Have been since translated both by
Victorius and Lambinus, who lived in an age more cultivated, but
perhaps owed in part to Aretinus that they were able to excel him.
Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left
only to their successors the task of smoothing it.
In both these colleges the methods of instruction are nearly the
same; the lectures differing only by the accidental difference of
diligence, or ability in the professors. The students wear scarlet
gowns and the professors black, which is, I believe, the academical
dress in all the Scottish universities, except that of Edinburgh,
where the scholars are not distinguished by any particular habit.
In the King's College there is kept a public table, but the
scholars of the Marischal College are boarded in the town. The
expence of living is here, according to the information that I
could obtain, somewhat more than at St. Andrews.
The course of education is extended to four years, at the end of
which those who take a degree, who are not many, become masters of
arts, and whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately
commence doctor. The title of doctor, however, was for a
considerable time bestowed only on physicians. The advocates are
examined and approved by their own body; the ministers were not
ambitious of titles, or were afraid of being censured for ambition;
and the doctorate in every faculty was commonly given or sold into
other countries. The ministers are now reconciled to distinction,
and as it must always happen that some will excel others, have
thought graduation a proper testimony of uncommon abilities or
acquisitions.
The indiscriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that
respect which they originally claimed as stamps, by which the
literary value of men so distinguished was authoritatively denoted.
That academical honours, or any others should be conferred with
exact proportion to merit, is more than human judgment or human
integrity have given reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in
universities cannot be better adjusted by any general rule than by
the length of time passed in the public profession of learning. An
English or Irish doctorate cannot be obtained by a very young man,
and it is reasonable to suppose, what is likewise by experience
commonly found true, that he who is by age qualified to be a
doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient not to
disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to desire it.
The Scotch universities hold but one term or session in the year.
That of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only
five, from the first of November to the first of April.
In Aberdeen there is an English Chapel, in which the congregation
was numerous and splendid.
