In each of these towns there is a college, or in ftricter language, an univerfity; for in both there are profeffors of the fame parts of learning, and the colleges hold their feffions and confer degrees feparately, with total independence of one on the other.

In Old Aberdeen ftands the King's College, of which the firft prefident 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 Erafmus, who afterwards gave him a publick teftimony of his esteem, by infcribing to him a catalogue of his works. The ftyle of Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, is formed with great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with monaftick barbarity. His hiftory is written with elegance and vigour, but his fabuloufnefs and credulity are justly blamed. His fabuloufnefs, if he was the author of the fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be made; but his credulity may be excufed in an age when all men were credulous. Learning was then rifing on the world; but ages fo long accustomed to darkness, were too much dazzled with its light to fee any thing diftinctly. The first race of scholars in the fifteenth century, and fome time after, were, for the most part, learning to fpeak, rather than to think, and were therefore more ftudious of elegance than of truth. The contemporaries of Boethius thought it fufficient to know what the ancients had delivered. The examination of tenets and of facts was referved for another generation.

Boethius,

Boethius, as prefident of the university, enjoyed a revenue of forty Sectif marks, about two pounds four fhillings and fix-pence of iterling money. In the prefent age of trade and taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination fo to raile the value of money, or fo to diminish the demands of life, as to fuppole four and forty fhillings a year an honourable flipend; 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 whofe faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger Afcham, as a reward of his learning, a penfion of ten pounds a

year.

new town.

The other, called the Marifcbal College, is in the The hall is large and well lighted. One of its ornaments is the picture of Artbur Johnften, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin poets of Scotland the next place to the clegant Buchanan.

In the library I was fhewn fome curiofities; a Hebrew manufcript of exquifite penmanship, and a Latin tranflation 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 neceffary, are not now to be found. This was one of the lateft performances of the tranícribers, for Aretinus died but about twenty years before typography was invented. This verfion has been printed, and may be found in libraries, but is little read; for the fame books have been fince tranflated both by Victorius and Lambinus,

who

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 thofe who firft broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their fucceffors the task of fimoothing it.

In both thefe colleges the methods of inftruction are nearly the fame; the lectures differing only by the accidental difference of diligence, or ability in the profeffors. The ftudents wear fcarlet gowns and the profeffors black, which is, I believe, the academical drefs in all the Scottish univerfities, except that of Edinburgh, where the fcholars are not distinguished by any particular habit. In the King's College there is kept a publick table, but the fcholars of the Marifchal College are boarded in the town. The expence of living is here, according to the information that I could obtain, fomewhat more than at St. Andrews.

The course of education is extended to four years, at the end of which thofe who take a degree, who are not many, become mafters of arts, and whoever is a mafter may, if he pleafes, immediately commence doctor. The title of doctor, however, was for a confiderable time beftowed only on phyficians. The advocates are examined and approved by their own body; the minifters were not ambitious of titles, or were afraid of being cenfured for ambition; and the doctorate in every faculty was commonly given or fold into other countries. The minifters are now reconciled to distinction, and as it muft always happen that fome will excel others, have thought graduation a proper teftimony of uncommon abilities or acquifitions.

The

The indifcriminate collation of degrees has juftly taken away that refpect which they originally claimed as ftamps, by which the literary value of men fo diftinguifhed was authoritatively denoted. That academical honours, or any others, fhould be conferred with exact proportion to merit, is more than human judgment or human integrity have given reafon to expect. Perhaps degrees in univerfities cannot be better adjusted by any general rule than by the length of time paffed in the publick profeffion of learning. An English or Irish doctorate cannot be obtained by a very young man, and it is reasonable to fuppofe, what is likewife by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning fufficient not to difgrace the title, or wit fufficient not to defire it.

The Scotch univerfities hold but one term or feffion in the year. That of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five, from the firft of November to the firit of April.

In Aberdeen there is an English chapel, in which the congregation was numerous and fplendid. The form of publick worship ufed by the church of England is in Scotland legally practifed in licenfed chapels ferved by clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit connivance quietly permitted in feparate congregations, fupplied with ministers by the fucceffors of the bifhops who were deprived at the Revolution.

We came to Aberdeen on Saturday Auguft 21. On Monday we were invited into the town-hall, where I had the freedom of the city given me by the Lord

Provost.

Provoft. The honour conferred had all the decorations that politenefs could add, and what I am afraid I should not have had to fay of any city fouth of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing for a fee.

The parchment containing the record of admiffion is, with the feal appending, faftened to a ribband, and worn for one day by the new citizen in his hat.

By a lady who faw us at the chapel, the earl of Errol was informed of our arrival, and we had the honour of an invitation to his feat, called Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the caftle of that name, which once ftood at a place not far diftant.

The road beyond Aberdeen grew more ftony, and continued equally naked of all vegetable decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground near the fea, which, not long ago, fuffered a very uncommon and unexpected calamity. The fand of the fhore was raised by a tempest in such quantities, and carried to fuch a distance, that an eftate was overwhelmed and loft. Such and fo hopeless was the barrenness fuperinduced, that the owner, when he was required to pay the ufual tax, defired rather to refign the ground.

SLANES CASTLE. THE BULLER OF BUCHAN.

We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, built upon the margin of the fea, fo that the walls of one of the towers feem only a continuation of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. To walk round the house feemed impracti

cable.