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The affection can increase to matur. ity, without such a developement. This reason suggests and experience confirms. If the virtuous man, from the iniquity of his nature, be seldom free from faults, and never from follies; if he have sometimes contemplated the pleasures of vice or meditated the execution of evil; if he have afterwards repented of his sins, governed his passions, and humbled himself before God; I would ask the Roman philosopher what advantage could result from the exposing of such frailties and amendments to a friend? He would certainly answer, none. No possible good could result from such confidence. If temptations have led a man astray from the course of virtue, but by contrition and holy living he has been reconciled to his Maker, why should he tear open his heart to a friend, and be obliged to contemplate anew the former wickedness of his mind? Why shall he again cause to bleed, the wound which

had healed? Nay, so far from its conducing to the ripening of friendship, it might forever blast it; for such is the common prudence of human nature, that no one will repose in another's keeping his secrets, his sorrows, his life, perhaps his reputation, whose unveiled sins and wickedness give him a miserable pledge of good conduct, a pitiful bond of virtuous resolution. Friendship therefore cannot demand to know the heart of another. Our poor nature will be exposed in our conduct and sentiments, without our laying it needlessly open. Let it be gradually discovered of necessity, not suddenly exhibited by folly. If our friends believe us better than we are, let us leave it to proper circumstances to destroy the delusion, and represent the true picture of ourselves; for otherwise a complete developement may make us abhorred; and surely no one is bound to confess what may lead to his condemnation.

SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.

FROM the sketch, which has been given of the scheme of publick study at Glasgow, it will appear that the general arrangement of its parts is judicious, and fraught with many advantages to the interests of education. It is not, however, entirely free from the defects, to which all such institutions are liable. In a systematick establishment of this nature, a more important station ought surely to have been allotted to mathematical studies, than the one which they now occupy. A superficial knowledge of the subject is indeed rendered necessary to the degree of Master of Arts; but

this requisition is far from being of sufficient strictness or regularity to remedy the evil, and the general indifference towards such pursuits, manifested among the students, seems to require some other counteraction, than is afforded by the present plans of education, pursued in the college. The mathematical department, which is conducted by Mr. Millar, son to the late celebrated professor of law, occupies an intermediate situation between the publick and private classes. A regular attendance is exacted from those who enter upon the study, examinations are made, in connection

with the ordinary business of the class, and prizes distributed, at the close of the session, to the young men, who have rendered themselves the most eminent on these occasions. Still, however, no specifick period in the academical routine is allotted to the prosecution of this science: the mathematical class is considered, merely as an appendage to the system, and, like other appendages, is disregarded, as comparatively trivial and unimportant. The mind of the youthful student is often distracted by the intricacies of the syllogism, or the modern mysteries of metaphysical doctrine, when a previous direction of his attention to the studies of mathematical or natural science would have given arrangement and precision to his ideas, and qualified him for future intellectual exertions of the most arduous nature. A doubt too may be stated on a more general ground, whether a systematick course of education, carried to such an extent, is really advantageous to the interests of the rising generation. The faculties and exertions of the student, are directed to a variety of objects in succession, without allowing his inclinations to attach themselves to any one in particular, from the steady pursuit of which he might derive future reputation and celebrity. His mind often becomes wearied, by a complication and multiplicity of subjects, where a judicious selection would have conferred new vigour upon his exertions, and given increased rapidity to his literary or scientifick progress. I start these doubts, merely as objects of interesting consideration; and in their application to the scheme of pubick study at Glasgow, I should myself feel tempted to throw a negative upon their validity. Individual characters and circumstances,

there may be, upon which such a system has an unfavourable effect; but, upon the whole, it may with safety be presumed, that its general consequences are beneficial to the interests of education.

The student, having passed through the five publick classes, or through the philosophy classes only, is qualified to propose himself for the degree of Master of Arts. By an unaccountable negligence in the conduct of this graduation, the proposal here is rendered almost identical with the acceptance. The strict ness of examination is preserved in external forms alone, and the test applied, is such as to exclude only the most glaring instances of ignorance and demerit. It is said, however, that the faculty of professors have it in contemplation, to remedy this evil, by increasing the difficulty of the examinations: thus preserving the distinction, which ought ever to be established, between the industrious and active, and those of an opposite character. This distinction is, indeed, in a great measure maintained, by the distribution of prizes in the different publick classes, as rewards, either for general industry and merit, or for particular instances of talent and activity, connected with the study of each class. The allotment of these prizes is usually determined by the students themselves; the business being conducted in such a way, as to secure, in general, a perfect fairness and impartiality of decision: there are, however, as might naturally be expected from a popular determination of this kind, occasional instances, in which the allotment of these honours is decided, rather by influence and solicitation, than from any unbiassed regard to the pretensions of real merit. The prizes, considered in themselves, are trifling; consist.

ing generally of books, the value of which is proportioned to the rank which the students have respective ly assumed on the prize list. They are distributed, on the last day of the session, in the common hall of the college, where the publicity of presentation enhances the pleasure derived from a consciousness of desert. Independently of the prizes given in the different classes, there are several of a more general description, the competition for which is open to all the publick students attending the college. The decision, in this instance, is made by the faculty of professors; the subjects of competition, being essays on the various topicks of literature, science, or the politicks of the day. A few of these prizes, which are usually medals, or a corresponding value in books, are confined, exclusively, to the divinity students; the subjects of disquisition having a reference, of course, to the studies in which they are more immediately engaged. The reputation of Glasgow, as a medical school, though in a state of progressive increase, will not bear any present competition with that of the Edinburgh college. The only professorships, connected with this department, are those of anatomy, the practice of medicine, and botany; courses of chemistry, materia medica, and midwifery, are, however, delivered by lectures, under the patronage of the university. The lectures on anatomy, by Dr. Jeffray are valuable and numerously attended; but the opportunities for private dissection, among the students, are much less favourable than might be wished; a circumstance, which must ever interfere materially with the progress of a medical school. The prejudices of the lower ranks of society, on this subject, are here exceedingly violent.

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bout five years ago, the discovery of an attempt, by some young men, to procure a subject for dissection, excited so much popular ferment, that the business of the college was almost entirely suspended during a period of several days, and military interfere ce was rendered necessary, to restore the peace and regularity of the town. The acquisition of the Hunterian Museum, is a circumstance, extremely advantageous to this branch of the medical department; the coll. ction of natural and morbid preparations, made by the late Dr. Hunter, being, at present, unparalleled for extent and value. The college faculty will doubtless deem it expedient to make such arrangements for the publicity of this collection, as may secure its continued service to the interests of medical knowledge.

The celebrity of Black and Ir. vine, names venerated by every lover of science, has annexed a corresponding reputation to the chemical chair of the University. This department is at present conducted by Dr. Cleghorn, whose extensive employment as a physician in the town and neighbourhood of Glasgow enables him to confer a peculiar value upon those parts of his subject, which have a relation to the theory or practice of medicine. The number of students attending this course has been very considerably increased within the last two or three years, but like the other branches of physical science, chemistry is rarely made an object of much attention, by those who are frequenting the college, with a view to general literature. The attractions of the study are either unknown or disregarded, and few traces exist of that ardour of pursuit, which the interesting and important nature of the objects under contemplation would

seem so peculiarly fitted to excite. Independently of his engagements as a lecturer on chemistry, Dr. Cleghorn confers an additional service upon the medical department by a series of clinical lectures delivered in conjunction with Dr. Frere the professor of the practice of physick, to the students attending the city infirmary. The importance of such lectures must be obvious to every one who considers the superiority of the knowledge, derived from observations at the bed side of the patient, to that vague and inefficacious acquaintance with the forms of disease, which is procured through the medium of books alone.

The present number of medical students at Glasgow may, prob bly, exceed two hundred, of whom much the most considerable proportion are natives either of Scotland or Ireland. The obloquy attached, not without propriety, to the Aberdeen and St. Andrew's degrees of medicine, is partially shared by this university; but an increased strictness, which has lately been introduced into the examinations for graduation, will, it may be hoped, efface the stain, and remove a portion, at least, of those evils, which must ever accompany the intrusion of ignorance or incapacity into the profession of medicine.

As a school for divinity, Glasgow has long enjoyed very considerable celebrity, in this part of the island. The provisions made for the education of the ministers of the Scotch church, are such as to secure, to this class of the community, a merited reputation for learning, information, and talent; and in no one religious establishment, probably, can the officiating members lay claim to a greater or more general respectability of character. It is usual for each theological student to pass

through the five publick classes, prev ously to his entering the divinity hall: by this means, a sufficient basis is formed for his more important studies, the prosecution of which, during the required period of seven years, creates every necessary qualification for the discharge of the ministerial office. The present professor of divinity, is Dr. Findlay, a venerable old man of ninety, who commands respect equally from his extensive learning, and from the general moderation and liberality of his religious principles. His lectures are valuable, in the quantity of information they contain, but are characterised by too great a degree of diffuseness and detail; a single course of divinity being laid out at such length, as to occupy several entire sessions. This circumstance has given rise to an anecdote of a student, from the sister island, who, returning to his friends, at the close of a session, complained to them, that he had attended the divinity hall regularly for six months, and had got only half an attribute, as a recompence for his exertions. story, though a palpable embellishment of fact, is a fair evidence of the extreme prolixity and diffuseness of the lectures. The number of students, engaged in the study of divinity, at Glasgow, is usually between forty and fifty; many of whom are natives of Ireland, preparing themselves for the occupation of the different presbyterian churches in the northern part of that country. Professorships of church history and Hebrew, are attached to this department of education; but here, as well as at the Edinburgh college, the latter study occupies very little general attention. Besides the lectures on the historical and doctrinal branches of theology, sermons are composed and recited

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by the students of a certain standing, and commentaries made upon select passages of scripture, with a view to their exercise in the performance of those duties, which are afterwards to be fulfilled in their capacity, as publick teachers of religion. The quantum of orthodoxy, prevailing among the divinity students at Glasgow, is very considerable the names of Priestley, of Price, and Lindsey, are known but to few, and their religious principles are still more rarely understood. The attention of the young divine is, too exclusively and indiscriminately, directed to the writings of the fathers and reformers of religion, and he is often engaged in balancing the minute differences of a doctrine, which a more general unbiassed examination might have led him to reject in toto, as the offspring of distempered enthusiasm or mischievous hypocrisy.

The publick has lately received from the pen of Mr. Craig, an elegant biographical memoir of one of the most distinguished characters, which have adorned the literature of modern times. The death of the late professor Millar, while it deprived society of a fair and conspicuous ornament, and philosophy of a zealous and able investigator of truth, was a loss more immediately and sensibly felt at the university of Glasgow, where his life had long constituted a source of usefulness, of gratification and delight to all around him. By his assiduous attention to the duties of his publick situation, and the ability which characterised his performance of these duties, Mr. Millar conferred a splendour upon the law department at Glasgow, which attracted students from every part of the kingdom, and was advantageous, in the highest degree to the interests of the

university. To a most perfect knowledge of the principles of theoretical and practical jurisprudence, and of all the circumstances connected with national government and economy, he conjoined a method of conveying his instructions, which at once captivated the fancy, and informed the understanding, of the student. Since his death, the creation of his genius has experienced a very considerable decline. Some sessions elapsed without the delivery of any lectures in this department, and it is only within the last two years that Mr. Davidson, the present professor, has re-established the class, by giving a course of Scotch law. The attendance has hitherto been tolerably good, and the lectures evince much reading and a thorough acquaintance with the subject. The students are principally those, who are engaged in acquiring a practical knowledge of the profession, in the city of Glasgow.

Independently of the lectures delivered in the publick classes, and those connected with the professional studies of medicine, divinity, and law, there are several other courses given in the college on particular branches of literature and science, some of which are well deserving of attention. A series of lectures on political economy, was long a favourite object with Mr. Millar, and within the last few years, his wishes and suggestions have been realized by the establishment of such a course, under the conduct of Professor Mylne. The increasing reputation. of these lectures, while it indicates their general utility and importance, affords, at the same time, an honourable testimony to the abilities and industry of Mr. Mylne in his management of this department. In that part of the course, which is devoted to a consideration of the

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