1791- NEW DNIVERSITT OF EDINBURGH. 227 



As moft of the ftiidents who attend here are intended 

 to follow the buGnefs taught, as a means of earning their 

 future fubfiftence, and have not much money to throw 

 away; thefe are found much more powerful incite- 

 jnents to (tudy than any other that ever have been de^ 

 yifcd. Hence the clafl'cs are much more faithfully at- 

 tended than perhaps in any other part of the world, 

 and of courfe the ftudents advance in knowledge more 

 rapidly than elfewhere. The only exceptions to per- 

 fedl: freedom of choice in this univerfity, are an innova- 

 tions of modern date, which was powerfully oppofed 

 by the late Dr Gregory, viz. a regulation that thole who 

 are to take out a medical degree here muft have ftu- 

 died a certain number of years at this univerfity, and 

 muft fliow that they have paid for the tickets of a cer- 

 tain number of the profeffors, before they can be en- 

 titled to receive a diploma ; and another, requiring, that 

 ftudents of law fhall fliow that they have attended par- 

 ticular clafles a certain time, before they can be allowed 

 to pratStife. 



In confsquence of thefe regulations, we find no 

 fquabbles among the profeffors about money-matters, 

 no cabals in competition for places of emolument, 

 no dependents of great men thruft into the chair from 

 intereft alone, no profeffors incapable of performing 

 the duties of their office, and few involuntary fees ex- 

 acted on any account. No diftinftion prevails here be- 

 tween the ftudents and the people of the town, which 

 is the fource of io many fquabbles in moft other uni- 

 verfities. They all live togetlier in the moft cordial 

 familiarity. The ftudents, by mixing in fociety a little, 

 gradually rub oft fome part of that learned ruft, and 

 lofe fome of that overbearing felf-fufficiency which 

 they often contra£l when living in a ftate of feclufion 

 from the world ; and what is of much greater confe- 

 quencc, they avoid the temptations to fraud and other 

 dirhonouralle tricks, fo often adopted, to the pcrvcrfion 

 of morals, among young people, while compelled to live^ 

 Ff X 



