edification, with an earnest and serious mind, will hardly hit upon a plan that will not be profitable. Yet one maxim may here be offered. A regular recurrence of observances is, in such things also, a wholesome and beneficial practice. In those persons, who have had the inestimable blessing of an early religious education, the feelings of piety are often best sustained by the continuance of early religious habits. The prayers that they have first been taught, the religious writers whom they have admired from childhood, are the oil which may best feed their lamp. The established devotional habits which can be retained, should not be lost. But here the student's case brings some difficulties, arising from his change of circumstances in coming to the University. For example, his Sunday, with its stated habits and religious employments at his home, may have been one of the main events of his Christian life. While he is at College, these habits can no longer be nourished by the arrangements and intercourse of his family. Nor can his College, from the very nature of the case, supply this want, except by forms, of which we acknowledge the insufficiency. Here, therefore, the student must provide for himself; and, as he values his Christian welfare, must give such a character of sobriety, and thoughtfulness, and religion, to the employment of his Sunday, as becomes a Christian man. And though the habits of home may be changed, the gentle and kindly pressure of habit may be retained. Supposing, for example, that the student attend the morning and evening worship of his College chapel, and one of the sermons which are every Sunday preached before the English Universities, there still remains a large portion of the day, which may be moulded into a shape by suitable habits. If some of the vacant time which the cessation of his ordinary studies leaves, be habitually occupied in intercourse with friends, these may best be one or two only, and, as much as possible, always the same. And to attend habitually some one of the parish Churches within his reach, may keep up the recollection of the Church of his home, and preserve the social sympathy of English worship. The day, too, may have its own books and studies. But I do not here dwell upon such points, wishing only to point out in a general manner how the student may best feed and foster, during his University career, that religious faith, and hope, and love, which we may trust he will bring from his mother's knee and his father's hearth; and which, if he hold it fast, will be his best guide and support in those wider and busier scenes, of which the University is the portal. It is such a character of mind, too, which will give him a cultivation of a higher kind than that of which I have spoken; which will not merely transmit a refined and elevated tone of thought to another generation, but will prepare the soul, by a progress in holiness and love, for its own future place in a higher region of purity and blessedness. SECT. 6.-OF FELLOWS OF COLLEGES. In the Colleges of the English Universities, the administration of the education, as well as of the property, and other interests and duties of those institutions, is, by their statutes and constitution, committed to the Fellows of the College, along with the Master. These persons, thus invested with important possessions, privileges, and offices, are those upon whom the working of the College system depends; and it is important, in order to judge of the tendency of the system, to consider, both what their functions are, according to the plan of these institutions, and what their actual character is. I think I shall assist the reader in forming a judgment upon these subjects, by quoting the statements of an intelligent and accomplished American traveller, deservedly much admired and esteemed in his own country, who visited England a short time ago, and whose account is in the main correct and impartial. "As there are no fellowships in our American colleges, you may perhaps be gratified by some account of them as they exist here. In this University (Cambridge) there are about one hundred and fifty fellowships attached to the different colleges, most of which are given on examination, and to merit only. They vary in value, from 150l. to 300l. a-year, besides free commons and apartments. They are held during life, or until marriage. Many of the occupants become tutors of colleges, private tutors, &c.; but nothing is absolutely required of them. Much has been said of the indolence of Fellows; of their disposition to quarrel and petty intrigue; and of their fondness for guzzling ale, tippling port, and playing whist. Such things were. Nay, since such are the natural consequences of a want of ambition to be useful or distinguished, a want of occupation, and a want of that most practical stimulant, dire necessity, such things are. The cases, however, are unfrequent. The Fellows to whom I had the honour to be introduced were men of a different stamp. They were gentlemen, in the highest sense of that high term, and bore about them no traces of their somewhat monastic system. Their conversation smelt a little of the shop ;- -was sometimes a little too mathematical, at least for me;-but was throughout the most thoroughly intellectual that I ever enjoyed. Their reunions, after a plain but well-cooked dinner on the dais of their College-hall, either in the common sitting-room, or in the apartments of some individual member, left on my mind a delightful impression. It was such as literary society should be, composed only of men of real learning; of friends confiding in the mutual esteem entertained by all, undisturbed by ambitious quacks or impudent pretenders *" From the class to which belong the persons thus described, are selected, not only the tutors, but all the College officers engaged, both in education and * Remains of the Rev. Edward Griffin (of New York), vol. ii. p. 259. G administration. The Master and Fellows are, in fact, the College. And these institutions expect from their Fellows, not only care and fidelity in the discharge of office, but active zeal and lively affection. According to the statutes which I have already quoted, a Fellow of the College, on his admission, swears "that he will be faithful and friendly to the College; that to it, and to all the fellows and scholars, and to the master, he will bear good-will and give help, not only while he lives therein, but afterwards, to the best of his power, when occasion may arise; that he will never cause loss or trouble to the College, and that the designs, combinations, conspiracies, plots, deeds, and words of others, which may bring damage and evil fame to the College, he will repel as far as he can, and will denounce them to the officers of the College who are to take cognisance and give judgment concerning such things; that even if he is formally expelled, he will not bring any action against the College or its members; that he will obey the master, vice-master, seniors, and officers, in all lawful and honest matters, and pay them due reverence and honour; and finally, that he will take upon himself all offices imposed by the master and seniors, and will administer them with the utmost fidelity and diligence. Nor have these provisions been without their effect. The Fellows of Colleges not only undertake the offices which the College imposes upon them, (of course, with no unnecessary disregard of their private convenience,) |