Acropolis to the Sacred Way; and now he is in the
region of the schools. No awful arch, no window of many-coloured
lights marks the seats of learning there or elsewhere; philosophy lives
out of doors. No close atmosphere oppresses the brain or inflames the
eyelid; no long session stiffens the limbs. Epicurus is reclining in
his garden; Zeno looks like a divinity in his porch; the restless
Aristotle, on the other side of the city, as if in antagonism to Plato,
is walking his pupils off their legs in his Lyceum by the Ilyssus. Our
student has determined on entering himself as a disciple of
Theophrastus, a teacher of marvellous popularity, who has brought
together two thousand pupils from all parts of the world. He himself
is of Lesbos; for masters, as well as students, come hither from all
regions of the earth,--as befits a University. How could Athens have
collected hearers in such numbers, unless she had selected teachers of
such power? it was the range of territory, which the notion of a
University implies, which furnished both the quantity of the one, and
the quality of the other. Anaxagoras was from Ionia, Carneades from
Africa, Zeno from Cyprus, Protagoras from Thrace, and Gorgias from
Sicily. Andromachus was a Syrian, Proaeresius an Armenian, Hilarius a
Bithynian, Philiscus a Thessalian, Hadrian a Syrian. Rome is
celebrated for her liberality in civil matters; Athens was as liberal
in intellectual. There was no narrow jealousy, directed against a
Professor, because he was not an Athenian; genius and talent were the
qualifications; and to bring them to Athens, was to do homage to it as
a University. There was a brotherhood and a citizenship of mind.

Mind came first, and was the foundation of the academical polity; but
it soon brought along with it, and gathered round itself, the gifts of
fortune and the prizes of life. As time went on, wisdom was not always
sentenced to the bare cloak of Cleanthes; but beginning in rags, it
ended in fine linen. The Professors became honourable and rich; and
the students ranged themselves under their names, and were proud of
calling themselves their countrymen. The University was divided into
four great nations, as the medieval antiquarian would style them; and
in the middle of the fourth century, Proaeresius was the leader or
proctor of the Attic, Hephaestion of the Oriental, Epiphanius of the
Arabic, and Diophantus of the Pontic. Thus the Professors were both
patron