MEMOIRS, INCLUDING LETTERS, AND SELECT REMAINS, OF JOHN URQUHART, LATE OF THE University of St. Andrew's. BY WILLIAM ORME. "Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit."-Horat Carm. "What though short thy date? Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures, CONTENTS. Concluding Observations on his Character and Death, 230 240 MEMOIRS. THERE are a few things which put the character and principles of a young man more to the test than a classical and university education. He who passes through this ordeal unhurt, has reason to bless the gracious and powerful influences of the Divine Spirit. I do not refer at present to the levity of youth, and to the snares of those associations which belong to the state of society in colleges and classical schools. The danger of infection from the moral atmosphere is, indeed, great. But there are dangers of a different kind, arising out of the studies which chiefly engross the attention, and their powerful, but unperceived influence upon the mind. is The investigations of philology and grammar, though important in themselves, and absolutely necessary as the basis of all correct knowledge, are dry, and often tiresome. The memory loaded with words and forms of expression, which tend no doubt, to exercise and strengthen it; but do not tend much to the moral benefit of the mind. When from these the scholar passes on to the more elegant studies of the Greek and Roman Classics, or even to the polite literature of our own country, how little does he find at all calculated to promote his spiritual welfare? This is not saying enough, how much does he meet with, the tendency of which is positively injurious? The fasci |