You are ready to look for them any where else than in our _English_
Universities.
Come on then, my Lord: have the goodness to point out to us those
happier seminaries, where these and all other virtues are more
successfully propagated.
But which way will your Lordship direct us to take, in this search?
Shall we turn to the North of this country for those advantages,
which we despair of finding in the South? Or, because the grossness
of our island air may infect all parts alike, shall we shape our
course to the Continent? And does your Lordship encourage us to look
for some _Athens_ amidst the Protestant states of _Germany_, in the
_Netherlands_, or the _Swiss_ Cantons?
These, I take it, are the only scenes which your Lordship can have in
view; for, as high as their reputation may be in this respect, you
would hardly advise the breeding of our _English_ youth in the colleges
of the Jesuits.
One word then, if you please, on these Protestant Universities on the
Continent.
Your Lordship and I have had some experience of the state of literature
and education in those places. Eminent and excellent men they surely
have amongst them. But so, your Lordship will confess, have the
Universities of _England_. If we do not readily find those who, at this
day, may be opposed to a LIMBORCH or a LE CLERC; yet it is not long
since we had to boast of a CHILLINGWORTH, a CUDWORTH, and a WHICHCOT;
all, men of manly thought, generous minds, and incomparable learning.
But the question is not, you know, of particular men, which such great
bodies rarely want; but, of the general frame and constitution of
learned societies, fit for the purposes of polite and liberal education.
Shall we say then, that the scattered tribes of students in a _Dutch_
or _Swiss_ town are likely to be better instructed, or better governed,
than the young scholars in our colleges; or, that the good order,
discipline, and sobriety of these places, is to be compared with the
anarchy and licence of those other?
Your Lordship, I know, takes a pleasure to conceive of certain foreign
academies, as of that ANCIENT one, where the students visited, without
constraint, the schools of philosophers, and even bore a part in their
free conferences and disputations: you even love to paint the noble
youth to yourself, as of old, spatiating, at their leisure, in shady
walks and porticos, and imbibing the principles of science as they drop
upon them in the dews of Attic eloquence and politeness.
All this, my Lord, is very well: yet, setting aside a certain colouring
of expression which takes and amuses the imagination, I see but
little to admire in this picture; certainly not enough to make one
regret the want of the original, and seriously to prefer this easy
manner of breeding, to that stricter form which prevails in our own
Universities: where the day begins and ends with religious offices:
where the diligence of the youth is quickened and relieved, in turn,
by stated hours of study and recreation: where temperance and sobriety
are even _convivial_ virtues; and the two extremes of a festive jollity
and unsocial gloom are happily tempered by the decencies of a _common
table_; where, in a word, the discipline of Spartan HALLS and the
civility of Athenian BANQUETS are, or may be, united.
Surely, my Lord, these wholesome regulations, with many others that
might be mentioned, could we but strip them of the opprobrious name of
collegiate and monastic, are of another use and value in education,
than the lax unrestrained indulgence of foreign seminaries.
But, were there even no difference in this respect, as there is surely
a great deal, are we to reckon for nothing the disparity of civil and
religious constitutions?
Your Lordship, I dare say, will not suspect me of a bigoted adherence
to any mere _mode_ of civil or ecclesiastical regimen. But is it all
one, whether a young boy, who is destined to be a subject to the crown,
and a member of the church of _England_, be inured to the equality of
republican governments, and of calvinistical churches? It may be well
for men of confirmed age and ability to look into both; but would you
train up your son in a way that is likely to indispose him, right or
wrong, to the institutions of his own country?
Besides, are there fewer prejudices, think ye, in the men of other
churches and governments, than our own? or, are their professors
and institutors of youth more free from popular errors and blind
attachments, though of a different sort, than the tutors and masters of
education in our country?
Nay, consider with yourself, my Lord; is there not as much tyranny
in the administration of some they call _free states_; and as much
restraint and persecution in the principles of some they call _free
churches_, as can fairly be charged on the monarchy or church of
_England_?
So that what you could expect to gain by preferring these foreign
schools of learning to your own, I cannot easily imagine. All that is
worth acquiring in either, you have, at least, an equal chance to meet
with at home: and what should be avoided, may, nay must, with more
probability, be encountered abroad.
But your Lordship, perhaps, would confine your young traveller to no
_one_ seat of learning; and have it only in view to convey him hastily,
under the wing of a tutor, through many a famous academy, without
settling him in any. This, I must confess, is the way to keep clear of
prejudices; but, whether any solid instruction, or just science either
of men or things, is to be gathered from so cursory an education, your
Lordship will do well to consider.