I 



CHAPTER IL 



COLLEGE LIFE: 1836-1841. MT. IJ-2I. 



In the early days of Reform, Dr. Carpenter hoped that he 

 might send his younger sons to Oxford or Cambridge ; but a 

 generation elapsed before these universities were open to Non- 

 conformists. Many of their class-fellows at the Bristol College 

 obtained scholarships and high university honours, and Philip, 

 from his perseverance and mathematical talent, would have 

 distinguished himself at Cambridge ; his session at Edinburgh 

 had, however, its peculiar advantages. The two brothers 

 arrived before the commencement of the session. William 

 had arranged to deliver some lectures to the Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Society, and he writes : " Philip has been work- 

 ing very hard for me, in stencilling a set of tables, etc., 

 with brass letters." Philip attended the classes of Professor 

 Pillans — Latin ; Professor Forbes — Natural Philosophy ; Pro- 

 fessor Wilson — Moral Philosophy ; and Dr. Reid's lectures on 

 Chemistry. He seldom referred to Professor Wilson's lectures, 

 which did not sustain a reputation won in other fields ; but he 

 and his brother enjoyed their visits to the hospitable house of 

 this distinguished writer, who had been their father's fellow- 

 student. In Professor Pillans's class he was appointed in- 

 spector, which obliged him to give three or four hours a week 

 to looking over exercises. He much enjoyed Professor Forbes's 

 lectures, and as he and a few other students had studied the 

 calculus, the professor had an extra class a week, to which he 

 gave lectures upon it, and on the higher branches of astronomy, 

 etc. These were " extremely interesting." Among his class- 



