ἀλλ' ἀπ' ἐχθρῶν δῆτα πολλὰ μανθάνουσιν οἱ σοφοί.

ARISTOPH. Aves, 376.

NEW YORK:

G. P. PUTNAM & SONS,

FOURTH AVENUE AND TWENTY-THIRD STREET.

1874.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
G. P. PUTNAM & SONS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

MIDDLETON & co.,STEREOTYPERS

BRIDGEPORT, CONN.

Lange, Little & HILLMAN, PRINTERS, 108 WOOSTER ST., N. Y.

ΤΟ

THEODORE D. WOOLSEY,

PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE, ETC., ETC.

DEAR SIR:

It is now fourteen years since I fell under your notice, and you did me the honor to take an interest in my welfare, which subsequent occurrences authorize me to regard as still subsisting. I know of no one to whom I can dedicate this book with more propriety than yourself, or by whose perusal of it I shall feel more honored. If you read it, the trouble it has cost me will not have been thrown away.

Very truly yours,

C. A. BRISTED.

PREFACE.

I WRITE this book for three reasons:

First, very little is accurately known in this country about the English Universities.

Secondly, most of what we hear respecting those institutions, comes through the medium of popular novels and other light literature, frequently written by non-University men, and almost always conveying an erroneous and unfavorable idea of the Universities.

Thirdly and principally, there are points in an English education which may be studied with profit, and from which we may draw valuable hints.

Few Americans have the opportunity of growing up into manhood among half a generation of the most highly educated class in England; nor is it indeed altogether desirable that many should have. I myself owed it to an accident. There are few persons among us qualified by their knowledge of the subject to do it justice. Had I ever seen even a decent review article on English University education, this book would not have been written.

It has been my object to give a picture of English University life just as it is; to do which correctly, I have been obliged to mingle gaieties and gravities—πολλὰ μὲν γέλοια #oλλà dè σñovdała. Should the reader not assent to my conclusions, he will at any rate have a tolerable idea of the facts. The same motive-a desire to depict accurately what I saw and experienced, and the impressions which such a life makes on an American-has obliged me to speak of myself more frequently than is altogether pleasant for either reader or author.