CHAPTER III.

ON THE RECENT AND PRESENT CONDITION OF CLASSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION AT CAMBRIDGE.

SECT. 1. Of Recent Changes in the Educational System of Cambridge

190 THE preceding remarks on the subjects of Educational study, and on the methods of Teaching such subjects, are, for the most part, general, and apply to all Institutions of the nature of Colleges and Universities. They have been stated however with a more special reference to the present condition of the University of Cambridge: and several of them will, I hope, be found to have a useful bearing upon the circumstances of that condition, and the matters which may come under discussion with reference to that subject. In order to prepare the way for such an application of what I have said, I must give some account of changes which have taken place in the University system in late years.

191 The system of the University, till within a few years, was one in which Logical Disputations on certain selected philosophical Questions were the main exercises: such Disputations being held both for the purpose of familiarizing the students with the doctrines of the received Philosophy, and of assigning due distinction to the best proficients in the art of disputation.

When the students had been duly exercised in this art for the appointed time in the Public Schools of the University, (for which they were prepared by

frequent Disputations in their own Colleges,) they were examined in the Public Schools by the Proctors, Moderators, and other Regent Masters of Arts; and their fitness for the Bachelor's Degree thus ascertained. The phraseology of our common University language, and of our formal documents, still indicates this state of things. Those who obtain our highest mathematical honours, are Wranglers or Disputants; those who are on the point of being candidates for the Bachelor's Degree are Sophists, or Sophs; also Questionists: the Supplicat for such a degree certifies that the candidate has performed all the Responsions, Oppositions, and other exercises, required; and he is presented by the Father of the College and admitted by the Vice-Chancellor as idoneus ad respondendum questioni.

192 In order that the reader may have a fixed point of departure, by reference to which he may understand the more recent changes, I will copy Dr Jebb's account of the exercises and examinations of the University as they existed in his time, that is in 1772. This account was applicable with little alteration till the change effected by the Grace of 1827.

After stating the manner in which the names of the students are collected in a book by the Moderators, Dr Jebb proceeds: "These Moderators are annually chosen upon the tenth of October. Their proper office is to preside, alternately, at the public exercises of the students; and to examine them, at the time of their offering themselves for their degree.

"These public exercises are held in the afternoon, for five days in the week during term time; the moderator appearing a little before two, and frequently continuing in the schools till the clock strikes four.

66

Upon the first Monday after the commencement of the January term, the Moderator, whose turn it is to preside, gives written notice to one of the students

in his list, that it is his pleasure he should appear in the schools, as a disputant, on that day fortnight.

"This person, who is now called the 'respondent,' in a few hours after he has received the summons, waits upon the Moderator with three propositions or questions; the truth of which he is to maintain against the objections of any three students of the same year, whom the moderator shall think proper to nominate, and who on this occasion are called 'opponents.'

"The questions, proposed by the respondent, are written upon separate papers, according to a form, of which the following is a specimen :

"Q. S.

"Planetæ primarii retinentur in orbitis suis vi gravitatis, et motu projectili.

"Iridis primariæ et secundariæ phænomena solvi possunt ex principiis opticis.

"Non licet magistratui civem morti tradere nisi ob crimen homicidii."

66 -Resp. Jan. 10mo "

"At the bottom of three of these papers, the Moderator writes the name of a student, whom he thinks capable of opposing the questions of the respondent, with the words, Opponentium primus, secundus, or tertius,' denoting the order, in which the opponents are to appear.

"One of these papers is sent to each opponent; and from that which remains, the Moderator, at his leisure, transcribes the questions, together with the names of the respondent and opponents into his book.

"When one Moderator has thus given out the exercise for a week, he sends the book to the other, who proceeds according to the same method, and then returns the book to his colleague.

193 "The fortnight for preparation being expired, the respondent appears in the schools: he ascends the rostrum, and reads a Latin dissertation, (called with

us a 'thesis') upon any one of the three questions he thinks proper; the Moderator attending in his place.

"As soon as the respondent has finished his thesis, which generally takes ten or fifteen minutes in the reading, the Moderator calls upon the first opponent to appear. He immediately ascends a rostrum opposite to the respondent, and proposes his 'arguments' against the questions in syllogistical form.

"Eight arguments, each consisting of three or four syllogisms, are brought up by the first opponent, five by the second, and three by the third.

"When the exercise has for some time been carried on according to the strict rules of logic, the disputation insensibly slides into free and unconfined debate: the Moderator, in the mean time, explaining the argument of the opponent, when necessary; restraining both parties from wandering from the subject; and frequently adding, at the close of each argument, his own determination upon the point in dispute.

"These exercises are improving; are generally well attended; and, consequently, are often performed with great spirit. But many persons of good judgment, observing, with pain, the unclassical Latin, generally uttered by the student upon these occasions, have maintained, that the knowledge of that language is not promoted by the present method of disputation; and have delivered it as their opinion, that these exercises should be held in English, in order to their absolute perfection.

194 The three opponents, having, in their turns, exhausted their whole stock of arguments, are dismissed by the Moderator in their order, with such a compliment as in his estimation they deserve: and

*

*For instance, Optimè disputasti. Hence Senior and Junior Optimès.

the exercise closes with the dismission of the respondent in a similar manner.

"The Moderator, upon his return to his chambers, records the merits of the disputants by marks, set opposite to their respective names.

"This exercise, with the preparations for the subsequent examination in January, appears to be sufficient employment for the last year. And the apprehension of it is so alarming, that the student, after two years and a quarter's residence, during which time no proof whatever of his proficiency is required, frequently seeks to avoid the difficulty or disgrace, by commencing fellow-commoner, or, by declaring his intention of proceeding in Civil Law.

195 "These exercises being duly performed, the Vice-Chancellor appoints three days, in the beginning of the January term, for the examination of the 'Questionists: this being the appellation of the students, during the last six weeks of their preparation.

"The Moderators, some days before the arrival of the time prescribed by the Vice-Chancellor, meet for the purpose of forming the students into divisions of six, eight, or ten, according to their performance in the schools, with a view to the ensuing examination.

"Upon the first of the appointed days, at eight o'clock in the morning, the students enter the Senatehouse, preceded by a Master of Arts from each College, who, on this occasion, is called the Father' of the College to which he belongs.

"After the Proctors have called over the names, each of the Moderators sends for a division of the students they sit with him round a table, with pens, ink, and paper, before them: he enters upon his task of examination, and does not dismiss the set till the hour is expired. This examination has now for some years been held in the English language.

196 "The Examination is varied according to the