continual occasion of mutual disgust and alienation.-Its scholars, its men of science and genius, are the noblest possession of a country, which the humblest of its inhabitants should feel the proud consciousness of having a share in; since the original aptitude for sustaining this highest vocation of humanity exists equally in all ranks, and under every variety of religious profession; and the means of unfolding and cultivating it should be shut out from none, either by aristocratical barriers or by restraints on conscience. Every one ought to feel, that the honours and rewards of learning are open to him, if he can make himself worthy of them.

Till recently, no attempt has been made to act upon this obvious principle of reason and justice by the Government of our country; and even now, all the great national provisions for learning are sacerdotal.* Our old universities belong exclusively to the religion of the state; in a great measure also, to the landed aristocracy.† Exhibitions, it is true, from the great public schools and other foundations procure admission into them for those who are not endowed with the gifts of fortune, and through this avenue men of distinguished talents from the humblest ranks have obtained access to the seats of learning, and so passed on to the highest offices in Church and State. The talents of such men, by conferring a lustre on every institution to which they belong, renders excellent service to the cause which has associated them with itself, and on which their example confers a character of fair and impartial encouragement offered to youths of promise in every condition of life; but, as it has been well remarked by an eminent writer of the day,‡ himself attached from education and principle both to the Universities and to the Church,-the price of such men's advancement has ever been after all a zealous devotion of their

A curious illustration of this fact occurred not long ago in the case of a scientific society, one of the members of which, at his death, bequeathed the advowson of some valuable Church preferment to its president and council, to be by them. bestowed as a reward for the successful cultivation of a particular branch of science. This practice, so much lauded by the admirers of our actual constitution in Church and State, leads inevitably to two bad consequences :-it draws men into the Church who have no taste for its peculiar studies and duties; and, when they are once in it, though attracted originally by the love of science and literature, places them under restraints, which hinder them from seeking truth with the courage and single-mindedness essential to the genuine philosophical spirit. While we condemn our men of letters and science to be priests, Germany fills the theological chairs of her Universities with laymen.

+ This peculiarly aristocratical character is not only admitted, but even justified as their traditional and distinguishing excellence, by Professor Huber of Marburg, in his recent work on the English Universities, who contends that they were never designed to breed scholars, but to educate gentlemen.

Sir E. L. Bulwer in his " England and the English."

VOL. IV. No. 15.-New Series.

D

talents to the interests of the class which could alone dispense distinction and emolument, so that, if not of the aristocracy themselves, self-interest and the resistless contagion of example have a strong tendency to induce all such aspirants to imbibe the prejudices, adopt the views, and favour the objects, of the aristocracy. Men, thus raised to eminence, do little or nothing, under the actual constitution of things, to infuse a healthful popular feeling into the heart of our ancient institutions, to awaken the love of truth and humanity for their own sakes, to give them worth and dignity above the hollow conventionalisms of the world, and to prepare the way for the gradual formation of that higher aristocracy of learning, genius, and character, which must sooner or later, if the world be destined for continual progress, supersede the old one of riches and birth. For those who are not in communion with the established Church, and who refuse to subscribe to her doctrinal requirements, no course was open a very few years ago, but either to renounce altogether the honours of learning, or else to seek them in a foreign land. The best citizens, men whose minds were imbibed with the purest love of science and of truth, and who desired to consecrate their highest gifts to the honour and service of their country, had this brand put upon them by institutions calling themselves national:-Scotland, Holland and Germany, opened the doors, and proffered the honours, of their Universities to those who were excluded from the fountains of learning in their native land.

Such injustice has brought its own punishment on itself. Monopoly has been followed by its natural consequences. The love of real learning has declined in England, and the salutary reverence for high mental culture, which is so conspicuous even in the humblest ranks of some parts of the continent, and which exercises so humanizing an influence on the public mind, is a feeling almost unknown among the industrious classes of England. England, notwithstanding her many and splendid advantages, and her great hereditary fame, is confessed by all who are qualified to form an opinion, to be at the present time far behind her continental neighbours in some of the most important branches of human inquiry. The monopolists, proud of the mere possession of their exclusive privileges, rather than anxious to improve them well, have slumbered and slept, while those whom they were ignorant of or despised, were proceeding rapidly in advance of them; and the numerous and powerful industrious classes of our country, having access only to an inferior education, and occupied chiefly with practical questions of religious liberty, or of political and social economy, have

shown themselves, with some few exceptions, indifferent about studies which lie remote from their beaten track of thought, which perhaps they even look upon with some suspicion, as associated in their minds with priestly superciliousness or aristocratical arrogance, and of which at least they have never been taught to appreciate the importance. In this state of things, every friend to knowledge and civilization hailed the wise and beneficent act of a liberal Government in bestowing a charter on a truly national University-empowering it to confer degrees in arts, medicine and law, without any reference to religious distinctions and so constituting it, as to admit of its affiliating with itself different provincial academies. This last provision was perhaps the best means that could be devised, in the actual circumstances of the country, for awakening a love of true knowledge and solid instruction in the public mind. The problem, which has now to be tried-and it is one, the results of which will be watched with the deepest interest by every one who regards mental and moral culture as the only security of a progressive civilization-is this;-whether the material and the spiritual elements of civilization can grow up and thrive together in the same spot;—whether it be possible to plant in the centre of our great manufacturing communities, seats of learning and science, whose influence may tend to discipline, refine and ennoble the rough and vigorous intellect so actively in operation around them-cherishing the love of literature, art and philosophy, in conjunction with those more practical studies which bear upon the physical well-being of mankind—and, after the model of the great commercial societies of former ages, in the midst of facilities and incentives for the acquisition of wealth, developing the tastes, and generating the high and honourable principles, which give elegance to its enjoyment, and dignity to its application. One of the evils incident to a manufacturing and commercial state of society, amidst the great talents and many virtues which it calls into exercise, is its tendency to produce too ardent and unremitted a devotion to the acquisition of wealth, and to make the various attributes of wealth too direct a measure of respectability. This passion, which is opposed to the progress of a true civilization, can only be checked by the tastes and the sentiments which result from the

The following observation of Novalis is absurdly exaggerated; but our sense of its extravagance should not blind us to the reality of the tendencies at which it glances. "The noble merchant character,-the genuine spirit of commerce,-existed only in the middle ages, especially in the German Hansetowns. The Medici, the Fugger, were merchants; our merchants, the greatest not excepted, are shop-keepers."-Fragments from German Prose Writers, Translated by Mrs. Austin, p. 51.

diffusion of a higher mental culture. To effect so desirable a change in the public sentiment, must be pronounced an aim wor thy of the efforts and the zeal of every generous and enlightened mind, and they who pursue it ardently and energetically are entitled to the highest praise. It is not much indeed that a few individuals can accomplish; but they should be honoured for doing what they can, and the degree of their merit must be estimated rather by the excellence of the object which they have in view, than by the amount of means which they can at present apply towards its realization.

In connection with such efforts, it is encouraging to reflect, that the teachers of religion of every denomination have undergone a great change of character within the last five-and-twenty years. They have awaked out of the slumber of habitude and formalism: they are putting forth the utmost energies of their minds in defence of the truths and interests that are dearest to them, and summoning to their aid, with a zeal before unknown, and with a diligence that must ultimately produce the greatest effects, the aids of learning and mental cultivation. Increased bigotry and exclusiveness may seem immediately to result from this stirring of the public mind: but religious earnestness is one of the conditions of spiritual progress; and the deepest truth and the purest charity will be found at last in its train. The kingdom of God will silently grow and spread amidst this warfare of opinions; and parties apparently the most widely estranged from each other, may each be equally contributing in their own way towards its advancement. But then, each party must well understand its position in the world; and comprehend the particular task of duty assigned it, and spare no efforts to execute it conscientiously. Those above all, who have been accustomed to put forth claims to superior cultivation and intelligence, must not be wanting to themselves in the present crisis of affairs, nor repose supinely on the reputation which their predecessors have bequeathed to them. If they are prejudiced, exclusive and spiritless-the cause of truth and mental freedom, of which they have regarded themselves as the depositories and the conservators, will not be maintained; or it will be taken from them, and consigned to abler hands.

It is an agreeable persuasion, that all religious communities which possess any vitality, embody and are developing some element of the religious life, which is needed for the complete realization of the kingdom of God, and are in progress towards that Christian unity in which all will finally coalesce. It may be, that the exercise and preservation of the right of unlimited freedom of inquiry is the peculiar duty confided to that small

section of the Christian world in which this Periodical chiefly circulates. And if that be the responsibility devolved on us by Providence, as we value truth and piety-as we desire to see the whole Church of Christ steadily advancing towards that state in which peace and freedom and charity shall be happily combined-let us consider all which that responsibility implies; let us abandon a weak, self-sufficient reliance on a traditional liberalism, and henceforth found the strength of our cause on genuine cultivation and enlargement of mind-on great principles, clearly apprehended, reasoned out into their legitimate consequences, fearlessly and consistently applied. Let the sound education of our laity and ministers be the object nearest to our hearts, and supported with all our liberality and zeal; that we may swell the numbers and increase the strength of those who are needed to reconcile the antagonist forces of society,the stiff scholastic formalism of the priesthood on one hand, and a rough unlettered barbarism on the other:-that our rising laity, imbued with the spirit of freedom and liberal learning, may demand as their coadjutors in the work of social improvement, a cultivated, enlightened and active ministry; and our ministers, furnished with the means of an education adequate to the necessities of the time, may be conscious of the moral dignity of their vocation, and defend, with a devout and fearless simplicity of heart, the precious inheritance of Truth, Freedom and Charity, which their pious and learned forefathers have committed to their trust.

J. J. T.