He may do it because he is a nobleman. Because a lad is a lord, the
University gives him a degree at the end of two years which another is
seven in acquiring. Because he is a lord, he has no call to go through
an examination. Any man who has not been to College and back for
five shillings, would not believe in such distinctions in a place of
education, so absurd and monstrous do they seem to be.

The lads with gold and silver lace are sons of rich gentlemen and
called Fellow Commoners; they are privileged to feed better than the
pensioners, and to have wine with their victuals, which the latter can
only get in their rooms.

The unlucky boys who have no tassels to their caps, are called
sizars--SERVITORS at Oxford--(a very pretty and gentlemanlike title).
A distinction is made in their clothes because they are poor; for which
reason they wear a badge of poverty, and are not allowed to take their
meals with their fellow-students.

When this wicked and shameful distinction was set up, it was of a piece
with all the rest--a part of the brutal, unchristian, blundering feudal
system. Distinctions of rank were then so strongly insisted upon, that
it would have been thought blasphemy to doubt them, as blasphemous as it
is in parts of the United States now for a nigger to set up as the equal
of a white man. A ruffian like Henry VIII. talked as gravely about the
divine powers vested in him, as if he had been an inspired prophet.
A wretch like James I. not only believed that there was in himself a
particular sanctity, but other people believed him. Government regulated
the length of a merchant's shoes as well as meddled with his trade,
prices, exports, machinery. It thought itself justified in roasting a
man for his religion, or pulling a Jew's teeth out if he did not pay a