ABSTRACT
Fifteen years before Thomas Carlyle wrote "Signs of the Times", Austen anticipated the beginnings of what he refers to as the "machines" of education. An education of "scrambling" has the potential, for Austen, to take its students on an unconventional course of learning. Inherent in an education of "scrambling" is a process of learning that contributes to the development of what lies "within", as a result of honing one's judgment. Furthermore, Austen experiments with the novel as an even more effective form of education than Oxbridge. Austen's skepticism about institutional learning and any model of formal education that purports to accomplish mastery of the individual was undoubtedly influenced by her knowledge of the two dominant pedagogical institutions of her time: Oxford and Cambridge. She uses her position as a privileged, well-read outsider of universities to critique conventional education. Austen's satirical plan for a hypothetical novel does not make space for scenes of learning by self-discovery.
