Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-11-21
Oxford University.

We have nothing like Oxford university in
America, but the colleges we have may be not
only better for US, but absolutely better in the
amount and quality of work they require of
their students, in the opportunities for a truly
valuable education and the stimuantS to sound,
mental discipline, as well as in the means of
acquiring practical information which they pro,
vide. Professor J. r. Boise of Illinois gives his
impressions of Oxford as follows
"a week in Oxford. have long desired the
opportunity to sit down quietly, leisurely en-
tirely iRcOgnitO in this old university town; to
see il with my own eyes, and to Judge OF it dis
pasSionately: with more independence than
when | saw ii twenty years ago, for a single
day. But it is no easy task, even taking whole
week and using the utmost diligence, to pene-
trate far beneath the shell. OF course, the Ordi-
nary traveller can do Oxford in day, easily.
lie can see all that is worth seeing,-at least he
thinks so; and then he is off, TO do some other
place in like manner. lie has seen the shell !;
and that, truly, is not much. The streets are
not handsome; the churches are no more than
respectable; and the various college buildings,
although of fair architectural proportions, are
the ruStieSt and scallest lie has ever seen. Yes,
they are literary ScdtB.
They are all built of very soft stone, which
on exposure to the atmosphere, cleayes off on
the outside, like an inferior Stucco; and many
of them have been built for centuries, so that
they have become wretchedly deiaced. The gal-
denS alone seem to me beautiful. These are nu-
merous and ample. They present the greatest
variety, are laid out with the most exquisite
taste are kept with the utmost care, and contain
the choicest specimens of flowers, shrubs and
trees from all parts of the world. But did not
come to Oxford to see gardens, however beautI-
full; or to study architecture, however antique
and curious. A college or university is not
do OH Of and
although some Americans, who found colleges,
seem TO think so. What then is Oxford? its
real character? its inner life? After the tray
eler has done the city, what remainsr All, or
nearly all that interests me,
From all have thus far been able to learn,
my impressions of the actual education acquired
here by the average man are far from favorable.
The course of study is too rcStricted-hetter
adapted 10 the sixteenth than the nineteenth
century-and the professors do not rs 4 rule, get
hold of the students; dOnOt think, draw them
out; in other words, do not educate them.
fear may seem to speak harshly aud rashlY;
but am only repeating what the most inteli-
gent and beSt-intormed man that | have met
with here said to me but yesterday, He affirmed
that a large majority of the students were Of
idle habits, studying but an hour or
two a day, many of them scarcely
part of their time to athletic sports, or to some
thing of more questionable utility. OF course,
said he there are Il few who work with great
diligence; but they are diligent in spite of the
system, not because they are aided and encour.
aged by it. They are the men who make their
mark in the world, who give to Oxford all the
reputation that il enjoys.
The University of Oxford is composed of nine
teen distinct colleges, with several halls or par
TALLY developed colleges, and several other sep
arate institutions of various kinds, as the libra
ries, the famous Clarendon printing establish
nth coll.
University Calendar, "are distinct corporate
bodies, within the university,
but Independent of it; governed as TO their own
concerns by their respective statutes" Each
college has its own cdilices, with dOrmitOries,
chapel, library, kitchen and dining hall, and
usually a large garden. If all the colleges of
Illinois were brought within stones throw of
each other, remaining meanwhile just rs dis
tinct and as independent of each other as they
are now, with the single exception that the eX-
animation for degrees must be conducted by
committee from all the college faculties, we
should have type, of which we should have no
reasons to be ashamed, of the University Of Ok
ford
And what do you think of such conception
Of university? one of the inquiSitiye boys is
ready to ask. do not think well of it, not al all;
and have ventured to say so, more than once,
here in Oxford. In conversation with the Rad
clilfe librarian, | asked him if he did not think
it would be better to throw all the separate col
leges, with their faculties, students, libraries
aud all their resources, into one whole. "But
how would it be. he at once replied with the
different ranksp NV ready reJoinder was.
chat, as an American, | cared nothing
about rank" To this he made no reply, but
looked very much shocked at my vulgar IDEAS
And so old England will for the present, in cdu-
cation and everything else, hold to her ideas of
rank,-O caste,-aS tenaciouSy as Japan or
China. Meanwhile, in her higher education,
not less than in her primary, she is RAPIDLY fall
IN behind more enlightened and liberal Ger
many, aud even America. Yes she is falling be-
nina America, and that TOO, very rapidly, in her
collegiate and university education as well as
m her common school education. With
all her immense resources, am convinced that
her system OF education is a bad one. cannot
but contrast it continually with what have seen
ar Lepsic and Halle, and Bonn and Berlin. Nine
out of ten of the men of Oxford seem to me to
be doing next to nothing for the world TO be
asleep; and while they sleep and dream, Ger
many and America will leave them behind in
the race. believe the work done in our best
American colleges is better than that done in
the best colleges Of Oxford; American students
as whole are under more pressure, work with
more asSiduity, and are more wide awake TO the
demands Of the age.
True, in some of the technicalitcs and nicetes
of classical education, Oxford is far in advance
of us, and am quite willing She should remain
50; but believe our education, as a whole, de-
velops more strength of mind and force of
character. Again, while Oxford is nearly at a
stand-still, and has been so half a century, the
education in America is rapidly improving. All
TINS may seem very tattering to us America us:
but believe | am right"