The Tablet of last week contains a letter full of
misunderstand- ings as to the relation of the London University examination in intellectual and moral philosophy to the Roman Catholic body. It assumes that the University has chosen a " school " in philo- sophy, and that only candidates who adopt that school have a fair chance of success. It assumes that that school is the school of one of its examiners, Mr. Bain, the well-known Aberdeen professor, whose period of examination is just expiring. Now, neither assumption has the least foundation in fact; Mr. Bain has had for his colleague at one time Mr. Edward Poste, an Oxford Aristo- telian, or at least profound student of Aristotle ; at another time (we believe), Professor Ferrier ; and then, again, Professor Robert- son. None of these examiners are of the same shade of philosophy, and still less is the examiner just chosen to succeed Mr. Bain, the Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, the Rev. Mark Pattison. The University has no school in intellectual and moral philosophy, awl we have reason to know that Professer Bain,—who certainly does not belong to our own school,—was scrupulously fair in respecting all clear and distinct knowledge, whether exhibited by candidates of the most opposite schools to his own, or by those of his own view. Unfortunately, the Catholics seldom go up for the M.A. degree in the third branch (intellectual and moral philosophy and logic), or they would have discovered this. Mr. Bain has, we believe, repeatedly concurred in awarding the medal to students trained in very different ethical systems from his own,—the students of independent and other orthodox Colleges.
Previous page
