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affection and principle, than is afforded in the long and resolute struggle which the poor parents maintain-the pinching penury and selfdenial to which they voluntarily submit, in order that their child may be enabled to procure advantages of which themselves are destitute, and which, when obtained, cannot fail to give him thoughts and ideas such as must, in spite of nature, draw some line of separation between him and them. There cannot be a nobler instance of the neglect of self-a more striking exemplification of the sublimity of the affections, Nor can the conduct of the son himself be regarded as much less admirable. The solitary and secluded life to which he devotes so many youthful years-the hard battle which he, too, must maintain against poverty, without any near voice of love to whisper courage into his bosom-the grief which he must feel when compelled to ask that which he well knows will be freely, but which, he too much fears, will be painfully given ;--all these sorrows of poverty, united with those many sorrows and depressions which the merely intellectual part of a young student's existence must always be sufficient to create the doubts and fears which must at times overcloud and darken the brightest intel

lect that ever expanded before the influence of exertion-the watching and tossing of over-excitement-the self-reproach of languor-the tightening of the heart-strings-and the blank wanderings of the brain-these things are enough to complete the gloomy fore-ground of a picture which would indeed require radiance in the distance to give it any measure of captivation. And yet these things are not more, unless books and men alike deceive us, than are actually operating at this moment in the persons of a very great proportion of the young men whom I have seen at work in the class-rooms of Bu and Plan Truly, I think there was too much of lightness in the remarks I made to you, a few days ago, concerning the first impres sions of their external appearance and demea

nour.

The worst view of the subject, however, still remains to be given. To what end does all this exertion-this noble and heroic exertion, lead? That is a question which nothing can hinder from crossing us every now and then, in the midst of all our most enthusiastic admiration, It is one which it is perhaps a wrong thing to attempt answering in any way; and I much fear it is one which will not admit of being an

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swered in a satisfactory manner, either by you or by me. There are few splendid rewards of worldly honour held up before the eyes of the Scottish student. The same circumstances which enable him to aspire, enable hundreds and thousands to do as much as he does; and the hope of obtaining any of the few prizes which do exist, is divided among so many, that no man would venture to count his own individual chance as worthy of much consideration. The style of education and exertion to which he submits, are admirably fitted for sharpening and quickening the keenness of his understanding, but do not much tend to fill his mind with a store of thoughts, feelings, and images, on which it might repose itself, and in which he might possess for ever the means of a quiet and contemplative happiness. He is made a keen doubter, and a keen disputer; and in both of these qualities there is no doubt he will at first have pleasure. But in neither is he furnished with the elements of such pleasure as may endure with him, and increase with him throughout a laborious, and, above all, it may be, a solitary life. He is not provided with such an armoury of recollections as that which the scholar (properly so called) presents against the pressure of corporeal and mental evils,

Without much prospect, then, of any great increase of worldly goods, and without procuring to himself any very valuable stronghold of peaceful meditation, the Scottish student submits to a life of such penury and difficulty, as would almost be sufficient to counterbalance the possession even of the advantages which he has not. At the end of his academical career, he probably finds himself either a burden upon his relations, or providing for himself by the discharge of some duties, which might have been as well discharged without so expensive a preparation. Is it worth while to bear so much, in order to have a chance of gaining so little? As Mr Macleod says in Miss Edgeworth's novel,-" It may be doubted ;" and yet perhaps it cannot be doubted without somewhat of a sin against the higher parts of our nature. But such sins we all commit often enough, both consciously and unconsciously.

P. M.

198

LETTER XVII.

TO THE SAME.

I REGARD, then, the academical institutions of England and Scotland, as things specifically distinct, both in their structure and in their effects. The Universities, here, educate, in proportion to the size and wealth of the two countries, twenty times a larger number than ours in England educate. They educate these persons in a very different way, and for totally different purposes-in reality at least, if not in profession. They diffuse over every part of the kingdom, and over many parts of the neighbouring kingdoms, a mighty population of men, who have received a kind and measure of education which fits them for taking a keen and active management in the affairs of ordinary life. But they seldom send forth men who are so thoroughly accomplished in any one branch of learning, as

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