THEOLOGICAL FACULTY. The Principal, as has been already mentioned, teaches no class.
Class of Professor of Divinity.
The duty imposed upon the Professor of Divinity is very arduous. In addition to the Lectures which ne has to deliver, he was in the practice of hearing the numerous Discourses which the Church requires before young men can be admitted to probationary trials. Pre viously to the appointment of Dr. Chalmers as joint Professor with Dr. Ritchie, the whole of the Discourses were heard by the Professor of Theology ; and some conception of the arduousness of the task may be formed from the following account given in the Appendix to the Returns from the University of Edinburgh. The number of Students enrolled each Session, has for these five years past been above 200. The Law of the Church impera tively prescribes that each of them shall deliver five Discourses before being taken on trials for licence. It is obvious, therefore, from this, taken in conjunction with the period during which continuance at the Divinity Hall is necessary, that each Student must deliver at least one Discourse, and many of them two or more in one and the same Session. This necessa rily interfered very much with the lecturing department, the number of Lectures delivered each Session amounting to 40, and the Professor, from the causes stated, finding it impos sible to enlarge the number. Dr. Ritchie's Lectures explained and illustrated the topics, both direct and collateral, suggested by the successive articles contained in the Apostles' Creed ; and the topics comprise a connected and entire view of the whole Doctrines and duties of the Christian System.
Dr. Chalmers, who was appointed after the Examinations of the Professors of the College of Edinburgh were closed, has introduced considerable alterations in the mode of conducting the class ; and his account of the manner in which he proceeds is here inserted : " I had two hours of meeting in the day, for five days in the week ; one of these, a morning hour, between 9 and 10, was appropriated exclusively to the hearing of Discourses ; the other, between 11 and 12, to the business of Teaching. My colleagues, Dr. Meiklejohn and Dr. Brunton, had the great kindness to relieve me of one species each of the five species of Discourses which are required from Students of Divinity. They reduced my labour in this department to three-fifths of what it would otherwise have been ; notwithstanding which, however, I had about 160 Discourses to hear during the course of the last Winter. Dr. Meiklejohn, who hears all the Homilies, certifies them himself in the testimonials which he gives to his Students. Dr. Brunton, who hears all the Exercises and Addition, gives me ■a. note of those which have been delivered with approbation, and I proceed on this, along with my own catalogue of those which I have heard, in framing the certificates of the Students. I have only to remark, that this being the first year of our extra or additional hour for the hearing of Discourses, we were not prepared all at once to make the attendance compulsory. But we propose, in the course of this Summer, to create a method for secur ing an attendance by the Students at large on the Discourses which are delivered by their fellows, and on the Criticisms of the Professors. My practice is to give an extemporaneous criticism immediately after the delivery of the Lecture and Popular Sermon ; but previously to the delivery of the Exegesis, I peruse it by myself, and am prepared to meet it with a written criticism upon its merits. In addition to the regular Discourses, my Students, at an extra hour, read Voluntaries to me on the current topics of the course. I received 80 of these during last Session. Dr. Chalmers, who was appointed after the Examinations of the Professors of the College of Edinburgh were closed, has introduced considerable alterations in the mode of conducting the class ; and his account of the manner in which he proceeds is here inserted : " I had two hours of meeting in the day, for five days in the week ; one of these, a morning hour, between 9 and 10, was appropriated exclusively to the hearing of Discourses ; the other, between 11 and 12, to the business of Teaching. My colleagues, Dr. Meiklejohn and Dr. Brunton, had the great kindness to relieve me of one species each of the five species of Discourses which are required from Students of Divinity. They reduced my labour in this department to three-fifths of what it would otherwise have been ; notwithstanding which, however, I had about 160 Discourses to hear during the course of the last Winter. Dr. Meiklejohn, who hears all the Homilies, certifies them himself in the testimonials which he gives to his Students. Dr. Brunton, who hears all the Exercises and Addition, gives me a note of those which have been delivered with approbation, and I proceed on this, along with my own catalogue of those which I have heard, in framing the certificates of the Students. I have only to remark, that this being the first year of our extra or additional hour for the hearing of Discourses, we were not prepared all at once to make the attendance compulsory. But we propose, in the course of this Summer, to create a method for secur ing an attendance by the Students at large on the Discourses which are delivered by their fellows, and on the Criticisms of the Professors. My practice is to give an extemporaneous criticism immediately after the delivery of the Lecture and Popular Sermon ; but previously to the delivery of the Exegesis, I peruse it by myself, and am prepared to meet it with a written criticism upon its merits. In addition to the regular Discourses, my Students, at an extra hour, read Voluntaries to me on the current topics of the course. I received 80 of these during last Session.