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"Scholars, and Demies of Magdalen, Postmasters of Merton, and Students of Christ Church, who have not taken a degree, wear a plain black gown of Prince's stuff, with round full sleeves, half the length of the gown, and a square black cap with silk tassel.

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The dress of the Servitor is the same as that of the Commoner, but it has no plaits at the shoulder, and the cap is without a tassel."

UNIVERSITY OFFICERS DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR DRESS.

"The dress of the Chancellor is of black figured damask silk, richly ornamented with gold embroidery, a rich lace band, and square velvet cap, with a large gold tassel.

"The Proctors wear gowns of Prince's stuff, the sleeves and facings of black velvet; to the left shoulder is affixed a small tippet. To this is added, as a dress, a large ermine hood.

"The Pro-Proctor wears a Master of Arts'

gown, faced with velvet, with a tippet attached

to the left shoulder.

"The Bedels are those who walk before the Vice-Chancellor in processions. There are three called Esquire Bedels, and three Yeomen Bedels. The Esquire Bedels, who carry the gold staves, wear silk gowns, similar to those of Bachelors of Law, and round velvet caps. The Yeomen Bedels, who bear silver staves, have black stuff gowns, and round silk caps.

"The dress of the Verger, who walks first in processions, is nearly the same as that of the Yeoman Bedel. He carries a silver rod.

"The Vice-Chancellor seldom walks out without being preceded by a Yeoman Bedel,

with his staff.

"Bands at the neck are considered as

necessary appendages to the academic dress, particularly on all public occasions."

Such are the authentic regulations of the great University of Oxford, of which his Grace the Duke of Wellington is Chancellor.

While we accord to these institutions of Oxford and Cambridge, much that is wise, and judicious, and venerable, we cannot but think that there is something that savors of weakness, or prejudice, or superstition, if not of all three, in some of their laws and customs.

Their literary and religious

taste and costume are very similiar— but whence, we must ask, the beau ideal of all this consecrated and by-lawestablished foppery? Can we find it in the canonicals of the ancient schools of the prophets and philosophers-in Melchisedec, or in those of the house the sacred vestments of the high priest and lineage of Aaron? Or are these the meretricious decorations of the mystic lady of the Papal throne, who was "clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones, and pearls, bearing a golden chalice in her hands !"

I blame not Kings and Queens for royal robes and vestments-the bridegroom or the bride for a wedding garment; but to see students of nature, of the philosophy of the great universe

-Bachelors and Doctors of Divinity, in apparel so theatrically vain and foolish-scarfed and cassocked, gowned and tasseled, hooded and sashed, caps the climax of learned folly and sainted pride. With the change of fortune into learning, one might say with Pope of these University fashions

"Learning in men has some small difference made:
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd;
The friar hooded. and the monarch crown'd.
What differs more, you'll say, than crown or cowl?
I'll tell you, friend-a wise man and a fool!
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will get drunk.
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
All the rest is either leather or prunello."

These great seminaries commenced, one might say, in the dark ages, when men venerated robes, titles, and livery, more than wisdom, learning, or grace. They were in good keeping with the spirit of the Popedom-with its grimace, genuflexions, and gorgeous ceremonials during the 12th and 13th centuries.* They were, indeed, Papal institutions, and the Protestant Reformation laid its corrective hand upon them as lightly as possible.

Alfred the Great, we learn, coming to the throne of England, and finding the nation sunk into the greatest ignorance and barbarism, not being able to find one man south of the Thames who could interpret the Latin service, invited scholars from all parts of Europe, and established sundry schools; and it he did not absolutely found, certainly repaired and invigorated Oxford College in the last quarter of the 10th century.

Their sympathies with their mother have, therefore, always been in harmony with the spirit of the fifth commandment. Hence the reverence and veneration of some of her greatest masters for the secular glory and mystic theology of Rome, are all predominating in some of her colleges, and indicate a strong desire to return to the Holy Mother. The "Oxford Tracts" are, therefore, all backward toward the gates of the mystic city.

True, the spirit as well as the forms of the English hierarchy, so far as it is a state or secular religion, are more Papistical than Protestant, and savor much more of Rome than of Jerusalem. And yet no one can obtain any honorable degree, from Bachelor of Arts to Doctor of Divinity, at either of her Universities, who does not yow a bona fide allegiance to her doctrine, discipline, and government!

How illiberal, exclusive, and proscriptive the spirit of a University that knows no merit, that recognizes no genius, no moral worth, no literary eminence, no public service outside the pale of Queen Victoria's church! True to herself alone, she engrosses all the chartered powers; and while indebted to the government of the whole empire for protection and support, she honors and rewards ecclesiastically only according to her Thirtynine Articles and her Rubric.

But the Lord Bishop who addressed the Cambridge clergy and literati at its grand commencement last July, gave a very conclusive reason for this provision. His sermon had but three points-1st. England is the greatest nation in the world. 2nd. Its greatness is founded upon its Protestant Hierarchy. And in the 3rd place, its Protestant Hierarchy is founded upon its Universities-especially upon the single University of Cambridge, that of Oxford having gone back from its once Protestant faith. Therefore, the practical application of the subject was: England and its church must look well to the prosperity and glory of the University of Cambridge.

This is as good philosophy as was that of another Bishop, who, when asked on what did the heavens rest, answered, "On the earth ;" and when asked on what did the earth rest, answered, "On the back of a huge tortoise."

A third question brought him to his senses-And on what does the tortoise rest? Answered, "I presume upon itself." I am disposed to think (and I hope there is nothing in it either irreverent or disrespectful) that His Grace the Lord Bishop, if asked on what did the University of Cambridge rest, must have been as much perplexed as the philosopher who builded his universe upon a mere presumption; for certainly he would not say that the University was founded upon the Church, or upon the State, being the basis of both. As little could he say it was founded upon itself.

Bishop Wilberforce, son of the great philanthropist, who, by the way, is likely to be an Archbishop-a very respectable lecturer, though a very insipid, monotonous, and uninteresting speaker, addressed a most imposing We American citizens think that audience, last summer, at the Univer- England would be much more glorious sity, on the necessity of humility in and respectable if she would abolish the pursuit of science. On hearing of her hierarchy and spiritual Lords, and this discourse, pronounced in the divorce her Colleges and Universities presence of such an audience, I could from their present irrational, proscriphave wished that his Lordship had tive, and intolerant attitude, and thus applied the doctrine to that portion of make them national and popular, rahis hearers that advocate the engross-ther than aristocratical and hierarchiment of all literary and scientific cal institutions. honors to bona fide subscribers to the royal creed.

I visited a much more rational and useful institution at Huddersfield than

either of these mammoth institutions, in view of its age and patronage, of which I may say something again. Meantime I presume I have been sufficiently copious in my notices of the two great English Universities; and shall for the present say, Adieu !

in a secondary or modified sense. He has so much rude matter, or raw material before him, which, by the appliance of skill and labour, he fashions into diversity of form, for purposes ef life and pleasure. But when the Great Spirit of Universal Life reAffectionately your father, A. C. solved to diffuse the evidence of his eternal [Letters from Europe, by Brother Campbell, power and beneficence, the will extend far into, if not entirely through, matter, the very material, was to be the next volume. We feel desirous of comple- called from non-existence into being. ting the series, as some of them present, in a To avoid this some contend for the condensed form, descriptions of matters and eternity of matter; but such a theory things, that prove both interesting and acceptable to many of our readers; a though, in this only makes the stone of mystery instance, they may not prove so to the Universi- heavier and more rugged. The creaties of Oxford and Cambridge.—ED.] tion of matter, like the existence of CHRISTIANITY IN ITS in the way of Natural Theology. It an uncaused being, is another difficulty

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AFFINITY WITH NATURE. PRELIMINARY.-This article is designed to be in part a continuation of our previous essay on Natural Theology, and in part a breaking up of original ground. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." This is a passage pregnant with divine philosophy, which is always both expansive and genial. "Things which are seen -from the great stellar worlds down to the pebbles on the ocean shorefrom the mountains whose peaks are in the storm-clouds, down to the shrubs of the valley - the sublime ocean, with its organ anthem of praise -the vales of Eden, spangled with living flowers-the wild heath, flushed with purple glow, and orange bloom -all the glorious landscape of existence, empyrean and earthly, was originally created without material.

Creation without material is received by faith in divine testimony, and we rest upon it by moral necessity. It was not elaborated from the crucible of Nature by the watchful agency of Reason, There is no page in visible creation which narrates such a mysterious work, or suggests such a startling idea. Man is often called a maker or creator, but always

is evident that our convictions concerning God and his work were not originated by the induction of reason, but by the realization of faith. Nevertheless, after divine testimony has fürnished us with spiritual foundations to repose upon, we find most solemn harmony between the works and the revelations of God.

In tracing for a short time the analogies of the moral and material worlds, we will range our exposition under the following heads :-1, Development; 2, Concealment ; 3, Benevolence; 4, Law; 5, Penalty; 6, Counterpoise.

I. DEVELOPMENT. - From Geological science we understand that great revolutions have transpired in the structure and productions of the earth. The rude organic mass, though working in darkness, was working by law, and chaos itself was the willing slave of order. Light and order gradually dawned on the primeval waste, as the aspects of nature, and her forms of animated life advanced nearer towards perfection. Manifestation came when the features and races of creation were ready to be revealed. Countless ages rolled onward, while oceans and continents, rivers and mountains, light and darkness, life and death, wrestled and prevailed in succession. From the Gneiss formation to human ex

the pure flame of sacrifice to the Su-
preme Father in heaven
- this was
man's duty and privilege. We need
not be surprised to find the spiritual
world unfolded progressively. Though
the moral ages moved onward more
rapidly than the material had done,
yet cycles of development still con-

God. Redemption must advance in starry glimmer, grey dawn, and noontide glory. Prophets and angels ap

istence, the periods of time demanded are so immense, that we are not at present prepared to represent geological changes by astronomical time. Man is but a recent inhabitant of our planet. Yet the science which has excavated and partially lighted the sepulchre of ancient majesty--the Herculaneum and Pompeii of remote an-tained the pleasure and wisdom of tiquity, affixes another divine seal to the volume, already authentic and resplendent with fundamental truth and spiritual radiance. First, by reveal-pear before the eternal word is maniing no human remains among the gigantic and grotesque animals that once bellowed in the primeval deserts, or sported in the estuaries with plenitude of dreadful life. Thus we perceive the trustworthiness of that book which merely indicates the transition periods, but begins in earnest with the moral history of man in the epoch of consolidated order. Second, the same data unambiguously points out the dignity of man in connection with the beneficence of God. He whom we adore was for ages measureless by human calculation, building a sublime temple, decorating it with divine sculpture and ethereal painting; and when it was finished in magnificence and symmetry, man, the crowning labour, came from the hands of God. The Creator had been preparing him a country, an inheritance, a temple, and a throne; and in the ripe time he arranged the bodily framework and mechanism, breathed into the silent tabernacle his own inspiring breath, and man became a living soul and a spiritual being. Unsullied in material beauty, mighty in mental power, and glorious in moral consecration. The Divinity, whose image he was, took him by the hand, and amid the inaugural solemnities and festal triumphs of a glad carth, invested him with regal and sacerdotal robes, as the monarch of creation, the great high priest of nature. To collect the grace and glory, the lustre and majesty of all created things in his own spirit, and then offer all in

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the

fest from the bosom of the Father.
Types and shadows, laborious temple
service, and a carnal state church,
before substantial sacrifice, spiritual
liberty, celestial grace, and perfect
morals. The preparation was im-
mense, and the purpose of God grew
in distinctness with advancing ages.
All were doing the work of heaven
consciously or blindly, in love or in
fear, in chains or in divine freedom.
The altars smeared with the blood of
sacrifice-the fires of holocaust blazing
heavenward - the prophets weeping
with precious seed, valiant in the re-
sistance of evil-the kings, gorgeous
in purple and silver mail
armies that met on the crimson field
with flaming banners and tempestu-
ous passions--the thrones, buried or
raised-the races that perished in
weakness and dishonor, or arose in
power and warlike glory-the factions
that revelled their day in anarchy and
crime-the philosophers that contem-
pleted and speculated in silence and
solitude-and the poets, who leavened
the mass with creative passion and
informing imagination all were in
the hands of the Eternal, subserving
the great purpose, and marshalling
the fulness of the time. Jesus ap-
peared as the keystone of the great
arch, binding and uniting all, so that
men might walk beneath with grati-
tude, wonder, and security.

Before leaving this subject, we may observe that the development manifest in the early periods of the earth's history, was not the wild sceptical

dream of one race, gradually putting
off old forms and attributes to become
another ; but a series of distinct cre-
ations, each demanding the original
power of God-not the mediate power
of law, but the immediate creative
energy
of the Ancient of Days.
II. CONCEALMENT.-We have first
an order of development in the mind
of God in his works and dispensations
in creation and redemption. On this
we have already spoken. But we have
afterwards an order of development
in the human mind, as man overtakes
the perfections of the divine work.
Man pursues the path of discovery,
not of creation. He is not a lawgiver,
but a law-finder. The earth to which
he belongs is established by law-the
universe to which it belongs has a
settled constitution. The human mind
has its organic structure and radical
functions. Christianity has dogmatic
foundations, everlasting laws, and
uniform principles. From the granite
floors to the starry roofs, all the build-
ings of God are finished. No human
builder can add a stone or an ordi-
nance to the temples of divinity.
Man's work consists in the gradual
expansion of his intellect by earnest
inquiry and revering contemplation.
"It is the glory of God to conceal a
matter, and it is the glory of man to
find it out." Hence in digging deep
for hidden riches, and rising high for
a pure atmosphere, the toil of man is
fruitful and sanctified. From - mines
of darkness the ore of gold and silver
reaches the day, and the strong pa-
tient diver brings up pearls along
with sand and gravel. There is dila-
tion for the spirit while the horizon
grows wider, and the purified, strength-
ened vision discerns other suns light-
ing up other systems. The magnifi-
cence of creation, and the marvel of
redemption, penetrate the soul as
light penetrates the earth - expand-
ing, harmonizing, and softening, until
there is within the depths of the heart
tranquillity and lustre.

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if he had been of God's privy council when he created the universe, he could have given better advice. The profane wretch knew not how to govern his own petty empire, and yet he could dream of improving the work of the Eternal! Most of those who manufacture creeds and schemes of policy for the life and organization of churches are in spirit the disciples of the blaspheming monarch. They would not employ his formula of speech, but they carry his idea into a more sacred province into a higher and richer field than yon argent expanse which is spangled with rolling worlds.

Man's education and life, both in the kingdom of nature and in the spiritual monarchy, must consist in patiently searching for the mind and will of the Lord. "He that believeth shall not make haste." He will reverently seize that fact, or discharge that duty, which lies nearest to him ; and while so engaged, another link in the chain of consequence will soon be manifest. Large discoveries are always made in proportion to our reverence and obedience. They who love truth better than life are sure to find it, and they who linger and thirst after righteousness will certainly be filled with divine life.

III. BENEVOLENCE. The only difficulty here consists in the immensity of the field. The arrangements and productions of nature minister an amount of pleasure far beyond the necessity of life. So various and rich are the sources of enjoyment, that in our space compression is demanded. The grain, the fruit, the flower the runlets, rivers, and lakes---the valleys, groves, and hills . . are all witnesses. There are so many elements of the beautiful and the sublime appealing to the imagination through the eyeso many perfumes to scent the air with fragrance-such diversity of animating melody to revive the spirit through the ear - that all the senses may be regaled. There is evident Alphonso of Castile imagined that provision for exuberance of happiness,

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