woke up to a sense of its duties, and began to
reform itself, the first instruments of this change, to whose zeal and
courage we all owe so much, were naturally thrown together for mutual
support, against the numerous obstacles which lay in their path, and
soon stood out in relief from the body of residents, who, though many of
them men of talent themselves, cared little for the object which the
others had at heart. These Reformers, as they may be called, were for
some years members of scarcely more than three or four Colleges; and
their own Colleges, as being under their direct influence, of course had
the benefit of those stricter views of discipline and teaching, which
they themselves were urging on the University. They had, in no long
time, enough of real progress in their several spheres of exertion, and
enough of reputation out of doors, to warrant them in considering
themselves the _elite_ of the place; and it is not wonderful if they
were in consequence led to look down upon the majority of Colleges,
which had not kept pace with the reform, or which had been hostile to
it. And, when those rivalries of one man with another arose, whether
personal or collegiate, which befall literary and scientific societies,
such disturbances did but tend to raise in their eyes the value which
they had already set upon academical distinction, and increase their
zeal in pursuing it. Thus was formed an intellectual circle or class in
the University,--men, who felt they had a career before them, as soon as
the pupils, whom they were forming, came into public life; men, whom
non-residents, whether country parsons or preachers of the Low Church,
on coming up from time to time to the old place, would look at, partly
with admiration, partly with suspicion, as being an honour indeed to
Oxford, but withal exposed to the temptation of ambitious views, and to
the spiritual evils signified in what is called the "pride of reason."

Nor was this imputation altogether unjust; for, as they were following
out the proper idea of a University, of course they suffered more or
less from the moral malady incident to such a pursuit. The very object
of such great institutions lies in the cultivation of the mind and the
spread of knowledge: if this object, as all human objects, has its
dangers at all times, much more would these exist in the case of men,
who were engaged in a work of reformation, and had the opportunity of
measuring themselves, not only