It was with them chiefly that education took that great leap, the
greatest ever made, from the traditional teaching of the home, the shop,
the social surroundings, to schoolmaster teaching properly so called.
Nowadays, we, schoolmasters, think so much of ourselves, that we do not
make full allowance for that other teaching, which was, for unknown
ages, the only teaching of mankind. The Greeks were the first to
introduce, not perhaps the primary schoolmaster, for the R's, but
certainly the secondary or higher schoolmaster, known as Rhetorician or
Sophist, who taught the higher professions; while their Philosophers or
wise men, introduced a kind of knowledge that gave scope to the
intellectual faculties, with or without professional applications; the
very idea of our Faculty of Arts.
So self-asserting were these new-born teachers of the Sophist class,
that Plato thought it necessary to recall attention to the good old
perennial source of instruction, the home, the trade, and the society.
He pointed out that the pretenders to teach virtue by moral lecturing,
were as yet completely outrivalled by the influence of the family and
the social pressure of the community. In like manner, the arts of life
were all originally handed down by apprenticeship and imitation. The
greatest statesmen and generals of early times had simply the education
of the actual work. Philip of Macedon could have had no other teaching;
his greater son was the first of the line to receive what we may call
a liberal, or a general education, under the educator of all Europe.
[LOGIC IN THE MIDDLE AGES.]
THE MIDDLE AGE AND BOËTHIUS.
I must skip eight centuries, to introduce the man that linked the
ancient and the modern world, and was almost the sole luminary in the
west during the dark ages, namely, Boëthius, minister of the Gothic
Emperor Theodoric. As much of Aristotle as was known between the 6th and
the 11th centuries was handed down by him. During that time, only the
logical treatises existed among the Latins; and of these the best parts
were neglected. Historical importance attaches to a small circle of them
known as the Old Logic (_vectus logica_), which were the pabulum of
abstract thought for five dreary centuries. These consisted of the two
treatises or chapters of Aristotle called the "Categories," and the "De
Interpretatione," or the Theory of Propositions; and of a book of
Porphyry the Neo-Platonist, entitled 'Introduction' (_Isagoge_), and
treating of the so-called Five Predicables. A hundred average pages
would include them all; and three weeks would suffice to master them.
Boëthius, however, did much more than hand on these works to the
mediaeval students; he translated the whole of Aristotle's logical
writings (the Organon), but the others were seldom taken up. It was he
too that handled the question of Universals in his first Dialogue on
Porphyry, and sowed the seed that was not to germinate till four
centuries afterwards, but which, when the time came, was to bear fruit
in no measured amount. And Boëthius is the name associated with the
scheme of higher education that preceded the University teaching, called
the _quadrivium_, or quadruple group of subjects, namely, Arithmetic,
Geometry, Music and Astronomy. This, together with the _trivium_, or
preparatory group of three subjects--Grammar, Rhetoric, and
Logic--constituted what was known as the _seven liberal arts_; but, in
the darkest ages, the quadrivium was almost lost sight of, and few went
beyond the trivium.
EVE OF THE UNIVERSITY.
In the 7th century, the era of deepest intellectual gloom, philosophy
was at an entire stand-still. Light arises with the 8th, when we are
introduced to the Cathedral and Cloister Schools of Charlemagne; and the
9th saw these schools fully established, and an educational reform
completed that was to be productive of lasting good results. But the
range of instruction was still narrow, scarcely proceeding beyond the
Old Logic, and the teachers were, as formerly, the Monks. The 11th
century is really the period of dawn. The East was now opened up through
the Crusades, and there was frequent intercourse with the learned
Saracens of Spain; and thus there were brought into the West the whole
of Aristotle's works, with Arabic commentaries, chiefly in Latin
translations. The effervescence was prodigious and alarming. The schools
were reinforced by a higher class of teachers, Lay as well as Clerical;
a marked advance was made in Logic and Dialectic; and the great
controversy of Realism _versus_ Nominalism, which had found its birth in
the previous century, raged with extraordinary vigour. We are now on the
eve of the founding of the Universities; Bologna, indeed, being already
in existence.
[TWO CLASSES OF MEDIEVAL CHURCHMEN.]
SEPARATION OF PHILOSOPHY FROM THEOLOGY.
The University proper, however, can hardly be dated earlier than the
12th century; and the important particulars in its first constitution
are these:--First, the separation of Philosophy from Theology. To
expound this, would be to give a chapter of mediaeval history. Suffice
it to say that Aristotle and the awakening intellect of the 11th century
were the main causes of it. Two classes of minds at this time divided
the Church--the pious, devout believers (such as St. Bernard), who
needed no reasons for their faith, and the polemic speculative divines
(such as Abaelard), who wished to make Theology rational. It was an age,
too, of stirring political events; the crusading spirit was abroad, and
found a certain gratification even in the war of words. The nature of
Universals was eagerly debated; but when this controversy came into
collision with such leading theological doctrines as the Trinity and
Predestination, it was no longer possible for Philosophy and Theology to
remain conjoined.
A separation was effected, and determined the leading feature of the
University system. The foundation was Philosophy, and the fundamental
Faculty the Faculty of Arts. Bologna, indeed, was eminent for Law or
Jurisprudence, and this celebrity it retained for ages; but the
University of Paris, which is the prototype of our Scottish
Universities, as of so many others, taught nothing but Philosophy--in
other words, had no Faculty but Arts--for many years. Neither Theology,
Medicine, nor Law had existence there till the 13th century.
Second, the system of conferring Degrees, after appropriate trials.
These were at first simply a licence to teach. They acquired their
commanding importance through the action of Pope Nicholas I, who gave to
the graduates of the University of Paris, the power of teaching
everywhere, a power that our own countrymen were the foremost to turn to
account.
THE OFFICE OF RECTOR.
Third, the Organisation of the primitive University. Europe was
unsettled; even in the capitals, the civil power was often unhinged.
Wherever multitudes came together, there was manifested a spirit of
turbulence. The Universities often exemplified this fact; and it was
found necessary to establish a government within themselves. The basis
was popular; but, while, in Paris, only the teaching body was
incorporated, in Bologna, the students had a voice. They elected the
Rector, and his jurisdiction was very great indeed, and much more
important than speechifying to his constituents. His Court had the power
of internal regulation, with both a civil and criminal jurisdiction. The
Scotch Universities, on this point, followed Bologna; and that fact is
the remote cause of this day's meeting.
[SCOTCHMEN ABROAD.]
THE UNIVERSITIES OF SCOTLAND FOUNDED.
So started the University. The idea took; and in three centuries, many
of the leading towns in Italy, France, the German Empire, had their
Universities; in England arose Oxford and Cambridge; the model was Paris
or Bologna.
Scotland did not at first enter the race of University-founding, but
worked on the plan of the cuckoo, by laying its eggs in the nests of
others. For two centuries, Scotchmen were almost shut out of England;
and so could not make for themselves a career in Oxford and Cambridge,
as in later times. They had, however, at home, good grammar schools,
where they were grounded in Latin. They perambulated Europe, and were
familiar figures in the great University towns, and especially Paris.
From their disputatious and metaphysical aptitude, they worked their
upward way--
And gladly would they learn and gladly teach.
At length, the nation did take up the work in good earnest. In 1411, was
founded the first of the St. Andrews' Colleges; 1451 is the date of
Glasgow; 1494, King's College, Aberdeen. These are the pre-Reformation
colleges; but for the Reformation, we might not have had any other.
Their founders were ecclesiastics; their constitution and ceremonial
were ecclesiastical. They were intended, no doubt, to keep the Scotch
students at home. They were also expected to serve as bulwarks to the
Church against the rising heretics of the times. In this they were a
disappointment; the first-begotten of them became the cradle of the
Reformation.
In these our three eldest foundations, we are to seek the primitive
constitution and the teaching system of our Universities. In essentials,
they were the same; only between the dates of Glasgow and Old Aberdeen
occurred two great events. One was the taking of Constantinople, which
spread the Greek scholars with their treasures over Europe. The other
was the progress of printing. In 1451, when Glasgow commenced, there was
no printed text-book. In 1494, when King's College began, the ancient
classics had been largely printed; the early editions of Aristotle in
our Library, show the date of 1486.
FIRST PERIOD--THE TEACHING BODY.
Our Universities have three well-marked periods; the first anterior to
the Reformation; the second from the Reformation to the beginning of
last century; the third, the last and present centuries. Confining
ourselves still to the Faculty of Arts, the features of the
Pre-Reformation University were these:--
First, as regards the teaching Body. The quadriennial Arts' course was
conducted by so-called Regents, who each carried the same students
through all the four years, thus taking upon himself the burden of all
the sciences--a walking Encyclopaedia. The system was in full force, in
spite of attempts to change it, during both the first and the second
periods. You, the students of Arts, at the present day, encountering in
your four years, seven faces, seven voices, seven repositories of
knowledge, need an effort to understand how your predecessors could be
cheerful and happy, confined all through to one personality; sometimes
juvenile, sometimes senile, often feeble at his best.
[ARISTOTLE THE BASIS OF THE TEACHING.]
THE SUBJECTS TAUGHT.
Next, as regards the Subjects taught. To know these you have simply to
know what are the writings of Aristotle. The little work on him by Sir
Alexander Grant supplies the needful information. The records of the
Glasgow University furnish the curriculum of Arts soon after its
foundation. The subjects are laid out in two heads--Logic and
Philosophy. The Logic comprised first the three Treatises of the Old
Logic; to these were now added the whole of the works making up
Aristotle's Organon. This brought in the Syllogism, and allied matters.
There was also a selection from the work known as the _Topics_, not now
included in Logical teaching, yet one of the most remarkable and
distinctive of Aristotle's writings. It is a highly laboured account of
the whole art of Disputation, laid out under his scheme of the
Predicables. The selection fell chiefly on two books--the second,
comprising what Aristotle had to say on Induction, and the sixth, on
Definition; together with the "Logical Captions" or Fallacies.
Disputation was one of the products of the Greek mind; and Aristotle was
its prophet.
Now for Philosophy. This comprised nearly the whole of Aristotle's
Physical treatises--his very worst side--together with his Metaphysics,
some parts of which are hardly distinguishable from the Physics. Next
was the very difficult treatise--_De Anima_, on the mind, or Soul--and
some allied Psychological treatises, as that on Memory. Such was the
ordinary and sufficing curriculum. It was allowed to be varied with a
part of the Ethics; but in this age we do not find the Politics; and the
Rhetoric is never mentioned. So also, the really valuable Biological
works of Aristotle, including his book on Animals, appear to have been
neglected.
Certain portions of Mathematics always found a place in the curriculum.
Likewise, some work on Astronomy, which was one of the quadrivium
subjects.
All this was given in Latin. Greek was not then known (it was introduced
into Scotland, in 1534). No classical Latin author is given; the
education in Latin was finished at the Grammar School.
[TEACHING EXCLUSIVELY IN TEXTS.]
MANNER OF TEACHING.
Such was the Arts' Faculty of the 15th century; a dreary, single-manned,
Aristotelian quadriennium. The position is not completely before us,
till we understand farther the manner of working.
The pupils could not, as a rule, possess the text of Aristotle. The
teacher read and expounded the text for them; but a very large portion
of the time was always occupied in dictating, or "diting," notes, which
the pupils were examined upon, _vivâ voce_; their best plan usually
being to get them by heart, as any one might ask them to repeat passages
literally; while perhaps few could examine well upon the meaning. The
notes would be selections and abridgments from Aristotle, with the
comments of modern writers. The "diting" system was often complained of
as waste of time, but was not discontinued till the third, or present,
University dynasty, and not entirely then, as many of us know.
The teaching was thus exclusively _Text_ teaching. The teacher had
little or nothing to say for himself (at least in the earliest period).
He was even restricted in the remarks he might make by way of
commentary. He was as nearly as possible a machine.
But lastly, to complete the view of the first period, we must add the
practice of Disputation, of which we shall have a better idea from the
records of the next period. This practice was co-eval with the
Universities; it was the single mode of stimulating the thought of the
individual student; the chief antidote to the mechanical teaching by
Text-books and dictation.
The pre-Reformation period of Aberdeen University was little more than
sixty years. For a portion of those years it attained celebrity. In
1541, the town was honoured by a visit from James V., and the University
contributed to his entertainment. The somewhat penny-a-lining account
is, that there were exercises and disputations in Greek, Latin, and
other languages! The official records, however, show that the College at
that very time had sunk into a convent and conventual school.
SECOND PERIOD--THE REFORMATION.
The Reformation introduced the second period, and made important
changes. First of all, in the great convulsion of European thought, the
ascendancy of Aristotle was shaken. It is enough to mention two
incidents in the downfall of the mighty Stagyrite. One was the attack on
him by the renowned Peter Rainus, in the University of Paris. Our
countryman, Andrew Melville, attended Ramus's Lectures, and became the
means of introducing his system into Scotland. The other incident is
still more notable. The Reformers had to consider their attitude towards
Aristotle. At first their opinion was condemnatory. Luther regarded him
as a very devil; he was "a godless bulwark of the Papists". Melancthon
was also hostile; but he soon perceived that Theology would crumble into
fanatical dissolution without the co-operation of some philosophy. As
yet there was nothing to fall back upon except the pagan systems. Of
these, Melancthon was obliged to confess that Aristotle was the least
objectionable, and was, moreover, in possession. The plan, therefore,
was to accept him as a basis, and fence him round with orthodox
emendations. This done, Aristotle, no longer despotic, but as a limited
constitutional monarch, had his reign prolonged a century and a half.
[NEW SUBJECTS INTRODUCED BY MELVILLE.]
THE MODIFIED CURRICULUM--ANDREW MELVILLE.
The first thing, after the Reformation in Scotland, was to purge the
Universities of the inflexible adherents of the old faith. Then came
the question of amending the Curriculum, not simply with a view to
Protestantism, but for the sake of an enlightened teaching. The right
man appeared at the right moment. In 1574, Andrew Melville, then in
Geneva, received pressing invitations to come home and take part in the
needed reforms. He was immediately made Principal of Glasgow University,
at that time in a state of utter collapse and ruin. He had matured his
plans, after consultation with George Buchanan, and they were worthy of
a great reformer. He sketched a curriculum, substantially the curriculum
of the second University period. The modifications upon the almost
exclusive Aristotelianism of the first period, were significant. The
Greek language was introduced, and Greek classical authors read. The
reading in the Roman classics was extended. A text-book on Rhetoric
accompanied the classical readings. The dialectics of Ramus made the
prelude to Logic, instead of the three treatises of the old Logic. The
Mathematics included Euclid. Geography and Cosmography were taken up.
Then came a course of Moral Philosophy on an enlarged basis. With the
Ethics and Politics of Aristotle, were combined Cicero's Ethical works
and certain Dialogues of Plato. Finally, in the Physics, Melville still
used Aristotle, but along with a more modern treatise. He also gave a
view of Universal History and Chronology.
This curriculum, which Melville took upon himself to teach, in order to
train future teachers, was the point of departure of the courses in all
the Universities during the second period. With variations of time and
place, the Arts' course may be described as made up of the Greek and
Latin classics, with Rhetoric, Logic, and Dialectics, Moral Philosophy,
or Ethics, Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy. The little text-book of
Rhetoric, by Talon or Talaeus, was made up of notes from the Lectures of
Peter Ramus, and used in all our Colleges till superseded by the better
compilation of the Dutch scholar, Gerard John Voss.
Melville had to contend with many opponents, among them the sticklers
for the infallibility of the Stagyrite. Like the German Reformers, he
had accepted Aristotelianism as a basis, with a similar process of
reconciliation. So it was that Aristotle and Calvin were brought to kiss
each other.
[MELVILLE DEFEATED ON THE REGENTING.]
ATTEMPT TO ABOLISH REGENTING.
Melville's next proposal was all too revolutionary. It consisted in
restricting the Regents each to a special group of subjects; in fact,
anticipating our modern professoriate. He actually set up this plan in
Glasgow: one Regent took Greek and Latin; another, his nephew, James
Melville, took Mathematics, Logic, and Moral Philosophy; a third,
Physics and Astronomy. The system went on, in appearance at least, for
fifty years; it is only in 1642, that we find the Regents given without
a specific designation. Why it should have gone on so long, and been
then dropt, we are not informed. Melville's influence started it in the
other Universities, but it was defeated in every one from the very
outset. After six years at Glasgow, he went to St. Andrew's as Principal
and Professor of Divinity, and tried there the same reforms, but the
resistance was too great. In spite of a public enactment, the division
of labour among the Regents was never carried out. Yet such was
Melville's authority, that the same enactment was extended to King's
College, in a scheme having a remarkable history--the so-called New
Foundation of Aberdeen University, promulgated in a Royal Charter of
about the year 1581. The Earl Marischal was a chief promoter of the plan
of reform comprised in this charter. The division of labour among the
Regents was most expressly enjoined. The plan fell through; and there
was a legal dispute fifty years afterwards as to whether it had ever any
legal validity. Charles I. was made to express indignation at the idea
of reducing the University to a school!
We now approach the foundation of Marischal College. The Earl Marischal
may have been actuated by the failure of his attempt to reform King's
College. At all events, his mind was made up to follow Melville in
assigning separate subjects to his Regents. The Charter is explicit on
this head. Yet in spite of the Charter and in spite of his own presence,
the intention was thwarted; the old Regenting lasted 160 years.
ARISTOTELIAN PHYSICS TOO LONG MAINTAINED.
Still the Curriculum reform was gained. There was, indeed, one great
miss. The year before Marischal College was founded, Galileo had
published his work on Mechanics, which, taken with what had been
accomplished by Archimedes and others, laid the foundations of our
modern Physics. Copernicus had already published his work on the
Heavens. It was now time that the Aristotelian Physics should be clean
swept away. In this whole department, Aristotle had made a reign of
confusion; he had thrown the subject back, being himself off the rails
from first to last. Had there been in Scotland an adviser in this
department, like Melville in general literature, or like Napier of
Merchiston in pure mathematics, one fourth of the college teaching might
have been reclaimed from utter waste, and a healthy tone of thinking
diffused through the remainder.
A curious fascination always attached to the study of Astronomy, even
when there was not much to be said, apart from the unsatisfactory
disquisitions of Aristotle. A little book, entitled "_Sacrobosco_ on the
Sphere," containing little more than what we should now teach to boys
and girls, along with the Globes, was a University text-book throughout
Europe for centuries. I was informed by a late King's College professor
that the Use of the Globes was, within his memory, taught in the
Magistrand Class. This would be simply what is termed a "survival".
[GRADUATION BY MEANS OF DISPUTES ON THESIS.]
SYSTEM OF DISPUTATION.
Now as to the mode of instruction. There were _vivâ voce_ examinations
upon the notes, such as we can imagine. But the stress was laid on
Disputations and Declamations in various forms. Besides disputing and
declaiming on the regular class work before the Regent, we find that,
in Edinburgh, and I suppose elsewhere, the classes were divided into
companies, who met apart, and conferred and debated among themselves
daily. The students were occupied, altogether, six hours a day. Then the
higher classes were frequently pitched against each other. This was a
favourite occupation on Saturdays. The doctrines espoused by the leading
students became their nicknames. The pass for Graduation consisted in
the _propugning_ or _impugning_ of questions by each candidate in turn.
An elaborate Thesis was drawn up by the Regent, giving the heads of his
philosophy course; this was accepted by the candidates, signed by them,
and printed at their expense. Then on the day of trial, at a long
sitting, each candidate stood up and propunged or impunged a portion of
the Thesis; all were heard in turn; and on the result the Degree was
conferred. A good many of these Theses are preserved in our Library;
some of them are very long--a hundred pages of close type; they are our
best clue to the teaching of the period. We can see how far Aristotle
was qualified by modern views.
REGENTING DOOMED.