t to reform King's
College. At all events, his mind was made up to follow Melville in
assigning separate subjects to his Regents. The Charter is explicit on
this head. Yet in spite of the Charter and in spite of his own presence,
the intention was thwarted; the old Regenting lasted 160 years.

ARISTOTELIAN PHYSICS TOO LONG MAINTAINED.

Still the Curriculum reform was gained. There was, indeed, one great
miss. The year before Marischal College was founded, Galileo had
published his work on Mechanics, which, taken with what had been
accomplished by Archimedes and others, laid the foundations of our
modern Physics. Copernicus had already published his work on the
Heavens. It was now time that the Aristotelian Physics should be clean
swept away. In this whole department, Aristotle had made a reign of
confusion; he had thrown the subject back, being himself off the rails
from first to last. Had there been in Scotland an adviser in this
department, like Melville in general literature, or like Napier of
Merchiston in pure mathematics, one fourth of the college teaching might
have been reclaimed from utter waste, and a healthy tone of thinking
diffused through the remainder.

A curious fascination always attached to the study of Astronomy, even
when there was not much to be said, apart from the unsatisfactory
disquisitions of Aristotle. A little book, entitled "_Sacrobosco_ on the
Sphere," containing little more than what we should now teach to boys
and girls, along with the Globes, was a University text-book throughout
Europe for centuries. I was informed by a late King's College professor
that the Use of the Globes was, within his memory, taught in the
Magistrand Class. This would be simply what is termed a "survival".

[GRADUATION BY MEANS OF DISPUTES ON THESIS.]

SYSTEM OF DISPUTATION.

Now as to the mode of instruction. There were _viva voce_ examinations
upon the notes, such as we can imagine. But the stress was laid on
Disputations and Declamations in various forms. Besides disputing and
declaiming on the regular class work before the Regent, we find that,
in Edinburgh, and I suppose elsewhere, the classes were divided into
companies, who met apart, and conferred and debated among themselves
daily. The students were occupied, altogether, six hours a day. Then the
higher classes were frequently pitched against each other. This was a
favourite occupation on Saturdays. The doctrines espoused by the leading
students