268 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they stood in inti- 

 mate relations with such Continental centres of study as 

 Paris, Geneva, and the Dutch universities. Adam Smith 

 and David Hume were in direct and very intimate inter- 

 course with French thought, the former having obtained in 

 France a knowledge of the novel views of the great politi- 

 cal economists of the pre-revolutionary period. Edinburgh 

 became in the first half of the last century, under the 

 influence of John Monro and his son Alexander (1697- 

 1767), who was a pupil of Boerhaave, a medical school 

 of great importance, rivalling London in its foreign re- 



sity of Edinburgh,' 2 vols., 1884. 

 Three of them St Andrews, Glas- 

 gow, and Aberdeen were founded 

 in the century preceding the Re- 

 formation ; St Andrews about 

 1411 by Bishop Wardlaw, because 

 Scotch students had been un- 

 popular and " molested " at Ox- 

 ford. The University of Glasgow 

 was founded in 1450, reference 

 being made to the University of 

 Bologna in the Bull of Pope Nicholas 

 V. ; but it has also been observed 

 that " the customs and technical 

 phraseology showed an imitation of 

 the institutes of Louvain, then 

 and for all the following century 

 the model university of Northern 

 Europe, of which a Scotchman, 

 John Lichton, had been Rector " 

 (p. 21). Aberdeen was started by 

 Bishop Elphinstone, who had studied 

 in Glasgow and Paris, and been pro- 

 fessor, both there and at Orleans, of 

 canon and civil law. In the pre- 

 amble to the Bull of Pope Alexander 

 VI. the Universities of Paris and 

 Bologna are referred to (p. 29). 

 But the universities seem not to 

 have flourished previous to theRefor- 

 mation, when they were " purged " 

 and a new spirit and order infused 

 into them. St Andrews was to have 

 four faculties, named as in foreign 



universities Philosophy, Medicine, 

 Law, and Divinity (p. 63). Glas- 

 gow and Aberdeen were to have 

 two faculties, of which the first 

 was to be Philosophy (or Arts), 

 the second to comprise Law and 

 Divinity. The ' Book of Discipline ' 

 contained a very complete scheme 

 of higher graded education ; but 

 this was only gradually and par- 

 tially realised ; secondary schools 

 being wanting, the " colleges " had 

 to descend to elementary teaching 

 (p. 67). A jealousy also existed on 

 the part of those in power regard- 

 ing the older universities, these 

 being as the King of France de- 

 clared when refusing to grant to 

 the Academy of Geneva the rights 

 of a university hotbeds of heresy 

 (p. 125). Accordingly the latest 

 academic creation in Scotland was 

 the foundation by the "Town 

 Council and ministers of the city " 

 of the College of Edinburgh (pp. 

 99, 121, 127) between the years 

 1561 and 1578, King James's char- 

 ter dating from 14th April 1582. 

 " But it did not, like the older uni- 

 versities, commence with a blaze 

 of success and then collapse. It 

 started from a humble beginning 

 and steadily expanded into greater 

 things " (p. 158). 



