52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



much more substantial an entity is the very reverend the principal, 

 analogue, if not homologue, of the principals of King's College, 

 than the rector, lineal representative of the ancient monarchs of the 

 university, though, now, little more than a " king of shreds and 

 patches." 



Do not suppose that, in thus briefly tracing the process of university 

 metamorphosis, I have had any intention of quarreling with its re- 

 sults. Practically, it seems to me that the broad changes eflected in 

 1858 have given the Scottish universities a very liberal constitution, 

 with as much real approximation to the primitive state of things as is 

 at all desirable. If your fat kine have eaten the lean, they have not 

 lain down to chew the cud ever since. The Scottish universities, like 

 the English, have diverged widely enough from their primitive model ; 

 but I cannot help thinking that the northern form has remained more 

 faithful to its original, not only in constitution, but, what is more to 

 the purpose, in view of the cry for change, in the practical application 

 of the endowments connected with it. 



In Aberdeen, these endowments are numerous, but so small that, 

 taken altogether, they are not equal to the revenue of a single third- 

 rate English college. They are scholarships, not fellowships ; aids to 

 do work — not rewards for such work, as it lies within the reach of an 

 ordinary, or even an extraordinary, young man to do. You do not 

 think that passing a respectable examination is a fair equivalent for 

 an income, such as many a gray-headed veteran or clergyman would 

 envy j and which is- larger than the endowment of many regius chairs. 

 You do not care to make your university a school of manners for the 

 rich \ of sports for the athletic ; or a hot-bed of high-fed, hypercritical 

 refijiement, more destructive to vigor and originality than are starva- 

 tion and oppression. ^N'o ; your little bursaries of ten and twenty (I 

 believe even fifty) pounds a year, enable any boy who has shown 

 ability — in the course of his education in those remarkable primary 

 schools which have made Scotland the power she is — to obtain the 

 highest culture the country can give him; and, when he is armed and 

 equipped, his Spartan alma mater tells him that, so far, he has had his 

 wages for his work, and that he may go and earn the rest. 



When I think of the host of pleasant, moneyed, well-bred young 

 gentlemen, who do a little learning and much boating by Cam and 

 Isis, the vision is a pleasant one ; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the 

 youth of ^e upper and richer classes of the nation receive a whole- 

 some and a manly training, however small may be the modicum of 

 knowledge they gather, in the intervals of this, their serious business. 

 I admit, to the full, the social and political value of that training. 

 But, when I proceed to consider that these young men may be said to 

 represent the great bulk of what the colleges have to show for their 

 enormous wealth, plus^ at least, a hundred and fifty pounds a year 

 apiece, which each undergraduate costs his parents or guardians, I 



