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they prove a high degree of unity of principle, as well as the existence of a discipline opposed to agitation and strife. There is the discipline calculated to preserve unity, and there is the union which makes the discipline efficient. It is true, there are congregations" which have left the Wesleyan Methodists. But let the principles which have been striving to gain the ascendancy, both in Church and State, for the last fifty years, be remembered,—and then let the nature of the various secessions of which I am speaking be likewise remembered, and who that knows any thing of the workings of human nature, in a country of true freedom like this, will wonder that such secessions have taken place? Instead of proving the divisive, they prove the anti-divisive, tendencies of Methodism. Let the "Record" look at home. Can any thing like a similar spectacle be shown there? The Wesleyans are one in doctrine and discipline, all over the world; and ONE IN AFFECTION too. Will the "Record" say that the Church is so? Will the writer say that the Church is to be blamed for divisive tendencies, because there are those who have seceded from her communion? The advocate of a community split into contending parties, agreed scarcely on any one point, but that they only, in this country, constitute Christ's church, does not occupy a position warranting him to censure the Wesleyans for preserving their Christian unity by removing from their communion those who seek to subvert the constitution to which they are attached. They judge not the parties who have thus formed plans of their own; and they are accountable neither for their existence nor their proceedings. If, indeed, they professed to be all one body while thus opposing each other, if they were parties IN Wesleyan Methodism, the case would be different. But even then the "Record" ought not to condemn them. Let it be, however, recollected, that they are not Wesleyan Methodists. They exist as separate bodies; and their separate existence proves that whether they

VOL. XXIII. Third Series.

be right in their object, or mistaken, Wesleyan Methodism is opposed to strife and division.

The second of the three points on which the "Record" has chosen to attack the Wesleyans, I have reserved for consideration in the last place; and for this reason,-that I feel it difficult to treat it as it deserves. "Their dogma of the perfectibility of human nature." Is it possible that the writer could be otherwise aware than that he was writing what was not true? If on any subject Mr. Wesley wrote explicitly, it was upon that of the Christian perfection which he taught, and which he believed he found in the oracles of God. Repeatedly does he declare in his writings, that he does not refer to any perfectibility of human nature. Whether his doctrine was, or was not, scriptural, this was not his doctrine. With him it was the perfection of divine love, to which all who are brought, are brought to it by the grace of the Holy Spirit, given through the atoning blood of the adorable Redeemer. He applied the term perfection to the state in which the soul of man is entirely influenced by holy love, and the principles which that love supposes and implies. Beautifully does the Book of Common Prayer teach us to pray for pardon, and continued acceptance with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. But is this all? When it instructs us to say, "Cleanse the thoughts of our heart by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name," (one of the profoundest, weightiest prayers that ever was expressed in language merely human,) does it refer to a blessing which God has not promised to bestow, or which, having promised, he is unable or unwilling to perform? That prayer, answered, gives the whole doctrine of Christian perfection, as held by the Wesleyans; and what is there in it of the perfectibility of human nature? I will not argue the doctrine; but I will say, that they who admire that prayer have no right thus to sneer FEBRUARY, 1844. K

at us. The truth is, few who attack Methodism trouble themselves to learn what Methodism really is. The study of Mr. Wesley's Sermons, his Appeals, his treatise on Original Sin, and his tracts on Christian Perfection, would make the Clergy far better theologians than too many of them are,—would serve to render them efficient workmen, and true builders-up of the Church,―would prepare them for pursuing with advantage that otherwise most bewildering task, the study of the Divines of their own Church, far more noted for their praise of uniformity, than their avoidance of diversity, of opinion in matters of religion.

These really are strange times. That part of the Church which the

"Record" represents is perpetually, and rightly, calling attention to the advancement of Popery, Roman and Anglican; and yet, for the sake of that very dogma of exclusiveness which is the strong-hold of Popery in every form, does it not only separate from those who, though true Protestants, are not Churchmen, but attacks them, and attributes to them doctrines which they repudiate from their heart. It is time to make a public and decided protest against this most mischievous sectarianism, and to declare that they are the true schismatics who refuse communion with all whose discipline is not the same as their

own.

A FRIEND TO TRUTH AND PEACE. Jan. 6th, 1844.

REVIEW.

The English Universities. From the German of V. A. Huber, Professor of Western Literature at Marburg. An abridged Translation. By Francis W. Newman, Professor of the Greek and Latin Classics at Manchester New College, and formerly Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Two Volumes. 8vo. pp. lxi, 450; xv, 740. Pickering.

THIS elaborate and interesting work exhibits to the English reader a general view of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, from their earliest history, to the Revolution of 1688. "It contains ample details concerning the ancient University constitution, and its later changes; concerning that curious and dark subject, the academic nations; the town-corporations, and their long struggle with the Universities; as also the relation of the latter with the Church, the Crown, and finally with the Parliament." As far as the materials allow, the internal and moral history of the Universities has been carried down to the present day. Many of the most remarkable personages connected with them are particularly described; and the connexion of University sentiments and manners with the

contemporaneous events in England is carefully traced. To the learning usually characteristic of Germans, the author adds a remarkable insight into the working of British institutions; and his developement of the action and re-action which goes on between aristocratic society, the Church, the Universities, and the State, will be read with interest. The work has the peculiarity of presenting both our great national Universities in a single view, and illustrating them alike by their analogies, and by their contrasts. Considering the ignorance prevailing among us as to the real composition and interior management of institutions so influential and valuable, and the number of questions concerning them on which an enlightened curiosity desires reply, the publication of Professor Huber's

history, in our own language, will not fail to prove serviceable.

The above is a brief description of the work itself, and of the purposes for which it has been presented to the public of Britain; and we do not doubt that our readers will be interested in those portions of the history of our public Universities which in the following pages will be introduced to their

notice.

The grand object originally contemplated, in the establishment of these national seminaries, was not to train poets or philosophers, but to fit men for the discharge of the duties of active life. This is a point of which many are not willing to recognise the value. The vanity of some literary characters, as to the relative importance of their own favourite pursuit, is occasionally inflated, overweening, and ludicrous. Allowing that England has produced, within the last fifty years, as many really great men in letters as any country ever did within a similar period; and grant, also, that any one of these has done higher honour, and more lasting good, to the world, than can come of a score of mere able labourers in any liberal profession, properly so called let it not be forgotten, and mankind at large will cordially concur in the opinion, that any one such able and honest labourer in any of those walks of practical usefulness, on which crowds of literati think themselves entitled to look down with an unfriendly scowl, is worth a whole regiment of authorlings; and is, by the unanimous verdict of society, more estimable living, and has, moreover, a better chance of being honourably remembered when dead.

One great advantage of our general system of education, as followed in our public seminaries, is, that it is in perfect accordance with our national institutions. We have heard it remarked, that a social system like ours admits of a three-fold aristocracy; namely, that of birth, wealth, and talents; and whatever, in the order of things, tends to mingle together the different classes

upon a footing as equal as possible, mitigates, in no inconsiderable degree, and ameliorates, those disadvantages and jealousies, if not animosities, which are inseparable from all distinctions of rank. Aristocracy, of every kind, has a natural tendency to exclusiveness. Each has its narrow pride, which induces it to insulate itself within its peculiar circle, and to despise all distinctions but its own. There may be some truth in the theory espoused with so much bitterness, and exaggerated with animosity no less vulgar and unphilosophical than the arrogance which they condemn, by some of the second-rate novelists and the party-writers of the day, that the hereditary aristocracy has maintained a jealous and undue ascendancy over the government of the country. The real extent, and the advantage or pernicious consequences to the community from this long-predominant influence, would be, to a candid and dispassionate mind, a subject of historical inquiry of equal interest and importance. But we do not scruple to assert, that, but for the public system of education above alluded to, this influence, whatever it may have been, would have become more dangerous and repugnant to the independent spirit of the nation. It is at the public school that birth and wealth receive their first, and their most salutary, lessons of equality. The aristocracy of title and fortune has its first collision with the aristocracy of talent; and is taught that it may, and will, without strenuous exertions, be worsted, and be obliged to submit to confessed inferiority in the contest. It is there first taught, that there is something besides hereditary distinction which is of importance in the estimation of the public at large. The boy who, in Eton phrase, is frequently "sent up for good," stands higher with the independent mass of his schoolfellows than the expectant heir to twenty thousand a year, or to a ducal title. The trifling distinctions which are permitted to persons of rank in our great schools, as well as in the Universities, enforce little respect among

the boys themselves: unless he is gentlemanlike in his manners, courteous and unpresuming in his behaviour, the young patrician will come in for his share of that ruder discipline by which boys are apt to correct presumption and insolence. A plebeian boy will thrash an impertinent lordling with most indiscriminating impartiality; and a highborn dunce will be laughed at with as little scruple as the blundering son of a tradesman. If the aristocracy have not degenerated into a caste,-if it have not kept entirely aloof from the common opinions, feelings, and interests of society, we may rejoice at this early association, if not amalgamation, with other classes. The flatterer, with parasitical assiduity, may incessantly beset them in the commencement of their scholastic career; but the general and prevailing tone, in a wellregulated public school, is that of bold and generous independence; not only cleverness and superior attainments, but strength and activity, success in the cricket-field, or pulling a good oar in the boat,frank and open manners, come in for their full share, with high birth or the command of money, in the popular distribution of respect and estimation. Incidental evils, no doubt, arise out of this intimate union of boys of different stations, and different expectations, in life. Some, whose parents can ill afford the necessary expenses of the school, may be tempted to rival the prodigality of boys of twenty times their fortune; in others the inborn servility of character may be developed by the vulgar desire of being on familiar terms with a boy of rank. In some schools, of a public character, the diabolical fag system has been carried out to a most cruel and oppressive extent,-a system which has proved the tomb of all that has been generous and noble in the mind of the youth, and calculated to destroy, at one fell stroke, that feeling of English independence which all our large scholastic establishments should encourage and foster, rather than depreciate or destroy. In the Universities of Oxford

and Cambridge this pest is unknown; but in several minor, although public, seminaries it remains. We shall rejoice to witness these popular national institutions maintaining their moral influence on society, and especially on the sons of the higher aristocracy, and on youths who are intended for the learned professions; purged of those Popish tendencies which of late years have exerted a mischievous influence on the minds of the scholars; and divested of those bigoted and exclusive principles by which many have been precluded from participating in their privileges and sharing their ho

nours.

Professor Huber considers that, in order to understand so important a phenomenon as the rise of Universities, the subject should be considered in connexion with the general state of western Christendom during the Middle Ages, when Universities had an existence on the Continent before those of this country.

"All these institutions are to be regarded as phenomena characteristic of the Middle Ages; and each separate University was, at that time, intimately connected with the state of European civilization. Even this circumstance, were this all, would demand from an historian of the English Universities, previously to examine the older institutions of a similar kind. But, in fact, we cannot dispense with the information to be derived from this source; for our accounts of the English Universities are too scanty to be understood without such illustrations. Moreover, it is well known,

that they stood in close relationship with the Universities of the Continent, and especially with that of Paris; so that this preliminary inquiry legitimately falls within our province. But it will be somewhat more laborious, because we have come to conclusions essentially different from those which are current concerning these matters; and we must therefore detail our own views more fully." (Vol. i., p. 2.)

Anterior to the establishment of Universities, properly so called, schools of learning were instituted: these, however, were of little use to the advancement of know

ledge, or of rational theology, because very few in those days were acquainted with the true nature of the liberal arts and sciences, or with the important ends which they were adapted to serve. Although the Universities of the Continent take the precedence, with regard to time, of those of England,-nevertheless, in our land schools were established even before the days of good King Alfred; and in this respect we were happier than other nations of Europe. This, it will be recollected, was owing, in a considerable degree, to the zeal and enterprising spirit of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the eighth century. A native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, a Monk of Rome, and originally a Greek Priest, he had been consecrated Archbishop, and sent into England, by Pope Vitalian, in 668. He was skilled in the metrical art, astronomy, arithmetic, church-music, and the Greek and Latin languages; and brought with him what was then called and esteemed a large library, consisting of copies of the Scriptures, and many Greek and Latin books; among which were Homer, in a large volume, written on paper with most exquisite elegance; the Homilies of Chrysostom, on parchment; the Psalter; and Josephus's Hypomnesticon; all in Greek. He was accompanied into England by Adrian, a Neapolitan Monk, and a native of Africa, learned in the holy Scriptures, versed in monastic and ecclesiastical discipline, and excellently skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues; who, having declined the honour of the ecclesiastical primacy in favour of his friend Theodore, had been appointed by the Pope to the abbacy of St. Austin, at Canterbury. They were both escorted from Rome by Benedict Biscop, a Saxon youth, a native of Northumberland. Theodore, in conjunction with Adrian, expounded the Scriptures publicly; endeavoured to excite a taste for letters, by delivering lectures to the most crowded audiences his exertions could procure; and established schools in most parts of England. These honourable labours produced

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the most pleasing effects; and it is recorded by Bede, that, when he himself wrote, individuals were found amongst the scholars of those learned masters, to whom the Latin and Greek languages were as familiar as their native tongue. To account for the possibility of an African delivering lectures to an English or Saxon audience, it should be remembered that Latin was the common language of all the Ecclesiastics of the Romish Church; that Benedict Biscop had not only acted as interpreter, but as teacher, of the Saxon; and that the principal hearers of Theodore were persons engaged in ecclesiastical offices, or educating for them. "To his" (Theodore's) "memory," says a modern writer, we owe respect and gratitude: he brought into our island a most invaluable library of Greek and Latin books, with several copies of the Scriptures, which happily survived the wreck of ages: he planted among us the language of the Gospels, and sowed those seeds, both of divine and human learning, which, under the blessing of Providence, have grown and flourished in our country; have exalted our religion, and consequently our morality; expanded our minds, embellished them with science, and added to our physical enjoyments the comforts of the arts. Those who unfortunately cannot relish the animated, pious effusions of Chrysostom, (which, however, would have equally served religion and virtue, had they been less severe upon women,) may, at least, respect the man who brought the επεα πτερόεντα of Homer to our shores." Our author observes :

"While it will be conceded, that no natural and healthy developement of human existence takes place, except so far as its outward forms are shaped by the silent yet powerful working of the mind; equally certain is it, that such working is eminently promoted by institutions in which the highest knowledge attainable in the age is cultivated and transmitted.

"Before the time of Charlemagne, monastic and cathedral schools existed in Italy and in England: after his time

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