In the Alternative Amendments recently proposed in a paper issued under the above heading, the attention of Members of Convocation is respectfully invited to the following passage.
After proposing the institution of an independent Professorship of Greek, the following words occur: “That the Corpus element be omitted, and the Professor of Latin be substituted for the Regius Professor of Greek.”
Here are two propositions, startling in their novelty, and demanding serious and separate consideration.
The first, “That the Corpus element be omitted,” is a condition never before annexed to a Professorship, and which indicates but too clearly the wide influence which the so-called “spiritualist” views have attained both in America and in this country.
It may no doubt be desirable that a Professor should be free from the petty cares and distracting influences which are inseparable from our corporeal condition; still, as none but a member of All Souls can possibly fulfil the stringent requisition here proposed, Members of Convocation are respectfully reminded that to confine this piece of preferment within such narrow limits would be illiberal, if not unjust to other Colleges.
The second portion of the clause above quoted is as novel as the first, but so desirable an innovation, that it cannot be too widely known, or too heartily supported by Members of Convocation. There is no doubt that the substitution of Mr. Conington for Mr. Jowett would remove one of the most powerful elements of discord in this “vexata quæstio,” and would probably tend to its speedy and peaceful settlement. The question whether Mr. Conington himself would consent to the change is one which has no doubt suggested itself to, and been fully considered by, the proposer of these amendments.
Nov. 22, 1861.