A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland | Page 8

of Aberdeen, I have not inquired. The manufacture which
forces itself upon a stranger's eye is that of knit-stockings, on which the
women of the lower class are visibly employed.
In each of these towns there is a college, or in stricter language, an
university; for in both there are professors of the same parts of learning,
and the colleges hold their sessions and confer degrees separately, with
total independence of one on the other.
In old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first president
was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as one of
the revivers of elegant learning. When he studied at Paris, he was
acquainted with Erasmus, who afterwards gave him a public testimony
of his esteem, by inscribing to him a catalogue of his works. The stile
of Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, is formed
with great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with
monastic barbarity. His history is written with elegance and vigour, but
his fabulousness 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 excused in an age, when all men were
credulous. Learning was then rising on the world; but ages so long
accustomed to darkness, were too much dazzled with its light to see
any thing distinctly. The first race of scholars, in the fifteenth century,
and some time after, were, for the most part, learning to speak, rather
than to think, and were therefore more studious of elegance than of
truth. The contemporaries of Boethius thought it sufficient to know
what the ancients had delivered. The examination of tenets and of facts
was reserved for another generation.
Boethius, as president of the university, enjoyed a revenue of forty
Scottish marks, about two pounds four shillings and sixpence of

sterling money. In the present age of trade and taxes, it is difficult even
for the imagination so to raise the value of money, or so to diminish the
demands of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a year, an
honourable stipend; 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 whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to
Roger Ascham, as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten pounds a
year.
The other, called the Marischal 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 shewn some curiosities; a Hebrew manuscript of
exquisite penmanship, and a Latin translation of Aristotle'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 necessary,
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 version has been printed, and may be
found in libraries, but is little read; for the same books have been since
translated both by Victorius and Lambinus, who lived in an 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 successors the task of smoothing it.
In both these colleges the methods of instruction are nearly the same;
the lectures differing only by the accidental difference of diligence, or
ability in the professors. The students wear scarlet gowns and the
professors black, which is, I believe, the academical dress in all the
Scottish universities, except that of Edinburgh, where the scholars are
not distinguished by any particular habit. In the King's College there is
kept a public table, but the scholars of the Marischal College are
boarded in the town. The expence of living is here, according to the
information that I could obtain, somewhat more than at St. Andrews.
The course of education is extended to four years, at the end of which
those who take a degree, who are not many, become masters of arts,
and whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately commence

doctor. The title of doctor, however, was for a considerable time
bestowed only on physicians. The advocates are examined and
approved by their own body; the ministers were not ambitious of titles,
or were afraid of being censured for ambition; and the doctorate