Brasenose College

“ He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, 2 July 1833, gained a scholarship there, took a double first in 1837, and graduated B.A. on 5 May in that year. He was Petrean fellow of Exeter College from 30 June 1837 until 11 Jan. 1843. His essay entitled ‘The Test of National Prosperity considered’ obtained the chancellor's prize in 1838. He gained an Eldon law scholarship in 1840, and a Vinerian fellowship in 1847. He proceeded M.A. 1840, B.C.L. 1844, and was called to the bar of the Inner Temple 11 June 1841, and practised as an equity draftsman and conveyancer. ”

“ The "head," as he is called generically, of an Oxford college (his specific appellation varies almost with every college—principal, provost, master, rector, warden, etc.) , is a greater man than the uninitiated suppose. His situation is generally felt as conferring a degree of rank not much less than episcopal; and, in fact, the head of Brasenose at that time, who happened to be the Bishop of Bangor, was not held to rank much above his brothers in office. Such being the rank of heads generally, à fortiori, that of Christ Church was to be had in reverence ”

“ In October 1508 Sutton obtained from University College a lease of Brasenose Hall and Little University Hall for ninety-two years at 3l. a year, the interest of the grantors to be released upon conveyance by Sutton to University College of land of the same net yearly value. The site, however, was not absolutely conveyed to Brasenose College till May 1523, the year before Sutton's death. In the same year (1508) he acquired, with a view to the endowment of the future college, lands at Borowe in the parish of Somerby, Leicestershire, and in the parish of St. ”

“ He put on his Bachelor's gown in the following January, and a month or two later was nominated a Hulmian Exhibitioner of his College. Having subsequently been elected to a Fellowship at Brasenose, he took his M.A. degree in 1811, and occupied himself for several years as tutor of his College, acting also in 1816-17 and in 1817-18 as one of the public examiners in the classical schools. ”

“ It was when speaking of his father that the uncanny expression had been especially noticeable. "Suppose," said Professor Valeyon to himself, "we try him on another subject."
"You've been educated at home, I understand," began he, from beneath his heavy eyebrows.
"Oh, yes!" replied Bressant, shutting his book on his knee, and returning the professor's look with one of exceeding keenness and comprehensiveness. "Educated to develop faculties of body and mind, not according to the ordinary school and college system." ”

“ But he has those uncompromising ideas about science; ready to fight for it at the drop of the hat. Oh, Beason's all right. We need his sort. I'll tell you whom I do want you to meet, Ernestine, and that's Hastings. You'll like him. He's such a success as a human being. He's more like the old-time professor of the small college, has a fatherly, benevolent feeling toward all the students. You see we're so big here that we haven't many of the small college characteristics about us. It's each fellow doing his own work, and not that close comradeship that there is in the small school. ”

“ There is no opportunity given to the Harvard pedagogical students for actual teaching; but the connection brought about between the college department and the secondary schools, by the constant attendance of students in the school-rooms of the neighbourhood, may possibly develop into a system wherein trained students may act as substitutes in these schools. Quite apart, however, from this possible future connection, there is even now an important practical relationship between Harvard University and some of the secondary schools—viz., that of supervision. ”

“ He made it fresh, living, vital.
"I suppose these young women have some difficulty in keeping up to the high college grade?" said a visitor in classroom one day. "On the contrary," replied Professor Backus, "the students are the ones who make us all work hard to keep pace with them."
His knowledge of civic affairs led him often to be asked to stand as candidate for some desirable public office, to leave college for what promised higher promotion. "No, I have but one ambition, and that is to be a good teacher." ”

“ It led the way in opening the advantages of a liberal education to women, and holds a place in the first rank of women’s colleges in America. It is undenominational, but, according to the wish of its founder, daily prayers are held in the chapel, and all classes meet on Sunday for the study of the Scriptures. In order to emphasize the dignity of manual labour, each student is expected to undertake a small share in the household work of the College, at least, at some period of her college career. ”

“ A senior was a person looked up to by the entire student body, a dignitary to be treated with profound respect. But once outside the sheltering walls of his Alma Mater he would suddenly become a very ordinary being who, like Samson shorn of his locks, would enter business or college a weak, timid neophyte. It seemed absurd that such a change could be wrought in so short a time.
But before the day when the diplomas with their stiff white bows would be awarded, the future fate of the March Hare must be decided. Every recurrence of this thought clouded Paul's brow. ”

“ J. W. said "Sure," but plainly meant to leave the defense of the Christian college to Marty, who, to tell the truth, was quite willing.
"There's room for both, and need for both," said that earnest young man. "Each has its work to do—the State University will probably help in attracting most of those who want special technical equipment, and the church colleges will keep on serving those who want an education for its own sake, whatever special line they may take up afterward: though each will say it welcomes both sorts of students." ”

“ The fraternity-house that becomes a place to “set” rather than a place to work is hardly a credit to a college campus. As President Northrop said to some society men at the University of Minnesota, “If your fraternity is not a place for intellectual and moral incitements, it is a failure, and it must go the way of all failures.” ”

“ For generation after generation, Adamses and Brookses and Boylstons and Gorhams had gone to Harvard College, and although none of them, as far as known, had ever done any good there, or thought himself the better for it, custom, social ties, convenience, and, above all, economy, kept each generation in the track. Any other education would have required a serious effort, but no one took Harvard College seriously. All went there because their friends went there, and the College was their ideal of social self-respect.
Harvard College, as far as it educated at all, was a mild and liberal school, which sent young men into the world with all they needed to make respectable citizens, and something of what they wanted to make useful ones. ”

“ Until the last few years, no Institution especially devoted to the training of secondary teachers existed in the eastern States, and those who wished to prepare themselves for the teaching of the higher branches of subjects had no other means of training than that offered in the Normal Schools. At Worcester and Bridgewater, College and University graduates may take the pedagogical course as special students, and so prepare for teaching in the higher schools. ”

“ He never spared himself. He forgot himself, but he never forgot the college. His works do follow him. These works which remain with us are the strong and united faculty which he organized, and which he inspired with his own high ideals, the noble standard of scholarship to which he elevated the curriculum, the beautiful campus, which is a wonder of improvement when we contrast it with what it was when his hands first touched it, and the example of industry and energy which his life has furnished. ”

“ The scenery is sublime. Nature’s book stands wide open, and abounds with richest lessons and illustrations. No wonder Glossbrenner and Markwood, Warner and Howe, with a host of others, could preach! The very mountains amid which they were born and reared conspired to make them lofty characters, and majestic in their pulpit efforts. While Union Biblical Seminary, and our colleges generally, are grand, helpful schools, let it not be forgotten that “Brush College” is not without its advantages, and should be given due credit for the inspiration and rugged manliness it imparts to its students. ”

“ We have not all of a university when we have men and buildings, money, students, brains. Back of a university there lies its foundation-idea, that of academic control.
What is academic rule? It is rule over the pride of man. A college is a place whose chief power is to inculcate humility by the means of true learning; to establish intellectual honor and integrity by searching out the ways of God in nature, science, and philosophy, and in letters and in art.
It is the primary work of a university to make men humble. The Freshman is not teachable. The Sophomore is an intellectual upstart. ”

“ The living, no less eminent, I need not recall. As a teaching force, as an inspirer of youth, for training men how to think, that faculty has had and will have nowhere any superior.
"So passed that pageant."
The college of to-day has taken on a new life, a new activity. Military training then was a spectacle for the Massachusetts Agricultural College. To-day Amherst welcomes its returning soldiers, and but a little time since divested itself of the character of a military camp to resume the wonted garb of peace. Yet it is and has been the same institution,—a college of the liberal arts. ”

“ There is an increasing tendency, especially on the part of state institutions, to make it possible for college fraternities to erect their buildings on the campus. Every fraternity-house is the product of much thought, liberal support, and often sacrifice, on the part of influential alumni. College authorities are seriously considering the many problems connected with these organizations, for thousands of undergraduates find their homes in them for four very impressionable years. ”

“ And then, Andover done, there came college, not one of the small colleges where individual idiosyncrasies count so much in making up the estimate of the student's character; but a great university, so great that it can stop to measure no man by any one trait or any several traits, so busy that it must grasp him in the round, or not at all. There lay the fact of Scott Brenton's ultimate salvation. ”

“ The college is absolutely still, though one or two lights still burn in studious rooms, and peep through curtained chinks. What a beautiful place to live one's life in, a place which greets one with delicate associations, with venerable beauty, at every turn! The moonlight falls through the tall oriel of the Hall, and the armorial shields burn and glow with rich points of colour. ”

“ Both the boys assured him everything was going in a properly satisfactory fashion, but Marty had caught one word that he wanted Joe to enlarge upon.
"Why do you say 'Methodist college'? It is a Methodist college; but is there anything the matter with that?"
Joe rose to the mild challenge. "Don't think I mean to be nasty," he said, "but I can't help comparing this place with the State University, and I wonder if there's any big reason for such colleges as this. You know they all have a hard time, and the State spends dollars to the church's dimes." ”

“ They have an immense number of students, and nowhere is the higher sort of education more valued; but just in proportion as it has been valued and rendered accessible to all classes, no matter how poor, it has lost its finer qualities—it has lost—and especially in the greater universities—the student life. Suppose a young man at Islington, another at St. John’s Wood, a third at Bayswater, a fourth in Pimlico, and a fifth at Brixton, studying at University College: what sort of feeling exists among them? what are the ties that bind them together? what society do they form? ”

“ Darling, I ought sooner to have answered your enquiries about the Colleges, etc. Harvard (Boston) is a University for men, and we couldn’t get in there, because they wouldn’t have any women. I was anxious to go there because the degree is considered a valuable one. Here in New York the College I am at is just opened by Dr. 207Elizabeth Blackwell for women only,—or at least only women attend it, though I believe men would be admitted. ”

“ At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fashioned, time-honoured, delicious, mediæval life which lends so much grace and beauty to our colleges. There are no gates, no porter's lodges, no butteries, no halls, no battels, and no common rooms. ”

“ After attaining the captaincy of the school he became a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, early in 1850. His undergraduate life was uneventful. He studied in a desultory manner, spent much of his time in the university library, read Wordsworth and Keble, Tennyson and Kingsley with avidity, discussed literature and theology, and made many friends, among them E. W. Benson, F. J. A. Hort, H. M. Butler, H. R. Luard, B. F. Westcott, and George Williams. The college was then confined to Eton men, but most of Bradshaw's friends were outside its walls. ”

“ Big colleges keep up their prestige because the best men tend to go to them; but I think they do very little for the ordinary men who have fewer social advantages to start with.
The only cure, said my friend, for these smaller places is to throw their Fellowships open, and try to get public-spirited and liberal-minded Dons. Then, he added, they ought to specialize in some one branch of University teaching, so that the men who belonged to a particular department would tend to go there. ”

“ President Foster of Reed College, Oregon, puts it thus: "It is possible to graduate from almost any college without an idea in one's head." Professor Wenley, Head of the Department of Philosophy in Michigan University, had about the same thought when he gave me his original definition of an American college as "A so-called institution of higher learning whose chief accomplishment is the inoculation of innocent youth against education." ”