; in St. Andrews, in 1747. In Marischal College, the
change was made by a minute of 11th Jan., 1753; but, whether from
ignorance, or from want of grace, the Senatus did not record its
satisfaction at having, after a lapse of five generations, fulfilled the
wishes of the pious founder. In King's College, the old system lasted
till 1798.

This closes the second age of the Universities, and introduces the third
age, the age of the Professoriate, of Lecturing instead of Text-books,
the end of Disputation, and the use of the English Language. It was now,
and not till now, that the Scottish Universities stood forth, in several
leading departments of knowledge, as the teachers of the world.

[AGE OF THE PROFESSORIATE.]

THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS.

The second age of the Universities was Scotland's most trying time. In a
hundred and thirty years, the country had passed through four revolutions
and counter-revolutions; every one of which told upon the Universities.
The victorious party imposed its test upon the University teacher, and
drove out recusants. You must all know something of the purging of the
University and the Ministry of Aberdeen by the Covenanting General
Assembly of 1640. These deposed Aberdeen doctors may have had too strong
leanings to episcopacy in the Church and to absolutism in the State, but
they were not Vicars of Bray. The first half of the century was adorned
by a band of scholars, who have gained renown by their cultivation of
Latin poetry; a little oasis in the desert of Aristotelian Dialectics.
It would be needless and ungracious to enquire whether this was the best
thing that could have been done for the generation of Bishop Patrick
Forbes.

Your reading in the History of Scotland will thus bring you face to face
with the great powers that contended for the mastery from 1560: the
Monarchy, always striving to be absolute; the Church, whose position
made it the advocate of popular freedom; the Universities, fluctuating
as regards political liberty, but standing up for intellectual liberty.
In the 17th century the Church ruled the Universities; in the 18th, it
may be said, that the Universities returned the compliment.

[PROFESSIONAL TEACHING BY APPRENTICESHIP]

UNIVERSITIES NOT ESSENTIAL FOR PROFESSIONS.

Enough for the past. A word or two on the present. What is now the need
for a University system, and what must the system be to answer that
need? Many things are altered s