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Chapter XII - UniversitiesChapter XII - Universities
Chapter XII - Universities
Of British universities, Cambridge has the most illustrious names on its
list. At the present day, too, it has the advantage of Oxford, counting in its
alumni a greater number of distinguished scholars. I regret that I had but a
single day wherein to see King`s College Chapel, the beautiful lawns and
gardens of the colleges, and a few of its gownsmen.
But I availed myself of some repeated invitations to Oxford, where I had
introductions to Dr. Daubeny, Professor of Botany, and to the Regius Professor
of Divinity, as well as to a valued friend, a fellow of Oriel, and went
thither on the last day of March, 1848. I was the guest of my friend in Oriel,
was housed close upon that college, and I lived on college hospitalities.
My new friends showed me their cloisters, the Bodleian Library, the
Randolph Gallery, Merton Hall, and the rest. I saw several faithful high -
minded young men, some of them in the mood of making sacrifices for peace of
mind, - a topic, of course, on which I had no counsel to offer. Their
affectionate and gregarious ways reminded me at once of the habits of our
Cambridge men, though I imputed to these English and advantage in their secure
and polished manners. The halls are rich with oaken wainscoting and ceiling.
The pictures of the founders hang from the walls; the tables glitter with
plate. A youth came forward to the upper table, and pronounced the ancient
form of grace before meals, which, I suppose, has been in use here for ages,
Benedictus benedicat; benedicitur, benedicatur.
It is a curious proof of the English use and wont, or of their good
nature, that these young men are locked up every night at nine o`clock, and
the porter at each hall is required to give the name of any belated student
who is admitted after that hour. Still more descriptive is the fact that out
of twelve hundred young men, comprising the most spirited of the aristocracy,
a duel has never occurred.
Oxford is old, even in England, and conservative. Its foundations date
from Alfred, and even from Arthur, if, as is alleged, the Pheryllt of the
Druids had a seminary here. In the reign of Edward I., it is pretended, here
were thirty thousand students; and nineteen most noble foundations were then
established. Chaucer found it as firm as if it had always stood; and it is, in
British story, rich with great names, the school of the island, and the link
of England to the learned of Europe. Hither came Erasmus, with delight, in
1497. Albericus Gentilis, in 1580, was relieved and maintained by the
university. Albert Alaskie, a noble Polonian, Price of Sirad, who visited
England to admire the wisdom of Queen Elizabeth, was entertained with stage -
plays in the Refectory of Christ Church, in 1583. Isaac Casaubon, coming from
Henri Quatre of France, by invitation of James I, was admitted to Christ`s
College, in July, 1613. I saw the Ashmolean Museum, whither Elias Ashmole, in
1682, sent twelve cart-loads of rarities. Here indeed was the Olympia of all
Anthony Wood`s and Aubrey`s games and heroes, and every inch of ground has its
lustre. For Wood`s Athenae Oxonienses, or calendar of the writers of Oxford
for two hundred years, is a lively record of English manners and merits, and
as much a national monument as Purchas` Pilgrims or Hansard`s Register. On
every side, Oxford is redolent of age and authority. It gates shut of
themselves against modern innovation. It is still governed by the statutes of
Archbishop Laud. The books in Merton Library are still chained to the wall.
Here, on August 27, 1660, John Milton`s Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio and
Iconoclastes were committed to the flames. I saw the school-court or
quadrangle, where, in 1683, the Convocation caused the Leviathan of Thomas
Hobbes to be publicly burnt. I do not know whether this learned body have yet
heard of the declaration of American Independence, or whether the Ptolemaic
astronomy does not still hold its ground against the novelties of Copernicus.
As many sons, almost so many benefactors, It is usual for a nobleman, or
indeed for almost every wealthy student, on quitting college, to leave behind
him some article of plate; and gifts of all values, from a hall, or a
fellowship, or a library, down to a picture or a spoon, are continually
accruing, in the course of a century. My friend Doctor J. gave me the
following anecdote. In Sir Thomas Lawrence`s collection at London, were the
cartoons of Raphael and Michel Angelo. This inestimable prize was offered to
Oxford University for seven thousand pounds. The offer was accepted, and the
committee charged with the affair had collected three thousand pounds, when
among other friends, they called on Lord Eldon. Instead of a hundred pounds,
he surprised them by putting down his name for three thousand pounds. They
told him, they should now very easily raise the remainder. "No," he said,
"your men have probably already contributed all they can spare; I can as well
give the rest;" and he withdrew his cheque for three thousand, and wrote four
thousand pounds. I saw the whole collection in April, 1848.
In the Bodleian Library, Dr. Bandinel showed me the manuscript Plato, of
the date of A.D. 896, brought by Dr. Clarke from Egypt; a manuscript Virgil,
of the same century; the first Bible printed at Mentz, (I believe in 1450);
and a duplicate of the same, which had been deficient in about twenty leaves
at the end. But one day, being in Venice, he bought a room full of books and
manuscripts, - every scrap and fragment, - for four thousand louis d`ors, and
had the doors locked and sealed by the consul. On proceeding, afterwards, to
examine his purchase, he found the twenty deficient pages of his Mentz Bible,
in perfect order; brought them to Oxford, with the rest of his purchase, and
placed them in the volume; but has too much awe for the Providence that
appears in bibliography also, to suffer the reunited parts to be re-bound.
The oldest building here is two hundred years younger than the frail
manuscript brought by Dr. Clarke from Egypt. No candle or fire is ever lighted
in the Bodleian. Its catalogue is the standard catalogue on the desk of every
library in Oxford. In each several college, they underscore in red ink on this
catalogue the titles of books contained in the library of that college, - the
theory being that the Bodleian has all books. This rich library spent during
the last year (1847) for the purchase of books 1668 pounds.
The logical English train a scholar as they train an engineer. Oxford is
a Greek factory, as Wilton mills weave carpet, and Sheffield grinds steel.
They know the use of a tutor, as they know the use of a horse; and they draw
the greatest amount of benefit out of both. The reading men are kept by hard
walking, hard riding, and measured eating and drinking, at the top of their
condition, and two days before the examination, do no work, but lounge, ride,
or run, to be fresh on the college doomsday. Seven years` residence is the
theoretic period for a master`s degree. In point of fact, it has long been
three years` residence, and four years more of standing. This "three years" is
about twenty-one months in all.^1
[Footnote 1: Huber, ii, p. 304.]
"The whole expense," says Professor Sewel, "of ordinary college tuition
at Oxford is about sixteen guineas a year." But this plausible statement may
deceive a reader unacquainted with the fact that the principal teaching relied
on is private tuition. And the expenses of private tuition are reckoned at
from 50 pounds to 70 pounds a year, or $1000 for the whole course of three
years and a half. At Cambridge $750 a year is economical, and $1500 not
extravagant.^2
[Footnote 2: Bristed: Five Years at an English University.]
The number of students and at residents, the dignity of the authorities,
the value of the foundations, the history and the architecture, the known
sympathy of entire Britain in what is done there, justify a dedication to
study in the undergraduate, such as cannot easily be in America, where his
college is half suspected by the Freshman to be insignificant in the scale
beside trade and politics. Oxford is a little aristocracy in itself, numerous
and dignified enough to rank with other estates in the realm; and where fame
and secular promotion are to be had for study, and in a direction which has
the unanimous respect of all cultivated nations.
This aristocracy, offcourse, repairs its own losses; fills place, as they
fall vacant, from the body of students. The number of fellowships at Oxford is
540, averaging 200 pounds a year, with lodging and diet at the college. If a
young American, loving learning, and hindered by poverty, were offered a home,
a table, the walks, and the library, in one of these academical palaces, and a
thousand dollars a year as long as he chose to remain a bachelor, he would
dance for joy. Yet these young men thus happily placed, and paid to read, are
impatient of their few checks, and many of them preparing to resign their
fellowships. They shuddered at the prospect of dying a Fellow, and they
pointed out to me a paralytic old man, who was assisted into the hall. As the
number of undergraduates at Oxford is only about 1200 or 1300, and many of
these are never competitors, the chance of a fellowship is very great. The
income of the nineteen colleges is conjectured at 150,000 pounds a year.
The effect of this drill is the radical knowledge of Greek and Latin, and
of mathematics, and the solidity and taste of English criticism. Whatever luck
there may be in this or that award, an Eton captain can write Latin longs and
shorts, can turn the Court-Guide into hexameters, and it is certain that a
Senior Classic can quote correctly from the Corpus Poetarum, and is critically
learned in all the humanities. Greek erudition exists on the Isis and Cam,
whether the Maud man or the Brazen Nose man be properly ranked or not; the
atmosphere is loaded with Greek learning; the whole river has reached a
certain height, and kills all that growth of weeds which this Castalian water
kills. The English nature takes culture kindly. So Milton thought. It refines
the Norseman. Access to the Greek mind lifts his standard of taste. He has
enough to think of, and, unless of an impulsive nature, is indisposed from
writing or speaking, by the fulness of his mind, and the new severity of his
taste. The great silent crowd of thorough-bred Grecians always known to be
around him, the English writer cannot ignore. They prune his orations, and
point his pen. Hence, the style and tone of English journalism. The men have
learned accuracy and comprehension, logic, and pace, or speed of working. They
have bottom, endurance, wind. When born with good constitutions, they make
those eupeptic studying-mills, the cast-iron men, the dura ilia, whose
powers of performance compare with ours, as the steam-hammer with the music-
box; - Cokes, Mansfields, Seldens, and Bentleys, and when it happens that a
superior brain puts a rider on this admirable horse, we obtain those masters
of the world who combine the highest energy in affairs, with a supreme
culture.
It is contended by those who have been bred at Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and
Westminster, that the public sentiment within each of those schools is high -
toned and manly; that in their playgrounds, courage is universally admired,
meanness despised, manly feelings and generous conduct are encouraged: that an
unwritten code of honor deals to the spoiled child of rank, and to the child
of upstart wealth, an even-handed justice, purges their nonsense out of
both, and does all that can be done to make them gentlemen.
Again, at the universities, it is urged that all goes to form what
England values as the flower of its national life, - a well-educated
gentlemen. The German Huber, in describing to his countrymen the attributes of
an English gentleman, frankly admits that, "in Germany, we have nothing of the
kind. A gentleman must possess a political character, an independent and
public position, or, at least, the right of assuming it. He must have average
opulence, either of his own, or in his family. He should also have bodily
activity and strength, unattainable by our sedentary life in public offices.
The race of English gentlemen presents an appearance of manly vigor and form,
not elsewhere to be found among an equal number of persons. No other nation
produces the stock. And, in England, it has deteriorated. The university is a
decided presumption in any man`s favor. And so eminent are the members that a
glance at the calendars will show that in all the world one cannot be in
better company than on the books of one of the larger Oxford or Cambridge
colleges."^3
[Footnote 3: Huber: History of the English Universities. Newman`s
translation.]
These seminaries are finishing schools for the upper classes, and not for
the poor. The useful is exploded. The definition of a public school is "a
school which excludes all that could fit a man for standing behind a
counter."^4
[Footnote 4: See Bristed: Five Years in an English University. New York,
1852.]
No doubt, the foundations have been perverted. Oxford, which equals in
wealth several of the smaller European states, shuts up the lectureships which
were made "public for all men thereunto to have concourse"; mis-spends the
revenues bestowed for such youths "as should be most meet for towardness,
poverty, and painfulness"; there is gross favoritism; many chairs and many
fellowships are made beds of ease; and `tis likely that the university will
know how to resist and make inoperative the errors of parliamentary inquiry;
no doubt, their learning is grown obsolete; - but Oxford also has its merits,
and I found here also proof of the national fidelity and thoroughness. Such
knowledge as they prize they possess and impart. Whether in course or by
indirection, whether by a cramming tutor or by examiners with prizes and
foundation scholarship, education according to the English notion of it is
arrived at. I looked over the Examination Papers of the year 1848, for the
various scholarships and fellowships, the Lusby, the Hertford, the Dean -
Ireland, and the University (copies of which were kindly given me by a Greek
professor), containing the tasks which many competitors had victoriously
performed, and I believed they would prove too severe tests for the candidates
for a Bachelor`s degree in Yale or Harvard. And, in general, here was proof of
a more searching study in the appointed directions, and the knowledge
pretended to be conveyed was conveyed. Oxford sends out yearly twenty or
thirty very able men, and three or four hundred well-educated men.
The diet and rough exercise secure a certain amount of old Norse power. A
fop will fight, and, in exigent circumstances, will play the manly part. In
seeing these youths, I believed I saw already an advantage in vigor and color
and general habit, over their contemporaries in American colleges. No doubt
much of the power and brilliancy of the reading-men is merely constitutional
or hygienic. With a hardier habit and resolute gymnastics, with five miles
more walking, or five ounces less eating, or with a saddle and gallop of
twenty miles a day, with skating and rowing-matches, the American would
arrive at as robust exegesis and cheery and hilarious tone. I should readily
concede these advantages, which it would be easy to acquire, if I did not find
also that they read better than we, and write better.
English wealth, falling on their school and university training, makes a
systematic reading of the best authors, and to the end of a knowledge how the
things whereof they treat really stand: whilst pamphleteer or journalist
reading for an argument for a party, or reading to write, or, at all events,
for some by-end imposed on them, must read meanly and fragmentarily. Charles
I. said that he understood English law as well as a gentleman ought to
understand it.
Then they have access to books; the rich libraries collected at every one
of many thousands of houses, give an advantage not to be attained by a youth
in this country, when one thinks how much more and better may be learned by a
scholar who, immediately on hearing of a book, can consult it, than by one who
is on the quest for years, and reads inferior books because he cannot find the
best.
Again, the great number of cultivated men keep each other up to a high
standard. The habit of meeting well-read and knowing men teaches the art of
omission and selection.
Universities are, of course, hostile to geniuses, which seeing and using
ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries
persecute youthful saints. Yet we all send our sons to college, and, though he
be a genius, he must take his chance. The university must be retrospective.
The gale that gives direction to the vanes on all its towers blows out of
antiquity. Oxford is a library, and the professors must be librarians. And I
should as soon think of quarrelling with the janitor for not magnifying his
office by hostile sallies into the street like the Governor of Kertch or
Kinburn, as of quarrelling with the professors for not admiring the young
neologists who pluck the beards of Euclid and Aristotle, or for attempting
themselves to fill their vacant shelves as original writers.
It is easy to carp at college, and the college, if we will wait for it,
will have its own turn. Genius exists there also, but will not answer a call
of a committee of the House of Commons. It is rare, precarious, eccentric, and
darkling. England is the land of mixture and surprise, and when you have
settled it that the universities are moribund, out comes a poetic influence
from the heart of Oxford, to mould the opinions of cities, to build their
houses as simply as birds their nests, to give veracity to art, and charm
mankind, as an appeal to moral order always must. But besides this restorative
genius, the best poetry of England of this age, in the old forms, comes from
two graduates of Cambridge.
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