Viewing page 11 of 32
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
434 The Literary Discipline at Cambridge. |2 columns| | | | |rate papers, according to a form, of which the following is a specimen. L.S. Planete primarie retinentur in orbitis fuis vi gravitatis, et motu projectili. Iridis primarie et secundarie phenomena folvi poffunt ex principiis opticis. Recte flatuit Lockius de qualitatibus corporum. Refp. Fun. 10mo. At the bottom of three of there papers the Moderator writes the name of a student, whom he thinks capable of [[?]] the questions of the Respondent, with the words, Opponentium primus, fecundus, or tertius, denoting the order in which the Opponents are to appear. One of these papers is sent to each Opponent; and from that which remains, the Moderator, at his leisure, transcribes the questions, together with the names of the Respondent and Opponents, into his book. When one Moderator has thus given out the exercise for a week, he fends the book to the other, who proceeds according to the fame method, and then returns the book to his colleague. The fortnight of preparation being expired, the Respondent appears in the schools: he ascends the [[?]], and reads a Latin differtation, called with us a thesis, upon any one of the three questions he thinks proper; the Moderator attending in his place. As soon as the Respondent has finished his thesis, which generally takes ten minutes in the reading, the Moderator calls upon the first Opponent to appear. He immediately ascends a roftrum opposite to the Respondent, and proposes his arguments against the questions in syllogistical form. Eight arguments, each conflicting of three or four syllogisms, are brought up by the first Opponent, five by the second, and three by the third. When the exercise has for some time been carried on according to the strict rules of logic, the disputation insensibly slides into free and unconfined debate: the Moderator in the meantime explaining the argument of the opponent, when necessary; retraining both parties from wandering from the subject; and frequently adding at the close of each argument his own determination upon the point in dispute. These exercises are improving; and are often performed with great spirit. But many persons of good judgment, observing with pain and unofficial Latin, frequently uttered by the| | student upon these occasions, have maintained, that the knowledge of that language is not promoted by the present method of disputation; and have delivered it as their opinion, that these exercises should be held in English, in order to their absolute perfection. The three Opponents, having in their turns exhausted their whole sotck of arguments, are dismissed by the Moderator ni their order, which such a compliment, as in his estimation they deserve: and the exercisecloses with the dismission of the Respondent in a similar manner. The Moderator, upon his return to his chambers, records the merit of the disputants by marks, set opposite to their espective names. This exercise, with the preparation for the subsequent examination in January, appears to be sufficient employment for the last year: and the apprehension of it is so alarming, that the student, after two years and a quarter's residence, during which time no proof whatever of his proficiency is required, frequently seeks to avoid the difficulty or disgrace by commencing fellow commoner, or by declaring his intention of proceeding in civil law. These exercises being duly performed, the Vice-Chancellor appoints three days, in the beginning of the January term, for the examination of the [[?]]: this being the appellation of the students during the last six weeks of their preparation. The Moderators, some days before the arrival of the time prescribed by the Vice-Chancellor, meet for the purpose of forming the students into divisions of six, eight, or ten, according to their performance in the schools, which a view to the ensuing examination. Upon the first of the appointed days, at eight o' clock in the morning, the students enter the Senate-House, preceded by a Master of Arts from each college, who on this occasion is called the Father of the college to which he belongs. After the Proctors have called over the names, each of the Moderators sends for a division of the students: they sit with him round a table, with pens, ink, and paper before them: he enters upon his task of examination, and does not dismiss the set till the hour is expired. This examination has now for some years been heldin the English langage. The| | The Literary Discipline at Cambridge. 435 |2 columns| | | | |The examination is varied according to the abilities of the students. The Moderator generally begins with proposing some questions from the six books of Euclid, plane trigonometry, and the first rules of algebra. If any person fails in an answer, the question goes to the next. From the elements of mathematics a transition is made to the four branches of philosophy, viz. mechanics, hydrostatics, apparent astronomy, and optics, as explained in the works of Cotes, Helfam, Rutherforth, Keil, Long, Maclaurin, and Smith. If the Moderator finds the set of Questionists, under examination, capable of answering him, he proceeds to the eleventh and twelfth books of Euclid, conic [[?]], spherical trigonometry, the higher parts of algebra, and Sir Isaac Newton's Principia. Having closed the philosophical examination, he sometimes asks a few questions in Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, Butler's Analogy, or Clarke's Attributes. But as the highest academical distinctions are invariably given to the best proficients in mathematics and natural philosophy, a very superficial knowledge in mortality and metaphysics will suffice. When the division under examination is one of the higher classes, problems are also proposed, with which the student retires to a distant part of the Senate House, and returns with his solution upon paper to the Moderator, who at his leisure compares it with the solutions of other studetns, to whom the same problems hae been proposed. The extraction of roots, the arithmetic of [[?]], the various kinds of equations, as treated of in the algebra of Saunderson and Maclaurin, together with the doctrine of fluxions, as delivered by Lyons, Simpson, Emerson, and Newton, generally form the subject matter of these problems. When the clock strikes nine, the Questionists are dismissed to breakfast: they return at half past nine, and stay till eleven: they go in again at half past one, and stay till three; and lastly, they return at half past three, and stay till five. The hours of attendance are the same upone the subsequent day. On the third day they are finally dismissed at eleven. During the hours of attendance, every division is twice examined in form, once by each of the Moderators,| |who are engaged for the whole time in this employment. As the Questionists are examined in divisions of only six or eight at a time, but a small portion of the whole number is engaged at any particular hours with the Moderators; and, therefore, if there were no farther examination, much time would remain unemployed. But the Moderator's enquiry into the merits of the candidates forms the least material part of the examination. The Fathers of the respective colleges, zealous for the credit of the societies of which they are the guardians, are incessantly employed in examining those students who appear most likely to contest the palm of glory with their sons. This part of the process is as follows: The Father of a college takes the student of a different college aside, and, sometimes for an hour and a half together, strictly examines him in every part of mathematics and philosophy, which he professes to have read. After he hath from this examination formed an accurate idea of the student's abilities and acquired knowledge, he makes a report of his absolute or comparative merit to the Moderators, and every other Father who shall ask him the question. Besides the Fathers, all Masters of Arts, and Doctors, of whatever faculty they be, have the liberty of examining whome they please; and they also report the event of each trial to every person who shall make the enquiry. The Moderators and Fathers meet at breakfast, and at dinner. From the variety of reports, taken in connection with their own examination, the former are enabled, about the close of the second day, so far to settle the comparative merits of the candidates, as to aree upon the names of four and twenty, who to them appear most deserving of being distinguished by marks of academcial approbation. These four and twenty are recommended to the Proctors for their private examination, and, if approved by them, and no reason appears against such placing of them from any subsequent enquiry, their names are set down in two divisions according to that order in which they deserve to stand - are afterwards printed - and read over upon a solemn day in teh presence of the Vice Chancellor and the assembled university.| |The
