St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-05-29

formers. The University Of Edinburgh,
in spite of the argument Of Bower that it
was founded by the bishop of Orkney
and Queen Mary, was in fact an out
growth of an act of the Town Council.
Thus in three of the universities the chair
of divinity has always been one of great
power, and in Glasgow, Scotland had
not only Chalmers, the founder of the
Free church, but Cook, his unsparing op.
poneut, who turned his heavy artillery
of theology against the ideas which
Chalmers defended so tenaciously. A
much larger proportion of the students
than in our American universities find
their way into the divinity courses. The
opening of the gates of the universities
to all who wish to enter by the muniti
cent gift Of Mr.. Carnegie will doubtless
have broadening and liberalizlng effect
upon the trend of Scottish university
education.
Still another change will come with the
widening of the activities of the univer-
sity and the popularizing of university
education. The system during the
greater part of the eighteenth century
and the beginning of the nineteenth was
one which tended to make the universe
ties intensely local. Chairs were handed
on from father to son, or kept in the
family, so that it is noted that between
1884 and 1911 no less than eight men,
bers of the Gordon family, beginning
with the two principals Middleton, were
professors at Kings College in the Uni
versity of Aberdeen. In spite of this
nepotism the universities possessed some
notable professors. A most interesting
group gathered at Aberdeen around
Thomas Read, including James Beattie,
George Campbell, Alexander Gerard and
John Gregory. 1t is astonishing to oh.
serve among the alumni of the Scottish
universities so many men whose tame
has been not only worldwide, but endur
ing. Look over the list OF few of the
more notable graduates or students OF
the University of Edinburgh. In science
there was James Gregory (1647), the in
ventor of one form of the rejecting
telescope; Joseph Black, who discovered
carbonic acid, and gave eathblow to
the "phlogiston' theory; James Clerk
Maxwell, whose researches into the
mechanics of heat, electricity and magne-
tism are imperishable; James Hutton,
the father of modern geology; Uranus
Darwin, the zoologist, and his grandson,
Charles Darwin the evolutionist. In ex-
ploration there were Mungo Park, the
African explorer, and William ScOresby,
one of the pioneers of Arctic geography,
the latter poor student who went to
sea with his father and in winters took
he In
are the names of Robert Stevenson, the
lighthouse builder, and Robert Steven
son, the son of George, who built the
Victoria Bridge at Montreal In econ
omics the great names of David Hume
and James Mill stand out prominent.
In literature we find ]. G. Lockhart,
the biographer of Scott and the editor of
the Quarterly Review; Thomas Carlyle.
who took the successive courses of arts,
divinity and law; James Thompson,
author of "The Seasons" Mark AIKEN
side, who wrote THE Pleasures of the
imagination;" Oliver Goldsmith, who
studied medicine and wrote enduring
dramas; Sir Walter Scott, the king of
Scotch literature; William Aytoun,
author of the Lays OF the Scottish
Cavaliers" DR.. John Brown, the essay
list; Francis Jeffrey, editor of the Edin-
burgh Review for twenty-six years; John
Wilson, Christopher North" and many
others. In public life are found among
the graduates Lord Brougham, Earl
Russell and Lord Palmerston.
But the University OF Edinburgh has
no monopoly of the great names of Scot
land. At Glasgow among the students
were Daniel Rutherford, the discoverer of
nitrogen James Boswell, the biographer
of Johnson, who also studied at Edin-
burgh, and Thomas Campbell, who
wrote "The Pleasures of Hope" At
Aberdeen were John Hill Burton, the de-
lightful essayist, and James Beattie, the
poet. George Colman was sent to Aber-
deem to be tanned, and found in Roderick
Macleod, one Of the professors, the
original Of Doctor Pangloss." Colin
MacLaurin, "the one mathematician of
the first rank trained in Great Britain in
the eighteenth century," led the move
ment at Aberdeen in favor of science
teaching and the arrangements of the
university arts course. In St. Andrews
were enrolled as students, Thomas Chal-
HnNASj LIN LhNOlOSldH, tllS AuIIllI dDIc
Cr1chton," who entered the university at
the age of ten; and Sir Hugh Lyon Play
fair, the physicist, whose memory re-
mains in the college annals as "the mar
tinet provost"
1t is perhaps one Of the most signi6-
cant events of the opening century that
the private benefaction OF one man
should open new era for education in
an entire country. Strong indeed must
be the ties which bind one who has risen
to fame and fortune in another country
to the land of his birth so strongly as to
make him the leader OF such an educa-
tional revolution. And the best of the
gift is that its permanency is assured,
and it will 60 on gathering force as it
rolls through the ages, stimulating the
universities to renewed activity, broad.
ening their work, and placing the advan-
tages of the highest education culture
within the reach of the lowest aspiring
lad of ''the land O. cakes. "-[Boston
Transcript.