The place reeked with pedantry, and the character of the university naturally diffused itself through other scholastic establishments.

Nevertheless, it had done and was doing much to preserve the love for profound learning, while the rapidly advancing spirit of commerce was attended by an ever increasing train of humanizing arts.
The standard of culture in those flourishing cities was elevated, compared with that observed in many parts of Europe.

The children of the wealthier classes enjoyed great facilities for education in all the great capitals.

The classics, music, and the modern languages, particularly the French, were universally cultivated.

Nor was intellectual cultivation confined to the higher orders.