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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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^ u are told it is probable that the f eeds of instruction sown by their teachers will be " lost or choaked , or at best get no depth of earth / ' and to retaiu good moral characters , ? hmifih allowed to choose their
society out of fourteen or fifteen hundred students ; let me state a few circumstances which you may urge as an excuse for your conduct , let me lay before you a few facts which will enable you to oppose with a consistent effrontery the reproaches of those whose friendly advice ^ ou have
disregarded . 1 , There is a catalogue of the students of ev ^ ery class , which is called over at every meeting , and an account is taken of those who come too late or who are absent , If a student neglect to attend punctually , he incurs a fine j if he be very irregular , the frown and censure of the Professor
are added to the penalty : but should he be often absent , the Professor has power to cross his name out of the catalogue , and thereby prevent his entering any higher class either in Glasgow College or any other University in Scotland .
£ . The students are not only required to attend their classes regularly but obliged to be diligent at home ; they are not quite so much masters of their time as is imagined , though
they are not always watched by the suspicious eye of a teacher * The students of the language classes have a certain portion of Latin or Greek to prepare , and exercises to write every
evening : and though the majority are not examined , perhaps , more than once or twice a-week , they must always hi prepared lest they should be taken by surprise * L am also happy
t » inform you , that henceforth Glasgow College will not be such a grammar school as it has been . When there were only four classes in the grammar school , the scholars had no
sooner begun the Greek Grammar than they were sent , to the College 3 out as the grammar-school course is now extended to five years , the pupils w the fifth class will have acquired a
yery considerable knowledge of the ^ atin , and a tolerable acquaintance with the Greek language , before they < £ te * the College . It is also probable * £ » t the number of students in the *** &k and Latin daraes will be in
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some degree reduced , owing to the establishment of a University in Belfast . Crowded , however , as these classes now are , it is . not impossible for the Professors to secure the
diligence and improvement of their pupils . Should a student appear unprepared he incurs a fine ; to which are always added a rebuke from the Professor , and a smile of contempt from the whole class . Now if there
be a young man who can anticipate such a chastisement without being stimulated to increasing exertion , or feel its force without being roused to future diligence , he may justly be deemed incurable : not even the discipline of an academy , or the argument of force would move him . Such
characters may perhaps be found ; there may be some individuals void of feeling and the nobte ambition of youth ; there may be some who can bear to be rebuked by a Professor , laughed at b y their class-fellows , ami pointed at by the whole college , and
yet remain negligent of their duty . if you imagine your sons to be of this description , their company will not be acceptable on this side the Tweed . If nothing but perpetual threats can > stimulate them to exertion , 1 hope you will not be " tempted by the name of
a University , " to send them to Glasgow . But if they have the least desire of knowledge , if they are influenced by a sense of duty , if they feel one spark of ambition , they will not be last in the ignorance of indolence , though they be occasionally removed from " the immediate
observation of their teachers . " 1 might also observe * that very few Lay Students from England enter the language classes : they generally commence with the first philosophy class . Now it is actually impossible for a student of this class to be
wilfully idle , unless he assume the detestable character of a deceiver and a liar . No excuse is received for jq od * attendance or the neglect of duty , but sickness or some such unavoidable
circumstance . The discipline in the more advanced clashes is less strict j because it is expected that when young men are old enough to attend to the sublime doctrines of ethics , or
the more abstruse science of natural philosophy , they are also oid enough to perceive and perform their duty .
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Advantar / es of an JBdiccation at the University of Glasgow . ® fj ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1815, page 627, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1765/page/27/
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