DR. NEWMAN ON 'UNIVERSITY SUBJECTS. * THE papers written for the
Irish Catholic University by its Rec- tor, and collected by him into a volume, deal with questions of a high order relating to mental culture. The treatment is always masterly, though seldom exhaustive, the subjects being not un- frequently too wide for the author's prescribed limits. In these instances, however, he has made the best use of the space at his command, by devoting it to the elucidation and enforcement of some cardinal principle, and leaving the reader to follow out the premises thus establish to their leaving conclusions. Some of
the papers will., from the nature of their subjects, have little at- traction for Protestants who are not controversially disposed ; some are of a mixed nature, and in some the author occupies en- tirely neutral ground, and comports himself as befits the occasion. Throughout a great part of his lecture on " Christianity and Let- ters," the whole of that on " Literature," and the first three sec- tions of his essay on " Elementary Studies," his aspirations for the universal supremacy of Catholicism remain in abeyance, and his tone is that of an unprejudiced member of the commonwealth of letters, zealous for its welfare, and devoting to it the resources of a well stored and discerning mind. The first lecture above mentioned presents an impressive apology for classical studies in the shape of a reply to the inquiry: How comes it to pass "that in spite of the special historical connection of University Institutions with the sciences of theology, law, and medicine, a university, after all, should be formally based (as it really is) and should emphatically live in, the faculty of arts ?" The answer lies in the history of that remarkable association of intellect and mind, which by reason of its manifold superiority over all the isolated groups, each with its separate, stationary civilization, into which the great outlying portions of mankind have resolved themselves, may fitly assume to itself the title of "Human Society," and its civilization the abstract term "Civili- zation." The rudiments of this great central formation existed from time immemorial in certain centres distributed round the Mediterranean Sea, and spreading thence coalesced at length to form that organic whole which now fills the twins terrarum, the civilized world. The vivifying principle of this great social commonwealth, that which has knit and bound it together in the unity of a common thought and a com- mon civilization, is the literature of Greece and Rome, and the studies thence evolved, which are known by the name of the seven liberal arts. These have been the instrument of education and the food of civilization from the first times of the world down to this day : can there be a stronger proof that it is their destiny so to continue ? The inference becomes still stronger when we call to mind that the educational supremacy which these studies have so long enjoyed, has not been owing to their exemption from ri- valry. The new sciences introduced into the course of University education in the middle ages made threatening efforts to supplant the liberal. Arts ; but-
" Though there were times when the old traditions seemed to be on the point of failing, somehow it has happened that they have never failed ; for the instinct of civilization and the common sense of society prevailed, and the danger passed away, and the studies which seemed to be going out gained their ancient place, and were acknowledged, as before, to be the best instruments of mental cultivation, and the best guarantees for intellectual progress. " And this experience of the past we may apply to the circumstances in which we find ourselves at present; for, as there was a movement against the classics in the middle ages, so has there been now. The truth of the Baconian method for the purposes for. which it was created, and its inesti- mable services and inexhaustible applications in the matters of our material well-being, have dazzled the imaginations of men, somewhat in the same way as certain new sciences carried them away in the age of Abelard ; and since that method does such wonders in its own province, it is not un- frequently supposed that it can do as much in any other province also. Now, Bacon himself never would have so argued ; he would not have needed to be reminded that to advance the useful arts is one thing, and to cultivate the mind another. The simple question to be considered is, how best to strengthen, refine, and enrich the intellectual powers ; the perusal of the poets, historians, and philosophers of Greece and Rome will accomplish this purpose, as long experience has shown ; but that the study of the ex- perimental sciences will do the like, is proved to us as yet by no experience whatever.
"Far indeed am I from denying the fascinating influence on the student, as well as the practical benefit to the world at large; of the sciences of che- mistry, electricity, and geology; but the question is not what department of study contains the more wonderful facts, or promises the more brilliant discoveries, and which is in the higher and which in an inferior rank ; but simply which out of all provides the most robust and invigorating discipline for the unformed mind. And I conceive it is as little disrespectful to Lord Bacon to prefer the classics in this point of view to the sciences which have grown out of his philosophy, as it would be disrespectful to St. Thomas in the middle ages to have hindered the study of the Summa from doing prejudice to the Faculty of Arts. Accordingly, I anticipate, that, as in the middle ages both the teaching and the government of the University remained in the Faculty of Arts, in spite of the genius which created or illustrated theology and law, so now too, whatever be the splen- dour of the modern philosophy, the marvellousness of its disclosures, the utility of its acquisition and the talent of its masters, still it will not avail in the event to cletrade classical literature and the studies connected with it, from the place they have held in all ages in the course of education."
The purport of the lecture on Literature—which is itself a striking example of the truth it enforces—is to show that style is
• Lectures and Essays on University Subjects. By John II. Newman, D.D., of the Oratory. Published by Longmans and Co. not a trick of words, not an adventitious ornamentation ; that thought and speech are inseparable ; that literature expresses, not objective truth, as it is called, but subjective ; not things, but thoughts ; that it' is therefore intensely personal, and that really fine writing is nothing else than the adequate expression of fine thoughts.
May we venture in all humility to recommend to the Civil Ser- vice Commissioners, and to the gentlemen who conduct the ex- aminations for admission into the military schools, a careful peru- sal of Dr. Newman's paper on Elementary Studies ? Their own. practice supplies abundant examples of what a preliminary ex- amination should not be ; Dr. Newman will teach them what it should be. But then comes the question—Have they, along with all their vast attainments, the mother wit to comprehend and prac- tise the lesson they will receive from him ?
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