celebrity is this part of the island. The provisions made for the education of the ministers of the Scotch church, are such as to secure to this class of the community a merited reputation for learning, information, and talent; and in no one religious establishment, probably, can the officiating members lay claim to a greater or more general respectability of character. It is usual for each theological student to pass through the five public classes previously to his entering the divinity' hall: by this means a sufficient basis is formed for his more important studies, the prosecution of which, during the required period of seven years, creates every necessary qualification for the discharge of the ministerial office. The present professor of divinity is Dr. Findlay, a venerable old man of ninety, who commands respect equally from his extensive learning, and from the general moderation and liberality of his religious principles. His lectures are valuable in the quantity of information they contain, but are characterized by too great a degree of diffuseness and detail; a single course of divinity being laid out at such length as to occupy several entire sessions. This circumstance has given rise to an anecdote of a student from the sister island, who, returning to his friends at the close of a session, complained to them that he had attended the divinity hall regularly for six months, and had got only half an attribute as a recompence for his exertions. The story, though a palpable embellishment of fact, is a fair evidence of the extreme prolixity and diffuseness of the lectures. The number of students, engaged in the study of divinity at Glasgow, is usually between forty and fifty; many of whom are natives of Ireland, preparing themselves for the occupation of the different presbyterian churches in the northern part of that country. Professorships of church history and Hebrew are attached to this department of education; but here, as well as at the Edinburgh college, the latter study occupies very little general attention. Besides the lectures on the historical and doctrinal branches of theology, sermons are composed and recited by the students of a certain standing, and commentaries made upon select passages of scripture, with a view to their exercise in the performance of those duties which are afterwards to be fulfilled in their capacity as public teachers of religion. The quantum of orthodoxy prevailing among the divinity students at Glasgow is very considerable: the names of Priestley, of Price, and Lindsey are known but to few, and their religious principles are still more rarely understood. The attention of the young divine is too exclusively and indiscriminately directed to the writings of the fathers and reformers of religion, and he is often engaged in balancing the minute differences of a doctrine, which a more general and unbiassed examination might have led him to reject in toto, as the offspring of distempered enthusiasm or mischievous hypocrisy.

The public has lately received from the pen of Mr. Craig, an elegant biographical memoir of one of the most distinguished characters which have adorned the literature of modern times. The death of the late professor Millar, while it deprived society of a fair and conspicuous ornament, and philosophy of a zealous and able investigator of truth, was a loss more immediately and sensibly felt at the university of Glasgow, where his life had long constituted a source of usefulness, of gratification and delight to all around him. By his assiduous attention to the duties of his public situation, and the ability which characterized his performance of these duties, Mr. Millar conferred a splendour upon the law department at Glasgow, which attracted students from every part of the kingdom, and was advantageous in the highest degree to the interests of the university. To a most perfect knowledge of the principles of theoretical and practical jurisprudence, and of all the circumstances connected with national government and economy, he conjoined a method of conveying his instructions, which at once captivated the fancy, and informed the understanding, of the student. Since his death, the creation of his genius has experienced a very considerable decline. Some sessions elapsed without the delivery of any lectures in this department, and it is only within the last two years that Mr. Davidson, the present professor, has re-established the class, by giving a course of Scotch law. The attendance has hitherto been tolerably good, and the lectures evince much reading and a thorough acquaintance with the subject. The students are principally those who are engaged in acquiring a practical knowledge of the profession in the city of Glasgow.

Independently of the lectures delivered in the public classes, and those connected with the professional studies of medicine, divinity, and law, there are several other courses given in the college on particular branches of literature and science, some of which are well deserving of attention. A series of lectures on political economy was long a favourite object with Mr. Millar, and within the last few years his wishes and suggestions have been realized by the establishment of such a course under the conduct of Professor Mylne. The increasing reputation of these lectures, while it indicates their general utility and importance, affords at the same time an honourable testimony to the abilities and industry of Mr. Mylne in his management of this department. In that part of the course which is devoted to a consideration of the various opinions with respect to the nature and origin of public wealth, a detailed account is given of the doctrines of the French economists, accompanied by an impartial and satisfactory discussion of their merits. Here Mr. Mylne assumes some particular points of difference with Adam Smith, on which he reasons with much ingenuity and force of argument: in general, however, his opinions very nearly coincide with those professed by this distinguished philosopher. Among the other points to which the attention of the student is particularly directed, are, the general doctrines of commerce, the funding and banking systems, and the principles and practice of taxation; all of them subjects which, with a reference to our own country, possess a peculiar interest and importance; and more especially at a period when the aspect of our foreign relations and internal economy is such

as

as scarcely meets with a parallel in the history of nations. The attendance upon these lectures is numerous, comprehending not only many of the students who are regularly engaged in the business of the college, but some of the most respectable inhabitants of Glasgow and its neighbourhood. The encouragement derived from the latter source affords at once a pleasing evidence of the literary dispositions of the place, and a secure pledge of the future prosperity and success of the institution.

Among the other lectures delivered in the college may be mentioned, the two courses of astronomy by Dr. Cooper; the second, or higher of which is rendered particularly valuable to the mathematical student by the mode of illustration necessarily resorted to in the more advanced prosecution of this science. A course of lectures on geography and the use of the globes is likewise given by Mr. Millar, the mathematical professor, but is not so numerously attended as might have been expected.

The Glasgow students, like those at the Edinburgh college, have little further connection with the university than is rendered necessary by an attendance on the several departments of public business. With the exception of a few who live in the houses of the professors, and of those who are natives of Glasgow or its vicinity, they are dispersed in different parts of the town, in lodgings with which they provide themselves at the commencement of the session. These lodgings cannot, in general, lay claim to much superiority of cleanliness or comfort; and though the domestic habits of the middle classes in Scotland are probably in a state of gradual amelioration, the Englishman is still sensible to numerous inconveniences in their modes of life, to which he finds it extremely difficult to reconcile his own ideas. The external appearance of a Scotch maid servant is alone sufficient to "harrow up the soul" of one not thoroughly habituated to this order of beings; nor would the original impression of disgust be palliated in any degree by an increasing acquaintance with their culinary habits and practices. The most comfortable lodgings, upon the wholc, are those situated in the new part of the town, in the neighbourhood of George's-square.

The society of the students among themselves, though determined in a great measure by their several occupations, is not, however, so completely limited in this respect as at the Edinburgh college. The greater number of the professional students having been engaged, at a previous period, in the routine of the public classes, they retain their habits of association and intercourse, even when the immediate connection of pursuits is lost in the difference of their plans for future life. The Irish students, however, who are very numerous, compose a body almost entirely distinct from the rest: They usually make their appearance at the college about a month or six weeks after the commencement of the session, and as their pecuniary resources are not, in general, very abundant, the greater number of them take wing several weeks before the termination of the public business; thus resigning resigning all prospect of the prizes, and other honorary distinctions of the college. The number of English students at Glasgow, though it has been gradually increasing for the last few years, is at present by no means considerable. They generally come to the college when between sixteen and eighteen years of age, and entering themselves first to the logic class, pursue their course forwards through the classes of moral and natural philosophy, occasionally concluding their studies by taking out a degree of Master of Arts. As the student, if he possesses active and industrious dispositions, may easily conjoin two or three separate courses of lectures with the business of the public class in each session, this general plan of study seems the most judicious and complete that can be pursued; and it is probable that there are few modes of education which would furnish a more secure and substantial basis for the business and pursuits of after life.

The literary and debating societies in the college are numerous, and in some instances conducted with considerable spirit. The principal among them is that of which the several professors are members: at the meetings of this society papers are read on various literary topics with a view of promoting their fair and liberal discussion; and not unfrequently their debates are distinguished by much animation and ingenuity. Another society for the investigation of theological questions has been instituted among the divinity students, to whom, of course, an admission into it is exelusively confined. The remainder are of a more general description, and in some cases established only for a single session; the questions proposed for discussion being usual. ly those of an historical, political, or moral nature. Habits of dogmatism and self-conceit may occasionally be produced by a familiarity with the forms of argumentative debate; but, upon the whole, it may safely be presumed, that the operation of these societies is favourable to the general interests of education.

Such, Sir, is a brief sketch of the present state of the university of Glasgow. Its deficiencies are probably numerous, but I believe I may venture to say, that it possesses the merits of accuracy and impartiality. With the earnest wish that it may afford some gratification to the readers of the Athenæum,

I remain, Sir, yours, &c.

AMICUS.

Sir;

MISTAKE CORRECTED.

To the Editor of the Athenaum.

WILL you have the goodness to rectify a mis-statement in your last Number, contained in the communication of a correspondent who signs himself Vigilius. If he really resides in Newcastle, he is, it is believed, one of very few who are ignorant, that the lines in question were not the production of a Dissenting Minister, but of an VOL, III.

F

intimate

intimate friend of the excellent deceased person, who ranks deservedly high among the members of another liberal profession.

You are the rather requested to admit this correction, as there is a Dissenting Minister in Newcastle, whose father, many years ago, in a valuable theological work, gave some celebrity to the signature which your correspondent has assumed; and who has himself been ambitious to record his relationship to that venerable man, by generally adopting a signature grounded upon it. To this circumstance it is, probably, owing, that an article with the same signature, already inserted in your Magazine, on the literary undertakings of Mr. Carlyle, has, without the slightest foundation, been imputed to him; but he has no desire to assume credit to himself from the literary labours of any other person.

It would be difficult to comply with the request of your correspondent, by presenting your readers with a detailed account of the plan of education pursued by Mrs. Wilson, because her peculiar excellence consisted not so much in any particular course of instructions, as in the skill which she exercised in forming a just estimate of the characters and talents of the young persons committed to her care, and in the steady and patient application of a consummate judgment in adapting her instructions to the cases of her several pupils; but above all, in the unblemished excellence of her conduct, and the dignity and gentleness of her manners, by which she exemplified the instructions which she gave, and led her pupils to imitate a character which they at once reverenced, admired, and loved.

Newcastle, Dec. 9, 1807.

CLASSICAL DISQUISITIONS.

V. F.

ON THE CYCLIC, AND OTHER ANCIENT EPIC WRITERS,

THE poems of Homer were doubtless no less superior in merit than in faire to those of the other epic bards, who succeeded him after a short interval, and imitated his style. In consequence of that superiority, the performances of the latter were at all times comparatively neglected, and have, in the process of time, been wholly lost. Some of them, however, acquired a considerable share of temporary fame, and even aspired to be ranked with the genuine works of the poet. It will be the object of this paper briefly to collect what has been said by the best writers respecting some of the more celebrated of these poems. The subject is obscure, but considerable additional light has been thrown upon it by some recent discoveries.

One of the most noted of the early narrative poems was known under the name of the Cypria, and is frequently quoted by ancient authors. It has been confounded with a poem which was entitled the

1