years ago by a popular and respectable writer on education, who in his strictures upon the Universities, has included both in one sweeping sentence of condemnation; and, regardless of the accuracy so essential in the dissemination of pointed censure, has charged the defects and errors of the one, with equal and undistinguished violence on the other. It is certainly a point of no trifling importance, and one which is nearly allied to our national prosperity and manners, to ascertain whether these inyectives and com The emption from practical error. A slight comparison of the different effects of the established and the experimental plans, will be sufficient to determine their respective merits. very superficial attainments of the great body of Dissenters, acknowledged even by some of their own members, but to which I admit there are a few brilliant exceptions, will alone justify the reprobation of all their absurd and puerile schemes, which have arisen from their enmity against existing establishments, and from their once favourite doctrine of the perfectibility of man. Even to the most rational of the ideal plans, which have been formed by men of some ingenuity perhaps, but of more vanity, we might apply the remark of Baron de Grimm, speaking of the writings of Rousseau-“ On est toujours tenté de dire, cela est très-beau et très-faux." plaints are well founded, and to state to the world the merits and demerits of those ancient and opulent establishments, in which a large proportion of our senators and lawyers*, and the great body of the clergy, are destined to prepare themselves for the exercise of their respective functions. In the observations and detail which occupy the following pages, I have confined myself to that celebrated Seat of Learning, which possesses the strongest claim upon my gratitude and veneration; and I hope to be able to evince, that the accusations which have been alleged * It was formerly a remark, justified by daily experience, that there was no class of men, unconnected with mercantile pursuits, whose knowledge was more exclusively confined to their own profession than that of lawyers. Since, however, the advice of Judge Blackstone has been more generally adopted, and it has become a more usual practice to send young men designed for the Bar, to one of our Universities, instead of paralyzing their faculties in the noxious atmosphere of an attorney's office, a visible alteration has taken place, and our English advocates more largely participate in those acquisitions of literature and science, by which the other learned professions have long been distinguished. against our Universities generally, do not apply to that of Cambridge, leaving the defence of the sister University to some of her numerous and grateful sons*. Let it not, however, be imagined, that the plan of education here described, will correspond with that ideal perfection, which the fancy of many may have pictured to them in radiant but delusive colours, or that it will not, in some particulars, admit of improvements, which might contribute to strengthen the interests of the republic of letters. I am not attempting to delineate what might be effected by the concentrated talents of all the wise and great, were it possible to obtain the result of their united counsels, but what has been long adopted with success, in the production of accomplished scholars and exalted characters; not what speculation may * The alterations and improvements which have, within a few years past, been introduced into the Oxford system, have been laid before the world, by the late Poetry Professor in that University, who has since established an unequivocal claim to the praise of every lover of learning, by the publication of the Prelections which he delivered while he occupied the Professor's chair. lead some few to imagine, might be attained with less obstruction from prejudice and error, but what is, in fact, openly displayed to the world, and is proved to be practicable from its acknowledged effects. Nor am I inquiring whether particular instances may not be pointed out, of individuals who have quitted the walls of their college with as slender a portion of learning as they possessed at their entrance, and who may perhaps have injured their fortunes and their health beyond the reach of aid. Such instances, we have reason to lament, will occasionally occur in the best-regulated societies; but unless the causes to which they are to be ascribed, can be proved to affect a numerous proportion of those who are placed in the same circumstances, they cannot be alleged as an argument of any force against the institution itself. The state of our collegiate discipline, I am persuaded, will be found greatly superior to the opinion too often entertained on this point; and it may be affirmed with confidence, that in the majority of instances of irregular and dissolute conduct, the culpability will attach more frequently to the folly and indulgence of pa rents, than to any defect in our academical restrictions. Notwithstanding the deficiencies and deviations of a few who absurdly suppose that a release from the severity of school entitles them to disregard the regulations of college, I believe it may be said of this illustrious establishment, that there is no society instituted for the advancement of knowledge, in which a greater number of its members can adopt with truth the sentiment of the younger Pliny, "Et gaudium mihi et solatium in literis; nihilque tam lætum quod his lætius, nihil tam triste quod non per has sit minus triste." My more immediate object is to show, that in the University of Cambridge every student who comes properly prepared and well disposed -and without these qualifications, the instructions of a Newton would be of little avail-has the fairest opportunity of acquiring the most valuable knowledge, and of cultivating almost every species of science in the most advantageous manner. In order to evince the truth of this observation, it will be expedient to notice the different branches of learning which are there considered as the principal objects of at |