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't , —but mark the consequences of the schism , —of altering the parts of an establishment without considering their relations to the whole . A certain number of benefices belong to the
college , to which as they become vacant the fellows succeed according to seniority , vacating their fellowships by accepting a benefice , or by marrying . Here one of the evils of a married
clergy is perceived . Where celibacy is never regarded as a virtue , it is naturally considered as a misfortune . Attachments are formed more easily perhaps in this country than in any other , because there is little restraint in the intercourse between the sexes ,
and all persons go so much from home into public . But the situation of the college-fellow who has engaged his affections , is truly pitiable . Looking with envious eves at those above him on the list , and counting the ages of those who hold the livings for which
he is to wait , he passes years after years in this disquieting and wretched state of hope . The woman in like manner wears away her youth in dependant expectation , and they meet at last , if they live to meet , not till the fall of the leaf , —not till the habits and
tempers of 430 th are become nxt and constitutional , so as no longer to be capable of assimilating , each to the other . 1 inquired what were the real advantages of these institutions to the country at large , and to the individuals wjho study in them . " They are of
this service , " he replied , " to the country at large , that they are the great schools by-which established opinions are inculcated and perpetuated . I do not know that men gain much here , yet it is a regular and essential part of our system of education , and they who have not gone through it always feel that their education has been defective .
A knowledge of the world , that is to say of our world and of the men in it , is gained here , and that knowledge remains when Greek and geometry
are forgotten . 1 asked him which was the best of the two universities ; he answered that Cambridge was as much superior to Oxford , as Oxford was to Salamanca . I could not
forbear smiling at his scale of depreciation : he perceived it and Tbegged my pardon , saying , that he as little intended to undervalue the establish-
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ments of my country , as to over-rate the one of which he was himself a member . " We are bad enough , " said he , ** heaven knows , but not so bad as Oxford . They are now attempting to
imitate us in some of those points wherein the advantage on our part is too notorious to be disputed . The effect may be seen in another generation j meantime the imitation is a confession of inferiority . '
" Still , " said I , " we may regard the universities as the seats of learning and of the Muses . " " As for the Muses , Sir , " said he , " you have traversed the banks of the Cam , and must know whether you have seen any nine ladies there who answer their description . We do certainly produce verses both Greek and Latin which are
worthy of gold medals , and English ones also after the newest and most approved receipt for verse-making . Of learning , such as is required for the purposes of tuition , there is much , — beyond it , except in mathematics , none . In this we only share the common degeneracy . The Mohammedans
believe that when Gog and Magog are to come , the race of men will have dwindled to such littleness , that a shoe of one of the present generation will serve them for a house . If this prophecy be typical of the intellectual diminution of the species , Gog and Magog , may soon be expected in the neighbourhood of their own hills .
« ' The truth is , Sir , " he continued , ' * that the institutions of men grow old like men themselves , and , like women , are always the last to perceive their own decay . When universities were the only schools of learning , they were of great
and important utility 5 as soon as there were others , they ceased to be the best , because their forms were prescribed , and they could adopt no improvement till long after it was generally acknowledged . There are other causes of decline . —We educate for
only one profession : when colleges were founded , that one was the most important 5 it is now no longer so ; they who are destined for the others find it necessary to study elsewhere ,
and it begins to be perceived that this is not a necessary stage upon the road . This might be remedied . We have professors of every thing , who hold their situations and do nothing . In Edinburgh , the income of the pro-
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408 The Spaniards ' Letters from England .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/32/
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