lying ball."

The poet may gaily describe the short hours of recreation; but he
forgets the daily tedious labours of the school, which is approached
each morning with anxious and reluctant steps.

A traveller, who visits Oxford or Cambridge, is surprised and edified
by the apparent order and tranquillity that prevail in the seats of the
English muses. In the most celebrated universities of Holland, Germany,
and Italy, the students, who swarm from different countries, are loosely
dispersed in private lodgings at the houses of the burghers: they dress
according to their fancy and fortune; and in the intemperate quarrels
of youth and wine, their swords, though less frequently than of old, are
sometimes stained with each other's blood. The use of arms is banished
from our English universities; the uniform habit of the academics, the
square cap, and black gown, is adapted to the civil and even clerical
profession; and from the doctor in divinity to the under-graduate, the
degrees of learning and age are externally distinguished. Instead of
being scattered in a town, the students of Oxford and Cambridge are
united in colleges; their maintenance is provided at their own expense,
or that of the founders; and the stated hours of the hall and chapel
represent the discipline of a regular, and, as it were, a religious
community. The eyes of the traveller are attracted by the size or beauty
of the public edifices; and the principal colleges appear to be so
many palaces, which a liberal nation has erected and endowed for the
habitation of science. My own introduction to the university of Oxford
forms a new aera in my life; and at the distance of forty years I still
remember my first emotions of surprise and satisfaction. In my fifteenth
year I felt myself suddenly raised from a boy to a man: the persons,
whom I respected as my superiors in age and academical rank, entertained
me with every mark of attention and civility; and my vanity was
flattered by the velvet cap and silk gown, which distinguish a gentleman
commoner from a plebeian student. A decent allowance, more money than
a schoolboy had ever seen, was at my own disposal; and I might command,
among the tradesmen of Oxford, an indefinite and dangerous latitude of
credit. A key was delivered into my hands, which gave me the free use of
a numerous and learned library; my apartment consisted of three elegant
and well-furnished rooms in the new building, a stately pile, of
Magdale