there will be acceptable: "In our house," I draw, and persuaded, as were the rest, that adds Anna," there lives only my mother and Baptist would not come back, sadly set out myself. My mother keeps house; I tend on her way home. our flock on the mountain in the day time, and at night work with my mother. Sometimes we sit together on our hearth with nothing new to say to one another, which is dull; now and then we have the company of some young women who live about a quarter of a league from us: I came with two of them to-day; and we are to return together. But for them I should have missed this wedding; and that would have been a pity." Returning to the room, and finding it deserted by her who alone had filled it to his eyes, Baptist wished his host good-night. Hardness of heart is not the vice of the truly happy. The bridegroom accompanied him a few steps beyond the threshold, and laughingly told him in a key sufficientlg loud to ensure his being overheard by his wife, that the beauteous Anna, the flower and envy of the night, was the best tender of flocks in the district; that she had a good fortune; excellent hands for the spindle, and a voice for singing that charmed all who heard her; that he therefore advised him to cultivate the good graces of the mother, for that he well knew the girl would think herself fortunate to be able to warble her youth away with such an accompaniment : Oh, life of my life! Who can show me your fellow On the mountain Estrella? The dancing was renewed; Baptist surpassed himself, if that were possible. The fiddle seemed animated with all the fire, all the brilliant freshness of a newly rising passion. It imparted more life, more ecstasy to the dancers; and Anna, every time that the mazy whirl brought her near to the musician, showed by a look, a movement, an air, that she felt something more than gratitude for the performer. The Bow of Cupid, to use the phraseology of the poeticoarcadian schools, never twanged off more sharp and quick arrows than did the bow of a fiddle on this night. The bridegroom, And with this he bade him farewell; fearing that the transport might not sub- but not before he had further explained, side before sunrise, availed himself of a mo- what Baptist had already known above two mentary pause to call Baptist apart into the hours, that the house was situated at the garden, and there, after some trifling apolo- top of a winding steep, between hills; that getical preamble, with which Baptist would by day two great oak trees, standing close have willingly dispensed, gave him to un- together, on the right of the road, would derstand, in as few words as his embarrass- show that he was near the place, and that at ment and the sense of his discourtesy would night he would be led to it by the bleating permit, that it was time to close the enter- of numerous goats folded in the pen, so tainment, and for the guests to retire. Bap- that there could be no risk of going astray tist, who, like all happy lovers, had kept among those wilds. The night was still wholly out of view the fact, that such plea- dark. Baptist at first, though his mind was sure must have an end, and in whom (trust still abroad, took the melancholy road that the, hearts of men !) the thought of his first led to his home. But what was he to do love, now hopeless, was already partially there? Sleep? who ever slept on the first eclipsed by the radiant image of his new night of a new love-fever?—To lie awake star; Baptist stood undecided for an in- and sigh? that is better and more poetically stant whether he should obey the master of done on the open stage of nature. To the house, thanking him for his good cheer, transcribe from the tablets of his heart an or break the fiddle about his ears. A visit account of his sensations and wishes in a to the cellar, to which the host sagaciously letter? Anna probably cannot read; and he invited him, gave him time to recover his himself, satisfied with his talent as a musitemper; and, thanks to a copious draught cal artist, never felt any ambition to accuthat prepared him for the journey, the in-mulate knowledge. Baptist does not know ward strife that had arisen between the two how to write. All such of my readers as spirits that contend for mastery in the hu-have passed through the paradise of youth man breast, terminated in the victory of will readily divine, without my telling them, the good angel. During this absence of whither the steps of Baptist led him against the life and soul of the party, the greater the bent of his wiser intention. As full of number of the guests disappeared and wine and passion as an elegy of Propertius, Anna, urged by her companions to with- with his fiddle under his arm, and his Anna in his heart, and with as good speed as the obscurity of the hour, and the ruggedness and strangeness of the way permit, there he goes, entreating the solitude to favor his blind search of the temple of his divinity, and already, in spirit, making the tour of those walls which he fancies he discovers in every white stone that he discerns before him. mountain, and now, more than ever, the Who can show me your fellow On the mountain Estrella? As these fancies thickened upon him, And what a wretched gratification is he Baptist, who was absolutely carried away seeking! He will not see her; no, he will with them, and was every moment quickennot hear her voice. At such an untimely ing his pace, less attentive to the road than season of the night, he will not even, to the stars, with which true lovers have through some compassionate crack in the always an indefinable sympathy, suffered door, have his eyes fascinated by the flick- himself to be hurried on, he hardly knew ering gleam of a lamp lighted by that very whither, till he suddenly remembered what hand which so lately trembled in his own. none but a lover would have forgotten for a She herself will not know to-morrow that moment, that he ought to examine, by the he has been keeping watch near her, and notices which he had been warned to take surrounding her dreams with his love. No heed of, whether he was on his right course sign will remain to reveal to her the devo- or not. He stopped, he doubted, he was tion with which he will have been kissing, about to turn back, when lo! he observed as a pilgrim kisses a reliquiary, the insensi- on the side of the path, certain trees, which ble walls that enclose the talisman of his ex-might very possibly be the two oak-trees: he istence! When she shall arise and go forth flies towards them; they are the very same; with Aurora, placid and rosy like her, and, and that is the exact site-a site as familiar like her, hailed with delight by every thing to him, now that he views it for the first that beholds her, not a vestige of his kisses time, as if he had been born there. He will be left on the stones of her house, on the accelerates his speed-his heart leaps as if threshold of her door; not one of all the sighs it wished to get there before him-the that night shall have gathered in its lap will sandy and barren soil of the steep seems to be felt with the morning breezes, as they him a gentle declivity, matted with rosesigh among the foliage. No; but he will have leaves; and, to crown his success, he hears enjoyed, in three or four hours of careful the bleat of a lamb close by: he who vigil, whole ages of felicity. It is even pos- hears the lamb cannot be far off from the sible, that something of reality may be shepherdess. He rushes towards the spot mingled with his delicious reveries: it may where so tender a greeting invites him. chance, that, while with ear applied to a He already discovers the withies of the casement, and breath suspended, he in- fold-he almost touches them. All at once terrogates the silence of the sleeping house, the ground gives way under him, and he some audible sound, some word addressed finds himself at the bottom of a pitfall. Asby the daughter to her mother, some rust-tounded with the shock, though he had ling of a mattrass, stuffed with the straw of lighted on his feet, with his fiddle safe unIndian corn, will aid his fancy to picture der his arm, he at first imagined that some the interior of that Eden, and to perceive, evil witch had laid this wicked trap for as it were, through his ears, the position, him; and he now called to mind that an old the attitude, the expression, the thoughts of woman at the wedding had very constantly the most beautiful of slumberers. He will, eyed him with an expression of countenance at least, hear the bleatings of her goats hard of no good augury:-but after his first by; and, if the stars be not utterly hostile confusion was a little allayed, he perceived to his hopes, he may, in the morning, hi-that he was in one of those deep holes ding himself where he cannot be discover- which it is the custom to excavate on the ed, watch her as she passes with her flock, mountain to catch wolves. These holes are blithely treading the dew in her little slip-made wider at bottom than at top, so as to pers of orange-tree wood, her distaff stuck make it impossible for the prisoner to esin her girdle, a shade of soft anxiety setting off the sweetest smile that ever dawned from under the broad flap of a large black hat; and, perhaps, he might hear that chant of the cape; the mouth is lightly covered with a few slender boughs, which, yielding to the pressure of any weight, let it fall through, and, being elastic, resume their deceitful appearance as a lure to the beast of prey no wise diminished, overpowers him with an at night, it is usual to place behind this inundation of notes, in tune and out of masked abyss, and within a strong fence of tune, enough to rive the entrails of the hurdles, a kid or a lamb, whose cries for earth. It was a genuine scene, worthy of the dam entice its enemy to certain de- the opera in the Rua-dos-Condes. Minuets, struction. The hopelessness of evasion gavottes, country-dances, waltzes, cotilfrom such a den, for the rest of the night, lons, jigs, and rigadoons, succeeded one was evident to poor Baptist. He tried to another without break or transition, and accommodate himself to his situation. He with a rapidity, a prodigality, that was marhad not room to console himself as men vellous: while now and then he wrenched incarcerated are wont to do, by pacing to his eyes off his crouching adversary to and fro to give life to his imprecations. He look up at the aperture for the glimpse of laid himself down in the pit to meditate on day, to which alone he could trust for his the abode of his love, which he had left deliverance. But that night had sworn to above him in the land of the living. Na- last at least fifty hours for the poor fiddler. ture makes but little difference between The centrifugal charm of his violin appeardreams and the visionary cogitations of ed to have as much influence on Aurora as lovers. on the wolf; keeping them both aloof. The Baptist was now half-musing, half-sleep- perspiration which his fears had at first ing, when he heard the treacherous roof of drawn, was now streaming down him from his den giving way again, and immediately sheer fatigue. His arm, before so laboriousafterwards down plumped some heavy sub-ly exercised at the ball, was beginning to stance. He jumped up in consternation- fail him, when at last the gleams of day Who is there?-no answer-With hair on peered through the false trellis-work over end, head dripping with cold sweat, and his head; and soon afterwards, steps, voices, tongue tied with terror, he crouched hard and laughter, were distinguishable near the against a side of the pit, and endeavored cavern. The shepherds who had laid the with eyes fixed in stupid amazement, to trap were coming to see if they had caught make out the companion of his misfortune: any thing; and, wondering at the strange —and lo, a wolf, a great wolf, an immense subterranean music, they hastened towards wolf! He sees his eyes glaring like lamps, it with a thousand wild conjectures. Having and that ferocious light shows, or seems to removed the boughs that covered the mouth show, two rows of perfectly white teeth, of the pit, they looked down, eager to learn with the formidable tusks; a sight sufficient what this extraordinary revel could be. to disconcert, not only one fiddler, but a Baptist fearing to lose, by one moment's inwhole philharmonical society. Without de- termission of his music, the safety he had fence, or means of flight, or chance of suc-won at so much cost, answered them in cor, and watching the steady and gradually chanted prose, fiddling all the while, and emboldened attention with which his adver- huddling two or three words into every sary measured him, he was attempting in his noteagony to shrink into the very earth that immured him, when an involuntary touch of one of the strings of his fiddle caused it to sound-the animal was startled and recoil- entreating to be quickly released, and intied two steps, which he had at last slowly mating that he would tell them all about and with a long pause between each made it presently. A ladder was the first thing towards the musician. Baptist, there to be procured; one was immediately found fore, suspecting that there may be some in the nearest farm-house, the inmates of occult centrifugal virtue in the art of Orphe- which, as anxious as their neighbors to gratus, draws his fiddlestick with a tremulous ify their curiosity, came running with the hand across the bow. It is now the wolf's rest to witness such an unexampled sight. turn to shrink; he cowers as if he would The pit was surrounded with people of both bury himself in the ground: the rage in his sexes. The ladder was hardly fixed, when eyes is subdued, he turns away his head; Baptist clambered up as fast as he possibly he manifests his fears by a thousand signs. could, without the use of his hands,-for Baptist, gathering courage from his ene- he was still fiddling,-till he reached the my's cowardice, without further preparatory top, more dead than alive. Scarcely had tuning flings him off a waltz, and observing he found himself amid kindly human faces, that the first effect of his instrument is in and in the light of one of the loveliest "Pit of terror-Night of horror-How I tremble!" of the authorities of the town. It was the interest of all parties, that each man's pupils should reside under his roof. Hence arose the boarding-houses, at first called Inns and Hostelries, and afterwards Colleges mornings that ever shone on the Estrella, when, laying down his fiddle to make the sign of the cross, he discovered at his side -his own Anna. Hers was the ladder that had saved him; hers the neighboring farm-house; and the soft scarlet kerchief and Halls. The masters of these houses of cotton that was instantly offered to him to wipe his forehead, was taken from her own neck. He was conducted to her house (it was possibly only because it was the nearest at hand,) and placed by the hearth, where mother and daughter vied with each other in making him comfortable, and, after serving him with a good breakfast, and giving him a thousand unequivocal proofs of their benevolence, they left him to take five or six hours of delicious repose on a well-filled and well-smoothed palliasse of Indian-corn were the rulers of the little scholastic world. They selected a rector or principal to keep order among themselves, who afterwards received the name of Chancellor. But the important step, and that which raised Oxford from a Collection of Schools into a University, was their uniting for the purpose of ascertaining the progress of their pupils, and granting to them certificates of proficiency and licenses to teach. These became, in time, the modern degrees of Bachelor and Master; the first of which gave the applicant merely a limited power of lecturing; the second, which was at first In less than three months after that synonymous with Doctor, authorized him breakfast, Baptist was the husband of Anna. The artist who had figured so brilliantly at other people's wedding-parties performed prodigies at his own. The wolf, which Baptist and Anna would not suffer to be destroyed, was carefully secured; and, being of a tameable age at the time of his capture, is now a part of the family, and is kept in better condition than ever wolf was kept before. straw. to teach generally, to preside at the disputations which were then the tests of knowledge, and to be Master of a House. Thus grew up the form of university government which still exists. It is a mixed exclusive constitution. The Chancellor forming the monarchical element, the Heads of the Houses the aristocratic, and the other Masters and Doctors the democratic. The friendly evening gath-The excluded, and, as is generally the case erings at this farm-house are celebrated in in exclusive governments, the larger part of the district; and all the neighbors hope and the community, are the under-graduates and trust that the harmony which reigns there bachelors. will never be interrupted-that, in the mutual relation of husband and wife, and of mother and son-in-law, the fiddle will never be out of tune. As the Heads of Houses were almost always ecclesiastics, and therefore deprived of lineal heirs, and separated by their habits from their collaterals, the houses must, from the beginning, have passed from owner to owner by way of succession rather than of inheritance. This suggested their incorporation. Recourse was had to the Crown, which exercised its prerogative in early times far more readily than it does now. The celebrity of Oxford attracted founders and benefactors. Large buildings were 1. The English Universities. From the Ger- erected, and extensive estates attached to man of V. U. A. Huber. An abridged them. Corporations aggregate, consistTranslation. By Francis W. Newman.ing of master, fellows, and scholars, were Three volumes, 8vo. London: 1843. THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES. From the Edinburgh Review. 2. The Oxford University City and County Herald, of Feb. 15, 1845. THE early history of the University of Oxford is obscure. It appears to have consisted originally of a collection of teachers, united by no condition beyond mutual convenience, and subject to no discipline except the spiritual power of the Bishop of Lincoln, the diocesan, and the temporal jurisdiction created, who were to enjoy their endowments, partly for the advancement of learning, and partly as instruments of perpetual prayer for their founders' souls. Such was the origin of Colleges. The houses of education to which no property, beyond the land on which they stood, was attached, became the existing Halls, in which the Principal, by charter or by prescription, is a corporation sole. Partly for purposes of education, and [proposals made to it by the heads of houses, partly as a weapon in their constant contests called, in consequence of their weekly with the town's people, the members of the meetings, the Hebdomadal Board, and must houses obtained a charter incorporating accept or reject them unaltered. When them as a University, which, according to we add that, except by special permission the custom of those times, was frequently of the Chancellor, the discussions are in repeated, and at length was solemnly con- Latin, it may be inferred that Convocation firmed by Parliament.¡ is not a place for debate. By the Caroline statutes, all persons above the age of sixteen must, previously There exist, therefore, in Oxford, one corporation aggregate, the University, which includes among its members all the mem-to matriculation, subscribe the Thirty-nine bers of the other corporations; eighteen corporations aggregate, consisting of the members of the Colleges; and five corporations sole, consisting of the Principals of the Halls. Articles of 1562; and every candidate for a degree must subscribe the three articles of the thirty-sixth Canon. By these three articles, this subscriber asserts-1st, The King's supremacy; 2dly, That the Book of It does not appear that the Colleges have Common Prayer, and of ordering bishops, made much direct exercise of the right, priests, and deacons, contains nothing conwhich is incident to a corporation, of mak-trary to the Word of God; and 3dly, That ing by-laws, or, in Oxford language, statutes. he allows the Articles of 1562, and acknowThose which they received from their found- ledges all and every the Articles therein ers they have retained-we will not say contained to be agreeable to the Word of obeyed; for the greater part of the Colleges God. The Canon requires the subscription violated their statutes systematically, and to be in these words,-I, A B, do willingly in many respects unavoidably. But the University, from the time of its incorporation, and perhaps from an earlier period, enacted statutes, for the government of its own members as members of the University, and for the government of the Halls. With the internal government of the Colleges it has not ventured to interfere. and ex animo subscribe to these three ar ticles, and to all things that are contained therein.' The Vice-chancellor is empowered to require any person in holy orders to repeat his subscription, and on his refusal or neglect, after the requisition has been thrice made, to banish him from the University. For several centuries statutes continued The matriculation subscription is unexto be passed, often for mere temporary pur-plained by any words. The Vice-chancellor poses, often inconsistent, and, from the usually states to the applicant for matricuabsence of printing, little known, and fre-lation, that it merely signifies that he is a quently lost. After several ineffectual atternpts had been made by his predecessors, Laud, while Chancellor, succeeded in reducing these rude materials into a consistent whole. With the assistance of a committee appointed by the University, he framed the code called the Caroline statutes. It was enacted by the heads of the houses, doctors, and masters, approved by Laud, and confirmed by the Crown. member of the Church of England. But he has no authority to declare this to be its true interpretation, and it is obviously open to several others. It may be an expression of universal belief-that is, that the subscriber believes every portion of what he has subscribed or it may express belief general though not universal-that is, that the subscriber generally assents to the Articles, though he doubts, or even denies, By these statutes, the legislative power some comparatively unimportant portions: of the University was materially restricted. or it may express no belief at all, but be a The right to explain, and of course, by impli- mere declaration of conformity-a mere cation, the right to repeal any statute sanc-engagement not to oppose the doctrines tioned by the Crown, is refused, unless the of the Articles, leaving their truth undeconsent of the Crown be previously obtain- cided. ed. An absolute negative is given to the The subscription on degrees is unamChancellor, and also to the Vice-chancellor, biguous. Every loop-hole through which and also to the two Proctors. And the House of Convocation, consisting of doctors and masters, by which every new statute must be passed, has no power of initiation or amendment. It can deliberate only on a tender conscience might escape, is carefully guarded. The subscription is fraudulent if the subscriber thinks, or even suspects, that the Book of Common Prayer, or of ordination, contains a sentence contrary |