is still
imperative. The other Universities agree in exacting Latin and Greek as
the condition of an Arts' Degree, and in very little else. The defenders
of classics say with some truth that these languages are the principal
basis of uniformity in our degrees; if they were struck out, the public
would not know what a degree meant.

How exclusive was the study of Latin and Greek in the schools in
England, until lately, is too well known to need any detailed statement.
A recent utterance of Mr. Gladstone, however, has felicitously supplied
the crowning illustration. At Eton, in his time, the engrossment with
classics was such as to keep out religious instruction!

As not many contend that Latin and Greek make an education in
themselves, we may not improperly call to mind what other things it has
been found possible to include with them in the scope of the Arts'
Degree. The Scotch Universities were always distinguished from the
English in the breadth of their requirements: they have comprised, for
many ages, three other subjects; mathematics, natural philosophy, and
mental philosophy (including logic and ethics). In exceptional
instances, another science is added; in one case, natural history, in
another, chemistry. According to the notions of scientific order and
completeness in the present day, a full course of the primary sciences
would comprise mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, physiology or
biology, and mental philosophy. The natural history branches are not
looked upon as primary sciences; they give no laws, but repeat the laws
of the primary sciences while classifying the kingdoms of Nature. (See
paragraph that begins with: In the classification of the sciences ...).

In John Stuart Mill's celebrated Address at St. Andrews, he stood up for
the continuance of the Classics in all their integrity, and suddenly
became a great authority with numbers of persons who probably had never
treated him as an authority before. But his advocacy of the classics was
coupled with an equally strenuous advocacy for the extension of the
scientific course to the full circle of the primary sciences; that is to
say, he urged the addition of chemistry and physiology to the received
sciences. Those that have so industriously brandished his authority for
retaining classics, are discreetly silent upon this other
recommendation. He was too little conversant with the working of
Universities to be aware that the addition of two scienc