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own language, and even that might be impaired. Their spirit, turn of mind, and prejudices, would be necessarily exotic, and unfriendly to success at home. This is not only probable a priori, but determined by experience. So far as we know, there is no case of such early and thorough German training, in which the subject has been fitted by it for commanding influence, or even useful labour, after his return. On this account, the preference is due to another method,-that of going, not as early, but as late as possible, without defeating the very end in view. Let the student pass, not only through what is here considered a complete course of general education, but also through a full course of professional study, especially if he be a theologian. Thus prepared, he will at least know what he wants, and what is to be had, and will neither waste his time in catching flies, nor bring home wheelbarrows from Constantinople. To those who are deterred by these or other reasons from frequenting German universities, it may be some consola. tion to know, that in no other case of the same kind is the want of personal observation so easily supplied by means of books. The transition from the lecture-room to the press in Germany is not only easy, but common-we may even say constant. There is very little valuable instruction orally imparted that is not, sooner or later, and in many cases speedily, rendered accessible to all who read the language. This, it is true, does not compensate for the want of the impression made by oral delivery, or of the information gained by private intercourse. But these are not the usual attractions to our students; and apart from these, the German schools may act almost as powerfully at a distance as at hand. A striking proof and illustration is afforded by the fact that some of those American scholars, who appear to have derived most from the German sources, have never been abroad. In one or the other of these ways, we think it highly desirable that some of our younger theologians, who possess the prerequisites, both native and acquired, should make themselves familiar with the German erudition and the German methods of instruction. This necessity arises partly from the undeniable pre-eminence of Germany in certain walks of learning, which renders it impossible to keep up with the progress of the age, and yet to prohibit all intellectual communion with her. It arises also from the very evils which this intercourse has generated, and which must be remedied, not by blind denunciation, but by thorough and discriminating knowledge.

It is evident, however, that this method of importing German wisdom, even if it should become far more extensive than it is, would operate rather upon individuals than on the institutions of this country. It is still a question, therefore,

whether these admit of any material improvement by the introduction of the German system, as we have considered it. The sheer substitution of that system for our own is out of the question. Were it ever so easy, it would be wholly undesirable. Though some of the evils which attend its operation in its native land might be corrected by our political and social institutions, there are others which would still exist, and some which would be aggravated, if not developed for the first time, by the action of the self-same causes. It would indeed be a sufficient objection to the system, as a whole, that it is foreign, that it did not germinate and ripen here, but in another soil and under other skies. Such institutions may materially influence the state of society, but they do not produce it. They only react upon that to which they owe their own existence. And the same considerations which thus show the revolution to be inexpedient, show it also to be utterly impracticable. The German education could no more be forced upon this country than the German language. But it does not follow that our own institutions can derive no benefit whatever from these foreign methods. There are several ways in which a salutary use of them might be made, although not perhaps at present. One which has been suggested is the institution of a university on the German principle at some central point; not with a view to supersede existing institutions, or even to compete with them, but for the purpose of supplying what is really our grand desideratum, some contrivance to encourage and facilitate the further prosecution of the studies now begun at college. The proper seat of such a school would be one of our great cities, and the best plan the old German one, in its naked simplicity, and with its Jachin and Boaz liberty of teaching and learning. It would even be desirable to try the old way of dispensing with costly buildings and unnecessary forms. The teachers might be embodied first by voluntary association, and then perpetuated in the German way, and with the usual gradations. Such an institution, if it could be brought into existence, would probably do much for the advancement as well as the diffusion of knowledge. The grand difficulty would be to find hearers. Many might be willing to resort to such a school instead of the existing colleges; but few would probably resort to it as something in addition to them. characteristic hurry of society and life among us, and the early call to active employment, leave but few, who have completed the accustomed course of study, willing to commence a new one. At the same time, it would be extremely difficult at present to supply such an establishment with teachers, at least in sufficient numbers to maintain the real

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German emulation. It would indeed be scarcely possible, without a weakening draught upon the other institutions of the country, unless by some arrangement which should make it possible to employ the same talent in both ways. The very statement of these difficulties may perhaps suffice to show that the country is not ripe for any such experiment, even if it should be thought desirable. And yet the day may not be distant when such an addition to our existing means of intellectual improvement will be found not only possible but indispensable.

In the mean time, there is another way in which the least objectionable features of the German plan might be transferred to some of our existing institutions, without any change whatever in their form or government, by superadding to the regular prescribed course of education, some provision for subjects not included in it, or for the further prosecution of others. These, forming no part of the curriculum required for graduation, would admit of being taught with all the freedom of the German method, both with respect to learners and teachers, both being left unshackled as to subjects. Even the principle of competition among teachers, which is so essential to the German system, might be recognised, as far as would be salutary either to the individuals concerned or to the progress of learning. The lecturers on this plan might be either the regular professors only, or these with the addition of such qualified coadjutors as might offer themselves and be approved by the competent authorities. By some such arrangement at a few of our oldest institutions, a great impulse might be given to the march of science, and provision made for supplying the deplorable defect of able teachers and professors. At the same time, the literary standard of our educated youth would be raised, and many induced to tread the higher walks of learning, who, for want of such inducements, now waste their time and talents in doing nothing or worse than nothing.

With these crude suggestions, we conclude a notice of the foreign universities which cannot but appear unsatisfactory and meagre to those who are already familiar with the subject, but may possibly afford some interesting information to a larger class of readers, whose ideas, in relation to these matters, have been vague, or founded on erroneous statements.

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ART. IX.-1. William Penn: an Historical Biography, from New Sources, with an extra Chapter on the "Macaulay Charges." By WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON. 12mo. Pp. 353. Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea. 1851.

2. The History of England, from the Accession of James II. By THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. Vol. i. Chap. iv. 8vo. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1849.

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IN 1644, according to Mr Dixon, there were two great events in England: the first was the birth of Quakerism; the second, the birth of William Penn. The first happened after this wise. Three Leicestershire rustics, one of whom was a rude and saturnine lad of nineteen, met at a fair, and resolved to have a stoup of ale together. After exhausting the first supply, two of the bumpkins feeling somewhat mellow, called for more, and vowed that he who would not drink should pay the score. The other, who neither relished deep draughts himself, nor paying for them for others, demurred, and taking a groat from his pocket, laid it on the table, and said, "If it be so, I will leave you;" which he did, and went home, filled with strange and gloomy thoughts. "This simple village ale-house incident," says Mr Dixon, was one of the most important events which had yet happened in the history of the AngloSaxon race; for out of it was to come Quakerism, the writings and teachings of Penn and Barclay, the colony and constitution of Pennsylvania, the republics of the west, and, in no very remote degree, the vast movement of liberal ideas in Great Britain and America in more modern times." Now, we mean no disrespect to Mr Dixon when we say that we do not believe a word of all this twaddle. We believe that both Quakerism and modern liberty in England and America had a much deeper and more dignified origin than the empty breeches-pocket of George Fox. The burning of the Ephesian temple may have caused the fiery energy of the Macedonian madman; the silence of the Delphic oracle may have been occasioned by the yet greater birth to which it is sometimes referred; but the day for such marvels is past, or at least, with our knowledge of the facts, we cannot compress all the great events, to which Mr Dixon alludes, into these empty ale-pots of the.Leicestershire fair. We believe Quakerism to have been a phenomenon of not only interest but importance in the world's history, whether we look at its religious or political results; and we believe its actual origin to have occurred in the labours of George Fox; but we can neither regard the fountain to be so small, nor the stream so large, as represented by the enthusiastic biographer of Howard and Penn.

Quakerism is simply one of the manifestations which the human mind will put forth, under the influence of Christianity, in an age of religious earnestness. There are three prominent forms in which the religious element of the race is prone to manifest itself, all of which are exaggerations of a portion of truth. These forms are scepticism, formalism, and mysticism: the first an extravagant assertion of the rational or logical powers; the second, of the sensibilities, which demand something tangible and visible for their excitement; and the third, of the moral or spiritual powers, which isolate the soul, and link it directly to God. These typal forms we have in the Sadducee, who believed too little; the Pharisee, who believed too much; and the Essene, who did not believe at all, so much as feel, and in whom the intense action of the moral element subordinated both the natural reason and the natural emotions in one eager desire after a species of absorption in the Divine essence. Now, of the three we are free to confess that our sympathies are mainly with the last. If we must have an exaggeration at all, we think that of the mystic decidedly to be preferred to that of the sceptic or formalist, as it rests on a higher and nobler element of our nature than either of the others. It is not, therefore, with any depreciating estimate of Quakerism, that we rank it among the manifestations of mysticism in Christianity. The essential principle of mysticism is a belief in, and a reliance upon, subjective rather than objective manifestations of God, and a consequent tendency to regard as at least of co-ordinate, if not of paramount, authority to the written revelation of the Scriptures, the revelation that is made by God in the soul. Believing in a direct communication of the divine nature to the human, it makes these inward revelations the standard by which to interpret and decide upon the outward, rather than the outward to be the rule by which to try them. It is to this general principle that we must refer the Quaker doctrine of an inward light, as far as it is peculiar to their creed. As sometimes explained, it is difficult to discriminate between it and the common doctrines of union with Christ, the inhabitation of the Spirit in the soul, and the universal grace of the Remonstrants. But as held by those most deeply imbued with the essential principles of the system, it really embodies all that is peculiar to mysticism, as a distinctive manifestation of the religious element in our nature. Hence the written revelation is neither called the Word of God, nor is it regarded as the sole and supreme rule of faith and practice. The Scriptures, being themselves only the records of that portion of the divine light that was imparted to their writers, whilst they are regarded with reverence as the testimony which these men give to the nature and reality of this

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