1823.] 
minations, are indispensable. Of 
these, the first goes by the name of 
Responses, The responses take place 
in the interval between the sixth and 
the ninth term: they turn on, classic 
authors, logic, and Euclid’s Elements. 
The public examinations are at the 
commencement of the fourth year of 
residence. The candidate is interro- 
gated publicly on different points, the 
elements of religion, the original Greck 
‘of the Gospels, classie authors, rhe- 
toric, moral philosophy, and logic. To 
these sciences, the.candidate may add 
mathematics and natural philosophy. 
The candidates are ranked in two 
classes, according to their merits, and 
their names are made public. The 
list of their names is in alphabetical 
order, and reporis such and such 
candidates as duly proficient in philo- 
sophy, mathematics, or the like. 
Notwithstanding this variety in the 
points on which the public examina- 
tion of candidates for the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts turns, the major part 
of the students who are intended for 
the Jaw, medicine, or the church, apply 
afterwards to. studies, more immedi- 
ately connected with their respective 
destinations in society. 
The student in civil: law, besides 
the examination. aboye mentioned, 
must also rise to the degree of Bache- 
lor, To acquire this, twenty-eight 
terms are requisite ; which, by dispen- 
sation, may be reduced to eighteen. 
Bat, if the candidate, who has obtained 
the degree of Bachelor, would also 
arrive at that of Doctor, five years 
more of study are requisite. 
For the degree of Bachelor in 
Divinity, a still greater, number of 
terms is required. The candidate for 
this degree must give seven \cars to 
study, posterior to his becoming Re- 
gent, which he docs immediately after 
his degree of Master of Arts. Four 
years subsequently to his. being a 
Bachelor in Divinity, he may rise to 
the degree of Doctor. 
Acandidate (or the degree of Bache-, 
pid Medicine may come to be Re- 
gent, and in a year after he may be 
made abel In three years more 
he may osreme Doctor. 
In the university of Oxford the 
studies are not confined to Jiterature 
and scientific pursuits; there is a 
Professor, of Music, and the stadents 
in this, may arrive at degrees, but they 
are not obliged to undergo. public 
examinations, or make the responses, 
to become Bachelors of Arts. ‘l’o be 
Account of the University of Oxford. 
395 
a Bachelor or a Doctor of Music, the 
candidate must prepare a composition, 
which, after being examined and ap- 
proved of by the Professor, is per- 
formed in public, in presence of the 
Vice-Chancellor and other dignitaries 
of the university. 
My information docs not extend to 
details as to the criticality of the 
manner in which knowledge is culti- 
vated at Oxford ; but I have reason to 
think, that if due attention be paid to 
classical learning, and to physics or 
the natural sciences, those of a moral 
and political description are compara- 
tively neglected. Nevertheless, on the 
whole, it is apparent and undeniable, 
that the system of education, taking it 
generally as adopted,by the English, is 
well calculated to develop the intel- 
lectual faculties of youth; and the 
various objects which compose it seem 
such as are desirable to form an un- 
corrupted taste. 
Here I must state a truth, that 
holds good too often in France, that 
young persons, insensible of the value 
of the instruction imparted in their 
days of adolescence, do not begin to 
appreciate the same till after quitting 
their respective seminaries; but the 
time is then elapsed,—their condition 
in life is to be provided for, and then 
only are they conscious of the means 
and opportunitics they have neglected 
to improve, the time they have lost or 
mis-spent. 
Bat it is not so in England. A 
youth leaves Eton or, Westminster 
School at the age of sixteen or seven- 
teen, and spends four years at least in 
an university, where he again reads 
over Homer and Virgil, Demosthenes 
and. Cicero. And thus, on his taking 
a seat in Parliament, he is already 
familiar with the great geniuses of 
antiquity, and can: quote /them as 
authorities, in their original language, 
before such as may be capable of 
understanding them. vit : 
As to classical) studies exclusively, 
I conceive that they are more suscep- 
tible ‘of cultivation im England than 
they can be in Franee. But, what- 
ever tay. be said of the other parts of 
our country, it is certain that in Paris 
all the means of scholastic education, 
of. acquiiing knowledge in’-all the 
allowed ‘Kinds: of ‘its superiority, all 
the opportunities for study, for getting 
infonmation, for-collceting instraction, 
to a mind of the largest range, from 
a most extensive circumference of 
science, of forming notions either by 
com- 
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