mony of his esteem, by infcribing to him a catalogue of his works. The ftile of Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, is formed with great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with monaftic barbarity. His history is written with elegance and vigour, but his fabuloufnefs and credulity are justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he was the author of the fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be made; but his credulity may be excufed in an age, when all men were credulous. Learning was then rifing on the world; but ages fo long accustomed to darkness, were too much dazzled with its light to fee any thing diftinctly. The firft race of fcholars, in the fifteenth century, and some time after, were, for the moft part, learning to speak, rather than to think, and were therefore more ftudious of elegance than of truth. The contemporaries of Boethius thought it fufficient to know what

the

the ancients had delivered. The examination of tenèts and of facts was referv ed for another generation."

Boethius, as prefident of the university, enjoyed a revenue of forty Scottish marks, about two pounds four fhillings and fixpence of fterling money. In the prefent age of trade, and taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination fo to raife the value of money, or fo to diminish the demands of life, as to fuppofe four and forty fhillings a year, an honourable ftipend, yet it was probably equal, not only to the needs, but to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of England was undoubtedly to that of Scotland more than five to one, and it is known that Henry the eighth, among whofe faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger Afcham, as a reward of his learning, a penfion of ten pounds a

year.

C 3

The

The other, called the Marifehal College, is in the new town. The hall is large and well lighted. One of its ornaments is the picture of Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant Buchanan.

In the library I was fhewn fome curiofities; a Hebrew manufcript of exquifite penmanship, and a Latin tranflation of Ariftotle's Politicks by Leonardus Aretinus, written in the Roman character with nicety and beauty, which, as the art of printing. has made them no longer neceffary, are not now to be found. This was one of the latest performances of the transcribers, for Aretinus died but about twenty years before typography was invented. This verfion has been printed, and may be found in libraries, but is little read; for the fame books have been fince tranflated both by Victorius and Lambinus, who lived in an

age

age more cultivated, but perhaps owed in part to Aretinus that they were able to excel him. Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their fucceffors the task of smoothing it.

In both thefe colleges the methods of inftruction are nearly the fame; the lectures differing only by the accidental difference. of diligence, or ability in the profeffors. The ftudents wear fcarlet gowns and the profeffors black, which is, I believe, the academical drefs in all the Scottish univerfities, except that of Edinburgh, where the scholars are not diftinguished by any particular habit. In the King's College there is kept a public table, but the fcholars of the Marifchal College are boarded. in the town. The expence of living is here, according to the information that I could obtain, fomewhat more than at St. Andrews..

The

The courfe of education is extended to four years, at the end of which those who take a degree, who are not many, become mafters of arts, and whoever is a mafter may, if he pleafes, immediately become a doctor. The title of doctor, however, was for a confiderable time bestowed only on phyficians. The advocates are examined and approved by their own body; the minifters were not ambitious of titles, or were afraid of being cenfured for ambition; and the doctorate in every faculty was commonly given or fold into other countries. The minifters are now reconciled to distinction, and as it must always happen that fome will excel others, have thought graduation a proper teftimony of uncommon abilities or acquifitions.

The indifcriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that refpect which they originally claimed as ftamps, by which the literary value of men fo diftinguished

was