The final division of subjects took place in Edinburgh, in 1708; in Glasgow, in 1727; in St. Andrews, in 1747.  In Marischal College, the change was made by a minute of 11th Jan., 1753; but, whether from ignorance, or from want of grace, the Senatus did not record its satisfaction at having, after a lapse of five generations, fulfilled the wishes of the pious founder.  In King’s College, the old system lasted till 1798.

This closes the second age of the Universities, and introduces the third age, the age of the Professoriate, of Lecturing instead of Text-books, the end of Disputation, and the use of the English Language.  It was now, and not till now, that the Scottish Universities stood forth, in several leading departments of knowledge, as the teachers of the world.

[AGE OF THE PROFESSORIATE.]

THE UNIVERSITIES AND THE POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS.

The second age of the Universities was Scotland’s most trying time.  In a hundred and thirty years, the country had passed through four revolutions and counter-revolutions; every one of which told upon the Universities.  The victorious party imposed its test upon the University teacher, and drove out recusants.  You must all know something of the purging of the University and the Ministry of Aberdeen by the Covenanting General Assembly of 1640.  These deposed Aberdeen doctors may have had too strong leanings to episcopacy in the Church and to absolutism in the State, but they were not Vicars of Bray.  The first half of the century was adorned by a band of scholars, who have gained renown by their cultivation of Latin poetry; a little oasis in the desert of Aristotelian Dialectics.  It would be needless and ungracious to enquire whether this was the best thing that could have been done for the generation of Bishop Patrick Forbes.

Your reading in the History of Scotland will thus bring you face to face with the great powers that contended for the mastery from 1560:  the Monarchy, always striving to be absolute; the Church, whose position made it the advocate of popular freedom; the Universities, fluctuating as regards political liberty, but standing up for intellectual liberty.  In the 17th century the Church ruled the Universities; in the 18th, it may be said, that the Universities returned the compliment.

[PROFESSIONAL TEACHING BY APPRENTICESHIP]

UNIVERSITIES NOT ESSENTIAL FOR PROFESSIONS.

Enough for the past.  A word or two on the present.  What is now the need for a University system, and what must the system be to answer that need?  Many things are altered since the 12th century.