262 THOMAS YOUNG. 



institutions are sown broadcast. In these nurseries of 

 mind and body, not only Bismarck and Von Moltke, 

 but numbers of the rank and file of the German Army, 

 found nutriment and discipline ; so that although, as 

 long as her principalities remained separate, Germany 

 as a whole was weak, the individual action of those 

 small States educated German men so as to make them 

 what we now find them to be. 



Two epochs of Young's career as a medical student 

 have been now referred to his residence in Edinburgh, 

 and his residence at Gottingen. Immediately after his 

 return to England he became a fellow-commoner of 

 Emanuel College, Cambridge. When the master of 

 the college introduced him to those who were to be his 

 tutors he jocularly said, ' I have brought you a pupil 

 qualified to read lectures to his tutors/ On one 

 occasion, in the Combination Room, Dr. Parr made 

 some dogmatic observation on a point of scholarship. 

 ' Bentley, sir,' said Young promptly and firmly, * was 

 of a different opinion.' ' A smart young man that,' 

 said Parr when Young quitted the room. His lack of 

 humour and want of knowledge of popular literature 

 sometimes made him a butt at the dinner-table, but 

 he bore the banter with perfect good humour. The 

 materials for Young's life at Cambridge are very 

 scanty ; but there is one brisk and energetic letter, 

 published by Dean Peacock, written by a man who was 

 by no means partial to Young. * Young,' he said, ' was 

 beforehand with the world in perceiving the defects of 

 English mathematicians. He looked down upon the 

 science, and would not cultivate the acquaintance of 

 any of our philosophers. He seemed never to have 

 heard the names of the poets and literary characters of 

 the last century, and hardly ever spoke of English 



