University of Edinburgh

“ University.—The university of Edinburgh, the youngest of the Scottish universities, was founded in 1583 by a royal charter granted by James IV., and its rights, immunities and privileges have been remodelled, ratified and extended at various periods. In 1621 an act of the Scottish parliament accorded to the university all rights and privileges enjoyed by other universities in the kingdom, and these were renewed under fresh guarantees in the treaty of union between England and Scotland, and in the Act of Security. ”

“ Universities were founded at Altdorf and Leyden in 1575, at Helmstadt in 1576. Others of less importance began to exist in the same age. The University of Edinburgh derives its origin from the charter of James in 1582. Those of Oxford and Cambridge, reviving as we have seen after a severe shock at the accession of Elizabeth, continued through her reign to be the seats of a progressive and solid erudition. ”

“ At Edinburgh he took part in the proceedings of the Speculative Society, read essays to them and debated; and he left the University still tending more towards literature than politics. There is no doubt that Edinburgh helped to form him. His mind was one naturally open to influences which are summed up as "the academic spirit"; dislike of exaggeration, impatience with brilliancy which does not illuminate, and distrust of enthusiasm which is not prepared to show its credentials at every step. ”

“ Since 1858 the professorships of Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Logic and Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, and Rhetoric and English Literature have been, as it were, the Seven Golden Candlesticks of the Arts Faculty in the University of Edinburgh,—the seven chairs in that faculty privileged coequally above the rest in the curriculum for graduation. ”

“ In Edinburgh there is no such relic of the ancient university commonwealth, and the students have instinctively supplied the want by affiliating their voluntary societies, and choosing a distinguished man to be the president of the aggregate group. The constitution of the College of Edinburgh, indeed, was not matured until after the old constitution of the universities had suffered a reaction, and, far from any new ones being constructed on the old model, the earlier universities with difficulty preserved their constitution. ”

“ The University of Edinburgh still stood foursquare, and the Professors sat in their comfortable chairs, lecturing to enormous classes of male students. Looking at the question as a sheer matter of business, one asks what inducement had these men to lecture to a handful of women students? ”

“ We feel inclined to blame for it the unfortunate absence of University feeling which is so marked a characteristic of our Edinburgh students. Academical interests are so few and far between—students, as students, have so little in common, except a peevish rivalry—there is such an entire want of broad college sympathies and ordinary college friendships, that we fancy that no University in the kingdom is in so poor a plight. Our system is full of anomalies. ”

“ If Doctor Johnson be considered authority, (and I presume our Oxonian will scarcely dispute it,) Edinburgh is essentially, and to all intents and purposes, an University, and even more deserving the name, than either Oxford or Cambridge; our great lexicographer, and illustrious and immortal countryman, gives this definition of it. "A School where all the arts and faculties are studied." ”

“ To this bold and daring flight of the Oxford Gentleman, I have to remark, that Edinburgh, as a School of physic, is celebrated throughout the world, and that Oxford and Cambridge, as Schools of physic, are celebrated no where, and I most cordially agree with him, that if the School of Edinburgh were on the footing of the English Universities, few would be the labourers going out to harvest, either to Newfoundland, Hudson's bay, the Orkrneys, London, Westminster, or any where else, as doubtless, the same causes at Edinburgh, would produce the same effects they produce at the English Seminaries ”

“ The success of this innovation was so great, and the number of students increased so rapidly, that within two years the managers of the Royal Infirmary appropriated a special ward to the exclusive use of Rutherford, and they thus laid the foundation of that form of teaching in which the university of Edinburgh has long held a proud pre-eminence. ”

“ This edifice affords accommodation for the lecture rooms in the faculties of arts, law and theology, and for the museums and library. The opening up of the wide thoroughfare of Chambers Street, on the site of College Wynd and Brown and Argyll Squares, cleared the precincts of unsightly obstructions and unsavoury neighbours. The Royal Scottish Museum, structurally united to the university, contains collections illustrative of industry, art, science and natural history; and Minto House college and Heriot-Watt college are practically adjuncts of the university. ”

“ I went first to Edinburgh University for three years, and took my M.A. There are worse degrees in the world than an Edinburgh M.A. It means no culture, no University life, no rubbing up against one's fellow-men; but it does mean a solid foundation of all-round, useful information, which no man need despise, and which is not heavy enough to extinguish the slumbering fires of genius should they chance to lie beneath. Of course, it is impossible to tell a priori what will prove an education to any man. ”

“ At Edinburgh, a minute recorded by the University Court after his death described him as "one whose warm interest in the university never abated to the last, and who, on the many occasions on which he presided over their deliberations, or was associated with them in business, evinced the sagacity of a clear and disciplined intellect and the courtesy of a kind and Christian gentleman, while each member of it feels that by his death he has lost a valued and respected friend." ”

“ If young men, from the College of Edinburgh, or any other University, in the course of a profession they have embraced, are buffeted about in the world, is it any disgrace? No! it proves this, that such persons are active members of the body politic, and not indolent, useless beings. As to the latter part of the Sentence, I may observe, that if eminent medical characters are not produced at Edinburgh and Glasgow, there will be scarcely any found in the Kingdom, educated at any other place, as the average number of degrees of M. D. at both Oxford and Cambridge is scarcely one in a year. ”

“ In those days hardly any Edinburgh student ever thought of taking a degree in Arts; as far as Edinburgh University was concerned, the M.A. degree had fallen into almost complete disuse; and not till within very recent memory has it become customary again. After his course in Arts, therefore, Carlyle, with 95 per cent of those of his contemporaries who had passed the same course, was in the position merely of a virtual M.A., who had obtained the best education in Literature, Science, and Philosophy that the Edinburgh University could afford. ”

“ His parents, at first afflicted by his eccentricities, left him at sixteen to choose his own way of life. He became assistant in a school at Dundee, and in 1794 entered the university of Edinburgh, supporting himself by private tuition. ”

“ The same statesman positively declined to do any thing for 75 the University of Edinburgh, in which the government-salary of the best endowed professor is not equal to the emolument of a common mail-guard, or a postman! Under such circumstances the only marvel is, that men can be found to occupy the chairs. ”

“ This state of things, although so recent, is almost forgotten in Scotland. There is no such thing as opposition between town and gown. In Edinburgh, indeed, there is no gown—no badge of studentship whatever. Worse than this, the student, after he has gone through his academical course, has nothing further to do with the university. Why should he take a degree? It is a bootless honour. It gives him no privileges. A.M. after a man’s name on a title-page may look very pretty, but who is going to write books? ”

“ Now, as far as medicine is concerned, which is the only subject at issue, every one acquainted with the practice of physic, will acknowledge, that Edinburgh has produced as celebrated Physicians, really educated there, and a far greater number of them, than Oxford and Cambridge united.—He proceeds, "For here did Milton, Newton, Bacon, and Locke, and most of the luminaries of our country, reach the pinnacles of science and literary glory." ”

“ The chief differences between the University of the Capital of Scotland, and those in England, are, that in the former, very little discipline is exercised over the students; they do not live in College, [6] but in Lodgings, in the City; the Students wear no academical dress, except during the ceremony of being admitted to a degree; they are not obliged to attend public worship in the College ”

“ Would they prefer the ancient University of St. Andrew's, or the modern school of Edinburgh, or put them upon the same footing as the English Universities?" What the Apothecaries wish, I know not, but I answer, both good policy and common justice demand that Doctors of Physic of all the Universities of this land, provided they have regularly studied a certain period, at their respective Colleges, should be put upon the same footing as those who have graduated at Oxford and Cambridge, especially as the latter are not schools of medicine. ”

“ In 1773 he became professor of natural philosophy in Edinburgh University. ‘The sciences of mechanics,’ wrote Professor Playfair, his successor, ‘hydrodynamics, astronomy, and optics, together with electricity and magnetism, were the subjects which his lectures embraced. These were given with great fluency and precision of language.’ In 1783, when the Royal Society of Edinburgh was founded and incorporated by royal charter, he was elected the general secretary, and he discharged the duties till within a few years of his death. ”

“ Your examination at Edinburgh, I have all reason to believe, is as serious, and perhaps more so, than that of any other university in Europe; but when a student has resided [Pg 277] a few years among you, has behaved dutifully to all his professors, and has attended regularly all their lectures, when he comes to his examination I suspect you are disposed to be as good-natured as other people. Several of your graduates, upon applying for license from the College of Physicians here, have had it recommended to them to continue their studies. ”

“ Several women are members of Convocation, and there will soon be more. Many of them are Associates of their College. Besides full Degrees, there are Certificates of Proficiency 187granted by this University to women. All University prizes are open to women, and the majority of College Prizes.
Edinburgh University was founded in 1582 on the site of the lonely Kirk of Field, where Darnley met his death. The present building, however, now called the Old University, was only begun in 1739. It is to this College alone that women are as yet admitted. ”

“ Edinburgh University in 1858 conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D., and in 1859, on the death of John Lee (1779–1859) [q. v.] , principal of Edinburgh University, he declined the invitation of the Edinburgh town councillors (patrons of the vacant post) to be nominated as his successor. ”

“ Black was, in 1766, recalled to Edinburgh to fill the professorial chair of Chemistry, which was rendered vacant by the appointment of his old friend and adviser, Cullen, to that of Medicine. During the remainder of his career he was regarded as one of the chief ornaments of the university, as well as a most distinguished member of the literary circle which then adorned the Scottish metropolis, where his private character was highly esteemed. He continued his researches with perseverance and success ”

“ With Drummond's first provostship began a new era in the history of modern Edinburgh. The government and patronage of the university were in the hands of the town council, and from 1715 until Drummond's death nothing was done without his advice. A medical faculty was established and five new professorships instituted. Chairs were given to a number of eminent men, from Alexander Monro secundus and Colin M'Laurin to Adam Ferguson and Hugh Blair, and through Drummond Robertson the historian became principal of the university. ”

“ There have been at all periods, we believe, many societies of this kind for the young aspirants at Edinburgh University. Naturally the young bloods of the law are the most anxious to shine in such arenas. Naturally also the prize of reputation usually falls to the glib and fluent speaker, especially if he has some real ability and learning to second his tongue. The better the society is attended, the more genuine is the mettle required in its leaders. ”

“ The alumni of Glasgow University have not all blushed unseen, albeit the fame of their Alma Mater has sometimes been over-shadowed by that of Edinburgh. To go no further back than the living members of the Senatus Academicus, it will be admitted that Caird in Divinity, Lushington in Greek, Sir William Thomson in Natural Philosophy, Allen Thomson in Anatomy, Rankine in Mechanics, Grant in Astronomy, and Gairdner in Medicine, are names to conjure with. ”

“ Without assuming that he meant the university described in Sartor Resartus to stand literally for the Edinburgh University of his own experience, we have seen enough to show that any specific training of much value he considered himself to owe to his four years in the Arts classes in Edinburgh University was the culture of his mathematical faculty under Leslie, and that, for the rest, he acknowledged merely a certain benefit from having been in so many class-rooms, where matters intellectual were professedly in the atmosphere, and where he learnt to take advantage of books. ”