, for then they regarded them as a sort of victims, and 
 too good for their country. 
 
 At the same time it is true now, and it was true even then, 
 that Englishmen, whatever their political opinions among 
 themselves, or their expressed opinions Avith us, are always 
 flattered when an American sides with them. They are really 
 jealous, though they would not own it even to themselves, of 
 our preference for the French ; and with all their suspicion of 
 foreigners, the greatest compliment an American can pay them 
 is to take up his residence in their country, or say any- 
 thing that induces a suspicion of his having such an inten-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 24*7 
 
 tion.* And it now happened that many of those about me, seeing 
 liow disgusted I was with the real or supposed state of things 
 at home and our unlucky reputation abroad, did their best to 
 persuade me to take a degree, which they looked upon as a 
 sort of earnest that I would continue among them. They 
 were not indeed my best and most intimate friends, or the 
 men of the most ability among my acquaintances ; from some 
 of these I received different and better counsel. " Why should 
 you be so downcast about an election ?" asked one ; " I am 
 sure I wouldn't annoy myself if O'Connell were premier to- 
 morrow." And the same or another man, after a long 
 discussion of the matter wiih me, expressed his conviction that, 
 upon my own showing, there could never be any serious 
 encroachment on the rights of property in a country which 
 had so many small proprietors. And although these con- 
 clusions were a little too philosophical, and not altogether 
 borne out in practice, the Papal Aggression excitement being 
 a sufficient refutation of the first, and the Anti-rent iniquities 
 of the second, still they were far nearer the truth and more 
 worthy of serious consideration than the arguments by which 
 I was assailed on the other side. But the strongest of these 
 arguments were supplied by my own pique and disgust. 
 " What's the Use of standing on such a punctilio?" said I to 
 myself. " Your countrymen, in disavowing the Native 
 American party, have repudiated their own nationality, and 
 put the foreign settlers over their own heads. The boast of 
 the Irish in New York, that they controlled the Presidential 
 election, has been verified. Protestantism is at a discount. 
 After all, a man's religion is dearer to him than his country. 
 Better be Queen Victoria's subject than John Hughes's slave. 
 
 * Wlien Mr. Everett was replaced at the Court of St. James, a 
 report was circulated that he intended to remain in England as a 
 private gentleman. This report I heard from several quarters, and 
 was frequently questioned about it. It is hardly necessary to say that 
 nothing had been said or done by our Minister or his friends to give 
 foundation or countenance to such a rumor ; it arose entirely from the 
 desire of the English to retain him there.
 
 248 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Our peo})lc declared tliat tlieir francliisc was not Avortli having 
 when tliey thus sent it a-begging. Nor ought I to entertain 
 any sentimental scruples about professing a temporary 
 allegiance to a country which I may be ultimately compelled 
 to make my abode." Still I could not bring myself to take 
 the oaths. Then the tempter hinted a most Jesuitical medium, 
 a way to avoid all practical difficulty, though, like most similar 
 compromises, it w^ould probably have united all difficulties, if 
 any practical ones had existed, or had there been any other 
 than a moral objection in the way. It was this. The oaths 
 at Cambridge had come to be such mere formula; that people 
 cared very little about them, and hardly knew Avhat they 
 swore. In the Senate House, after the Senior Wrangler lias 
 presented himself alone, the rest of the men are sworn in 
 batches of a dozen each, the oath or part of it, being read to 
 them, and a Testament handed round to be kissed. I might 
 go up with the rest and pass the book by, which there was 
 every opportunity of doing without detection, so that I could 
 thus get tlie degree without taking the oath of allegiance at 
 all. This I finally did, and in one sense the experiment was 
 perfectly successful ; no one of those in authority ever noticed 
 ray evasion, either at the time or afterwards. But it did not 
 escape observation in all quarters, and a great deal of the 
 moral influence which I had heretofore possessed was lost at 
 once. 
 
 Many persons will think me foolish for relating a circum- 
 stance so much to my own disadvantage ; but reflection has 
 convinced me that where the recital of a young man's errors 
 contains nothing in itself mischievous, it is part of his duty 
 and expiation to relate them as a warning to others. Besides 
 the obvious moral of never giving up the ship, there is another 
 to be drawn from my misadventure. 
 
 Let every young man beware how he violates his integrity 
 or deviates from a straightforward, honest covirse in the smallest 
 matter. The temporal consequences may not be injurious, 
 nay, may even for the time being bring the convenience or 
 advantage expected. But the consciousness of aberration
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 249 
 
 from the patli of honesty will continually oppress him ; he will 
 liave lost irretrievably the pride of rectitude — a pride which is 
 honorable and righteous, and has nothing reprehensible in it. 
 My conduct on that occasion has been a continually recurring 
 source of mortification to me, which the lapse of years cannot 
 obliterate, and the recollection of it has frequently interposed 
 to check me in plans of improvement for myself and others. 
 
 11^
 
 250 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 TIIK IfoWoi AND THE CIVIL LAW CLASSES. 
 "Nob Humeri siimuB." — Horace. 
 
 DuHiNG the week of interval between the examination for 
 Matliematical Ilonors and the publication of the Honor list, 
 takes place the examination of candidates for an ordinary 
 degree, popularly called the "ToXXo/, and by abbreviation, the 
 Poll men. Their number is greater than that of the candidates 
 for Honors in the proportion of four to three, but as the range 
 of subjects is more limited, the papers shorter, and the ex- 
 aminers more numerous, the classification of the men goes on 
 nearly ^>a?"zj9assii with their examination, and the list is issued 
 on the same day as that of the candidates for Honors. There 
 are on an average about two hundred Poll men, and it is a 
 most striking instance of the minute subdivision in vogue at 
 Cambridge examinations, and the introduction of competition 
 wherever possible, that everi/ one of these two hundred fnen is 
 arranged in order of merit according to his marks, except some 
 fifteen or twenty who have just succeeded in passing, and who 
 are bracketed together at the end, and familiarly known as the 
 " Elegant Extracts."* The head man is called Captain of the 
 Poll, which is deemed among the non-reading men almost as 
 great an honor as Senior Wrangler or Senior Classic among 
 the reading ones. 
 
 As an impression appears to prevail in some literary quarters 
 of our country that the great bulk of English University 
 students study and know very little, and the hard-reading men 
 
 * I "write of this arrangement as one actually existing, though in 
 strict correctness I should use the past tense when speaking of it. For 
 the alterations which have been made in the Poll, see the chapter on 
 "Recent Changes at Cambridge."
 
 KNGLISH UNIVERSITY'. 251 
 
 are very few in number, it may be worth wLile to look once 
 more at the facts and figures of the case. The proportion of 
 Honor men to Foil men is, as has been already remarked, in 
 round numbers, one hundred and fifty to two hundred, or three 
 to four, that is, three sevenths of the whole. Now, though 
 most of the Junior and some of the Senior Optimes have not 
 worked hard at Mathematics throughout their whole Under- 
 graduate course, we have to take out of these the Classical 
 men, who have been busily employed in their pet pursuit.. 
 Still, after allowing for these, there may remain some thirty 
 idle men on the Honor list, and against these we must put 
 about the same number of reading men among the -roXXo/. 
 For insuflacient preparation of some Poll men, particularly 
 those who are o^/ijxa^SKr, and have taken up the Church late in 
 life, gives them enough to do in preparing for their Little Go 
 and Degree examinations, after the time occupied by the Col- 
 lege examinations is deducted. There are also many men 
 every year contending for the Captaincy of the Foil, some for 
 the honor, such as it is, others because it will help them to get 
 Foil pupils afterwards. The first thirty men, or so, in the Foil, 
 have their subjects polished up with great care, and may be 
 called all but perfect in them. (I had personal assurance of 
 this from a friend who was one of the Foil examiners.) We 
 have, therefore, three sevenths of the Undergraduates faithful 
 students, while about one man in nine (that is to say, all the 
 First Class of the Tripos, and nearly all the Wranglers) is a 
 very hard student. I imagine there are not many Universities 
 or Colleges in the world of which more could be said with 
 truth. 
 
 The fixed subjects tor the Poll examination are the Acts 
 with all the History, Geography, Antiquities, and "cram" 
 generally pertaining thereto ; Faley's Moral Philosophy, three 
 Books of Euclid, Arithmetic and low Algebra, and certain 
 portions of Mechanics and Hydrostatics. The movable subjects 
 are a Greek and a Latin author as in the Little-Go. These 
 are declared two years in advance, so that there is plenty of 
 time to polish them np.
 
 252 FIVB YEARS IN AN 
 
 Besides tlie degree in Honors and the ordinary dcijfrec, lliere 
 is but one other way of obtaining a B.A. It is in Civil Laiu. 
 Not more than a dozen or fifteen men — sometimes not so 
 many — avail themselves of this outlet, which is generally con- 
 sidered something even below the Poll — unjustly I suspect, for 
 the candidates must at least have attended the Professor's 
 Lectures for three consecutive terms, to say nothing of what 
 is required in the examination. The lectures generally follow 
 the order of subjects in Halifax's Analysis of the Roman 
 Civil Law. The principal text books in my time were 
 these : — 
 
 Corptcs Juris Civilis. 
 Harris's Justiniani Institutiones. 
 Taylor's Elements of the Civil Law. 
 Heineccei Antiq. Rom. Syntagma. 
 
 Elementa Juris Civilis. 
 
 Vinnii Comment, in quatuor Libras Institutionum. 
 Bum's Ecclesiastical Law. 
 Blackstone's Commentaries.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 253 
 
 THE CLASSICAL TUIPOS. 
 
 " Cave ne titubes." — Horace. 
 
 " Mind your eye!"— h. walker, esq. 
 
 The timo now drew nigh when the few picked men, who 
 had resisted the temptations of idleness and escaped the perils 
 of Mathematics, were to fight out their last great battle. 
 Trinity Scholars, University Prize men, outsidera from Small 
 Colleges, double men (these the fewest of all) mustered from 
 all quarters. We made a very small show numerically, only 
 twenty-six candidates out of the whole year, which might be 
 set down in round numbers at three hiuidred and fifty men. 
 At least five who had intended to augment our numbers were 
 killed off in the Mathematical Tripos. Nineteen of us were 
 reading for the First Class, so that there was a pretty extensive 
 prospect of sells. Out of the twenty-six sixteen were Junior 
 Optimes, so that allowing a few to be trying their luck in 
 Classics only for the chance of piecing out an inferior Mathe- 
 matical degree, it was pretty clear that full half of the candi- 
 dates had read Mathematics for no other j^urpose than to 
 enable them to disjilay their knowledge in the Classical Tripos. 
 Of the remainder, five were Wranglers, four of these Double 
 men, and the fifth a favorite for the Wedge.* Two men who 
 had been rivals all the way through school and through 
 College were racing for Senior Classic. After these two more 
 were known and spoken of as nearly equal, and then " it was 
 any one's place." The First Class was likely to be small, the 
 
 * The last man is called the Wedge, corresponding to the Spoon in 
 Mathematics. This name originated in that of the man who was last 
 on the first Tripos list (in 1824), Wedgewood. Some one suggested that 
 the wooden wedge was a good coimterpart to the wooden spoon, and the 
 appellation stuck.
 
 25 i FIVE YEAKS IN AN 
 
 year not bi-ing a good ouo on the whole ; what little strength 
 it had was in Triiiit}' ; our College supplied fifteen of the 
 twenty-six candidates, thirteen of them reading for the First 
 Class, and only four sure of it. 
 
 So said ordinary gossip ; for all these probabilities, the 
 merits of the year at large and of the ditlereiit men in it, aie 
 eagerly discussed and canvassed beforehand, not only by the 
 parties interested and their immediate friends, but by reading 
 men generally. Still, however the candidate's chances may be 
 made to tiuctuate by such relative circumstances, his own posi- 
 tive fund of knowledge and readiness in expressing it must be 
 his main reliance, and accordingly he now works with a will if 
 he ever did in his life. 
 
 Any one whom business or pleasure has led to drive 
 liabitually a fast trotter on the road can testify to the continual 
 care aud practice necessary to keep the animal in proper con- 
 dition ; how he must be a good horse in the first place, and 
 then regularly worked, must be fast and enduring, and not 
 nervous or easily frightened in a crowd, and ready to go his 
 best at any moment. I really cannot conceive any better 
 comparison for the training to which the Cantab with an 
 examination in view subjects himself — especially when that 
 examination is the Classical Tripos, which, covers more ground 
 than any other.* I might carry out the analogy, and say that 
 in both cases much depends on the skill of the driver. Many 
 a man has owed several places, perhaps the difference of a 
 class, to the skill of his coach. 
 
 Three things are requisite in the Tripos : first, an accurate 
 knowledge of Greek and Latin Syntax, and a corresponding 
 dexterity in unravelling difficult constructions. Without this 
 groundwork no man can be sure of a good place. Next, the 
 aspirant must be skilled in Composition, must be able to write 
 Latin and Greek Prose, Greek Iambics, and two or three kinds 
 
 * Except the University Scholarship, and Medals, where the prizes 
 are limited to one or two of the candidates, and the competition not 
 general.
 
 KNOLISfl UNIVERSITV. 255 
 
 of Latin verse. Thirdly, lie must liuve a very large vocabulary, 
 so that he will seldom meet with a word which is not familiar 
 to him. A fourth requisite which might occur to the reader — 
 the knowledge of archaeology, law, history, &c., all that is 
 comprehensively and not altogether fairly designated as cram — 
 does not enter very largely into the qualification for the Tripos. 
 The questions set by way of riders to the passages given 
 for translation are not numerous, nor do .they bring many 
 marks. In this respect, there is a great difference between the 
 Cambridge Tripos and the Oxford Schools. 
 
 In comparing these different elements of success, it has often 
 been observed, and I think with justice, that writing Greek 
 and. Latin, particularly Greek and Latin verse, occupies too 
 high a place. The Composition papers counting at least two 
 fifths of the whole, a boyish knack in the manufacture of verses 
 often gets the better of a more mature knowledge of language. 
 I have known a man whose translations were only ordinary 
 Third Class standard get himself a good Second by a 
 brilliant copy of Elegiacs, the remains of his schoolboy 
 proficiency ; and one of my acquaintances, who stood third in 
 his year on several of the translation papers, but being a Double 
 man had no time to practise Composition, fell to a low place in 
 the Second Class. 
 
 At Oxford a candidate for the First Class selects his twelve 
 authors. At Cambridge he reads as much as he can. Though 
 able to work but a few hours a-day, I was a fast reader when 
 at work, and had covered a fair amount of ground. Since 
 entering the University I had either read for the first time or 
 reviewed the following authors : — 
 
 Homer ; all the Odyssey, Books XIII. and XXIV. of the 
 Iliad. The Homeridian Hymns. 
 
 Hesiod ; Shield of Achilles, Works and Days. 
 
 tEschylus ; all (seven plays). 
 
 Sophocles ; all (ditto). 
 
 Aristophanes ; all (eleven plays). 
 
 Euripides ; Medea, Hippolytns, Ion, Bacchse, Hecuba, 
 Phenissfe, Cyclops.
 
 256 FIVE YKAKS IN AN 
 
 Pindar ; iill. 
 
 Theocritus ; all. 
 
 Herodotus ; Books I. and VII., with numerous extracts 
 
 from the others. 
 Thucydides ; Books I. II. IV. VI. VII., and all the difficult 
 
 passages in the other three. 
 Xenophon's Banquet. 
 Demosthenes ; the five Aphohus and Onetor Orations, the 
 
 De Corona, the napa^psV/Seia, the Ad Leptinem. 
 Plato ; Phajdrus, Phtedo, Protagoras, Gorgias, Symposium, 
 Theatetus, Sophista, Politicus, Five Books of the 
 Republic. 
 Aristotle ; the Rhetoric, Five Books of the Nicomachean 
 
 Ethics. 
 Theophrastus's Characters. 
 Lucretius ; Book I. and extracts from the others. 
 Catullus ; all. 
 
 Virgil ; the Georgics, Six Books of the ^Eiieid. 
 Horace ; all. 
 Juvenal ; all. 
 Persius ; all. 
 
 Propertius ; Books I. and IV. 
 Plautus ; all (twenty plays). 
 Martial ; all the Epigrams more than four lines in 
 
 length. 
 Cicero ; the Tusculan Questions, De Natura Deorum, De 
 Divinatione, De Officiis ; the Archias, Balbus, Mursena 
 and Cluentius. 
 Livy ; Books I. and XXXI. 
 Besides these, there were some subjects not strictly available 
 in the Tripos, such as extracts from Callimachus and ApoUo- 
 nius Rhodius, fi-agments of Alcreus and Sappho, and several 
 books of Athenaeus. 
 
 It will be observed that the above list includes no portion of 
 my previous preparations for the University. Some of my 
 school reading, e. g. Sallust and the earlier books of the Iliad, 
 I had a real knowledge and memory of. But the books com-
 
 ENGLISU UNIVEKSITV. 257 
 
 prising the course at Yale College I could not be said to have 
 read in the Cambridge sense, with the single exception of Tacitus, 
 an author whom I had much fancied, and woiked up his 
 History, not with a view to the limited requirements of the 
 recitation room, but according to my own idea of liow he 
 ought to be studied and translated. 
 
 AVitli these additions made to the above list, it will tolerably 
 well represent the reading of a candidate for a good place 
 in tlie Tripos. Of some authors, such as Aristophanes and 
 Plautus, there was more than the usual amount ; of others, as 
 Herodotus, Demosthenes, Cicero, and probably Thucydides, 
 rather less ; and, generally speaking, I was better read on the 
 higher authors, or those which come later in a student's reading, 
 than on the more ordinary ones. On my knowledge of Aristo- 
 phanes, Theocritus, Pindar, Plautus, &c., I relied peihaps too 
 much. Some of the books in the list I of course knew better 
 than others, but perfection in them all would liave given 
 me but a moderate chance had I depended only on finding 
 pieces set which I had read. In the long authors, every man 
 must trust to his general knowledge ; of Herodotus I had read 
 but two Books, yet it was not easy to find a passage or even a 
 word in him that puzzled me, I was so well up in his peculiar 
 dialect. My great deficiency was in Composition ; the. only 
 kind which I could do well and accurately was Latin prose ; at 
 Greek Iambics, Greek prose, and Latin verse I worked all day, 
 but with very moderate success. Our year, in spite of its bad 
 reputation, showed an imusual independence of coaches. Most 
 of the best men read by themselves during this month, dispensing 
 with all assistance. This increased the uncertainty of specula- 
 tion on their positions. 
 
 The examination was to begin on Monday. The Saturday 
 immediately previous I devoted to a long ride in company with 
 two fellow-suft'erers, according to the Cambridge tradition that 
 a man should be nearly idle for the day or two just before an 
 examination— a theory, however, which very few have the 
 courage and coolness to put in practice. For next week I had 
 made all preparations in the most artistic way ; moved my bed
 
 258 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 into a room witli a fire-place, invited a different friend to dine 
 witli me every day, and ])rojected a series of nice little dinners 
 to make up for my long abstinence. (Before the examination 
 a man is on diet ; during and after it lie requires to be well 
 fed.) On Sunday, I had intended to go to St. Mary's as usual 
 in the morning, and be systematically idle for the rest of the 
 day ; but the fit came too strong \ipou mo, and I fell to writ- 
 ing Elegiacs, and ai'terwards looking over marked passages.* 
 If there are no Sundays in revolutionary times, there are very 
 apt to be none the fortnight before a Cambridge Examination. 
 l)ut Sunday work is seldom of any profit, even temj)orally 
 speaking, and mine was no exception to the rule. It would be 
 as great a bore to the reader as to myself were I to recall in 
 detail all the chances, perils, and disasters of that week ; how, 
 when I had carefully })ractisod wi'iting Elegiacs, and acquired a 
 tolerable command over them, Hexameters, of which I had not 
 written three copies in two years, and jirobably not five in my 
 life, were set the first morning ; how, after lying awake from 
 nervous excitement the whole night before the Greek Iambics, 
 I dozed oft" towards morning and very nearly overslept the 
 paper ; how I was frozen up on Thursday morning, the weather 
 having changed from mild to very cold, as if for my special 
 discomfiture, so that half my Greek Prose went up nearly ille- 
 gible and without accents ; and the report spread that I had 
 broken down completely, or, as a Johnian elegantly expressed 
 it, Avas squashed. Suftice it to say, that the five days were 
 over at last, and I was left nearly delirious, A friend, who had 
 been ill himself during an examination, and could therefore 
 appreciate my condition, carried me out for a long walk on 
 Saturday morning ; that night I made up for the lost sleep of 
 
 * As a Cantab reads, lie marks any particularly strange word or 
 difficult passage for future reference ; this is a great assistance to him 
 in running over an author rapidly. Interleaved copies of works are 
 very common, and besides these, many men keep note-books to set 
 down at length any difficulties they meet. To have "got up" a 
 book thoroughly, almost means that you have prepared a new edition 
 of it.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEIlSITr. 259 
 
 the six preceding, and on Sunday was in my usual state, witli 
 the exception of a propensity to eat and drink all that came in 
 niy way, which lasted a full month till tlie waste of the system 
 had been repaired. 
 
 The same evening- I called on my right-hand neighbor in the 
 examination, whose style of work, busy as I was, had occasion- 
 ally fallen under my notice, lie was one of the candidates for 
 Senior Classic, had read almost everything, and written verses 
 ever since he was twelve years old. Ilis learning was great, 
 his Composition wonderfully rapid and elegant, his taste gene- 
 rally unexceptionable ; but he was not very clear-headed or 
 accurate, and therefore always liable to make slips of the pen. 
 His rival was a respectable Mathematician, and had just taken 
 a AVrangler's degree, was much behind him in speed, elegnnce, 
 and quantity of knowledge, but fearfully accurate, and never 
 forgetting anything he had once learned. My neighbor, who 
 knew exactly his own strong and weak points as well as those 
 of his old schoolmate and antagonist, endeavored to overpower 
 him by weight of learning and brilliancy of execution. He 
 liad read almost every single passage that was set, and to show 
 that he had done so, wrote at the head of every translation 
 paper he sent up the author's name and that of the particular 
 book or play. The bit of Theophrastus which was set us on 
 the last day he had by good fortune read over the very night 
 before. As I was pretty well up in it myself, though my ac- 
 C[uaintance had not been so recently renewed, I felt no hesita- 
 tion in glancing at his work since I did not wish to borrow 
 from him. He was writing his notes hi Latin, and getting up 
 his paper exactly as if he were editing the extract. Of his 
 Composition the following may serve as a specimen. It is a 
 translation of the lines b}^ Aubrey de Vere, "Again those 
 sounds sweep on," &c., and is given exactly as he wrote it out 
 in the Senate House, occupying less than an hour in the task. 
 
 "Rursus murmur adest, adest, 
 Impellens liquiclis aera vocibus ; 
 
 Fallor ? quo nimiura brevis, 
 Quo fugit magicEe vocis anhelitus?
 
 200 FIVE YEAHS IN AN 
 
 Rur8U8 mo mea somnia, 
 Rtiisus (lestituit me placilus furor. 
 
 Urbis non alitor suiu 
 Cum (levota Deus iiKtnia deeerit, 
 
 Quondum nuliilu vocibus 
 Viliraut Huavisonis ([UUB aliquis piis, 
 
 N(jcturiiis bibit aiiribus; 
 Ilk.' acclinis humo dum jacet, cxuit 
 
 Vox aura; rofluii; moras, 
 CaBtigutque gravis, mixTCt identidem 
 
 Non desiderio lovi." 
 
 It deserves to he ciiinnorated among his claims that lie wrote 
 a beautiful hand, delicate as a Avoman's, and withal very legible. 
 After all he was only bracketed Senior Classic, some errors of 
 syntax in his Greek Iambics, and other inaccuracies, having 
 brought him down to the level of his less learned and showy, 
 but more safe coinpetitor. 
 
 He was very fond of English poetry. Soine allusion to tlie 
 examination it Avas not possible to forego, but we soon disposed 
 of the shop with our tea, and then read, criticized, and very 
 generally talked over the poets of the new school — Shelley, 
 Keats, Tennyson, Miss Barrett — for some hours, till, as I rose 
 to go, somewhere about the witching hour, he stopped me 
 with, " Now stay a little longer ; I have some capital brandy 
 that was sent me by a friend — o?^ old parson in the country/.'" 
 
 The " old parson in the country" was sufficient guarantee 
 for the orthodoxy of the liquor, which indeed proved worthy 
 of its clerical paternity. So we sat well into Monday morning, 
 drinking grog and talking of all the poets in all the five or six 
 languages that we knew more or less about. Such are a read- 
 ing-man's relaxations after the intense examination work. 
 
 The Classical examiners are not bound to declare the result 
 of the Tripos on any specified day. They consequently take 
 their time about it, getting up amicable little fights among 
 themselves as to the comparative merits of diflerent men. 
 They are usually a month in deliberation, although the four 
 Composition papers are the only ones which they all examine ; 
 each one is sole arbiter of marks on the paper and a half of 
 translation which he sets. Meanwhile some of the expectants 
 have the additional amusement of going in for the Chancellor's
 
 ENGLISH UNIVKRSITV. 261 
 
 Medals. On the present occasion but three candidates presented 
 themselves, and two of these were morally certain of the two 
 medals beforehand. The rest of ns had nothing to do but to 
 worry ourselves looking over the papers, finding out mistakes, 
 and speculating on our chances, or else, more wisely, to leave 
 the place, and forget the whole subject as far as possible. I 
 went to London, saw vai-ious sights and acquaintances, and 
 afterwards visited a friend who was then a private tutor at 
 Eton, the opportunity being a good excuse and occasion for 
 what I had some time wished — a little personal insigiht and 
 examination into an English Public School.
 
 262 FIVE VEAliS IN AN 
 
 A VISIT TO ETON. ENGLISH PUBUC SCHOOLS. 
 
 " A Parliamentary reliirn of all thai is luiiglil at Eton during; ten yenr« of i)upiluge in 
 the nineteenth century, ought (if anything can) to surprise the public into some uneasi- 
 ness on the subject." 
 
 EniNnuRGH Review, Jan., 1845. 
 
 It is a singular spectacle for an American to see nuniLers 
 of youths eightoen or nineteen years old, who in his own 
 country would call themselves and be called young men, leaders 
 of fashionable society perhaps — going about in boyish costume, 
 and evidently in the status of boys. What increases the sin- 
 gularity of the appearance is that the Englishman's physical 
 development is more rapid than that of the American — of the 
 Northern States, at least ; thus the Etonian of nineteen is as 
 old in appearance as the New Yorker or Bostonian of twenty- 
 one. They all wear white cravats and black beavers ; caps are 
 forbidden, otherwise there is no uniformity of costume, and the 
 juvenile round jacket is as common as the manly coat upon 
 strapping young fellows nearly six feet high. Still, however 
 you may dress persons of that age, it is not possible to confine 
 them entirely to the discipline of boys ; the upper forms will 
 walk out into the town of Windsor, and should one of them 
 meet a tutor he takes refuge in a shop, the tutor, by a long 
 established fiction, making believe not to see him. 
 
 There are always several hundred boys at Eton ; at that 
 period (1845) it numbered more than seven hundred. About 
 one tenth, of these are Collegers. These Collegers are the 
 nucleus of the whole system, and the only original part of it, 
 the paying pupils {oppidans., town-hoys) being, according to 
 general belief, an after growth. They (the Collegers) are 
 educated gratuitously, and such of them as have nearly but 
 not quite reached the age of nineteen, when a vacancy in
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 263 
 
 King's College, Cambridge, occurs, are elected Scholars there 
 forthwith and provided for during life — or until marriage. 
 
 The number of masters is but small in proportion to that of 
 boys, nor is the average fairly distributed ; one master may 
 have forty pupils under him. This is one of the most obvious 
 defects of the system. Formerly, there were many private 
 tutors, -who might in some degree make up this deficiency; 
 but as these gentlemen were found in some instances to have 
 too comfortable a time of it, regulations were made obliging 
 them to keep the same hours at night with the boys, and in 
 other respects circumscribing their liberties, in consequence of 
 which their numbers rapidly diminished, and at this time there 
 were but three, each attached to his particular hoj. That 
 Classics form the staple of education at Eton, is known to every 
 one who has heard of the place ; it was, therefore, matter of no 
 small surprise to me to be informed — and indeed to see with 
 my own eyes — that the Classical course was of a very obsolete 
 and defective description, the text-books old-fashioned, chiefly 
 selections, and those not always of the best authors or the best 
 l^arts of them. Latin versification still flourishes ; it might be 
 unjust to say that everything else is sacrificed to it, but it is 
 certain that other and less doubtful elements of Scholarship are 
 somewhat neglected for it. Of Mathematics there is not a 
 great deal to be said — for there is very little done. 
 
 Passing to the more general branches of education, it is sin- 
 gular to find no instruction whatever given in English Grammar. 
 But this singularity is not confined to Eton ; it extends to all 
 the English schools, public or private, that I am acquainted 
 with. English Grammar is not one of the branches of the 
 English school curriculum. When I mentioned this omission 
 to my English friends, they generally turned it off" with some 
 mild joke about its being necessary for us in America to learn 
 English Grammar at School, because English was a strange 
 language to us ; but the peculiarity of their practice seemed 
 never to occur to them. I fancy it does not correspond with 
 that of other nations. French Grammar is certainly studied, 
 and with much care, in the schools of France.
 
 2(J4r FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 In Ancient History tlie boys were well read, and would have 
 l)een in Modern, only that suinetliing was given them for it 
 wliich Punch could liardly have caricatured. Just at that time 
 the Pijseyites and young England had become most rampant 
 and wanton in their perversion of historic facts and extrava- 
 gance of historic fancies, and Eton was not untouched by the 
 prevailing epidemic. I saAV a sort of historical manual written 
 by one of the under-masters (no friend of mine, thank Heaven !) 
 which contained such utter absurdities, both in the preface and 
 body of the work, that I should hardly be believed were I to 
 relate them. It is proper to say, liowever, that the book 
 attracted so much unfavorable notice that the compiler was 
 obliged to remove his most glaring mis-statements in a subse- 
 quent edition. 
 
 The study of the Modern languages had received an impulse 
 from some Prizes instituted by l/'rince Albert, and was begin- 
 ning to attract a tolerable share of attention. 
 
 ' My informant considered that the subject best taught was — 
 what I should hardly have expected — Geography. It was not 
 merely learned from books ; much attention was paid to draw- 
 ing and copying maps. 
 
 As to the morality of the school, my friend's impression was 
 not the most favorable. One instance in particular, which had 
 recently occurred, made a strong impression upon him, and 
 upon me when he related it. A boy, whom he knew very well, 
 found a pencil-case and advertised it through the proper chan- 
 nel and authority. More than a hundred boys applied for the 
 article, and some of them from their descriptions were evidently 
 making the wildest shots at it. With all due allowance for 
 the juvenile propensity to lose pencils, one cannot avoid the 
 conclusion that at least three fourths of these youths were 
 trying to get possession of what did not and could not belong 
 to them. 
 
 This brief notice of the great foundation of Eton, the school 
 where the sons of the nobihty are educated, does not present a 
 very pleasant state of things. I can only say that my im- 
 pressions have been set down according to my best recollection
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 265 
 
 of tlieiii. Some tilings I noted witli my own eyes ; others may 
 perhaps have been unintentionally colored by my informant. 
 He was a King's College, London, man, an Evangelical, and 
 one of the Cambridge Apostles ; on every account, therefore, 
 disposed to be very critical in his standard both of intellectual 
 and moral training, and not at all favorably biased towards 
 Eton. At the same time, I did not rely on his opinion only. 
 Happening to know some of the Under-masters, truly excellent 
 and religious men as well as good scholars, I drew from them 
 indirectly that the moral condition of the boys was far from 
 satisfactory. It is but just to say, however, that they did not 
 allude to the frequency of gross vices, but rather to habitual 
 carelessness about truth, deception of teachers, tyranny of older 
 boys over younger (though the fagging system is allowed on 
 all hands to be very much humanized), and other sins which 
 are apt to be prominently exhibited in large congregations of 
 boys, and which Arnold in more than one place has so feelingly 
 deplored. 
 
 When, in writing this chapter a few months ago, I came to 
 arrange my knowledge and recollections of English Public 
 Schools, and put together the different impressions I had 
 received from one quarter and another, it became evident that 
 I still wanted considerable light on the subject. Instantly I 
 wrote off to two friends, one an Eton man, and actually con- 
 nected with Eton at the present time, the other a Shrewsbury 
 man, Fellow of Trinity College, and making a name in the 
 literary world. The nature of the inquiries which I put will 
 be tolerably plain from the replies themselves, which. I received 
 by return of post, and have no hesitation in printing, as they 
 contain nothing personal or which can possibly give offence to 
 any one, and tell the story much better than I could. The 
 Etonian shall have the precedence from the greater length and 
 earnestness of his communication. 
 
 " My dear B. 
 
 " Our whole number of boys is about six hundred. It 
 has not fallen below this for eight years. Six years ago it was 
 
 12
 
 20G f:vk vkaks in an 
 
 as high as seven hundnd ami seventy-seven. At present it is 
 about six luindrod and thirty. 
 
 " The SchoLars or Collegers are seventy. The founder evi- 
 dently contemplated the accretion of pensioners, 'juvenes com- 
 mensales,' just like a College at Oxford or Cambridge. It is 
 believed that there were ' oppidans,' or pensioners, almost at the 
 beginning. **=♦=* 
 
 " We have a Head Master, with twelve assistants, for the 
 Upper School, which contains six liundred boys. These are 
 not equally divided. The Head Master has no more than thirty 
 boys. The next two or three divisions seldom reach 40. But 
 the tenth contains seventy-eight, and has ranged above 60 ever 
 since Christmas, The lower school, a separate establishment, 
 contains at present about thiiiy boys ; it used to contain from 
 one liundred to one hundred and fifty in old times. They 
 retain the whole stafi", whether the ranks are full or not, i. e. 
 the Lower Master (Magister Ostiarius, or ' usher,'' you see the 
 derivation with the French ' liuissier') and four assistants. So 
 that we have eighteen regular Classical Masters, wearing Aca- 
 demical dress. Besides this, there are five Mathematical 
 Masters, all graduates, Avith extra masters for languages, &c., 
 quite enough. 
 
 " No boy can enter the lower school after his thirteenth nor 
 the upper school after his fourteenth year. The great mass of 
 boys come at twelve and thirteen. No one, I think, ever comes 
 to school lender six ; this only happens with residents ; seldom 
 does a boy enter under nine. I am not aware of a minimum 
 of juvenility. The lower school professes to be preparatory 
 from the rudiments. I suppose a boy must be in trowsers and 
 know how to read. 
 
 " As to w^hat a public school is, consult Sidney Smith in the 
 Edinburgh for 1810. I do not accept his definition as quite 
 satisfactory. A public school, as a peculiar institution of 
 English society, is a place in which a boy is at once in a class 
 under a master who acts for the head-master, and subject to a 
 tutor who acts more specially for the parent or guardian. 
 There are but three schools that come under this definition —
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 2(37 
 
 Ilarrow, Eton, Rugby. These three seem to me to be very 
 simihir to Oxford or Cambridge in the Middle Ages, in the 
 period between the first institution of colleges and the decay of 
 the university ' schools.' As an undergraduate (say in 1500) 
 got his chief teacliing, and made his chief disjjlay of know- 
 ledge in public with a Professor, whilst he prepared his work, 
 cultivated his speciality, and underwent discipline in a College, 
 so an Eton, Harrow, or Rugby boy, attends the one school 
 chapel, shows up exercises, is examined in his lessons according 
 to fixed routine, contends for honors, takes degrees (what we call 
 ' removes,' e. g. changing from lower boy to fifth form, from 
 one who is fagged to one who fags), with {ajmd) the Head 
 Master or his assistant, whilst at the same time he receives 
 catechetical instruction in religion, prepares most of his lessons, 
 and gets his exercises looked over, etc., with his tutor, whether 
 he boards in his house or not. The tutor also corresponds 
 Avith the parent, watches over money matters, and attends 
 to the -TTpoj HadTos rfsqivxs^ superintending and guiding all 
 those more optional studies for which the school (= the Uni- 
 versity) gives leisure and encouragement. 
 
 " Sidney ^Smith wrote, perhaps, before tutors began to 
 attempt much in this way, though even then there was some 
 attention paid to individuals. 
 
 " Eton is less symmetrical than the other two, in so far as 
 she returns' Dames^ houses, cheaper than tutors' houses. About 
 one hundred and thirty boys board with Dames, having tutors 
 to whom they pay £10 or £20 a-year for their tuition, paying 
 the Head Master £G a-year, and leaving him to pay his assist- 
 ants. An assistant gets from the Head £44 a-year, working 
 perhaps twenty-four hours a-week in class with seventy-five or 
 seventy-eight boys. Then we live by our pupils. As we do 
 each other's work, each boy gets what he wants, not caring 
 how the money is distributed. 
 
 " At Eton a boy changes his division and comes under a neAV 
 Master every half-year, retaining his tutor. The tutor is 
 not merely an agent for the parent, but the boy's natural 
 defender and friend. * * * * At Eton you get much more
 
 268 FIVE VKARS IN AN 
 
 help from your Tutor iu j)i'op;iring lessons and exercises tlian 
 at Rugby. Rugby men \vho luive lived years with us, and 
 tlioroughly studicid our jtractices, })reter our tutorial system, 
 though they think our school system inferior as regards the 
 cultivation of the intellect. 
 
 " It is this duality, this polarization between the ]>ublic 
 authorities and the more private or more Collegiate discipline, 
 which seems to me (not now for the first time) to constitute the 
 differentia of a public school. It shows itself in this way — 
 a boy does not look upon his tutor as a schoolmaster ; he is to 
 him a gentleman whom he knows just as he knows his father's 
 friends, whom he can ask to his father's house, from whom he 
 claims hospitality as soon as he has left school, if he ever 
 revisits Eton. Again, he is proud of the house he belongs to, 
 as a man is of his College ; though in Cricket and football 
 clubs, in regular ' long boats,' and aquatic sweepstakes, in 
 running and leaping races, he competes with the whole school, 
 yet he belongs to a football club in the autumn, which includes 
 the twenty or thirty boys boarding in his own house, and thus 
 matches are made between houses as between colleges, and his 
 society is found chiefly in his own house, though not exclusively 
 (much less in summer than in winter). Again, the school 
 examinations are conducted in a more professional or business 
 way than the private tuition — no great regard for pecu- 
 liarities of character, for moral superiority, &c.'; a boy is 
 plucked just as at Oxford if he ftiUs short of the minimum, 
 from whatever reason ; on the other hand, if he gets into 
 a scrape, his tutor is applied to for his character, and can 
 generally, if he thinks it right, extricate him, and set him 
 right in the eyes of a Master who may have thought ill of 
 him. * * * * 
 
 " What Sidney Smith says of its roughness, its similarity 
 to a forest or to a savage life, is at present almost entirely 
 'inapplicable to Eton, and, I believe, to Harrow. Rugby is 
 rougher — the boys in a tutor's house are more left to self- 
 government. 
 
 " Shrewsbury is one of the many endowed grammar-schools
 
 ENGLISH UNIVKRSITY. 2G9 
 
 founded in or soon after the reign of Edward VI. It^ only 
 claim to publicity is, that for one generation it drew pupils 
 from all parts of England ; whereas most gramraar-scho<tls, 
 such as Bury Si. Edmunds^ Tiverton (in Devonshire), Oakham 
 and Teppingham in Rutland, draw hoys from their own 
 localities. A school like Shrewsbury flourishes only when 
 very well officered, unless it has a very rich endowment, 
 plenty of Scholarships to give aw^ay at the Universities, 
 as Mercliant Taylors' sends men to St. John's College, 
 Oxford. * * * * 
 
 " Repton., I believe, difters from Shrewsbury only in being 
 less famous. It may become famous and so far public by 
 achieving conspicuous success at Oxford and Cambridge, but 
 not so famous as Shrewsbury was twenty years ago, because 
 it has now so many competitors. Shrewsbury grew fast, 
 whilst Eton and Harrow Avere vegetating slowly — before 
 Rugby arose — before any other old grammar-school bestirred 
 itself. 
 
 " It is customary to reckon Winchester and Westminster 
 as public schools. Every year at Lord's cricket-ground, 
 which is the ground of the Marylebone Club and the New- 
 market of cricket, a Aveek is given up to the ' Public School 
 Matches.' * * * * 
 
 " At Cambridge we Etonians are charged with levity, and 
 with that kind of impudence which shows itself in ten Eton 
 men talking Etonica at a party without caring for what is due 
 to the other four men present. 
 
 " The two great evils of the place, which are now attracting 
 every one's attention, are these: (1.) Mathematics are not 
 compulsory and general ; (2.) There is too much money spent 
 by the boys, too much self-indulgence. ■* * * * And we 
 ought to remodel our chapel service, so as to have a short 
 service every day, and not school-days without prayer and 
 holidays with too much of it. Finally, we ought to have 
 fewer holidays. *' * * *" 
 
 " The real reason for sending a boy to Eton is that he will 
 there find, not the best teaching nor the best discipline, but
 
 2V0 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 the Lest society. I suppose, liowover, t]i;it ir.iirow is just as 
 good in this respect, or very nearly so. The only differenee is 
 that they have not so large an admixture of jioor gentlemen's 
 sons. They have nothing in lieu of our seventy Collegers 
 (wlio, being elected by merit, are really picked boys, tlie com- 
 petition being very keen, fifty candidates for ten vacancies 
 every year), and the candidates for College, and other fiugal 
 boys, living at Dames' houses. 
 
 "There has been an alarm about Eton being a Puseyitical 
 school. Harrow has gained thereby, having a contrai'v repu- 
 tation. The trulli is that neither school has any distinctive 
 religious character, any more than the London Clubs or the 
 English aristocracy generally. Both schools, I believe, fairly 
 represent English society in its good and its evil. * * * 
 
 " Perhaps I ought to tell you that a boy in a tutor's 
 house, at Eton, costs his father altogether, including all his 
 personal expenses, such as clothes, journeys, pocket-money, 
 medicine, on an average not less than £200 a-year. Many 
 boys, however, spend £30 a-year in pocket-money, some 
 £50. * * -^^ * 
 
 " Yours, sincere]}^, 
 
 "W. J." 
 
 Some passages in the above letter I have been obliged to 
 omit, as their tone of eulogy, however sincere on the writer's 
 part, might seem extravagant to a reader not under the influ- 
 ence of -similar feelings. My Shrewsbury friend has treated 
 the subject in a somewhat lighter vein, and his views do not 
 precisely correspond with those of the Etonian, 
 
 "Mv DEAR B., 
 
 "The term 'Public School,' in its proper sense, is 
 applied to all schools which have an endowment for the Master, 
 and where the education is free, or nearly so, for the boys. 
 The term is a translation of ' libera schola,' about the meaning 
 of which there has been a good deal of discussion lately in the 
 Court of Chancery. The Head-Mastership is in the gift of
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 271 
 
 Trustees, wliose choice is limited by charter to an M.A., B.D., 
 or D.I), of Oxford or Cambridge. These trustees are country 
 gentlemen, or burgesses, who don't see the use of Latin and 
 Greek, and want to turn the foundation into a commercial 
 school, on which point they join issue with the Head-master. 
 They get a dictionary, look out ' libera,' and find that it means 
 free. The Head-master maintains that it means liberal, and 
 assumes that a liberal education excludes the three i2's, and all 
 that could fit a man for standing behind a counter. Adhuc 
 suh judice lis est, and as the judex is the Lord Chancellor, it is 
 likely to remain under him till it is addled. 
 
 '• In common parlance ' Public School ' is only applied to 
 the larger endowed schools. Thus, there is a small Grammar- 
 school with an endowment of fifty nierks per annum, at 
 Boughton cum Bangaway ; no one calls it a Public School : 
 suppose a lease falls in, and the revenue becomes £3,000 
 instead of £33, 6s. 8d., a good scholar gets the Headship, boys 
 come by hundreds, and call themselves ' Public School men ' 
 nem. con. 
 
 " I have heard Winchester and Eton men maintain that the 
 term ' Public School ' ought only to be applied to those two 
 foundations which have a College, or close and free school 
 distinct from the ojwn and costly school ifadt xoiv-/]v i\/airoT7(fai 
 ^(^p'/jjxara (you remember the Collegers and Oppidans at Eton), 
 and also a College at the University appropriate to them, New 
 College and King's. But no one else recognises this limitation. 
 Shrewsbury is a public school in precisely the same sense as 
 Harrow or Rugby, though the numbers are not so great nor 
 the endowment so large. It acquired what celebrity it has, 
 first under Dr. Butler (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield) and 
 secondly, under Benjamin Kennedy, though the numbers are 
 much diminished. 
 
 " It was founded, like many others, by Edward VI. out of 
 the spoils of the Monastei-ies. I don't see how Repton can be 
 called a private school, being endowed ; unless one calls it so 
 as a mark of contempt for its scanty numbers. In all old 
 towns (with very rare exceptions) are to be found endowed
 
 272 FIVE YKAIfS IN AX 
 
 scliools, generally connected with the municipality when there 
 is one, not nt all with the parochial system. !Most of these 
 schools are in a state of efl'etcness for want of the sinews of 
 learning — money. Very often the founders left an estate to 
 the borough magistrates, charged with a fixed payment to the 
 Master of the school, fifty merks a-year say, which was a hand- 
 some sum three hundred years ago, but is hardly enough to 
 find one in cigars now-a-days, 
 
 " Suits have been set on foot in some cases to compel the 
 holders of the estate to comply with the spirit of the Founder's 
 will, and pa)^ as large a proportion of the rent as fifty merks 
 was then. This has occurred at Ludlow. 
 
 " Sometimes the Dean and Chapter have been made 
 patrons of the school, and have played the same dodge, e. g. 
 at Rochester, where W , one of our Fellows, Head- 
 master of the school, is carrying on a guerre a mort with the 
 Cathedral dignitaries. There was a debate about it in the 
 House lately. 
 
 " Eton and Westminster are both Colleges, though at Eton 
 there is a School besides. The reason of their being coupled 
 together is, I suppose, the old custom of rowing matches on 
 the Thames, from which, both at Oxford and Cambridge, the 
 two rivals join and form boating-clubs — you remember the 
 ' Third Trinity.' 
 
 " James I. wanted to make Trinity College the same appen- 
 dage to Westminster that King's is to Eton, or New College to 
 Winchester ; but some College Hampden resisted and defeated 
 him. * * * * 
 
 " Ever yours, truly, 
 
 " W. G. C." 
 
 T make no attempt to reconcile any contradictions in the 
 three different accounts now laid before the reader, but merely 
 present them, and leave him to judge for himself. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that Eton, which has not been out of fashion for 
 a hundred and fifty years, stands pretty nearly " at the top of 
 the tree." The other schools dift'er very much in reputation.
 
 EN'GLISII UNIVERSITY. 
 
 2lB 
 
 and in the characteristics of their pupils, as observable at the 
 University. 
 
 Westminster was once the Court School, and for a long time 
 rivalled Eton, but is now in a terrible state of decay. The 
 position of the school in the heart of a great city had doubtless 
 something to do with corrupting the boys' morals, but would 
 not entirely account for their low and ungentlemanly habits ; 
 nor could their general ignorance of everything but vice, .be 
 attributed to any other cause than gross neglect on the part of 
 those who had the control over them. Even the "Westminster 
 Collegers who were annually elected to the three close Scholar- 
 ships at Trinity, and who might reasonably be expected to pre- 
 sent the best specimens of the school, rarely did anything to 
 distinguish themselves in the legitimate pursuits of the Univer- 
 sity. A¥ithin a few years Westminster has acquired a new 
 Head-Master. If a conscientious man, he has such a work Ite- 
 fore him in the reformation of that school as no one would 
 envy, and none but a very conscientious or a very bold man, or 
 both, attempt. 
 
 Winchester has now less than two hundred pupils. Few of 
 these come to Cambridge. They have a College of their own 
 at Oxford (New College) Avhich stands in the same relation to 
 them that King's College, Cambridge, does to Eton, and whicli 
 naturally takes their best men. A friend of mine Avho professed 
 to know something about Winchester summed uj? his opinion 
 of it in this sweeping sentence, that it was " stationary, illiberal, 
 rough, coarse, and limited." 
 
 Harroiu had the reputation of being a great place for the 
 quasi-aristocracy — the sons of rich commoners — as Eton is for 
 the sons of Noblemen. The Harrow men at Cambridge in my 
 time were usually unfortunate, starting with a good reputation 
 and- breaking down in the long run. When Frederick Peel 
 missed his Scholarship he was supposed to be going the same 
 way, but he broke the charm by his First Class in the Tripos. 
 This school also has gained a new Head-Master w-ithin a few 
 years — I use the term gained designedly, for the present in- 
 cumbent is C. J. Vaughan, whose name will be familiar to all 
 
 12*
 
 274 FIVE YEAUS IN AN 
 
 attentive readers of Dr. Arnold's correspondence. Under liis 
 auspices the most favorable results may be hoped for, if lie 
 docs not disappoint the expectations which his own character 
 and Arnold's friendship for him liave raised. 
 
 This brings mc to Riufhy, so intei-esting from its association 
 with the name of Arnold. (He died in 1842, and many of 
 his last " Sixth Form" were my contemporaries or nearly so at 
 Cambridge). The Rugby men were in general less brilliant 
 and quick than the Etonians, good sound scholars, but not re- 
 markably showy or striking ; the Rugby exhibitioner at Trinity 
 was usually in the First Class of the Tripos, but not very high 
 on it. But they were men of great weight and character ; 
 they seemed to have been really taught to think on ethical as 
 well as purely intellectual subjects better tlian any set of young 
 men I ever knew ; they had better grounds for their belief, and 
 always appeared to have looked into the reason of what they 
 said, or did, and to go back to first principles. Their veneration 
 for Arnold's memory was unbounded ; they spoke of his loss 
 as a personal calamity, as one might speak of a near relative's 
 death ; and you could always recognise a Rugby man's room 
 by the portrait conspicuously suspended in it. It was some- 
 times objected that the influence exerted by Arnold over the 
 minds of his pupils had been too great — that it destroyed their 
 originality and self-dependence. Tliis was a common saying of 
 the Apostles ; I do not think it evinced their usual discrimina- 
 tion. Surely the liberal, independent, no-party nature of 
 Arnold's mental and moral constitution, which prevented him 
 from ever thoroughly acting with any side in politics, and 
 made the Whigs afraid to give him a Bishopric, could not im- 
 press on the minds of his scholars any blind partisan bias in 
 politics or religion, such as a violent Puseyite, or Young Eng- 
 lander, or Calvinist, or Repubhcan might have done. "What 
 he did impress upon his pupils was a love of truth, a reverence 
 for reverend things, a philosophic habit of investigating princi- 
 ples, which tended to give them the reality of that " earnest- 
 ness" which some of their despisers only pretended to possess 
 or fancied they were possessing.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVKRSITV. 
 
 275 
 
 Shreu'sbunj, of wliicli we liave liad occasion to make fre- 
 quent mention, is one of the very first schools that a Freshman 
 hears of in connexion with this Prize op that Scholarship. 
 Even Eton does not send up such a proportion of the Cam- 
 brido-e Classics — in fact I doubt if any three schools together 
 do, Eton included. The Shrewsbury men at Cambridge had a 
 reputation for two things particularly, writing Greek Iambics 
 and playing whist ; but their general line Avas minute accuracy 
 of Scholarship.* It may be inferred from this that they ex- 
 celled in Greek rather than Latin, and their precision in Greek 
 syntax was carried out to a refinement and minuteness hardly 
 paralleled even in Law or Mathematics. In most things they 
 displayed a hard and subtle acuteness, such as one is accus- 
 tomed to deem a national characteristic of Scots rather than 
 Englishmen : this showed itself in their very relaxations. 
 Whist, I have said, Avas their favorite amusement, and they 
 played it purely for amusement ; the few shillings at stake 
 could have little to do with the interest displayed. I often 
 watched a table or two of Shrewsbury men before and after 
 supper, and it was singular to see such youths playing nearly 
 as scientifically and quite as silently as the oldest and most 
 experienced hands, never making a gesture of impatience 
 or exultation, or opening their mouths excej^t during the 
 deals. 
 
 It was said, and with reason, that they crammed too much 
 for the one object of the Classical Tripos, and devoted too 
 much time to making themselves machines for the construction 
 of Greek Iambics. For instance, they read too little Homer at 
 school through fear of becoming too familiar with Heroic Greek 
 to the injury of their Attic. It was owing to this Homeric 
 deficiency and their not being quite up to some of the other 
 schools in Latin verse, that a Shrewsbury candidate for the 
 Bell Scholarship was usually unsuccessful, while he as usually 
 beat one or both of the Bell Scholars in the Classical Tripos. 
 
 * It Avas said of a Shrewsbury inaii wlio was Senior Classic in my 
 time, that lie had never been known to make a mistake in a Classical 
 paper diirintj his whole University career.
 
 276 FIVE yeahs in an 
 
 Their accurate habits were of great service to them in Mathe- 
 matics ; they seldom read for liigh degrees, but -were always 
 pretty safe to get through or be Senior Optimes as their Clas- 
 sical prospects required. Ai)art from this necessary digression 
 they in most cases confined themselves vigorously to their 
 Classical studies, but after the Degree and the Tripos they 
 expanded and developed with great rapidity, taking in a variety 
 of miscellaneous knowledge, and displaying a number of 
 qualities and capabilities for which one would not have been 
 disposed to give them credit previously. They afforded the 
 most striking example of what is a common feature in English 
 education, a mental development held in abeyance and working 
 unseen under the pressure of study, which starts out into 
 full life on the removal of the pressure. 
 
 I have been thus joarticular in speaking of Shrewsbury, 
 because the peculiar style of Scholarship which originated there 
 has invaded and pervaded that of Cambridge, where Latin 
 Composition and. " cram" have yielded the first place to Greek 
 Composition and metaphysical syntax — in brief, Greek has got 
 the better of Latin, and language of matter. 
 
 The King Edward VI. School, Birmingham., had a great 
 reputation which began Avithin late years, in fact after I entered 
 the University. Li five years it sent up five scholars of 
 the' highest order, of whom all were Fellow^s of Trinity, four 
 Senior Classics (alone or bracketed) and two Double Firsts, 
 besides some high Wranglers, for Mathematics as well as Classics 
 were well attended to there. They were mostly what would be 
 called slashing men, who could do a great deal and do it well, 
 though there was considerable variety among them, little- 
 uniformity of method, and much originality. Thus the two 
 candidates for the head of the Tripos in our year whom I have 
 already mentioned as very different in their style oi forte, were 
 from the Birmingham school. 
 
 Repton, where Peile the editor of .^Eschylus is Head Master, 
 though a small school, was sending some very good men to 
 Cambridge a few years ago. 
 
 While speaking of English schools it would be unjust to pass
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 27*7 
 
 over one immortalized by the quaint genius of Lamb, and 
 in -whicli the circumstance that one of my most intimate and 
 valued friends was educated at it, often made me feel some- 
 thing like a personal interest — Christ'' s Hospital, otherwise 
 known as tlie Bhie Coat School. It is purely a charitable 
 establishment ; the pupils have retained their distinctive dress 
 (a blue gown, yellow leggings, and no hat) ever since its foun- 
 dation, and are obliged to wear it continuously even in vacation 
 time and when absent from London. This school has several 
 very good Exhibitions'* at ditierent Cambridge Colleges, some 
 of them worth as much as £100 a-year ; these are frequently 
 filled by crack men, both in Classics and Mathematics — more 
 frequently the former. This may be deemed no wonder when 
 the worldly prospects of these youths depended so entirely for 
 a favourable start on their academic success. It was more 
 surprising to find in them a great deal of general knowledge, a 
 love of poetry, refined taste, and often a touch of romance in 
 their characters, altogether coming up to one's ideal of the poor 
 scholar, such as is oftener met with in novels than in real life. 
 There was a distinctive peculiarity in their external appearance 
 by which fhey were easily recognised. Closely cropped hair 
 constituted a part of the school regulation costume ; on their 
 emancipation into the University they let their locks grow to 
 the longest extent permitted by the usages of English civili- 
 zation. 
 
 The reader may have observed that, with one or two 
 exceptions, the schools enumerated are distinguished for 
 Classics alone, and he may ask -where the Mathematicians 
 are trained. They certainly do not, as a general rule, come 
 from the Public Schools. Many of them are fitted in private ; 
 some of those who enter at the Small Colleges are very defi- 
 cient in Classics, nor do they read any at the University 
 except their First- Year College subjects and Little-Go authors. 
 
 * An Kvhlbition is something like a College Scholarship in the gift of 
 a particular seliool, but the Exhibitioner has no privileges beyond the 
 pecuniary emolument, and it does not interfere witli liis sitting for 
 an ordinary Scliolarship.
 
 -i/O FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Many come from King's College, London. This is tlie esta- 
 blished Churcli ]iai"t of the London University, in opposition to 
 University College. 'J'lie students attend like scholars at a 
 day-school, or the students of Columbia College : it is some- 
 Avhat as if Columbia should prepare pupils for Yale or Harvard. 
 Many of the King's College, London, men, are capital scholars, 
 though not being equal to the Public School men in Comjiosi- 
 tion, they seldom take the highest places on the Tripos ; still 
 they bad one Senior and one Second Medallist during the inter- 
 val between 1839 and 1849. In Mathematics they were very 
 successful, and turned out a number of high Wranglers ; they 
 had the Senior Wrangler twice while I was at the University. 
 Professor l)e Morgan is the great Mathematical coach there, 
 and it is probably the only place where Mathematicians enjoy 
 a preparatory drill in searching written examinations, corres- 
 ponding to that of the Classical men at the Public Schools, and 
 as similar as theirs to what both have to experience in their 
 University course. 
 
 The " Colleges''' now founding all over England, e. r/. at 
 Brighton, Marlborough, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Fleetwood, are 
 great schools, but not at all like Eton or Harrow, or any of the 
 old public schools, great or small, any more than the London 
 University is like Oxford or Cambridge. In some respects they 
 have the advantage, being cheaper, more systematic, and attend- 
 ing better to Mathematical studies. 
 
 Durham University^ which was established to supply a 
 cheaper place of education for North-Country clergymen than 
 the two old Universities, is still in its infancy, and one seldom 
 hears much about it. I believe it answers its purpose pretty 
 well. 
 
 While speaking of English preparatory places of education, 
 it may be well to say a word of the Scotch Universities, respect- 
 ing which some curiosity is occasionally manifested by our 
 countrymen. I knew several Cantabs (North-Country men* 
 and Scotchmen) who had been at Glasgow, which they 
 
 * / e. from tlie northern counties of England.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 279 
 
 regarded as a preparatory scliool. From their report I should 
 imagine that the Scotch Universities occupied an intermediate 
 position between ours and the Enghsh, in point of chxsaical and 
 rhetorical attainments, age of pupils, and soundness and variety 
 of studies. There are some very good Schools in Scotland, one 
 in particular (though I cannot now recall the name and locality 
 of it), which sends a number of good men to Cambridge and 
 Oxford ; but though taking good places, they did not come up 
 to the English standard of the highest excellence in scholarship. 
 From what I know of Trinity College, Dublin, I should be 
 inclined to say the same of it as of the Scotch Universities. 
 Some of its graduates, indeed, will tell you that the standard 
 of the Fellowships and other chief Honors there is higher than 
 that of any academical institution in the world (I have seen 
 this assertion publicly made in print) ; but undervaluing him- 
 self is not an Irishman's fault. I owe my " rudiments" to a 
 Trin. Coll. Dub. man, and am not disposed to speak lightly of 
 the classical acquirements of its members, but truth compels me 
 to say that their Greek does not appear to be of the first Avater. 
 The Cantabs used to say of them that they were always writing- 
 Greek verses in some magazine, and never printed a copy which 
 did not show a fundamental ignorance of the laws of syntax 
 and prosody. It is a peculiarity of this institution that the 
 Fellows are allowed to marry, probably by way of asserting a 
 Protestant principle.
 
 280 FIVE YliAllS IN Ail 
 
 BKING EXTINGUISHED. 
 
 XaXcKtZi ff(pa\eis — Thucyd. Lib. iv. 
 Grievously upset. — Lecturer's Translation. 
 
 During the week spent at Eton, it was expected that the 
 result of the Tripos would be declared ; but the absence of an 
 examiner put it off for a week longer. More fidget and more 
 speculating. After my mishaps in Greek Prose and Latin 
 Verse, I ought to have made up my mind to die decently, but 
 then I was conscious of having sent up a rather neat bit of 
 prose, and Iambics that were a little above my average — so said 
 a friend to whom I showed the rough copy. Re-examination 
 of the translation papers disclosed some glaring mistakes, but 
 every one makes mistakes, except now and then a Shrewsbury 
 man. The betting was against me, but there was some money 
 on me even. The examiners were more taciturn than usual, 
 and let nothing be suspected beforehand. The only generally 
 received rumor was that Frederick Peel (who had been work- 
 ing like three horses all the Long) was coming up wonderfully 
 and going to be the successful outsider of the year ; and this 
 rested more on the firm conviction and positive assertions of his 
 coach than on anything that had leaked out. 
 
 At last it was unofiicially announced that the Tripos would 
 be out on the morrow. All that night I sat up playing whist 
 with two or three interested parties, and two or three not inte- 
 rested, who had benevolently sacrificed themselves for the occa- 
 sion. Our host was a good-natured Mathematician, still taking 
 it easy after his successful exertions to obtain a place among 
 the first twenty Wranglers. We played straight on from 10 
 p. M. till 6 A. M., only stopping to put coal on the fire from a 
 diminutive scuttle, or champagne into ourselves from a large
 
 ENnURII UNIVKHSTTV. 281 
 
 2")C\vter mug/'-' Then we went to dress, for tlie daily elean shirt 
 is part of an EngHshman's religion, and after that to chapel. 
 Most of the competitors were there, and a very pale, unensy, 
 used-up set we looked. I was ])articularly struck with the 
 appearance of one young man of Irisli extraction, a hard 
 student, but not naturally clever, wlio finally came out third 
 Classic and Second Medallist. He was ghastly pale and seemed 
 liardly able to stand. Poor fellow ! he had another source of 
 anxiety that we knew not of. For some time he had been on 
 the high road to Eome — very secretly — and was then practis- 
 ing various ascetic acts of devotion and penance. About a 
 year after he went openly over to the enemy, leaving an Orange 
 father to bewail his untimely fate. 
 
 After chapel', to breakfast with what appetite I might, and 
 then to billiards — anything to pass away the morning. It was 
 nearly the dinner hour when I strolled down, for the third or 
 fourth time, in the direction of the gwasZ-University Book- 
 seller's, where the Ti'ipos list was always posted. A great 
 crowd surrounded the shop as was customary on such occa- 
 sions ; a Trinity man whom I knew was emerging from it. 
 " Where am I ?" " Second in the Second Class." 
 
 On hearing tliis double mediocrity of position assigned me^ 
 I had need of all my philosophy. Though from the first the 
 limited time I was able to read had made the chances greatly 
 against me, and other things had combined to let me down 
 gradually, I certainly was considerably sold by the final result — 
 indeed I don't know if I ever was as much so before or since. 
 However, I disguised my mortification, and pushed my way in. 
 The first acquaintance I saw was a Small-Colleger, who had 
 last year taken two of the Browne's Medals, the Greek and 
 Latin Odes, beating our best Trinity men, and whose name was 
 now just above mine, leading off the Second Class. He Avas 
 standing up like Miss Barrett's " statue thunder-struck," over- 
 
 * The l)ijr, glass-bottomed pewter iDUg is an article of furniture to be 
 found on abnost every Cantab's preniisos. Its primary and ordinary 
 use is for imbibing beer ; on nnceremonious occasions it serves for the 
 reception of any potable fluid.
 
 282 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 wlichnod l)y the sliock, but cxpressiii!^ no emotion. Wlion lie 
 rauLjlit siglit of 1110, liis feelings first found vent at tlie presence 
 of one so nearly in tlie same predicament, and lie broke out 
 with, " I do think tlioy might have drawn the line a little 
 lower !" 
 
 All the null of the ^car who had taki'ii University Prizes 
 (except one unfortunate " gulfed" in Mathematics) were in the 
 Second Class, namely the Small-Colleger aforesaid, myself, and 
 my (iuond9,m Methodist friend, who liad contributed so mucli 
 to the introduction of sherry-cobblers. One of the examiners 
 afterwards told me that all this Second Class (twelve out of 
 twent3'-four — two men were not placed) lay very close together, 
 so that there was but little dilference between the first and last 
 man in it. Peel had leaped the gap, and was the last of the 
 six who composed tlie First Class. Should this gentleman 
 carry out in Parliament the habit he had at the University, of 
 failing when he was expected to succeed and succeeding when 
 he was expected to fail, he will be a very bothering man to both 
 friends and ojiponents. 
 
 If inclined to take refuge in the proverbial consolation of 
 misery, I had certainly company enough. Not only had every 
 man in the Second Class cherished some hope of a First, but 
 one of the aspirants to that honor had dropped into the Third. 
 Such accidents are not uncommon with Double men, who, in 
 working up their Mathematics, the last year, are apt to let their 
 Classics go down. 
 
 In one respect the standard of the Classical Tripos is higher 
 than that of the Mathematical ; more knowledge, both posi- 
 tively and comparatively speaking, is required for the lower 
 places. The first man of the Third Class approaches mucli 
 nearer to a Classic than the first Junior Optime does to a Ma- 
 thematician, and his marks bear a much larger proportion to 
 the Senior Classic's than the other's do to the Senior Wran- 
 gler's. The same difierence extends throughout ; the last man 
 of the First Class is much better in his line than the last 
 Wrangler in his ; and the Small Colleges, which give their 
 Fellowships according to the Degrees, show this by requiring a
 
 E MULISH UNIVERSITY. 283 
 
 candidate to be in tlie First Class of the Tripos, or — not merely 
 a Wrangler, but — among the first fifteen or twenty Wranglers, 
 thus putting the First Class in Classics and the first half of the 
 First Class in Mathematics on an equality. 
 
 I have said that for an unmathematical man it requires a 
 good deal of honest hard work to get a place anyAvhere on the 
 Mathematical Tripos. I conclude this chapter by saying that 
 to take even a good Second in Classics, one must, as a general 
 rule, have read a large quantity, and be able to display a con- 
 siderable knowledge of the Ancient Languages. No one knows 
 how hard a First Class is to obtain, unless he has either just 
 got it or just missed it.
 
 I8t VWK YICAKS IN AN 
 
 KEADINa FOR A TIIINITV FELLOWSIIII', 
 
 "It was eucli ns literary society ought to be, composed of men of real learning; of 
 friends coiifidiiifj in tlie imituni esteem entertained by all, undisturbed by ambitions 
 quacks or iiiipnulent pri-tenders." — Griffin's Remains. 
 
 Sell or no sell, the aft'air was definitively settled. " All the 
 king's money and all the king's men" could not give me the 
 chance over again. The first eflfect of my disappointment was 
 that it made me resolve to leave Camhridge at once. I packed 
 up my hooks — a couple of trunks contained with ease the rest 
 of my eftects — sent them in charge to a bookseller, and 
 waited on our College tutor to resign my Scholarship. He 
 refused to present my resignation, and begged me to wait 
 awhile, intimating his expectation that I would stay and read 
 for a Fellowship, and his belief that there were not more than four 
 men in the year who stood a better chance (there were ultimately 
 but four Fellows out of our year). After my Classical degree, this 
 seemed a mere compliment and facon de 2Mrler ; still, as there 
 was no pressing necessity for my resignation,'! consented to 
 withdraw it, and went off on a fortnight's run through Belgium 
 and France. Before that fortnight was over, my feelings 
 underwent a change. The first impulse passed away, I found 
 myself attracted back to the old place. Of a Fellowship I had 
 the faintest possible chance, not worth taking into account, but 
 the reading for one would be profitable and not unamusing; 
 the pursuit and acquisition of learning had become a pleasure 
 to me ; I had formed some agreeable friendships with men 
 whose professional occupations would retain them at the 
 University; I was not in sufficiently strong health to travel to 
 the best advantage, and could recruit better during the coming- 
 season at home (which C'ambridge had now been to me for 
 three years and more) than elsewhere. So, on the whole, I 
 resolved to return thither, for a while, at least, as a Bachelor.
 
 ENGLISH UiNlVEKSlTY. 285 
 
 The principal business of a Trinity Bachelor Scholar in 
 residence (no Bachelors, except Scholars and Fellow-Coni- 
 moners, are allowed to retain their rooms in College beyond 
 the term subsequent to that in Avhich they take their degree) 
 is reading for a Fellowship. The M.A. incepts in about three 
 years and two months from the time of taking his first degree, 
 though he does not become a, full M.A. till the July following — 
 three years and a half in all. The Fellowship Examination is 
 held in October, so that a candidate has three chances during 
 his Bachelorship. Success on the first trial is rare, except in 
 the case of a Senior AVrangler, or high Double First. A Senior 
 Classic, unless a high Wrangler also, is seldom chosen the first 
 time. This happens not from the preponderance of Mathema- 
 tics in the examination (for the reverse is the case), but because 
 a Trinity Senior Wrangler is usually a very superior man 
 generally, not behind-hand in Classics, and often first, or among 
 the first, on the Metaphysical paper. 
 
 The Examination consists of Classics, Mathematics, and a 
 number of subjects conveniently comprehended under the title 
 of Metaphysics. 
 
 The Classical Examination nearly resembles that of the 
 Classical Tripos. The Composition is about the same in 
 amount, but the Translation papers are only three in number, 
 two Greek and one Latin ; and there is a long paper of general 
 questions in Ancient History, x\ntiquities, Philology, Civil Law, 
 &c. — a " cram" paper in short. One extract from the Greek 
 verse paper is to be translated into English verse. Under these 
 circumstances, a man who has taken a high Classical degree 
 rather seeks to review and polish up than enlarge his readino- ; 
 but a Mathematician, especially if he has come to the University 
 tolerably well prepared in Classics, and temporarily neglected 
 them to read Mathematics for his Degree, will often extend his 
 knowledge of Greek and Latin considerably. A Mathematician 
 very deficient in Classics, stands little chance, unless he be first- 
 rate indeed in his branch, and also very good on the Metaphy- 
 sical paper. I imagine Classics Aveigh at least as much as the 
 other two too-ethei".
 
 28G FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 Tlierc arc only two Mathematical papers, and lliese consist 
 almost entirely of high questions ; what a Junior Op. or low 
 Senior Op. can do in them amounts to nothing, and the 
 Classical men usually cut tlioin entirely. 
 
 The third branch of the examination comprises several 
 subjects more or less connected among themselves. 
 
 1st. The History of Metaphysics. I say the History of 
 Metaphysics, because an explanation of the theories of diftcrent 
 schools rather than a support of any particular one is expected. 
 
 2d. Moral Philosophy, considered not only in an historical, 
 but also in a j)ractical and, so to speak, polemical point of 
 view. 
 
 3d. Political Economy, considered, like Metaphysics, ratlier 
 in an historical than a partisan light. 
 
 4th. International law. 
 
 5th. General Philology. 
 
 It is possible that questions are sometimes set on this paper 
 not strictly reducible to any of the above heads. It inten- 
 tionally covers a great deal of ground, one of its objects being 
 to bring out clever men and men of general and, at the same 
 time, deep reading beyond the immediate sphere of Classical 
 and Mathematical studies. Except in Moral Philosophy, there 
 is no preferred class of opinions. In Ethics, the dominant 
 school was anti-Paley — that of the independent moralists, as 
 they were called at Cambridge, among whom Butler occupies 
 a high rank, and Whewell, as one of his interpreters, no con- 
 temptible one. No particular opinions being prescribed in the 
 other subjects, there are of course no particular text-books — no 
 substantially similar courses of reading for all candidates. The 
 only works which can come under this category are. Dr. 
 AVhewell's History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, 
 and Moral Philosophy, including Polity. His double position 
 as Professor of Casuistry in the University, and Master of the 
 College, has procured him this distinction, and you may always 
 be sure of finding several questions set from his books. 
 
 In general the Greek and English authors are those most 
 attended to. Plato and Aristotle, in their ethical, metaphysi-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 287 
 
 cal, and political speculations, come in for a large share of 
 attention ; and with, them, consequently, their historians and 
 commentators, particularly Hitter. Cudworth is a favorite 
 author. Mill's Logic became a standard work immediately on 
 its publication. The older Scotch Metaphysicians are not in 
 high repute. Cousin is read to some extent ; Comte, I fency, 
 not much. The German Transcendentalists are not very deeply 
 dipped into ; most men were afraid of them. The Trinity 
 receij^t for getting-up Kant was, " read the first forty pages of 
 the ' Kritik' and the Index.'''' There are generally two or three 
 men who acquit themselves very stylishly on this paper, and 
 cover a great extent of ground in the three or four hours 
 allotted to it. An acquaintance of mine, who stood first in 
 Metaphysics, and gained his Fellowship by it, confined himself 
 chiefly to one question, an ethical one — in discussing which, he 
 took up and answered, piece by piece, a recent article in the 
 Edinburgh which had attracted his attention. Probably the 
 paper which he sent in would have made a respectable pendant 
 both for quantity and quality to that which had suggested 
 it. Another man, Avho Avas second in the same examination, 
 wrote up not only all the paper, but all the ink within his 
 reach. 
 
 The average age of taking the 13. A. may be set down at 
 twenty-two years and three months, so that a Trinity man 
 usually borders upon twenty-five when he attains the dignity 
 of Fellow. The Fellowships are tenable for seven years from 
 the time of taking the M. A. to such of the Fellows as do not 
 go into Orders ; those who do, may hold them till death or 
 matrimony. For a Barrister this seven years' Fellowship is 
 just the thing, as it gives him a support (£200 a year) long 
 enough to start him in his profession, and carry him past thirty, 
 by which time he has usually begun to do something if he ever 
 means to, nor are the two or three years spent in procuring it 
 by any means wasted, the training being in many respects cal- 
 culated to fit him for his vocation. 
 
 The number of vacancies varies from three to eight, ave- 
 raging five, so that about one of three Scholars becomes a
 
 288 FIVE VEAKS IN AN 
 
 Fellow. All the Sc'liulars, liowever, ;irc in»t (•.•iiididaU'S to tUe 
 v\u\. Some never IVel warr.'inted in going in at all ; others go 
 in the first year and tlien give np. 
 
 The majority of candidates take pupils. Tliis is considered, 
 wlien a man lias f/oo.l pupils (and with a good Degree he can 
 exercise some choice in the matter) rather a help tlian a hin- 
 drance. Sometimes a Bachelor who has set his heart on being 
 a Fellow, continues to read with his private tutor, but this is 
 considered infra dig.^ and seldom practised. Tutors have been 
 known to refuse such applications. A modified form of coach- 
 ing somewhat more common is where two friends assist each 
 other reciprocally. But in general the Bachelor is expected to 
 rely on himself. 
 
 I remained at Cambridge nearly the whole summer of 1845, 
 a capital specimen of an English summer, for it rained every 
 day without exception, and my daily ride combined the addi- 
 tional advantage of a shower-bath. My amateur Mathematical 
 coach, who was now making his last spirt for a Fellowship, 
 used to accompany me on these excursions, and we always ex- 
 pected the ducking as a matter of course and prepared our- 
 selves accordingly. A Jew would not have given ten shillings 
 sterling for both our wardrobes. My studies during this time 
 were a great amusement as well as occupation. Into the 
 Metaphysics proper I did not go far, in fact all my performance 
 in that Hue was to read three or four hundred pages of Mill's 
 Logic. This was chiefly owing to my curiosity to finish some 
 of the works of Plato and Aristotle which I had begun the 
 previous summer — the Republic, the Nicomachean Ethics, the 
 Politics — and these books being read not merely for the lan- 
 guage, but with more attention to the subject-matter than if 
 they had been got up merely for Tripos purposes, looked indi- 
 rectly towards the Metaphysical course. In the afternoon and 
 evening I reviewed some of Cicero's more difficult Orations in 
 company with my friend, thus at the same time paying oft' my 
 old debts to him and keeping up my fluency in Latin Prose. 
 With the same double purpose I used to revise his Latin Prose 
 Composition, but a shot which I made for the Member's Prize
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 289 
 
 proved unsuccessful. Also I made my first regular attack on 
 Italian along with another friend who had taken the highest 
 Classical Honors, and was now resting after his toils in the 
 otium cum dig. of a Small College Don. But neither of us 
 went very zealously at our new pursuit, and our acquaintance 
 with the tongue of Dante never became, to borrow a very old 
 Joe Miller, a speaking acquaintance. There was a tempt- 
 ing Fellows' garden belonging to his College, that overhung 
 the Cam, with a carpet-like green to play bowls on, a mossy 
 wall on one side and all sorts of vines with variety of flowers 
 creeping over it, and a httle table under a big tree, just the 
 place to sip claret and eat huge strawberries. There we used 
 to drop our Italian grammars, forget how tre viaggiatori trova- 
 rono un tesoro, and talk criticism and aesthetics till we had 
 fairly talked each other out ; and some months after his part 
 of the conversation would meet me, like an old friend in a 
 strange place, when I opened a new Edinburgh or Fraser. 
 
 The Bachelor in most cases gives himself a kind of half 
 holiday his first summer, as, not expecting a Fellowship ' at 
 the first trial, he does not particularly lay himself out for one. 
 Thus the men about me were more assimilated to my habits of 
 half-work, and I had more opportunities of observing what had 
 often struck me before — the development which takes place in 
 an Englishman's mind after the age of twenty-two, when he 
 recovers in two or three years all the ground which he apjyeared 
 to have lost as compared with an American, Scotch, or Conti- 
 nental student, and gains a great deal more. The new traits 
 of character, mental and moral, the new capabilities and veins 
 of thought which were then displayed, the way in which they 
 sucked up, as it were, for mere amusement, difterent kinds of 
 knowledge from all quarters — all these things were most in- 
 teresting to observe. 
 
 It has been mentioned that some Bachelors sit in the first 
 examination who do not present themselves at the succeeding 
 ones. Sometimes the reverse happens, and a man who wishes 
 to reserve himself for the second trial does not show his hand 
 at the first. This was my case ; six weeks before the time I 
 
 13
 
 290 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 was in Switzoilaiul, where, and in Italy, I passed tiie autumn 
 and ninst of the winter. E\en among these new scenes the 
 reminiscences of the study clung to me ; I carried along a 
 volume of Plato and another of Thucydidos, which were 
 oftcner in my hand than in my trunk. ]>efore leaving Cam- 
 bridge I had sent in an essay for the King William, a prize 
 left for the competition of Trinity Bachelors by some good 
 Protestant ; and at Rome I hc^ard of my success. March 
 found me in my old quarters again, reading Plato's Laws and 
 making an analysis of them as I went on, while my evenings 
 were employed in a critical perusal of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, in conjunction with a friend who was reading a little 
 Theology not professionally. Put the time had arrived when 
 it was necessary for me to decide a question on which I had 
 been pondering for several months, whether I should " gang or 
 bide." Loving the place as I did, I could hot disguise from 
 myself the fact of my being in a false position there. I would 
 rather have been a Fellow of Trinity than anything which I 
 could rationally hope to be in my own country, and there was 
 a chance, though a very remote one, of my getting a Fellowship ; 
 but long before that was determined, I must have become an 
 Englishman out and out, by process of gradual assimilation. 
 Five years' residence where a man is an alien in religion may 
 not altogether qualify him to be a citizen, but when he is of 
 the same religious persuasion with those about him, and both he 
 and they indifterent in politics, it begins to have a marked 
 eft'ect. I say indifferent in politics, for the adiaphorism of the 
 better class in England at that time, was hardly credible to one 
 who had first seen them in 1840 and 184L They went pretty 
 much where Sir Robert Peel chose to lead them, and the 
 liberal, or so called, interests were sufficiently in the ascendency 
 to please any but a very strong Radical. News from America 
 began to sound to me like news from abroad. I no longer 
 took a personal interest in it. When unable to bear the voy- 
 age homeward, I had longed passionately after my native coun- 
 try ; now that I was able to go, I had lost all inclination. My 
 Cambridge friends were fast filling up the place that had been
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSrrV. 291 
 
 occupied by my relatives at home. External events tastened my 
 decision. The Oregon difficulties were looking- very blaclc. 
 Nothing that our papers or publications said, seemed half so 
 like war as the silence of the English. A settled idea appeared 
 to pervade the country, that we — or a majority of us — were 
 determined to have a war, that it was not their fault and they 
 couldn't help it, and must only be ready for it when it came. 
 
 It was like tearing myself up b)^ the roots to leave Cam- 
 bridge. I gave in my resignation this time without i-ecall, and 
 took my name off the boards. The tutor argued with me for 
 some time, and at last finding my determination not to be 
 shaken, admitted that I was quite right to go. Then by way 
 of re-asserting my nationality, I put up a motion at the Union 
 (the questions for debate are always proposed in the form of 
 motions), that the American claims in Oregon were just and 
 reasonable, or something to that eft'ect. The subject was dis- 
 cussed in a rational tone, and the majority against us very 
 small. Finally I took leave of my friends in a series of dinners, 
 leaving them as last memorials a French dish [bisque cVecrcinsse), 
 and an American one (cocoa-nut pudding), that there might 
 be a pleasant memory of the transatlantic in their mouths. On 
 a fine May morning I took my last walk in the grounds of 
 Trinity ; they had never looked more beautiful. Sorry as T 
 then was to quit the spot, I have never since regretted that I 
 did so.
 
 2'J'J I'lVN VKAKti IN AN 
 
 THE STUDY OF THKOLOGY AT OAMnUIDGK. 
 
 '■ AVere a German scholar to pive his opinion on our universities, he would say that 
 they constitute only a philosophical faculty with a small intermixture of Ihoologj"." — 
 Journal of Education, vol. x. p. G9. 
 
 The American, and to a great extent the Continental, idea 
 of a University, is an institution for purposes of liberal educa- 
 tion, Avhicli, besides a general academic depai-tinent, comprises 
 three special faculties, Law, Physic, and Divinity, to which the 
 other faculty is deemed preparatory. The existence of these 
 separate faculties is generally considered with us the distinctive 
 mark of a University as opposed to a CoUer/e. Judged by this 
 rule the English Universities would be no Universities at all. 
 The faculties of law and physic are represented in them by tlie 
 slightest vestiges. Thus at Cambridge there is a Professor of 
 Civil Law who lectures and examines a class of about twenty- 
 four men a-year, and a Downing Professor of the Laws of Eng- 
 land, who does not lecture or examine at all — at least, he did 
 not in my day. The Professors of Botany, Chemistry, and 
 Anatomy, have classes varying from three to thirty. Medical 
 school, in the ordinary sense of the term, there is none. Ask 
 an English University man why these things are so, and lie will 
 answer that it is because the purely professional part of J^aw 
 and Physic cannot be taught anywhere so well as at the metro- 
 polis, where the great hospitals and great courts are. With 
 Divinity the case is different. A large number of the Univer- 
 sity graduates, probably more than half, being destined for the 
 Church, and the chapels, clerical dress, and general routine of 
 the place, adapting it well for getting up the mere formal part 
 of the profession, that study is necessarily pursued to a con- 
 siderable extent. Even here, however, the University does not 
 pretend to complete the professional education, each bishop
 
 ENGLTsri UNivF.nsrrv. 293 
 
 Lolding private examination, by Lis cliaplain, of the candidates 
 whom he admits to Holy Orders. 
 
 The state of instruction in and encouragement to the study 
 of Theology wei'e thus set forth in the report of a syndicate 
 appointed to consider the subject in 1842 : — 
 
 In tlie Previous Examination and in the Ordinary Examina- 
 tion for the B. A. degree, the University requires an acquaint- 
 ance with one of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in 
 the original Greek, with Paley's Evidences and Paley's Moral 
 Philosophy. 
 
 The other encouragements and aids to Theological studies 
 offered at present b}' the University (in addition to what is done 
 by Lectures, Examinations, Prizes, &c., in the several Colleges) 
 consist of 
 
 The examinations and disputations conducted by the Regius 
 Professor of Divinity in order to Divinity degrees : (see 
 note A.) 
 
 The Lectures of the Lady ^Largaret Professor of Divinity : 
 (see note 13.) 
 
 The Lectures of the Norrisian Professor of Divinity : (see 
 note C.) 
 
 The Lectures of the Knightbridge Professor of Moral Theo- 
 logy : (see note D.) 
 
 The Lectures of the Regius Professor of Hebrew : 
 
 The three Crosse Theological Scholarships : 
 
 The six Tyrwhitt Hebrew Scholarships : 
 
 The Prize (occasionally given on the Tyrwhitt bequest) for a 
 Dissertation on some subject connected with Hebrew Litera- 
 ture : 
 
 Tlie Prize for the Hulscan Dissertation : (about £100.) 
 
 The Prize for the Norrisian Dissertation : (£12.) 
 
 Note A. 
 The superintendence of all Exercises, required for the degrees 
 of Bachelor and Doctor in Divinity, is committed to the Regius 
 Professor of Divinity ; Avho also is much engaged in Examina- 
 tions more or less connected with Theological studies. 
 
 (Note B.) 
 Memorandum of the Lectures delivered by the Lady Mar- 
 garet Professor since his election in 1839.
 
 29 t FIVK YEAnS IN AN 
 
 I. On tlio Early Fathcra : 
 
 Introductory I>oc-tiiros sliowinjjf, Ist, from lior oxpross (lodara- 
 tioiis, and 2ndly, from lier structm-e and services, tlie roiiard 
 tlio Cliurch of ]*]no-l;ind jiays to early antiquity : 
 
 On the Apostolical l'\itliers (the Lectures on Ignatius j)refaced 
 by an abridgement of Bishop Pearson's Vindicia; Is^natiauie :) ; 
 on Justin Martyr ; Tatian ; Athenagoras ; Theopliilus ; and 
 Irenjeus ; the last, now in the course of delivery. 
 
 The object of these Lectures is to put the hearers eventually 
 in possession of a knowledge of all the Fathers of tlie tirst three 
 centuries : The plan lias been to go through each Father in 
 detail ; to give the substance of tlie author, where moi'e than 
 this did not seem necessary ; to translate at full and explain, 
 where a passage was remarkable ; and. lastly, to sum up the 
 whole (with references) under several heads, such as. Evidences, 
 Canon of Scripture, Interpretation of Scripture, Sacraments, 
 Ecclesiastical discipline and polit}', Points of controversy with 
 Rome, Classical illustrations, &c. 
 
 When the Course is completed, it may be adjusted to the 
 period of an undergraduate's residence in the L^niversity : 
 meanwhile parts of it are repeated, and advances made in it, 
 every year. 
 
 II. A Course of practical Lectures on the acquiremniis, and 
 2irincipal ohliijations and duties cf the Parish-Priest : 
 
 Introductory Lecture, on the ministerial character of St. 
 Paul : 
 
 On the Reading of the Parish-Priest ; (advising (1) the study 
 of the Scriptures in the original languages, with examples of 
 the advantage of this, and other hints for reading them ; (2) 
 the study of the Fathers of the first three centuries, with illus- 
 trations of the benefit to be derived, from this study ; (3) the 
 study of the English Reformation in the documents set forth 
 seriatim by the Reformers ; a list of these given, with remarks 
 on each : The whole intended to put the students on applying 
 themselves to original authorities, as the sources of sound know- 
 ledge, and to divert them from such as are only secondary and 
 derivative :) On the composition of Sermons : On Schools, 
 Sunday and Daily, the method of establishing, maintaining, 
 and. conducting them : On Parochial Ministrations, especially 
 visiting the sick : On ordinary Pastoral Intercourse : On the 
 observance of Rubric and Canons : On the general Rules by 
 which the Parish-Priest should be guided. 
 
 The Margaret Professor pro]')oses to deliver this latter series
 
 ENGLISH VNIVKHSITV. 295 
 
 of Lectuios, with such altorations or additions as may suggest 
 themselves, every second or third year, so that all students 
 intended for Holy Orders may have an opportunity of hearing 
 them. 
 
 Note C 
 
 Outline of the Lectures delivered by the Norrisian Professor 
 since his election in 1838. 
 
 I. The provision made by the Churcli of England for secur- 
 ing in Candidates for Holy Orders, 
 
 1. Moral fitness. 
 
 2. Literary qualifications. 
 
 3. Soundness in Doctrine. 
 
 Occasion is taken to explain what is implied in subscription 
 to Articles of Religion generally — and in subscription to the 
 Three Propositions contained in the 36th Canon particularly — 
 references being, at the same time, given to Authors who have 
 treated of these several subjects. 
 
 H, The course of reading desirable to be pursued by the 
 Candidate for Holy Orders is then considered, as embracing — 
 
 a. The Sacred Scriptures in the original Languages — and 
 under this head is given a detailed account of some of 
 i. The principal Editions of the Hebrew Bible and 
 
 Greek Testament, 
 ii. The Hebrew and Greek Lexicons ) to the Sacred 
 
 Concordances ( Scriptures. 
 
 iii. The commentaries on the Old and New Testament. 
 
 iv. Those writers who have treated of the Chronology, 
 
 Geography, Antiquities, &c., of the Scriptures. 
 
 A selection being made in each case, for the biblical Student, 
 
 of such books as seem, to the Professor, best adapted for the 
 
 Student's use and circumstances. 
 
 B. The Praijer-BooTc. Under this head are noticed — 
 
 i. The conformity of the English Liturgy with the Scrip- 
 tures, and with the best portions of the Liturgies 
 of Antiquity. 
 ii. The modifications which the Prayer-Book has un- 
 dergone. 
 iii. The importance of an accurate acquaintance with 
 a. The office for the Administration of Baptism. 
 h Holy Com-
 
 200 FIVE YKAHS IN AS 
 
 r. TJic oflloc for llio Ordering of Deacons and 
 
 Pi'iosts. 
 cl. Those of the XXXIX. Articles Avliich treat of 
 
 the doctrine of the Sacraments. 
 
 In the discussion of tliese several suhjects i-eferences are 
 given to such writei's as treat of them i-espectively. 
 
 y. The Church of England as res{)ects her 
 
 A. History. Comprising under this division notices of 
 
 i. The Ancient 13ritish Churcli, 
 
 ii. The Anglo-Saxon 
 
 iii. The Anglo-Norman 
 
 iv. The Reformed 
 
 The more important eras in eacli being pointed out, and 
 books mentioned in which information respecting the subject- 
 matter may be obtained. 
 
 B. PoVity. Comprising an inquiry into 
 
 i. The Scriptural authority for a Threefold Ministry, 
 ii. The validity of the Orders of the English Church. 
 The principal writers on these subjects being referred to as 
 occasion requires. 
 
 C. Controversies, With 
 i. Infidelity. 
 
 The bearing and importance of Natural Religion, as 
 connected with Revelation, being pointed out. 
 ii. Romanism. 
 
 Mentioning in detail the chief points in dispute with 
 Romanists, and in the history of the Romish Con- 
 troversy in this country. 
 iii. Dissent. 
 
 Marking the peculiarities of dissent, and the diflfer- 
 ent forms it has assumed both doctrinally and in its 
 workings. 
 The writers from whom information on these several topics 
 may be obtained being severally referred to. 
 I). Ministrations. 
 i. Preaching. 
 
 Taking occasion under this head to refer to sources 
 
 from whence instruction may be derived respecting 
 
 n. The style and composition of Sermons ; and then, 
 
 b. Giving a List of some Authors whose sermons may 
 
 be read with advantage.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 29*7 
 
 ii. Parochial duties. 
 
 In connexion with which such Books are referred to, 
 
 as treat of 
 a. The spiritual duties and general conduct of a Cler- 
 gyman. 
 h. Or relate to the secular aftairs of a Parish. 
 E. Endoivments. Under this head notice is taken of 
 
 i. The general principles involved in EstaLlishments, as 
 
 contrasted with, what is called, 
 ii. The Voluntary Principle. 
 Then is noticed, 
 
 a. The origin of our Parochial and Cathedral endow- 
 ments. 
 h. Some of the chief points in their history : 
 References being given to writers on these subjects respec- 
 tively. 
 
 Besides the several topics which have been thus recited, it 
 should be borne in mind that the main outlines of the Evi- 
 dences and Doctrines of Christianity are discussed in such 
 portions of Pearson on the Creed as are read and commented 
 upon in the Course of the Lectures. 
 
 Note D. 
 
 The Professorship of " Moral Theology or Casuistry," 
 founded by Dr. Knightbridge, is considered by the present 
 holder of it as a Professorship of Moral Philosophy. During 
 the last three years, he has delivered three courses of Lectures 
 upon the History of Moral Philosophy, especially its history 
 in England since the Reformation. During the present year 
 he is delivering a course of Lectures on the difficulties which 
 attend the formation of a System of Morality, and the mode 
 of overcoming them. 
 
 By way of elucidation and comment it may be observed : 
 
 1. A certificate of attendance on the Di\-inity Lectures is 
 requisite to obtain the College testimonials for C)rders ; these 
 lectures are therefore very numerously attended, and by not 
 a few Undergraduates. 
 
 2. The exercises required for Degrees in Divinity are Latin 
 theses, and the only remains of the old system of " keeping 
 
 13*
 
 298 FIVE YEAHS IX AN 
 
 acts," which is now represented in the Degrees in Arts merely 
 by payment of a small fee. 
 
 3. Hebrew is not essniliul to admission into Holy Orders. 
 Probably half the candidates have not studied it. lint it is 
 coming to be more and more required by the bishops in their 
 theological examinations. I think it may be assumed tliat the 
 study of Hebrew is more advanced in this country than in Eng- 
 land. Several English scholars have admitted as much to me. 
 On the other hand, the Alexandrine Greek, particularly the 
 Greek Testament, is more carefully and accurately read there 
 than liere. Some portions of the Testament, the Acts for in- 
 stance, are worked up with very great care, every subject 
 relating to them, critical, historical, geographical, antiquarian, 
 controversial, being elaborated with the utmost pains. 
 
 4. In 1846, was established an annual voluntary Theological 
 examination, open to all graduates at any time after taking 
 their B.A. This examination consists of the Greek Testament, 
 certain assigned portions of the early Fathers, Ecclesiastical 
 History, the Church of England Articles and Liturgy. The 
 names of those who pass respectably are published in alphabeti- 
 cal order. There is a subsequent examination in Hebrew for 
 such as choose to present themselves, and to which Bachelors 
 in Civil Law are also admitted. Many of the Bishops now 
 require that candidates for Orders in their dioceses shall have 
 jiassed this voluntary Theological examination before presenting 
 themselves to be privately examined by the chaplain. 
 
 5. There is no specified time necessary to be spent in pre- 
 paring for Orders. Any B.A. twenty-three years old, and 
 having the necessary Professoi'ial and College certificates, may 
 present himself, subject to the particular conditions of his 
 Bishop. 
 
 I cannot better conclude this chapter than by giving a list 
 of books which I selected with a friend's assistance, as the 
 nucleus of a Theological Library, just before quitting the 
 University. They present a tolerably fair specimen of the 
 reading which a candidate for Orders, whose Bishop did not 
 require Hebrew, would go through : —
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 299 
 
 Schleiisner's New Testament Lexicon. 
 
 IJloonifield's Recensio Synoptica. 
 
 The Apostolic Fathers (Hefele's edition). 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus. 
 
 Justin Martyr. 
 
 Cyprian. 
 
 Tertullian's Apology. 
 
 St. Augustine Be Civitate Dei. 
 
 The Bishop of Lincoln on Justin Martyr. 
 
 on Clemens Alexandrinus. 
 
 Collier's Church History. 
 
 Waddington's Church History. 
 
 Bingham's Christian Antiquities. 
 
 Landor's Manual of Councils. 
 
 Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature. 
 
 Bernard's Vitringa's Synagogue and the Church. 
 
 Lyall's Propsedia Prophetica — 
 
 Home on the Psalms. 
 
 Pearson on the Creed. 
 
 Leighton's Works. 
 
 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity. 
 
 Maurice's Kingdom of Christ. 
 
 Maurice's Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 Religions of the World. 
 
 Trench's Notes on the Miracles. 
 
 the Parables. 
 
 Hulsean Lectures. 
 
 Whately's Essays. 
 
 Some small commentaries on the Acts^re omitted as being 
 publications of an ephemeral nature and varying from year to 
 year.
 
 300 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 RECENT CHANGES AT CAMRRIDGK. 
 
 Probably most persons will allow that a p^reat degree of caution is requisite In legislat- 
 ing on the subject of education. — Whewell. 
 
 A LARGE class of liasty reasoners are accustomed to talk 
 and doubtless to think, of tlie English Universities as old hulks 
 water-logged, or run aground in the stream of modern 
 improvement, regions systematically opposed to emendation, 
 and uninvadcd by the much boasted-of " march of intellect," 
 where the same things are taught in the same way year after 
 year and age after age. How far this reproach may be 
 applicable to Oxford I shall not pi'eteud to say, but there 
 certainly never was an academical institution less liable to the 
 charge than Cambridge. I will venture to say that there is 
 not an American College Avhich has experienced during the 
 last ten years so many and so important changes, additions, 
 and improvements, as that great University. Nor is this to be 
 wondered at when we consider that the governing body com- 
 prises men of different pursuits and j^references. Classics, 
 Mathematicians, and Divines in large numbers, Metaphysicians, 
 and Casuists more numerous than an outsider or one super- 
 ficially acquainted with the place might suppose, followers of 
 natural science, less influential than the other classes, yet not 
 without their weight, all eagerly on the look-out for any 
 improvement in their favorite branch, and equally so for an 
 occasion of urging their claims to greater attention and privi- 
 leges. The clever men who remain attached to the Uni- 
 versity are very soon put in possession of a share of the govern- 
 ing power. Some of the most important examinations are con- 
 ducted by men under thirty, so that different ages, as well as dif- 
 ferent tastes and abilities, are brought into contact and collision. 
 
 The changes which the principal examination for the Degree
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 301 
 
 of B. A. underwent since 1800 and previous to 1840, are 
 thus detailed in a Report, for the year 1849, of the Board 
 of Mathematical Studies, which Board is itself a recent 
 institution. 
 
 " In 1808, the examination of the candidates for Honors 
 commenced on the first Monday in the Lent Term ; three days 
 were devoted to Mathematics ; and the candidates having been 
 arranged in Brackets according to the result of the examinations 
 on those days, the order of their merit was finally determined 
 by examinations of the Brackets on the following Friday. Each 
 candidate was examined 18 hours in the course of the three 
 days, of which 11 hours were employed in answering questions 
 from books, and the remaining 1 in the solution of Problems. 
 The number of candidates that obtained Honors in that year 
 was 38. Tn 1828, when the number had increased to 90, the 
 examination commenced on the Friday preceding the first 
 Monday in the Lent Term, and extended over four days, exclu- 
 sive of the day of examining the Brackets ; the total number of 
 hours of examination was 23, and the time assigned to Problems 
 remained the same as in 1808. By regulations which took 
 eftect in January, 1833, the commencement of the examination 
 was placed a day earlier, the duration was five days, and the 
 hours of examination on each day were 5^. Thus 4^ hours 
 were added to the whole time of examination, 4 of which were 
 appropriated to the answering of questions from books, and the 
 remaining half hour to the solution of Problems. The successful 
 candidates in that year amounted to 105. Li 1835 the number 
 was 117, and the examination, for the convenience of the 
 examiners, began on the Wednesday of the same week, without 
 alteration in other respects. In January, 1839, there were 
 six days of examination, beginning on the Monday preceding 
 the first Monday in the Lent Term, and the total number 
 of hours of examination was 33, of which 8i were given 
 to Problems. The first day of examination was altered in 
 1841 to the Wednesday week preceding the first Monday 
 in the Lent Term. The number on the list of Honors in 1840 
 was 146. 
 
 " Of the alterations relating to the classification of the 
 candidates and the mode of proposing the questions, the follow- 
 ing are those of chief importance. Previous to January, 1828, 
 the candidates were divided into six classes, determined by the 
 Exercises in the Schools ; difierent printed Problems and vivd
 
 302 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 voce questions were proposed to different classes, generally 
 taken two together, and the only questions }»roposed to all in 
 common were the Evouikj Problems. In the year above 
 named, important regulations, confirmed by Grace of the 
 Senate, Nov. 13, 182Y, came into operation. The classes 
 were reduced to four, determined as before by tlie Exercises in 
 the Schools. On the first two days all the candidates had the 
 same questions proposed to them, inclusive of the Evening 
 Problems ; and the examination from books on those days 
 excluded the higher and more difficult i)arts of mathematics, 
 with the view of securing an object which, in the opinion of 
 the Syndicate on whose recommendation these regulations 
 were adopted, was highly desirable, viz. 'That the Candidates 
 for Honors may not be induced to pursue the more abstruse 
 and profound mathematics to the neglect of more elementary 
 knowledge.' Accordingly, on the first day (Friday) the 
 questions from books extended to such parts of pure Mathe- 
 matics and Natural Philosophy as do not require the Differential 
 Calculus, and on the Saturday were added parts of Natural 
 Philosophy somewhat more advanced, and the simpler applica- 
 tions of the Calculus. On Monday, the first and second classes 
 were examined together, and the third and fourth together, in 
 questions from books and in Problems ; and on Tuesday, the 
 second and third were examined together, and the first and 
 fourth sepai'ately, in questions from books. The questions, 
 which had previously been given out viva voce, were ^:)?'/n<C(/, 
 in order to make generally known the questions proposed 
 in each year, and, by thus directing the reading of the 
 students, to produce more fixity and definiteness in the 
 mathematical studies of the University. The printed papers 
 also aftbrded the opportunity of ascertaining by inspection 
 that the examination embraced in due proportion all the 
 ordinary subjects of mathematical study. No change was 
 made in the substance of the examination ; the questions 
 inserted in the papers being, like those which had been 
 proposed viva voce, propositions contained in mathematical 
 works commonly in use in the University, or simple examples 
 and explanations of such propositions. For the purpose of 
 preventing those who had attended to a part only of the 
 subjects from having any undue advantage by this mode of 
 conducting the Examination, it was especially recommended 
 that ' there be not contained in any paper more questions than 
 students well prepared have boen generally found able to
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 303 
 
 answer witliin the tiin e allowed for siicli paper.' At the same 
 time a discretionary power was given to the Examiners of 
 proposing additional qnestions viva voce, if any candidate slionld 
 before the end of the time have answered all the questions in 
 the paper. This power, however, was not continued in the 
 regulations of 1833, nor in any subsequent regulations. With 
 this exception the preceding regulations may be said to have 
 determined the principles on which in the main the exami- 
 nations have been since conducted ; and for this reason it has 
 been thought right to insert them at some length in this Report. 
 
 " By regulations which came into force in January, 1833, 
 the same questions were proposed to all the classes during the 
 first /owr days. The order of difficulty of the questions on the 
 first three days was the same as it had previously been on the 
 first two days ; but on the fourth day the examination extended 
 to subjects of greater difliculty, care, however, being taken to 
 insert into the papers some questions suitable to the lower 
 classes. On the fifth day the examination was conducted 
 according to classes. 
 
 " In January, 1839, the division into classes was discon- 
 tinued, and the same questions were proposed throughout the 
 examination to all whom the Moderators judged, from the 
 public Exercises in the Schools, to be qualified for examination 
 as candidates for Mathematical Honors. The order of difliculty 
 of the questions was regulated nearly as before, questions 
 selected exclusively from the higher parts of the subjects being 
 proposed only on the sixth day of the examination." 
 
 The examinations as they existed from 1840 to 1846 have 
 been described at length. During the last four years, from 
 1846 to 1850, several altei*ations, some of them very important, 
 have been made." 
 
 In 1846 the great Mathematical examination for Honors 
 was re-modelled ; it was split into two parts and its time 
 lengthened from six to eight days. 
 
 During the fii-st three days the Candidates were examined 
 only on the following subjects. 
 
 Euclid. Book I. to VI. Book XL Props, i. to xxi. 
 Book XII. Props, i. ir. 
 
 Arithmetic and the elementary parts of Algerra; namely,
 
 304 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 the Rules for tlie fuiiilanieiit.il Operations upon Algebraical 
 Symbols, with their proofs ; the solution of simple and qua- 
 dratic Ecjuations ; Arithmetical and Geometrical Progression, 
 Permutations and Combinations, the Binomial Theorem, and 
 the principles of Logarithms. 
 
 The elementary parts of Plane Trigonometrv, so far as to 
 include the solution of triangles. 
 
 Tlie elementary parts of Conic Sections, treated geometri- 
 cally, together with the values of the Radius of Curvature, and 
 of the Chords of Curvature passing through the Focus and 
 Centre. 
 
 The elementary parts of Statics, treated without the 
 Ditferential Calculus ; namely, the Composition and Resolution 
 of Forces acting in one plane on a point, the Mechanical 
 Powers, and the properties of the Centre of Gravity. 
 
 The elementary parts of Dynamics, treated without the 
 Differential Calcuhis ; namely, the Doctrine of Uniform and 
 Uniformly Accelerated Motion, of Falling Bodies, Projectiles, 
 Collision, and Cycloidal Oscillations. 
 
 The 1st, 2d, and 3d Sections of Newton's Principia ; the 
 Propositions to be proved in Newton's manner. 
 
 The elementary parts of Hydrostatics, treated without the 
 Differential Calculus ; namely, the pressure of non-elastic 
 Fluids, specific Gravities, floating Bodies, the pressure of the 
 Air, and the construction and use of the more simple Instru- 
 ments and Machines. 
 
 The elementary parts of Optics, treated geometrically ; 
 namely, the laws of Reflection and Refraction of Rays at plane 
 and spherical surfaces, not including Aberrations ; the Eye ; 
 Telescopes. 
 
 The elementary parts of Astronomy ; so far as they are 
 necessary for the explanation of the more simple phenomena, 
 without calculation. 
 
 In all these subjects, Examples and Questions arising 
 directly out of the Propositions, were introduced into the 
 Examination, in addition to the Propositions themselves. 
 
 All these subjects might be, and indeed have been, com- 
 prised in one volume of no very ponderous dimensions. 
 
 This was a pass examination for Honors. After an interval 
 of eight days the examiners published an alphabetical list of 
 those who bad so acquitted themselves as to deserve Mathema-
 
 ElvnLTsn TTN'TVEniTrv. r!0."> 
 
 tical Iloiiors, and siidi Clast^ical men in it as only wislicd to 
 pass were tlien sure of being Junior Optimes. The candidates 
 for higher Ilonors tlien had an examination for live days in 
 tlie higher subjects, after which all the men on the first list 
 were classed according to the examination of the Avhole eight 
 days. 
 
 At the same time an arrangement of the 'rroXkoi was made 
 into four classes, the men in each class placed alphabetically, 
 and tlie gulfed men were required to pass the non-mathematical 
 part of the Poll examination befoi-e their Degrees wei'e allowed 
 them. 
 
 The advantages of this change in the Honor examination 
 were very great. The Classical men found themselves in a 
 far better position, having their requisite field of Mathematics 
 accurately marked out, at the same time that the number of 
 questions in it was enlarged ; while they stood a cliance of 
 knowing what they did get up much more thoroughly and 
 with more satisfaction to all parties. In respect to those who 
 were candidates only for ^lathematical distinction, an occa- 
 sional abuse of tlie old system was effectually guarded against. 
 It had sometimes happened that men with more ambition for 
 University Honors than Mathematical ability or steady appli- 
 cation, had, though deficient in their low subjects, managed to 
 secure respectable places by lucky speculation in cramming 
 parts of high ones. By making all the candidates pass a pre- 
 liminary examination in the low subjects this oecuri-ence was 
 at once prevented. 
 
 But the Classical men were not satisfied with the point they 
 had gained. They continued to agitate the question, and 
 finally in 1849 opened the Classical Tripos to the First Class 
 of the Poll and the men gulfed in Ilonors. This change was 
 eft'ected in the face of strong opposition, and some have pro- 
 phesied very deleterious consequences from it. For my own 
 part, I doubt whether it will have any eftect for good or evil. 
 The grievances of Classical men in my time were these: first, 
 the uncertainty of the amount of Mathematical reading
 
 nOO PIVR YKAnS IN' AN 
 
 i-0(juircd of tlicm ; secondly, tlx' nmioyaiioo of tlie Ma(li<!matieal 
 examination coining so soon before the Classical. The former 
 was remedied by the change of 1846, tlie latter was not reme- 
 died by the cliang-c of 1849. 
 
 In 1848 it was provided, by way of giving the Professors 
 something more to do, that all candidates for an ordinary 
 Degree, should, during their Undergraduateship, be obliged to 
 attend for at least one term the lectures of one or more of tlie 
 following Professors : 
 
 Regius Professor of Physic. 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy. 
 
 Professor of Chemistry. 
 
 l*roiessor of Anatomy. 
 
 Professor of Modern History. 
 
 Professor of Botany. 
 
 Woodwardian Professor of Geology. 
 
 Jacksonian Professor of Natural and Experimental Plii- 
 losophy. 
 
 Downing Professor of Medicine. 
 
 Professor of Mineralogy. 
 
 Professor of Political Economy. 
 
 Downing Professor of tlie Laws of England. 
 
 Regius Professor of Laws. 
 
 Also, that all students going out in Civil Law and not 
 taking a First Class in tbat faculty, should, before receiving 
 their Degree, attend for one term the lectures of one or more 
 of the first eleven Professors above named. 
 
 The Classical Tripos received in 1849 the addition of a 
 paper of questions in Ancient History — an addition not made 
 before it was wanted, as minute scholarship was threatening 
 to banish, under the invidious name of " cram," all antiquarian 
 learning from the University. 
 
 The Little-Go did not escape notice among all these altera- 
 tions. Old Testament History, Arithmetic, and two Books of 
 Euclid were added to it. Ecclesiastical History was also added 
 to the fixed subjects for the Poll. Such a general stir woke up
 
 KXCa.I.SII INIVKKSITV. "07 
 
 the King's men, avIio volimtarily put themselves on a level with 
 the other Colleges by renouncing their privilege of taking De- 
 grees without passing the examination. 
 
 But the most imjwrtant change was made in 1848 by the 
 establishment of two new Triposes, those of the Moral Sciences 
 and the Xatural Sciences. 
 
 The former includes Moral Philosophy, Political Economy, 
 Modern History, General Jurisprudence, and the Laws of Eng- 
 land ; tlie latter. Anatomy, Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, 
 Chemistry, Botany, and Geology. They are open to all 
 Bachelors. 
 
 On the benefits to result from the establishment of the latter 
 examination, it may be premature to ofier an opinion ; that of 
 the former is clearly destined to be of much importance and 
 value. It is, in fact, nearly equivalent to carrying out for the 
 whole University the course of reading pursued for the " Meta- 
 physical" papers in the Trinity Fellowship. There are but two 
 objections to its becoming immediately popular. One is the 
 want of pecuniary stimulus, direct or indirect, to the successful 
 candidates. This Avill be obviated in time. There is no want 
 of liberality on the part of Englishmen to encourage every 
 form of learning. Dr. AVhewell himself has here led the way 
 by founding two annual j^rizes of fifteen guineas each for the 
 two candidates who pass the best examination in Moral Philo- 
 sophy. The other is one which I do not know if those actually 
 on the ground have paid much attention to, but it struck me, 
 looking at it from a distance and remembering my own expe- 
 rience, with great force. The examination is held just between 
 the Mathematical and Classical Triposes, and consequently those 
 who are very anxious or at all doubtful about their Classical 
 Degree will hardly be able to attend to it. 
 
 Such are the changes recently made by the University 
 within itself. But an external force has lately been brought to 
 bear on it, not altogether lumoticed on this side the water. 
 I alkide to the Commission appointed within a year, and now, 
 I believe, in session. Some people both in and out of England 
 think that this Commission will have very much the eftect of
 
 nOS FiVK vi:ai;s in ax 
 
 running ;i railioad ihiouoli a l(jng secluded tract of country, 
 and that soinetliing very ^stunning is to result from it. Others 
 l)elieve it merely a tul> fur the whale, such as English AYhig 
 Ministers delight in, and the end cf ^vhieh ^vill be — ^just 
 nothing. Should any positive state interference, such as a sec- 
 tion of the Kadieals desire, really be attempted, I leave Pro- 
 fessor Maurice (whose very able Lectures on Education are less 
 known than they deserve to be) to state the probable conse- 
 quences. 
 
 " Tn tlie long and able, and in many ways higLly interesting 
 evidence of Mr. Simpson, -which is given in the Appendix to 
 the Report of the Education Committee, ]835, I find seme re- 
 raaihs which bear upon this subject. 
 
 " iJxtract f)o»i 2w</e 129. — " Even in tliis enlightened age it 
 is extremel}^ doubtful if the Chancellor of the Exchequer were 
 to propose a grant of a sum of £200,000 for the support of 
 Education in tliis realm, whether he would be able to carry the 
 vote. Supposing the universities had been dependent upon 
 annual votes, or such sources as you have observed, do you 
 think it at all probable that they would have subsisted for 
 several centuries ? I should think that, starting from the 
 period in which Ave now live, they would have a much better 
 chance of the support of Parliament than in the remote ages 
 through which they have liitherto passed ; but their splendid 
 endowments have rather subsisted as direct estates to the for- 
 tunate incumbents, than as a means of keeping alive and 
 diti'using the best education. They have had too much of a 
 monastic character for this ; and it is well known that they 
 liave been the subject of reproach, according to Dr. A. Smith, 
 as the asylums of errors hunted out from every other corner 
 of Society. Your answer does not mean that the universities, 
 as supported by endowments, have been the means of retard- 
 ing Education, instead of accelerating it ? No, not altogether 
 so ; for those endowments and the monasteries were the only 
 chance for education in the age in which they were esta- 
 blished, and long afterwards, and if they had depended on the 
 votes of the legislature, they would not have been established 
 at all ; Education, so far as it has been aided by them, w^ould 
 not without them have been heard of. You think it was a 
 matter of absolute necessity, and not a matter of choice, which
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 309 
 
 directed the endowments in land for the support of schools, the 
 legislature at that time not being in ihe habit of giving a sum 
 of money for that purpose ; quite a matter of necessity ; there 
 could have been no scliools without it. You cannot draw any 
 conclusion as to the advantages of their existence, from the 
 advantages that might be derived from them in former periods ? 
 Certainly not. Do you consider it an additional evil, the ex- 
 istence of endowments, mixing up the duties of a teacher of a 
 public school with the management of lands, and other subjects 
 independently of the purposes of Education ? That is a great 
 evil. And placing them out of the control of Parliament and 
 public opinion ? No doubt of it; and I should think that that 
 is one cause of the great i)redominance of the dead languages 
 as part of the Education of youth ; there are such magnificent 
 endowments to support them, which must be lost to these in- 
 cumbents if the dead languages did not continue to be the 
 primary object of Education. Then you consider that any in- 
 dividual who in a spirit of beneficence and enlightened charity 
 would form an endowment, and give an estate for the purpose 
 of furnishing Education in a particular neighborhood, would be 
 conferring an evil, instead of a benefit on society ? A relative 
 evil, if there were a national system existing at the same time. 
 And a more judicious arrangement on his part would be to 
 place whatever funds he intended for Education at the disposal 
 of such public system, to be applied in the most useful manner ? 
 Certainly.' 
 
 "This is a very good statement of the advantages which 
 persons who agree with Mr. Simpson supjjose would follow 
 from the subjection of the universities to parliamentary control. 
 They would then present a fair image of the age ; they would 
 then pay less attention to the dead languages ; they would not 
 lie asylums of error, hunted out of every other part of society. 
 Now just imagine if, in the days of Adam Smith, from whom 
 this last sentiment is borrowed, the universities had been recon- 
 structed uj)on his maxims, what would have been the conse- 
 <[uence? Do you think they would have been the least in 
 accordance with the spirit of this age — the spirit, I mean, of 
 this present year 1839 ? Is it not notorious, that since his day, 
 the common, customary, fashionable opinions upon moral and 
 metaphysical subjects, upon poetry, upon history, have under- 
 gone the most entire revolution ? If Adam Smith had had 
 his way — certainly, if the opinions of his contemporaries had 
 been followed — logic would have been treated as one of the
 
 310 FIVE YEAliS IX AK 
 
 absurdities whicli liad been luiiitoJ out (excci)t in iiaino) of ail 
 places but Oxford : not a book of Aristotle's would have been 
 allowed to reinaiu in the Univerrfity. Within the last ten 
 years, logic lias been pronounced, upon tlie authoiity of jNIr. 
 Beutham and Mr. Mill, and other leaders of tlie 19th century, 
 to be the most valuable of all studies ; Aristotle has been held 
 lip as one of the greatest utilitarian writers. In Adam Smith's 
 day, all poetical criticism not contained in Dr. Blair's Lectures 
 or Lord Kaime's Elements, would have been Inmtcd out of 
 reasonable society ; now those books themselves, and the school 
 Avliich they represent, have sunk into the lowest estimation. 
 Robertson and Hume would of course have been Smith's stand- 
 ards of historical writing ; now the world can listen with great 
 complacency to Charles Lamb's assertion, that their books have 
 the same title to the character of histories, as the chess-boards 
 Avhich we see inscribed in gilt letters with the same honorable 
 name. But has it required fifty years to make such changes as 
 these? By no means. A review started into existence in the 
 northern part of Great Britain about the year 1801. It was 
 most oracular in all its announcements; especially it took this 
 subject of Education under its patronage; ridiculed tlie Univer- 
 sities ; longed that they might be forced into conformity with 
 the spirit of the age. Men quailed before the utterances of 
 these mighty seers ; only a few poets, nniversally denounced as 
 madmen, ventured to dispute their judgments and defy their 
 laughter. I ask those who know, whether there is one canon 
 of taste, one leading dogma, one practical position which these 
 rulers of the age put forth, that would not iiow be scouted by 
 the corresponding class to that which then admired them, one 
 which, they have not been themselves compelled, by that fixed 
 rule of adapting themselves to all changes of opinion and cir- 
 cumstances, quietly to retract or contradict ? Yet more recently, 
 another periodical publication was set on foot expressly to 
 embody opinions still more emphatically belonging to the age. 
 Whoever difteied from these was called, in the pages of this 
 work, not a fool, but a knave. I do not mean that there was 
 not another count in the indictment, containing the first charge ; 
 but this was most pressed. He must have some sinister inter- 
 est to misdirect his judgment, otherwise he would not j-eject 
 doctrines so clearly and invincibly demonstrated. But alas ! 
 the knaves have been justified, for the honest men have them- 
 selves abandoned full one-half of these irresistible demonstrations, 
 and now find it oftentimes very convenient to convict their
 
 ENGLISH I'NIVEKSITV. 311 
 
 opponents of holding tliem and acting upon them. Still, like 
 their predecessors, tliey are enrnged at the universities for not 
 adapting themselves to the spirit of the age, — that is to say, 
 for not shaping their Education according to the maxims of 
 1824, to be reformed again according to the altered and often 
 opposite maxims of 1839. 
 
 " Now you see from Mr. Simpson's statement, that if the 
 university did but depend upon annual parliamentary grants, 
 it Avould have the blessing of being able to meet all these 
 expectations. He does not, probably, mean, that the system 
 would be changed every year ; but he means (and I think he 
 is quite right in his prophecy) that such a general influence 
 would be communicated to the government for the time being, 
 by the force of these opinions acting upon them through 
 various channels, that some little charge would be continually 
 making, a very little change possibly, — indeed, to persons 
 busied about the great matters connected with railroads and 
 canals, almost too insignificant to be noticed, — but still great 
 enough to alter the whole principle of the institution, and to 
 atiect the influence which it exercises over the national mind 
 for generations."
 
 312 I'lVK VKAKS JN AN 
 
 THE CAjMBRIDGE SV'STEM OF EDUCATION IN ITS INTELLECTUAL 
 IlESULTS. 
 
 KpeiTTOv yap irov OjiiKpov cv J; no\v )iii iKavdii KCpavai 
 
 Plato, TiiEAT. 187, E. 
 
 There are some subjects in treating of which we can plunge 
 in medias res. The subject of this chapter is not such a one. 
 AVe must, in discussing it, bear in mind the Frenchman's 
 advice, to "beorin at the bcfjinniuo-." Before investiffatino; the 
 merits of any pai-ticular scheme of education, we must under- 
 stand clearly what we mean by education, and what we con- 
 sider to be the object of it. This going back to first principles 
 is, doubtless, a great bore in many cases, as where the Con- 
 gressman, recorded by Sands, began his speech on a question 
 of paving Pennsylvania Avenue with a historical dissertation 
 on the Constitution of the United States ; and such an 
 announcement made formally at this stage of a book is very 
 like admonishing the adventurous reader who 1ms travelled so 
 far that now is the time for him to repose after his labors. 
 Nevertheless, it is very necessary on some occasions, if he would 
 avoid that satisfactory state of things which is called in Latin 
 conlroversia, and in English cross inirposcs. For the term edttca- 
 tiou, is a tolei'ably comprehensive one, covers a great deal of 
 ground, and may be taken in a great many different accepta- 
 tions. Ask one man to define cducaLion for you, and he will 
 tell you (truly enough, too, in one sense) that everything which 
 a man passes through in his life is a part of his education for 
 this world or the next. Ask anothei' what he understands by 
 education, and he will answer your question most Socratically 
 by another, or a string of others, — " education of whom, and 
 for what? — a lawyer's education, a doctor's, a merchant's?" 
 And if you tell him " a man's," he will be still less able to give
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 313 
 
 you a direct reply. Ask a third what the end of education is, 
 and he tells you, ore rotundo, that it is " to qualify men to do 
 good," which is a magnificent sentiment to hear, only if you 
 come to cross-question this gentleman as to the particular kinds 
 of " good " that men are to be qualified to do, you will find them 
 to include robbery of private individuals, resistance to public 
 authority, and a general propensity to upset everything estab- 
 lished. 
 
 There are certainly some very odd ideas on this same subject 
 of education afloat among us. Here, for instance, is a passage 
 which I find in a book called Hints towards Reforms* a series 
 of lectures and discourses delivered by Mr. Horace Greeley, 
 editor of the New York Tribune. 
 
 " The youth who fancies himself educated because he has 
 fully mastered ever so many branches of mere school learning, 
 is laboring under a deplorable and perilous delusion. He may 
 have learned all that the schools, the seminaries, and even our 
 miscalled universities, necessarily teach, and still be a pitiably 
 ignorant man, unable to earn a week's subsistence, to resist the 
 promptings of a perverted appetite, or to shield himself from 
 such common results of physical depravity as Dyspepsia, Hypo- 
 chondria, and Nervous Derangement. A master of Greek and 
 Hebrew who does not know how to grow Potatoes, and can be 
 tempted to drown his reason in the intoxicating bowl, is far 
 more imperfectly educated than many an unlettered back- 
 woodsman." 
 
 Now, as regards the "intoxicating bowl," it is certainly a 
 terrible defect in a man's morale that he should habitually get 
 drunk, so it is, for that matter, that he should habitually advo- 
 cate Anti-Rentism, or any other species of robbery ; but I do 
 not perceive that his education has necessarily anything to do 
 with the one or the other. He may have a hereditary propen- 
 sity to drink or plunder which no education can eradicate, and 
 which can only be repressed or punished by other influences, or 
 he may have started in the world a sober and honest man, and 
 
 * P. 211. 
 14
 
 314 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 have afterwards become perverted by warping* influences. But 
 I wish to call particular attention to the words which I have 
 italicized, and the proposition which they convey, to wit, that 
 to grow, or, in more correct English, to raise potatoes (to the 
 dignity of which vegetable Mr. G. has further testified by the 
 big P he employs in spelling it) is a more essential branch of 
 education than Greek and Ilobrew. 
 
 Now, methinks, a reader of ordinary capacity and reflection, 
 if he had his attention attracted by such a jjassage, and wei-e 
 led to compare for himself the relative value of the two things 
 referred to as elements of education, would, in the first place, 
 be likely to inquire the amount of labor and time respectively 
 necessary to become a master of the two things. And I fancy 
 the result of his examination would be that a thorough know- 
 ledge of Greek and Hebrew requires assiduous application to 
 them for a number of years, probably seven or eight, at least, 
 while the Science of liaising Potatoes may be conquered in 
 a few seasons, perhaps months, taken at intervals. And this 
 consideration would not improbably lead him to the conclusion 
 that, so far at any rate, the scholar had acquired the more 
 valuable part of education, because, supposing them compelled 
 to change j^laces, he could learn to raise potatoes much sooner 
 than the potatoe-grower could learn Greek and Hebrew, pro- 
 vided their abilities were equal. This, then, would suggest 
 another question, as to the relative amount of mind and caj^a- 
 city requisite to make a Greek scholar and a raiser of potatoes. 
 To this, I imagine, he would not be very long in finding an 
 answer, that to make a Greek and Hebrew scholar a man 
 required to be, not a transcendent genius certainly, but a 
 person of fair capacity, rather above than under the average 
 intellect ; that to be a scholar is not tov rvxovros, or in plain 
 English, possible for every man that you may pick up in the 
 street ; that if the scholar is not necessarily a Mercury, neither 
 is he such a stick as can be made out of any wood ; and much 
 more to the same purpose, which Mr. Greeley himself would 
 hardly make bold to call in question ; while on the other hand, 
 it yyould appear to him that any man not naturally an idiot
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 315 
 
 is capable of being instructed in the cultivation of potatoes, 
 as the example of the Irish peasantry fully shows, who excel in 
 that cultivation, though very poorly off' for intellectual endow- 
 ments. Hence the conclusion would not unnaturally follow, that 
 the knowledge of Greek and Hebrew was in itself a stronger 
 evidence of a man's being something out of the common than 
 the knowledge of raising potatoes, and therefore more valuable 
 to a man in giving him a start in life. 
 
 Further, as education must be admitted, from the nature of 
 the case, to have some effect on the material subjected to its 
 influence, our reader Avill be induced to ask, how far the 
 study of Greek and Hebrew, on the one hand, and the learn- 
 ing to raise potatoes on the other, respectively improve a man 
 or a nation, morally or mentally. And here, I think, the 
 result of his investigations will be, that the study of Greek and 
 Hebrew has been generally allowed to improve the intellectual 
 faculties — what faculties it improves, or to what extent, may 
 be a mooted point, but that it does improve some of them, and 
 in some appreciable degree, is almost universally conceded, 
 and that nations famous for their knowledge of Greek, such as 
 the Germans and English, hold a high intellectual rank in 
 other respects ; whereas in the culture of potatoes there is 
 nothing that necessarily improves a man intellectually or 
 morally, and in the case of a nation devoted to it, the Irish 
 aforesaid for instance, it has been allowed on all hands to 
 retard the moral, mental, and even physical improvement of 
 the nation ; so that here again he will be apt to conclude that 
 the Greek and Hebrew have the best of it. 
 
 But there is another light in which the student may view 
 the question. He may look at it as a mere matter of dollars, 
 and those dollars gained by no indirect process, but the 
 immediate fruit of the two pursuits. To be sure this is a 
 dreadfully low way of regarding the subject, but we had 
 better come down to it for the satisfaction of those who profess 
 to be nothing, if not practical. Even weighed in this balance, 
 I think the Greek will prejjonderate over the potatoes. Putting 
 out of the question any other mode of " realizing" his Hterary
 
 316 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 acquisitions, a good scliolar can always get his living as a 
 teacher ; I do not say a thoroughly comfortable living or as 
 good a living as he ought to liave in all cases, but a better 
 living than a man can get by raising potatoes ; and in any 
 civilized country can command the services of more than one 
 potatoe-raiser. Many a scholar may have difficulty in helping 
 himself in some of the most ordinary occurrences of every-day 
 life, and still be driving a very lucrative trade by his scholai-- 
 ship. I knew a Senior Wrangler so green in all apparatus 
 relative to horses, that once when we were riding out together 
 and his curb-chain unfastened, he very soberly set to work to 
 refasten it over the animaVs nose ; but this very man was 
 making more money at the time than the sharpest hostler at 
 the most frequented livery stable ever did. 
 
 And this brings on one question more ; in what condition 
 of society loill the knowledge of raising potatoes be of more 
 j^ecuniary advantage to its possessor and more value to the 
 community generally than the knowledge of Greek and 
 Hebrew ? And the answer is most obvious : in the very first 
 and primitive stage — in an unsettled country — in the back- 
 woods of a newly discovered territory — among that shipwrecked 
 crew on a desert island whom Locke took as an example of his 
 fancied " state of nature." There all men are hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water, tillers of the soil, shooters of wild beasts 
 or savages. There all elegancies of mind or body are out of 
 place and premature, because every one's attention is absorbed 
 in satisfying the immediate wants of life. There the confec- 
 tioner and the scholar, the French milliner and the German 
 metaphysician are alike useless drones ; the carpenter is a 
 prince (as he was in Homer's time), and the historical painter 
 cumbereth the earth. There and there only is Mr. Greeley's 
 assertion a correct one. 
 
 By the time the student has carried his speculations thus 
 far he will be able to appreciate jDretty correctly the compara- 
 tive value of the Greek preferred by his humble servant the 
 author, and the potatoe-raising commended by Mr. Greeley ; 
 and he will also have had a neat illustration of a position
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 
 
 31Y 
 
 maintained by many wise and good men — that Socialism 
 tends to put the loivest kind of work above the highest, and 
 therefore, so far from advancing, as it pretends to do, the 
 course of civilization, goes directly to 2'>£'>'vert and retard it, and 
 to throw the toorld back to the ages of barbarism. 
 
 Returning from this partial digression and turning to a 
 much higher being in the scale of animated nature than Mr. 
 Greeley, we find this idea in the lectures of Professor Maurice 
 of the London University ; that from all the various systems 
 and definitions of education ever proposed may be evolved 
 three distinct doctrines ; the first, that the end of education is 
 development of the faculties ; the second, that it is the restraint 
 of certain faculties ; the third, that it is the giving of informa- 
 tion.* (This is not the order in which he enumerates them, 
 but as it is their historical order, I prefer stating them so.) For 
 illustrations of these three principles carried out purely — so far 
 as it is possible to keep them unmixed — he refers to Athens, 
 Sparta, and the modern Utilitarian school. 
 
 This division I am disposed to accept as an important first 
 step in our investigation. 
 
 The first and second of these principles appear to be in 
 direct contradiction, but it is the first and third which really 
 clash, for the second looks chiefly to a particular set of faculties, 
 diff"erent from those which are the main object of the first. In 
 other words the idea of develojvnent has more reference to our 
 intellectual ; that of restraint more to our moral education. 
 As a general rule there are more mental faculties that require 
 developing, and more moral propensities that require restraining. 
 The illustrations chosen by the Professor show this ; the Athe- 
 nian education wonderfully sharpened the intellect at the 
 expense of the morals, the Spartan education left the intellect 
 untouched ; it is no exaggeration to say of the Lacedemonians 
 that they were illiterate on pri7iciple ; whatever in their edu- 
 cation was not physical, was moral. Such being the case, I 
 put out of question for the present the second principle, not 
 
 * See his Lectures ou Education ; first Lecture or Chapter.
 
 318 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 because a man's moral nature is not, in my estimation, of infi- 
 nitely more importance than his intellectual, but for the same 
 reason that in examining the other two principles I shall set 
 aside the questions of phi/sical development and of information 
 on subjects pertaining expressly to the physique of the student, 
 although I hold that the body is the very first thing to be 
 attended to, for if a man's body is not in good workino- con- 
 dition, lie will seldom be able to apply himself so as to improve 
 his mind to tbe best advantage ; and if bis j)hysique is much 
 out of order, his morale is very apt to be injuriously affected. 
 J5ut I regard the improvement and education of the mind as 
 the special business of a College or University ; just as I would 
 say that the special business of one particular Faculty — a Law 
 school, for instance, is to teach law ; and I should expect the 
 graduates of a given College or University to be men of more 
 intellectual power and refinement than the mass of the com- 
 munity ; if they were not, I should immediately conclude there 
 was something wrong in the University course ; but if they 
 were not stronger or healthier, or more moral men than the 
 rest of the community, I do not say that I should be perfectly 
 satisfied, but I should be inclined to withhold my censure so 
 long as they did not fall helow the average in these respects, 
 nor should I immediately set down their want of physical and 
 moral superiority as the fault of the Institution. In all this I 
 may be wrong ; however, my plan has at any rate the advan- 
 tage of enabling us to consider one thing at a time ; to examine 
 by themselves the intellectual advantages or disadvantages of 
 the Cambridge system, and then to compare them with those 
 of any other, first similarly examined apart. 
 
 Now the University of Cambridge adopts the first rather 
 than the third of the theories above enunciated as the true 
 theory of a liberal education. It does not propose to itself as 
 its primary object the giving of information, but rather the 
 developing and training of the mind, so that it may receive, 
 arrange, retain, and use to the best advantage, such information 
 as may be afterwards desirable or necessary — such information 
 as it may be the business of professional teachers to supply it,
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 319 
 
 or its pleasure to collect for itself. For this training the Uni- 
 versity has decided, not in blind obedience to precedent, for the 
 subject is undergoing discussion within its precincts every day — 
 that classical and mathematical studies are the best means, and 
 it undertakes to teach them thoroughly. Here, at the outset, 
 a difficulty arises which is satisfactorily provided for. Neither 
 the preparation nor the abilities of those who enter on any 
 college or university course at the same time being equal, it is 
 a question with all academical authorities, how to make a class 
 work together so that the dull ones shall not retard, nor the 
 bright ones hurry the rest, and that all shall be kept busy 
 without any being overworked. Now the Cambridge system, 
 by its examinations of different kinds suited to diti'erent degrees 
 of preparation and capacity, and by its private tuition (which 
 is an integral part of the system, though existing unofficially), 
 has provided for educating every separate student in accordance 
 with his antecedents and capabilities, and ingeniously combines 
 the advantages of a public and a private education. 
 
 The student then may learn more or less, but whatever 
 the amount, he is expected to learn it thoroughbj. Hence, 
 as the first effect, he acquires habits of extreme mental accu- 
 racy. 
 
 At our colleges it is so arranged that all the students go 
 through the same course, at least during the most important 
 years of their undergraduateship, and necessarily some go 
 through it well and some ill : it is too much for some and not 
 half enough for others. Now at Cambridge precisely the 
 reverse of this takes place. A student may go through a very 
 limited or a very extensive course of reading, but whatever he 
 passes an examination in he is required to do and know well. 
 Even the examinations which are disparagingly known as 
 " pass" ones, the Previous, the Poll, (and since the new regula- 
 tions) the Junior Optime, require more than half marks on 
 their papers, and the way in which a slovenly and inaccurate 
 man loses marks would astonish a great many of our students 
 if subjected to them. And as we ascend to the honor exami- 
 nations, the demand for precision increases with the field for its
 
 320 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 exercise, till Ave arrive at cases of High Wranglers who have 
 made not one single decided mistalce in their six days' work, 
 and of Senior Classics who " floor" the Tripos papers without 
 an error. 
 
 It is unnecessary to enlarge on the value to its possessor of 
 such a habit of reading, thinking, and writing accurately. 
 
 I will merely allude to one of its advantages. A Cantab is 
 most careful in verifying references. He will not take a thing 
 at second-hand if he can go to the original source of it. Hence 
 he is little liable to be imposed upon by the ignorance, real or 
 assumed, of others, or to be the innocent medium of currency 
 for other men's blunders. I believe that a historical, antiqua- 
 rian, literary, or statistical error, put forth in print or public 
 speech, is sooner and more certainly detected in England than 
 in any other country, and that this is owing to the influence of 
 Cambridge men and Cambridge education. 
 
 But the English student does not only read his subjects 
 accurately ; he reads them comprehensively, and so that he 
 can apply them. It is, indeed, impossible to avoid the impart- 
 ing, in some instances, of partial and exoteric information ; but 
 as a general rule it could never be said of Cantabs what 
 has more than once been said of American college students, 
 that theirs is a knowledge of particular books rather than 
 of subjects. And in no place of education is there \qs,s parrotry, 
 less exercise of memory, as distinguished from the acquisition 
 of knowledge, than at Cambridge. The nearest approach to it 
 is the case of the classical men who get up only Mathematics 
 enough to jjass as Junior Optimes. Even here the knowledge, 
 though temporary, is real for the time ; it is not retained in the 
 mind, because it is immediately afterwards crowded out by 
 more interesting matter ; but these men really understand 
 their subjects for the examination, and can work, if not 
 problems (which are the last test of a man's mathematical 
 knowledge), at least examples, deductions, and riders in them. 
 Let me give an instance or two of what I mean by applying 
 knowledge. A student for classical honors in his second or 
 third year may be utterly unacquainted with some long author
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 321 
 
 like Plautus. He reads two or three of the comedies, and gets 
 them up so carefully that he has acquired a good insight into 
 the author's vocabulary and peculiarities of phrase and con- 
 struction, so that he will make a very fair translation of a 
 passage froin any of the other plays which he has not read. 
 Take a Cambridge Second-year man and an American graduate, 
 both disposed to study Plato ; let the former read four dialogues, 
 and the latter eight, which will take them about the same 
 time, each reading in the way he has been accustomed to ; the 
 Cantab from studying half the quantity, will know more about 
 his author than the American, and will translate and explain 
 better a passage at random from any of the other dialogues. If 
 our Cantab be a mathematical man, his skill in the application 
 of his knowledge will be still further increased by the symme- 
 trical arrangement of it. 
 
 Again, the Cambridge student acquires manly habits of 
 thinking and reading. He becomes fond of hard mental work, 
 and has a healthy taste in his mental relaxations. The trash 
 of the circulating library he despises as he would sugar candy. 
 No works of fiction but the very best, and those rarely, are to 
 be found in his room.* His idea of light reading is Shelley's or 
 Henry Taylor's poetry, Macaulay's Essays, a leader in the 
 Examiner, a Treatise on Ethics or Political Economy ; he 
 Avould laugh at you for calling this " reading" in the University 
 sense, or study. Such a taste is indeed late in forming ; when 
 nearly a man in size and looks he is still disposed to be idle and 
 school-boy like in the intervals of his hard Avork, and at 
 eighteen is behind an American or Scotch youth in general 
 information ; but the habit of mind once started, he goes 
 on drawing in knowledge from all quarters at a vast rate, and 
 whatever he does take into his well prepared mind assimilates 
 itself with matter already there, and fertilizes the whole, and 
 fructifies ; nothing of what he reads is throAvn away. 
 
 Now the general and final effect of this energetic, accurate, 
 
 * It was a rule of the Union Library to admit no novels, and 
 80 strictly was the rule observed that it was with great difficulty 
 Walter Scott's could be introduced. 
 
 14*
 
 322 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 .111(1 oomprelieiisive style of worlcing, is that the Cambridge 
 student exhibits great power and rapidity in mastering any new 
 subject to which his attention is necessarily turned. If he has 
 to acquire a foreign language or a new science, to become 
 ftimiliar with the elements of a difficult profession, like that of 
 the law, or even to learn the details of a large business 
 establishment, in any case he takes cleverly hold of the first 
 principles, and then proceeds accurately, but speedily, from 
 step to step, till he has attained the desired knowledge. From 
 many sti'iking instances within my own observation, or only 
 one remove from it, of the way in which a Cantab carries a 
 thing through, let me relate a case that occurred just before I 
 entered the University. A high Wrangler, then a Trinity 
 Bachelor, went to see a relative who was largely engaged in the 
 manufacture of plate glass. While lionizing the premises, 
 he learned that the chief difficulty and expense lay in the 
 polishing. Forthwith our Trinity man sets himself to " get up 
 the subject," and after he has acquired all the information 
 he can from those on the spot and such other sources as 
 are available within a short time, he goes to work to calculate 
 the formula of a law according to which two plates of glass 
 rubbing together will polish each other. The result was an 
 improvement which realized a handsome fortune for the manu- 
 facturer, who did not forget how he had obtained it, and 
 evinced his gratitude in a substantial manner. 
 
 And now let us see how such a man will write on any sub- 
 ject — the consideration of wliicli I may seem to have unduly 
 delayed, for the first and almost the only test of a young man's 
 ability that occurs to many of us (except making a speech) is 
 his writing. What training has he had for this ? Directly 
 very little ; he may not have written a dozen set essays — nay, 
 not half a dozen — all the time he was at the University. But 
 he has been accustomed to reproduce the thoughts of others, 
 rapidly, tersely, and accurately, upon paper. He has never had 
 room for verbiage any more than for ornament. He will have 
 a tendency to say whatever he says correctly, concisely, and 
 pointedly. He will not write fluently at first, for want of prac-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 323 
 
 tice, nor elegantly, for he has not cultivated the graces of style, 
 but he Avill write understandingly and from a real, conscien- 
 tious study and knowledge of his subject. He will be ready to 
 detect misstatements, inaccuracies, and false logic in others, and 
 for himself will not be likely to commit an ignoraiitia elenchi ; 
 to miss the drift of the question — to find fiiult for instance with 
 literature for not being science, as a very showy writer on this 
 side the water did not very long ago. 
 
 As to his style it will soon improve — thanks to another 
 result of his education without which those mentioned would 
 be very imperfect — an elegant and refined taste which arrives 
 late at maturity only to approach nearer perfection. His mind 
 is imbued with the influence of the choicest classic models, 
 through tvhich he reads and by which he interprets those of 
 modern literature. Applied to his case the argument so often 
 urged against the study of the Classics in our Colleges, " that 
 they are forgotten in a few years," would be false and mean- 
 ingless. His Latin and Greek are not forgotten. They stick 
 to him through life. They explain his reading and adorn his 
 writing. They bring him into fellowship with the scholars, the 
 men of elegant literature, the gentleinen of the intellect through- 
 out the world. He does -not have to hunt after Classical quo- 
 tations and allusions to be brought in as bits of " business" for 
 the purpose of making an impression on others still more igno- 
 rant than himself; they drop from him as naturally as a figure 
 or an antithesis, and he feels they will please men of his own 
 stamp, because he feels pleased to meet them elsewhere : they 
 are his qowvavra tfuvs-rorrfiv, vocal to the intelligent, though for 
 the multitude they may need interpreters. 
 
 This is a brightly coloured picture that I have drawn ; are 
 there no dark shades in it ? Have I represented a man 
 educated xht' iv-^qw just as I should wish my son or yours to 
 be in every respect ? There are one or two little deficiencies to 
 consider, which we will look at in all candor. 
 
 The first may have been anticipated from my silence. The 
 two great results of College education Avhich most of our 
 people, including most of the students themselves, look to, are
 
 324 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 public speaking and writing. Whatever else a young man 
 knows bow to do, he must be able to write fluently and 
 showily and to address a meeting. Now the Cambridge sys- 
 tem of education is certainly not calculated to make public 
 speakers. By this I do not mean that it will spoil a man who 
 has the material of a real orator in him as much as the system 
 of a New England College will spoil a man who has a tendency 
 to be a good scholar ; but that it is not favorable to the pro- 
 duction of those pretty good debaters and ready haranguers 
 whom our places of instruction turn out in such numbers. I 
 have mentioned in a former chapter that some of the cleverest 
 men in the place despised and undervalued public oratory on 
 principle ; and the authorities do nothing to encourage it, ex- 
 cept giving here and there a College prize. But it is not 
 merely in this negative way, and from want of opportunity and 
 encouragement to practise frequently, that the young speaker 
 suflfers. The education he goes through is positively unfavor- 
 able to fluency on his legs. The habit of weighing every word 
 accurately, may be all the better in the end for a man who has 
 real oratorical genius, but is certainly all the worse for an ordi- 
 nary debater. The general run of public speaking requires 
 redundancy and repetition, nor does it admit a fastidious choice 
 of words except in some elaborate concluding period. Just 
 before leaving Cambridge I found myself falling off in ability 
 to address an audience, and that in a greater degree than the 
 mere want of practice would account for. 
 
 This admission will settle the business in the eyes of some ; 
 they will deeiji it enough to counterbalance all the benefits 
 claimed for the Cambridge system. My own opinion is, and I 
 shall endeavor to prove it fartlier on, that we value this faculty 
 too highly and pay too large a price for it. Still there is a 
 medium here as in everything else ; viewing the art of public 
 speaking merely as an accomplishment, it deserves more atten- 
 tion. A gentleman at a public dinner, for instance, ought to 
 be able to extemporize some appropriate observations when 
 called upon, without stumbling over his own words and making 
 himself and every one else uncomfortable, as an Englishirian is
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITT. 325 
 
 apt to do on such occasions. And here, I think, lies the Eng- 
 lish error on this point ; they regard a certain proficiency in 
 public speaking as a purely professional matter, for the barris- 
 ter or Member of Parliament to learn subsequently to his aca- 
 demical course. But besides its professional value it is an 
 accomplishment which a highly educated man may be expected 
 to possess, and should therefore form a part of a liberal 
 education. 
 
 The second deficiency is one rather more complicated and 
 not so easy to explain or understand. I may state it thus — a 
 tendency to make men too exclusively consumers and not suffi- 
 ciently producers of knowledge. The Cambridge man is great 
 in acquiring a mastery of a subject and using it for his own 
 benefit, in his profession for*instance, but his inclination to pro- 
 mulgate his acquisitions and the fruits of them to the world, 
 does not keep pace with his ability to do so. We see this 
 exemplified in the resident Fellows, who, reading as many 
 books as the German professors, write a great deal less. It is 
 not idleness that causes this ; between teaching and study their 
 time is pretty well filled up ; the indolent and rusty Don who 
 does nothing but drink port and play whist has become nearly 
 a tradition. It is not any selfish or priestly feeling in regard to 
 knowledge — no men are more ready to communicate informa- 
 tion when you ask it of them. The tendency in question 
 rather springs from false modesty and an excessive fastidiousness 
 produced by hypercriticism. Accustomed to scrutinize with 
 the greatest severity the performances of others, the English 
 graduate is not indulgent to his own. He is just as hard upon 
 them, and more dissatisfied with them. A friend who was 
 with difficulty induced to write a few pages now and then for 
 a Mathematical journal which he did with great clearness and 
 force, once said to me on the occasion of my having a prize 
 essay printed, " I should not like to publish anything myself ; 
 when you put a thing in print it seems as if you were perfectly 
 satisfied with it, and I never am with what I write." This is 
 the spirit that keeps many a competent man from making a 
 name among the scholars and literary men of the civilized
 
 326 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 world. It is true sucli a man has a ])lausiblc excuse. He may 
 say that since " of making hooks there is no end" and tlie 
 majority of those published are perishable and of small value, 
 he will play a wiser part by not adding to the number ; that 
 he had better be a reservoir to supply the streams of his neigh- 
 bors, informing and improving his imniediate associates by his 
 conversation and unwritten learning. But surely when there 
 is room for a new book on a new subject or an old one that 
 has long lain fallow ; Avhen new lights can be thrown upon old 
 questions ; when in short a man has acquired a certain combi- 
 nation of knowledge and ideas not to be found in any book, 
 and the acquisition of which he feels would be beneficial to 
 others as it has been to him, ought he not to write a book, his 
 time, and means, and other circumstances permitting ? I am 
 very much inclined to think so. 
 
 To sura up, it may be said that, as the utilitarian system 
 inclines a student to communicate more knowledge than lie 
 possesses, the English University system will sometimes hinder 
 him from communicating what he has.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY". 327 
 
 PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL HABITS OF CAMBRIDGE MEN. THEIU 
 
 AMUSEMENTS, ETC. 
 
 • Mens Sana in corpore sano. — Horace. 
 
 Some remarks already dropped here and there may liave 
 given the reader a hint of the comparison between the intellec- 
 tual teaching of Cambridge and that of some other places to 
 which I am proceeding, and which is one of the principal 
 objects of this work. Before arriving at this, however, it is 
 necessary to look at our English friends all round, physically, 
 socially, morally, religiously. 
 
 To a vegetarian, a teetotaller, a " eupeptic" of any sort (lovely 
 names these are, and show a sublime taste in the people who 
 invented and use them) and, I fancy, to a New Englander gene- 
 rally, the Cantab's life would not appear the most regular, nor 
 the kind of one best adapted to promote health, strength, and 
 longevity. He is never up before half-past six in the morning, 
 and seldom in bed before twelve at night. He eats a hearty 
 dinner of animal food at 4 p. m., drinks strong malt liquors 
 with it, and not unfrequently strong wine after it. He is not 
 shy of suppers and punch. He often starts himself for his 
 morning's work with the stimulus of a cigar. He reads nine 
 hours a day on a " spirt" the fortnight before examination, 
 writes seven hours a day or more against time during the 
 examination week, and the week after that does nothing but 
 jollify. 
 
 Yet this very man takes better care of himself and has a 
 more philosophical system of living than many a conscientious 
 and pains-taking ascetic, who has spent half his life in declaim- 
 ing against the wickedness of alcohol and tobacco. For eight 
 or nine months of the year he is in a regular state of training ;
 
 328 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 if he liad to walk a matcli the only change necessary would bo 
 for him to drink a little less. His seven hours of sleep (a rather 
 scanty quantity, but enough for most men in good health*) 
 arc always the same seven hours of the night. The sponge 
 bath and horse-hair glove are among the regular and daily 
 accessories of his toilet. His breakfast is light and simple — a 
 buttered roll and a cup of tea — and when he is at it he does 
 not worry himself about anything else. He is discreet in his 
 position when at work, and knowing that he has to stoop for- 
 ward in writing at the examinations, does most of his reading 
 leaning back in his arm chair or standing at a high desk where 
 he strengthens his legs and eases his chest at the same time. 
 After he has dined you could not bribe him to engage in any 
 exertion of body or mind for at least two hours. The most he 
 will do is to lounge to the Union and read the papers, or he 
 may look over some easy and familiar book in his own rooms. 
 But above all, his exercise is as much a daily necessity to him 
 as his food, and by exercise he does not understand driving in 
 a carriage, strolling about, or even playing billiards. " Consti- 
 tutionals" of eight miles in less than two hours, varied with 
 jumping hedges, ditches, and gates; "pulling" on the river, 
 cricket, football, riding twelve miles without drawing bridle; 
 all combinations of muscular exertion and fresh air which shake 
 a man well up and bring big drops from all his pores, are what 
 lie understands by his two hours exercise. See one of these 
 men stripped and observe the healthy state of his skin — that is 
 enough to demonstrate that he is in good condition, even should 
 you overlook his muscular developments. 
 
 The staple exercise is walking ; between two and four all the 
 roads in the neighborhood of Cambridge — that is to say within 
 four miles of it — are covered with men taking their constitu- 
 tionals. Longer walks, of twelve or fifteen miles, are frequent- 
 ly taken on Sundays or days succeeding an examination. The 
 
 * There can be no Procrustean standard for sucli things. Some men 
 will be satisfied with six hours, others require eiglit and a half. I have 
 reason to believe that the average amount of time which a Cambridge 
 reading man passes in bed is rather under than above seven hours.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITT. 329 
 
 standard of a good walker, is to have gone, not once, but re- 
 peatedly, fifteen miles in three hours, without special training 
 or being the worse/or it next day. A number of my acquaint- 
 ances professed to be able to do this. After walking comes 
 boating or " pulling," which is the sport par excellence of an 
 English University, as sword exercise is of a German (this was 
 the illustration given me by a man who had been at both). 
 The men put themselves into extra training for the Spring 
 races, eschew pastry (which an Englishman never takes miich 
 of at any time, generally eating cheese where an American 
 does pie) and confine themselves to a small quantity of liquid, 
 usually malt liquor, during the day. Besides these races, the 
 Cam is always full during the warm season, of men pulling up 
 and down, sometimes one, sometimes two in a boat. Some of 
 the reading men work very hard in the boats. Two Smith's 
 Prizemen and one Senior Classic were prominent boating men 
 during the three years from '42 to '45. Cricket, football, fives, 
 all games of ball in short, are popular in their season. There 
 is not so much riding as might be supposed, considering that 
 there is not one Englishman in five hundred of the University- 
 going classes, who cannot ride and does not like to. The 
 expense is the reason generally alleged, and under the circum- 
 stances it shows more self-denial than University men usually 
 have the reputation of. There is sufiicient business, however, 
 for five or six livery stables, those who keep their own horses 
 being mostly the Noblemen and Fellow-Commoners^ and a few 
 of the Fellows. Englishmen have a patent for making any sort 
 of horse leap, and when your Cantab gets on a hired horse, 
 with his own spurs, to take perhaps the first ride he has had 
 for three months, the amount he will get out of him is incredi- 
 ble, and the amount he gets out of himself somewhat remark- 
 able. I recollect once being, with some other men, nine hours 
 on horseback, during which time we took no refreshment and 
 did not once dismount. The whole distance ridden was not 
 more than forty miles, but having to wait some hours for the 
 steeple chase we went to see (and some of the leaps in which 
 we took) our animals had the pleasure during that interval of
 
 330 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 walking about with us on tlieir Lacks. When tlicro is ico 
 enough, which does not liappen every winter, the Cantabs are 
 great skaters, and stories ai'e told of their pcrturinances in this 
 line which I will not repeat, for they sound very large and I 
 could not positively authenticate them. There is a certain 
 amount of fencing and sparring practised, more of the latter 
 than the former, not a great deal of either. It is almost a sine 
 (jiia non for a Cantab's exercise, that it should be in the open 
 ain He never minds the weather, or thinks of putting oft' his 
 constitutional because it rains. 
 
 It may be asked whether, allowing that from this regularity 
 of exercise a high standard of strength and endurance results, 
 the general health of the men is also good. For health and 
 strength do not necessarily go together : in our country we 
 meet many persons of great activity and a considerable share 
 of downright strength, who are nevertheless always out of 
 order and ailing. I have no hesitation in saying that the 
 general health of the Cambridge men is on a par with their 
 strength, and such as might be expected from it by an ordinary 
 observer. Dyspepsia is almost unknown, bilious attacks are not 
 common, consumption scarcely ever heard of. Sometimes a 
 man gets a temporary aftection of the heart from pulling too 
 much, or from some irregularity in his way of life. Sometimes 
 he has a nervous attack from over work just before, or over ex- 
 citement at an examination. These are the most general forms 
 of illnessj^nd usually but temporary in their effect. When a 
 death occurs it is almost always either from accident or wilful 
 dissipation. 
 
 I was anxious to obtain the statistics of Undergraduate mor- 
 tality, for the purpose of bearing out my statements on this 
 point by the actual figures ; but I could not get them, simply 
 because none have ever been kept. Some of my medical 
 friends made shots at the question from their own experience, 
 and agreed in an "average of three deaths a-year ; but this, 
 among a population of eighteen hundred, must be below the 
 mark. Of the " year" that entered with me at Ti-inity (that of 
 1844) three men died before the time of graduating, but two
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 331 
 
 . of these were lost by accidents ; of the year before (that of 
 1843), and of the year after, in which I finally went out (that 
 of 1845), there was not a single man who died. I doubt if this 
 ever happens at Yale College (where the number of students is 
 nearly the same as at Trinity) for two out of three successive 
 years. During five years that I passed at New Haven, there 
 was not a graduating class that had not lost at least three 
 members. 
 
 Indeed a man must be healthy as well as strong — " in con- 
 dition" altogether to stand the work. For in the eight hours 
 a-day which form the ordinary amount of a reading man's 
 study, he gets through as much work as a German does in 
 twelve ; and nothing that our students go through can compare 
 with the fatigue of a Cambridge examination. If a man's 
 health is seriously affected, he gives up honors at once, unless 
 
 he be a genius like my friend E , who " can't help being 
 
 first." To go on with half reading, and take a place below 
 his own standard, as I did, is what an Englishman is too proud 
 to do. 
 
 Why are the Cantabs in such good physical plight, when 
 they have neither dietetic lectures nor voluntary societies ? 
 All that you will hear in the way of precept is a tradition or 
 two, such as that eight hours a-day, " coach " and all, is a 
 proper amount of work for a reading man, or that it is not safe 
 to read after Hall (i. e. after dinner). Regular exercise is the 
 great secret. But why do they exercise so regularly ? First 
 of all, it amuses them : where so many different kinds of exer- 
 cise are attainable, every man must find some kind that he 
 likes, and that he pursues without thinking all the time that it 
 is for his health — which is one reason why it does him good. 
 These young j^ractical j^hilosophers have wisdom enough to see 
 that it is not enough to exercise the body unless the mind is 
 interested and diverted at the same time ; and they carry out 
 this principle even in the " constitutionals :" a man will not 
 walk out alone, for then he might still be thinking of the 
 problems or the verses he was lately working at ; no, he takes 
 a friend with him, and they two talk on some subject of the
 
 332 FIVE yea6s in an 
 
 day, politics or literature, or at worst " shop," such as wlio are 
 likely to be the next Scholars — anything but their actual 
 studies. Now this seems so obvious a dictate of common sense, 
 that the acting in accordance with it may appear to involve no 
 remarkable stretch of wisdom, nay, I may be thought platitu- 
 dinous for enlarging upon it at all ; but I do insist that the 
 principle deserves our attention, inasmuch as some professed 
 luminaries of reform among ourselves have strangely ignored 
 it, and with a short-sighted utilitarianism started a precisely 
 contrary doctrine. The proposition has been distinctly laid 
 down by persons of different schools, from an Episcopal bishop 
 to a Socialist of no particular religion, that there should be no 
 such thing as pure relaxation, but that when students are not 
 at study they should be at work — actually employed in manual 
 labor. This is really using a youth at one of the most critical 
 and important j^sriods of his life worse than any 2^^'>'^on of 
 common intelligence or humanity tvould use a horse. 
 
 The doctrine is brought forward partly to carry out a fancy 
 that some people have of asserting the dignity of labor — of 
 making out that manual occupation is something very fine 
 and glorious, not for its results, but for and in itself; and 
 therefore they would make students work for the mere sake 
 of ivorking. Such a fancy is equally repugnant to reason and 
 Scripture. The necessity of labor was part of the primeval 
 curse, and all beauty, or glory, or dignity pertaining to labor 
 depends on the ends to which it is the means. I may respect 
 most sincerely the man who drives a dung-cart, if I know that 
 he supports a sick relative or educates a child from the fi'uits 
 of his toil, but driving a dung-cart is a very undignified pursuit 
 for all that. Most manual labor is in itself disagreeable ; men 
 submit to it because it is necessary and profitable, not for any 
 merit or attraction that it has in itself. So they are delighted 
 to obtain physic when ill by reason of the results they expect 
 from it ; but no one would say that taking castor-oil is its own 
 reward. 
 
 To help along this crotchet comes the just-see-before-your- 
 nose-and-no-farther sort of idea that all time not spent in doing
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITT. 333 
 
 something tangible is lost. There is sometimes a useful lesson 
 to be got out of a joke. Let me repeat a very old one for the 
 benefit of these utilitarians. 
 
 A«country manager saw that the trumpets of his orchestra 
 were not taking part in an overture which the other musicians 
 were executing. He rushed upon them and inveighed against 
 their idleness. " But," said one of the assailed, " we have 
 fifteen bars rest here." " Rest !" retorted the other, " I don't 
 pay you ten shillings a-night for resting ; blow away !" How 
 the rest of the trumpets should be essential to the harmony of 
 the piece was beyond his comprehension. 
 
 It is well known that scarcely one third of an entering class 
 at West Point graduates, and any cadet, or any person con- 
 versant with the place, will tell you on being asked the reason, 
 that it is the union of hard study and military drill (which 
 amounts to a species of work) that causes so many to break 
 down. A West-Pointer has told me that, after drilling, the 
 men are so fatigued, in mind as well as body, that it takes 
 them some time to settle down to study. I do not presume 
 to find fault with the system at West Point, which is a peculiar 
 one for a peculiar purpose. Its first object is not to educate 
 young men, but to provide the U. S. Army with first-rate 
 officers. The Government, having its pick out of a large 
 number of applicants, has a right to sacrifice many of them 
 for the sake of getting the best possible men for its own wants; 
 but a system which sifts out, in a course of four years, more 
 than two thirds of those subjected to it, would never answer 
 for a system of general education. 
 
 In schools where a rigid system of gymnastics is made the 
 substitute for ordinary boyish recreations, the result is apt to 
 be that, the play having been turned to a study, the study 
 degenerates into play. Pestalozzi's establishment at Yverdun 
 was a striking example of this.* 
 
 In short, it is a safe rule to lay down, that, to keep a student 
 in good working order for a length of time, the harder he 
 
 * See Fraser's Magazine, vol. xliii. p. 631.
 
 334 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 applies himself to his studies while studying^ the more diversion 
 he requires when to king exercise. 
 
 The sensible cxainj)le of their Seniors does a great deal to 
 encourage these young men in taking healthful exercise.*- The 
 Master of Downing is noted as the best skater in Cambridge, 
 and may be seen cutting figures on the Cam during any hard 
 frost. Tlie Master of Trinity is a crack horseman, and few 
 men of his weiglit in England can take a leap better. An 
 Englisli tutor or lecturer has no sham dignity which makes 
 liim fear to demean himself by joining in the sports of under- 
 graduates, and consequently none of the undergraduates 
 themselves think these sports undignified. Still less are they 
 •withheld by any religious scruples. That it is wrong for a 
 clergyman to ride, or that Avalking for exercise on Sundays is 
 a species of practical infidelity, are propositions that they would 
 be slow to admit. I remember once accompanying a college 
 lecturer and tutor, a very young man, but Avhose merits and 
 good character had gained him rapid academic promotion, on 
 a long Sunday morning constitutional between our early break- 
 fast and St. Mary's at 2 p. m. We had been discussing all 
 manner of ethical and theological questions, and thought we 
 had passed the time rather profitably than otherwise, when 
 suddenly something put me in mind of New Haven, and I said 
 
 to him, " Do you know, M , where I was when a boy 
 
 they would think we had been spending this morning very 
 wickedly ?" 
 
 He looked several notes of interrogation at me. 
 
 " Because," I continued, " we have been walking." 
 
 " What ! do they think it a sin to take a walk ? Do yo^i 
 mean this operation we have been performing ?" as if there 
 must be some other recondite meaning beside the ordinary one, 
 so incredible did what he had just heard appear to him. I 
 assured him such was the case. " Well," said he, after a pause, 
 "I wonder if they eat their dinner on Sunday?" Here were 
 developed two traits of the Cantab — his appreciation of the 
 necessity of exercise, and his contemptuous rejection of sham. 
 
 From the exercises of the Cantabs one naturally comes to
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 335 
 
 their amusements, under which head I inckide all relaxation 
 which is not hard bodily exercise, and all in-door occupation 
 which is not study. 
 
 I have mentioned that there is a good deal of whist played 
 hy a certain set of reading men, especially on Saturday nights. 
 But there are many laudably ignorant of the game, though 
 they have no holy horror of it or of those who play it, and I 
 never once heard a set homily against cards from any one all 
 the time I was at Cambridge. Non-reading men play vingt- 
 et-un to a considerable extent, but for the lowest possible 
 (sixpenny) points. Gambling is certainly not a prevalent vice 
 in the University. The same class are also fond of billiards, 
 but not so much so as young Frenchmen or Americans. 
 A reading-man seldom patronizes the billiard-rooms, for the 
 simple reason that, if he does, he soon ceases to be a reading- 
 man. 
 
 The chess club at Cambridge is a small one, but tolerably 
 supported. 
 
 The English are not a musical people, as those of them who 
 know anything about the matter admit themselves. Cam- 
 bridge does not differ from the rest of the island in this respect. 
 It is rare indeed to hear a Cantab sing. Were he to do so in 
 the streets at night, like a Continental or American student, he 
 would be set down for mad or drunk. Now and then a very 
 boating man will favor you after his liquor with a song of the 
 sort that had better be left unsung. Or if the University man 
 attempts an instrument it is usually one of the most painful 
 description, such as the cornopceon, which when played by a 
 master of it is only one degree on the right side of torture to 
 hear, and when, as is usually the case, imperfectly understood 
 by the attempter of it, is worse than a dozen donkeys. Once 
 a Trinity man set up a private organ, and used to perform the 
 Morning Hymn before chapel, in consequence of which he 
 received sixty-Jive anonymous notes in one day, and at last, if 
 I recollect rightly, the authorities were obliged to interfere and 
 put a stop to the nuisance. 
 
 Painting is better appreciated, though very few have time
 
 336 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 to cultivate the national ability for sketchinj^ or the means to 
 possess many original pictures. But some first-rate engravings 
 are almost a necessary part of the University man's furniture. 
 These generally run in three classes — religious subjects, such 
 as the most noted wcJrks of Raphael and Titian ; Landseer's 
 animals ; and historical incidents or portraits of great men. 
 
 But as may naturally be expected in a University, most of 
 the amusements are of a literary character. There is a great 
 deal of the old standard literature read, and new books of 
 value are keenly criticized in conversation. Book-clubs are 
 formed, and as the works of the day pass from hand to hand 
 they supply the members with subjects of conversation when 
 two or three of them are taking a quiet cup of tea (each man 
 furnishing his own commons — bringing his little milk-jug and 
 his share of bread and butter as well as of knowledge). There 
 was a club in Trinity that met once a week to read Shakspeare. 
 Conversational criticism on books, informal discussion of 
 literary, ethical, metaphysical, religious subjects — discussion in 
 which men seek for truth rather than victory, and speak from 
 a full mind rather than with a ready tongue — is a necessity of 
 the highly educated Englishman, his evening's amusement, his 
 opera. 
 
 Such talks, whether two, three, or more be present at them, 
 usually i-esult from some previous arrangement, made in Hall 
 for instance, or during a walk. It is not considered exactly 
 the thing to tumble in upon a man in the evening without 
 warning, unless you have some particular reason for it, or he is 
 your particular friend. He may be reading or preparing to 
 read. Generally, however, your Cantab takes care to guard 
 against such a surprise by " sporting" himself in. 
 
 If you call on a man and his door is sported, signifying that 
 he is out or busy, it is customary to pop your card through 
 the little slit make for that purpose. About these cards there 
 is one little peculiarity. An English visiting card has the 
 prefix of " Mr." not the name alone as with us. But a Uni- 
 versity man always omits this prefix ; if he happen to be 
 using his " town" cards, he will draw a pencil through the
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 337 
 
 engraved " Mr." The more usual wa}', however, is to have 
 blank cards, and write on them your name (and College if 
 visiting a man of another College) in pencil.* 
 
 * There are some of these little peculiarities in addresses, signatures^ 
 &c., worth noting as part of the Shibboleth by which our countrymen 
 and the English may be distinguished. 
 
 An Englishman having a middle name, sometimes writes his two 
 initials before the family name, but more usually leaves the second 
 initial out. Thus Mr. John James Brown will sign himself "J. Brown," 
 and put "Mr. J. Brown " on his card. The practice of writing or print- 
 ing the first name in full with the middle initi.<], "John J. Brown," as with 
 us, is not common. The custom of leaving out the middle initial some- 
 times puzzles those who do not understand it, and is a frequent source 
 of ambiguity. I was myself led into error by it, in regard to my friend 
 Hallam ; his name was Henry Fitzynaurice ; from his leaving out the 
 middle initial I fancied he had dropped his middle name through some 
 dislike for it. I knew two Englishmen travelling in this country, who 
 had the same family name and the same first initial, which was enough to 
 make some confusion probable, but their habit of omitting the middle 
 initial which distinguished them made it ten times worse, and they 
 were continually being mistaken for each other. 
 
 Never address a letter to an Englishman as " Mr. John Brown " or 
 " Mr. Brown," unless you want to insult him, but always " John Brown, 
 
 Esq." or " Brown, Esq." if you do not know his Christian name. 
 
 It makes an important practical difference to an Englishman, by the 
 way, whether he is legally rated as " Esquire" or " Gentleman," the 
 former class being exempt from some burthensome jury duties to which 
 the latter is subject. 
 
 Talking of addresses reminds me of a queer style some of the Dons 
 had of beginning a note or letter to a pupil, " My dear Mr. So and So," 
 giving the recipient an impression for the moment that he was honored 
 by some lady's correspondence. Probably they intended something pa- 
 tronizing by it ; a friend of mine who received a note beginning thus, 
 commenced his answer with the same form, and the Don was much dis- 
 concerted. 
 
 If an Englishman puts " Mr." on his card, he does not put " Sir " into 
 every sentence of his conversation, as some of our people do. I have 
 sometimes wondered whether this continual introduction of the voca- 
 tive was a polite Gallicism (since the French use "Monsieur" about a8 
 frequently in conversation), or whether it springs from our debating- 
 society and public meeting habits, regarding every one addressed as a 
 president or chairman to be made a speech at. It certainly has a very 
 
 15
 
 338 nvE VKARs in an 
 
 Of otLer tastes, habits, and peculiarities of Cambridge men, 
 I do not know that there is much to be said, beyond what 
 may liave already been inferred by the reader in the couj'se of 
 this work. They are perhaps rather less conventional than 
 the general run of Englishmen, and pass Sunday in a more 
 Continental manner. They spend little in personal equipment, 
 and I do not remember ever hearing a remark made of or to 
 a man on the subject of his dress. They are generally very 
 gentlemanly in their behavior — unless they happen to be 
 drunk, and some of them even when they happen to be. 
 They have an accurate sense of public propriety in most 
 cases. You will not see a tipsy student out of doors in Cam- 
 bridge oftener than in New Haven. You will never hear a 
 man swear in broad daylight. It is not considered manly or 
 gentlemanly to walk in front of the College buildings uttering 
 monstrous oaths, as many of our southern students consider it. 
 Nor will you ever hear a man openly avow himself a disbe- 
 liever in the truths of Christianity. Some may say that this 
 does not necessarily involve a panegyric on the Cambridge 
 students, and only arises from their want of thought on the 
 subject, a proposition to which I do not assent, believing that 
 as a general rule there are no men Avho take their opinions on 
 less evidence and investigation than infidels, and that men who, 
 like poor John Sterling, refine away all their belief by over- 
 speculation, are rare exceptions. 
 
 stiff effect at all times, and sometimes a very ludicrous one. I have 
 known southern and western gentlemen whose conversation seemed to 
 consist of successive enunciations of "Sir!" with a few words between 
 to connect them.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 339 
 
 ON THE STATE OF MORALS AND RELIGION IN CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 A theologian in liquor is not a respectable object. — Thackeray. 
 
 I APPROACH this part of my subject -with very great hesita- 
 tion and rehictance. In the first place, it is not pleasant, after 
 having said many things in praise of an institution, to which 
 one is warmly attached, to be obliged to say anything in strong 
 and positive dispraise of it. But there is a much stronger 
 reason for this feeling on my part. The very fact of a man's 
 writing upon matters of religion and morality looks like his 
 setting up a claim to be a particularly moral and religious 
 man. Any approach to such a claim may well provoke severe 
 scrutiny, and there are some direct confessions as well as indi- 
 rect admissions in the course of this book which will not bear 
 any very rigid test. In admitting this I do not allude to any 
 places where the Latex Lyaeus is spoken of as an ordinary 
 beverage and a promoter of festivity ; in other words, where 
 drinking wine is mentioned, and not mentioned as a sin, 
 although well aware that many good people would consider 
 me, as a necessary consequence of this, little better than an 
 infidel, and totally disqualified from giving evidence on ethical 
 or theological points. Allowing such persons all credit for 
 sincerity, and wishing them a little more charity ; honoring 
 them for their temperance, and trusting that they may learn to 
 extend a little of it into other matters — their judgment of 
 others, for instance — I cannot accept their primary article 
 of faith, or put myself under their jurisdiction. There are 
 other things which touch me more nearly, such as having 
 walked round an oath and taken a degree under false pretences — 
 a piece of Jesuitism for which I shall never forgive myself, 
 and of which no other person can judge more hardly than
 
 340 FIVE TEARS IN AN' 
 
 I myself do. Resides this obvious instance, there are doubt- 
 less others of commission and omission, in the facts told 
 and in the way of tolling them, which may make me appear a 
 very Catiline complaining of sedition if I do anything which 
 resembles sitting in judgment upon others. 
 
 Yet it is manifestly impossible to pass over this branch of our 
 subject sicco pedc Admitting, as indeed we have already laid 
 down, tliat the special intent and primary idea of a University 
 is to educate liberally the intellect, still the moral and religious 
 condition of so many young men — the pick of their generation 
 too, in more ways than one — must needs be a very important 
 consideration ; and when we take still further into account 
 that this University is one of the great sources whence the 
 National Church derives its teachers, the absolute necessity of 
 saying something on this point must be apparent. No sense of 
 personal deficiency shall prevent me from speaking out. Some 
 suspicions might be brought on both myself and my Alma 
 Maier by silence — on myself as utterly inditferent to the state 
 of morals in a place so long as the intellect was cultivated and 
 the animal well provided for ; on her, as allowing a state 
 of things too bad to be mentioned and in regard to which 
 silence was the safest defence. 
 
 A young man passing as I did from an American College 
 immediately to an English University, will certainly be 
 astonished at some and shocked at many of the differences he 
 notices in the habits of those about him from what he has been 
 used to consider as the proper practice of students. That 
 decanters and glasses should be among the articles directly recom- 
 mended by the tutor's servant who assists him in furnishing 
 his room — without any objection, too, from the Evangelical 
 friend who assists him in his purchases ; that he should be 
 able to order supper for himself and friends out of the College 
 kitchen, and his College tutor, so far from appearing as a bird 
 of ill omen to mar the banquet, will perhaps play a good knife 
 and fork at it himself — all this seems odd to him at first, but he 
 readily comprehends that the system is one suited to the more 
 advanced age of the students, and one which by refusing to
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 341 
 
 make decent merriment a malum prohibitum within the College 
 •walls, deprives them of excuse for frequenting external haunts 
 of dissipation. By-and-by, however, as his experience increases, 
 he finds that this liberty is often abused into the most shameful 
 license. The reading men are obliged to be tolerably tempe- 
 rate, but among the " rowing" men there is a great deal of 
 absolute drunkenness at dinner and supper parties. And, after 
 making all allowance for the peculiar climate which admits of 
 stronger and more copious potations than ours, and the fact 
 that an Englishman never drinks before dinner, still it must be 
 allowed that there is a prevailing tendency to drink rather 
 more than is altogether beneficial even among those who are 
 never actually intoxicated. In a mei'e physical j^oint of view 
 this is greatly to be regretted. If the temperate libations of 
 our students could be superinduced upon the wholesome food, 
 leisurely digestion, and regular exercise of the English, we 
 might expect as the result astonishing specimens of health and 
 strength. 
 
 And, even with the chances which they thus throw away, 
 they are splendid instances of physical development ; but 
 unfortunately their animal passions seem to be developed 
 almost in a corresponding degree. The American graduate 
 who has been accustomed to find even among irreligious men 
 a tolerable standard of morality and an ingenuous shame in 
 relation to certain subjects, is utterly confounded at the amount 
 of open profligacy going on all around him at an English 
 University ; a profligacy not confined to the " rowing" set, but 
 including many of the reading men and not altogether sparing 
 those in authority. There is a careless and undisguised way of 
 talking about gross vice, which shows that public sentiment 
 does not strongly condemn it ; it is habitually talked of 
 and considered as a thing from which a man may abstain 
 through extraordinary frigidity of temperament or high religious 
 scruple, or merely as a bit of training with reference to 
 the physical consequences alone ;* but which is on the whole 
 
 * It is a striking proof how physical considerations with an English- 
 man are apt to overcome all others, that a student will frequently
 
 342 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 natural, excusable, and perhaps to most men necessary. One 
 of my first acquaintances at Cambridge, the Fellow Commoner 
 next to whom I sut in Chapel, had not known me two days or 
 spoken to me half-a-dozen times before he asked me to accom- 
 pany him to Barnwell one evening after Hall, just as quietly as 
 a compatriot might have asked me to take a drink ; and though 
 it would certainly be unfair to take this youth as a type of all 
 Cambridge, yet, just as a foreigner on being invited by a 
 Southern or Western gentleman to " liquor" soon after or 
 perhaps before breakfast, might conclude that to drink in the 
 morning was not an uncommon thing for an American, and 
 that a tolerabl)' large class of persons were in the habit of doing 
 so — the proposition made to me in so off-hand and matter- 
 of-course a way might justify the conclusion that the practice 
 was sufficiently common — as indeed subsequent exj^erience 
 fully proved. 
 
 Now, if I did not feel more the friend of Truth than of 
 Cambridge ; if I could consider myself the advocate of the 
 University, seeking only to make out the best case for my 
 client ; if I thought it profitable employment to weigh difterent 
 sins against one another, with a view of estimating their com- 
 parative enormity or veniality (which I do not, believing that 
 from such kind of casuistry sprang directly the worst abuses of 
 the Jesuit school) — under any of these circumstances I should 
 not be at a loss to make out a defence of Cambridge morals, on 
 the principle so frequently adopted among us when assailed by 
 foreigners — the tu quoque style of argument, or parrying one 
 accusation with another. I might say that these young men, 
 so inferior to ours in purity, were superior to them in some other 
 
 remain chaste or not, entirely in accordance witli the result of some 
 medical friend's opinion as to the effect it will have npon his working 
 condition. There was one well known case in my time of a man who 
 preserved his bodily pnrity solely and avowedly because he wanted to 
 put himself at the head of the Tripos and keep his boat at the 
 head of the river. He succeeded in tlie former and more important 
 object, but failed in the latter because there he had to depend on 
 the cooperation of others.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 343 
 
 moral qualities ; that they minded their own business, and told 
 no lies or scandal of others ; that the whole University of Cam- 
 bridge does not contain as much hatred, envy, malice, and 
 uncharitableness, and general ill-feeling as an American Col- 
 lege ; that I was personally acquainted with many men who 
 thought no more of committing fornication than a Southerner 
 would of murdering an Abolitionist, and yet were models of 
 honesty, generosity, truth, and integrity : that men are fre- 
 quent among us, not only in youth but at a more advanced 
 stage of life, spotlessly pure, rigidly abstemious, making great 
 personal and pecuniary sacrifices in the cause of philanthropy, 
 who are nevertheless greedy of scandal, careless of truth, with 
 very loose conceptions of the obligation of contracts or the 
 duty of citizens to the government. I might set off the 
 integrity of one country against the purity of the other, and 
 say, that if the Englishman is apt to forget that his body is 
 God's temple; the American is equally apt to overlook the 
 assertion, on equally high authority, that what cometh out of 
 the mouth defileth a man. 
 
 But such ai-guments, which though very briefly sketched 
 above are certainly not understated, rather go to point out to 
 us our own errors than to excuse those of the English students, 
 and are very like ignoring the question at issue. They prove, 
 indeed, that all the moral virtues are not comprised in purity 
 and temperance, but not that temperance and purity are not 
 requisite in a place making any pretensions to morality. Here 
 are some hundred young men getting drunk systematically, 
 making one another drunk, with the eternal joke of blacking 
 with burnt cork the first man's face who loses consciousness, 
 making any stray " snob" whom they catch drunk (a poor 
 wretch of a tramp was killed my first year by some Trinity 
 men, to whose rooms he came begging, and who gave him 
 three quarters of a bottle of port), unmanning and un-gentle- 
 manizing themselves to any extent. This is a bad state of 
 things, and there is no getting over it. If they are very nice, 
 honorable, and upright men when sober, more shame for them 
 to degrade themselves systematically. I say systematically, for
 
 344 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 any man who habitually gets drunk must set about it ■with a 
 certain system and previous design, since it requires but a 
 moderate amount of common sense and experience to tell him 
 how much he can carry. Here is a gross vice, the forbidding 
 of which was one of the peculiar features of Christianity and 
 has always been one of its leading distinctions in practical 
 morality from all other religions, made a matter of habitual 
 practice and a subject of familiar conversation. Can this go on 
 in a place devoted to the education of Christian youth, without 
 great blame being attributable somewhere ? But the worst is 
 not told. Many of the men whose undergraduate course has 
 been the most marked l)y drunkenness and debauchery, appear, 
 after the " Poll" examination, at Divinity lectures — step out of 
 Barnwell into the Church, Avithout any pretence of other 
 change than in the attire of their outward man — the being 
 "japanned," as assuming the black dress and white cravat is 
 called in University slang. Even a little hypocrisy would seem 
 decent in such cases. The idea of going into Christ's ministry 
 as a mere business, of being " put into one of the priests' 
 offices for a piece of bread," without feeling specially inclined 
 to and qualified for such a work, is sufficiently abhorrent to 
 people brought up in our way of thinking, even when the 
 hireling shepherd is a man of correct moral character ; but 
 when his life for years has been giving the lie to every word he 
 will preach, can language be strong enough to express our 
 emotions of grief and indignation ? Is it possible to exaggerate, 
 is it more than just possible to caricature a state of things 
 which can give rise to such occurrences as the following, which 
 (except that the real names are changed and the coarse lan- 
 guage of the narrator slightly modified) is literally set down as 
 I heard it told ? — 
 
 " You want to know Avhat this row was between Lord Gas- 
 ton and Brackett — well, it happened this way. Brackett had 
 brought his chere amie down from London. Gaston made her 
 acquaintance. Brackett goes there one night and finds the 
 door locked ; so he kicked the door open, and gave Gaston a 
 black eye. Then Gaston wanted to challenge him, and said he
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 345 
 
 didn't care whether he was turned out of the University or not 
 [this is the penalty for being concerned in a duel] ; but his 
 friends agreed that, as Brackett was going into the Church, 
 they had better make it up," &c. 
 
 Or this — to take a much milder instance — at which, also, I 
 was present. A Bachelor, whose life had been rather a noto- 
 rious one, Avas about to be presented to a curacy. A friend 
 inquires into the value of it, and comes to the conclusion that 
 lie has som(?thing better at his own disposal. " You are to get 
 ninety pounds a-year at Oakstone, and no parsonage. Now 
 our place is worth a hundred, besides the house, which is a very 
 nice one — big enough to take pupils and all that sort of thing." 
 The to-be-ordained pricks up his ears at the prospect. " And 
 the parish is really a nice one," continues the friend, " but there 
 is one drawback I must tell you in candor. There is an old 
 woman lives near by, who makes it a principle always to 
 quarrel with the parson." The parson in prospect inquires the 
 name of this formidable elderly lady. It is the mother of a 
 celebrated novelist. " Well, to be sure," says the aspirant to 
 
 the cure of souls, " she is a (I leave the reader to fill 
 
 in the three monosyllables) ; but — a hundred a-year — and you 
 said the house was in good order ?" 
 
 Now it will not do to cite against sucli cases instances where 
 itinerant preachers under the voluntary system, in this country 
 or other countries, have turned out to be rogues and impostors ; 
 to speak of the notorious Maffit, or an almost equally notorious 
 Temperance Lectui-er. Such men are rare exceptions ; they 
 are vaguely connected with some religious denomination, or, 
 perhaps, actually repudiated by that to wliicli they profess to 
 belong ; they spring from the low and ignorant, and find their 
 victims in the class from which they sprang. There is no com- 
 parison to be instituted between them and the number of high- 
 bred youth who every year are trained as gentlemen, receive a 
 liberal education so far as they will avail themselves of it, and 
 then enter deliberately on a mockery of the sacred profession, 
 with a great body of clerical teacbers looking on, and abetting, 
 as it were in the desecration. 
 
 15*
 
 346 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 It would be more to the purpose to sbow tliat this immo- 
 rality was partly, or in a ci^reat measure, owing to causes over 
 which the University or its individual colleges can have no 
 control. 
 
 And certainly there are some antecedent and independent 
 causes. A great deal of the mischief is done, that is to say, 
 the seeds of dissipation are implanted beforehand, at home or 
 at school. The moral education of English boys is very mucli 
 neglected, especially that part of education which consists in 
 example and in removing temptation out of their way rather 
 than debarring them from it. The principle, maxima dehetur 
 puero revereniia, which even a Heathen was able to see the 
 wisdom of, is very little borne in mind. If boys can be made 
 manly, that is to say, courageous, honest, and tolerably truth- 
 ful, the formation of habits of purity and self-denial is altogether 
 a secondary matter. Grown people, old, grey-headed men, 
 encourage boys to drink, and talk before them as the fastest 
 specimen of Young America would not talk before his younger 
 brother. A stranger, with no further knowledge of the subject 
 than he would gain by reading any good sermons addressed to 
 boys, Arnold's at Rugby for example, could not but remark the 
 progress made in vice at an early age by the inmates of a puljlic 
 school, and the trouble which a conscientious teacher has with 
 them in combating the fearful delusion, evidently derived not 
 merely from the practice, but tVom the admitted theory of their 
 elders, that indulgence in sensual vices is not incompatible with 
 a Christian life. 
 
 But there is another cause more deeply rooted and growing 
 directly out of the aristocratic constitution of English society. 
 It is the low estimate loJdch men in the %q')i')er ranks of life form 
 of u'omen in the loiver. The remark has often been made, and 
 with perfect truth, that that spirit of chivalry which makes 
 every man the protector of every woman,* is a peculiar feature 
 
 * With the meliiacholy exception of one class, the disgrace of which 
 exception we northern men are fully conscious of. Yet I would not 
 advise an Englishman to lay too much stress on it, as it might provoke 
 other comparisons not too favorable to his own country.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 347 
 
 of American civilization. In some European countries it does 
 not exist at all ; in others, as England, it is limited to a certain 
 class of society.* That shop-girls, work-women, domestic ser- 
 vants, and all females in similar positions, were expressly- 
 designed for the amusement of gentlemen, and generally serve 
 that purpose, is a proposition assented to by a large proportion 
 of Englishmen, even when they do not act upon the idea 
 themselves. You meet the position, either directly expressed 
 or implied (more frequently the latter), both in their conversa- 
 tion and their writings. A very clever and interesting traveller 
 in Norway, when discussing the morality of different classes of 
 the population there, observes, " the servant-girls are what 
 servant-girls are everywhere," as if there must be but one 
 standard for women occupied in domestic service, and that 
 necessarily a standard of degradation ! And in a popular novel 
 published some years ago, I recollect that an old gentleman 
 lecturing his nephew says to him, " You seduced a servant. I 
 know young men are young men, and servant maids are not 
 Lttcretiasy Then he goes on to say, that what he does blame 
 him for is abandoning his illegitimate child without support. 
 
 Once as I was walking in the outskirts of Cambridge with a 
 friend, a man strictly moral in his life, we came upon a gi'oup 
 of children at play, mostly girls ten or twelve years old. 
 " Poor things !" said he, " there go prostitutes for the next 
 generation." It was the first thought that occurred to him on 
 seeing these daughters of the people. 
 
 The English upper classes are tolerably moral in their own 
 sphere. Their women are well brought up. Their young 
 
 * It may be observed that a poor woman in England is just as likely 
 to be maltreated by men in her own walk in life as by those in a 
 higher, only the ill-treatment takes another form, that of brutal usage. 
 The cases of aggravated assault and battery upon women that come 
 before the Loudon police-magistrates are positively startling in number 
 and degree. In truth, the animal vigor of the Englishman is apt to 
 degenerate with the lower classes into sheer brutality ; and of this open 
 brutality, esjiecially as exhibited towards women, there is probably 
 more in England than in any other country in E\irope, except perhaps 
 Russia.
 
 348 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 men respect ladies ; perhaps it would be more correct to say 
 they are afraid- of them. But whatever the exact sentiment 
 may be which actuates him, the young Englishman has not 
 as a general rule the Frenchman's veui, vidi, vici persuasion 
 that every lady he meets is bound to fall in love with him. 
 But the virtue of a housemaid or a milliner-girl is a thing 
 inconceivable to him ; he has no more conception of it than, 
 I suppose, a native of New Orleans would have of the virtue 
 of a Quadroon. Yet he does not entertain any corresponding 
 scepticism as to the possibility of moral excellence in the other 
 sex of the laboring class. He does not think that a poor man 
 must necessarily be dishonest or mendacious, or may not he 
 altogether a very good Christian. Still less does he fancy that 
 he has a right to insult or ill-use him. If he did, the first 
 clown who gave him a threshing, or the first magistrate before 
 whom he was brought up for a breach of the peace, would 
 soon convince him of his error. But that a woman from 
 among " the common people" should be anything but a 
 common ivoman he will be slow to believe. Female virtue he 
 deems a luxury of the wealthy. 
 
 A third cause has been assigned, which to me seemed not 
 an independent one, and going directly to aggravate rather 
 than lighten the responsibility of the University. It has been 
 §aid by some of the Evangelicals- that nothing can be done to 
 improve the state of morality in the Universities so long as the 
 present Church system continues — so long as men will go, and 
 are allowed to go into the Church merely as a means of sup- 
 port, and just as they would take up any other profession, 
 or rather, witb less thought and preparation than they would 
 devote to any other profession. Now, granting that the con- 
 nexion between the Churcb and the Universities is not one of 
 the most vital and iutirnate character, still it would hardly be 
 possible to say that they are so far disconnected and inde- 
 pendent of each other that a vitiated state of things in the 
 University may be thrown o& and charged upon a general 
 error in the practice of the Church. Let us, however, admit 
 that this is another cause of immorality, making three in all,
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITr. 349 
 
 beyond the University's control. How does this affect its 
 responsibility ? 
 
 It appears to me that the ruling class in the University 
 generally, and more particularly in the particular Colleges, is 
 not exonerated by the existence of these external and prior 
 causes. For surely it is the business of the University to 
 improve and make the best of bad material that comes into its 
 hands. In matters intellectual it not only admits this duty, 
 but acts up to it. One of the essential objects of the University 
 of Cambridge, as claimed for it by Dr. Whew ell and others, is 
 to correct the imperfect and one-sided teaching of the public 
 schools, to supply their Mathematical deficiencies for instance. 
 And though (to repeat it for the second time) the moral edu- 
 cation of its members is not the University's primary and 
 special object ; yet it is a^^ object too important to be ignored 
 by throwing off all short comings in it upon the antecedents 
 of the students. What steps does the University take to keep 
 Undergraduates out of mischief? It appoints two Proctors, 
 with their deputies, who on alternate nights, accompanied by 
 their servants or lictors (popularly denominated bull-dogs), 
 make the tour of Barnwell suburb and other suspicious places, 
 r"d apprehend any women who may be seen openly enticing 
 gownsmen, or any gownsmen detected in improper localities. 
 Now I do not doubt but these gentlemen perform their disa- 
 greeable duties with much diligence, that they prevent some 
 vice and detect more ; but were I asked honestly my opinion 
 of their practical efficacy, I should say that they were not equal 
 to the amount of police work they took in hand,* and that 
 
 * Every Master of Arts is armed by the University with Proctorial 
 power. How much this amounts to in practice a single instance will 
 show. I was coming home one evening with a friend when we were 
 set upon in the regular Haymarket or Regent street style by two 
 women of the town who accompanied us for at least half a mile. As 
 they really were a serious annoyance to us, I very innocently asked 
 an A.M. whom we happened to meet (also a personal friend) to exercise 
 his Proctorial power and make them go awaj' under pain of the Spinning 
 House (the Bridewell or House of Correction for such characters). He 
 took it as a very good joke, and began bantei'ing the women and
 
 350 FIVE YEARS IX AN 
 
 they were more successful in catching small oftcnders against 
 University rules — pouncing upon a poor fellow like myself for 
 instance, who had crossed the street after candle-light without 
 his cap and gown, and fining him six-and-eightpence — th;in in 
 checking or punishing men of pr(jfligate habits. The previous 
 character, moreover, of some of the persons who hold the 
 office, is such that their appointment can only he justified on 
 the principle of setting one delinquent to catch another. 
 Were the University really inclined to go energetically about 
 the work, it might by no very violent exercise of its almost 
 despotic power in the town — I say almost despotic, for the 
 town officers are sworn in by and subject to the University 
 authorities, and the Proctors have a right to enter any house 
 or premises (except the precincts of King's College) in or 
 within a mile of Cambridge — put down all disorderly houses 
 and expel from the place all the notorious prostitutes, of whom 
 there are nearly a hundred at the lowest estimate as well 
 known as if they were under a Parisian registration. From 
 the University at large, let us turn to the particular Colleges, 
 for they in their individual capacity are concerned with the 
 worst blot on the system — the admission of improper charac- 
 ters into the Church. The candidate for Orders must have 
 testimonials from his College. "What are the requisites for 
 these ? What they may be theoretically I do not know, but 
 practically they come to this — that he must have kept a cer- 
 tain number of chapels and communions. I have known men 
 who at a pretty advanced stage of their Undergraduate course 
 committed open acts of profligacy and disorder — by open acts 
 I mean such as attracted the notice and incurred the censure 
 of the College — but whose testimonials were not thereby 
 forfeited or suspended. There is, I believe, but one case on 
 record where a Trinity Fellow was refused testimonials; of 
 graduates not Fellows, only one case has occurred since 1840, 
 
 encouraging them. And indeed the idea of an M.A. exercising such 
 power, is a mere joke ; the Proctor himself is nothing without his 
 bull-dogs, and the gownsmen sometimes escape from or resist even 
 these.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 351 
 
 and that not on moral grounds, but for Romanistic tendencies. 
 It Avas a consolation to see that a candidate could be stopped 
 for anything. And if any oftence against morals is committed 
 in their own order, how do the Dons treat the delinquent? 
 A tolerably strong case occurred in my time. A young woman 
 of previous good character went to a Fellow of Kings to pro- 
 cure an order of admission to the chapel on Sunday evening. 
 He made her drunk and seduced her. The reader will proba- 
 bly agree with me, that if the corporation of Kings had expelled 
 him from their body it would not have been a punishment 
 beyond his deserts. What did they do ? They suspended 
 him from his Fellowship for two years, which was equivalent 
 to a fine of £400 or thereabout. 
 
 After what I have said of Cambridge morals, to say any- 
 thing of Cambridge religion may appear to some superfluous. 
 They may be disposed to pronounce summarily that, admitting 
 a certain outward decorum, the absence of noon-day profa- 
 nity or openly avowed infidelity, there must be an utter want 
 of spiritual vitality in such a place. Let us not, however, be 
 too hasty in our conclusions. 
 
 We have been speaking of men wlio were more or less 
 depraved or immoral when they became members of the Uni- 
 versity. Let us take the case of a sincere practical Christian 
 who enters, and examine what influences will be at work upon 
 his spiritual life. 
 
 In the first place there is certainly a danger that his stand- 
 ard of holiness will be lowered by the many examples of vice 
 around him ; that he will fancy himself fulfilling the require- 
 ments of religion when he is only preserving those of morality. 
 This is a great and obvious peril on which it is needless to 
 enlarge. 
 
 Then (especially if he be a clever man) comes the tempta- 
 tion to intellect worship. It is a temptation inseparable from 
 academic institutions, where tlie advancement of the intellect 
 occupies the first place in the public attention and the egregia 
 ingenii facinora claim the first rewards. Hence he is in danger 
 of falling into the error, so fruitful of evil, of supposing that
 
 852 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 by improving his intellectual, lie will, ipao facto, improve his 
 moral nature. This supposition is not peculiar to students at 
 old universities ; it is one of the falsisms of the utilitarian 
 school that we most frequently liear announced in all solemnity 
 of hinguaii;e : it is also most plausibly supported by the gene- 
 rally acknowledged result of experience that a certain amount 
 of wisdom and intelligence seems necessary for the consistent 
 practice of virtue, as we sometimes meet men who arc fami- 
 liarly said not to know enoiu/h to be yood when they want to be.* 
 But how unsound a supposition it is any scholar's acquaintance 
 with Athenian literature and history may convince him.f 
 
 But the picture is not without its bright lights. The 
 prospect of the religious Undergraduate is not altogether 
 gloomy. He is not deprived of that great support and con- 
 solation, the presence of co-workers in a good cause. There 
 are some places of education at which it is next to impossible 
 (humanly speaking) that a j^ouiig man should live without being 
 corrupted by the universal example of those around him. 
 He can only preserve himself by turning recluse and living in 
 a state of negative if not positive hostility to his natural com- 
 panions. Now Cambridge is not such a place. A young 
 man who enters there and is disposed to find a truly " good 
 
 * I have often been struck with a remark of Dr. Arnold's to the 
 effect that men ought to pray for judgment and iinderstanding more 
 than they do. The idea may seem strange ; it would not be difficult 
 to represent it in a ridiculous hglit ; yet I am convinced it is one worthy 
 of deep consideration. Solomon prayed for understanding, and his 
 prayer was approved. 
 
 f One immediate consequence of intellect Avor.ship is that it makes 
 men nnder-estimate women. The depreciating spirit to which I refer 
 may be observed in men of very pure and sti'ict lives ; it does not, like 
 the libertine's, sneer at woman's virtues; but while admitting her 
 moral superiority, underrates its importance among the elements of 
 society ; nor does it avoid her with monkish asceticism, but rather treats 
 her with slightly contemptuous patronage as one might a child. 
 
 This topic seems irrelevant in a religious discussion, but there is one 
 point of view where it has a direct bearing — the prejudice which men 
 of strong intellect frequently conceive against evangelical doctrines, 
 because these doctrines arc especially popular with women.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 353 
 
 set," can find one, or indeed have bis choice among several 
 sets of really virtuous and religious men. It was my comfort 
 to know many right worthy the name of Christians according 
 to the highest standard that was ever lived up to ; men of no 
 particular clique or theological school, but holding various 
 opinions and coming from various places and teachers ; pupils 
 of Arnold from Rugby ; Evangelicals from King's College, 
 London ; other King's College London men of the Eclectic 
 stamp, followers of Professor Maurice, who looked at from a 
 Presbyteriaji point of view might be called Higli Churchmen ; 
 Eton men who were yet more eclectic, and had trained them- 
 selves nullius jurare in verba magistri. Men who differed in 
 many things but agreed in being sincere Christians whether 
 you regarded their faith or their practice ; and whose conduct 
 strikingly examplified that common sense of religion which is 
 so conspicuous in the writings of Whateley, Arnold, and other 
 liberal Churchmen, and of which a really good Englishman, 
 when you find one, presents the very best specimen in his life. 
 They seemed every day to solve that most difticult problem of 
 " being in the world, not of it." Their progress in human 
 learning did not make them fovget that the fear of the Lord is 
 wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding ; nor did 
 they deem that their pure lives and immovable principles gave 
 them a license to be uncharitable and censorious. They 
 made no parade of their religion on useless occasions, but 
 when it was wanted it was never wanting. The recollection 
 of some such men must have been present to Thackerarv, 
 when after scorching and withering with his sarcasm all classes 
 of society in England, he suddenly stopped at the clergy and 
 began to praise them. The remembrance of what some few 
 among that clergy were, disarmed the universal satirist. 
 
 Why such men have not more influence in reforming the 
 evils about them is a question easier to ask than answer. 
 The existence ' of evil is the one theological diflSculty, as 
 Whateley well says, and the apparent non-success of good 
 men in overcoming evil is but one branch of this diflSculty. 
 After all, they may do much that does not appear on the
 
 354 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 surface. It is so in their after life. Many of their good deeds 
 survive them, it is true, but are not heard of in their time so 
 as to redound to their credit. A clerical hypocrite is detected 
 in some wickedness ; he is brought into court ; the news- 
 papers are full of it ; the enemies of the church, or of religion, 
 or of both, exult. A pious clergyman devotes every spare 
 minute of his time not occupied in parochial duty to the 
 drudgery of taking pupils, that he may support schools for the 
 advancement of knowledge and true religion, and may combat 
 the Papist influences that have pre-occupied his ground : no 
 one knows anything about it, except a few of his parishioners 
 and intimate friends. 
 
 In looking over this chapter (probably the worst written in the 
 book, though it has cost me more trouble than any other) it 
 occurs to me that among the many faults which may be found 
 with it, there are two particularly likely to be dwelt upon : 
 the occasional use of coarse language, and the treatment of 
 the whole subject in a meagre and inadequate manner. To 
 the first charge I reply : English vice is a coarse thing ; it is 
 as well perhaps that it should be so ; that men who will be 
 vicious should be so in a coarse way, that they should get 
 drunk on bad liquor, and keep company with the commonest 
 harlots : for so they at least act the part of Helots, and enable 
 a young man's taste to be a powerful auxiliary to his virtue. 
 But this vice, being so coarse a thing in its nature, cannot be 
 described without some coarseness ; yet, though my language 
 may be rough and inelegant, I deny that it is anywhere 
 indelicate or voluptuous. In answer to the second charge, I 
 can only repeat my original plea of incapacity ; the conscious- 
 ness of which incapacity yielded only to the impossibility of 
 omitting the subject entirely from a work like this. 
 
 But with regard to the theolor/ical disputes at Cambridge, 
 which have a historical, rational, and common-sense j^oint of 
 view quite independent of their religious nature, I feel able to 
 speak more in detail ; and these deserve to be the subject of a 
 new chajDter.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 355 
 
 THE PUSEYITE DISPUTES IN CAMBRIDGE, AND THE CAMBRIDGE 
 CAMDEN SOCIETY. 
 
 " It is not hazarding too much to predict that a school which peremptorily rejects all 
 evidences of religion except such as, when relied on exclusively, the logical canon irre- 
 versibly condemns, which denies to mankind the right to judge of religious doctrine * * 
 * * must, in the present state of the human mind, inevitably fail in its attempts to put 
 itself at the head of the religious feelings and convictions of Great Britain; by whatever 
 learning, argumentative skill, and even, in many respects, comprehensive views of 
 human affairs, its peculiar doctrines maybe recommended to the acceptance of thinkers." 
 —Mill's Logic (18-13). 
 
 The era of my residence in Cambridge was in one respect 
 fortunate ; it enabled me to witness a great struggle between 
 reactionary and progressive principles. Anglo-Catholicism and 
 Young England were in all their glory when I arrived there ; 
 they were both pretty well on the wane when I left. 
 
 The aim of the Anglo-Catholics (more generally known as 
 the Oxford School, or by the popular nickname of Puseyites) 
 may be briefly characterised thus : it Avas to bring the Church 
 of England continually nearer to the Church of Rome without 
 actually going into it. But as constructions of this sort, though 
 possible and familiar enough in Mathematics, are not always 
 exactly feasible in real life, it turned out that many of those 
 concerned in the movement found themselves over the line be- 
 fore they were well aware of it. This, I say, was the general 
 aim ; there were some few exceptions whose Anglo-Catholicism 
 had a certain " finality " in it, and who maintained to the end 
 a commendable distrust of the Pope, while they would have 
 had no objection to have become a sort of Popes themselves. 
 The writings of these exceptional characters have done the 
 defenders of Puseyism good service in this country, and else- 
 where among Protestant j^opulations. Let it be said that 
 the Oxford school favors the Romanists, and straightway their 
 partisans will quote you a few sentences from Mr. Sewall, and
 
 356 FIVE YEAKS IN AN 
 
 then solvcntur risu tahulcc. But, as a general rule, so marked 
 ■was the tendency Rome-ward that not a few believed the 
 leaders of the movement to be Jesuits in disguise — a theory 
 containing perhaps no inherent improbability, but not to be 
 accepted in the absence of some positive proof. A more prac- 
 tical and plausible way of explaining the phenomenon, and 
 which many adopted, was that the Oxford movement was a 
 reaction from tlie Evangelical, as that was from the formalism of 
 the old "High and Dry " party, and as the present Protestant ex- 
 citement is from Puseyism itself. But since the human mind, in 
 this age of progress, revolts at the thoughts of absolutely retro- 
 grading, it was supposed by many that the Anglo-Catholics had 
 invented or discovered some new ideas — a delusion which they 
 themselves countenanced by talking much about " developments." 
 Yet after all there was nothing unphilosophical in the pre- 
 vailing opinion that Puseyism was only a revival of the explod- 
 ed doctrines of former days. The reproduction of error in the 
 moral, political, and religious worlds, is a phenomenon that has 
 already occurred too often for us to be startled at its occurring 
 once again. A man's belief in physics is purely a matter of 
 reason, in morals it is very often one of sentiment. When you 
 have established a principle in mathematics or natural philoso- 
 phy there is an end of it ; you have gained so much clear 
 ground for all future time. Not so in politics or religion. 
 There a principle is established, or an error jjut down by a vast 
 preponderance of evidence, but not by an irrefragable certainty 
 of proof. The demonstration and refutation often take a prac- 
 tical form in their most important stages, as the English after 
 much discussion practically disproved the divine right of kings 
 by getting rid of James and prospering under William, the 
 logical part of the proof being arranged afterwards. So, after 
 the new principle has been triumphant for some time, the error 
 is forgotten, but the refutation is forgotten tvith it, though men 
 may be practically living on its results. By-and-by, since indi- 
 viduals are found in all ages with the same mental constitution 
 and tendencies, the forgotten fallacy starts up into notice again, 
 not unfrequently announcing itself as an original discovery.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 357 
 
 Then the process of refutation has to be gone through over 
 again. The theological student soon observes how ancient here- 
 sies, Sabellianism for instance, are continually coming up again 
 under pretence of being new discoveries in theology. The 
 political student (I mean the man who investigates the history 
 and science of governments with a higher view than that of 
 making merchandise out of local and temporary party disputes) 
 must be struck with the admixture of ancient fallacies in the 
 social system of many a new light of the age. The Young 
 England movement in politics, which, though not coextensive 
 with, ran parallel to the Oxford movement in theology, has 
 been shown not to have originated a single new suggestion ; 
 even Mr. D'Israeli's brilliant discoveries how the Whigs wanted 
 to make a Venetian government of England, &c., were derived 
 straight from the time of the Stuarts and even from sayings of 
 the tirst Charles himself. It must be remembered too in 
 respect to Puseyism, that the abuses which it sought to restore 
 in England had never been in abeyance throughout Europe. 
 The original source of evil, the Romish church, had always 
 existed, not at all times with full energy to work mischief, but 
 always with the potentiality of and inclination for mischief. 
 
 It has been mentioned that the Anglo-Catholic movement 
 was viewed by many as a reaction from Evangelicism. The 
 Anglo-Catholics from the first attacked the Evangelicals in one 
 of their main strongholds, their influence with the female sex. 
 On the ladies they brought a double battery to bear, not only 
 appealing to their feelings as the others had done, but also 
 addressing their taste. With similar aesthetic arguments they 
 attacked men of an elegant and somewhat effeminate turn of 
 mind, and won over many pretty scholars and neat antiqua- 
 rians. By " developing" the same idea a little, inveighing 
 against the coarseness of Puritanism and Evangelicism and 
 giving out that theirs was the religion for a gentleman, they 
 found favor with many persons in the upper classes generally, 
 and made sham converts of many toadies of the aristocracy. 
 To men of stronger minds in or destined for the church, they 
 exhibited stronger and more congenial persuaisives. They
 
 358 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 stimulated their ambition by suggesting, rather than distinctly 
 ex])laining, the great power which the Oxford system would 
 place in the liands of the clergy. A thoroughly excellent and 
 conscientious man, one of my most valued friends, who was 
 infected with Puseyism in the early part of his College course 
 and afterwards happily recovered, confessed to me that this 
 consideration had had the utmost weight with him, and would 
 continually interfere to bias his judgment, in spite as it were 
 of himself. And in politics, while encouraging all in the upper 
 classes who were disposed to favor retrograde movements, 
 they recommended themselves to the lower orders as their best 
 friends, and to those who sympathized with the lower orders as 
 the true social reformers. 
 
 By an able use of these means the Anglo-Catholics had, in 
 the years '42, '43, and '44, acquired a strong foothold all over 
 England, and at Cambridge they had established an influence 
 more dangerous to the church and nation at large than 
 the power which they wielded at their original head-quarters 
 of Oxford, for the best and ablest young men of our University 
 seemed to favor their views when they did not actually 
 embrace them. The principal instrument by which the Oxford 
 party planted themselves in Cambridge, and which by a 
 righteous irony was afterwards made the occasion of their signal 
 discomfiture, was the Cambridge Camden Society. 
 
 The Ecclesiastical Camden Society at Cambridge had no 
 connexion with the Literary Camden Society at London for the 
 publication of Historical Documents, Diaries, Letters, Poems, 
 Political Songs, &c., &c., heretofore only existing in old 
 manuscripts. It is proper to mention this at the outset, 
 because the identity of name has caused much confusion even 
 in England. 
 
 The Cambridge Camden Society was instituted in May, 
 1839, ostensibly with a view to "promote the study of Eccle- 
 siastical Architecture and Antiquities, and the restoration of 
 mutilated Architectural Remains." It professed to be nothing 
 more than this, and its printed laws contained nothing dubious 
 or objectionable. And though many religious persons might
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 359 
 
 expect that such an association would indirectly attempt some- 
 thing for the spiritual benefit of the church, yet so long as it con- 
 fined itself to its avowed line of architectural study and material 
 decoration, no one could strictly find fault with it for omitting 
 all mention of the vital truths of religion, any more than we 
 could with justice reprehend a professedly critical editor of the 
 Greek Testament for having embodied no theological matter 
 in his notes. But the craft and artifice of these men Avas, that 
 they first inculcated a taste for mediaeval art and architecture, 
 for ancient church ornaments and furniture, as a purely cesthetic 
 and antiquarian matter totally independent of theology, and 
 then, after a taste for, and interest in and attachment to 
 these things had been formed and established, endeavoured to 
 deduce from them an adherence to those rehgious and poli- 
 tical errors which were contemporary with that art and archi- 
 tecture. In this they used a certain degree of caution, though 
 here and there a phrase, such as " the errors of the Eeforma- 
 tion," " the usurpation of William," peeped out from the 
 very first. There was a marked and tolerably regular progress 
 discernible in the publications of the society for which its 
 committee was responsible, and in the publications of leading 
 members of it to which it lent its sanction indirectly in every 
 way without openly assuming the responsibility of them. From 
 abusing Dissenters they proceeded to abuse Low-Churchmen, 
 from abusing Low-Churchmen to abusing the old High- 
 Churchmen ; from non-reproval to cautious praise, from praise 
 to recommendation, from recommendation to adoption of 
 numerous Popish practices. 
 
 The state in which the Camdenians found many of the 
 candidates for Orders gave them a great leverage in their 
 operations. It has been mentioned with what utter deficiency 
 of moral, not to say religious qualification, numbers of rash 
 young Englishmen enter into the sacred profession every year. 
 There seemed to be, and doubtless was among a large number, 
 a practical conviction of the apostolic succession and its legiti- 
 mately deducible consequences ; a belief that some mystic 
 influence was conveyed in ordination — some special grace
 
 360 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 which would sooner or later sanctify the recipient. And doubt- 
 less it sometimes happens in God's Providence that a bad man 
 is converted to the truth by talking and preaching about it ; but 
 the experiment is a tearful one for the congregation, and thrice 
 fearful to the minister. Now the whole Puseyite scheme, by 
 substituting an essential and inherent virtue in the order for the 
 necessity of virtue in the individual, provided an unchristian 
 minister with a sop for liis conscience. But the Camdenian 
 development of it did more ; it gave him something to do, and 
 aroused the cravings of his better nature. For every man not 
 utterly hypocritical or careless will, on finding himself in a 
 position the duties of which he is unqualified to fulfil, endeavor 
 to find or contrive some substitute for them ; if he cannot be a 
 true pastor, he will like to play at being one. If now you can 
 persuade him to adopt Gothic architeceure for his creed, and 
 mediaeval restorations for his reforms ; if you can convince him 
 that rood-screens and floriated crosses are great articles of 
 faith, and that preaching in a surplice or using altar-cloths of a 
 particular color on particular saints' days occupy an elevated 
 position on the list of good Avorks, that it is a sacred duty to — 
 not " orient himself" like Horace Mann's young man, but 
 " orientate" his church, and that the destruction of a pew or 
 gallery is of more importance than the reformation of a sinner; 
 — then you have satisfied him at a cheap rate ; he has his Body 
 of Divinity speculative and practical, which gives him sufficient 
 occupation yet does not interfere with his old desires and incli- 
 nations. And this was the 'jf^urov -^svSos of the Camdenians, 
 the fundamental charge that would have remained against 
 them even had there been no connexion between them and 
 Rome — had there been no popery in the substitution of " altars" 
 for communion-tables, no priestcraft and monkery in the sepa- 
 ration of the clergy from the laity by partitions and the men 
 from the women by localities at church, had the Romish Church 
 been out of the way altogether — that they converted theology 
 into a matter of garniture and ceremony, and what with crosses 
 and triangles, poppy-heads and gurgoyles, fishes and salaman- 
 ders, made it as much a collection of absurd conventionalities
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSIxr. 361 
 
 as Heraldiy is, or, to adopt the comparison of Eoj^ers in 
 the Edinburgh Review, as much a science of symbols as Algebra 
 all but the demonstration. 
 
 For some years the Camden went on very triumphantly, and 
 the Puseyites seemed likely to make Cambridge their point 
 d'a])pm. At their original head-quarters they had sustained 
 some decided defeats, such as the election of Garbett as Pro- 
 fessor of Poetry instead of their candidate Williams, and the 
 suspension of Dr. Pusey. At Cambridge they had lost nothing, 
 having refrained from such trials, which might bring out the 
 full force of the older members of the University against them, 
 and chiefly confined themselves to winning the younger. Their 
 operations were not unobserved throughout the country ; Evan- 
 gelicals, Eclectics, and High Churchmen of the old school, all 
 thundered away at them. Now and then the monthly preacher 
 at Great St. Mary's* attacked them on their own ground ; 
 but they were not moved thereby in practice, though very 
 much smashed in argument, and obstinately refused to die 
 when their brains were out — no wonder, since the reason of a 
 thing was with thorn a reason against it, and one of their fun- 
 damental arguments was to deny the validity of argument. 
 
 While these men were in the full tide of success I always 
 expected their shipwreck were nigh at hand. That the English 
 nation was going over bodily into the arms of the Romish 
 Church never entered into my apprehensions — that my intelli- 
 gent friends whose reason had been clouded by the mists of 
 Tractarian sophistry would see clearly again before long was 
 my constant expectation. I wish my faith in everything I 
 ought to have believed in (things political, I mean) had been as 
 strong as my faith in the defeat of the Puseyites and the up- 
 setting of the Camden. 
 
 In the Spring of 1844 Camdeno-Puseyism was at its zenith. 
 
 * The colleges successively appoint one of their non-resident gra- 
 duates to preach in the afternoons at the University Church for four or 
 five Sundays. One of the Esquire Bedells (honorary attendants on the 
 Vice-Chancellor) said tliat he heard a new preacher every month for 
 thirty years, and thanked God he had some religion left. 
 
 16
 
 362 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 It was then the University debating society passed that remark- 
 able and irrational vote that monasteries ought to be re-es- 
 tablished ! l>ut ill the Autumn of the very same year a reaction 
 began to show itself. Though too busy with my own alfairs to 
 notice much of what was going on around me, I could not help 
 observing with great satisfaction that some of my best friends 
 whose ]'useyitc tendencies I had deplored, were fast returning 
 under the sway of charity and common sense. Soon the crash 
 came on from without. It was more or less precipitated by an 
 event of- no very great importance in itself, but which, like 
 many other trifling occurrences, led to a discussion of great 
 principles. 
 
 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Cambridge was in the 
 year 1841 very much out of repair ; in fact a part of it had 
 actually fallen in, and there was danger that the Avhole would 
 come down. Some of the Camden Society came forward and 
 offered not merely to repair the fallen part, but to restore and 
 beautify the whole church. The parishioners, who were the 
 reverse of wealthy, gladly assented through their vestry, and 
 the Restoration Committee appointed began to raise subscrip- 
 tions and carry out their design. More tiian four thousand 
 pounds were raised and expended in this restoration, which oc- 
 cupied more than two years and converted the church into 
 what one person might call a "perfect gem," and another " a 
 perfect toy," according to their views of such restorations. 
 Some of my readers are doubtless acquainted with the Temple 
 Church, which is one of the lesser lions of London ; those who 
 are Avill have some idea of the appearance Avhich the " Round 
 Church," as St. Sepulchre was commonly called,* assumed 
 imder the hands of its restorers. The often. mooted ])oint of 
 
 * It is sometimes mentioned in old deeds as " ecclesia rotunda." 
 The more ancient part of the bxiilding is an exact circle. There are 
 three similar round churches in England, those of Northampton, Little 
 Maplestead, and the Temple (in London); none of them are as old as 
 ■St. ■Sepulchre's, which was most probably built in the first half t>f the 
 twelfth century, though the precise time is not known. — Vide'La Keux's 
 Memorlah of Cambridge.-
 
 ENGLISH UMVEKSITY. 363 
 
 tlie propriety of such exquisite decoration, and its good or bad 
 spiritual tendency, it is not necessary to discuss here at length. 
 This much, perhaps, a man without previous bias might admit, 
 that there is at least no more impropriety in a number of indi- 
 viduals spending money upon a church than in any one of them 
 spending it on his own house, and that to build a beautiful 
 church is jmhna facie, and until some impioper motive can be 
 clearly assigned for it, an act in honor of God. The usual ob- 
 jection against making a show-place of a church proves rather 
 too much, for experience shows that all churches possessing 
 beauty, whether of external architecture or interior decoration,'"' 
 will and must be to a certain extent show-places ; and this we 
 can only escape by carrying out the theory of the Methodists 
 (which even some of them have begun to deviate from in prac- 
 tice) that an edifice for the worship of God must be as ugly 
 and barn-like as possible. For my own part I should as soon 
 think of separating the sexes at church or obliging the women 
 to wear veils because men sometimes come there merely to look 
 at them. As to the qualifications and provisos in the case, 
 ordinary judgment will supply those, such as that the expen- 
 diture of art and Avealtli should be for the glory of God and not 
 for the glorification of any set of men, priests or others, and 
 that such decorations should not be considered a part of or a 
 substitute for vital religion, that encaustic tiles should not be 
 placed alongside of faith and charity, or stained glass accepted 
 in lieu of gospel preaching. 
 
 The incumbent of St. Sepulchre's was a non-resident. It 
 must not be supposed from this, however, that he was an idle 
 ecclesiastical dignitary, wallowing in luxury and so forth — one 
 of those over-paid do-nothing priests that radicals like to dilate 
 
 * A person disposed lo hypercriticism niiglit perhaps draw a dis- 
 tinetion between the two, and s.iy that the exterior architecture cannot 
 Avithdraw tlie attention of the worshippers within from their worship, 
 as the interior decoration does. But a churcli magnificent without 
 and bare within, rather tempts strangers to remain on the outside of 
 it, so great is the feeling of disappointment excited by the want ot cor- 
 respondence.
 
 364 FIVE YE.vns in an 
 
 upon. His whole church emoluments did not exceed £150 
 per annum. 8750 is not a very exorbitant salary for a clergy- 
 man in any country. ]5ut he was certainly a non-resident, and 
 being in addition a man of small stature, it is just possible that 
 the Camdenians overlooked him altogether and never took him 
 into account in their restoration measures. His curate was a 
 Small-College man wbo used to write bad Latin in his Procto- 
 rial notices when he filled that oflice, two adequate reasons for 
 considering him a cypher also. Towards the close of the year 
 1843, the incumbent made the discovery tliat the vestry had 
 broken up the old communion table and erected a stone altar. 
 He demanded that this should be removed, and as, after much 
 correspondence and " fuss generally," his request was not com- 
 plied with, went to law — nominally with the church-wardens 
 wlio had been put forward as a convenient stalking-horse, but 
 virtually Avith the Camden Society. These legal proceedings 
 had the efiect of stopping the consecration of the church (and 
 consequently the celebration of divine worship in it) for more 
 than a year, during which time the dispute was not confined to 
 the courts but flowed over into the newspapers, and embodied 
 itself in various periodical articles and even pamphlets. So far 
 as the mere fact of stone altars existing in churches was con- 
 cerned, the society had decidedly the best of it. They collected 
 some two hundred cases, and among them the church of Mr. 
 Close, the ftimous evangelical preacher of Cheltenham, which 
 contained a very elaborate modern built altar. The afl:air put 
 up in the Round Church moreover might have been called 
 almost anything. It was a horizontal slab supported upon 
 three perpendicular ones, open in front and not solidly attached 
 to the wall behind. It looks as if the Society must have 
 brought the trouble on themselves by blazoning and boasting 
 of the gift of money for an " altar" and its substitution for a 
 table. They had a way of making even desirable changes as 
 disagreeable as possible to Protestants by their way of urging 
 them ; thus they recommended the abolition of pews not 
 merely because they disfigure the inside of a church and pro- 
 mote an unchristiaa exclusiveness in worship, but because they
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 365 
 
 had on'r/inated with the Puritans. It will be borne in mind 
 that the name by which the thing was to be authoritatively 
 called was the point at issue here, rather than the nature of the 
 thing itself. An altar may exist through some fancy of an 
 architect, as in Mr. Close's church, without any special meaning 
 being attached to it ; but if a table be formally rejected and 
 the substitution of an altar insisted upon, it must be from some 
 definite idea attached to the thing.* What is that idea ? An 
 altar is strictly and originally that on whicli sacrifice is offered, 
 and the consecration of the elements on an altar implies that 
 our Saviour was not sacrificed once for all, but is crucified 
 afresh every time the sacrament is celebrated ; which is sheer 
 Popery. Although the Court of Arches ultimately decided 
 against the churchwardens and the objectionable article was 
 removed, yet the many precedents adduced by the society, the 
 liberal manner in whicli they had beautified the church, and 
 some other circumstances, caused public opinion to deem it 
 nearly a drawn battle. Nevertheless this contest was in an 
 indirect way fatal to the society — not through their pecuniary 
 losses, thougli these were considerable — but because it involved 
 a more thorough examination of their Romanizing tendencies 
 and practices among persons rather inclined to be Adiaphorists 
 in church matters. The result was that the archbishops, several 
 bishops, the chancellor and the vice-chancellor of the Univer- 
 sity formally withdrew their names from the list of j^atrons. 
 The Protestant members of the society (about one seventli of 
 it) did the same, and nearly all the withdrawals were accom- 
 panied by publicly assigned reasons. The Camden tumbled 
 from its pride of place, and as is usual in this world's aft'airs, now 
 that it was going down the hill every one was ready to lend it 
 a kick. C)ne of the smallest possible straws may be taken as 
 an indication of the direction in which the aura j^ojndaris now 
 set. Our Epigram Club had a bare majority so far favorable 
 
 * On one occasion of a similar dispute, tlie incmnbent Avas satisfied 
 Avith havini"; a wooden top affixed to the disputed jiiece of furnitiu'e — 
 to show tliat it w.is not meant for an altar.
 
 3GG FIVK TKAKS IN AN 
 
 to Pu.seyism and Young England that it would accept nothing 
 reflecting very severely upon them, and several Epigrams had 
 been refused admission into its record-book on this account. 
 But now (this was in the spring of 1845) one of us sent in a 
 ballad on the defeat and embarrassments of the Camden — an 
 atrocious piece of doggrel in itself, compared with which even 
 the verses of the Camdenians, such as Mr. Neale's,* might pass 
 for something like poetry ; — nevertheless it was accepted almost 
 without opposition, so evidently in accordance was it with the 
 popular sentiment. 
 
 The president of the society recommended that it should dis- 
 solve itself. As tliere were some legal difliculties in the way 
 of doing this without the consent of all the members, it still 
 continued (and fur all I know, continues to this day) a sort of 
 existence under the name of the " Ecclesiological, late Camden ;" 
 but its meetings were no longer held in Cambridge, and it soon 
 ceased to hold any public meetings at all. 
 
 The Master and Fellows of Trinity fired a last shot after the 
 retreating enemy, by refusing to give testimonials for orders to 
 a leading member of the Camden Committee, who had advo- 
 cated in his writings a scarcely disguised Komanism. This 
 kicking-out a traitor who was preparing to desert, and only 
 waiting to do a little more mischief, was a surprise and discom- 
 fiture to both Puseyites and Ilomanists ; it had probably the 
 eft'ect of hastening the entire perversion of some of the former, 
 whom the English church decidedly gained by losing. 
 
 The decline of Puseyism throughout England was nearly 
 simultaneous with the blow it received in Cambridge. True, it 
 still exists, but with greatly diminished influence and power of 
 mischief. The numerous perversions to Romanism which took 
 
 * "That worthy Pindar of Puseyism" as the Edinburgh called liiin. 
 I annex the chorus of the ballad in question, quite enough to show that 
 it was not approved on its literary merits. 
 
 "Sinti pygostole, clialice, and pyx! 
 
 Sing roodloft and credence with glee, sir, 
 Did ever you see such a fix 
 As that of this so-ci-e ty ? sir."
 
 KXGLISH UNIVERSITY. 367 
 
 place duriug the years '46 and '47, though they gave the 
 impression tliat the Tractarian heresy was spreading, were in 
 truth signs of its losing ground. Some ultras of that school, 
 finding that they could do nothing more in the Church of 
 Enghmd and were rapidly becoming more and more insignificant 
 there, went openly over to that communion to which they had 
 virtually belonged for some time previous. With the exception 
 of Mr. Newman, they were no loss in the way of talents, and 
 generally they were no loss at all, except for the wealth which, 
 in some instances, they transferred to the enemy. The old 
 lady of Babylon always keeps a good look-out after the sinews 
 of war, and in this respect the apostasy of some titled mem- 
 bers of the English Church is certainly to be regretted. 
 
 People who were watching in 1844 for the next reaction in 
 that Church feared it might be German neology. It was 
 thought some of the younger Oxford men had an ominous 
 inclination that way. The reaction that came over the whole 
 people of England of indignant resistance to Papal aggression 
 was not foreseen, partly because the amount of impudence that 
 called it forth was indeed hard to anticipate. 
 
 With a few words on this subject of pa^Dal aggression I will 
 close the present chapter. The matter is not irrelevant, for it 
 was doubtless the Puseyite movement that encouraged the 
 Pope to his insulting attempt ; and it is so generally misunder- 
 stood in this country that I cannot refrain from using my hum- 
 ble endeavors to set forth the difficulty in a truer light than 
 that in which it is usually represented by editors and their cor- 
 respondents. 
 
 Much would-be ridicule has been expended on the folly of 
 being alarmed at a name. "The Pope does not try to dispos- 
 sess the English clergy of their revenues," says one (admirable 
 moderation on the Pope's part !) ; " he only calls his vicars 
 Bishops of Manchester, Westminster, &c. The other day he 
 created an Archbishop of New York, and we never made any 
 fuss about it. How admirably does our republican security of 
 religious liberty contrast," &e., and then comes a comparison 
 much to .Jolni FmiU's dis:idvantng<\ Now the two cases stand
 
 3G8 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 on nil (aitirely diU'erent footing. With us no religious sect has 
 any direct connexion with the government (and only one sect 
 — the universally aggressive one — has tried to liave any indi- 
 rect connexion), consequently there may be any number of 
 bishops of difterent sects in a place, calling themselves bishops 
 of that place, without interfering with one anotlier in the eye 
 of the law, or intruding upon the ground of the Magistrate. 
 Thus John Hughes signs himself " Archbishop of New 
 York ;" everybody knows this means merely tliat he is Arch- 
 bishop of the Romish church here; that he has no jurisdiction 
 over Protestants, nor can interfere with them or their clergy- 
 men. There may be a Protestant Ejtiscopal, a Methodist, and 
 a Romish Bishop of Massachusetts or Boston, and the 
 Governor of Massachusetts feel no apprehension. But in Eng- 
 land the National Church is part of the state ; the bishop has 
 temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction. Any man who sets 
 himself up as a bishop alongside of him is encroaching on his 
 political authority ; it is like Mr. Dorr declaring himself 
 Governor of Rhode Island, Avhich title, I presume, he Avould 
 not have been allowed to retain even had he refrained from 
 attempting at once to seize on the ensigns and munitions of 
 government. And were the Romish pseudo-bishops allowed to 
 keep quiet possession of their new titles, they might before long 
 proceed to usurp territorial jurisdiction and ecclesiastical 
 revenue as a consequence of them (for these priests are clever 
 liands at " trying it on '■"), and it would not be altogether con- 
 trary to the spirit of the British Constitution that they should 
 do so.* Now if a man turns round and says, " But this is all 
 wrong ; there ought not to be any connexion of Church and 
 State, and the English should abolish theirs," this is begging 
 the question. The English State Church may be a bad one, 
 but at any rate it is the church of the majority and the church 
 of the government, and while it is so, government and indivi- 
 
 * It is true that their designations are not the same as any now exist- 
 ing in the Established Church. But some of them are taken from 
 places where it is veiy likely that there tvill be English bishops ; Man- 
 chester for instance.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITV. 369 
 
 duals must accept it as a fixed fact, just as we do slavery in 
 our southern states, or universal suftrage, or naturalization of 
 foreigners. If we are jealous of the interference of strangers 
 on the subject of slavery, which every man at the north allows 
 to be a terrible evil, why should we be surprised at the indig- 
 nation of the English when strangers meddle with the pre- 
 rogatives of their church, a matter much more immediately 
 connected with the government (for it is universal throughout 
 the country, while slavery here is only partial and local), and 
 which they regard as one of their greatest blessings ? 
 
 ie*
 
 370 FIVE YEARS IX AN 
 
 INFERIORITY OF OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN 
 SCHOLARSHIP. 
 
 dXX', (JyuO', dvSl liOvciKiiv CTTiaranat — AllISTOPII. EqVIT. V. 188. 
 
 In comparing University education — tliat is to say, the 
 highest and most liberal style of education — in England and 
 in our own country, it is but natural, since Classical studies 
 professedly lie at the foundation of it in both, that we should 
 begin by contrasting the pupils' proficiency in such studies. 
 What English scholarship is, the reader may have had some 
 opportunity of judging from the preceding pages. What 
 American is we shall now proceed to examine. 
 
 As I am about to say a great deal that is unusual, 
 unpopular, and pretty sure to give offence, it may be as well, 
 by way of preliminary, to anticipate a summary way of dis- 
 posing of all my remarks, likely to be adopted in certain 
 quarters. It is a stock argument against any man, possessing, 
 or supposed to possess an independent property, and having 
 ever travelled or resided abroad, when he makes any assertion 
 not flattering to the popular vanity — an argument which may 
 be briefly expressed thus : This man cannot give any valuable 
 information to American citizens, because from his position 
 and associations he does not knoiv what the duties of an Ame- 
 rican citizen are. It is imputing voluntary or involuntary 
 incivism to every well-educated and travelled gentleman, and 
 thence deducing the conclusion that nothing which he may 
 say on any question of practical importance is entitled to 
 consideration. 
 
 People who reason thus, overlook one very important 
 element of the question. The probability of a man's giving 
 important information or valuable advice on any point, depends
 
 ENGLISH UN1VER8ITT. 371 
 
 not merely on his oiiporl unities to know and understand the 
 truth concerning it, but also on liis being free to tell so much 
 truth as he does know. If he is under any strong bias of per- 
 sonal interest; if his ])ecuniary resources or his prospects of 
 political advancement are likely to suffer by his telling unre- 
 servedly what he believes to be the truth, then his witness will 
 be worth less than that of a man with less knowledge but 
 more independence. An editor is certainly not in the position 
 most favorable to the promulgation of unpopular truth, neither 
 is a politician. The circulation of his paper or his availability 
 as a candidate are considerations that will continually interfere 
 with the convictions of his reason. No one who is directly 
 dependent on the public for support dares to tell it the truth 
 at all times. He who is indirectly dependent, like the man of 
 business or the professional man without private means, is 
 more at liberty, but not completely so. And when a man ol 
 either class has, by th exercise of his talents and industry, 
 gained fortune and reputation, so that he may say what he 
 thinks without danger and with a chance of effecting some- 
 thing, the probabihties are that, if a public man, he has so 
 long habituated himself to the promulgation of the popular 
 rather than the true, that his mind will continue to work in 
 the same track ; and that if a private one, he will be principally 
 inclined to indemnify himself by the material comforts which 
 wealth affords for the trouble he took to attain it, and will 
 prefer a quiet life to the trouble of communicating his convic- 
 tions to others. 
 
 In short, a man who has nothing to expect or fear from the 
 public, who never intends to depend on their suffrages for 
 anything, who does not practise politics or literature for a 
 livelihood, who is not in danger of injuring his business by 
 uttering unpopular opinions, who is not struggling for a place 
 in fashionable society, and therefore not obliged to toady any 
 individual or any set — such a man is almost the only one who 
 can afford to speak the truth boldly, and is more likely than 
 any other man to tell the truth, supposing that he knoivs it. 
 
 But why should he not know it? I? it on account of his
 
 372 nVK YEARS IN AN 
 
 wealth ? Does that disqualify him from understanding repub- 
 lican institutions and what is good for republicans ? I fancy 
 there are too many men making or expecting to make fortunes 
 for such a doctrine to be universally or very generally admitted. 
 Moreover, if it be true, the Republic is not only certainly in 
 danger, but must have contained the seeds of dissolution from 
 its commencement, since the number of rich, men among us 
 has constantly increased and is increasing, in spite of laws, 
 customs, and sentiments most favorable to the distribution of 
 wealth. Is it because he has travelled and lived abroad ? Let 
 us take the extremest case. Suppose an American boy to have 
 been left at a foreign school, to reside there during seven of the 
 most important years in his life, to have partially forgotten his 
 native language, so that he speaks a foreign tongue habitually 
 and from preference, and has acquired the habits of his foreign 
 schoolfellows and teachers. It may be urged with some 
 plausibility that his education has not helped him to become 
 the best kind of American citizen. But look a little further. 
 A foreigner comes hither — one from the same country where 
 this boy was educated ; all these disqualifications exist in him 
 to a much greater degree, yet after a few years' residence he is 
 admitted to all the privileges of a citizen, and may hold any 
 office except that of President. How thrice ridiculous to 
 maintain that a portion of the American's previous life spent 
 abroad incapacitates him more than the whole of his does the 
 foreigner. It is worth noticing, too, that the persons most 
 zealous in suggesting the ificivism of wealthy and well-educated 
 men among their own countrymen, are usually those most 
 patronizing of emigrant foreigners, are Democrats first and 
 Americans afterwards, and value their country chiefly as a 
 refuge for the radicalism of the world. Suppose an American, 
 from living or travelling abroad, has even acquired some foreign 
 habits, that he drinks coffee when most of his countrymen take 
 tea, or vice versa, or wears a hat of a slightly different shape 
 from the ordinary one, is he therefore unable to sympathize 
 with his fellow-citizens, or to understand what is for their 
 advantage { Hun e our adopted fellow-citizens no foreign
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEESirr. 373 
 
 habits ? Do not some of tliera get drunk and riot, and abuse 
 Englishmen and Protestants, and he and cheat at elections 
 here, exactly as they did at home ? If we reject all reference 
 to our naturalization laws, on the ground that they are a fait 
 accompli and do not prove any principle, then Ave have the 
 broad question — Does personal knowledge of another country 
 disqualify a man for giving an opinion on the affairs of his 
 own ? Now I should be far from maintaining the opposite 
 extreme to the opinion I have been combating, by admitting 
 that foreign travel is necessarily a benefit to an American. 
 There is a common-place of a certain class of men — two or 
 three certain classes indeed — I heard it so often from country- 
 men whom I met abroad, and during the period immediately 
 succeeding my return home, that I could calculate with almost 
 mathematical certainty when it was coming. It usually runs 
 in these words : It is a good thing for a younc; man to spend 
 some time abroad, and see soinething of foreign cozintries, 
 BECAUSE he usually returns with a better appreciation of his 
 own. Now this I take to be quite as erroneous as the opposite 
 conclusion. If the young man have some taste with not much 
 principle, if he be only on the look-out for the pleasures of 
 sense and worldly amusements, he will by no means return to 
 his country better satisfied with it ; on the contrary, he will 
 have eaten of the lotus in Paris or some other continental 
 city, and be always looking back to it with regret. But an 
 earnest man (to borrow a phrase from my friends the Apostles) 
 will be much more likely both to understand the deficiencies 
 of his countrymen from living among people who have what 
 they have not, and to appreciate their strong points from living 
 among people who do not possess what they have. 
 
 Lastly, is a man less able to understand the duties of an 
 American citizen, or to give his fellow-citizens any advice, be- 
 cause he has received an elaborate liberal education ? Is he, 
 for instance, less acquainted with political philosophy because 
 he has studied the ancient writers of it as well as the modern, 
 instead of the latter only, and those at second or third hand 
 through the columns of a newspaper or a Congressional speech.
 
 374 FIVE VKAUS I\ AN 
 
 Is lio less able to judge of the tendencies of Popery in this 
 country, because he has mastered its history and traced its 
 workings in other countries, or the follies of Socialism because 
 he lias read the Fifth Book of Plato's Republic and Aristotle's 
 answer to it ? If so, the old Tuiy slander becomes a truth. 
 Kepublicanism is not favorable to education except in a low and 
 limited form. 
 
 I protest therefore against being read out of court by any of 
 those persons who have given themselves a patent for looking 
 specially after the public interest ; and if any one of them, 
 editor, lecturer, hack politician, or other sort of demagogue, 
 who has just intelligence enough to be deceived by an Ameri- 
 can edition of the Cock-Lane ghost, and just learning enough 
 to tell his hearers that Plato proposed in his Republic the abo- 
 lition of all family ties (which is just as correct as it would be 
 to say that the Romish Church imposes celibacy on all its vo- 
 taries) ; if any such man is prepared to attack me in the outset 
 with the assertion that I do not know how American citizens 
 are educated or how they ought to be, I tell him beforehand, 
 in the plain language which it would do people of his stamp 
 good if they heard oftener, that it is because I know too well 
 both the evils existing and the probable results of a better sys- 
 tem, because my advice tends to spoil his trade, that he would 
 like to keep me from being heard. And now to the subject of 
 this chapter. 
 
 Were I to be questioned by an educated foreigner, an Eng- 
 lishman or Frenchman, German, Hollander, or Dane, upon the 
 standard of scholarship in our Colleges and Universities, I 
 should be obliged to answer, not having the fear of King Public 
 before my eyes, that it was exceedingly low, and that not 
 merely according to his idea, but according to the idea of a boy 
 fitted at a good school in New York. When I went up to 
 Yale College in 1835, the very first thing that struck me was 
 the classical deficiency of the greater part of the students and 
 some of the instructors. A great many of the Freshmen had 
 literally never heard of such a thing as prosody ; they did not 
 know that there were any rules for quantity : it may be
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSnr. 
 
 375 
 
 imagined what work they made with reading poetry. Nor 
 could their teachers, in many instances, do much to help them ; 
 one of our classical tutors did not know the quantity of the 
 middle syllable in profucius^ almost the first word in the ^neid. 
 The etymological part of Greek grammar (to say nothing of 
 the syntax) was very imperfectly understood by the majority, 
 and of those who made pretensions to scholarship there were 
 not ten in a class who could write three consecutive sentences 
 of decent Latin prose. The system of choosing the tutors to 
 whose care the two lower classes were entirely committed, was 
 enough to destroy any chance of rectifying the errors of bad 
 and insufficient preparation. They were elected from the gra- 
 duates who had taken a certain stand on the average of all 
 their College course — say the first fifteen. Now a student 
 might get among these fifteen — the " oration men" — by excel- 
 ling in classics alone with very little ability in or taste for 
 mathematics, or vice versa ; but he was obliged to take such 
 tutorial vacancy as came to him in his order of seniority ; so 
 the mathematical man might be set to hear classics or the 
 classics to teach mathematics. The consequence of which was 
 that not only the bad men did not improve, but the good ones 
 were generally pretty well spoilt by the time they came to the 
 Greek professor's hands in the third year. Not only was the 
 course for all the students limited to the same books, and very 
 small in quantity, so as to keep it at the level of the worst 
 prepared (among whom were generally a large number of 
 " beneficiaries" or charity students), but this small quantity was 
 badly learned and taught ;* a student with classical tastes had 
 no encouragement for getting up his classics properly, for he 
 had no chance of showing his scholarship or doing himself jus- 
 tice — his tutor could not appreciate him ; consequently if am- 
 bitious, he was easily tempted to seek distinction in other 
 things, the various associations for the cultivation of " speak- 
 
 * The only part of the first two years' course generally well learned 
 was the Satires of Horace, thanks to Professor Anthon's labors, for 
 which New England students are generally anything but grateful.
 
 376 FIVi: YEARS IN AN 
 
 ing" and " writing" in which the College abounded. The only 
 extras in which the scholar could exercise himself and attain 
 honor were the throe lierlclcian premiums. Two of these were for 
 Latin composition in the first and second years, and some 
 queer things occasionally happened in the adjudication of these. 
 Just after I left in '40 or '41, some enterprising youth sent in 
 an exercise in Elegiac metre, a variation which .so astonished 
 the examiners (the compositions being usually in prose) that 
 they gave it the first prize. It was published in the College 
 Magazine, and lo ! every pentameter except two or three had a 
 radical defect in the metre — a spondee in the fourth place 
 instead of a dactyl, e. g. 
 
 " lnvalido8 artus labentemciue pedem." 
 
 He might well say " labentem peilem" sure enough. 
 
 Nevertheless, after all this there was still a possibility of 
 our learning something in the last two years from some of the 
 professoi'S ; but to put the finishing stroke to us, by the begin- 
 ning of the fourth year we were supposed to have become 
 finished scholars, and further instruction of us in Greek and 
 Latin was given up. When the third Berkleian premium was 
 open for competition towards the close of this year — involving 
 an examination in three Greek and three Latin subjects, with 
 seven months of idleness (except three hours' lectures a day) to 
 prepare for it, it sometimes happened that not a candidate 
 presented himself ! Yet the prize, as it was the only Classical 
 one in the year and gave some opportunity of showing scholar- 
 ship, much more than the daily recitations which fixed the 
 " appointments" or regular College Honors, ought to have 
 excited some competition, to say nothing of its pecuniary value 
 to those remaining in residence, which must have been an 
 object to many of the theological students residing after their 
 graduation. I never heard of more than one candidate except 
 in 1839 when I went in myself along with a friend,* and the 
 
 * A. R. Macdonough now of the New York bar, a gentleman of fine 
 Classical tastes, and who under any system which gave those tastes
 
 ENCMSII UNIVF.RSITY. 377 
 
 professors, ;dter examining us both for the usual time allotted 
 to one (four hours for six subjects, one of whicli was the whole 
 Iliad !), divided the prize without any further attempt at discri- 
 mination of our merits. 
 
 How much temptation tliere Avas in such a state of things to 
 read anything not included in the regular course may easily 
 be conceived. How much was known of authors out of the 
 course, one little incident will suffice to show. A student 
 writing in the College Magazine, quoted the lines from 
 Lucretius, 
 
 " Tu pater et renim inventor, tu patria nobis, 
 Suppedita prwcepta tuis, rex iiiclyte chartis," 
 
 as a modern distich. From the context in which he had found 
 it there was nothing very remarkable in his making the 
 mistake, but it was a little singular that no one in the place ever 
 detected it for three years, and I presume no one lias up to the 
 present time. Fancy such an error passing unnoticed in a 
 Foreign University. Or fancy a Bachelor who wished to carry 
 out his Classical studies reading by himself for six months in a 
 University town because lie could find no one to teach him, 
 as actually happened to myself. 
 
 Such was the condition of Scholarship at Yale ten years ago, 
 and if I wanted to spoil a boy who 2')romised to make a good 
 scholar, I could not think of a more certain way than sending 
 him to an institution so conducted. I speak within limits 
 in asserting that he will not m.-tke as much progress in the 
 whole four years as he ought to do in one, and may have made 
 in one before or after quitting the College. A little strong 
 language will I trust be pardoned from one who has himself 
 been a victim to the system. 
 
 Yale is the largest College in our country, and one of the 
 two most distinguished. The result of my inquiries has not led 
 me to believe that Harvard is any better oiT. That the other 
 Colleges throughout the country, many of which derive their 
 
 eacourasement inight liavo become a superior scholar. He had a way 
 of reading off Cicero ad apcrturam into elegant English, that would 
 have made an Oxonian's moutii water.
 
 '$78 FIVK VKAUS IN' AN 
 
 iiistnictor.s from these two great New England Colleges, arc if 
 anything in a worse state, may be easily inferred. 
 
 There is one exception which for the honor of our city I am 
 proud to insist upon. Columbia College, New York, has always 
 exhibited in its Classical instruction a marked superiority to the 
 other similar institutions of the country. It is a fact which 
 deserves to be more generally known than it is, that the 
 .<<t(ni(/ard for admission into (he Fresh/nan Class at Colunif.iais 
 hi[/her both in Classics and Malheinutics than at any other 
 College in the United States* Unfortunately its position in 
 the midst of a large city prevents it from entering into compe- 
 tition with other institutions, limits its pupils to the sons of 
 residents in the city, and in fact makes it only a very superior 
 day-school for New Yorkers. 
 
 But has there been no improvement in the last ten years, a 
 space of time in which our countrymen can do so much ? I 
 rejoice to say that there has. Under the auspices of the new 
 President of Yale there is more encouragement for, and conse- 
 quently improvement in certain branches of classical learning 
 than at any former period. Having occasion two years ago to 
 examine some of the best in the Junior class who were candi- 
 dates for a Scholarship, I was agreeably surprised at their 
 ]>roficieney in Greek prose, while in some of their earlier studies, 
 Virgil for instance, they were as deficient as the students of my 
 time. The Scholarships, five in number, nearly all founded by 
 the President himself, must have a good effect in the end, 
 by giving the best men a motive for reading beyond the regular 
 course. But allowing these favorable prospects, and supposing 
 that other institutions have improved equally (which may 
 be doubted, since whatever has been done at Yale is owing 
 
 * When I fitted for Cohimbia — a preparation wliieli was all but 
 suilieient for the Sophomore class at Yale — three books of Xenophon, 
 three of Homer, three of Euclid, and Algebra as far as Quadratic 
 Equations, were among the subjects required. Now, I believe either 
 the Euclid or the Algebra, eit/ier the Xenophon or the Homer, will be 
 accepted. , Even this lower standard of admission is beyond that of the 
 New England Colleges.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. . 379 
 
 cliiefly to the exertions of one man, its new liead), our colleges 
 are very far behind what they should be, judging them not 
 merelv by a foreign standard, but by that of the best schools in 
 New York or Boston. 
 
 It may seem very unpatriotic to say all this, but when peo- 
 ple are not generally awake to their own deficiencies their eyes 
 ought to be opened, and their real friend is he who tries to do 
 this, not he who, by claiming for the country what it does not 
 possess, makes it and himself ridiculous in the eyes of 
 foreigners, and tends to make them sceptical in regard to its 
 real merits. Talk to a stranger of our chivalry towards women, 
 our sympathy between classes, our benevolence for public 
 objects, the diffusion of rudimentary education among the 
 masses, «fec., and he may be well disposed to believe you ; but 
 if you tell him at the same time that " So-and-So is a great 
 scholar," when his works prove him to be a very inferior one, 
 or that " Classics are on the whole as well tauglit at Yale and 
 Harvard as at Oxford and Cambridge " (I have heard this 
 roundly asserted, by a public^man too), and your foreigner 
 says to himself, "Here is my informant grossly astray on a 
 subject of which I can judge at once ; may he not be equally 
 mistaken in some of the other excellences which he attributes 
 to his countrymen ?" The English have injured their charac- 
 ter by a similar mistake of claiming too much. Insisting on a 
 superiority in the arts of life — in dress, cookery, and furniture, 
 which they do not possess, and their claim to which is so rea- 
 dily disproved, they have caused foreigners to distrust their 
 pretensions to higher excellences which are less obvious on the 
 surface, and require longer and deeper experience and examina- 
 tion to appreciate.
 
 380 FIVE TEAKS IN AN 
 
 SUPPOSED COL'XTEUHALANCING advantages of AMERICAN 
 COLLEGES. 
 
 — o'li^' i(Ta<nt> oaM TtXiov i]iuav Travrdf, — IIkSIOD. 
 
 "The great comediiin of Athens saw tliat the feeling of tlieir own insight and profun- 
 dity rendered his countrymen a prey to the vulgarest delusions. The great philosopher 
 of Athens wliom that comedian ridiculed, saw still deeper into the meaning of the eamo 
 fact — saw tliat the most clever and enlightened of the youth of Athens could talk about 
 nil manner of things, but knew nothing whatever of tliemselves." — Maurice's Lectures 
 ON Education. 
 
 Admitting that our colleges do not toaoli Latin and Greek 
 SO well as the European ones, the natural and ordinary defence 
 is, that they teach other things, and those on the whole of 
 more value, better. Let us examine the particulars of this 
 defence. What are the other things taught ? — are they better 
 taught ? — and are they more beneficial as means of liberal 
 education ? 
 
 And first, in relation to Mathematics. There used to be, 
 and probably is still, a vague general impression at Yale, to the 
 effect that the Mathematical course there is a very difficult and 
 thorough one — that, in fact. Mathematics constitute one of the 
 crack points of the institution. This fancy certainly derived 
 some support from comj^arison with the Classical course, as 
 compared with ivhkh the Mathematical was undoubtedly a 
 good one. But that did not prevent it from being very bad, 
 as tried either by an ideal standard, or by those existing in 
 other countries. How far it reached is sufficiently shown by 
 the fact that the Differential Calculus, the vestibule as it were 
 to all high Mathematics, Avas among the optional studies at the 
 end of the third year. The Valedictorian at the completion of 
 the course, or the man Avho gained the first mathematical prize 
 in the second year, need never have studied it. Nevertheless, 
 a course of Mathematics stopping short of the Differential may
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 381 
 
 be a very good one so far as it goes. But tins was not the 
 case with the course at Yale College. In many of its stages it 
 was liable to the same reproach as the classical, of being a 
 study of hooks rather than subjects. The learning and recita- 
 tion of portions from day to day (for the annual examinations 
 were little more than a form, and had no effect on the college 
 honors) encouraged a habit of cramming from one day to an- 
 other. A great deal of work in the second or third year con- 
 sisted of long calculations of examples worked with logarithms, 
 which consumed a great deal of time without giving any 
 insight into principles, and were equally distasteful to the good 
 and the bad mathematicians. In fact, while the course was, 
 from its daily recurrence throughout three years, and the 
 amount of figuring it involved, more disagreeable to classics 
 than a more difficult and rigorous investigation of principles 
 requiring less dead mechanical work would have been, the best 
 mathematicians of the class always grumbled at it quite as 
 much as the best linguists did at the classical course. They 
 complained, that with the exception of two prizes for problems 
 during the Freshman and Sophomore years, and an occasional 
 " original demonstration" in the recitation-room, they had no 
 chance of showing their superior ability and acquirements, that 
 much of their time was lost in long arithmetical and logarith- 
 mical computations, that classical men were continually tempted 
 to " skin" (copy) the solutions of these examples, and thus put 
 themselves unjustly on a level with them ; and much more of 
 the same sort. I am strongly inclined to think that a course 
 of mathematics, covering as much real ground as the present 
 one of three years, might be put into two without infringing 
 more than at present on the special pursuits of the more classi- 
 cally disposed students, and with positive benefit to the whole 
 body. As it is, any student who enters upon his Senior year 
 at Yale has 7iominally gone over a greater amount of mathe- 
 matics than one of the •koXKoI at Cambridge — twice as much 
 at least ; but it does not follow that he really knows more or 
 has enjoyed more of the peculiar benefits of mathematical 
 training. I suspect that a man in the first class of the "Poll"
 
 382 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 has usually road mathomatics to more profit than many of the 
 " appointees," even of the " oration men" at Yale. 
 
 Secondl}'', as regards the sciences in general. 'Jlie fact that 
 during the last year various courses of lectures are delivered on 
 the natural and moral sciences, attendance on these courses not 
 being optional as at an English University, but compulsory on 
 all the students, will doubtless be considered by many persons 
 a great point in favor of our Colleges. For my own part I 
 look upon it as one of their greatest mistakes. 'Jlie idea of 
 being able to impart any adequate or permanent information to 
 a large body of students in twenty-five lectures a-piece on a 
 dozen different sciences, almost any one of which is work for a 
 quarter of a man's lifetime, seems to me altogether visionary 
 and chimerical. There are perhaps eight or ten of the hundred 
 students present at each course who take an interest in the 
 particular science, and derive some appreciable benefits from 
 the lectures. It requires very little practical acquaintance with 
 the working of the system to ascertain that most of the auditors 
 consider the lecture merely as part of a routine which they 
 are obliged to go through. In Professor Silliman's laboratory, 
 I recollect, the lively manner of the lecturer, his deserved per- 
 sonal popularitjr, and the additional attraction of an extra 
 audience of school-girls, caused his lectures to be attended to, 
 as well as attended, but I doubt if his hearers carried away any 
 very lasting impressions. At Professor Olmsted's lectures, the 
 students were inclined to go to sleep. At those on Botany, 
 such as had not an amusing book to read or an opportunity for 
 reading it without being very openly seen, used to withdraw 
 themselves from the rooms by very undignified and irregular 
 methods. Ever and anon the professor's voice was heard in 
 sharp digression from his stamens and pistils, "Mr. Monitor, 
 look sharp ! there's another gentleman jumping out of the 
 window." 
 
 Let it be admitted, however, that to have attended a certain 
 number of lectures on scientific subjects is one of the desirable 
 accomplishments of a liberal education — nay, more, that it may 
 sometimes evoke talent in the direction of some one science,
 
 ENGLISH CXIVKRSITY. 383 
 
 wliicli but for this accidental opportunity might never liave 
 be'en developed. Let us have the lectures then, hy all means; 
 but to make siicli lectures — for -which no preparation is required 
 and at which no notes are taken, which involve no reading 
 before or after, and merely break in upon the student's day for 
 two or three isolated hours — to make them a substitute for 
 hard work and mental training, has surely a perilous tendency 
 to effeminate the student's mind and give him desultory habits 
 of thought. The youth who, under such a system of classical 
 and mathematical training as has been described, is ludicrously 
 enough supposed to have acquired a sufhcient knowledge of 
 classics and mathematics, arrives at the end of his third year. 
 Then the faculty virtually tell him, " You are a finished scholar 
 and mathematician — all you have to do for the next year is to 
 pack in all the sciences by means of lectures on each one three 
 times a week during a term or two. All we ask of you is to 
 attend a lecture of an hour's length three times a-day, and in 
 the intervals you may read reviews and work them up into 
 speeches and essays for your debating society." What should 
 be an afternoon or evening amusement is made the Avork of 
 the day. 
 
 I think a careful inquirer Avill find that the great savans 
 of Europe have not been trained on such principles. Most of 
 them have begun by being good mathematicians and in many 
 cases good scholars also ; and at a maturer period of life they 
 have brought well-disciplined minus to the particular study of 
 their special pursuits. 
 
 Thirdly, there is a prevaihng opinion among our students 
 (how far it is accepted in other quarters of the community I 
 will not pretend to say) that, in consequence of being left so 
 much to themselves during the last year of their course, and 
 of not overvaluing the College course at any time, they have 
 much leisure for the perusal of literature and general improve- 
 ment of their minds and acquisition of miscellaneous know- 
 ledge, in which respect they have the advantage over the 
 English student. 
 • Now as resjiects Hterature this is altogether a mistake.
 
 384 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 There ceiiainly is a kind of literature in wliieli our stU(,lcnts 
 are more at home than the English. They read more news- 
 papers ; they read more magazines ; they read more politieal 
 pamphlets ; they read a great many more novels ; they are 
 well up in all that floating small literature of the day which 
 an editor or periodical critic has to wade through as part of his 
 business, and which any other man, especially any youmj man 
 who wislies really to improve his mind, is much better without. 
 But of the standard and classic literature of the language they 
 do not read more or know more. They are not better 
 acquainted with Shakspeare and Milton, with AVordsworth and 
 Tennyson, with l^acon and Locke, with Gibbon and Robertson. 
 They are not hi/ uni/ means so well acquainted with the old 
 English Dramatists, the old English Divines, the essayists and 
 political writers prior to Queen Anne, or the best ethical and 
 logical writers of the present day. They take much of their 
 knowledge at second hand from English reviews — reviews 
 which the Cambridge man reads indeed with pleasure, but 
 which from his previous acquaintance with the text and sources 
 of them, he regards as subjects of his own criticism rather than 
 authorities or oracles. They read rapidly, indiscriminately, and 
 uncritically. 
 
 As to any superiority in miscellaneous information which 
 the American student may have over the English one, much 
 of this exterior knowledge is not owing to his collegiate train- 
 ing or want of training at all, but to his home and vacation 
 life, the greater variety of people he encounters in his ordinary 
 intercourse with the world. So much of it as is attainable 
 from books, the English student picks up later in life, when he 
 is better able to make use of it. 
 
 Fourthly, in all our Colleges English Composition and 
 Public Speaking are encouraged in every possible way, both 
 by the authorities and by associations of the students them- 
 selves, from the very beginning to the very end of the course. 
 At an English University there is very little encouragement for 
 either English Composition or Public Speaking. But to speak 
 and write well, it is said, are the great aims and requisites of
 
 ENGLISEl CNIVERSITY. 385 
 
 the minister, the hiwyer, and the political man of any sort. 
 They are the principal means of obtaining fame and power in 
 a free country, and therefore are the highest intellectual ends 
 of man ; and that is the best education which best prepares 
 the student for them. 
 
 Here we are arrived at the strong point of our Colleges and 
 Universities. For it is the immediate object of an American 
 College practically (whatever it may be Avith some of its Faculty 
 tlieoi-etically) to make the students fluent speakers and ready 
 writers, just as it is the immediate object of an English Uni- 
 versity to turn out good scholars and mathematicians. And 
 the object is certainly accomplished : our Collegians learn to 
 think on their legs and handle a pen with dexterity at a 
 remarkably early age. The end proposed also, is a higher 
 object to an ambitious young man. To aim at being a great 
 author or orator, seems nobler and grander than to solve 
 problems or read Aristotle in the original. As this is a very 
 important matter, let us examine it in detail, beginning with a 
 view of the effect which the admitted end of our collegiate 
 education has upon our collegiate system as its workings are 
 developed in one of the New England Universities. 
 
 Almost from the beginning of their course, certainly from 
 the third term of their Freshman year, all students ambitious 
 of distinction are, by common consent, divided into two 
 classes, called in their own phraseology scholars and writers. 
 The former class includes, by a singular extension of the term, 
 Mathematicians as well as Classics — all, in short, who are pro- 
 minent candidates for College honors ; the latter, those who 
 undertake to distinguish themselves in English Composition, 
 either in the weekly readings of it before tutors and professors, 
 the numerous debating societies among the students (into all 
 of which orations and dissertations enter largely as part of the 
 exercises), or the columns of the College Magazine. Sometimes 
 H youth attempts to distinguish himself in both departments, 
 and the attempt when made is frequently successful ; but, as a 
 general rule, the two classes of aspirants for fame are distinct. 
 Closely connected with the "writers" are the speakers. Excel- 
 
 17
 
 386 FIVE YKAIIS IN AN 
 
 lenco as a debalcr, oven wlien uiiaccoinpaiiiod witli a reputation 
 for writing woll, is miidi prized, and the liappy possessor of 
 Lotli faeiilties is one of tlie Colloi^e geniuses. The writers, 
 including tlie sjieakers as subordinate to and in many eases 
 coincident with thciii, are — and it is to this I wisli to call par- 
 ticuhir attention — infinitely more honored and esteemed and 
 envied and looked up to by the great bulk uf tlie students 
 than the "scholars" or College appointees. The Freshman's 
 object of reverence may perhaps be the "Valedictorian ;" but 
 by the time he is well launched in his Sophomore year, his 
 admiration is transferred to the "First President" of the 
 Brothers' or Linonian Society, the " First Edit(jr" of the Vale 
 Jjitei'ari/, and the " Class Orator." Supposing a student to 
 have received the " appointment" of an Oration from the 
 Faculty, and also to have been elected Editor of the Magazine 
 by the students, he and his fellows would consider the latter a 
 far greater honor than the former — so far above it that the two 
 could hardly be put in comparison. In short, the distinctions 
 conferred by the students on one ccnother are more prized than 
 the distinctions conferred by the Collecje authorities on the 
 students. So much so is this the case, that the prizes given 
 by the Faculty for English Composition are not accepted among 
 the students as tests of the best writers. 
 
 This state of things is induced by several different causes. 
 The Faculty promote it indirectly by the inferiority of their 
 Classical and Mathematical instruction, and by leaving the 
 students so much to themselves during their last year. They 
 promote it directly in more than one way : by giving " com- 
 positions" and "disputes" and "declamations" so large a 
 place in the College exercises of the second and third years, 
 by making the right to deliver a speech (at Junior Exhibition 
 or Commencement) the highest reward for proficiency in Col- 
 lege studies, by formally acknowledging the existence of the 
 larger debating societies in such acts as giving "half-lessons" 
 for the morning after the AVednesday night debates. The 
 existence of so many charity-students or " beneficiaries," com- 
 paratively old men and more likely to shine in writing and
 
 ENGUsii UMVEKsrry. 387 
 
 speaking than in the late-learned elements of Latin and Greek, 
 also does much to promote it. 
 
 But whatever the causes, an outsider — one who had not 
 the previous bias of being brought up under the sj-stem — 
 looking at it from an external point of view, would be apt to 
 say, " Here is a most anomalous and abnormal condition of 
 thing? for an academical institution. The students have set 
 up their judgment against that of their instructors. They 
 declare that the means of education proposed for them by 
 their teachers are the more ignoble, and those proposed for 
 them by themselves tlie more worthy. They make themselves 
 judges beforehand of that which it is the business of their 
 tutors to qualify them for judging of. And their instructors 
 receive these claims with assent — reluctant assent perhaps — 
 but certainly not opposition, not even a negative one. What 
 is this but self-condemnation on their part ? " 
 
 It is not impossible, however, that the students, inade- 
 quately provided for by their teachers, may have provided for 
 themselves a good means of education. Let us, therefore, 
 examine the etFect of practice in English Comj^osition and 
 Public Speaking, from an early age (say fifteen) as prominent 
 elements of a liberal education. 
 
 First of all, it may reasonably be doubted whether the culti- 
 vation of two special talents which border closely on the 
 domain of genius, and high excellence in which very few men 
 can reasonably hope to attain, ought to be made the corner- 
 stone of a general education. The very fact that it is a greater 
 thing to be an orator than a scholar, is a positive reason for 
 giving classics a preference over oratory in a University course. 
 Not only does your end answer the proposed conditions better, 
 but you have more likelihood of arriving at it. You cannot 
 make every third man in a class a great orator or author, 
 though you may give him a fluency and confidence in talking 
 platitudes or a knack of stringing together common-places on 
 paper ; you can make every third man of a class a respectable 
 scholar. Were it possible to send forth every College graduate
 
 388 KIVK VEAUS IN AN 
 
 througliont tlie country ;iii orator, it would not be desirable. 
 It would be an unfortunate example of mental alohem)'. 
 
 " If all were gold, then gold were no more wealtli." Could 
 we turn out every graduate a moderately good classic, we 
 should give a taste and tone to the intellect of the country 
 that \vould have a most favorable influence on oratory and 
 authorship. 
 
 Let us look a little further. The immaliate effects of the 
 system we admit to be dazzling. The American student in his 
 Senior year (when he may have attained the age of nineteen 
 or thereabouts) has a readiness of tongue and pen, a confidence 
 on his legs and a general dexterity of argument, unparalleled 
 by his contemporaries in any part of the world. He will 
 make speeches and write essays that are astonishing for one 
 of his years when compared with the pi-oductions of older men 
 about him. He seems to have shot up into full mental stature 
 before he has reached the limit of his bodily growth. In all 
 mixed society he will throw an English youth of the same age 
 utterly into the shade. But let us examine how far this preco- 
 cious splendor has any solid aliment or permanent source. 
 
 The Englishman's tardiness of development is in a groat 
 measure intentional. He is kept back to take a good start. 
 He leaves school at the period of life when the American 
 leaves College. Up to that time his studies have not been 
 such as he can make an immediate display before the world 
 with, but have rather been directed to strengthening and 
 polishing his mind for future use. At the University his aim 
 is to excel in the studies prescribed by the authorities of the 
 place, not in something different from and partly antagonistic 
 to these. However well-prepared he finds numbers in advance 
 of him, and can never complain that he does not know what 
 to learn or can find no one to teach bira. Whatever his 
 school reputation, his vanity is sure to be speedily checked, 
 and first of all by his private tutor, Avha " slangs" him for a 
 mistake here or an inelegancy there. Then he makes mistakes 
 in examinations also, and " loses marks." If a thriving public-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEUSITY. 389 
 
 school classic and ready to carry all before him in that line, 
 he is still obli2fed to read mathematics, to feel his inferiority at 
 first, and perhaps at last to occupy a subordinate place in 
 them. If he has cleverness there is no lack of room to display 
 it, but it is necessary that he should work hard also ; there are 
 great rewards of reputation as well as substantial emolument 
 for the combination of intellect and industry, but none for 
 disconnected and single exhibitions of brilliancy. The ten- 
 dency of every influence about him is to make him cautious, 
 self-critical, and self-distrustful, careful and elaborate in his 
 acquisitions, and consequently when he learns anything he 
 takes hold of it as with a vice ; when he says he knows it, 
 you may be sure he does. And when he becomes a high 
 Wrangler or First Class man, he does not infer that he is 
 therefore bound to be a great statesman or orator at once, 
 but only that he has good talents, a fair power, and regular 
 habits of work, by which \f he continues to tuork, he is likely, 
 in course of time, to succeed in his profession. Or if he fails 
 to take the stand he hoped, he can never charge his examiners 
 with unfairness. 
 
 Our student, on the contrary, is from the first surrounded 
 with influences calculated to excite and flatter his vanity. If 
 he comes to College from a good school in New York or 
 Boston, the chances are that he is set under a tutor who 
 knows less of the rudiments of scholarship than himself. 
 Hence the first lesson he learns is to despise his teachers. 
 He hears it said all about him that the College appointees are 
 for the most part poor dull fellows who never do anything to 
 distinguish themselves in after life, that an Appointment is only 
 worth tidcing as a mere extra if it can be got without taking 
 much trouble for it, and that iin-itim/ and speakinrf are the 
 ])roper objects of his ambition. And the opinion respecting the 
 appointees is partly true ; a successful mediocrity, not much 
 beyond what is required for the Captaincy of the Poll at 
 Cambridge (if we except regularity of attendance at recitations) 
 has no great charm for a boy who is clever, and well enough 
 prepared for something better. Thus he is led to depreciate
 
 390 FIVE YEAUS IN AN 
 
 the lienors given by the authorities, and seek for distinction in 
 anotlier quarter. He aspires after those rewards which arc in 
 the fi^ift of liis fellow-students, and which he himself has a 
 share in bestowing on others. IIo becomes liabituated to making 
 speeches and reading compositions before audiences of from 
 thirty to a liundred, wliose capacity to be critical is not equal 
 to their disposition, and whose disposition is modified by their 
 mutual interest ; now and then he makes an unusually showy 
 eftbrt, and is applauded for it. His friends and acquaintances 
 have not the same ability to find faults in his performance that 
 a tutor has to correct the exercise of a pupil, nor does their 
 position enable them to speak so freely without the risk of 
 giving oftence or incurring the suspicion of jealousy. If he 
 succeeds in winning these popular honors, they are almost the 
 exact counterpart of similar ones in maturer life, lie writes 
 smart articles in the College magazine and is made editor of it ; 
 he gets a reputation for speaking in his debating society and is 
 elected president, just as he might get sent to the state-legisla- 
 ture when a man, for speaking well at public meetings. If 
 lie fails, his failure may be owing not to want of merit, 
 but to want of popularity, or to intrigue and jealousy, of 
 which there is always a great deal at work. Thus he 
 brings the great world into academic shades, and aims at 
 being a public man while he should as yet be but a hard- 
 working student. 
 
 And here his unguided and indiscriminate reading involves 
 him in a double error. Not only is the object of his aim 
 prematurely high, but the ideal of that object becomes conti- 
 nually lowered for him. He does not appreciate what he 
 seeks to be. Though professedly working to form a style, he 
 does not properly study the best models or confine himself 
 to them. He swallows a great-deal of second and third-rate 
 matter. He acquires a childish fondness for metaphors more or 
 less mixed, and generally for all sorts of figures, as if they 
 were the sole test and standard of excellence in composition. In 
 short he aims at fine writing, and sits down not to express his 
 ideas on a subject, but to write a piece. vSo, in oratory, he
 
 ENOLisn uNiVERsrry. 391 
 
 knows little, except at second-haiul, of Demostlieiies and 
 Cit-ero ; rather more but not too much about l^urke. lie does 
 not confine himself to the best models of his own country. 
 He possesses well-thumbed copies of Webster's speeches and 
 Everett's orations, but he will turn from these at any time 
 to the last im])erfectly-reported stump speech — especially if he 
 can utilize anything from it at^the debuting society. A secret 
 conviction is generated in his mind that he could do nearly as 
 well in their place as many of the men whose performances he 
 reads — which may not be so very far from the truth — and 
 here again his vanity is gratified. Moreover as his experience 
 leads him to suspect that people are much in the habit of 
 talking and writing about things of which they have but 
 small knowledge, he comes to the conclusion that very 
 small knowledge of a subject is necessary to qualify a man for 
 talking and writing about it — he will consider himself prepared 
 to discuss any point in Metaphysics, for instance, after going 
 through a course of Stewards Outlines. The real acquisitions 
 of a Senior Class in a New England College bear a lamentably 
 small ratio to their conceit of knowledge. 
 
 One thing they certainly have mastered — the art of elec- 
 tioneering. They have learned a great deal of human nature, 
 as regards the way in which men can be " got round" and 
 votes influenced. One of our large Colleges is an excellent 
 school for a professed politician ; whether this fact is particu- 
 larly honorable to them, or whether that occupation is a 
 particularly honorable and desirable one for all or many 
 students, may admit of a doubt. 
 
 This brings us to another evil springing directly from the 
 early and constant practice of writing and speaking. It 
 encourages a sophistic habit, most dangerous for a very young 
 man to acquire, since it puts him in an unfortunate frame of 
 mind for the reception of knowledge and truth. I use the word 
 sophistic not without direct reference to its origin, and to the 
 intellectual training of the young Athenians by their itinerant 
 professors — a training not far from having its counterpart 
 among ourselves. What was this sv.-^t-om as we deduce it from
 
 392 FIVE YEARS IX AX 
 
 eoiiteinporary writers, especially Plato, who, indeed, often illus- 
 trates it himself unintentionally in his own course of argument? 
 The Sophist was a professor of mental and moral philosophy ; 
 he taught liis pupils to argue on all points of metaphysics and 
 of ethics, including politics — to argue readily, dexterously, 
 captiously, the discussion often declining into the merest liair- 
 splitting and verbal quibbling. Victory, not truth — to effect 
 a presumption rather than to secure the acquisition of know- 
 ledge, was the end of debate. The benefit proposed, sometimes 
 without an attempt at disguise, to the pupil was, that he should 
 be able to humbug the people and get on in the world (that is 
 the plain Saxon of it), which he was to accomplish by being 
 always ready to talk about anything, and never at a loss for a 
 plausible argument. 
 
 Our young men leave college imbued with debating society 
 formulcC. Their very slang is redolent of the society — its 
 }ihrases are the phrases of their every-day life. If three or 
 four of them are in a room together, one cannot say to another, 
 " Smith, shut the door, please," without putting it into some 
 such form as " I move Mr. Smith shut the door," or " I move 
 Mr. Smith be a committee of one to shut that door." They 
 are always ready for an argument, and Avill tackle a man of 
 any age if there is a chance of a discussion. Recondite disqui- 
 sitions are not to their pui-pose ; but any popular question, 
 such as a man can talk of from review and newspaper reading, 
 they delight to raise a controversy about. They evince a great 
 dexterity in taking exceptions, and are as quick to find instances 
 against the generalizations of others as to draw imperfect gene- 
 ralizations themselves. 
 
 Many years ago the father of a young Englishman who had 
 distinguished himself at the University, and given other indi- 
 cations of uncommon talent, having destined his son for public 
 life, wrote to a friend, an eminent Scotch advocate and poli- 
 tician, for advice how the young man should be trained to 
 make him a successful orator. The answer, which was long 
 preserved in the family, contained these suggestions among 
 others, — " He must seek the conversation of older men, and
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSITY. 393 
 
 talk at tliem without being afraid of tliem ; he must talk a 
 great deal merely for the sake of talking ; he must talk too 
 much in company."'* 
 
 The pei'son who related this to me was most struck with the 
 apparent paradox of the last clause — the ludicrous idea of the 
 future orator never talkinf/ enouyh until he had talked too 
 mvch. I was impressed by a difterent thought — the exactness 
 with which our collegians anticipate this advice for themselves 
 and carry it out. They talk at older men tvithout heiny afraid 
 of them ; they talk a great deal for mere practice in talkimj ; 
 they talk too much, in comixiny. 
 
 Now the young man to whom this advice was given had 
 the foundation of a thorough education whereon to build his 
 rhetorical superstructure, varied knowledge to adorn, and a 
 superior intellect to illuminate it. lie started on a large 
 capital in every point of view. If therefore he acquired a 
 sometimes^ inconvenient habit of talking too much in company, 
 there was still a probability that he would say much Avorth 
 hearing ; if his conversational sparrings with older men 
 involved some violation of modesty, they were at any rate not 
 likely to be disfigured by egregious errors. But when a youth 
 acquires this talking facility and propensity without a proper 
 training and knowledge to support it — when most of his 
 authorities are at third or fourth-hand, hearsay, or the last 
 newspaper article, or the confused recollection of Avhat was at 
 first imperfectly read, it follows inevitably that he must make 
 many mistakes which his verbal dexterity will be continually 
 brought into requisition to protect. And from this combina- 
 tion of inaccuracy of detail with facility of expression results 
 one of our great national faults, a tendency to defend rather 
 than prevent mistakes ; plausibility in explaining away or 
 glossing over an error rather than caution in guarding against 
 the probability of its occurrence. 
 
 * Should the reader be curious to know the result of this advice, it 
 may be said that the subject of it has only attained moderate success 
 as a public speaker, though in some other paths to distinction he stands 
 among the foremost men of the age. 
 
 17*
 
 394 FIVE VEAliS IN AN 
 
 Tliis feeling which, Hkc the Spurlau's conception of honesty, 
 or the Parisian's of conjugal fidelity, places the evil of error, 
 not in the original coniniission, but in the suUsequent convic- 
 tion of it, stands directly in the way of individual and national 
 improvement. Its favorite mode of argument is the if/noratio 
 elenchi, the ignoring of the main point in dispute, and joining 
 issue on some irrelevant accident ; of it and its favorite form of 
 tliis mode is the tu rjuoque, a digression upon some personal 
 demerit of the opponent.* Thus hoth literature and politics 
 are debased, and honest criticism or difference of opinion con- 
 verted into matter of individual quarrel. 
 
 After all, the strongest objection to this literary precocity is 
 that it defeats its own object. The ambitious student begins 
 at the wrong end. He acquires manner before matter, and 
 has a style in advance of his thoughts. His untimely blossoms 
 do not fructify. His graces and ornaments of trope and meta- 
 phor, like the flowers which a child sticks into th^ ground to 
 make a garden, grow faded and lose vitality for want of root 
 and nutriment. He repeats his ideas, or those of others.f He 
 wrote fluently at eighteen, at twenty-six he writes a trifle, per- 
 haps, more fluently, but in no respect better. Some years ago, 
 I heard an Italian say that his country produced many young 
 artists of great promise, but none of them ever came to 
 maturity. I thought at the time it was pretty mucli the 
 same with our College-geniuses. The class below me at Yale, 
 out of a hundred members, had thirty poets — that is to sayj 
 men who had written and published verses. This is an extreme 
 instance ; but the number of " great writers " in my time 
 (eleven years ago) at that College was very large. The num- 
 
 * As if, for instance, one should say, by way of invalidating any of 
 the conclusions in this book, " The author was at an English Univer- 
 sity himself, and does not afford us a favorable specimen of a Cambridge 
 graduate, or appear to have protited much by his stay there." 
 
 f Barefaced copying from books and reviews in their Compositions 
 is familiar to our students, as much so as "skinning" their mathemati- 
 cal examples. It is in a manner forced upon tliem, by being expected 
 to write before they have anj^thing to v<rite abovf.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 395 
 
 ber who have since attained any substantial literary distinction 
 I could count on one hand and have some fingers to spare. 
 
 The best education has its limits, and very marked ones. 
 No physical training can develop an ordinary man into a giant 
 or a Hercules. No intellectual training can make a genius. 
 The error of our system is that it makes a great many ordina- 
 ry men suppose themselves to be geniuses, while at the same 
 time it does not develope their ordinary abilities in the best 
 way. 
 
 I have often been surprised (until from the frequency of the 
 phenomenon it ceased to surprise me) at the altered impressions 
 made on me by these College geniuses in after life. I do not 
 refer to their position or want of position in the world, so much 
 as to the effect which their conversation had upon me. They 
 seemed to have come hack to me, if I may be allowed to use a 
 sporting phrase. Their remarks seemed trivial and common- 
 place, their ideas limited, till I was tempted to look down upon 
 those whom I used to look up to. And more than one such 
 man has confessed to me his regret at not having made better 
 use of his College opportunities, and devoted himself more 
 attentively to the legitimate studies of the place ; and has 
 owned his reluctant conviction that the time which he antici- 
 pated was borrowed at usurious interest, and the apparent gain 
 had turned out a real loss. 
 
 The truth of what I have asserted, namely that our literary 
 precocity overreaches itself, may be brought home very briefly 
 to every unprejudiced and capable man. We accustom our 
 youth to the practice of Composition much sooner than the 
 English do theirs. Do toe on the whole ivrite as well as the 
 JSnr/lish ^ Will any candid and well informed man say, from 
 his heart, that the average of our books published every year 
 is equal in quality to the average of theirs, or that the average 
 quality of our newspaper and periodical literature is anywhere 
 near theirs ? I think every man who can afford to have a con- 
 science will admit that there is a difference in their favor, and a 
 greater difference than can be accounted for by the absence of an 
 International Copyright Law. Yet, in ovHor to justify our
 
 396 FIVE VEAKS IN AN 
 
 practice, wc slioukl expect :is a result a very decided siiperiorUij 
 to the English — unless we sui)pose an original inferiority of 
 material. But the natural quickness and cleverness of the 
 American mind are universally admitted. Our most bigoted 
 enemies have never charged us with incapacity or stupidity. 
 Our keenness of intelligence is all but ])roverbial among the 
 nations. The inference seems unavoidable that there is some- 
 thing better in the English mode of training. 
 
 13ut our public speaking ! lliere we have them ! There we 
 are unapproachable ! Certainly this is our peculiar national 
 excellence. Our few real and great orators will sustain a com- 
 parison with the few real and great orators of Europe ; this 
 much we may safely claim for them, and this is as much as will 
 be conceded by the rest of the world. J3ut it is in the general 
 ditiusion 'of a certain rhetorical facility, in the ability of every 
 educated American to think and talk on his leys, that our 
 superiority to Europeans consists. And doubtless it is a very 
 convenient accomplishment for a gentleman to possess, one 
 which an American is often proud of abroad, or before foreign- 
 ers at home. But (leaving out of consideration so nmch of the 
 price we pay for it as has been dilated on in the last few 
 pages) it may be doubted whether the practical benefits ac- 
 companying its exercise are very great or altogether unmixed ; 
 whether our national speech-making talent does not in some 
 situations cause an immense waste of time and ruinous delay 
 of business, while in others it mocks both speakers and hearers 
 with a delusive show of improvement. As to the combinations 
 of writing and oratory, made to serve indifferently for either — 
 the Xoyof iiftSsixTixoi, so much in vogue among us under the differ- 
 ent names of " Addresses," " Orations " and " Lectures " — they 
 are usually undertaken because the author received a flattering 
 invitation and felt bound to jiut together an hour's worth of 
 something — or because it was an easy and pleasant way of 
 making pocket money — or because it was a cheap and conve- 
 nient way of advertising something that he meant to bring out 
 in book shape afterwards, and so make money of twice — or for 
 2inv renson rather than an earnest desire and intent to teach
 
 ENGLISU UNlVKRSn-y. 397 
 
 tlie audience anything or make tliem think ; and attendance at 
 such Addresses, Arc, is as much mental dissipation as the 
 Frenchman's theatre or the German's concert. 
 
 There is one evil result of our national over-encouragement to 
 oratory which has not yet been touched on ; but to this it -will 
 be more convenient to recur in the next chapter.
 
 898 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 THE ADVANTAGES OF CLASSICAL STUDIES, PATITICULARLV IN 
 KEFEUENCE TO THE YOUTH OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 "Haec studta ndoloaceiitiam alunt, senectutem oblectant. secundas res oniant, advCrslg 
 porfugium et solatium praebent, delectant domi non iiiipediunt foris." — Cic. pro Archia. 
 
 " The cultivated world, up to the present day, has been bound together, and each 
 generation bound to the precedint; by living upon a common intellectual estate. They 
 have shared in a common development of thought because they have understood each 
 other. Their standard examples of poetry, eloquence, history, criticism, grammar, ety- 
 mology, have been a universal bond of sympathy, however diverse might be the opinions 
 \vhich prevailed respecting any of these e.vamples. All the civilized world ha.s been one 
 intellectual nation, and it is this which has made it so great and prosperous a nation." — 
 Whewell on Univeusity Education. 
 
 We have thus fur proceeded on the supposition that classical 
 studies form a necessary and important part of a liberal educa- 
 tion. But there is a class of persons (not very numerous or 
 influential, perhaps, but still too much so to be passed over in 
 silence) who would join issue with me on this first principle. 
 They would deny the utility of classics as a general collegiate 
 study, and aflSrm that the error of our Colleges is, not the 
 classical deficiency of their course, but their admission of Latin 
 and Greek at all as a necessary element of that course. 
 
 One is certainly tempted to take a high tone in replying to 
 such objections, and to treat them very summarily. Our first 
 impulse is to tell the objectors that the almost unanimous 
 voice of the civilized world has established the study of the 
 classics as a requisite element of the best education, and that 
 for us to act differently would be to proclaim and make our- 
 selves boors. But as there are those with whom jirescription 
 has no weight but is rather an objection, we will try the study 
 in question on its own intrinsic merits, first examining and 
 rebutting the charges brought against it, and then asserting 
 its positive excellences. We have a right to call on the other 
 side to make the attack, as we are in possession.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 399 
 
 There are one or two moral objections wliicli it may be as 
 well to begin with disposing of. First, it is said that the 
 ancient authors are corrupting and unfit for young men to 
 study or read, on account of the occasional indecencies to be 
 found in them and the debasing mythology which they uphold. 
 Now as regards the mythology, that any one was ever injured 
 in his foith or morals by reading that Jupiter married his 
 sister and had a number of other wives in addition seems 
 hardly a matter to be argued seriously. If such things 
 suggest any thoughts to a youth they are most likely to 
 impress him with the necessity there was for a revelation, 
 when he sees that the wisest heathen nations could make no 
 better religion for themselves than such stuff as this. As to the 
 grossness of the ancients, if we are to lay down as a rule that 
 a young man is to peruse nothing which a young lady in 
 white muslin may not read aloud to a family circle, we shall 
 make great havoc among the literature of all languages, our 
 own not excepted. What does harm in most cases is not 
 grossness but voluptuousness ; and there is very little volup- 
 tuous writing in the ancients. It would hardly be overstating 
 the case to say that of the properly classical authors, Ovid is 
 the only one who represents vice in a luscious and attractive 
 form. Three chapters of almost any French novel, or two 
 hours' walk on the Boulevards of Paris, will put a young man 
 in more danger than all the Aristophanes and Juvenal he can 
 read in a year. Yet a father who prevented his son learning 
 French on account of the risks his morals might run from an 
 acquaintance with Gautier or Paul de Kock, would be 
 deemed by most people over-scrupulous, and a tourist who 
 should fear to visit Paris because there are unchaste pictures 
 in the shop-windows there, would incur not altogether unde- 
 served laughter. The student is not compelled to wade 
 through any of the filth he sometimes meets with — nay, 
 with expurgated editions he may not even be aware of its 
 existence. For my own part, however, I think it not only 
 permissible but actually desirable that he should read some- 
 thincf at least of the verv worst that is to be found in ancient
 
 400 FIVE VKAHS IN AIV 
 
 literature. It Is a disgaslinj but %vholesoine preventive dose 
 against intellect ivorship. Most conscientiously can I say that 
 iiotliinq; lijxs ever more strongly impressed me with the utter 
 incompetency of the highest intellectual refinement, unaided 
 by true religion, to preserve man from the lowest degradation 
 of vice, than studying Athenian life in Plato and Aristophanes, 
 and marking how these " gentlemen and scholars," as they 
 called themselves {^a^isvTSs and KaXoxdyu^ol), these men of 
 cultivated minds and refined manners, gave themselves up to 
 shameless depravity. 
 
 There is also an opinion existing in certain quarters, which 
 however we more usually see insinuated than openly expressed, 
 that Classical studies have an anti-republican tendency. 
 Any well defined argument to this effect I never recollect to 
 have read, but much vague suggestion and declamation ; still 
 it is easy to conceive some reasons, such as they are, in support 
 of the opinion. The Toryism of an historian like Mitford, or a 
 commentator like Mitchell ; of Blackwood's Magazine, also 
 famous for its Classical articles ; of the University of Oxford, 
 and nearer home the marked old Federal leanings of the 
 majority of students in our eastern and northern Colleges, 
 might be pressed into the service and make a plausible show. 
 But there is a much stronger array of cases on the other side. 
 Against the name of Mitford may be put those of Thirlwall, 
 Arnold, and Grote, the first two independent Whigs, the last 
 a Radical. If the great Athenian satirist found a Tory 
 Commentator in Mitchell, he has found a liberal one in Walsh, 
 who is actually at this moment I believe a resident in if not a 
 citizen of our republic. The Edinburgh is a fair set off" to 
 Blackwood."* If Oxford seems sunk in antediluvian Jacobitism, 
 Trinity, the great Classical College of Cambridge, has always 
 been a notoriously Whig corporation. That the majority of 
 our own College students incline not merely to conservatism 
 but to obsolete Federal politics, on which account our Colleges 
 
 * I believe even the Democratic Review has learned the difference 
 between these two periodicals.
 
 EXGLISII UNIVERSITY. 401 
 
 are not over-popular with the Democratic party, is true ; but 
 the reason of it is substantially the same with that which 
 causes tlie German students to be the constant terror of their 
 despotic or semi-despotic ijovernnients, or which made the 
 mass of EnQ;lish Undergraduates liberal when the popular 
 sentiment of England was Tory, and now makes them con- 
 servative when the popular spirit is liberal. All educated 
 young men have a tendency to be in opposition, and to 
 criticize the existing order of things; they see (not perhaps 
 without some exaggeration) its faults, to which they have not vet 
 become habituated by custom and experience, and they acquire 
 a strong though temporary bias towards the other extreme. 
 Nor is this to be regretted, Avhen we consider the tendency 
 of all governmental institutions to intensify their own abuses. 
 
 That Classical reading helps to make students liostile to 
 idtra-radicalism, ochlocracy, and socialism, may at once be 
 admitted, inasmuch as it helps to make them gentlemen and 
 sound-minded men ; and this is a result to boast of rather 
 than apologize for. 
 
 But the objections to the study of Greek and Latin are 
 mostly founded on intellectual grounds. I shall not pretend 
 to take them up in the order of their popularity or plausibility, 
 but only to enumerate and answer them as they occur. Some 
 of the more familiar have a certain amount of truth in them ; 
 but it is derived from and tells against, not Classical studies in 
 themselves, but Ike imperfect way in which ihey are pursued at 
 our Coller/es. Thus we hear of the painful drudgery to which 
 Collegians are subjected, their repugnance to crabbed roots and 
 musty Lexicons, and the cruelty of forcing on their fresh and 
 ardent minds such uncongenial occupation, their want of 
 all interest in their text books, etc. Now this may be the case 
 with us, but the very last complaint of a Cambridge Don 
 would be that his pupils did not take interest enough in their 
 Classical studies.'" He would rather be afraid of their taking 
 
 * Such of them, that i?, as will .'^tiulv at all. Under any system 
 there will imfortunately always be a class Avith whom any study is 
 a weariness to the flesh.
 
 ■402 FIVR YK.VIIS IS A>f 
 
 loo miicli iiiti'i-csL in lliciii, to [\\o. oxi-liision of oilier branclios 
 of iiiciit.-tl ilisripliiu' ill wliicli In' wislicd tlioiu to l)o exercised. 
 Ao'aiti it is said, and nowlierc more frequently tliaii unioiig 
 College Undergraduates themselves, that those who take liigh 
 College Honors do not usually make a figure in the world 
 afterwards; whence it is inferred either that Classics stultify 
 the men who study them, or that they so disagree with clever 
 youth that these refuse to make progress in them. This again 
 may be true here, hut it is certainly the very reverse of the 
 case in England, where die number of men wlio have distin- 
 guished themselves at the bar, in the Senate, or in certain 
 walks of literature, after taking good degrees at the University, 
 is wont to be dwelt on with pride by the defender of the 
 old system ; while the opponent of it takes a very different 
 stand from the depredator of Classical training here, and, 
 wlinittlwi Ike falure success of distinguished Collegians, tries to 
 show that the sequence was not altogether a consequence. So 
 too, we hear the question triumphantly put, " What use can 
 there be in our young men taking several years to learn what 
 they forget in a much shorter time after leaving College ?" It 
 may be true — I fear it is true, that very many of our students 
 forget in eighteen months what they have been supposed to 
 learn in three, four, or five years ; tliat there is very often not 
 that diff'ereuce observable between the graduate and the non- 
 graduate of thirty which there ought to be — or in fact no 
 observable difference at all in their Classical knowledge. But 
 it is not so with the English, the French, or the German 
 student in after life. He remembers and knows wdiat ho 
 studied at College, better than he does anything else except 
 his immediate daily occupation, wdiatever that may be, in which 
 he is necessarily more freshly prepared than in any other 
 subject. To say of the majority of foreign University graduates 
 that their Classics are to them but a " a foggy reminiscence 
 of dull days wasted and dry tasks slighted," would be simply 
 not true. Ami if the majority of our graduates forget 
 their Classics in so short a time, it is because they have never 
 really learned them. The fault is in the imperfect and inade-
 
 ENCusFi uxivr:KsiTr. * 403 
 
 quale mode of fcnrl/iii'/, not in /he tiling taught or svpposcd to 
 he taught. 
 
 We now proceed to the arguments against Classical studies, 
 wliicli, if well founded, would hold good against them, however 
 well taught. That which may be said to include, or at least to 
 lie at the root of all the others, is that they do not form the 
 basis of a practical education — that they do not contribute to 
 such an education in any degree — that they do not make 
 2)racticul men. 
 
 To appreciate this objection it will be necessary to examine 
 what is meant by a " practical man," and how far the mak- 
 ing of practical men ought to be the object of a liberal 
 education. 
 
 The sort of " practical man" who most ostentatiously 
 appropriates the name to himself is also, perhaps, the variety 
 most usually held up as a type of the species. He is the 
 " self-educated" man, which is very much to his credit so 
 long as he does not therefore pretend to know better than men 
 who have learned a great deal more by the help of others. 
 He is also a " self-made" man generally, and " the architect of 
 his own fortune," which is also highly creditable to him so long 
 as he does not insist on being able to do everything because he 
 has advanced his own position in the world. Sharp-witted, 
 industrious, and indefatigable, he makes a capital electioneerer 
 or agitator of any sort, a first-rate hand to " keep the pot 
 boiling," whatever the fuel may be ; and if you can attach him 
 as a jackal to the right sort of lion, may do a fair amount 
 of good. But the worst is that he is pretty sure to set up for 
 a lion himself, and then his want of ballast, of foundation, 
 of theoretic knowledge, of esoteric knowledge of any one thing, 
 is continually leading his quickness into sad blunders, and causing 
 a great part of his energy to be misdirected. He has overcome 
 the empirical difficulties of his own case, but for all philo- 
 sophical investigation he is utterly untrained. He has a vast 
 conceit of his own acquisitions, and a very inadequate conception 
 of the limits of human capacity. Hence this man, whose boast 
 it is to be eimnently practical, runs off instantly into the wildest
 
 404 * FIVK YEARS IN AN 
 
 speculations. He cuts up society as one •would cut up a 
 pie, and proposes to pull down the fabric of ages -with less 
 ceremony than a careful landholder would observe in removing 
 an old fence. Such a person may possibly be the best that 
 could liave been made out of his antecedents ; but it by no 
 means follows that men with better antecedents sliould aim at 
 being like him. He is the result of necessity making the best 
 of a bad bargain ; mA. a desirable product of instruction, or a 
 model for teacher or student. He does not come up to the 
 poet's detinition of a man. lie may be a being of very largo 
 discourse, but he cannot look before and after. 
 
 Such men it is not the tendency of classical studies to turn 
 out. So much the better for those studies. 
 
 In another not unfrequent sense of the term, ti practical man 
 means a good man of business, that is, a man sharp at a bargain 
 and clever at making money. Doubtless there are means of 
 education more favorable to the development of this faculty 
 than the study of Latin and Greek. If we take two boys at 
 sixteen, and send one to a college and the other to a counting- 
 liouse, it is not improbable that in eight years the latter may 
 be making his thousands of dollars for the other's hundreds. 
 And if any father believes that making money is the great end 
 and object of civilized man, and Tneans to bring up his family 
 accordingly, it certainly will be a waste of time to teach his son 
 classics. They might, perhaps, divert some portion of his time 
 from the ledger. 
 
 But if it be asserted or insinuated that a classical education 
 makes young men dreamy, or visionary, or idle, that it dis- 
 poses them to shirk their daily duties, prevents them from 
 acquiring regular business habits, or interferes with the exercise 
 and development of their common-sense in the ordinary affairs 
 of life — all this, I positively deny. On tlie contrary, I am con- 
 vinced by my own case, as well as that of others whom I have 
 observed, that it has great eiBcacy in giving even a constitu- 
 tionally idle man regular habits of work. The care and accu- 
 racy which it inculcates and the taste which it forms, are often 
 of great practical benefit. If classics were better and movo
 
 ENGLISH UMVKHSnV. 405 
 
 geneitill}' studied among us, one ct' the very first effects -would 
 be that the Congressional and State Legislature speeches wouhl 
 be cut down to less than lialf tlieir present dimensions, to tlie 
 corresponding gain of the nation's time and money. 
 
 But tbe objection comes up under another form. The study 
 of the ancient languages does not, it is said, positivehj tend to 
 unfit men for practical life, but it impairs their eflicacy by 
 occupying tlie time in which they might acquire other more 
 useful branches of knowledge. Thus, to teach our young men 
 Latin and Greek, it is said, is to teach them words — they should 
 not learn words but tilings. Such a saying may be very effec- 
 tive when artfully introduced as an obiter dictiiw, but it will 
 hardly bear examination and discussion. That our students 
 ought not to lixnm words and use tliem as the substitutes for, 
 instead of the expression of thoughts, is at once admitted ; it 
 was one of our arguments against the " speaking and writing" 
 system. But that they should learn the meaning of words is 
 of the utmost importance towards their understanding the 
 meaning of things, for the latter often depends on the former.* 
 A large proportion of the disputes among men are uselessly pro- 
 longed, if not originally caused, by their not comprehending 
 one another at the outset, so that there is a deep philosophy in 
 the common euphemism of misnnderstandivg for quarrel. 
 Some of the most ordinary terms in every-day discussion — 
 church, state, civilization, society, aristocracy, democracy — let 
 any man consider the variety of complex ideas involved in 
 every one of them — the different definitions that different 
 people of his own acquaintance would give of ever}' one of 
 them — and then say that the knowledge of the meaning of 
 words is not of the greatest value. Did I wish to throw dust 
 in the eyes of a body of readers or hearers, I should not wish 
 for a better set of men to operate on than such as had only 
 been sedulous to learn things — isolated, unsystematized facts, 
 and had overlooked the meaning of words as a trivial know- 
 
 * For example, the reader may remember having seen in a previous 
 chapter liow the name of a piece of church fm-niture involved one of 
 the staple differences between Protestantism and Popery,
 
 406 Fivr YEARS IX AN 
 
 ledge. I tliiuk I could manoeuvre witli definitions and shift 
 premises so that they should be satisfactorily deceived without 
 a suspicion of it. The apprehension of scattered facts is no 
 more an education than loose bricks and mortar are a house ; 
 they are but rubbish covering tlie earth till you know how to 
 put them together. Or does a knowledge of thiiu/s mean that 
 a man is to be able to do as many things as possible for him- 
 self, to be not only his own waiter and wood-sawyer, but his 
 own doctor and lawyer, and waslierwoman, perhaps ! This is 
 one 'of the utilitarian schemes of education ; if it could be 
 carried out, the immediate effect would be to render men inde- 
 pendent of one another, and thus dissolve society (wliich is by 
 its very constitution a system of mutual dependence) into its 
 rudest elements. (Another incidental proof that our disciples 
 of " progress" are progressing in the way exactly calculated to 
 re-barbarize mankind.) 
 
 But we shall be more likely to come at a clear understand- 
 ing of the matter by inquiring what studies those who object 
 to a classical course Avould substitute in our Colleges for it, as 
 " practical" ones. And here let lis premise by observing that 
 if we turn out the Classics on this account, we must, in con- 
 sistency, send the mathematics after them, for every objection 
 that can, on 2'>i'actical grounds, he urged against classics applies 
 to mathematics in a tenfold, degree. They are far more dis- 
 tasteful to the majority of students, more engrossing in their 
 demands on the attention, harder to acquire, easier to lose — a 
 boy who has read Homer well at school will know it tolerably 
 all his life, but a good geometrician will soon cease to be per- 
 fect even in his Euclid if he does not keep constantly refreshing 
 his knowledge — they are utterly useless in immediate applica- 
 tion to our every-day pursuits. There is indeed a popular 
 presumption of their utility, arising from the fact that arithme- 
 tic, which is the introduction to them, is also concerned in 
 making money, but that is about the amount of the connexion 
 between them and practical life. The classics may seem to 
 have little enough to do with it, but they have obviously more 
 than that. The author wants a motto for a chapter, the
 
 KNCiLisii I'MVERSirr. 407 
 
 prcaclier lias occasion to reler to the " oiiginal Greek" of a 
 passage, the lawyer finds a scrap of Latin in one of his " laider- 
 done pie-ciust" colored books, or the clerk in the newspaper 
 which constitutes the hulk of his literary relaxation, the orator 
 rounds oti' a handsome period with a quotation from Cicero, 
 which the reporter makes two or three mistakes in taking 
 down and the compositor two or three more in setting up. 
 But what parson, or lawyer, or merchant, or politician, or 
 essayist, or poet, is ever called upon in the course of his ordi- 
 nary life and business to write out an equation, or draw a 
 hyperbole, or prove the parallelogram of forces ? If the classics 
 are to go overboard as not sufficiently practical, the mathema- 
 tics must keep them company. 
 
 "What then is left for our students to study ? " The 
 literature of their own language for one thing," says one. 
 Now it has been already intimated that no class of men are 
 better read in the valuable parts of English literature than the 
 Lard-working classical students at Cambridge, and no men 
 better prepared to profit by tliat reading, w-hich is to them a 
 relaxation from, not a substitute for, severer studies. But if 
 Ave put Belles Letlrcs in the place of mental discipline, if we 
 admit as part of the student's hardest work the reading of 
 English authors with a view to their beauties, and the hearing 
 lectures on them, then he will seek his relaxation in the 
 trashiest and idlest reading. Just as surely as the greater 
 includes the less, will the presence of a classical element in our 
 College course do more than its absence to secure a proper 
 acquaintance on the part of our students with such vernacular 
 literature as is worthy to be read. 
 
 The natural sciences are insisted on by some as calculated 
 above all other studies to improve the mind as well as impart 
 useful knowledge. The immense value of these sciences to 
 the world no rational man will deny. Their contribution to 
 the progress of civilization it becomes no man to underi-ate. 
 But their desirability as the predominant and original element 
 of a liberal education by no means follows as a matter of 
 course. The mere popular rudiments — the experiment and
 
 408 VIVE VEAKS IN AN 
 
 diagram part of most of them, are siiflkiently intorcsting to 
 enter among the relaxations of the industrious pupil, who will 
 indeed be pretty sure to acquire a knowledge of them some- 
 where whether they are taught at College or not,* but do not 
 deserve the name of serious study; for the wilfully idle, they 
 are no more temptations to study than classics or mathematics 
 would be, but rather a confirmation of their idle habits. But 
 to attain or approach a mastery over any one science is a very 
 difterent matter, and falls to the lot of a few. The details 
 demand an imcommon faculty for and interest in the minute 
 observation of nature. The systematic comprehension and 
 colligation of these details I will not say absolutely recjuires, 
 but certainly is very much aided by a thorough training of the 
 mind according to the more orthodox methods. We liave 
 already in another place adverted to the folly of supposing that 
 a youth learns half-a-dozen sciences by attending a brief course 
 of lectures on each. But let the time be as much extended as 
 by the substitution under consideration it would be, so that 
 something more like a knowledge of these sciences might be 
 acquired ; still I maintain that a young man whose education 
 has been composed wholly or chiefly of instruction in the 
 natural sciences, is not a liberally educated man. He Avill be 
 apt to have acquired most illiberal opinions of all other 
 branches of learning. He Avill be likely to underrate outra- 
 geously (even to ignoring its value entirely) all knowledge 
 except such as is based on observation and experiment, or 
 inductive reasoning and (real or supposed) tangible proof. 
 He will be in danger of doubting all fixity in principles of 
 knowledge, or principles of moral and religious truth — of sup- 
 
 *This is a point seldom taken into account, but telling very strongly 
 against most of the substitutes proposed for the classics — Belles-Letti'cs, 
 jiopular results of science, even the modern languages". It is very 
 much more probable that young men wlio begin by studying the 
 classics will ]iick up these other things, incidentally or subsequently, 
 than that, if they begin with these things, they will be willing or able 
 to learn Latin and Greek at a later period. The information will 
 come after the discipline much faster and easier than the discipline 
 after the information.
 
 KNGLISII UNIVKRSIXr. 409 
 
 posing that " ethics and tlieology arc progressive sciences" as 
 miieli as diemistry or geology. He may even be led to d^espise 
 the standard literature of the civilized world, because much of 
 it was written before the discovery of gravitation or the inven- 
 tion of the steam-engine ; as if men went to a poet or dramatist 
 to learn astronomy or mechanics from him — a misconception 
 of uses so ludicrous that were there not instances of it on 
 record, it might well be deemed incredible. 
 
 Mental Philosophy has been proposed as a substitute, some- 
 times for Classics, sometimes for Mathematics. The value of 
 Metaphysical studies I would not for a moment underrate, but 
 it seems to me evident that they should be considered a 
 crowning pinnacle, not a corner-stone of liberal education. 
 Their abstruse nature, the logical clearness of conception which 
 they demand, the variety of illustration from other sciences 
 and branches of learning which they not only admit but 
 require, the instability of systems and the want of universally 
 admitted truths to found systems on respecting them — all 
 appear to point out that a thorough preparatory training i7i 
 both Classics and Mathematics is requisite to their being 
 pursued with advantage. 
 
 The Modern Languages are frequently proposed as a substi- 
 tute for the Ancient, and of all substitutes have the strongest 
 claim. Their study appears to dift'er from that of the Classics 
 more in degree than in kind. It teaches universal grammar, 
 verbal analysis, accurate comparison, discrimination of differ- 
 ences — though to a less extent ; it enforces the perusal of good 
 models of taste, though not so good ones ; it puts the students 
 into communication with the intellect of other nations, though 
 not of other ages ; while, at the same time, its immediate 
 results to the traveller or the inhabitant of a metropolitan city 
 answer the requisition of our practical friends. 
 
 I am fully prepared to admit that a young man may read 
 German instead of Greek, and French and Italian instead of 
 Latin, in such a Avay as to derive more benefit from that 
 course than a very large number of our students do from their 
 (Jreek and Latin one; but this would be an exceptional case 
 
 18
 
 410 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 — and I tliink that even sucli a student ^vould be ultimately 
 led to take up Latin and Greek at a greater evpenditure of 
 time tlian if lie had begun with them. Looking at the ques- 
 tion generally, the difficulty which presents itself is this : That 
 part of the study of Modern Languages which answers to the 
 study of the Ancient, and the practical part of them — that is, 
 the being able to speak them with fluency, are in a great 
 measure independent of each other. The practical part is 
 learned only by practice — by talking yourself and hearing 
 others talk around you. The pronunciation, which is half the 
 battle, can only be acquired in this way. All of us must have 
 met with men who could, read French easily, nay, had read a 
 fair amount of French literature ; yet could with difficulty put 
 two sentences together correctly in conversation. A New 
 Yorker generally speaks better French than a Londoner, 
 because he is more in the habit of meeting Frenchmen and 
 persons who speak French. Spanish is more generally spoken 
 in New York than in Boston, on account of our commercial 
 intercourse with Cuba, Mexico, and South America, and the 
 number of natives of those countries constantly to be found 
 among us ; Avhile Spanish literature is more read and better 
 understood in Boston tlian in New York. A Cambridge First 
 Class man suddenly called on to talk Latin to a Hungarian or 
 German scholar will bungle very much at first ; he will not 
 converse half as fluently as a New Yorker will in French with 
 a Frenchman ; yet the Cantab really knows more Latin than 
 the New Yorker does French — that is to say, he can read 
 Latin with less danger of meeting a word that he does not 
 know the meaning of, translate it more accurately, and write 
 it more elegantly and grammatically than the other can French. 
 It is useless to multiply examples — the distinction is sufliciently 
 evident. 
 
 Now, if the critical study of Modern Languages Avere chiefly 
 attended to at our Colleges, it is probable that the advances 
 made by the students in the j^ractical use of them as a medium 
 of direct communication with foreigners, Avould not be so rapid 
 as altogether to satisfy the advocates of this study on practical
 
 ENGLISH UXIVERSITY. 411 
 
 grounds. Tliey -would run the risk of being much disap- 
 pointed, when tlic College Junior, who had been reading and 
 writing French for a coui)le of years, was unable to converse 
 familiarly with the first Frenchman he encountered. Tfmr 
 object would not be attained, while that of the advocates of 
 the mental discipline allbrded by the study of languages would 
 see their end Avorking out somewhat as before, only with inl'c- 
 rior tools. 
 
 This is one danger. The opposite one, though less immi- 
 nent, is more formidable — that the Modern Languages might 
 be studied only for practical use in conversation and the 
 commonest forms of writing. Such an education would do 
 well for a man of pleasure or a commercial traveller ; I would 
 not recommend it to any one else. If speaking foreign lan- 
 guages were any test of intellectual progress, the Russians 
 ought to be ahead of all the rest of the world, for there are 
 no such practical linguists as the better class of Russians. 
 They talk French like Parisians, English like Englishmen, 
 German like Germans, Italian like Italians. What does it 
 profit them ? Simply that their bodily comforts and personal 
 consequence are somewhat promoted by it when they tiavel. 
 What have they done for literature, for freedom, for true 
 cultivation of any sort ? What do they take home from 
 their travels ? A knowledge of French wines and silks, per- 
 haps of Italian music : of the thoughts that shake empires and 
 create intellectual and political revolutions, they appropriate 
 none. 
 
 Finally, are we to substitute for Greek and Latin not one 
 only, but all or several of the studies enumerated ? This is 
 the dream and wish of many reformers, the ambition perhaps 
 of not a few students. Doubtless we are a very clever people, 
 but not sufficiently so to make universal geniuses of all our 
 Collegians. For a man to " make omniscience his forte," as 
 Sydney Smith phrased it, he must have extraordinary talents 
 of many different kinds, and in addition, an uncommonly good 
 constitution to be able to stand the hard work which the 
 acquisition of so much knowledge requires even of the most
 
 412 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 talented men. Of such favored mortals, tliere are perliaps a 
 dozen in an age. Nay more, we shall iind that these very 
 men began their multifarious learning with learning the Clas- 
 sics. Take some of the names that naturally occur to us : 
 Macaulay — ho was a crack Classic University Scholar, and 
 Fellow of Trinity ; Humboldt — he is a scholar as well as a 
 savant ; Urougham — his scholarship may not be of the utmost 
 accurac}^ but no one would say that he had not received a 
 fair Classical education, and did not know a considerable quan- 
 tity of Greek and Latin. I do not know if the attempt was 
 ever made to turn out a man or a set of men who should 
 know omne scibile excej)t the Classical languages and literature ; 
 till the experiment has been tried, and tried successfully, we 
 have good reason to believe that it would be trying to put up 
 an immense building without any foundation. 
 
 Early in this chapter it was remarked that our opponents 
 might justly be called upon to begin the attack, as Classical 
 studies were in possession. But it would be doing those 
 studies injustice to rest their claim on this negative and inci- 
 dental ground. I therefore now proceed to the positive part 
 of the argument, and assert roundly that the study of Latin 
 and Greek, carried out further and more thoroughly than it 
 now is in any of our Colleges, would be peculiarly calculated 
 to benefit our College-going youth, and through them our 
 whole country. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties in the way of a man's daily 
 and progressive development as a man is the constant pressure 
 of his professional or business avocations. The merchant has 
 to look after his cargoes and keep his bank-book straight, the 
 broker to watch the stock market, the clergyman to write his 
 sermons and mind his parochial aftairs, the lawyer to bandy 
 words in court, the editor to abuse the other side in politics — 
 every man has a tendency to become absorbed in his particular 
 pursuit, and the cleverer and more ambitious the man, the 
 stronger this tendency usually is. He becomes hampered by 
 the formulas of his profession. He "talks shop" in and out 
 of season. He associates with those similarly occupied, and
 
 EXGLISII UNIVERSITT. 413 
 
 tliey all help to render one another more one-sided. The 
 Idols of the Tribe overshadow him, and pervert and illiberalize 
 his understanding. And this is particularly the case with us, 
 because an American, more quick-witted and energetic and 
 ambitious than any other man, throws himself into whatever 
 he undertalvcs more earnestly and completely. Some there 
 are, however, wdio having either acquired or inherited as much 
 wealth as is sufficient for their wants, are tied down to no 
 exclusive pursuit. These ought to be more liberal and unpre- 
 judiced, more literary and generally accomplished, larger and 
 loftier in their views, more men in short than any other class : 
 frecjuently, alas ! they are the very reverse. Absence of daily 
 toil gives them no positive bond of sympathy. They have not 
 been educated to enjoy or proiit by their leisure ; their only 
 centre of union is a well-spread banquet ; they can only find 
 their level in frivolous pursuits and amusements of doubtful 
 value, even as relaxations. 
 
 Now what we want to remedy this evil is something which 
 shall cultivate those intellectual faculties and tendencies, and 
 sui)ply those intellectual wants that are common to all intel- 
 ligent and reasoning men as men ; that are common to men of 
 all professions ; something that shall give men of all professions 
 a common ground to meet on in leisure moments ; that shall 
 rival and counteract the enticements of the pleasures of sense or 
 repose of idleness; something that shall give men of leisure a 
 mode of spending their time profitably to themselves, and 
 at least not injuriously to others. 
 
 In some countries this desideratum is supplied by the love of 
 art. All the educated classes are amateurs of music, painting, 
 and sculpture ; all members of the educated classes, however 
 difierent their professions, have this point of contact. The 
 merits and intlucnce of such a taste it would be irrelevant 
 to discuss here, since an enthusiasm for art is not and cannot be 
 made a trait of any jjeople sprung mainly from an Anglo- 
 Saxon stock. Our common subject must be something more 
 dependent on the purely intellectual and logical faculties. 
 Society makes various eftbrts to supply itself with such a
 
 414 FIVE VKARS IN AN 
 
 general topic. Politics, discussed with all our national fury 
 of exaggeration, dividing the community into two ])arties 
 ready to spring at each other's throats, contribute very little to 
 the pleasures of social intercourse or the improvement of our 
 higher mental faculties ; pecuniary subjects do indeed excite an 
 interest common to all men, but the very reverse of au 
 ennobling or liberalizing one. 
 
 Now this common bond which we want a good classical 
 education supplies. The learned languages were the deposito- 
 ries of a past world's intellectual wealth during the long night 
 of the Middle Ages. They obtained a universal foothold as 
 instruments of a liberal and literary education, when the 
 modern languages of Europe not only contained no literature 
 of their own, but were not out of their embryo state, unformed 
 and unsettled. By and by those modern languages became, 
 like their respective countries, organized and defined in their 
 limits, and polished by cultivation. They became iit vehicles 
 for a native literature, and such literature sprang up in them. 
 But, flowing directly from classical literature, it continued in 
 every case to retain some tincture from the original source ; 
 with the distinct impress of nationality are always to be found 
 blended some features referable to the common stock. From 
 Greece through Rome was Europe civilized ; from Europe 
 America. There is a direct intellectual succession (far clearer 
 to trace than the vaunted Apostolic one) from the Athenians to 
 ourselves ; the scholars of the world have been its trustees. 
 The Classics are the golden chains that bind together the past 
 and the present, the east and the west of literature. Classical 
 education gives men a common taste and sympathy for litera- 
 ture. It not only makes them like to read, but teaches them 
 Low to read ; it enables them to understand books, and 
 understand one another when they talk about books.* And 
 
 * While writing tlie above I stumbled upon the assertion (in au 
 English Avork) that " A knowledge of Walter Seott and Shakspeare 
 would better qualify a man for the freemasonry of the literary world 
 than a knowledge of Homer." This is the old fallacy of premise, to 
 which I am not sorry to take an oi>portuiiity of alluding once more.
 
 KNGLISII UNIVEIiSITY. 415 
 
 it is because the acquisition of such an education does not 
 require any pre-eminent talent, because any one — erjo vel 
 Clavienus — who is not positively heloiu the average of intelli- 
 gence can acquire it with the necessary time and trouble — it is 
 precisely on this account that it is valuable to the majority of 
 men in the better ranks of life, to ordinary doctors, ordinary 
 lawyers, ordinary merchants. But especially valuable is it to 
 men of no [)rofe.ssion, as supplying them with some gentlemanly 
 occupation and amusement, besides eating and drinking, dressing 
 and dancing. Even its moral benefits to such men in giving 
 them sometliing to do, and a taste for doing something, and 
 thus guarding them from some of the temptations to which 
 idleness is peculiarly liable, are not to be despised. 
 
 Any consideration for or allusion to the welfare of this class 
 may be summarily condemned in certain quarters as anti- 
 republican and " aristocratic" — it being a fashion of your 
 reformers and philanthropists to talk of such people as if they 
 Averc a set of drones or vipers, to be exterminated without 
 mercy or at least packed out of the country. But it is certain 
 that this class is increasing in numbers as our nation grows 
 older, and that, moreover, being variable from one generation 
 to another, as families and individuals grow rich or poor, its 
 education must in several generations influence that of a very 
 large number of families, and have a very appreciable influence 
 on that of the community. Nor are the rich of one genera- 
 tion to be altogether disregarded. Utterly insignificant as his 
 political influence may be, the capitalist or the capitalist's 
 son cannot foil to have social influence. The very Jews of 
 the middle ages, destitute of all political rights and in constant 
 peril of life or liberty, were not without power to control the 
 current of events. 
 
 It implies that the man who has read Homer is not likely to have read 
 Shakspeare and Scott, whereas he is the very man most likely to read 
 them to the best advantage and enjoy them the most heartily ; to 
 luxuriate in Scott's romance without taking it for a history, to study 
 Shakspeare and his commentators at home without needing the adven- 
 titious excitement of a innlf leeturf-r or a lady public-reader.
 
 416 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 But, to make our position as broad and as practical as may 
 be (for much of the above may seem tlie exaggeration of pro- 
 fessional enthusiasm to those who have not experienced the 
 effects of thorough classical training on a man's ideas, or the 
 different impression made by the society of those who have 
 and those who have not received this training), I now proceed 
 distinctly to maintain that the cultivation of a high classical 
 standard at our colleges would benefit the whole country at 
 large, by correcting two of our prominent national errors. 
 
 It has been remarked and shown in a foi-mer chapter that 
 the principal and most valuable results of thorough classical 
 study are accuraci/ and taale. Now inaccuracij and had taste 
 are the most ordinary blemishes of all our intellectual perform- 
 ances. Quicker of apprehension and expression than any other 
 people, our countrymen commit themselves oftener in errors of 
 detail than any other people. Rapid and superficial, with an 
 indistinct knowledge of many things, but not really at home in 
 any one thing except the empirical part of his particular calling ; 
 always ready to impart information or to raise a controversy, 
 and more apt to look at the immediate impression than at the 
 idtimate effect to be produced ; the American is continually 
 making little slips, his very speed tripping him up. He is too im- 
 jiatient to investigate minutia3. To verify a reference or a 
 quotation is the last thing that occurs to him. He becomes 
 habituated to making assertions and calling in illustrations 
 merely to point a sentence or fill up a phrase, without taking- 
 care to satisfy himself of its correctness ; for he trusts to three 
 chances, first that he may be right, secondly that if he is wrong 
 he may not be found ont, thirdly that if the error is detected 
 he may be able to make a plausible defence or apology for it. 
 Look at our newspapers, for instance, the largo city no less than 
 the small country sheets ; what a mass of blunders every fresh 
 batch of them let loose upon society. Were I an editor I 
 would have for a standing head of a column, "Errors of our 
 contem^Joraries," and such a column Avould be sure to be 
 always well filled, and not unamusing or uninstructive. One 
 can scarcely pass an hour any morning in a reading-room with-
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEKSITY. 417 
 
 out making a choice collection of contributions from all parts 
 of the Union towards the perversion of knowledge ; blunders 
 in Ancient Ilistory and Literature, e. (j. that Socrates was put 
 to death by the thirty tyrants, or that Sophocles wrote the 
 Medea ; blunders in modern, even in contemporary history, 
 such as that the English excited the revolution in St. Domingo, or 
 that Lord eTolm Russell caused the famine in Ireland ; lilunders 
 in regard to foreign authors, such as that John Stuart Mill is a 
 Tory writer, or that Albert Smith was the author of the Rejected 
 Addresses ; blunders about artists, such as that I'arodi had 
 the part of Caliban in Halevy's Temjyesta ; mis-cjuotations not 
 only from foreign languages but from the standard English 
 authors, to such an extent that a very precise inan may be led into 
 them by sheer force of bad example.'" Perhaps these inaccu- 
 racies have their most ludicrous effect when coming in form of 
 information to others, as when some enterprising man with a 
 commendable zeal for knowledge, but a very mistaken idea as 
 to the proper source of enlightenment, writes to ask " Who 
 was the author of the Prout Papers?"' and is told in reply 
 that " the Prout Papers^'' were written by an English clergy- 
 man named Inc/oldshy.\ 
 
 * I once made a wi'ong quotation from Shakspeare, entirely through 
 having seen the passage pertinaciously misquoted for years in our jour- 
 nals. It served me right for taking such authority without verifica- 
 tion. 
 
 f Should any of the fraternity feel wroth with me for speaking so 
 candidly of their attainments, I beg leave to suggest the possibility of 
 their deriving some benefit from the above paragraph. It may at 
 least open their eyes to one cause of the contemptuous way in which 
 foreign writers sometimes speak of them, and which they are so unable 
 to understand as actually in some instances to believe it the disguise of 
 jealousy. 
 
 I might have mentioned among the inaccuracies of our press its haliit 
 of calling the authors of leading articles in the London papers "penny- 
 a-liners," and representing them as mere hack scribblers sprung from a 
 doubtful class of society. Among these "penny-a-liners" are, to my oivn 
 personal knowlcdrie, Fellows and Professors of colleges, eminent clergy- 
 men, rising barristers, noblemen's sons, and even ladies of good family. 
 A comparison between the stations in societv of the persons who write 
 
 18*
 
 418 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 These mistalces cannot properly bo said to proceed from 
 ignorance. Tiiey arise rather from want of rejection, and 
 an inaccurate way of dealing with all subjects of knowledge, 
 encouraged by the conceit of superficial acquirements. To 
 consult a friend, to step into the nearest bookseller's, to inves- 
 tigate the contents of his own library even, are things either 
 beneath the editor's dignity, or a useless waste of time. If a 
 publisher sends him a Avork of fiction, he accepts whatever 
 author's name the publisher may put upon the cover, witliout 
 sto])ping to think if it may not be a mere trick of the trade to 
 make the book sell (though it is notorious that full ten per 
 caait. of the novels republished here are credited to the wrong 
 authors). If he want some awful fact to point an anti-English 
 article, he docs not cite it by chapter and verse from authentic 
 records, but takes it second or third hand from some Irish or 
 equally imaginative authority. 
 
 Similar inaccuracy, though not always so gross, may be 
 traced in other classes of writing and writers ; in grave Quar- 
 terlies, where haste or loss of time cannot be pleaded in 
 excuse ; in the works of really able professors ; in the sj^ecu- 
 lations of men fond of science, but who have not taken the 
 pains to ground themselves in its first principles. Nor is this 
 looseness confined to subjects of the intellect ; there is a great 
 deal of moral inaccuracy among us, not tending to increase 
 our virtue at home or respectability abroad. Most striking- 
 individual instances might be given of this but for the fear of 
 introducing personal or partisan reflections. Some general 
 instances may be hinted at. To charge a member of the 
 government with peculation, and be unable to prove the charge, 
 would, in England, cause the accuser to be hooted at by all 
 the respectable men of his own party ; here it is passed by as 
 only an ordinary incident of political warfare — a bold specu- 
 lation, which unfortunately did not succeed. To misquote a 
 literary opponent is disgraceful to a European controversialist ; 
 
 for the English daily presi and thosa who write for oiu's would r.ot 
 turn out to the disadvantao;e of the former.
 
 ENGLISH UMVERSnv. 4 1 J) 
 
 it was one of the things that eont.ributcd to the downfall of 
 the Puseyite influence in England, being considered and 
 denounced as conduct unworthy of Scholars and of gentlemen ; 
 liere it is apologized for as a slip of the pen or the printer, and 
 the apology is by many deemed sufficient. Nay, I am not 
 sure but the great indulgence aftbrded to commercial failures, 
 an indulgence often overstepping the bounds of charity, may 
 properly come under this head. The fundamental error is the 
 same in the three cases ; too much leniency skoion to gross 
 carelessness. 
 
 An education which teaches men to read, thint, and learn 
 slowly, carefully, and deliberately, and which practically con- 
 vinces them at every step of their fallibility and proneness to bo 
 mistaken, is the best calculated to correct this national inaccu- 
 racy, mental and moral. 
 
 The other great national defect of our national popular 
 literature and oratory, and intellectual public displays gene- 
 rally, is had taste, manifesting itself in a more than Hibernian 
 tawdriness of style, a violence and exaggeration of language, 
 a forced accumulation of ornament, not growing naturally out 
 of the subject, but stuck violently on for the sake of having it 
 there ; and also in a long-winded difFuseness and inane repeti- 
 tion of common-places. Here I can fancy some one starting 
 up and saying — the tu quoque is so favorite a form of argu- 
 ment with a certain class, and, ■without doubt, has a great ad 
 cajjtandum efiect — " The author has the driest and most 
 unadorned style himself; how can he appreciate an elegant 
 and florid one ? " Now there are few persons who enjoy a 
 good ornate style more than myself; I read Macaulay over and 
 over, and have almost some of his essays by heart ; the gor- 
 geous word-painting of Ruskin has an exceeding charm for 
 me ; but compared with the sentences of such men, richly 
 colored by the allusions of learning, and sedulously polished 
 by critical accuracy, the bullc of what our periodical censors 
 agree to call "fine writing" seems to me like stage tinsel and 
 paste to real jewelry, or a bouquet of artificial flowers to a posy 
 of natural ones, iinitating the original to a cursory inspection,
 
 420 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 but a wortliless sham when you come to look into it. Should 
 any one still join issue on the fact and maintain that our 
 popular style is not a vicious one, it would, I confess, not be 
 very easy to convince him ; a question of taste cannot be made 
 matter of demonstration. If I were to cite forty instances of 
 false metaphor, turgidity, bombast, and batlios, he might still 
 consider those very examples as specimens of beautiful writing. 
 But one thing can hardly be denied by anybody — that our 
 writers and speakers are terribly deficient in the faculty of 
 selection ; that (with some eminent exceptions) they never know 
 when they liave said enough ; that a great majority of our ser- 
 mons, lectures, forensic arguments, anniversary addresses, &c., 
 and our public documents and congressional speeches almost 
 without exception, are a great deal longer than they ought to be. 
 The remark has been made to me more than once in con- 
 versation, that the displays of vulgarity, prolixity, bombast, 
 &c., which deform our popular literature, are chiefly to be set 
 down to the discredit of uneducated southern and western 
 men, who could not be in the most indirect way aftected by 
 any condition of or change in our collegiate system. To this 
 it may be replied, first, that the monojjoly of bad taste is not 
 confined to the south and west. There is a great deal of the 
 article in New England. True, there is also much pure and 
 refined taste. There are New Englanders whose works have 
 become acknowledged classics of the English language, 
 acknowledged not only by England but by Europe, There 
 are New Englanders whose speeches will endure as models of 
 oratory while the language endures. But there are also a 
 great many New Englanders who are continually talking and 
 writing all over the country anything but the choicest English. 
 Next, supposing the position admitted to its fullest extent, 
 there are two ways of treating such wild men of the woods, 
 which have very different eflfects, and are directly dependent 
 on the collegiate system adopted. Tf you take the ability to 
 make a speech as a sign of education, you put yourself and the 
 uneducated man on something like a footing; for he, knowing 
 only how to read and write, perhaps, but having plenty of
 
 ENtiLlSII UNIVKRSITY. 421 
 
 impudence and self-possession, and acquiring a stock of party 
 commonplaces from the newspapers or some equally acces- 
 sible source, can make as fluent and long a speech as you — 
 not as good, no doubt, but he will think it as good, and feel 
 himself your equal. Make classical knoicledr/e a standard of 
 the educated 7nan, and you j^ut such a person on his level at 
 once. There is a gulf between you and him that no amount 
 of noisy haranguing can get over. 
 
 The critical habits induced by classical study, teaching con- 
 densation of thought by rejection of superfluities, purity of 
 style and clearness rather than magniloquence of expression, 
 are the best protection against the inroads of bad taste. 
 Abolish the study of Greek and Latin entirely, and we should 
 be delivered over to the Vandals of literature, the heroes of the 
 stump and the penny paper. 
 
 Lecturers and writers on the subject of education are in the 
 habit of crying out continually for more of it. I, on the 
 contrary, would like to call attention to the desirableness of 
 having a higher order of it — an education for men of refine- 
 ment. I think our country has reached that point in 
 national progress Avhen she can afford to attend to refinement. 
 Our common school education is probably much better 
 and more generally diff"used than that of any other country ; 
 our liberal education is certainly behind that of several 
 countries. Ought we not to take most pains for the improve- 
 ment of that in which we are most deficient ? I put this as a 
 practical question for every man to ask himself who has money 
 to give or leave, or influence to exert or time to spend in the 
 cause of education. 
 
 " You want an education for rich men," interposes some 
 patent friend of the people, who disguises his envy of all those 
 that are better off" in this world's goods than himself, by a 
 professed sympathy for those who are worse off". Well, I do 
 want an education for rich men. Do they not stand in 
 special need of it? such an education, too, as will give them 
 other sources of pleasure besides the material ones derived 
 from Avealth ? But perhaps the objector means that I want an
 
 422 KIVE YKAKS IN AN 
 
 education in tlic advantages of ■which none but a ridi man can 
 participate— an assertion disproved at once by the fact that 
 numbers of poor men in England, France, Germany, and other 
 iuiropean couiitrios, are enjoying such an education. " Oh, 
 but you want an education for gcntlemen.^^ Exactly— I do ; 
 and the gentlemen wliom I want to train up should require 
 just wealth enough to enable them to wear clean sliirts, and be 
 just " aristocrats" enough to prefer the company of persons with 
 clean shirts and clean luibits to that of persons with dirty 
 ones.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVEIISITV. 423 
 
 WHAT CAX WE AXD OUGHT WE TO DO FOR OUR COLLEGES? 
 
 is Tpoiav TtCLfiiijitvoi r)v9ov '\x.aioi. 
 
 Theocritus, Idyll. XV., v. CI. 
 
 The conclusion of our investigation.s is that the English 
 system of liberal education possesses some decided advantages 
 over ours ; a conclusion from assenting to which the reader 
 need not be prevented by any personal dislike he may feel 
 towards England or Englishmen. Let him profit by the 
 motto of his book, and be wise enough to take a lesson from 
 those whom he does not acknowledge as friends. Still, before 
 we can make any practical use of om* result an important 
 inquiry remains. It may be that the peculiar benefits of such 
 an education as an English University aflbrds are dependent 
 on certain political and social conditions peculiar to England, 
 or upon certain antecedents having no counterpart among us. 
 If so, it would be a clear waste of time to suggest any 
 improvements from that quarter. We may be curious about 
 the system or admire it at a distance, but can never rationally 
 hope to imitate it. To seek an impossible combination of 
 advantages is one of the most frequent errors of reformers, 
 and one of the most prolific sources of delusion. Indeed were 
 I asked in what practical wisdom consists, I should not know 
 how to answer better than by defining it as the faculty of 
 discerning things compatible and incompatible — that is, I should 
 enlarge Whately's definition, " a ready perception of analogies," 
 bv the addition, an.l a ready discrimination of differences. 
 
 If therefore the peculiar advantages of an English Univer- 
 sity education are such as to require for their development (1) 
 the influence of an hereditary aristocracy, (2) an established 
 cliureh, (3) public schools like the English for the preparatory
 
 424 FIVE VEAIIS IN AN 
 
 training of tlie students, (4) greater wealth on the part of the 
 students than the majority of our Undergraduates possess, (5) 
 greater wealth on the part of the institutions themselves — if 
 they involve any one, and a fortiori if tliey involve all of these 
 conditions, then we may copy them in form, but cau never 
 hope to reproduce their reality. 
 Are these conditions essential ? 
 
 It seems to me pretty evident that the first is not. The 
 Avhole number of noblemen and " hat Fellow-Commoners " at 
 Cambridge does not exceed thirty, and not one sixth of those 
 reading-men. Their extinction or absence would not diminish 
 both triposes by the average of three a year, nor would it alter 
 anvthing in the University except that there would be a few 
 showy gowns less on holidays, and that the only unfairness or 
 inequality existing in the examinations (letting noblemen's 
 sons go out in classics without passing the mathematical 
 examination) would be removed. 
 
 Equally plain does it seem that the second condition is in no 
 way essential. The ethics and divinity entering into the col- 
 lege Undergraduate studies or the University course, are not 
 necessarily favorable to the peculiar views of any denomination. 
 A Unitarian might read most of it. I was going to say a 
 Romanist could ; but the Index Expurgaloriiis may have 
 extended farther than we are aware of. Paley and Butler, the 
 Acts of the Apostles and the Old Testament History, are not 
 remarkably sectarian. The only point where the Established 
 Church acts immediately on the ordinary life and system of the 
 student is attendance at chapel. Now almost every one of our 
 colleges is under the control of some particular denomination, 
 and all our students are compelled to attend daily prayers, and 
 much more rigorously too than the Cambridge men ; so that in 
 this respect the collegiate institutions of the two countries are 
 already on a similar footing. 
 
 The existence of the public schools seems more immediately 
 connected with that of the Universities. I know the opinion 
 to be common among our scholars (having often seen it 
 expressed in print as well as heard it) that whatever benefits
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 425 
 
 result from the English system of cducafion.are o-\ving to tlie 
 schools and not to the universities. Some things which have 
 been stated in this book may go a little way towards removing 
 this impression. That the mathematical training at Cambridge 
 does not depend on the public schools is clear enough. Few 
 Kton, or "Westminster, or Harrow, or Shrewsbury men are high 
 Avranglers. The public school men might be takon out of the 
 mathematical tripos altogether without leaving a very serious 
 gap in it. With regard to classics the case is indeed different. 
 Much of the highest technical scholarship, particularly supe- 
 riority in composition, and more particularly in verse compo- 
 sition, is due to the student from the public schools. Take 
 them away, and you would take away four out of the first five 
 men in every Classical Tripos. Still you Avould have a high 
 standard left; for a man to be in the first class at all must bo 
 a* pretty good scholar, and know quite classics enough to 
 bother many of our Professors. And a non-public-school man 
 may make very considerable progress in classics at the Univer- 
 sity, and derive great benefit from the instruction there. Two 
 instances occurred in my time of the Second Chancellor's 
 Medallist not having been at any public school, and the senior 
 Medallist in 1840 came from King's College, London. 
 
 The expense of a University education in England is cer- 
 tainly startling at first sight. That a student spending IVoO 
 a year should be called decidedly economical, and one spend- 
 ing f 1,500 not extravagant, gives a great shock to the accus- 
 tomed ideas of an American, German, or Frenchman. But 
 we must remember that England is one of the very dearest 
 countries in the world. All the necessaries of life (except some 
 ki.ids of clothing) cost about twice as much, not merely at 
 Cambridge but in English country towns, as they do at New 
 Haven ; and the comparison with a University town of Conti- 
 nental Europe Avould probably show a greater difterence. 
 Making the proper deductions on this account, the necessary 
 expenses of a Cantab will, with the exception of private tuition, 
 be brought very nearly on a par with those of a Yalensian. 
 And the items which oblige me to add the qualifications very
 
 426 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 nearly are siicli as I would gladly see added to the American 
 student's account. If, for instance, there were better arrange- 
 ments for cleaning the men's rooms (every Graduate of Yale 
 College will understand what I allude to), the civilization 
 accruing therefrom would he cheaply purchased by the ad<lition 
 of a few di)lhirs to each term-bill.* 
 
 The expenses for private tuition, which will not be exagge- 
 rated if set down at $l7o ^J(T annum, for three years and a 
 half, or above |600 for the whole course, form a large item, 
 one which many of our students would not be able or Avilling 
 to pay ; so that supposing the requisite sort of persons ready 
 to make private tutors, it is very improbable that the system 
 could be established amongst us so as to become at all general, 
 for a long while at least. Here, then, we come directly to the 
 question, whether the peculiar advantages' which we have 
 attributed to the Cambridge system of education are insepara- 
 ble from private tuition ? In treating of the private tutors it 
 has been stated that some distinguished members of the Uni- 
 versity, including the Master of Trinity himself, wished to put 
 them down entirely, or confine them within such limits as 
 would be equivalent to their extinction ; but that, in the 
 opinion of the majority (wherein I heartily coincide from per- 
 sonal experience), sucli a step would be very injurious, I cer- 
 tainly do think that the private tutors are an important featui'e 
 of the University ; that they enable a badly-prepared but 
 industrious student to make up his deficiencies in a way that 
 no other mode can, and at the same time prevent the best men 
 from being kept back by the others, thus saving time to all 
 classes of students. But I would not affirm or admit that they 
 are essential to the University, or that no improvements from 
 it could be transplanted into any other institution unless they 
 were included in the improvements ; nor do I think j'ny one 
 
 "" One of the grievances of the Trinity Undergraduates used to be 
 that thej^ liad not baths and a water-closet in every staircase (every 
 entry, as our students eall it), and their complaints actually found their 
 Avay into the Quarterly Review. This may seem extravagant, but it 
 surely is a failing that leans to virtue's side.
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 427 
 
 would go SO fill- as to say this. They contribute to tlie aecu- 
 i-ate and systematic training of the men, hut are not indispensa- 
 ble to it. 
 
 There is still another point in which it may be feared tliat 
 the English system involves a greater outlay on the part of the 
 student than ours will ever admit — the comparatively advanced 
 age to which the English students remain at the University, 
 twenty-two being rather below than above the average. It may 
 be said that onr young men cannot atl'ord to stav at colleo-e 
 so long ; tkey ninst be out in the woi-ld supporting themselves. 
 Now, in the first place, it by no means follows that our eoUeo-e 
 course may not be made much more full and accurate — in 
 short, altogether better than it is ivithoul increasing the averao-e 
 age of graduation. In the next place, the persons who have 
 least reason to use this plea seem to be the very ones who take 
 advantage of it. The richer students, those who could very 
 well spend two or three years more in their education, and with 
 whom indeed it is often a puzzle to know what to do for the 
 year or two succeeding their graduation, are generally the 
 very youngest in the class. Plenty of Englishmen Avho have 
 no private fortune, nothing but their profession to look to 
 remain till the age of twenty-three at the University, thinkino- 
 that the time and money thus spent are capital well 
 invested. Still we must not keep out of view the fact, that 
 one cause whicli enables them to do so is the wealth of the 
 individual colleges, which is the last feature on our list to be 
 investigated. 
 
 The rich endowments of the colleges enable them to offer the 
 highest rewards for^learning — solid rewards as well as distinc- 
 tions. Putting out of the question those who come up 
 with school " exhibitions," and also the Sizars who receive 
 their commons for nothing, and their instruction, public and 
 private, at half price, a tolerably forward student, such a one as 
 is first in a Small college and turns out a respectable wrangler or 
 a good double second, will make, by his college scholarship, 
 tvvo fifths or throe fifths of his expenses during two thirds 
 of the time he passes at the University. A Trinity Scholar
 
 4.28 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 "wishing' to contiiiuo in vcsick'nce fur :i year or two as a 
 Bachelor, either with the intention of pursuing his theological 
 studies or of carrying out any other branch, has about a 
 third of his necessary expenditure supplied from a similar 
 source. Tlic student of superior ability and industry who gains 
 a Fellowship, is provided for during the remainder of his 
 bachelor existence, having an income of about a thousand 
 dollars to depend upon. 
 
 Here it must be confessed is our great difliculty. Our 
 colleges want wealth, in the form of specific endowments, 
 foundations to support as well as encourage learning. Very 
 promising young men arc often compelled to quit college in the 
 middle of their course, or to be temporarily absent teadiing 
 school or raising money in some similar way, to the great 
 detriment of their immediate studies. As for resident Graduates 
 wishing to pursue some litei'ary or philosophical faculty beyond 
 the college course, there is no provision for them whatever, nor 
 any opening beyond the comparatively small number of 
 Professorships and Tutorships. It is the want of funds, and 
 those funds specifically appropriated to tliese purposes, that 
 prevents, more than anything else, our Colleges and Universi- 
 ties from having such teachers (both in number and quality), 
 giving such systematic instruction, and diftiising about them- 
 selves such a classical atmosphere as will in a considerable 
 measure correct the etfects of bad previous instruction. 
 
 This, then, is the point to which all persons taking an 
 interest in the advancement of our Colleges and Universities 
 should turn their attention. We loant endotvmcnts. For 
 the furtherance of this object public assistance is not to be 
 thought of. The recent act of our own State Legislature in 
 endorsing Noah Webster's barbarous innovation on English 
 orthography is a ftiir specimen of the capabilit}^ of such gentry 
 to decide on matters of scholarship and high learning. We 
 must look to private liberality. Many of the College Scholar- 
 ships and Fellowships, and the majority of the prizes. College 
 and University, at Cambridge, are owing to gifts or legacies 
 from individuals. The generous spirit of our countrymen
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITY. 429 
 
 in such matters is too well known to require enlarging upon ; 
 and I feel persuaded that ^usre the subject once definitely hroityht 
 before them and explained to them, there are inany men of 
 substance who would give their ^1,000 or -$2,000 a piece, eacli 
 to his respective Alma Mater, for the foundation of a scholar- 
 ship, and some who would be much more liberal. The 
 tirst thing to aim at is, to direct their attention clearly to it and 
 show how such gifts have a certain tendency to promote 
 learning, and can scarcely by any possibility be misapplied, 
 as vague and general bequests for educational purposes too 
 often are. 
 
 All this, however, only looks to the future, and is the work 
 of much time. Does nothing admit of being done at once 
 to improve the standard of scholarship and of education 
 generally in our colleges ? I think there is much which 
 might be done ; and shall now proceed to show how I would 
 set about it, supposing myself in the place of a president, 
 professor, or other influential member of the " Faculty" of 
 a large college or university. 
 
 I should'not attempt to raise the limit of age for admission, 
 on account of the pecuniary reason already alluded to. We 
 have adopted the habit of pushing our youths into the world, 
 as the English run their horses, before they are old and strong, 
 and on the same plea — the expense of the preparatory training. 
 To modify this habit requii-es a gradual proceeding by other 
 means. But I would raise the standard of admission. Not 
 nominally — there should not be another book in classics 
 or mathematics added to those now on the list required 
 of candidates for entrance ; but I would insist on something 
 approximating more nearly to a knowledge of these books 
 from all the candidates. As we cannot give that particular 
 personal attention to each individual which the private-tutorial 
 system allows, it is of great importance that a class should not 
 be kept back and made to lose time by the blunders of 
 the very inadequately prepared. 
 
 I anticipate the immediate objection that such stringency 
 would bear hard on a particular class of students, the "bene-
 
 430 FIVE YEARS IN AN 
 
 ficiaries," as they are commonly called, iiicii who adopt the 
 intention of becoming clergymen at a comparatively late ])eriod 
 of life, and are assisted in their collegiate conrse hy charitable 
 contributions. It is usually considered that the holiness of the 
 object these persons have in view, the benefit which the com- 
 munity is to derive from them, and the actual advantage which 
 the moral and religious tone of the college does derive from 
 them while they are in it, warrant almost any indulgence 
 which can be shown them at the expense of the general pro- 
 gress of the rest. From this form of opinion I must be 
 allowed to express my dissent, and to record my sincere con- 
 viction that, on the contrary, it Avould be a great benefit to any ^ 
 college to separate this class entirely from the main body of the 
 students. On first going up to New Ilaven, a boy of fifteen, 
 the incongruity of mixing up these ovj^ifjua^sr^ with us boys, 
 was about the first thing that struck me, and subsequent expe- 
 rience and reflection Iiave confirmed my belief that it is an 
 incongruity, and a mischievous one. 
 
 It is not denied that beneficiaries sometimes acquit them- 
 selves with great credit, and attain the highest honors. ]3ut 
 every one who has had experience in such matters must admit 
 that the majority of them have by their inadequate prepara- 
 tion tlie effect of keeping the other students back. If, for in- 
 stance, all the beneficiaries were removed from a class — say in 
 Yale College — the remainder of the class could be worked 
 along better and faster. And this deterioration of the standard 
 extends beyond the beneficiaries themselves, since for every two 
 of them who are let in on inadequate preparation, there slips 
 in a third candidate as badly olf in the rudiments, but who 
 must be admitted because they are, since the examiners mani- 
 festly cannot lower the standard for one and put it up again for 
 another. That grown-up men Avho have not been accustomed 
 to learn, do not learn so readily as youth, is an axiom among 
 teachers. But there is one thing in which any man with an 
 ordinary English education is likely to have the advantage of 
 a boy of fourteen. He will be more ready to express his ideas, 
 good or bad, upon paper, more confident and self-possessed as
 
 KN'GLISII UNIVKIISITV. 431 
 
 a ]>iiblic speakor, more ready to fall m Avitli the ordinary 
 business of a debating society, llence the beneficiaries have 
 incicased the " speaking and writing" taste, which even with- 
 out them would be too prevalent. They interfere doubly Avith 
 the studies of the college, both by what they can and by what 
 they cannot do. 
 
 Against this there will be a disposition to set off the moral 
 influence and check they have upon the younger students, aiid 
 particularly their precept and example as Christians. But here 
 the picture may be viewed from two sides. They are sincerely 
 and consistently pious, it is agreed. But is there not some- 
 thing inharmonious in their double position as spiritual guides 
 of and fellow-students along with the younger members of the 
 college ? Ought not the pupil's religious teachers to have the 
 advantage and authority of standing somewhat above him in 
 profane learning also ? If it be said that their instruction is 
 that of example only, not of authority, even here its immixed 
 benefit may be questioned. We may suspect that the man's 
 example will not always be such as the boy can sincerely follow 
 out ; that the seriousness and austerity which animate and 
 direct all the movements of one who at an advanced period of 
 life betakes himself under a sudden call or spiritual impulse to 
 preparation for the ministry, will become an unnatural restraint 
 when copied by the youth just from school. That a lively boy 
 should be shut up in his room for a whole Sunday (except 
 during chapel hours), debarring himself of the exercise which 
 his health requires as much as his inclinations prompt, or if he 
 does go out for a walk that he should sneak off to it like one 
 committing a crime — that he should be afraid to join in a game 
 of ball because some of the unconverted may be among the 
 players — that he should carry about habitually the mask of 
 gloom upon the face of youth — all this seems to me an un- 
 healthy feeling, a strained and jiremature seriousness. But let 
 us grant that it is all a fault on the right side, that it is better 
 for the youthful conscience to be too precocious and tender, 
 than too dull and coinpliant ; there are other less doubtful ills 
 that spring from this association of young and old. Men pre-
 
 432 FIVE TEARS IN AN 
 
 sumirif^ on tlieir age wliere talent is supposed to be the test of 
 merit, the " college church" forming a party in society elections, 
 years held up as a claim for ollice, the contests of jjcrsonal am- 
 bition rendered fiercer by the introduction of a religious ele- 
 ment — such arc; some of the results which I have witnessed 
 with my own eyes, springing directly from the contact of bene- 
 ficiaries with the younger students. 
 
 It would then on all accounts be a desirable step to form the 
 beneficiaries into a dcparhnent of their own, connected with and 
 introductory to the Theological Faculty. The studies pursued 
 in this department might resemble those of the ordinary 
 Undergraduate one, but not reach so far in mathematics, and 
 perhaps not so far in classics, paying more attention to Greek 
 Testament, and above all going over the first-year studies 
 slowly, carefully, and thoroughly. The motives and intentions 
 of this class of pupils arc all that is sacred and honorable. 
 God forbid that I or any other man should throw a straw in 
 their way. I only doubt the expediency of mixing them up 
 with the younger students, and of sacrificing the younger 
 students without doing them any real good. For in conse- 
 quence of the bad preparation of some, and the long absences 
 of others to teach school, &c., full half of them do not receive 
 as good a preliminary education as they would under the plan 
 suggested, and very few a better. 
 
 Having argued and explained our first proposal — a virtual 
 elevation of the standard for admission — the next point is, 
 what measures should follow it in the first year. 
 
 There are three great difficulties or errors — or corrigenda 
 of some kind — things desirable to have altered, whosesoever 
 fault or misfortune they may be — which are observable from 
 the first in our colleges ; and I appeal to any professor in any 
 large college whether what I am about to state is not con- 
 firmed by his own experience. In the first jjlace, those who 
 are better prepared than the rest of the class, and who have 
 more natural capacity for the subjects of study, say the dozen 
 or half dozen best in classics, and the same number in mathe- 
 matics, have very little to do the first year. The " recitations"
 
 ENGLISH UNIVERSITT. 433 
 
 take them hardly so lung to prepare for as to sit through, and 
 there is nothing marked out for them during the rest of their 
 time. Thus the most vahiahle students of the year are doubly 
 injured, immediately by wasting many hours in idle reading or 
 other improfitable occupation, remotely by forming half -idle 
 habits, so that they cannot da themselves justice when harder 
 work comes on in the second and third years. The college 
 seems virtually to say — " after you have learned the construing 
 and parsing of the page or two in Livy, and the page of 
 Xenophon, and learned the stipulated formul?e, or done the 
 stipulated examples in Algebra, we ask nothing more of you. 
 Amuse yourselves for the rest of the time as you like." That 
 they generally avail themselves of the permission is not to be 
 wondered at. 
 
 Secondly. .The knowledge which the students continue to 
 acquire both in mathematics and classics, but especially of the 
 latter, is, even in the case of those who recite fluently and 
 stand well for college honors, all exoteric — a knowledge not of 
 subjects and language, but of books, nay parts of books. The 
 " recitations" are learned and recited from day to day, it is 
 scarcely an exaggeration to say from hour to hour, for they 
 are usually committed in the two or three hours previous to 
 their being heard, or at furthest the night before. They are 
 repeated perhaps twice, the second time as a "back-lesson" 
 merely construed, and that is the end of them, for the annual 
 examinations are a mere farce.* The learner's actual jDrogress, 
 what he has gained and held fast, is never tested by asking 
 him to apply it. During the whole of his college course, the 
 Undergraduate is never called upon to translate a 2J<^sage in 
 Greek or Latin, or to solve a itroblem in mathematics which he 
 is not sup2X)sed to have seen and studied before the particular 
 occasion.^ 
 
 * It is worth noticing that at Columbia College, where the classical 
 standard both for and after admission is higher than at any other simi- 
 lar institution in the country, the Honors are given by semi-annual 
 <'xaminations. 
 
 f This assertion I believ<^ to be strictly predicable of nearly all our 
 
 19
 
 434 FIVE YEARS IN AX 
 
 Lastly, there is a great difficulty in making cleverness and 
 application go together, in persuading the clever men to work 
 their best at tlio college studies, and in getting the main body 
 of the students to believe that those who distinguish tliemsclves 
 in the college studies are clever — or, as they might call it, 
 smart — men. Nor is this difficulty very Hurj)rising, in view of 
 the two antecedents just mentioned. 
 
 All three of these evils may be met and remedied by one 
 and the same means, the establishment of an examination 
 which is an examination at the end of the year. 
 
 Let the Latin and Greek authors of the year, or a portion of 
 them, say the First Book of Livy, the First Three Books of the 
 Anabasis, and so on, be made the subjects of written pa2)ers, to 
 be delivered to the students only when they are required to 
 answer them, and including not only extracts for translation, 
 with critical and grammatical questions thereon, but all the 
 subject-matter of the author, history, geography, antiquity, law, 
 illustrative extracts from authors not in the course, &c., not 
 omitting translations from English into Latin prose. Let the 
 mathematical papers similarly contain, besides the formulae of 
 the books, original examples, deductions, and i>roblems. Viva 
 voce should enter into the examination, but the chief part of it 
 should be in writing, and its duration ought not to fall short of 
 five days or exceed seven. The examinees should be divided 
 into classes, say four, five or six, and I would make the 
 first class large — eighteen or twenty per cent, of the whole — 
 and arrange those in it according to order of merit. Did 
 the college finances allow, I would give every one in the first 
 class a prize of books. 
 
 By way of previous practice it would be well for the 
 students to have brief written examinations once a month, or 
 six times in all during the first two terms, in the classics 
 and mathematics of each preceding month. During this year 
 there should be 710 English compositions required of them. 
 
 colleges. It was tnie to the letter of Yale in iny day, aiid would be 
 so now but for the Scholarships of which mention has been made.
 
 KNCLISII UNIVEKSnV. 435 
 
 Under such an arrangement no student, however well 
 prepared, would have any temptation to idleness, but rather 
 every incentive to industry, as the collateral subjects involved 
 in even one book of Livy or Xenophon open so wide a 
 field that there is no danger of his knowing it too well, if all his 
 spare time is devoted to exploring it. Nor would the students 
 generally look upon good preparation, and " anticipating," ami 
 reading " books out of the course," in the same light as 
 they do now — as a confession of inferior natural ability, or 
 a means of purchasing idleness beforehand, or a labor of 
 supererogation. The difference between him who mastered 
 his subject and liini wlio merely crammed from day to day 
 would be abundantly shown, and the scope given to general 
 talent in answering the general questions Avould soon show 
 that clever men had their fair chance. 
 
 A brief digression is here necessary. The suggested changes 
 not only recognise the principle of emulation as a legitimate 
 one, but encourage it to its full extent. This may seem to call 
 for some remark, as the doctrine is frequently put forth (though 
 the gener.il practice of our institutions is against it) that 
 all rewards for excellence in college studies are based on 
 an unsound principle and tend to harm, that they excite 
 ill feeling and envy, and bribe students to do that to which a 
 sense of duty should be a sufficient inducement. 
 
 Such a " free trade" in education may not uncharitably be 
 deemed a shrewd device of those enemies who wish to lower 
 the standard of knowledge, and bring the collegians down to 
 their own level. Home learning requires protection and 
 encouragement quite as much as home manufactures. If it be 
 desirable that Ave should not be entirely dependent on foreigners 
 for rails to ride on and clothes to wear, it is also desirable that 
 a young man should be able to get a thorough and elegant 
 education at home, without having to cross the water for 
 it. Any endow^ment for the encouragement of classical, mathe- 
 matical, or other learning, necessitates the idea of competition, 
 otherwise you abolish the only test of what they were intended 
 to promote. The difficulty of obtaining proper teachers.
 
 4"('< I'lVIC VRARS IN AN 
 
 :ilrcacly suflloiciitly formidable, would be ten times augmented 
 by tbe abolition of all distinctions for academic proficiency, 
 since the public Avould have no means of judging who were 
 best qualified to teach. Boys will not study mathematics from 
 a sense of duty — that is, not one in a hundred — it is too up-liill 
 work ; nor will they indeed, from the same abstract motive, 
 study classics in a sound, regular way, taking the dry matter 
 with the interesting as it comes. They will be apt to work in a 
 dilcllante way, and pick out the titbits. The example of 
 the German universities is not in point. The German students 
 have been worked hard at their r/ymnasia, and have passed 
 severe examinations on quitting those. They are, at the 
 university, occupied immediately upon their professional studies, 
 for those of them who will not be lawyers, doctors, or clergj'- 
 men, will be " ordinary" professors or government functionaries, 
 immediately after taking their degrees. The fruit of their 
 study is close at hand. With regard to the envy and ill-will 
 supposed to be excited by competition for honors, they cer- 
 tainly are not evils inseparable from the system. You see 
 nothing of them at Cambridge. The two Medallists, or the two 
 Smith's Prizemen, are often warm personal friends, reading 
 with the same tutor, and passing much of their time together. 
 Even with us the extent of it is greatly exaggerated ; but, 
 so far as it does exist, it is justly chargeable not on the 
 principle of emulation, but on that spirit of envy and impatience 
 of suj^erioi'ity so general in our country, which is expressly 
 generated by our democratic institutions, and must be taken as 
 one of the evils of those institutions alono- with theh blessinofs. 
 According to more general considerations, it is tolerably evident 
 that emulation is one of the main spring's of human progress in 
 all departments of life ; that individuals and nations become 
 torpid and retrograde without it ; that success attending 
 on patient industry and talent combined is the usual rule in 
 this world ; that the Divine Law itself is sanctioned by rewards 
 and punishments ; that a government without rewards should 
 also in common foirness be one without punishments — which 
 would end in being no government at all — and this perhaps is
 
 i;n(;i,ism r.Nivi;nsn v. l.")? 
 
 wLat soiiio j)eci]'1i' woiiM jn-cier. Most of lliosc tliini;-s ari- 
 truisms ; indeed all the- MiyumeiUs liave been presented, or 
 rather alluded to, as bricM}' as possible, because the common 
 sense of mankind readily agrees to them ; and the digression 
 was made merely not to pass over in silence any (piestiim that 
 has been started in reference to our subject. 
 
 Let lis now proceed to the second year, better known by tlm 
 barbarous term of Sophomore (a name to which it is liardly 
 necessary to say there is nothing answering in the colleges of 
 any other country). It is now quite early enough to begin 
 with the exercises in English composition, usually commenced 
 in the tirst year. Even now it would be well to require them 
 not more frequently than once a month ; and the subjects, 
 instead of being of that abstract and general nature which 
 leads the students to write at them vaguely, more with the 
 idea of acquiring or showing a fine style than of expressing 
 their views of anything clearly, should be questions requiring 
 them to read as well as write, and supplying them matter to 
 think and write upon — historical or antiquarian for instance. 
 The prizes usually given at the end of each term for a single 
 exercise might be given on an average of the three. This plan 
 would be likely to have the effect of making all the class take 
 some pains with their compositions, and profit by the exercise 
 in more than one way. The monthly zvritten examinations 
 shoidd be continued. As to the mathematical studies of the 
 year, thoy ought to bo conducted with more reference to prin- 
 ciples, not wasting time in the working of long logarithmic cal- 
 culations, which neither cultivate nor give scope for any par- 
 ticular faculty except patience. The application of the princi- 
 ples to exMin]iles might be sufficiently made in the monthly 
 examinations. In this \Yay the students might go through one 
 third more uKithcmatics than they <lo in the year, with more 
 profit and less inconvenience to themselves than they now do, 
 and the examination at the end of the year might include not 
 onlv conic sections and special trigonometry, but also low 
 mechanics. The grateful recollections which all Cambridge 
 classical m^^n have of NcAvton impel me to put in a word for
 
 438 TFlYi: lEAK.S IN AN 
 
 him liere. I could very much wish that the early books of the 
 Principia, according to any standard translation, were gene- 
 rally read in our colleges. 
 
 The classical part of the annual examinations should be of 
 the same nature as before ; the books read during the year, or 
 such portions of them as would afford sufficient material for six 
 or eight good j^apers, half extracts for translations, half gene- 
 ral (questions ; and some English to be translated into Latin. 
 
 The start gained this year would enable the good mathema- 
 ticians to carry on their studies much further than at present 
 during the third year. In fact, after the first term the class 
 should be divided ; those who pleased might go on with and 
 beyond the Difierential Calculus, and the larger portion begin 
 to review their mathematical course from the beginning. The 
 exercises in English composition, or written debates, should 
 still be limited to one a month for two terms. At the end of 
 the year there should be an examination on all the mathema- 
 tics previously read. The earlier papers of this, containing no 
 problems and only a few simple deductions and examples, 
 besides the regular book formulae, should be a pass examina- 
 tion, and those classical men who got through it should be 
 released from any further mathematical studies. The higher 
 papers, including problems and involving the Calculus, would 
 counterbalance for the good mathematicians the proficiencies of 
 the best classics in the Greek plays and other difficult subjects 
 of the year. To make all the classics of the year, much more 
 all the classics of the three years, the foundation of pass 
 examinations for the mathematical or for all the students, 
 would be exacting too much of them. As much should be 
 selected as will make three subjects of respectable dimensions 
 (say a Greek play, a book of Tacitus, and an oration of 
 Demosthenes or Cicero), and the six papers in the examination 
 referring to these should be the pass for a Degree, so far as 
 classics are concerned. The student who acquitted himself the 
 best in the whole examination (consisting of all the mathema- 
 tics of the course and the years classics, including translation 
 from English into Latin) wovild be the first man of the year;
 
 KNGLISII UNIVKRSITV. 439 
 
 and the first class should be of liberal dimensions — at least fif- 
 teen per cent, of the examinees. The " Junior Exhibition " I 
 would abolish ; that is, if it could be done without raising a 
 mutiny. 
 
 During- the last year I would not tell the students to be idle 
 as most of our college authorities do. Every one should con- 
 tinue to study either Classics or Mathematics. The whole 
 senior class ought to be put through a thorough course of Logic 
 — which is now ridiculously neglected, considering the great 
 fondness for and attention to rhetoric and composition. Moral 
 Philosophy comes naturally in connexion with Logic. Compo- 
 sitions and debates might also be more frequent — four or five 
 in each term. The attendance at Lectures on the Natural Sci- 
 ences I would not make compulsory, or if I did it should not 
 be for only one science at the students' option. In the last term 
 of this year, near the end in fact of the whole course, there 
 ought to be two general examinations, one in Classics, the 
 other in Mathematics, and a third and shorter one in Logic 
 and Moral Philosoph||| At the risk of carrying out my 
 imaginary details too minutely, and thus interfering with their 
 general applicability, I will proceed to explain the principles on 
 which these examinations might advantageously be conducted, 
 particularly the classical one. 
 
 The students should be examined in passages chiejly taken 
 from books not in the college course. If, for instance, Cicero's 
 de Oratore and de Officiis formed part of the course, then give 
 them an extract from the Tusculan Questions ; if the IHad 
 formed part of the course they should have extracts from the 
 Odyssey. The more diiEcult authors not usually read at our 
 colleges it would not answer to use for some time, e. g. Pindar 
 or Aristotle. There should be at least four translation papers 
 with five or six extracts in each, a paper of English prose to 
 turn into Latin, and one or two general jjapers containing 
 questions on classical history, the ancient government and laws, 
 the elements of prosody and principles of grammar. There 
 should also be some viva voce in the examination. The Mathe- 
 matical Ex^nii nation should take place suflieientlv long after or
 
 •440 FIVK YEARS IN AN 
 
 before the classical, to allow those students who were desirous 
 of taking honors in both (a practice -which I would neither 
 encourage nor discourage) to have an opportunity of doing so. 
 The candidates at both examinations I would divide into four 
 classes, those in the first three should be considered as having 
 taken honors, and a list of the three classes (the names in each 
 class arranged in order of merit) should be published by 
 authority. No student should have his degree who Avas not 
 able to pass in the fourth class of one of the examinations. 
 
 The Logic and Moral Philosophy examination should be 
 open to all who had taken the honors in either of the others. 
 Many of the answers to questions in it Avould naturally take 
 the form of short extempore essays. It would be a rare 
 chance for really clever men to show themselves, and there 
 need be no danger of political or sectarian party allusions 
 intruding themselves into it. 
 
 Such a scheme as this nominally diminishes in many respects 
 the amount of labor required from the students, but really 
 gets a great deal more out of them in one sense and puts a 
 great deal more into them in another. It goes upon the 
 principle that it is better to learn a little at a time and 
 thoroughly, than to pretend to learn a great many things 
 together and learn them very superficially. Very possibly 
 every feature of it can and will be fearfully picked to pieces, 
 but with my present lights I believe it to be all feasible, and 
 have not the slightest doubt that if feasible it would be most 
 beneficial.* I am persuaded that in course of time it would 
 
 * Of the police and government regulations nothing has been said, 
 but there is one point which I cannot refrain from expressing my 
 opinion about. The morning recitation between chapel and breakfast, 
 which prevails in many of our colleges, ought most certainly to be 
 done away with. Some of the students are half asleep at it, some of 
 them more than half hungry, some of them less than half dressed. 
 Their bodily discomforts prevent them from really profiting at all by 
 the intellectual exercise they mechanically drag througli. Xor is it, 
 in many cases, beneficial to the health to remain so long fasting in the 
 morning. The young men should be allowed another hour of sleep. 
 There is neither reason nor religion in pulling them out of bed at six
 
 ENCiMSII UNIVERSITY, .111 
 
 caiise tlie students to enter at a later age and better prepared, 
 attract donations for Pi-izcs, Scholarships, and Fellowships, 
 raise up a class of resident Q-raduates from among whom 
 private tuition could be supplied, and ultimately combine 
 almost all the advantages of the English system, with the 
 proficiency in rhetoric and composition which is in some 
 respects natural and necessary to our people, and which under 
 such a plan being attained at a later period, and based upon 
 some real training and knowledge, would not then prove so 
 hollow and barren as it now does. 
 
 during a Xew-England winter, with the snow knee-deep, or indeed 
 during winter anywhere. The feelings exeited hy it are very much 
 the reverse of devotional.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 89.— The note is erroneous : the maiority of the College Headshipa arc not at the 
 disposal of the crown. 
 
 " 372. — Ninth line — for '•sentiments most favorable" read "sentiments not the most 
 favorable."
 
 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 University of California, San Diego 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 'ViMr 1 3 1976 
 
 
 *"«^.w/f 
 
 
 UEC 1 3 1980 
 
 
 ^^iftfu (^- I'qim' ^ 
 
 
 npp 1 1 198? 
 
 
 UCV i 1 •'JOC 
 
 
 DEC 08 1982 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 39 
 
 UCSD Libr.