LATIN. GREEK. Tacitus, 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th books of the Annals. Cicero's Offices. Virgil's Georgics, and four last books of the Æneid. Homer's Iliad, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th books. Demosthenes' four Philippics, and De Corona. This appears to us a very fair, if not a very liberal course. "The students are lectured twice every day, except Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, in Latin at morning lecture, and Greek in the afternoon." The business of the classes is not confined to the authors set down in this list; "they are exercised in the composition of Greek and Latin both in prose and verse." "The students of the humanity and rhetoric classes attend a lecture in the evening, from five to six, by the professor of English elocution, and are practised in English composition. They also receive instruction in the catechism, called "Christian Doctrine," and in the Old Testament, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The professor of the rhetoric class, after Christmas, generally about the month of February or March, explains to them, either from English works, which he chooses for the purpose, such as Blair's Rhetoric, or from dictates compiled by himself, the principles of rhetoric, and obliges them to compose in Latin and English. He gives them also instruction in elocution and delivery."— pp. 33, 34, 35. In all the classes the same system is pursued, of stimulating the industry of the student, by requiring that, besides attending to the exposition of the professor, he shall also give an account of his private study. It is clear, however, that, following the above plan, as the public lectures occupy only nine hours in each week, it will not be possible to read publicly a very large number of classical authors. It is not true, however, that the actual studies" fall far short of the printed lists." Almost all the Greek is read, and sometimes more than is marked in the card, and by far the larger proportion of the Latin authors. But even though it were otherwise, we should not attach to it the very undue importance which some persons seem to think it deserves. In the education of clergymen, we should think that a knowledge of the languages, such as would enable them to pursue their private studies with advantage, should be the first object. If it be possible to combine an extensive course of classics with what those, who are best acquainted with their duties, deem the most important studies, we would gladly see it done; but if not, we have no doubt that the quantity of reading is of infinitely less importance than the manner, and we would prefer, on principle, that a young man should read, under the eye of his professor, the one half of the authors marked down in the course, than that he should prepare the whole for an examination, without any systematic or compulsory superintendence. "A student, at his entrance into the college, is placed, according to his proficiency, in one or other of these three classes; so that, if he be capable of answering in the books required for the class of logic, he is admitted into it at once, and his course is thereby reduced to five years instead of seven. The text book used in this class is a portion of the Lyons' Philosophy, which was reprinted for the use of the college, and some changes made in it by Dr. Anglade, who was, for some time, professor of logic, metaphysics, and ethics, at Maynooth. For each lecture, a certain portion of the text book is appointed; the professor explains any thing in it that may be obscure to the students, and they, at the following lecture, with their books closed, give an account, from memory and their intermediate study, of that portion which the professor prescribed for the matter of the lecture. The professor and students speak Latin in this class. When the students are somewhat advanced in the logic course, there is, on one day in the week, an exercise in scholastic disputation. With respect to ethics, the want of time prevents the entire course being gone through within the year."p. 36. This omission, however, we should suppose, cannot be of much moment, as the same course is treated much more comprehensively, in the moral theology, which all read two years afterwards. "After a year passed in the class of logic, metaphysics, and ethics, the students are transferred to that of mathematics and natural philosophy. The text books used in this class are a Compendium of Geometry by the Abbé Darré, and the treatises by Vince and Wood, (of Cambridge) in three volumes, 8vo, which, the president informed the commissioners, the students read as far as they can."-p. 37. The close of this extract proves that we were right in designating our author's promise "to draw information from the most authentic documents" as a mere profession-a show of impartiality, under which, to cover an insidious attack, rather than a sincere pledge to lay before the reader a fair and unbiassed summary of their contents. With the examinations of other witnesses he has dealt very unfairly--unwillingly acknowledging what was meritorious, and ostentatiously parading whatever he considered likely to inflict an injury on the college. But here he has gone even farther he has misrepresented and garbled the evidence"Which the president informed the commissioners, the students read as far as they can!" The president states most distinctly, that "the course of pure mathematics consists of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, both plain and spherical, and conic sections;" that "such of the students as had a peculiar turn for this study, were occasionally instructed in fluxions,” that "all read conic sections, and all, spherical trigonometry," and, in answer to the direct question," how far in algebra the whole class proceeded," that they read to the end of quadratic, and sometimes cubic, equations." He adds, moreover, that "they spend the remainder of the year at natural philosophy; though, in the short time, it was impossible to go through all its branches;" that they read the laws of motion, mechanics, astronomy always, and generally either hydrostatics or optics;"* that "they are obliged to demonstrate every proposition they go through," and that "many persons, who, at the final examination, have witnessed the progress they have made, have been surprised at the astonishing proofs, given by one-third, and often one-half, of their industry and talent for those studies." With all this definite information before him, directly under his eye, in the very page (74) from which he has quoted, the author contents himself with citing from the president's reply to the distinct question, "what book of astronomy they read," the words which have been given above, undefined in appearance, but determined, by their position, not to the treatises generally, for he had already given a specific answer for the greater part of them, but to the treatise of astronomy, which the question regarded, or, at most, of hydrostatics and optics, of which he spoke in the preceding answer. And yet, because, forsooth, the words occur somewhere in the president's evidence, "he has drawn his information from the most authentic sources." But there is a further instance of the same "impartial" spirit, the same anxiety to procure "satisfactory information." He had before him the examination, not only of the president, but also of fourteen or fifteen others-all men of long standing in the college-all well acquainted with the extent and arrangement of the studies in the several classes. Yet, all these he passes by, and chooses, as a test of the studies in the philosophy class, the evidence of a young man, who, as he himself explained, was appointed professor not a month before; who, for some years, had been upon the continent, utterly unconnected with the college; who knew nothing of the class, save from his impressions as student seven years previous-who had as yet conducted the *The students also receive lectures in electricity, galvanism, and, for the two last years, in electro-magnetism. The galvanic and electro-magnetic instruments are decide edly the finest we ever have seen. The galvanic apparatus, constructed on a new plan by the professor, the Rev. Doctor Callan, combines, in twenty pairs of large plates, all the advantages both of number, and extent of surface; and by the application of the electro-magnet, by means of a very ingenious instrument which he himself constructed, exhibits with a few plates all the effects in decomposition, the fusion of metals, the shock, &c., which in the ordinary batteries would require several hundred pairs of plates. There is no observatory attached to the college: indeed, considering the narrowness of the collegiate revenues, it could not be expected. class through a very small portion of the course, and whose conscientious fears, as every line of his evidence evinces, would not suffer him to state any thing positively which he had not witnessed with his own eyes. With regard to the extent of the lectures on algebra, which he had already commenced, his testimony is definitive enough. They comprise the four leading rules of algebra, as also involution, evolution, the use of the binomial theorem, the solution of simple and quadratic equations and problems, the principles of proportions, variations, and progressions, and the nature and use of logarithms. But beyond this all is hesitation; because, beyond this his personal knowledge as a professor extended not; and without that positive and personal knowledge, his scrupulous timidity would not suffer him to pronounce a decision. This part of the evidence, however, our "impartial" author has suppressed altogether. He turns to the lectures on astronomy, the very last in the course, which, the witness stated, "he had not taught as yet, nor would he till the close of the year ;" and even this he takes care to misrepresent. He tells us, that "the professor, in reply to a question from the commissioners, stated, that he should think very few would be able to explain the principles on which an eclipse is calculated, because they are not fully explained to them; the year is at a close, at the time they are reading that part of astronomy, and therefore the professor has not time to explain those principles fully." But, in the same breath, almost in the same sentence, the professor adds, "I find that some of the principles for calcu lating an eclipse have been explained to the class." This, however, our impartial author omits. It forms no part of that "satisfactory" evidence of which he is so much enamoured,—an evidence, namely, that forwards his own views, and panders to his own prejudices. There is an air of more than usual triumph in the tone, in which he advances the oft-repeated charge, that "the professor of mathematics had never read Euclid." It is a charge which has been, and perhaps naturally, very much over-rated. With the ignorant, who consider a knowledge of mathematics, and an acquaintance with Euclid, as synonymous, it makes, no doubt, an imposing appearance; but no man, who knows any thing of the matter, will argue, with the author before us, that because a person "has not read the sixth book of Euclid," he cannot be "a proficient in the abstruse department of pure mathematics." In these countries Euclid has been generally adopted as a schoolbook; and those, who are acquainted with no other, may hastily conclude that a knowledge of his elements is indispensable. In France, however, it is exactly the reverse. The use of the elements has been generally discontinued; and the most distinguished scholars at home coincide in this view. "We should form a wrong estimate," says Leslie,* "did we consider the elements of Euclid, with all its merits, as a finished production. That admirable work was composed when geometry was making its most rapid advances, and new prospects were opening on every side. No wonder that its structure should now appear loose and defective." "Whatever may be said to the contrary," says the writer of the article Euclid in the Encyclopædia Britannica, "it is certain that they (the Elements of Euclid) are deficient in that order, which, causing the propositions as far as possible to arise out of one another, exhibits in full evidence the analogies which connect them, assists the memory, and prepares the mind for the investigation of truth;" and the Edinburgh Encyclopædia is "disposed to regard more modern treatises of geometry as possessing advantages unknown to Euclid; conducting the learner with greater facility to the ulterior and more important objects of inquiry." The short, but comprehensive course of mathematics taught at Maynooth, where these are the principal objects proposed in the study, follows the more concise and continuous method adopted by the Spanish mathematician, Merito Bails, in this country, by Hutton and Leslie, and in France, by almost all the modern geometricians by Le Caille, Lacroix, Saury, Bezout, Rivard, Mazeas, and, with more success than any other, by Le Gendre. Educated at Maynooth, it was most natural that the studies of the young professor, who, be it remembered, had not yet commenced his lectures on geometry-should, in the first instance, be directed to the treatises, which, in order and arrangement, approached most closely to his own. All these circumstances, however, are studiously kept out of view, for the purpose of adding importance, in the eyes of the ignorant, to a charge against the professor, which is utterly at variance, not only with his well-known character, but also with that of several publications which we have seen with his name, both upon these subjects and upon those of electricity and galvanism. "After four years passed in the classes described above, the students are transferred to the class of divinity, the most important in the course of education. "In the class of divinity the students remain for three years, which completes the full course of instruction given in the college. There are three professors of divinity, and nine hours in the week are occupied in their lectures. The text books consist of ten volumes; five of dog * Preface, page iv. Encyclop. Brit., Art Euclid. New edition, part 50, page 391. |