Item MFP/6/3 - John Forth at Jesus College, Cambridge, to his father

1 item

John describes the examination system there in great detail. The preliminary disputations were performed with much spirit but in ungrammatical and in classical Latin. Students were then examined in divisions by the Moderators - in the Elements of Mathematics, natural Philosophy, Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding, Butler’s Analogy, Clerk’s Attributes and Rutherford’s Institutes. They were required to attend for 5 days between the hours 8-9, 9.30-11, 1.30-3 and 3.30-5.

‘Honoured Father
The peculiarity of the Academical Exercises, which are preparatory to the conferring of the First Degree in Arts in this University, renders me fully persuaded that the following representation of that Part of our Discipline together with a short Deliniation of one Examination in the Senator House, will be very acceptable to you, who must be quite unacquainted with our present Forms of Education.

At the end of the Month of January, the two Proctors, whose offices are to prohibit as far as possible all Riots in the University, to correct Youths who are subject to be intoxicated, or to frequent Houses of bad Fame &, send their Servants round to every College in the University (Trinity Hall and Kings College excepted) to procure a List of the Students, who, in the subsequent January, intend to offer themselves as Candidates for the Bachelor’s Degree. The Names of the Students, being thus collected, are delivered to one of the two Moderators, who transcribes into a book, for purposes, which will be presently explained. The Moderators are annually chosen upon the tenth of Octr. Their proper office is to preside, alternately, at the public Exercises of the Students, and to examine them, at the Time of them offering themselves for their Degree. These exercises are held in the Afternoon in the public Schools, for five Days in the week during Term time; The Moderator appearing at two; & frequently continuing until the Clock strikes four. Upon the first Monday after the Commencement of the January term, The Moderator, whose turn it is to preside, gives written Notice to one of the Students in his List, that it is Pleasure he should appear in the public Schools, as a Disputant, on that Day fortnight. This Person, who is now called the Respondent, in a few Hours after he has received his Summons, waits on the Moderator with three Propositions, or Questions the truth of which he has to maintain against the Objections of any three students of the same Year, whom the Moderator shall think proper to nominate, & who on this Occasion are called Opponents. The Questions proposed by the Respondent, are written upon four seperate Papers according to a form, of which the following is a specimen.

(Several lines of Latin)

At the Bottom of three of these papers, the Moderator writes the Names of three Students whom he thinks capable of opposing the Questions of the Respondent with the words : Opponentium primus, secondus, or tertius, denoting the Order in which the opponents are to appear. One of these Papers is sent to each Opponent; & from that which remains, the Moderator at his Leisure transcribes Questions together with the Names of the Respondent & Opponents, into his books. When one Moderator has thus given out the Exercises for one week, he sends the Book to the other, who proceeds according to the same Method, and then returns his Book to his Colleague. The Fortnight of Preparation being expired, the Respondent appears in the Schools, he ascends the Rostrum, & reads a Latin Dissertation (called with us a Thesis) upon any of the three Questions he thinks proper, the Moderator attending in his Place. As soon as the Res. has finished his Thesis, which generally takes ten or fifteen Minutes in the reading, The Moderator calls upon the first opponent to appear: he immediately ascends a Rostrum opposite to the Resp. & proposes his Arguments against the Questions in syllogistical Form : Eight Arguments each consisting of three or four Syllogisms, are brought up by the first opp. five by the second, & three by the third. When the Exercises have for some time been carried on according to the strict Rules of Logic, the Disputation insensibly slides into free & unconfined Debate : the Moderator in the Mean Time explaining the Argts. of the Oppts. when necessary restraining both Parties from wandering from the Subject & frequently adding at the close of each Argt. his own Determination upon the Point in Dispute. These exercises are generally well attended, & consequently are often performed with much spirit. But could your old Friend Cicero rise again from the dead & be secretly conveyed behind the Rostrum at these Disputes, he would be highly shocked at the ungrammatical and unclassical Latin wch. is generally uttered by the students upon these Occasions.

The three oppts. having, in their Turns, exhausted their whole stock of Argts. are dismissed by the Moderator in their order, with such a Compliment as in his Estimation they deserve: & the Exercises close with the Dismission of the Respondent in a similar Manner. The Moderr. upon his return to his Chamber records the Merits of the Disputants by Marks set opposite their respective names. These Exercises are a Preparation for the subsequent Examination in January, some Days before which Time the Moderators meet for the Purpose of forming the Students into Divisions of six, eight or ten according to their Performance in the Schools, with a view for the ensuing Examination. Upon the first of the appointed Days for the Examination, at eight o’clock in the Morning, the Students enter the Senator House, Preceded by a Master of Arts from each College, who on this Occasion is called the Father of the College to which he belongs. After all the names of the Students are called over, each of the Moderators sends for a Division of the Students: they sit with him round a Table with Pens, Ink & Paper before them : he enters upon his Task of Examination and does not dismiss the set before the hour is expired. The Examination is varied according to the abilities of the students. The Moderator generally begins with proposing some Questions from the Six books of Euclid, plain Trigonometry, & the first Rules of Algebra. If any person fails in Answer, the Question goes to the next. From the Elements of Mathematics, a transition is made to the Four Branches of natural Philosophy, viz, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Optics and Astronomy. If the Moderator finds the lesson under Examination capable of answering him, he proceeds to the eleventh and 12 book of Euclid Coning(?) Sections, Trigonometry sphericals, the higher parts of Algebra & Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia, more particularly those Sections which treat of the Motion of Bodies in eccentrics & revolving Orbits, the mutual Actions of Spheres, composed of Particles attracting each other according to various Laws, & the stupendous Fabrick (sic) of the world. The Philosophical Examination being closed, the last Day is spent in Examinations out of Locks Essay on the human Understanding, Butter’s Analogy, Clerk’s Attributes and Rutherforths Institutes. When the Division under Examination is one of the Higher Classes, Problems are also proposed, with wch the Student retires to a secret Part of the Senate House, & returns with his Solution upon Paper, to the Moderator, who, at his Leisure, compares it with the solutions of other Students, to whom the same Problems have been proposed. The Extraction of Roots, the Doctrine of (?) together with its application to the solution of Problems de Maximus or Minimus to the finding Areas of (?). The Resolution of Quadratics, Cubics, & Biquadratics & various Properties in natural Philosophy, form the Subject of these Problems. When the clock strikes nine, the Students are dismissed to breakfast, they return at half past nine & stay til eleven: they go in again at half past one and stay til three, & lastly they return at half past three and stay until five. The Hours of Attendances are same upon the subsequent Days; they are finally dismissed on the fifth Day. During the Hours of attendances, every Division is twice examined, daily in Form, once by each of the Moderators, who are engaged for the whole Time in this Employment. Every Master of Arts and Doctor of whatever faculty he be, has the liberty of examining whom he pleases & I assure you, they are all very zealous for the credit of their friends, and are incessantly employ’d in examining those Students who appear most likely to contest the Palm of Glory with their juvenile Acquaintances, after they have, from Examination, formed an accurate Idea of the knowledge of their Friends Competitors, they sometimes make a true but far oftener I fear a partial acccount of their absolute & comparative Merits to the Moderators. After the five Days of Examination are expired, the Moderators & Heads settle the comparative Merits of the Candidates & generally choose out about 20 or so Students who appear to them deserving of being distinguished by academical Approbation, wch they are set down in three Divisions, viz Wranglers first, Senior Optimes second and junior Optimes third, according to that order in wch they deserve to stand. The Divisions & afterwards printed and read over on an appointed Day before the assembled University. The students, generally about 60 or 70 in number; who appear to have merited neither Praise nor Censure, pass unnoticed. Wch number will testify to you, the Difficulty wch attends the promising of a decent Honour, especially a Wrangler. I have now sent you as accurate an Account of the Exercises that attend a student in his last year’s Education here as I possibly could make, & don’t doubt that you will keep it by you, as my Letter this Year will frequently force you to have recourse to it.

I am your Dutiful son
John Forth’

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