bulated Europe, and were
familiar figures in the great University towns, and especially Paris.
From their disputatious and metaphysical aptitude, they worked their
upward way--

And gladly would they learn and gladly teach.

At length, the nation did take up the work in good earnest. In 1411, was
founded the first of the St. Andrews' Colleges; 1451 is the date of
Glasgow; 1494, King's College, Aberdeen. These are the pre-Reformation
colleges; but for the Reformation, we might not have had any other.
Their founders were ecclesiastics; their constitution and ceremonial
were ecclesiastical. They were intended, no doubt, to keep the Scotch
students at home. They were also expected to serve as bulwarks to the
Church against the rising heretics of the times. In this they were a
disappointment; the first-begotten of them became the cradle of the
Reformation.

In these our three eldest foundations, we are to seek the primitive
constitution and the teaching system of our Universities. In essentials,
they were the same; only between the dates of Glasgow and Old Aberdeen
occurred two great events. One was the taking of Constantinople, which
spread the Greek scholars with their treasures over Europe. The other
was the progress of printing. In 1451, when Glasgow commenced, there was
no printed text-book. In 1494, when King's College began, the ancient
classics had been largely printed; the early editions of Aristotle in
our Library, show the date of 1486.

FIRST PERIOD--THE TEACHING BODY.

Our Universities have three well-marked periods; the first anterior to
the Reformation; the second from the Reformation to the beginning of
last century; the third, the last and present centuries. Confining
ourselves still to the Faculty of Arts, the features of the
Pre-Reformation University were these:--

First, as regards the teaching Body. The quadriennial Arts' course was
conducted by so-called Regents, who each carried the same students
through all the four years, thus taking upon himself the burden of all
the sciences--a walking Encyclopaedia. The system was in full force, in
spite of attempts to change it, during both the first and the second
periods. You, the students of Arts, at the present day, encountering in
your four years, seven faces, seven voices, seven repositories of
knowledge, need an effort to understand how your predecessors could be
cheerful and happy, confined all through to one personality; sometimes
juvenile