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TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN.
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Development, academic standing & culture in 18th Cent., compared to Oxford & Cambridge.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Development, academic standing & culture in 18th Cent., compared to Oxford & Cambridge.
Paper Introduction:
The eighteenth century was the formative period in the history of Trinity College Dublin: it was in this period of strong leadership that Trinity College took on its character as well as its outward appearance. In the following pages we examine the academic standing and culture of Trinity College in the eighteenth century, especially in comparison and contrast to the condition of other universities in the British Isles at that time, particularly Oxford and Cambridge.
The visitor to Trinity College Dublin (also called the University of Dublin) enters a space which, more perhaps than any other great university in the British Isles, embodies what Americans would imagine a great and ancient university to look like. Trinity College forms a distinct campus, organized around a system of open quadrangles. The plan, and the stately
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But the same scholars who note this alsoadmit that "Dublin never sank into the deep torpor which descended uponOxford and Cambridge" (p. in the University of Oxford the greater part of the public professors have for these many years given up altogether the pretense of teaching (Gibbon, 1961, p. Trinity College's own most distinguished eighteenth-century graduatesgave a wide range of reviews to their old school. J. Our image of the harmless, bumbling country parson comes out ofthe eighteenth century -- and stands in sharp contrast to the image of thePuritan preacher just a century earlier. They revivedagain in the Reformation era, when intellectual arguments about theologywere both important and disputed. We have, indeed, aboyish letter from a student [dated 17 3] which petulantly describes theTrinity College course as a farrago of conflicting hypotheses drawn fromAristotle, Descartes, Colbert, Epicurus, Gassendi, Malebranche, and Locke,with Plato making little show and Bacon, Digby, and Boyle absent. published 1776). 181-98). (1969). He wrote laterthat I am ashamed to have been more obliged in a few weeks to strangers (at Oxford) than ever I was in seven years to Dublin College (Johnston, 1959, p. Trinity College forms a distinct campus,organized around a system of open quadrangles. (1946). 27). A. (1968). Dublin under the Georges, 1714-183 . McDowell, R. The expression of gratitude is a virtue and a pleasure. 4 ). For the Oxbridge colleges, then, the late eighteenth century was aperiod of gradual reform and redevelopment, which paved the way for theirdramatic re-emergence into intellectual leadership in the nineteenthcentury. Indeed, thedefense of tradition did not fall to the old established professors, whohad long since ceased to lecture or think, but to young "neoconservatives"who actually wanted to stir up the universities as much as the progressivereformers did. Berkeley:University of California Press. In the seventeenth century, its growth waslimited by the turbulence of contemporary Ireland. Apart from a "practical" function inturning out physicians and lawyers, the main role of the universities wasin fact as a training ground for the clergy. The course outline as hinted at above was indeed, in 17 3, acontemporary if not dramatically progressive approach to philosophy. there is an university in Ireland founded by Queen Elizabeth with a much greater discipline than either in Oxford or Cambridge (Maxwell, 1946, p. A history of English education from 176 .2nd ed. 13-14). What was the cause of the poor esteem in which the Britishuniversities ere held? Other distinguished graduates of early eighteenth-centuryTrinity College had less positive things to say about their educations,because they found a traditional theoretical education in theology andphilosophy to be of little interest or use to them. Maxwell, Constantia. The Anglican Church of Ireland wasestablished in law, and little-challenged among the Protestant upperclasses of Dublin -- but its members and ministers could scarcely not beaware that they were surrounded by a people most of whom gave allegiance toanother faith. Goldsmith and Swiftalso had less positive personal experiences of their college years;Goldsmith of his miseries as a sizar, and Swift of resentment at not beingat Oxford and of numerous punishments. But onreading between the lines of the letter we see that Berkeley read aliberal, representative course in philosophy that allowed liberty ofthought and held the balance between ancient and modern learning (Luce,1968, p. New York: Scribner's. This sort of interaction is perhaps the reason why Trinity College,like the Scottish universities, never quite sank into the coma whichcontemporaries seem to have found at Oxford and Cambridge. We havealready seen the seventy weeks of punishment meted out to a troublesomeJonathan Swift. 12). London: HerbertJenkins. Theoutward visual symbol of this stability is the stately physical campus ofTrinity College, which so largely dates from this period. 7 ).As might be expected from Gibbon, however, this gentle introduction leadsto some commentary, far from gentle, on the actual state of the Britishuniversities. Fewstudents, then, had any real academic interest. In search of Swift. The eighteenth century was the formative period in the history ofTrinity College Dublin: it was in this period of strong leadership thatTrinity College took on its character as well as its outward appearance.In the following pages we examine the academic standing and culture ofTrinity College in the eighteenth century, especially in comparison andcontrast to the condition of other universities in the British Isles atthat time, particularly Oxford and Cambridge. (1955). It was able to serve its function as theintellectual bastion of Irish Anglicanism well enough to give GeorgeBerkeley the tools that he would use to establish himself as a majorphilosopher. Trinity, indeed, was merely another boarding school, more sophisticated but not more kindly . (1956). Kneller, George F. Dowling, P. It is at first glance something of a paradox that the eighteenthcentury, that most intellectual of centuries -- the Enlightenment, theatmosphere of which every state-college campus attempts to capture --should have been something of a Dark Age for formal education in Britain.But this seems to be generally accepted as the case. London: University of London Press. We might expect that eighteenth-century TrinityCollege perfectly embodied Edward Gibbon's contemporary description ofBritish universities: A traveler who visits Oxford or Cambridge is surprised and edified by the apparent order and tranquillity that prevail in the seats of the English muses (Gibbon, 1961, p. Radical change in the curriculum woulddestroy an intellectual tradition and cut society off from the classics.Failure to radically change the curriculum would stifle the development ofhuman thought, and at the least make the universities irrelevant to modernlife. The English, infact, have never been given to philosophy. In a more substantive sense, Trinity College wasalso a creation of the eighteenth century; after relative instability inits first century, Trinity College spent much of its second century, theeighteenth, under the leadership of three powerful Rectors, men who stampedtheir mark on the university's academic and cultural traditions as well ason its architecture. We are not told, unfortunately, what a"week of punishment" amounted to ("restriction," perhaps?) or what sort ofoffenses merited that punishment. Rouse, A. More serious disturbances resulted from the periodicfights that broke out between students and members of Dublin town guilds.At least one student riot resulted in murder, followed by a series ofexpulsions. Training schools for the Church, when theChurch was becoming irrelevant to society, they threatened to becomebackwaters. The life of George Berkeley Bishop of Cloyn.New York: Greenwood Press. If, on the other hand, atleast a few students show some glimmer of interest, the faculty will atleast be kept awake, if not dynamic. The students are almost invariablyless devoted to academic pursuits than the faculty members. The accounts of its student life in the eighteenthcentury show that undergraduates of that time were capable of putting thebeeriest of modern American fraternity members to shame. Yet even Swift admitted that thediscipline of Trinity College was far superior to that of Oxford orCambridge. Among famous graduates of Trinity College in the eighteenth century,Oliver Goldsmith also held mixed views about his experience there. The plan, and the statelyarchitecture of the buildings themselves, has been imitated at stateuniversities and community colleges across the United States. The surviving recordshows that Swift received over seventy weeks of punishment in less than twoyears (Johnston, 1959, p. If so, then the same conditions should have applied even morestrongly in Ireland. Indeed, a further reason for questioning the importance of auniversity education in the eighteenth century was that doubts were beingcast on the traditional curriculum, with its emphasis on the classics. 26). To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligation, and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. . A distinctive Scottishintellectual life was also challenged by the draw of London society to thesouth. A society that prizedlearning was eventually willing to take steps to reform its institutions oflearning. Luce, A. Nor, evidently, did the tutors. The academic curriculum debate of the late eighteenth and earlynineteenth century is strikingly similar to the contemporary argumentbetween "multiculturalists" and "great books" advocates over the course ofinstruction at modern universities. . Less articulate miscreants were periodically expelled.For many of the students, away from their homes for the first time, oftenat a younger age than today's college students, college must indeed havehad many of the characteristics of a boarding school. C. Lock'sEssay was on the course there within two years of its publication, yearsbefore it received general recognition in England. 12). The visitor to Trinity College Dublin (also called the University ofDublin) enters a space which, more perhaps than any other great universityin the British Isles, embodies what Americans would imagine a great andancient university to look like. 133). (1976; orig. A liberal mind will delight to cherish and celebrate the memory of its parents, and the teachers of science are the parents of the mind. The challenge from below was not yet felt.Unchallenged and unregarded, the Church had little motive to sharpen itsintellectual tools. It was perhaps in the nineteenth century, not inthe eighteenth, that Trinity College threatened to become "the silentsister." In spite of the brilliance of the eighteenth century -- in part,perhaps, precisely because of that brilliance, the eighteenth century was adismal period for the universities of England, which were never lower instandards or in national regard. It is possible to identify some reasons why the Scottish universitiesmight have fared better in the eighteenth century than did their Englishcounterparts. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Minor indulgencesincluded sousing one's rivals under "the pump" (actually any one of severalpumps on the campus). Holding that view of the curriculum, he wouldnot in fact have thrived at any British university. Uppersociety was secular, and no longer lived in fear or much regard of theirclergy. In the absence of astrong Provost, the campus could quickly devolve into a permanent uproar,in which the lot of the weaker or poorer students -- the sizars, such asOliver Goldsmith -- would have been one of terror. In the end, Swift only got his degree by a specialdispensation. New York:Oxford University Press. 33). (1975). What actualteaching went on was largely in the hands of private, off-campus "coaches." All of these generalizations about "the universities" apply most ofall to Oxford and Cambridge. Curtis, S. Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press. Indeed, Gibbon sounds here like Adam Smith because he is echoing AdamSmith. London: University Tutorial Press. Like the English universities, Trinity College gradually rose inacademic distinction through the period, but the improvement may have beenless concentrated in the late period than was the case at Oxford and(especially) Cambridge. 14-19).Another writer, beginning a description of the revival of the universitiesin the nineteenth century, characterizes what came before as the "nadir oflethargy" (Sanderson, 1975, p. Smith, Adam. . Any college must always exist, to some degree, in a state of tensionbetween its students and its faculty. But the Church was (with the usual honorable exceptions) complacent.The challenge of a Catholic Stuart restoration had effectively vanished bythe beginning of the century. J. (1975). A student with genuine interest in abstract intellectual pursuits,however, could still in 17 3 be subjected to a real, challenging, andcontemporary course -- at least at Trinity College, to the dismay of thewriter of the "petulant" letter and the delight of the future BishopBerkeley. It suggeststhat the traditional curriculum was not simply ossified, but rather seen asout of step by many people in public intellectual life. Young Goldsmith had yet to discover his . History of education in Great Britain. For Trinity College Dublin, however, the experience was somewhatdifferent. NewYork: Meridian. particular vein of genius. The students who remainedwere, in large part, country gentlemen's sons, consigned to the Church.For most of them, the future held a rural benefice, a comfortable living,and absolutely expectation of any future intellectual demands. 75; see also Smith, 1976, p. . A history of Irish education: A study inconflicting loyalties. And, in fact, the eighteenth century seems on balance to have beensomewhat more vigorous intellectually at Trinity College Dublin than it wasat the Oxbridge universities. Eighteenth-century Ireland was still largely a wildcountry, and Dublin a sort of outpost. Trinity College took on its present overall appearance in theeighteenth century, when many of its major structures -- including thelibrary -- were built. To attend a Scottish university, then, was not quite so passive anact as attending Oxford or Cambridge was at this time. One underlying factor may have been the stultifyingeffect of control by the established Anglican Church (Mountford, 1966, p.6). In fact, Swift -- who thought of himself as English -- had neverwanted to go to Trinity College in any case; he had wanted to go to Oxford. (1961). Their enthusiasm was metby that of their professors, many of whom, as Gibbon and Adam Smith noted,did not teach at all. In the first half of the century, restoring order on campus wasindeed a chief concern of the Provost (Maxwell, 1956, pp. 7thed. (1982) Trinity College Dublin:1592-1952. Trinity College had no glorious medieval past to look back to.Founded by Queen Elizabeth, it was essentially a child of the Reformationrather than the middle ages. References Bernard, H. 75). 284). B.; and Webb, D. Trinity College, then, entered the eighteenth century with nodirection to look but forward. 7 ). By contrast, this century was a period of gradual growth andmaturation for Trinity College Dublin, and in the earlier decades of thecentury, Trinity College distinctly outshone its English counterparts. 18). 113). To yet another authority theeighteenth century is the "lowest point" of English university history(Curtis, 1969, p. 41). It issignificant that Berkeley, the philosopher among those noted here, had themost positive things to say about the contemporary curriculum. In fact, the universities were looked on as essentially traininggrounds for the clergy -- and by the eighteenth century, the influence,importance, and standing of the clergy were rapidly declining. Theyseem to be reflected in most modern commentary on the eighteenth-centuryuniversity system. . For the children of the wealthy, private tutors wereprovided, after which they were sent on the Grand Tour to round out theireducations. Mountford, Sir James. . The reader will pronounce between the school and the scholar, but I cannot affect to believe that nature had disqualified me for all literary pursuits (Gibbon, 1961, p. I applaud the filial piety which it is impossible for me to imitate, since I must not confess an imaginary debt to assume the merit of a just or generous retribution. (1966). In the eighteenth century, both English universities were hopelesslyfar behind the times. The wealth of nations.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.----------------------- 16 Those whodid enroll did so to play and earn a "gentleman's C" -- not a difficultachievement given the low standards and virtual lack of examinations in theeighteenth century. A history of Trinity College Dublin:1591-1892. However, Swift's lack of affection for Trinity College may have hadmuch to do with his record of conduct while there. 75). Sanderson, Michael, ed. Enrollments dropped to historic lows. From their beginnings in the Middle Ages, the universities had beenclosely associated with the Church. Moreover, he found himself indifferent to the traditional curriculum; weare told that he "held logic and metaphysics in the utmost contempt"(Rouse, 1975, pp. (Freeman, 1951, p. Curriculum and teaching were"conventionalized and traditionalized" (Mountford, 1966, p. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College; they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life. It is true that, at this time, TrinityCollege may have acquired the uncomplimentary nickname "the silent sister"(McDowell and Webb, 1982, p. Even some writers whoattempt to retrieve the reputation of the eighteenth-century universitiesdo so with a visible lack of confidence in their own arguments (Kneller,1955, p. L. . The philosophical education whichSwift held "in utmost contempt," was meat and potatoes for Berkeley: The philosophy course which Berkeley read was distinctly modernist,as can be seen from his Commentaries and other early writings. Gibbon, Edward. Because of the low condition to which the Oxford colleges had sunken,they were in no position to defend a traditional position. Eighteenth-century Scotland was in some ways still afrontier society, with the Highlands barely tamed. He quotes with approval Smith's celebrated remark on the teachingload of late-eighteenth-century Oxford dons: . In the early decades of the century, Trinity hadvery probably been far ahead of either Oxford or Cambridge as a center oflearning. And he was not likely to find it among a crowd of typical Irish undergraduates with whom he had few qualities in common beyond those incidental to youth and inexperience. To assert, for example, that slightly over a third ofBritish scientific pioneers of the era had university training, is to admitthat nearly two thirds of them had no university connection. At the same time, the very intellectuality of society perhaps workedagainst the importance of the universities as a defined academic preserve.A young gentleman of academic leaning could correspond with scholars, joinlearned societies, and win full acceptance in the intellectual life of histime without ever having set foot in Oxford or Cambridge. Not all of Swift's remarks were so positive, however. Their academic offerings were still, in largemeasure, the medieval curriculum. Already by the 176 s,Cambridge was beginning to expand its curriculum and was introducing asystem of regular exams. Thus, it might have been expected to have more of aninterest in intellectual accomplishment, in the ability of at least some ofits representatives to hold their own in debate against other views. Possibly his literary talents werealready being turned on the college administration, to its sharpdispleasure. New York: Cambridge University Press. Johnston, Denis. Thegoverning statutes of the Universities were very far behind the times.Those of Cambridge dated to Queen Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century,while those of Oxford were only slightly more recent, having been set downby Archbishop Laud, the leader of the conservative faction in the Church ofEngland, in the early seventeenth century. Higher learning in Britain. In the later middle ages, the universitiesdeclined as the Church hierarchy enforced doctrinal rigidity. Less is said, and less probably known, aboutthe condition of other universities in the British Isles, which lay evenfurther from the London-centered intellectual world of the time. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, at Trinity and at theEnglish universities, conditions gradually improved. But if thestudents are totally unmotivated, as seems to have been nearly the case inthe eighteenth-century Oxbridge colleges, the faculty eventually becomedemoralized and cease even attempting to teach. (1971). Due toa minor family scandal, he was forced to attend the college as a sizar, thepoorest class of student, who more or less made a living as servants ofmore prosperous students. With the passing of religious passions,however, the relevance of the universities tended to fade. Dublin: The University Press, Trinity College. The academic experience of Trinity College seemed to have much moreto offer to George Berkeley, bishop and philosopher, who maintainedlifelong academic ties with his school. By the end of the century, it was merely competitive with them,and facing the difficult challenge of defining its role in an Ireland thatwas gradually making it clear that it would not be Protestant, or in theEnglish orbit, for ever. British universities. Systematic reform of universities would not occur until wellinto the nineteenth century, but agitation for change was growing by theturn of the century (Sanderson, 1975, p. There are the same accusations ofirrelevance on the one hand, and of trendy fashion on the other, and ofphilistinism from both sides. London. In the morebracing -- because more exposed and isolated -- intellectual climate ofDublin, at least a few students, like Berkeley, came prepared to make themost of the curriculum, and thus helped maintain the morale and energy ofthe faculty. Oliver Goldsmith. In the eighteenthcentury it achieved stability under strong administrative leadership. Freeman, William. Not all the students at Trinity College were "typical Irishundergraduates." It is certain, though, that most of the students were more gentlemanthan scholar, and it is clear that however it may have stood above theOxbridge colleges at the time, Trinity College Dublin was no purifiedtemple of learning. One historian sums up the entire period by placing itunder the subtitle "Centuries of Somnolence" (Kneller, 1955, pp. A. A sizar's lot, as we can readily imagine, wasnot a happy one. Gibbon goes on to give an analysis of the causes of what he sees asthe debility of the English universities: essentially, Gibbon argues, theyare a royal monopoly, privileged and protected from competition, andtherefore under no strong practical requirement to provide a qualityproduct -- that is, a good education. As the universities became more energetic, andmore respected, they began to draw more capable students again, and to givethem a more positive experience than Gibbon had endured. The state of the universities thus tended to some degree to reflectthe state of the Church. It may also beargued that the Scots had perhaps somewhat stronger religious feelings thanthe English, and thus found the theology-oriented traditional curriculummore relevant to them. The place to go for aman on the make, academically as in any other way, was London, not Oxfordor Cambridge. To attend, say, St.Andrews, was to assert a Scottish intellectual identity. The universities in the nineteenthcentury. Dublin: Hodges Figgis& Co. 39). No doubtthere were scholastic survivals, like those ridiculed by Swift, but most ofthe authors read were contemporary or up to date. . Yet the clergy were still, especially in the countryside, virtualservants of the local squire, remote from the concerns of the ordinarypeople. Trinity College, as it turned out, had little to offerGoldsmith in any case. (1959). ________. Jonathan Swift wrotethat . It could be said that Anglo-Saxon culture as a whole "holds logic and metaphysics in the utmostcontempt." So long as the universities concentrated in these studies, at atime when intellectually active Englishmen were turning their thoughts toother channels, the universities would be held in little regard. The autobiography of Edward Gibbon. These opinions of the low state of English universities in theeighteenth century were not peculiar to Edward Gibbon or Adam Smith. Thereal school for the new learning was public life. It is a startlingly modern-soundingpiece of economic analysis, not very different than the arguments put forthtoday by reformers who want to introduce "choice," or competition into thepublic schools. (1951). Dublin scholarship hadbeen progressive from the last decade of the seventeenth century. (1961). TheScottish universities seemed to have maintained a greater atmosphere ofseriousness; whether or not they could be called distinguished, theyevidently did not decline as far as the Oxbridge universities did(Mountford, 1966, p. New courses were introduced, and regular programs of study andexamination were laid down. Jonathan Swift.
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