Page:An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe.djvu/139

 an easy subsistence. The candidates for preferments of this kind, often regard their admission as a patent for future laziness; so that a life begun in studious labour, is often continued in luxurious affluence.

the universities abroad, I have ever observed their riches and their learning in a reciprocal proportion, their stupidity and pride encreasing with their opulence. Happening once in conversation with Gaubius of Leyden, to mention the college of Edinburgh, he began by complaining, that all the English students, which formerly came to his university, now went intirely there; and the fact surprized him more, as Leyden was now as well as ever furnished with masters excellent in their respective professions. He concluded by asking,