Mr. Gladstone remarked on the great advantage which Cambridge had
over Oxford in the greatness of her poets until, at least, a comparatively late period. And certainly not only was Milton, as Mr. Gladstone observed, a Cambridge man, but Dryden, Prior, Gray, Wordsworth, Byron were all Cambridge men, and finally Tennyson. But besides Shelley, for whom Oxford cannot take much credit, though Mr. Gladstone quoted him as an alumnus of Oxford, that great University can now boast the great names of Arnold, Clough,. and Newman, who—at least in virtue of the "Dream of Gemntins "—may fairly rank as a poet no leas than a theo- logian. We suspect, however, that the special University to which they belonged had little to do with the genius of any of our poets, except Arnold, Clough, and Newman, who were all three profoundly influenced by the genius of Oxford. Neither Pope nor Cowper were University men at all, and some of those we have named cared little for their Uni- versity, and associated their University life rather with their prose than their poetry.
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