466 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reign of confusion ; he had thrown the subject back, being himself off 

 the rails from first to last. Had there been in Scotland an adviser in 

 this department, like Melville in general literature, or like Napier of 

 Merchiston in pure mathematics, one fourth of the college teaching 

 might have been reclaimed from utter waste, and a healthy tone of 

 thinking diffused through the remainder. 



A curious fascination always attached to the study of astronomy, 

 even when there was not much to be said, apart from the unsatisfac- 

 tory disquisition of Aristotle. A little book, entitled " Sacrobosco on 

 the Sphere," containing little more than what we should now teach to 

 boys and girls, along with the globes, was a university text-book 

 throughout Europe for centuries. I was informed by a late King's 

 College professor that the use of the globes was, within his memory, 

 taught in the Magistrand Class. This would be simply what is termed 

 a " survival." 



Now, as to the mode of instruction. There were viva-voce exami- 

 nations upon the notes, such as we can imagine. But the stress was 

 laid on disputations and declamations in various forms. Besides dis- 

 puting and declaiming on the regular class-work before the regent, we 

 find that, in Edinburgh, and I suppose elsewhere, the classes were 

 divided into companies, who met apart, and conferred and debated 

 among themselves daily. The students were occupied, altogether, six 

 hours a day. Then the higher classes were frequently pitched against 

 each other. This was a favorite occupation on Saturdays. The doc- 

 trines espoused by the leading students became their nicknames. The 

 pass for graduation consisted in the propugning or impugning of ques- 

 tions by each candidate in turn. An elaborate thesis was drawn up 

 by the regent, giving the heads of his philosophy course ; this was 

 accepted by the candidates, signed by them, and printed at their ex- 

 pense. Then on the day of trial, at a long sitting, each candidate 

 stood up and propugned or impugned a portion of the thesis ; all were 

 heard in turn ; and on the result the degree was conferred. A good 

 many of these theses are preserved in our library ; some of them are 

 very long a hundred pages of close type ; they are our best clew to 

 the teaching of the period. We can see how far Aristotle was quali- 

 fied by modern views. 



I said there might have been times when the students never had 

 the relief of a second face all the four years. The exceptions are of 

 importance. First, as regards Marischal College. Within a few years 

 of the foundation, Dr. Duncan Liddell founded the Mathematical 

 chair, and thus withdrew from the regents the subject that most of 

 all needed a specialist ; a succession of very able mathematicians sat 

 in this chair. King's College had not the same good fortune. From 

 its foundation it possessed a separate functionary, the Humanist or 

 Grammarian ; but he had also, till 1753, to act as Rector of the Gram- 

 mar School. Edinburgh obtained from an early date a Mathematical 



