Universities, in the strict technical sense of the word, were the creation of the twelfth century. But although we cannot assign to them an earlier date than this as universities, still under the name of studia or gymnasia they had in reality a much earlier existence. All that was done in the twelfth century was to incorporate them. The word "universities" being in common use to signify corporation, because a corporation implies the formation of one whole out of many individuals-this title was given to certain incorporated schools. And although for a long time a corporate town in Germany was spoken of as a universitas, the word gradually assumed its present signification, and is used to describe a certain class of educational institutions. The schools thus incorporated, even before their incorporation, possessed a curriculum of study which became known as the trivium and quadrivium. The trivium included grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. These were the seven arts in which men were required to graduate before proceeding to the higher departments of human learning. The extent of learning which was comprehended under these heads, must have varied in different ages. But here is the great principle which we have inherited. The instruments of mental exercise were the same then as now, -philology, mathematics, logic, and music.

It is very true that the science and the practice of music is no longer insisted upon, as one of the means of disciplining the mind at the universities. But you will observe that is the great instrument still retained in female education. It is through music that the female mind receives that education which the mind, as the mind, requires, distinct from any intrinsic value in the means employed, in order that it may be trained to exactness and vigour. In the upper and middle classes of society, music is taught to the female members of the family as an almost universal

practice; and this not for the purpose of making musicians, for although some may become such, there are many others who have no particular turn for music, and others again who in after life are seldom known to touch an instrument. The fact is indisputable, an acquaintance with music is almost indispensable in a governess; and in my opinion we can easily account for it. When first the female mind was educated, it was subjected to the same discipline as the mind of man. Queen Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, and other ladies of that age, were distinguished as scholars. They were subjected to the whole trivium and quadrivium. But it was soon found that, because the female mind is not subjected to that narrowing process which is attendant upon professional pursuits, it did not require the same amount of discipline as is requisite in the other sex. And so by degrees, while philology, logic, and mathematics were omitted in their course of mental discipline, music was retained as the form under which a liberal education is conducted, an education of which the first aim is to form habits of fixed attention, and which is met, if not satisfied, if even one subject be studied in its depth and fulness.

Having seen now what the fundamental principle and primary object of academical culture is, I proceed to point out how the universities became, in the natural course of events, a seat of learning. Where books were few, a public library was even more valuable than at the present time, when for books of reference it is still of inappreciable value to learned men. Libraries were, of course, soon established in the universities; and the university became the ahode of men of literature and science. At the first establishment of the university, every master of arts was obliged to repay the expense of his eduestion, in part, by himself becoming a teacher, or, as we now express it, a tutor. But when men of professional eminence were fixed in the university,

the graduates in arts perceived that they had themselves much to learn, especially in what related to the profession they were about to adopt. Men learned in the professions, therefore, opened their schools in the different departments of human knowledge, and became professors. They were a class of instructors superior to those whom the trivium and quadrivium required; who carried on their pupils to the higher departments of literature and science, and instructed them in the details and intricacies of professional study.

By comparing this brief historical account with the assertion I have quoted, that the university has its foundation in arts, you will at once perceive that I have no intention whatever of depreciating the professional system, which to render an academical institution perfect, must be combined with the tutorial. If we admit that the professors and their schools (the faculties as they are technically termed), are the branches, and branches on which the fruit is to be found, we do not depreciate the branches by not confounding them with the stem; neither do we unduly value the stem when we state that, without the stem, the branches would not be so productive of fruit. From the altered state of society, the university will never become again the great school for professional education which it at one time was. The medical man will seek his professional education in the hospitals of a large town, the lawyer in the inns of court, the clergyman in his parish, the merchant in his counting-house.

But while the northern universities are engaged in giving new life to the trivium and quadrivium, the English universities are adopting measures for the revival of that professional system which the Scottish universities have never set aside. You ask for tutors-we for professors; and when we are provided with tutors and professors, all will be right, and the standard of academical culture will be

raised. The opinion has been advanced and is gaining ground, that as young men come up to our universities more advanced in years than formerly, and as they come well grounded in the trivium and quadrivium from the grammar schools, they should be permitted to terminate their examinations in arts at an earlier period, so that they may be able to dedicate the last year or year and a half of their academical life, to the acquisition of the first elements of the science or the profession to the pursuit or labours of which they intend to devote their lives. The effect of this must be the residence, activity, and endowment of learned professors, and of men who will not be of necessity confined to elementary instruction; for let our professors be men of eminence, and many a young man will gladly return to the university after completing his studies, and during the few months that may intervene before his settling down to professional practice, in order that the last finish to his professional education may be imparted to him by men who occupy the first place in their own respective departments of human knowledge.

By those who admit the extreme importance of preserving the character of our universities as seats of learning, and of rendering them more efficient, these will be hailed as movements in the right direction. In all our endeavours to promote university reform, let us be careful not to confound a board of examiners with a university: let us bear in mind that the business of a university is not to test proficiency elsewhere acquired, but to instruct: let us note well that to render instruction efficient, we require an organised body of persons whose sole profession in life is instruction, and who, to become instructors, must make erudition and scientific inquiry their business: let us remember that the duty of a university is not only to instruct, but to educate: to educate the soul as well as the mind; as

the latter by study, so the former by the grace of the Gospel: let us not forget that education extends to the whole man, not only to the soul and mind, but also to the body; that one education in part consists in an association on equal terms with our contemporaries, in youthful discussions as well as friendships, in the play-field as well as the lecture room. Let not fathers, and tutors, and professors, be slow to hear, what sons are ready to repeat, and what was at one time their own creed,-that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Having now considered what is meant when we speak of a high standard of academical culture, we may proceed to point out some of the ways in which it may become influential on other conditions of society. Do what we will, the direct advantages of academical culture must be confined, comparatively speaking, to only a few. It is not of course designed for those who are engaged in handicraft and trade, for whose instruction our parochial schools are open, and to whom the mechanics' institute stands in the place of a university.

Then again, with respect to a certain class of mental labourers;-however much you may reduce the expenses of a university education, there must always be some, just raising themselves in their social position, who are unable to give the time which a university education, to be complete, requires. They are obliged to forego these advantages by the necessity they are under to earn, as early as possible, the means of living. They lack facilities, they encounter difficulties, and if then, unaided, they overcome their difficulties, they become the greater men. The harder the battle the more glorious the victory. But while we glory in the victors, we often forget the amount of disappointment and cuffering that the subalterns of literature may have had to endure. We cannot expect many men to become as Hugh Miller, George Stevenson, Dr.