142 
Observations on the English Universities , 
the literary atmosphere of the place 
should be wholly left out of the ac¬ 
count, though no consideration be had 
whatever of the enlargement and illu¬ 
mination of mind that must be caught 
involuntarily, in a two or three years’ 
abode at an academical city, still to 
have redeemed so mucli time from the 
saloons, and the worse than saloons of 
the metropolis, is enough. No cue can 
doubt that the want of some such nur¬ 
sery of character in France, the imme¬ 
diate transition from boarding-school 
and private tutelage, to the vices of the 
capital and the army, was one great 
cause of the degeneracy of the once gal¬ 
lant heraldry of that country; a de¬ 
generacy under which the spirit of the 
order was so wholly broken, that when 
the revolution came on, there was 
found scarce a member of the aristo¬ 
cracy, to assert their claims to more 
privileges and greater fortunes, than 
were ever swept away by a popular 
storm. 
Lastly, the English universities are 
entitled to respect, as a great integral 
part of the church establishment; and 
when so considered, some objections 
often urged to them will lose their 
force. It is objected, for instance, that 
at one of tlie great English universities. 
subscription to the thirty-nine articles 
is necessary for admission, and at the 
other for a degree; and this, if you look 
upon the universities as we look on all 
public institutions in our country, as 
the property of the people, the common 
inheritance of all, seems a hardship. 
But if vou consider the universities as 
* 
a part of the religious establishment, to 
murmur against the privileges secured 
to the friends of the church In the uni¬ 
versities, or to the children of the uni¬ 
versities in the church, is to quarrel 
with an institution for supporting, en¬ 
couraging, and upholding itself. 
For ourselves, with the veneration 
we feel for the great masters of English 
literature, it is impossible not to trans¬ 
fer no little share of the sentiment to 
the seats of science, where their minds 
were formed. That American must 
have a temper, which we are happy not 
to he able to comprehend, who could 
go up into the tower over the gate-way 
of Trin ity College, or walk round the 
gardens of Christ’s, at Cambridge, and 
think that he was pressing the foot¬ 
steps of Newton and Milton, without a 
thrill which no reasonings or cavils can 
keep down. We of America have here 
[Sept, i* 
an advantage over our English brethren, 
in that keen enthusiasm which we feel 
for the famous spots and abodes, that 
are consecrated to both alike, by the 
great names associated with them. To 
them the constant presence and fami¬ 
liarity of the scene blunt the edge of the 
feelings it excites in us, and West¬ 
minster Abbey and Stratford-on-Avon, 
awaken an enthusiasm in an American 
fancy, which the Englishman smiles 
at, as a sort of provincial rawness. In¬ 
stead of assenting to those on both sides 
of the water, who have spoken of Ame¬ 
rica as unfortunate in the want of an¬ 
cient associations, as condemned to a 
kind of matter of fact, unpoetical, new¬ 
ness of national character, we maintain 
that never nation, since the world be¬ 
gan, had so rich a treasure of tradi¬ 
tional glory. Is it nothing to he born, 
as it were, with the birthright of two 
native lands; to sail across the world 
of waters, and be hailed beyond it by 
the sound of your native tongue? Is 
it nothing to find in another hemisphere 
the names, the customs, and the dress 
of your own ; to be able to trace your 
ancestry back, not to the ranks of a 
semi-barbarous conqueror, or the poor 
mythology of vagrants and fugitives of 
fabulous days, but to noble, high-mind¬ 
ed men in an age of glory, than which 
a brighter never dawned on the world ? 
Is it nothing to be able, as you set your 
foot on the English soil, and with a 
heart going back to all the proud emo¬ 
tions which hind you at the moment 
to the happy home you have left, to be 
able still, nevertheless, to exclaim, 
with more than poetical, with literal 
natural truth, 
Salve magna parens frugum, Saiurnia 
tellus, 
Magna virum ! 
If there he any feeling, merely na¬ 
tional, which can compare with this, 
it should he that which corresponds to 
it; the complacency, with which it 
were to he hoped the wise and good 
friends of British glory in England 
would regard this flourishing off-set of 
their own native stock ; the pride with 
which they should witness the progress 
of their language, their manners, their 
laws and their literature, over regions 
wider than the conquests of Alexander ; 
and that not by a forced and military 
imposition on a conquered land, but by 
a fair and natural inheritance, and still 
more by a voluntary adoption and 
choice: the joy with which they should 
reflect 
