190
The PRESENT STATE
Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation. Entering a profession without any previous acquisitions of this kind, is building too bold a superstructure.
Teaching by lecture, as at Edinburgh, may make men scholars, if they think proper; but instructing by examination, as at Oxford, will make them so, often against their inclination.
Edinburgh only disposes the student to receive learning; Oxford often makes him actually learned.
In a word, were I poor, I should send my son to Leyden, or Edinburgh, tho' the annual expence in either, particular-
