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Thoughts on the Advancement of Academical Education in England
Thoughts on the Advancement of Academical Education in England Author:James Yates Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ADVANCEMENT ACADEMICAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND. Sect. I.— Want of additional Means of Academical Education in England, free from the Restrictions of Religi... more »ous Tests. Various circumstances have recently contributed to draw the public attention to the present state of Academical Education in England, and to the means of its extension and improvement. On the termination of the long struggle of this country with Napoleon, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and those also of Edinburgh and Glasgow, began to overflow with students, whose aims were necessarily diverted from naval and military enterprizes to the avocations of peace. The increasing population of the country, its flourishing condition, and, still more, its intellectual character and moral pre-eminence, seem to demand, that additional opportunities should be presented for the cultivation of those liberal pursuits, without which opulence and ease are useless, if not dangerous, to nations no less than to individuals. The impulse, given to the public mind, extends itself through every order of the state; and, since more abundant means than ever are now in operation for the diffusion of knowledge among the poor, it is but just that something should be done in like manner for the rich ; and indeed it is necessary to the preservation of their due influence in society, that they should be at least as familiar with the various departments of science as their dependants and inferiors in rank. Whilst, therefore, almost every large town has its Artisans' Library and Mechanics' Institute, it appears desirable that the sources of instruction should be open with equal, or rather with still greater liberality to those, among whom literary occupation is more requisite in proportion to their exemption from the necessity of ...« less