ings of the present generation, and the applause of posterity, than to make a liberal provision for the Parochial Schoolmasters. The advancement of the human mind is now likely to form a principal theme in the history of nations; and it would thus pass down to after ages as one of their most meritorious distinctions, that, while they watched over the political interests of the people, their mental improvement was not forgotten. Scotland has hitherto been held up as an example of superior intelligence; let her also be held up as an example of liberality to the authors of that intelligence. Let it never be remembered, to the disgrace of our country, that, while she held the highest .intellectual rank, her public Teachers were worse remunerated than her common mechanics. In conclusion, we think the Clergy deserve the thanks of the Schoolmasters for the opinions expressed, and the measures adopted in the last General Assembly. If any reproach rested with them, for suffering a body of men, whose duties and interests are so closely connected with their own, to remain so long in ne glect and indigence, it D. NOTES ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREW'S. THERE are so many causes that unavoidably obstruct the perception and disclosure of truth, such are the prejudices of habit and of system, the partialities of friendship, the envy or hatred of those we dislike, that the difficulty of attaining it is oftentimes insuperable, especially in attempting an estimate of the characters either of individuals or corporate bodies. The critic in your last, who animadverts on Summer Rambles in the North, seems not to be aware, that the use of meteosis, or hyperbole, is as familiar to himself as to the author whom he criticizes. It is unquestionable, indeed, that the University of St. Andrew's is not in a declining state at present, though the number of Students this Session is reported to be not greater than in the last; but when a traveller enters that ancient city, we do not wonder if his imagination is deceived by the general appearance of ruin and inactivity which is presented; and he naturally concludes, that there is no notable prosperity in the interior, in regard either to business or letters. That the number of Students at St. Andrew's, as well as at the other Universities, has been increasing, for some time past, is true; but whether this increase is to be ascribed to the increasing reputation of the Professors, granting that this is the case, is not so certain, because Colleges are subject to fluctuations independent of the merit of the Teachers. It is likewise true, that St. Andrew's yields its due proportion of literary men to the community; but it is not true that the lectures of other Universities are so vapid as the critic insinuates, nor that the discipline of their classes is inferior. From all that we have seen or heard, the contrary is the fact* It is fortunate for any College, tha Vapid enough Lectures, we presume, may be found at all the Universities. the superior doctrines and compositions of one Professor are given again to the public, through the lectures of his successor. And the critic himself will not deny, that nothing is so likely to sustain the reputation of the College of St. Andrew's as the repetition of something like Dr Hunter's Lectures in the Humanity Class, after the decease of that renowned philologist. But comparisons of this kind are to be avoided as invidious, and when they are attempt ed, let them be as candid as possible. The claims of the venerable Dr Hunter are, doubtless, above all praise. He stands alone in the history of Universities; and the handsome, well-penned eulogium, which the critic pronounces on his merits, cannot be too highly commended ; but his other laudations will be thought either too exaggerated, or too indiscriminating and equivocal, to exalt the fame of the University. It can hardly be said that some fatality attends the Greek language in all the Scottish Colleges, when Young is scarcely cold in his grave, and his successor is one of the best Greek scholars, and most diligent teachers of that language in the country. Yet, with all the high merits of the other Professors of Greek in Scotland, it cannot be denied, by any who knows the University of St. Andrew's, that the Greek Class should long ago have been under the conduct of Dr Hunter, sed dis aliter visum. Hill, and Cook, and Lee, are certainly proud names in the Theological literature of the same University; but the other Colleges may boast of Professors of Theology, whose reputation is fully equal to that of any who have lately appeared at St. Andrew's. As to the public library, although all graduates have, undoubtedly, an equal right to the use of it, with the Professors themselves, yet it is well known, that the veto and deposit greatly circumscribe the privilege, and that it seldom happens that the best books are accessible to the most ardent students. While young men are prosecuting their philosophical studies at a University, the use of many books, even on the subject of their lectures, is an evil to be avoided. When their curriculum is finished, they may be freely admit ted to any books they desire to see, in the different branches of literature and science. In this respect, the public library of St. Andrew's offers no advantages, I believe, above those of the other Universities, and they might all receive reform. The purpose intended by the above remarks is simply to obviate those misapprehensions which, without sufficient cause, elevate one University to the prejudice of the rest, not, surely, to depress an ancient Seminary, which, by the abilities of its members, has never forfeited its claim to the patronage of the public; and, by the extraordinary merits of one of them, has now acquired a lustre, which is not surpassed in the most brilliant era of its history. The reputation of a University, or of any class in a University, is generally understood to be fairly estimated by its average efficiency in sending forth well-educated young men ; but this is not a sure criterion, because natural talent and genius may do, and actually do more than Academi cal culture. Such men as L,-J,-C, J. B,-and W,-would have emer ged in any College without tuition, or in spite of it; and impenetrable blockheads will often escape untouched by the most active and judicious culture. Nor does rigorous discipline, nor regular examination, nor the multitude of prizes, furnish any sufficient criterion, because they may cramp the native energies of the mind, and divert it from the true object of study; because they may embarrass, instead of aiding the na tural tendencies of intellect and fancy, refrigerate the most ardent and generous aspirations of youth, and pro duce dullness, and plodding, and mere imitation, instead of generating and nursing early habits of independent thought and investigation. Were the elementary and leading facts of science, however insulated, the only object of College education, examination might be applied with advantage in all the departments of knowledge; but if the object of Academical culture be rather the primary relations, and arrangements, and concatenations of philosophy-if it be to generate solid habits of intellectual exercise, examination, if not very 1 We have heard of the popular and effective performances of the Youngs and Gregorys, the genius of their cotemporary, Wilkie, has long been acknowledged; and amid the haze and the blaze of more recent functionaries, we remember well the high classical acquirements, the unambitious and neglected, yet acute and even animated lectures of Cook the Moralist, who appeared immediately after them. About the same period, the authoritative eloquence of Tullideph, and the critical and historical talents of Watson, were conspicuous in the united College, and largely contributed to support its tottering fame. But the singular powers of Hunter, aided by the vigorous exertions of Hill and Barron, soon began to stamp a new and more interesting character on that ancient seminary. Nor can we, in the slightest review of this period, disregard the merits of Vilant, who, for nearly half a century, with much ability and unremitting perseverance, in spite of all obloquy, upheld the claims of the Ancient Geometry and Theoretical Mathematics, either by his own exertions, or the aid of such assistants as West and Glennie. When Hill, however, was translated to St. Mary's, and infirmity began to weaken the efficiency of Barron, the prosperity of the College abated for a few years, notwithstanding the unrivalled sustaining powers of Hunter, till it received a new impulse from the extraordinary diligence of Haldane, in the Mathematical Classes-and the superior science of his colleague in the Natural Philosophy skilfully conducted, becomes of more questionable importance. When it is public and regular, it may be well adapted to the junior classes of a University, by reminding the youth of the ferula tristis from which they have so lately escaped; but its advantage in the more advanced classes will not be so readily conceded, because, in most cases, it will awaken passions not veryfavourable to docility, and at least as insatiate and impetuous as the desire of knowledge. Though ignorance may be tolerated in youth, yet the ignorance of adults will not bear public exposure: the more ardent student does not need examination, in order to stimulate his progress; and in all Universities, it is to be feared that, in the higher classes, at least, it is calculated to impart nothing but the mere nomenclature, the yeas and nays, the technical manifestations of the interrogative system-the smatterings, the shreds and patches of philosophy. It is even doubtful whether a larger proportion of good scholars proceeds from those Universities, where examination is practised, or from those where it is unfrequent. Nor is the institution of prizes of any certain advantage; no doubt, when prizeexercises are performed by the Students, in presence of their Master himself, or known to be done in private proprio Marte, they may prove highly beneficial. In all other circumstances, and particularly when they are adjudged by the aspirants themselves, by awakening or fostering in the youthful breast all the low and malignant passions, they become in general, nothing but the nursery of intrigue and villany; and, in al--and the learned and eloquent exmost every case, a very uncertain test of the real proficiency of the victor. Though the writer of this article finds himself very incompetent to approach correctly the claims of the different Universities of Scotland, or the talents of the different Masters who have appeared in the College of St. Andrew's for a century past, yet there are certain more vivid points in the history of that University, which all may have seen; and we account it a debt which we owe to the truth of history and to genuine ability, to rescue valuable names from unmerited or premature oblivion. positions of Hill-the acute and profound disquisitions of Cook—and the varied and accurate literature of Lee all combined to add fresh lustre to the University of St. Andrews. Within late years, since the promotion of Haklane to be head of St. Mary's, the character he had restored to the Mathematical Class, we are assured, has been well supported, if not improved, by the science and popular talents of his successor; and by the genius and eloquence of Chalmers, the unfading laurels of Hunter, and the extensive and vigilant patronage of the two Principals, the fame of the University is still increasing. All this may be truly said, I believe, of the University of St. Andrew's, without illiberal comparison with other Colleges of equal or superior pretension. But whatever influence the reputation of its Masters may be supposed to possess, there are other causes of not less efficiency, which have doubtless contributed not a little to its prosperity. The daily and public examinations are not peculiar to this Seminary, and in the higher classes they are everywhere of dubious importance. I am not aware of any advantages which it derives from its retirement, because I conceive the bustle of a great town is as favourable to the acquisition of all useful knowledge, and that the purity of the morals of youth is not more liable to contamination where the attractions of pleasure are supposed to be more powerful. Class-discipline is nearly the same, I believe, in all the Universities of Scotland. But what has of late contributed as much as any other cause to augment the numbers at St. Andrew's, is the comparative lowness of class-fees, and other expences of education, and, since the appointment of Dr Nicol, the nearly doubling of the value of the foundation-bursaries; thus doubling, as it were, the former number of bursaries, and attracting a greater muster to the competition. Even the rising value of other bursaries, or the increasing of this number, must have a sensible effect on the Members of the College; and from all these causes united, we are not surprised that the prosperity of St. Andrew's has of late been greatly increased. Before, however, we dismiss this summary estimate of the College of St. Andrew's, we must be permitted to mention a circumstance that cannot pass unregarded:-it is the acknowledged success of the eleves she has reared, in competitions for literary offices of trust and importance. Now, if the reputation of a University depend not less on the talents than the class-exertions of the Masters, it is not easy to see why Edinburgh at present should not enjoy greater fame, and wider patronage, than any other University in Scotland. Yet St. Andrew's is fast attaining the same rank, and acquiring more extensive patronage. As I have already observed, she has long sent forth her full proportion of literary adventurers; and now I find certificates from that College are accounted equal, if not superior in authority, to those of any other Seminary in this country. Whether her Teachers are more industrious and vigilant, and their prelections better adapted to the average anderstandings of the Students, and, in course, better calculated to form practical scholars, I know not; but it is certain, that candidates for literary offi ces, who have proceeded from St. Andrew's, are in general deemed by the electors men of superior pretensions. We are not surprised at this, in the cases of classical competition, while candidates have such a distinguished guide at St. Andrew's as Dr Hunter; but we cannot so easily explain how the other Masters in Philosophy should have influence and authority to plant their pupils in every Seminary of the country, in preference to students from the University of Edinburgh. We can hardly believe that any recent partiality of this kind is due to the ardent and well- medicined orgasm of partyspirit, rather than to any acknowledged superiority in the successful candidate. However this may be, a certificate from St. Andrew's is at present a passport to the first literary institutions of the country; and even Edinburgh itself, it should seem, is destined to be enlightened by eleves from that ancient Seminary, which, like the celebrated Phoenix, is regenerating herself from her own ashes, or, like another Phoenix, Μυθωντε ῥητῆς ̓ ἔμεναι, πρηκτῆράτε ἔργων. VERAX. JANUS, OR THE EDINBURGH LITERARY ALMANACK, 1826. EVEN in the most unfrequented walks of literature, it is a rare thing now-a-days to light on a real novelty. Every fact that can be related, every fiction that can be invented, has something in it that seems to charge the hopeless writer with the guilt of a twice-told tale. The ample fields of moral, of metaphysical disquisition, have scarcely a corner unexplored; or rather, there is no corner of them that has not been searched over and over again, in the vain attempt at discovery. Human ingenuity seems to have found, oven in the mul plicity and success of its exertions, an insurmountable bar to all further progress, and almost to every effort at advancing. The first principles of natural science are, it is true, still wrapped in impenetrable darkness; but this obscurity has yielded so little to the industry of the philosopher, although each of his experiments has been repeated innumerably often, that he seems to be abandoning his purpose in despair, and to be running wildly about the Lilliputian domain of which he has made himself master, just as one who has given up all hope of recovering a thing lost, will hunt repeatedly after it in places where he has proved it is not to be found. This stagnant state of things is itself not a being of yesterday;" there fore we may reasonably hope it will prove to be one of "no to-morrows." Near a century ago, aye, and further back still, it was exclaimed, "We are too late-all is said!" and assured ly the shoals of authors to which the last hundred years have given birth, can hardly have tended to disprove that assertion. Compilation itself is at a stand-still. Plagiarism was long ago annihilated, because it became requisite to call it originality: and re-publication has almost drained the resources of the type-foundry and the printing-house. At this epoch, so disheartening to book-makers, it is a matter of no small difficulty to contrive a new volume; and unless the contrivance be somewhat peculiar, something different from its contemporaries, woe to the ill-starred publisher! Every one knows how prolific the annual press has been of late; and every one who has opportunities of getting a peep behind the curtain, knows well, of all the various and splendid Souvenirs to which the kind booksellers have been treating their Christmas friends, how few, how very few, pay the cost of their vignettes! But still the plan is extending, and perhaps with some sort of reason. When Shenstone was asked why he still went on scribbling songs, he replied, that he had for a great while been trying to write one good one, and that never yet having pleased himself, he was impelled to try again and again. Some such answer might probably be made by the body corporate of publishers, if interrogated as to their motive for proceeding in a course which has shewn itself to be as unprofitable as it is hackneyed. Every fresh year has brought with it some new re-iteration of the longfamous German Pocket-book; and at last our Modern Athens has furnished another echo to the same tune. The Janus of Messrs Oliver & Boyd has some essential points of difference from its brethren in England. The first is, that it relies wholly and solely upon its literary merits, and not at all upon any graphical embellishments. In the second place, it is rather a collective specimen of modern British authorship, than a pretty miscellany, got up for the temporary purpose of amusing infant blues during the holidays. And, in the last place, the essays which compose Janus are more numerous and more varied, both in length and in character, than those which constitute the more lady-like publications of Ackerman and his rivals in London. The work is on large post octavo, and extends through 540 pages. These are supplied, very evidently, by able and experienced pens; but though the publishers have gone so far as to announce the -names of many of the contributors, and many shrewd guesses have been hazarded as to the appropriation of the various articles to their respective authors; yet, since those individuals have not thought fit to affix their names to the several contributions |