HOW I CAME TO TAKE A DEGREE. Θνήσκει δὲ πίστις βλαστάνει δ' ἀπιστία.- -SOPHOCLES. W HEN I put on my Bachelor's gown next day in the Senate House, it was with a feeling of some satisfaction at having mastered a formidable difficulty, and the little margin I had to spare rather enhanced this satisfaction. Looking upon the Mathematical examination as Classical men often do, in the light of a fight with the examiners, I had gained the day. Moreover, I felt entitled to say that, low as the standard of a Junior Optimé is compared with the professiona' acquirements of the upper men, I had gained a knowledge, though indeed but a temporary one, of a considerable amount of low Mathematics more than the majority of our students ever grasp at one time, more than when at Yale I should have considered myself or been considered capable of; for to cram up certain pages of a subject and recite them from day to day, is a very different thing from being able to write out any question at random in the subject. And I repeat it, that for an unmathematical man it is not an easy thing to become even a Junior Optimé, and as it demands a fair acquaintance with the low subjects, so it requires a considerable expenditure of time and trouble. I was then rather proud of my Bachelor's degree; and yet there were circumstances connected with it that ought to have made me rather ashamed of myself. That certain political and religious oaths are among the conditions of some of the English academical de grees is generally known to the American reader; the particulars are not so well understood. We are all aware that at Oxford the Thirty-nine Articles must be signed in advance. Hook's irreverent joke has taught us that. At Cambridge it is different. When the Freshman puts dɔwn his name on the College books he is not required to sign anything. During his first term he matriculates, and then affirms (profitetur) that he will keep the statutes and maintain the privileges of the University to the best of his ability,* which does not mean much, a great portion of the statutes, both College and University, being notoriously in point of fact and practice obsolete, and never thought of except when some theological squabble or ultra martinetism on the part of a new Don brings them into notice. A Trinity Scholar on being elected swears that he will take the Bible for his rule of faith, and that he believes the royal authority to be supreme, on by no means subject to the jurisdiction of foreign bishop: (externorum Episcoporum jurisdictioni minime subjectam), a hit at the Pope, which I imagine any gool Protestant, republican or not, would rather go out of he way to swear than otherwise. But on taking his B.A., the Questioner must sign a declaration that he is a bona fide member of the Church of * Here is the Professio faithfully copied, no punctuation and all from the printed form. "Cancellario procancellarioque academiæ Cantabrigiensis quatenus jus fasque est et pro ordine in quo fuerim quamdiu in hac ro ublic" digm comiter obtemperabo leges statut mores approbatos et privilegia Cantabrigiensis academiæ quantum in me est obser ab pietatis et bonarum literarum progressum et hujusdemic status honorem et dignitatem tuebor quoad vivam meoque suffragio atque consilio rogatus et non rogatu defendam Hæc omnia in m recipi et polliceor me fideliter esse præstiturum England, and also takes the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Before taking the degree, it will be observed, not before going into the examination for Honors. The effect of this is, that though a Dissenter or a foreigner cannot take a degree, he may be Senior Wrangler or Senior Classic, for the admission to the Classical Tripos depends not upon having taken the B.A. degree, but upon having passed the examination for that degree; indeed he may take all the University Honors except the Smith's Prize and Chancellor's Medal, the institution of which prizes is so worded as to make only Bachelors eligible for them, and a theological prize or two of no great repute. But as the Fellowships are given to none but Bachelors, he is ineligible to them. This is not merely a possible case, but has actually occurred; a Jew was Second Wrangler in 1837, and a Quaker Fourth the year before. The origin and reason of this restriction are evident. It was at first intended as a safeguard against the Romanists, and afterwards kept up to prevent them and Dissenters generally from obtaining a share in the government of the University. For as the University is governed by those Graduates who choose to retain their names on the boards, giving degrees to Dissenters would be putting a portion of the University's destiny into the hands of men who might be hostile, and at best are not necessarily friendly to the religion which the University professes and is bound to uphold. It appears to me that this restriction has been subjected to much unmerited abuse, and that it is not antediluvian or bigoted, but simply self-defensive. If the connexion between Church and State were dissolved, and the Established Church abolished, this restriction would of course be swept away, and many other things with it; but so long as the Established Church exists, I do not see how the Church Universities can admit Papists or Dissenters into their Senates. In regard to foreigners belonging to the same church, the restriction is less necessary and defensible, but it must be remembered that such cases are of very limited occurrence, and that the institutions of England are not in general encouraging to foreigners; everything, from a University to a hotel, is solely calculated for the wants and benefit of the natives. Selfish and barbarous as such ideas must seem to the disciples of universal philanthropy and fraternity, a reflecting native-born American, in view of the effects which an indiscriminate reception of foreigners, so as to place them almost immediately on a level with the original inhabitants, has wrought in his own country, may perhaps suspect that the prudence of the English practice goes a great way towards making up for its unloveliness. It may indeed be urged that the University and College regulations might be so altered that a degree should not necessarily confer a vote, and that, as in the case of Fellowships, the presumed original idea and intention that the Fellows should be in Holy Orders, has been so far departed from that in some Colleges the Fellows need not take Orders at all, in others not for seven years, while there are actually Bye Fellowships which give their holders the dignity of the title without a voice in the College government, some rules might easily be generalized to apply to the parties under consideration. To this it may be answered that whatever real and desirable distinction the University confers consists not in the degree itself, but in the place occupied on the examination list, since the M.A. degree can be obtained by any one who has taken a B.A. on paying a certain sum and performing some trifling ceremonies, and the ordinary B.A. implies only an amount of knowledge of which, if it be harsh to call it contemptible, it may at least be said that it is nothing for any person to be proud of; and that such half measures as giving degrees which should not confer the full customary privileges, or Bye-Fellowships with their nominal salaries and inferior position, would not be accepted as completely satisfactory, and would only encourage renewed demands for a more thorough change. Originally intending to leave the University as soon as the Classical Tripos list was out, my only anxiety about the question of a degree had been whether the want of one would prevent me from going out in Classics, and having once ascertained that it would not, I had taken no further thought about the matter. But this autumn my views underwent an important change. I wanted to keep my Scholarship, and thought what a nice little head-quarters my Trinity rooms would be while making excursions upon the Continent. Sometimes I had hopes that my place in Classics would justify my reading for a Fellowship. The Enemy always knows where to have a man, and is fertile in sophistic and Jesuitical snares to delude moral men. At first I had serious intentions of taking the oaths without scruple or pause. I was in an awful state of disgust with matters at home on account of the recent Presidential election. The consternation and despair into which a large portion of the Whig party were thrown by the defeat of Henry Clay will not readily be forgotten by any one who was old enough at the time to take an interest in public matters, which in our country does not imply a very advanced age. But the terrible prostration of heart with |