DEGREES. 
t Hence it appest” continues Defcartes, “ that the de- 
grees are only certain media contrived to be 
the extremes pf concent for mo derating the inequality, and 
are only of ufe with refp: & St to concords, fo that when the 
vaice has Soe one degree, the ear is not fatisfied till we 
concord to the 
"The fubftance of what is here alleged amounts 
to Se that by a proper divifion of the conca: -ding intervals 
and pleafure. 
ES, for the ue 7 in the couftru@ion of the {cale 
See ScaLe 
E, in Unive erfilies, denotes a quality Saal on 
the udents, or members of them, ao a teflim ony of the 
proficiency in the arts or seis. ; oo entitling them to 
cer ‘tain alas Sa eicaged es, 
“he degrees are much the ane in the feveral univerfities : 
but ce laws of chen. nad the difcipline or exercife previous 
to he pews obtained, differ. The degrees are, achelor, 
doétor-; inftead of the fecond, in (ome foreign 
cine they have licentiate. 
In each faculty there are but two degrees, viz. bachelor 
and doilor r, which were anciently called bachelor and majfter 
nor do the arts admit of more than two, which ftill retain 
the denomination of the ancient degrees, viz. bachelor and 
mafer. At Oxford, degrees of matter and door are only 
conferred once a year, viz. on Monday after the feventh of 
July, when a folemn aét is held for the purpofe. See 
ACT 
The expences cf a degree of doétor in any of the faculties 
in treats and fet - -_ amount to r00/,, and thofe of a 
er of arts to 
of mutic. 
The degree ne bachelor is only conferred in Len 
To take the degree of bachelor of arts, four ee are 
required, aud three more for mafler of arts: See Ba- 
HELOR. 
At Cambridge, matters are neatly on the fame one 
only the difcipline is fomewhat more fevere, and the 
cifes more difficult. which sees 
to act of O Monday bette the firft 
e degrees of iauaad are taken up 
in Lent, beginning on ‘A -Wedre 
cact given till above three 
years after that of ee ee ‘dunn ng which time the candi- 
date is obliged, three feveral t times, to maintain two philo- 
fophical queftions in the public ae and to gs Sa 
objections raifed againft him by a mafter of arts. 
oe keep two ats in the anenees {chool, and pie he 
a the Decree of Dodor, fee Do 
EES conferred oa mufical fudents j in our univerfi- 
ties o 
Cam- 
rofeffors of other 
ces. pe! nice and accurate fifter of fa@s, 
aa that ae pees of do€ior was not among the 
degrees granted to graduates in England, till the reign of 
king John, about 1207. 
It is known that this title was created on the continent 
about the middle of the twelfth century, as more honourable 
than that of magi/ler, or matter, which was become too coms 
on. Its original fignification implied not only learaing 
and fkill, bet abilities to seach, accord ding to the opinion of 
Peiltede: who fays, that the molt certain proof of know- 
ledue in any feience is the being able to infu others. 
John de Muris begins the Pia part of his Tre.t fe on Mu- 
he with the following paffa ** Princeps philofophorum 
itoteles att in p ice fue, omnino fciens 
* Bgium elt pofle docere.”’ Mutices Tract. MS. Bodl, 
e firft degree of this kind which was conferred in a 
i 
mony foon after was adopted in other u: ee an and paffed 
from the law to theoloz 
Peter Lombard is the ft doétor in facred theology upon 
record in the univerfity of Paris; and John Hambois has 
he precife time when this creation extended to the fa. 
culties of medicine and mufic doc ppear; nor can the 
names be found . thofe sroletior in either to whom the 
title was firft grant 
owever, bees frequently eta (Burney’s Hitt. 
“7 oo uring the mi azes mufic was aiwa:s 
€ ae liberal arts, thot it was. jacladed in the 
trivium and ne dpi m, and that itwas fludid by all thofewho 
afp ha at reputation for learning Ehroughout fe i 
triv toric, and 
ae which teach us how to reafon ate ae 
ion ;.an 
geometr and aftronomy, as 
thematics which filently contemplate whatever is capable of 
cing numbered or meafured. Now it is remarkable, that, in 
our univerfities, mufic is the only one of thefe feven {ciences 
that confers degrees on its ftudents; and, in other coun 
tries, though theology, law, and medicine beftow this ho- 
nour, which are rot en e de yet mufic, which és, can 
ee at no fuch diftin 
ver, it evide pny appear that the mafic which was 
ied as a f{cience by our forefathers, was merely f{pecu- 
lative, a as eens harmonics, the ratio of mu 
fical a ee philofophy of found; and in this fenfe 
mufical de i ia but feldom conferred in our 
Bat ee peegrih o the pe {pirit of the inflitution. 
refent latices. not wholly ueglecting the gratili< 
cation of the ear, are more favourable to praGtical mufic, 
and allow candidates for degrees to perform exercifes, in 
which fpecimens may be furnifhed of their fkill in melody, 
harmony, and compofition, where thofe founds are arranged 
combined which fcience meafures and fixés by calculae 
