university.] COURSE OF STUDIES. I7
? 18 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [University.
meant as a check upon the teacher and the taught,
as it depended upon the decision of the principal
whether or not the student in the next session
should proceed in the same order of study.
In the early days of the university Greek was universally
begun at college, there being scarcely an
opportunity of acquiring even the elements of that
magnificent language elsewhere. Indeed, there was
an absolute prohibition ordained by the Privy
Council in 1672 of teaching Greek or Philosophy
in any schools but the four universities; and a
warrant was granted ? to direct letters, at the instance
of the professors of any of the universities
and colleges of this kingdom, against all such
persons as shall contravene the said Act.?
From this we may conclude that the acquirernents
of the students in Greek Literature could not
be very great ; and yet the sessions were so long,
the application so uninterrupted, that the amount
of their readings was not much less than those of
the present day, in their shorter terms. Their
favourite authors were (after the New Testament)
Isocrates, Homer, Hesiod, and Phocylides ; and ig
connection with these results of the first year there
was added a brief system of rhetoric, disguised
under the title of didectics. These, with the
catechism, filled up the cycle of academical study
till the autumnal recess began.
When the session opened in October the students
were again examined in public. The professor
prescribed a theme in Greek, and the study of
rhetoric was resumed immediately after. Their
text-book was the work of Talaus, which would
seem to have differed very little from the dzakctics
of his master, Peter Ramus.
The attention of the students was next called
to the Progymnasmata of Apthonius, and to
Cassander, the forerunner of Aristotle ; and about
January the Organon of the ,latter was introduced,
and then the books of the Categories, the Analytics,
the Topics, ar,d two of the Elenchi.
The studies of the third year, under Rollock?s
system, consisted of the higher branches of the
Ancient Logic, Hebrew, and Anatomy, the last
solely camed out by books, as there were no dissections
of the human body in Edinburgh University,
as we have shown, till the reign of Queeii
Anne.
The fourth year was devoted to what in the
sixteenth century was denominated Physics-or
the courses and appearances of natural phenomena.
They read the bocks De Cdo and the 5??hm-a of
John Sacroboscus. Theories ?of the planets were
explained, and the seats of the constellations
pointed out.
These were succeeded by the books De Ortu,
De &Ieteoris, and De Anima, and the course conzluded
with Hunter?s Cosmo,aaphia.
As a whole, it would seem from the materials
zollected by Bower that the course of a student?s
Fourth year was somewhat superficial, being nearly
made up of a brief introduction to Geography, a
long time spent upon somewhat useless abstractions
3f Aristotle, and a little attention paid to scholastic
divinity. I
Such, then, was the system of education introiuced
by Robert Rollock, the first Principal, or
Primarius, of the old University of Edinburgh.
It was not until about 1660-the year of the
Restoration-that the University, by means of bene-
[actions from public bodies and private individuals,
ittained a respectable rank among similar instibutions.
In the manner already described, education
was conducted in Scottish seminaries until the
year 1647, when commissioners from the four
Universities met at Edinburgh, upon a suggestion
of the General Assembly of the Church,
to take into their consideration the mode of
tutelage which was pursued in each. Among
other resolutions, it was then found necessary ? that
there be a CUYSUS PhiZosojhicus drawn up by the
four universities, and printed, to the end that the
unprofitable and noxious pains in writing be
shunned ; and that each university contribute
their travails thereto. And it is thought upon,
against the month of March ensuing, viz., that St
Andrews take the metaphysics ; that Glasgow take
the logics ; Aberdeen the ethics and mathematics ;
and Edinburgh the physics. It is thought fit
that students are examined publicly on the Black
Staine before Lammas, and after their return at
Michaelmas, that they be examined in some
questions of the Catechism.?
Earnest, indeed, were the Scottish universities
in their efforts to improve their systems of study.
Thus the Commission, whose proposals we have
referred to, met again at Edinburgh in 1648, and
after renewing the resolutions of the former year,
they arranged that every regent be bound ?to
prescribe to his scholars all and every part of the
said course to be drawn up, and examine the same;
with liberty to the regent to add his own considerations
besides, by the advice of the Faculty of the
University ;? and also, <? that in the draft of the
cursus, the text of Aristotle?s logics and physics be
kept and shortly anagogued, the textual doubts
cleared upon the back of every chapter, or in the
analysis and common places, handled after the
chapters treating of that matter.?
