only puts words on a man's tongue, whereby he may seem to know somewhat, nor that enables one to utter and exchange a coin which he and others make themselves believe genuine, though it has no ring in it. It has not to do with merely names and dates, husks and rinds. It must reach more than the outside, though to grasp that fully were much. Neither is it memory and ready narration. Far otherwise than all this. Knowledge is of a clear insight. Where true knowledge is, there is or hath been a creation, a product of a living mind. There is no knowledge where there is no thought. And what is thought but the embracing by a conscious spirit of the reality and substance of nature? In this union does the life of the soul gain developement and daily strength, and hence has a genuine thought its quickening power. Ixion and a cloud beget only Centaurs, huge rampant monsters, whom in the mists only we can mistake for men. How then, and by what affinity does the scholar find in books this union and fellowship with real nature, which perpetually satisfies and urges on him? By no means in all books, nor wholly in any. A book, being a record of the thought and experiences of another man, and thus a picture of his being, is a projection and presentation to the reader's mind of that which he has in common with other men. There is mirrored to him his own past, or that which he shall yet become. Thus does he come to learn the meaning and end of those vaguely tossing aspirations, and ideal hopes, which the forces of nature are ever and anon putting forth in him. He in this book-it may be Milton on divorce, or Sydney on government, or the sonnets of Petrarch -has learned where in the intellectual world they stand, whither they are tending, and by what influences, inward or outward, they rise and go onward. This book then is not a mere didactic treatise, which doles out to him propositions by weight and measure. It has become an impersonation, and carries within it the secret agencies of a human life. It is no more, as to the unthinking, a series of letters fairly set up and duly pointed. It speaks to him in the tones of brotherhood, and is indeed a brother and close friend. What matters it to me that David sang thousands of years ago. The plaintive record of his sorrows and of his hopes brings us together. We dwell in company in the cave of Adullam, unite and join our shouts when the people bring home the ark, and he instructs me in the ways of human life, its sad falls and cheerful uprisings, with fraternal gentleness and affection. Books teach him too what the mind of man can do. Each shall tell him of the wonders that have been disclosed to men, and every new truth awakens in him an active progeny of hints, and doubts, and confirmations. They forewarn him of rocks and shoals on which former adventurers have made shipwreck. ** ART. IV.-LITERARY INSTITUTIONS IN DENMARK.* I. THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN! THE desired information will be found for the most part in the accompanying description. (copied from a MS. by Dr Kirkegaard, written for a German periodical,) and the following remarks may supply what further accuracy may be required. As the University was established with the express purpose of fitting men to fill the official situations in church and state; the professors are nearly all of them likewise examiners; in addition to the examinations spoken of in the MS. namely, the examinations in arts and in philosophy, (the object of which is to ascertain what knowledge the student brings with him from school, and secondly what progress in general informatain he has made in his first academical year, both which are held by the members of the philosophical faculty;) these have beside to hold an examination for office, for those who desire to be directors or head teachers in the classical schools of the country. The theological faculty holds an examination for office for all those intended for the ministry of the established church. The juridical, for all the legal officials, (judges) advocates and attorneys. From the American Quarterly Register, for November, to which it was communicated by Rev. John C. Brown, St Petersburgh. The medical faculty examined hitherto only those who, beside the right to practice, wished to be admissible to the more important offices in this profession payed by the state, whilst the other were examined by the chirurgical academy spoken of in my MS. ;* but from the present year, 1838, there is to be but one common examination for all who will practice or seek office as physicians, and this held by the professors of the faculty and academy in common. As a consequence of the absence of all sound religious tendency in the past generation, as well as their utter disregard of the lesson to be derived from the history of past times, the theological and juridical faculties in particular are devoid of any living connection with, and influence upon the intellectual developement and moral state of the people. Medicine and the natural sciences are cultivated with more vigor and in a closer connection with real life, and, together with philology, number amongst their teachers the university's most celebrated names: in physics, Oersted; astronomy, Schumacher; botany, Scow; Brönsted, celebrated for his travels in Greece, together with Denmark's most celebrated poet, Oehlenschlager. The number of the professors is : Juridical, 22 The number of students is about 900. The number entered yearly on the books is between 150° and 200. The estates of the University amount according to hartkorn, † to about one hundredth of Denmark proper; besides it possesses a capital of 150,000 rigsbankdaler, and manages and appropriates to the support of needy students the income of considerable estates, together with the interest of 830,000 Rbd. granted, the first by different kings, the last by private individuals.2 *The accompanying German MS. The figures 1, 2, 3, 4, refer to notes at the end of the article. § About £83,000. About £15,000.› Besides the University library, (see German MS.) there are also in connection with this University, a botanical garden, astronomical observatory, extensive collections in natural history, together with the (hitherto independent) chirurgical academy, with four professors, two tutors, and about 200 students, which from the present year may be considered as in a certain respect an appendix to it.3 II. SORO ACADEMY. This establishment owes its origin to a Cistercian cloister, founded by the celebrated Archbishop Absalon's family, and enlarged by himself, (1151-61.) After the introduction of the Reformation, (1536) the monks for the time being were permitted to remain there till their death, after which the property devolved to the crown, and continued from 1536 to be appropriated to the support of a classical school. To this the celebrated king Christian the 4th, (James I., Christian's brother in law,) annexed from the year 1623 an academy where the young nobility might receive an education answering to their station, and the powerful influence on the concerns of the kingdom to which it at that time gave them access. The establishment was supplied by the king with considerable grants of the secularized property of the cloisters, while his mother also aided it with money, and it had for a short time many pupils, notwithstanding it seems that the king's design of diminishing the disposition of the nobles to seek their education in foreign lands, and France in particular, was not fully realized. Under his successor, Frederick III., however, the habit began to be less frequent, and as the greatest part of the country during an unfortunate war with Sweden, had long been in the power of the enemy, the institution was necessarily broken up (1665) from want of funds. The academy indeed was again established in the year 1747 by king Frederick V., and enriched by the celebrated writer, Ludo. Holberg, who bestowed upon it his estates and a considerable capital; but an academy for the Danish nobility, at a time when it was devoid of all influence, and destitute of any internal vigor or strength, was an untimely abortion, and could not thrive. In vain an attempt was made to help it forward, and fol low the spirit of the times by opening it from 1782 to the people at large; it was less and less frequented, and towards the end of the century came to a complete stand. At last the buildings and library were destroyed by fire in 1813. Meanwhile it ought to be mentioned that some of the professors of the academy in this period did important service to the national literature, which was neglected in Copenhagen, through the rage for what was foreign, and in this respect they were worthy followers of Holberg, with whom our literature, at least its proasic, proper and independent developement may be said to begin. The property of the academy, which (consisting in part of legacies) could not be diverted to any other channel, was at the same time so great, (compared with that of the Copenhagen University, being as 4 to 3,) that exertions were soon made to reëstablish it. It now, (since the year 1822,) consists of a philosophical faculty, combined with one of the best classical schools in the kingdom, where students on leaving school, and before proceeding to the metropolitan University to be educated for a particular profession, acquire a more general literary education, which is by no means as much confined to the classics as the parallel course in Copenhagen, but pays much more regard to modern languages and literature, English in particular. The academy has at the present time twelve professors, and some teachers in music, arithmetic, gymnastics, &c. but the number (exclusive of course of the school, which is numerously attended,) has not as yet exceeded twenty, and it will scarcely succeed in conferring any considerable benefit on the country without a total reform of its present system, which is an unfortunate attempt at combining the traditional scholastic education with the more modern European system. The library and collections are as yet of no considerable extent, though perfectly adequate to the more immediate design of the institution. III. Of public classical, or so called Latin schools, which are much of the same kind as what we call gymnasia in Germany, and which on the whole are in good condition, there are in the islands of the kingdom twelve, and in Jutland seven; there are in addition to these, especially in the metropolis, various private establishments of the same kind, very numerously attended. |