INAUGURATION REV. JAS. M'COSH, D.D., LL.D., f it^iliirt 0f f iriE0t0i- €]0lli0^, OCTOBER 27, 1868. INAUGURATION REV. JAS. M'COSH, D.D., LL.D., gl^ f w^itot ttf §mmtm OCTOBER 27, 1868. The following pages contain a brief account of the recent Inauguration Ex- ercises at Princeton, with all the addresses delivered on that occasiou in full, and ■/ evi.'ied hy the authors. The design has been to give those who were there, a token whereby to awaken slumbering recollection, and those who had not the good fortune to be present, some faint notion of the glad and festive jubilee, with which the sons of science held high carnival in that venerable retreat of letters. PUBLISHED BY STELLE & SMITH, COLLEGE BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISH^ ERS, PRINCETON, N. J. 1868. Introductory remarks By Ilis Ex'^ellency, Marcus L. "Ward, Governor of New Jersey, and cx- officio President of the Board of Trustees, Presiding. Music. Invocation By The Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, D.D., a member of the Board of Trustees. Music, 72d Psalm. Address of Welcome on behalf of the Trustees. By The Rev. Charles Hodge, D.T)., LL.D., of the Class of 18T5,"Professor in the Princeton Theological Seminary, Senior Member of the Board of Trustees. Address of Welcome on behalf of the Under-Graduates. By Mr. J. Thomas Finley, of the Senior Class, rejjresenting the Cliosophic and American Whig Societies. Congratulatory Address to the Alumni and friends of the College. By The Honorable William C. Alexander, of the Class of 1824. Address in Response, on behalf of the Alumni. By The Honorable James Pollock, LL.D., Class of 1831, Ex-Governor of Pennsylvania. The Oaths of office administered to the President-Elect. By The Honorable Abraham 0. Zabriskie, LL.D., of the Class of 1825, Chancellor of New Jersey. Music, " Te Deum Laudamus." Delivery of the Charter and Keys of the College to the President. By The Reverend John Maclean, D.D., LL.D., of the Class of 1816, the retiring President of the College. Inaugural Address. By The Reverend James McCosh, D.D., LL.D., President of the College. Subject : " Academic Teaching in Europe." Concluding Prayer. By The Revei'cnd George Mi:s(;itAVE, D.D., LL.D., a member of the Board of Trustees. Music, DoxoLOGY, 117th Psalm. Benediction. By The Rev. Isaac Ferris, D.D., Chancellor of the University of New York. JiiHuijurHtiait (fiercmanie.^. Tuesday, Oct. 27th., 1868, was a day which will be historic in the annals of Princeton. One liundred years ago, John Witherspoon was called from Scotland to take cliarge of the young Institution. Now across the same Atlantic, the worthy trustees call a man whose fame is not bounded by his native land, or even by his native tongue, but who is known wherever the mental sciences are known and studied. The rareness of the occurrence, the interest attaching to the Institution, and the high character and ability of the newly elected President, combined to make this an event of surpassing interest. The incoming President, is a native of Scotland, a tall, handsome man, with dark, penetrating eyes, a pleasant smi':e, and most engaging manners. His forehead is high and clear, and his mouth indicates him as a man of great firmness and strength of will. He has just enough of the scholarly stoop to betray his sedentary avocation, yet his step is elastic, and in all respects he seems like a vigorous man to whom the ex- ercise of mental or bodily powers is never fatiguing. His hair is gray, for he is fast approaching the age of three score years, and he wears his whiskers in the English style. For 16 years Dr. McCosb was pastor at Brechen, in Scotland, and for the same length of time occupied the chair of Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Queen's College, Belfast. He is the author of several well-known metaphysical works, among which are his ''Method of Divine Government, Pliysical and Moral," " Intuitions of the Human Mind," " Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation," " The Supernatural in Rela- tion to the Natural," "A Defence of Fundamental Truth," in answer to John Stuart Mill, and others, in all of which he shows great depth of thought and the erudition of a mighty scholar. 4 At 12 o'clock the procession was formed In the College cam- pus. H(>aded by Grafulla's Band the cortege, consisting of the officers of the College, the ex-President, and President elect, the Governor of the State, the Chancellor, the Direc- tors and Facility of the Theological Seminary, the under- graduates and their orator, the officiating clergymen, the Alumni and Laureati of Princeton, and a host uf citizens, m.'irched to the Church under the orders of Gen. Caldwell K. Hall, Grand Marshal, a graduate of the Cla^s of 1857. The galleries and lecture room, in which a platform had been erected, so that those on it could hear the proceedings, through the windows on each side of the stage, were appropriated exclu- sively to the ladies, who were admitted only by ticket. Four hundi-ed tickets were issued, and the galleries were crowded. Among the prominent gentlemen present, we noticed Gov. Ward, ex-Govs. Olden and Newell of New Jerey ; Chancel- lor Ferris, of the Uuiversity of New York, Rev. Dr. C. Hodge, Rev. Drs. Phillips and Schaff ; Ex-Gov. Pollock, of Pa., and Hon. George H. Stuart ; Hon Wm. C. Alexander of New York : Chancellor Zabriskie, Judge Field, Ex-Chancellor Gceen, Hon. Daniel Haines, Senator Freiinghuysen, of New Jersey ; Gen. Robert Anderson, (of Fort Sumprer fime) and many others. Col. Joseph Warren Scott, of Now Brunswick, and Elbert Herring, of New York, now in his 9o year, both of the class of 1795 ; were on the stagf'. Every class for 50 years back without an exception, as far as is known, was represented. The proceedings altogether were full of inspiration and en- thusiasm. The day was pronounced by those competent to judge unparalleled in the history of this or any other college in the land — the commencement it may be hoped of a new era in the prosperity and usefulness and fame of an Institution, which has [irobably done more for the advancement of our natioii in intellectual progress, high-to ed statesmanship, and generous principles of government than any other of the sisterhood. His Excellency, Governor Ward, introduced die exercises of the occasion in the following address: " Tills institution of learning so closely identified with (he reputation and honor of oor State is about to install as its President one whose learning, eultiiro and fanie is as wide- spread as the language we speak. Gifted and aide minds have from the coinmencement presided over these balls of learning, and none have been more successful ihan he, who full of years and honors this day resigns the trust to other hands. May he long live to enjoy the esteem of his many friends and the retrosfiect of a life well spent. From far and wide the Alumni and friends of the College have »^alhei-ed to honor the occasion, and to attesit their in- terest in its material progress and its intellectual trinrnj)!)". Never did its future seem so assured as now ; with a faculty first in all the departments of knowledge it stands the peer if not the superior of the institnti'^ns of learning in the nation." I'he Governor then introduced Rev. Jonathan F. Stearns, D. D., who invoked the Divine blessing, returning liianks for the prosninence and influence attained by tiie institution in whose interest we are asseml)led ; for the nob!e friends which liave been raised up in its behalf in the land ; for the alumni it had sent forth to represent it in the world. He expressed gratitude that its nev?l\' elected President had been brought in safety to our shores — to engage in the fullness of his years and wisdom in the work before him — imploring the Divine favor upon him, and prosperity on the institution under his ad- tninisiration. Music, 72d Psalm. The address of welcome on beltalfof the Trustees, was delivered bv the Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D.. LL. D.. of the Class of 1815, Professor in the Princeton Theological Seminary, Senior Member of the Board of Trustees. ADDRESS OF REV. DR. HODGE. Reverend and Honored Sir : — The Trustees of the College of New Jersey tender you their cordial salutatiotis. We regard your accession to the presidency of this institution as a niostauspicious event. In no case within our knowledge has an academic elec- tion been received with such unmistakable evidtmce of public approbati.in. High expectations are entertained of yonr suc- cess in the career on which you are about to enter. Why this is ; why such hopes are cherished, it would not be pioper for me, in your [)rescnce, to slate; suffice it to say, that the high positions which you have succesr-fully filled in your owncoiintry ; the world-wide reputation secured by the productions (^f your pen ; our personal ktiowledge of you as a Christian gentle- ihan and faithful minister of Christ, are I'utional gounds for the hope that your presidency will constitute an epoch in the history of Nassau Hall. How these expectations are to be realized, what measures are to be adopted to increase the efficiency and eidiance the reputation of the college, we leave to you and your able coadjutors of the Faculty to determine. We would in a single word stale what it is we desire. It is that true religion iiere may be dominant ; that a pure gospel may be preached, atid taught, and lived ; that the studertts should be made to feel that the eternal is infinitely more important than the te(n- poral, the heavenly than the earthly. Wc are deeply convinced 6 that all forms of knowledge without reli^rion become satanic. The ground of this conviciion is not the perceived causal rela- tion between impiety and immorality; nor solely the lessons of experience, but the revealed purpose of God, that tlmse who refuse to acknowledge iiim, he will give up to reprobate mind. But religion and science are twin daughtei-s of heaven. — There is, or there should be, no conflict between them. We ear- nestly desire, tiierefore, that all departments of knowledy:e em- braced in the curriculum of such an institution, should be here so cultivated as to secure the highest measure of mental culture, the richest stores of acquired knowledge, and the formation of the best habits for future study and future action. One sentence more. We earnestly desire that the governing princi[)le in this institution should be love ; that the teachers may love the students and the students love their teachers ; that these young men may be led by the cords of affection into the ways of oi'der, self-control and diliger.ce. It is with the confident hojie of seeing these ends accom- plished w<,' inscribe your honored name to the list of the Pi'esidents of this College. Your predecessors in that office form one of the brightest galaxies in the ecclesiastical and literary fiimament of this western hemisphere — bogimiing with- Dickinson, the foremost man in our church, in his generation, and ending with Maclean, than whom no man living among us is regarded with deeper reverence or more sincere affection. We commend you to the grace of God. and to the guidance of our great God and Saviour, Jcaus Christ, for whom this College was founded, and to whom it inalienably belongs. On behalf of the Under-graduates, Mr. J. Thomas Finley of the Senior Class delivered an address io Latin, which was warmly applauded by the students. ADDRESS OF MR. FINLEY. Sol exoptatus illuxit; dies laetissjmus festissimusque agitur. Quod botumi, felix faustunique sit, Nassovi'a venerabilis, colenda semper et culta, prajsidem undecinmni accipit. Neque nostra solum hujus diei eventus interest, veruui etiam Ecclesia?, llcipuhlicaj, Seculi. Curatoribus houoratis visum est nos quoque qui adhuc in gremio Almae Matris morautur, gratulationes nostras affere. Ut qui maxime, te ex ani- mo prajsidem nostrum salvere jubemus ! Te florem eximium cultus Pjurojiaii arbitrati sunius, te Scientias ac Eeli- gionis consensus interpreteni maximum, te Fidei defensorem prsecipuum. Collegii nostri historia tibi hand omnino ignota est. Keipublie.-B historias vinculis artissimis est intexta. Witherspoou illustrissimus, praases sextus, advena acceptissimus idemque civis tuus, patrise adoptivne valde amans, publicis consiliis seculo natali nostro interfuit. Madison clarissimus ejus- dem astatis alumnus, Reipublicne praefuit, aliisque muneribus publicis functus est. Ne te merer, ecclesia quoque et theologla sacra pra;sidibu3 alamnisque nostris non minus debent. Edwards, Davies, Green, ne alio* iportuos viventesve comraemorem, faraara suam no.stra,mque late protule- runt. In Iioruin inuneruni honoruiiique societatem te Iseti accipimus. Collegii nostri decas praj.^ipuum fait, quQcl artiuiu liberalium studio religio oiniii tempore {)nBt'uerit. Haez ratio disciplinaris tibi cordi t^eniper fuit, erit isemper. Omnom Immanitatetn commendans et docens, philos- pphiam verani et religioneui pra^cipue iioLis exponas atque exemplo tuo coniirnies. Mater omnium bonarum artiuni, sapientia tibi maximam debet gratiam ; in lEre tuo magis magisque sit. Nihil nobis juvenibus potius est quam ut opera talia tibi bene procedant. "Pater ipse colendi Haud taeilem esse viam voluit." Utilitas "justi piope mater et asqui," civibus nostris maximo pretio est. Hac via ardua, utiiium sagacissimus nos volentes in sapientiam veram sanctamque duca.s ! Patria nostra nondum adulta, mens animusque adolescentes tibi in ma- nus dantur. In bonum verumque nos faciles semper invenias ! Te ipso nobis ignoto, nomen tuum et opera tua haudquaquam ignota sunt. "In- tuitiones" tuaj hosjuvenes instituerunt. Vesiigia tua ardentes insecuti sunt. Te cum Kaiitio iMillio ceterisque luctantem intentis oculis observ- arunt, et "Habet, habet!" acclamarunt, '"Conscientia; vera philo-ophia est conformanda. " Te vincente verum rectumque triumphantur ; nos ergo la^tati sumns. ,, Nobis adventu tuo nihil exoptatius est. Tua salus salus nostra est, fama tua nos quoque illustrat. Labores tui nos omnes in omni liberalium artiuni studio promovebunt. Estate ineunto certiores facti te haic munera curaturum clamore nostro totum ajr implevimus— alis igneis la3titiam nostram in ccelum misimus. Tibi prajiidi no-itro honoratissimo omnia beneficia satis superque sint. Nobis te praJside favor Dei abunde adsit ! " Appareat beata jjleno copia cornu ! " Quum decessor tuiis, Maclean, vir veneratus delectusque semper, tibi muneris insignia dederit, tibi nobisque dignitatem ingrediaris in omnia secula illustrem. Vivat McCosh ! Vivat Nassovia ! Sperantes, fidentes, laetantes te iterum iterumque salvere jubemus. riie Confrratnlatory Address to tiie Alumni and friends of the College by Hon. William C. Alexander of the class of 1824. WM. C. ALEXANDERS ADDRESS. , Brother Graduates and other friends of the College of New Jersey : — It is o;iiy williin a tew days thai T have been advisid ilmt the d ly had bet'i) as- signed me of tendering to tin- a'^sembled jiraduates of tlie col eye, and such other friends as Iionored us with their presence, the waini and cordial con- gratulations of tlie college on its present condiijoii and prospects, and on its good fortune in having at this juncture secured as its president one so capable, honored, and disimuuished as the reverend and learried gentleman who is this day *.o ch:iriie himself with the conduct ol its aff.nrs. I could have wished that this duly had fallen upon some one betier qualified for its suitable and acccfdable perfornianee ; and now under t^ie embarrassments which sur- round me, I am ever, at this moment temped to shrink from the undertak- inur of a task wiijcli the fl itterin,^ pre erence of the guardians of the insti- tution has so kindly but unexpectedly devolved upon me. I am constrained, however, in all my weakness, to enter upon the task, hoping to find my strength in the spirit of the cause which animates me. And here, in these circumstances, I may cot inappropriately use the words of a distin-, guislied speaker in another land — " Here, where every obif ct sprinjrs some sweet association, and tiie vis ons of fancy, mellowed as they are by time, rise painted on the eye of memory — iiere, wliere the set ues of my fi.ildiiood remind me how innocent I was, and the graves of my lathers admonish me how pure I should continue — here, stand in.L? as I do among my fairest, fond- est, earlie-t sympathies — oh, believe me, warm is the heart that feels, and willing is the tongue that speaks ; and yet I cannot by shaping it in my rude, inexpressive plirase, but shock the sensibility of a heart too lull to be expressed, and far too eloquent for language." It is an inten sting facts and not without significance, that when the graduates of an ancient col- lege assemble together, as we do now, in circumstances of peculiar and un- wonted interest, the tiiouuhts of each one immediaieiy revert to ihe days of his own novtiale. The daj's of our youth, in every worldly sense our happiest days, come back upon us in such gatherings, and we would fain live over again the hours when we were yet nntaintfd by the earthy hand- ling of bu-:iness, and of care; and when our models of statesmen and patriots were those stern impracticable old Greeks and Romans, concerning whom we were accustomed to read with o;r masters. Such a return of thouaht is both natural and pleasing, like the coming back of some war-worn soldier, after the vissitudi-s of ycirs to the green quietude of the lap of earth where be hud spent his childhood amon,' the hills. Therelcre it is that on such occasions our thoughts run back to the days of a<;ademic disciplint'. — They were our days of impression. Later tiaces lave been superficial in comparison. Then the seal was set on the melted wax, which presently grew hard as rock. What a tribute to the power of academic education. Great m D and gieat scholars have no doubt bet n made in privacy. But these must (orever want the high and almost festive associations of joint pursuit, the remembrance of enthus asm caught Irom soul to soul in the com- mon race for knowledge and reputation. There is no literary institution in America around which so many in- teresting and even romantic incmorie-! and associations Cluster as the venera- ble college in whose behalf we are this day assein i!ed ; ami the coutribu- tions she has made to the cause of the country, of education, and to the Olmrcli, have never yet been duly recorded and pri>pe:ly estimated and ap- preciated. Brought into existence at a period anterior to the Ui^voliiiion, her history duriniir the years of that n emorable contest is inseparably in- terwoven and intertwinnd with tlie history of the country. At the I'reakmg out of the Revolution, her graduates, numbered but four hundred and eighty-three, a large proportion of whom with many of the students iii at- tendance, passed from her walls to the niiks of the Revolutionary army ; and not one single instance can be discovered, after the closest sciuiiny, of any one sou of the college, during that eventful struggle, having proved recreant or apostate to the cause of lib/^rty and the country : while their blood moisteufd every battle fit-Id, 'roni Quebec to Savannah. If time per- mitt d me (lor I ain limited in the number of minutes I can occupy) 1 couid point to authentic records in history showing that graduates of this college, who, filling the place of humble min sters of the Gospel when the storm rolled over the land, assembled together the male members of their con- greiiations, raised a standard of defence, reiterate' the old Puritan doctrine that " resistance to tyrants was obedience to God," and placing ihera selves at the head of their people were soon found charging at the iiead of cavalry regiments in front of Savannah, at Guilford ("ourt House, Eutaw Springs, and the Cowpens. It has been well said th..t this colh ge gave up her stuff anil stay when her sixth president wended his way to the first Con- gress in Phi'adelphia, there to pledge life, fortune and sacred honor in behalf of the land of his adoption, and at the same time she gave the first proof of her academic labor when a member of the first class ever graduated affixed his name to the same glorious instrument, the great mairna charta of our sovereijjn and separate existence. From tiie esiabiisliment o( the college in 1747, down to the period when Amt-rica rose " lo repe! htr \vroi);,rs and to claim her desliniey," and the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies resolved upon the hazirdous step of taUinu: a last stund upon the adamantine rock of human rilation of a holy law, and of a holy God embodying that law, and of a God incarnate nnd with creature Bympathies, inducing us to draw nigh when otherwise we should be driven back by a consciousness of guilt, on the one hand, and a view of the dazzling puri- ty of the Fountain of Light on the other. Now at this entrance examination every study seeking admission into the curriculum of a college should be made to appear. In order to matriculation it must show that it is fitted to refine and purify the noble faculties which God has given us. IMPARTING KNOWLEDGE. Under this, it should be the aim of a University to impart knowledge. I say w/irfe/- jects with which we are surrounded, and as we do so we come to see properties and beauties before overlooked, and become more inter- ested in them and acquire a friendship for them. They show us how to gather the law from the scattered particulars that present themselves ; how by the necessary " rejections and exclusions," as Bacon says, to draw out the essential from the indifferent ; how to reach the truth and consistency among discordant and apparently contradictory appearances ; where to lay aside prepossessions and anticipations, and how to make an " inquisition" of nature; to catch her when Proteus-like, she is anxious to escape, and make her reveal her secrets. These are not only the true means of acquiring knowledge, but the fittest for exercising and giving energy to the faculties, and of acquiring intellectual ha- bits of patience and penetration, useful in every kind of inquiry, speculative and practical. The old school-master adage, that it is of no consequence what the faculties be employed about providing they are employed and thereby disci-* pliued, is a false one. Some have gone so far as to say that lio matter whether I 18 • the knowledi^e thus acquired, say the writing; of Latin verses, be of any use in the future life or no : no matter how dull and crabbed the work, how harsh tlie grindstone on which the mind is ground, provided thereby the faculties are sharpened for use. These persons do not see that the mental powers are not healthily exercised, and are not likely to be invigorated and refreshed v/licu engaged in unprofitable work, as it were mounting the steps of a ti'ead mill, or doing the whole in a close mediaeval atmosphere, which in fact wastes the strength and gives a sallow complexion to the countenance. Do you not see the terrible risk of wearying and disgusting the mind when it is making its first and most hopeful eftbrts, and giving it ever after, by the laws of mental associ- ation, a distaste for severe studies. True the exercise of the mind, like that of the body, is its own reward ; but both are most apt to be undertaken when there is some otherwise pleasant or j)rofitable object in view ; and most likely to be repeated when we have a sense of gratitude for the good we have received. If after we have walked so hard we see and find nothing of value, if we are re- quired to labor for that which profiteth not, to fight as one that beatcth the air, the issue is not likely to be refreshing and give life and hope, bnt ennui and unconquerable aversion to exertion. I hold that every study should, as far as possible, leave not a distaste but a relish on the palate of the young, so that they may be inclined to return to it. However it may have been in the dark, or rather as I would call them the twilight ages, when only a few departments of real knowledge could bt discerned, and men had to make the best of the availa- ble material, it is not imperative now to resort to profitless studies when such rich and fertile fields are evidently lying all around us. Our Lord's test appli- ed to religion admits of an application to study, namely, that it brings ibrth fruits. Faith may often be more valuable than works, but is by works it is to be tried to see if it is genuine, and by works faith is made perfect; so it is by profitable work that the faculties are called forth and elevated. Bacon adopted our Lord's distinction and applied it to science ; not holding (as those who do not understand religion misunderstand him) that practical fruits are better than knowledge, but that knowledge cannot be genuine when it does not yield such fruits. So, using the same distinction, I hold that in study, while the true end is the elevation of the faculties, they never will be improved by what is in itself useless, or found to be profitless in the future life. And I am prepared to show that the sciences, physical and moral, not only supply nutriment and strength to the intellect, they give life to it. It has been proved by recent science that the food we eat, got from the animal and the]^lant, not only gives nourishment to the frame, but by the force derived from that great source of force, the sun, furnishes the heat which kehysical nature is regulated by form and quantity, the qualities which mathematical science claims as its own rich possession. Not only so, but as it was foiind long ago that geometry rules beauty addressed to the ear, that is music, so I believe it will be ascertained, as science advances, that it reigns in the beauty of form and color addressed to the eye, and so there is a grand truth in the old Platonic idea that God geometrises. He geometrises in all the order and all the loveliness we see in the universe.— The withdrawal of a mathematical training from a college would be equiva- lent — to what God has absolutely prevented his creatures from doing in the universe — to the withdrawal oi force, and would leave the institution enfeebled and without the power which binds the whole. But can there be a thorough education of the mind merely by classics and mathematics, as the famous Cam- bridge system supposes? I hold that these n\Aj be taught and learned in the most perfect manner, and yet a large number of the noblest faculties of the mind left uncalled forth and therefore uncultivated. Mixed with them there should be branches which require students to be more than intelligent recip- ients, which demand of them that they put forth independent thought and observation. 3. The physical sciences should have a place in a full -orbed system. These were not born when universities were established, and resistence has been offered to their introduction on the part of the superstitious supporters of the old, especially the narrow partisans of classics. l ut they have established such claims on the attention, they have been so "frugiferous," as Bacon antici- Eated, that it is now certain, whoever may oppose, that they must in the future ave a large .space allowed them: and if uncompromising resistance is contin- ued much longer, the stream will so rise as to break down the dam, that would oppose it, and sweep away the good which should be retained with the evil that should be abandoned. So it is expedient in every way to allow a legiti- mate outlet to these flowing, I will add, fertilizing waters. ON THE SENSES. There are certain of our natural faculties which cannot be evoked and culti- vated so effectively in any other way as being employed about the works which God has made. From an early period youth should be taueht how to use and thereby educate the senses how to observe, and how to gather and treasure up facts. And physical science is an instrument not merely for educating the senses, it calls forth all the faculties which discover relations. The facts fall under the senses, but the law which we are ever striving to reach, the law which binds the facts, can be discovered and compreliendod only by the high- er intellectual powers, which divide, and construe and infer. As it is out of the scattered and isolated parts that we have to collect the law, to hen en pollois, so the study gives a discernment and a shrewdness to the mind admirably pre- paring it for taking its part in the tangled afl'airs of life. It is one of its special advantages that it gives the bracing activity of the chase as well as the triumph of the capture ; it not only yields results, it requires us to look at th<^ processes by which these are reached; it not only gives information, but, what is equally important, it teaches us to investigate ; it not only imparts knowledge, but prepares us to acquire more by showing us how to make an inquisition of nature; not only furnishes frui t, but brings us to the tree where the Iruit grows, and 24 where we may continue pluckmaj: thus, even when taught by a skillful teacher, it has many of the advantages of a self-education. These sciences are now be- coming very numerous and very varied. They may be divided in a variety of ways, according to the end we have in view, but for our educational purposes they fall into two classes, according to the capacities they incite nnd educate. — One of tliese groups has been called the classificatory by Dr. Whewell ; it pro- ceeds on the idea that this world is a mundas, is a cosmos ; that there is a hea- ven-appointed order in nature which man can discover ; an arrangement with due ordination and subordination in respect of such qualities as form, C'llor, time and quantity, which it should be ovir business to seize, and distribute the innumerable plants and animals into kingdoms and orders, and classes, and genera, sjiecies and varieties. The other grouj) aims ratlier at finding internal propei-ties and causes, and may pass under the generiial name of physics, em- bracing such branches as chemistry and natural pliilosophy, in wliich we seek to penetrate into the constitution of tilings, and go back from wliat presents itself to what has produced it. Both groups require more than tlie receptive and reproductive faculties : the one requires us to discover resemblances and analogies, the others calls forth the powers of analysis and causality. The former depends more on observation proper — the latter j)rocceds more by exjje- riment, and tries, by torturing nature without paining her, to make her disclose her secret machinery. Botli are inductive in their nature ; they begin by the gathering of facts, and would thence rise to the law of the facts, hoping always in the end, when they have discovered the law, to descend by deduction to the foreknowledge and prediction. They demand and exercise very vaiied mental powers, and are thus profitable, altogether independent of their practical fruits, which are so palpably beneficent that they allure many to the study who would never be led by the mere love of knowledge. ON THE STUDY OF MENTAL SCIKNCE. 4. It will not be expected of one who has devoted so much attention to the mental sciences, that h? should overlook them, or the contigu )us social sciences, in speaking of the subjects which should have a place in a college curriculum. I am prepared to show, in spite of the scoffs of some of the votaries of physical science, that there are true mental sciences, such as j)sychology, logic, etliics, and, let me add, metaphysics, the sciem^e of first principles, and aesthetics, or what I call kalology, tlie science of beauty and sublimity ; that they disclose to us laws of great scientific beauty, and practical value : that the study of them is fitted at once to whet the acumen and widen the horizon of the mind; and that it is of vast importance in the jiresent day, to save us, from that— 1 will not say gross, but, subtle materialism which is at the spring tide in England, in France, and among certain classes in Germany. We have an immediate means of knowing mind, just as we have a direct means of knowing matter; if we know matter by sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing, we know the varied operations of mind in knowing and feeling by self-consciousness. It is possible, then, to ob- serve the facts of mind, in our own mind directly, and in other minds by the ex- pression of their inward states, in their words and acts: and it is possible to analyze and classify the phenomena, and reach laws as settled as those of natural science. This has been done with more or less success by many, beginning with Aristotle, but has been accomplished with special success by the Scottish school, guch as Reid, Stewart, and Hamilton. Now, I hold that the pursuit after the fugitive facts of mind ; the seizing of them under their various disguises ; the discovery and the expression of the exact laws, such as those of the senses, as- sociation, memory, imagination, comparison, reasoning ; the tracing of them in our own mind and those of others, furnish exercises of subtle analysis and grasping synthesis, and lead us to distinguish the things that difler, and to per- ceive profound and remote analogies in a way and to an extent which cannot be matched by any other study. So much for pyschology : and tlien we have thq old mental sciences, which have had a great degree of certainty since the days of Aristotle. Thus we have logic unfolding the laws of thought in apprehend- ing, judging, and reasoning generally, especially as emj)loyed in weighing evi- dence and reaching truth ; giving rules to which the ultimate appeal must be made in all doubtful matter, and supplying a police to detect fallacies. Then there are ethics, unfolding the laws of our motive and moral nature-, of the emotions, the conscience, and the will ; showing how man is swayed in motive and in action; bringing us face to face with an eternal law guarded by a holy governor; and coming down practically to the responsibilities and the daily experiences of 25 life. Scotland and Germany have got much elevation of thought from continu- ing to give these departments a high place in their univer^rities ; though tlie latter has so far counteracted this by long running after a wild idealism, which in these late years has produced a reaction towards a materialistic empiricism. It is a grand defect in the two great English Universities that they have not given an avowed place to the inductive study of the mind. True, Cambridge has always had moral [iliilosophy, but it has been jostled into a corner by other studies, especially Mathematics. Oxford has given a })laee to formal logic, and to philosophy generally, but the latter has come in by a side door, by the school of Literas. Humaniores, where it appears in an examination on the Republic of Plato or the ethics of Aristotle, and takes the form of the history of philosophy, an important branch when philosophy itself, tliat is the inductive science of the human mind, has previously been taught, but without this, keeping as far from the human mind as classics or niatliematics. 1 believe that the pres- ent evil tendencies in these two universities, a sickly attachment to ritualism among the weakly devout, and a rush to Comtism and materialism among another class, embracing a large number of the aspiring tutors and students, have sprung very much from the neglect of the philosophy of consciousness so fitted to generate an independence of thinking and comprehensiveness of vision. I am glad to find that the mental sciences, and these taught in a sound, that is inductive manner, with a constant appeal to the facts of our nature, have a fair place in the American colleges, and within the sphere of my influence it will be my endeavor to sustain and defend them. OS THE .STUDY OF SOCIAL SCIENCB. Closely allied to the purely mental sciences are som*^ otliers which consider mankind in their social relations, and are therefore called social sciences, such as political economy, jurisj^rudence, international law, and history, considered as a branch of science and not a mere collection of narratives. 1 can speak only of one of these, and that is political economy, the science which treats of the ac- cumulation and distribution of national wealth. The inquiry caljs forth some of the most useful powers of the mind, such as that of finding unity and law in complexities ; of arguing the true causes from mixed effects, and foreseeing con- sequences in very perplexing circumstances. It also furnishes a fine example of the joint inductive and deductive methods. It has a special importance in a nation like this whore the government is in the hands of so many, and where it is of such moment to create an intelligent public sentiment, and where wrong economical views would issue in such widespread mischief. The study is surely of very particular value to all who are to guide public opinion by the press. The periodical literature which exercises such influence in this country will never be elevated till those who supply it have as a rule a college education in the prin- ciples of political science. STLDIIM GENERALE. Now I hold that in a university, Studium Generale, there should be representa- tives at least of each of this fourfold division of subjects. And if our years were as many as those of the antediluvians, or as long as those of the planet Jupiter, I would be inclined to enjoin all of them on every student. But the fatlier of medicine has told us " Life is short and art is long," and an attempt to enforce all in a course of four years would at best secure a smattering of all without a real knowledge of any, and your magistcr artium would be a "jack of all trades and a master of none." I say, if you are to admit, as you must, in justice as well as in expediency, the new branches, without excluding the old, then you must allow a choice. All should be in the university, ojien to all, but all should not be compulsory on each. The question tlien arises, and I believe it to be the most practical and pressing of all, with whom should the selection be? With the university, that is the governing body? or with the students? My answer is with both. It should be so far ruled by the university as to secure" that all the branches be taught academically, taught scientifically, and that in order to gain the Master's Degree every student should go through an enlarged course, a course calling forth the various faculties and embracing representatives of the four groups, languages, mathematics with applications, physical and mental science. I am prepared to maintain that a university should not give an unre- stricted choice to one claiming the literary and scientific degree; if this were done the student would be tempted to take the easiest subject, and the least profitable because so easy ; or adhere to the one he had first learned, or confine himself to the one for which he had a taste; whereas, the object of a higher education should be to call forth all the faculties and widen the sphere of vision. In Germany where each student chooses his own programme, I believe evils have arisen from the unlimited license, though these are lessened by the circumstance 26 iliai lio Ikis commonly a defined professional exanunation before him. There is :i great risk in these times, of minds of great power and strong taBtes becoming very narrow in fonie respects, and altogether misshapen by the exclusive cul- ture of certain faculties to the neglect of others. We see the fisher with broad chest and brawny arms, but with amall thin limbs because the rowing has ex- panded one j)art of the frame and allowed the others to shrink; so we find great classicists, and great physicists, and great mathematicians, and great metaphy- sicians, weaker than others when taken out of their own magic circle, in fact, silly and childish, and despising every other department of knowledge. If there are evils in sectarianism in religion there are like evils in a scientific par- tisanship ; if it is wrong to divide the body of Christ, it is equally improper to divide the body of science, in which all the menAbers are so intimately connected with each other, that no f>nc has a right to say to his neighbor I have no need of thee. It should be one of the aims of a university to correct this onesidedness of mind which is infinitely more unhealthy than any maldevelopment of the body. It is to be ^counteracted by requiring every student to have such an acquaint- ance with each of the grand groups as to know the elements, to have an idea of its method, and to be able to appreciate its im])ortance. ON CHOOSINT, STUPIKS. But keeping within tliis limit prescribed by the final cause of a university, there may surely be a choice allowed the students. In these days, when the circle of knowledge is so widened, the days of universal scholars is seen to be gone by, and if any one pretends to have mastered ootmc .5ci6!7e, he must be a mere bookworm, if he is not a' coxcomb, or a pedant dull as a dictionary. A selection then must be made, and this may surely be partly left to the student ; he may sometimes go wrong, but far more frequently he will be led aright by irrepressible inborn instinct. As all have not the same intellectual stature, it is unnatural to force all to stretch on the same Procrustes' bed ; and if you at- tempt it you will only cripple the mental frame." All are not born with the same aptitudes and tastes, and the same reasons which induce us to cultivate our natu- ral talent should lead us to encourage, foster and develop special genius when God has bestowed it. Any youth of ordinary capacity may learn elementary mathematics, and will be profited by it ; but I defy you, even with a pitchfork, to make every one a great mathematician or to force a taste for the study. — Every educated man should know classics till he can read any ordinary work, and enjoy the literature of the great authors ; but I would not have him drilled thus the whole years of his course, provided he has shown meanwhile a decided taste for other studies. How often have we found the youth sick of dead langua- ges and abstract formulfe feeling an inexpressible sense of relief, and as if a new life were imparted to him, when hoi is allowed to turn to the contemplation of the beauties of nature or the wonders of the human mind. I am inclined to think that in the early years of college attendance there should be an introduc- tion to representatives of the principal branches of learning and knowledge. I am convinced that these liiight be so taught as to furnish a gratification, a plea- sure, giiadia severa, to the student by the variety of food presented. I have heard it argued that the horse was not so soon wearied in old times when he had to go up hill and down dale alternately, and had thus a change in the muscles exerci- sed than he is now when the strain is on the same muscles from morning to night on our levelled roads. However this may be, it is certain that a student, wiien wearied of one subject feels himself refreshed when allowed to turn to another requiring a diflerent set of powers. With an introduction in the first two years or so to varied representative branches I would allow considerable divergencies, were it only to avoid a workhouse uniformity of dress and exercise, in the third and fourth years ; nay, I would allow time for peculiar studies, and even miscellaneous reading, at least in vacation time. You see I would not have the choice made till tbere^has been an introduction to all the groups, for until the student has entered a department and gone a certain length how can he know whether he has a taste for it or not ; how can he know whether he has an aptitude for geometry till he has gone over the Books of Euclid. Supposing a boy to begin Latin at the age of nine or ten, I hold that by seventeen or eighteen he might have a general acquaintance with, and an appreciative recognition of, the value of the various departments of useful knowledge, and then, within the wide bounds prescribed by the college, I would set him free to follow the bent of his nature wherever it may carry him. CONCERNING GENERAL ANP SPKCIFiC STUPT. The question is often discussed whether it is better to have general knowledge of many branches, or a thorough acquaintance with one. You see how I would decide the question. In these days, when all the forces are seen to be correlated, and all the sciences to be connected, I would have every educated man acquire a broad gen- eral acquaintance with a number and a variety of branches, and I would have this followed up by a devoted study of a few, or of one. To use a distinctionwhich I met with the other day in reading .James Mellville's diary, let education first he "circumferential," then "centrical." This, I believe, is following the course nl' nature, which, as every physiologist knows, begins with the general and then develops into the sj)ecial. Thus far I would encourage pofymathin, that it may lead us to miamaihia. I would first allow_ the energies to disperse, as from the sun, and then I would collect tlieni into a focus as by a lens. In this way I would seek to combine width of view with concentrated energy. Let the stu- dent first be taken as it were to an eminence whence he may behold the whole country with its connected hills, vales, and streams lying below him, and then be encouraged to dive down into some special place seen and selected from the height, that he may linger in it, and explore it minutely and thoroughly. HI. IxV WHAT MOD!-: SHOULD THE STB-IKCTS BK TAl'«HT, By professors or by tutors, by lectures or dry text- books? In Oxford, in Cambridge, and in Dublin the teaching is chiefly by tutors giving instruction to pupils, one by one, or in' small companies. In Germany, in Scotland, and the Queen's Colleges, Ireland, the teaching is by lectures delivered by professors, accompanied in the two last by class examinations more or less formal. In Scotland there were professors, both last century and this, who did little more than deliver lectures, often very brilliant and stimulating, and fitted to rouse suscejitible minds, which often felt satisfied, but without being filled with anything solid. There has been a reaction against this extreme, and now, considerable attention is paid to examinations, and tutors are employed to assist the professor, and in most cases a text-book is employed. The question is keenly discussed which of these methods is the most preferable. I hold, on the one hand, that lectures serve most important ends. True, they may not give more information, than a text-book, but they bring the living lecturer into immediate contact with the living pupils. There is great advantage, also, in having the students in companies — that is, in classes, and these considerably large ones. This arises, not so much from emulation, that ralcar industrix of which the great Jesuit schools made so much use ; as from the heads and hearts being made to beat in uuison — as even two time- j)ieces going at different rates will do when placed on the same wall; itarises from the living connection of the parts, the sympathy and reciprocity in a living organism, such as a' class ought to be. In teaching, the first thing is to awaken the pupils ; sometimes this can be done by persuasion — as Montaigne was awakened in the morning, when a boy, by music : more frequently it is by a rousing call as by a trumjiet ; most commonly it is by the stir of com- panions. When a class is roused into activity the members get fully as much benefit from one another, each one drawing or pushing his neighbor, as from the teacher, whose highest business will be to keep up the unity and the life. — The coldest and hardest object may be made to strike fire by collision. Davy melted two pieces of ice by rubbing them against each other, and the coldest and most obstinate natures may get fire and diffuse heat hy being kept by the impetus of a lively teacher in constant molecular motion. The Rev. M.Pat- terson speaking of Oxford, says : " In respect of seventy per cent, of its students, it is idle, hopelessly and incorrigibly idle." There is no such lamentable dis- proportion, as I can testify, in those who receive benefit in Scotland and the Irish colleges, and this arises very much from the stimulus given by class lec- tures. On the other hand, there is a risk that in a large class a great many, the cunning, the dull, and the idle, escajjc in the crowd ; and the copious matter poured forth by the professors is apt to be like those gushing torrents of showers which run off immediate!}- into the rivers and the sea with- out soaking into the soil to fertilize it. It is evident that n skillful tutor taking up an individual pupil, can make him acquire a raiuute accuracy, so preferable to the vagueness and looseness with which so many content them- selves in a promiscuous class. We are thus shut up to the conclusion that in a perfect method there should be a judicious combination of the two. The lecture must continue to give large general views and communicate a stimulus, .is by an electric current, to the whole class But then there must be rigid examina- tions from week to week, almost from day today, to make the pupils "chew and digest," as Bacon expressed it, the food ; and that the teacher ?n ay know how to impart instruction in the measure that they are able to receive it. With the lecture which can only be heard once, and if lost on that occasion is lost for- ever, there should be text-books to which the student may turn back once and 28 a::;iiiii as may suit liis capacity and convenieDce. I hold that every professor should have not only a large general class to which he gives an impetus by lecturing, but should have a small class of those who lag behind to be taught by an assistant; and also a select class taught by himself and composed of the few who are to be made thoroughly masters of the subject or engage in independent research. I am most anxious to see whether the American method with its com- bined lectures and recitations does or does not supj^ly and unite these requisites. IV. — WUATIS THE PLACE AND THK VALUE OF EXAMINATIONS. I refer now not to class examinations, or recitations, which ought to be weekly, almost daily, but to general college examinations on courses gone over or on subjects prescribed. These occupy a very important place in European univer- sities. A first and double-first class in Oxford, a place as a wrangler in Cam- bridge, are obtained by examinations, and upon these the valuable money fellowshijis depend. The fellowships in Dublin, which are of great value, are gained directly by competitive examinations. The honors and the scholarships of the Queen's colleges are determined in the same manner. Of late years the Scottish colleges have l)oen copying from the English ones; on this point, I be- lieve greatly to their advantage. In Germany there are no ordinary class or college examinations; but at the ckise the students are examined by bureaus, in order to theirentranee on any office, ecclesiastical or civil. Some people think that in certain of these colleges there is too much of official and grading exami- nation, and that the aim of the teaching is not to improve the mind, or even to convey a mastery of the subject, but simply so to drill that the result may ap- pear in the answers; and the impression left is thatsubjects andstudies are valu- ed, not for their own intrinsic value, but as they come out in the examinations. It is certain lluitthe examinations may comesooften as to interrupt the course of study, 01' to bring it to a premature conclusion: in short, the plant niay he kept from gi-owing by fumbling too often about its mots to see if it is,making j)r(\gress. Then, there is the evil of craw, in which an im- mense mass of food is taken at once, without the possibility of digesting it, and with all the evil of a surfeit. I have been told by youtig men who have made up a science in a month or two for an examination, that they have lost it as speedily as they gained it, and have retained little else than an aversion to the study. It is certain that the preparation for an examination and a successful comjietition c;in never serve the purpose accomplished by a college residence; by well-oooked food being served up from day to day : by sitting habitually under a teacher competent for his work and interested in it; by constant in- tercourse and iiiterchange of thought with fellow-students; by recourse to well- furnished libraries and museums, and by the stimulus of college societies.— The London University is now a mere examining body, giving degrees to all who can stand a trial on the subjects prescribed. I have no objection that there should be one such university to meet the case of those diligent youths who can- not find it possible to attend a college course. But I should deplore to find the other universities of the country reduced to the same level. When an attempt was made to turn the Queen's University into an examining hoard, we success- fully resisted the attempt. We must beware of making learning appear in the view of youth with the fixed passive gaze of the Egyptian Sphinx: we must seek to make it wear the life and the play of the Grecian Apollo. In a properly regu- lated course of study there must be a leisure for rest and refreshing, for occasion- al promiscuous reading, and for rumination on the i)ast, and for looking into the future. The student character and solid sch(darship are to be formed, as the crust of the earth has been, by continual deposits, building up layer upon layer ; and the competitive examinations are to come in at the close, like the up- heaving forces of the earth to consolidate what is scattered as sand, and t00 a year each, the whole amounting to £90,000 ; and some twenty or thirty of these faU vacant annually. In tlie Queen's colleges, £1,500 a year is set apart in each for scholarships; and there are large money honors to he obtained by competition at the examinations of the Queen's Uni- versity. The scholarships and fellowships cimnected with the University of Edinburgh are especially worthy of being looked to by the Iriends of higher education in America, inasmnch as they have all been supplied by private benevolence, and within the last few years. I will not specify those allocated to junior students, but it may be useful to refer to those reserved for graduates or advanced students. There is the Mackenzie Scholarship, worth £120 a year, gained by eminence in classical and English literature, and tenable for four years. There is a Greek Travelling Scholarship, tenable forone year, and worth £70. There are four Baxter Scholarship.s, each worth £60 a year, and tenable for not more than four years ; one for the best answering in mathematics, the second for the best answering in mental philosophy, th(^ third for the best answering in physics, and the fourth in natural historj'. Tlie Drummoud Scholarship is worth £100 a year, and is tenable for three years ; it is devoted to mathematics. There are three Tyndall Bruce Scholarships, each wortli £100 a year, and tenable for three years ; one for general scholarship, a second for philosophical, and a third for mathematical scholarship. There is the Guthrie Fellowship, devoted to classical literature, worth £100 a year, and tenable for four years; and the Hamilton Fellowship, allocated to logic, metaphysics, and moral philosophy, of the value of £100 a year, and continued for three years; and the Classical Fellowship, worth £100, and tenable for three years. There are scholarships in divinity and medicine which I pass over, to refer only to the Swiney Lectureship in Geology, woith £144, and tenable for five years. Besides these endowments, confined to Edinburgh, there are others open to the gradu- ates of any Scottish University. Thus, there are three Ferguson Scholarships, of £80 each devoted, respectively, to classics, mathematics, and mental science ; and the Shaw Fellowship in Mental Philosophy, worth £160, and tenable for two years. It is acknowledged on all hands that an immense impulse has been given to learning by these munificent foundations. In such American colleges as Princeton the average answering at graduation is quite equal, I believe to that of the best European universities. But I rather think that there are a select few in several British and German universities who go beyond what has been attained on this side of the Atlantic, and I believe that this has been effected very much by the encouragement given to higher scholarship on the part of the students. Is there no way by which you Americans, while retaining all your present ex- cellencies, may acquire what others have gained? This, I believe, could be accomplished by providing some sort of higher scholarships or fellowships as a reward of dilligence and success in the past, and obliging tliose wlio accept them to continue their studies after graduation under the superintendence of the col- lege. The grand hindrance to higher learning in the colleges here is to be found in the circumstance that the best students, after getting their degree, rush at once into jirofessional pursuits, and make no further progress, if, indeed, they do not lose what they have so laboricmsly acquired. The friends of the Ameri- can colleges could not benefit them so effectually as by providing that those who have taste and talent for higher scholarship should have an inducement to con- tinue their studies after graduation, by having a means of sustaining themselves while they do so. These distinguished alumni should be required to pursue special lines of study, or to travel, and might be encouraged to produce the re- sults in brief courses of lectures, delivered under the sanction of the college and sure to be appreciated by the students. There is another way in which the in- terests of education have been much promoted both in Prussia and Great Britain; and that is by Government patronage bestowed on those who succeed at public examinations. In Prussia young men can enter the learned professions of law, medicine, and the church only through the universities and an examination. — Not only so, but in order to entrance on the civil service of the country an at- tendance at a gymnasium or university, followed by a rigid examination is re- quired. In Great Britain all young men entering the public service — military, medical, or civil, down to tide waiters and office porters — must subnxit to a lite- rary examination. In many, offices such as the royal engineers and the medi- cal and civil service of India are to be had in this way, and in no other. Some 30 of the most valuable puV>lic offices in the world are gained in this way, such as the civil offices of India, which begin with £400, and £500 a year and speedily rise to £1,000, or possibly £1,500, open to all young men. I am far from saying that this mode of appointment to Government employment is not liable to theo- retical objections ; but jiractically it is found to be vastly preferable to the old method, which proceeded by nepotism or by political partisanship, in which the member of parliament was obliged to recommend the youth who was pressed >ipon him by his supporters in his county or borough. There is, of course, always a risk of failure in the case of the appointment of untried young men ; but when it depends upon the success in a severe competitive trial in the higher branches, there is a security that the j'outh must possess good abilities, that he has a power of application and perseverance, and that he has not spent liis time in indolence or vice; which last capacity, or incapacity, was sometimes reckoned as constituting his aptitude for the situation— those unfit for anything else being often foisted into a Government office, when their friends happened to have influence with the dominant ]>arty. It is surely worthy of considera- tion whether the offices in this country, requiring to be filled by young men, might not, with advantage to the community and to the great encouragement of learning, be thrown ojien to the public competition, instead of being determined by political partisanship. VI. SHOULD TIIICRK KV. U.NIVEIISITV KXTKNSIOS. This is a question which requires to be agitated in some parts of Europe. The German-speaking nations, with their fifiy-eight universities and 19,000 students, do not seem to stand in need of such extension ; nor does Scotland, with its four old efficient universities ; nor Ireland, with its two universities and its four state endowed and its various denominational colleges. But England certainly has much need of the establishTnent of new colleges, especially in its great centres of wealth and population, such as London and Manchester, and Bristol and Newcastle. Every friend of education and of mankind will rejoice to see colleges extending all over this country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to New Mexico, advancing with the population of the country, refinijig its energy, and i)urifying its wealth. But we have a right to ask that, while new universities are encouraged, the old be not discouraged, I believe that the excessive multi- plication of small and ill-sustained colleges in a district may be an enormous evil. In these days of rapid locomotion it is ol little moment to a student whether he have to go ten or twenty miles to a college, one hundred or five hundred. I believe that there is always more of stimulus, more of success, more of life, less of conceit, less of narrowness, of sectarianism, of knottiness, in large classes and large colleges than in small ones. Care should certainly be taken that in the excessive competition the food do not become adulterated, that the new colleges do not drag down the old. till all sink to a Dead Sea level. We should rather strive that the old be bringing up the new to a higher standard, and that we have a number of colleges thoroughly equipped by able men, by ex- tensive apparatus, and by chairs for teaching every high branch of literature and science. We must not yield to the temptation to whicih we are exposed, of sending unripe fruit into the market; or, to vary the metaphor, of resting con- tented with lumber fabrics, or running up walls with undried mortar. In new and waste countries they must be satisfied — and we do not blame them — with the log cabin ; but then they rise as speedily as possible to the frame house : and, as the country becomes older, they would have the more solid brick and the stone; and now, not only your capitols, but not a few of j'our private dwell- ings, are of marble. There ought to be such an ascension in your colleges as the country grows older and richer. In the Far West they may start with little better than our high schools; but in the older East we must not rest satisfied till we have institutions to rival the grand old universities of Europe, such as Oxford and Cambridge, and Berlin and Edinburgh. What makes Oxford and Cambridge have such an influence on those who live within their walls, and which is sensibly felt even by those who pay them only a passing visit ? The great men who have been there, and who still seem to look down upon us ; the living men, n^ot unworthy of them, and who are pointed out to us as they walk through the courts : the "talk of the tripos and the first class, and the double first and the wranglerships ; the quiet life in the Colleges, and the active life in the examination halls, in the societies, and the great university meetings; the man- uscripts, the old books, the museums — all these create an academic atmosphere in which it is bracing to breathe, and is felt to be more stimulating than all the excellent teaching of the tutors. Will our numerous friends not join with the professors and students in striving to create such an atmosphere here in Princeton, where we have grand names in the past and need only like men in 31 the present; by accessions to our a[iparatus and our library and encouragement to the students to go on to the higher learning; and, by the founding of new chairs of literature and science, to make our college as adapted to these times as our forefathers made it suitable to their day ? For the handsome and considerate kindness shown by those who have so endeared themselves to me. as well as benefitted this college, by endowing the presidential otiice and furnishing mo with a comfortable home, I give public and hearty thanks. Mj' personal comforts being provided for, I am free to look to other interests. Of late years certain generous friends have endowed ehairs'in the college, and now we have a princely merchant devoting a large sum to its extension generally; and a friend of science aims at placing on our height, with its wide horizon, the finest observatory in the world. They will be followed, I trust, by others. The friends of Princeton must come forward at this time to uphold her and make her worthy of her ancient reputation, and enable her to advance with the times; one whom God has blessed increasing the salaries of our hard-working and under-paid professors, who should be set free from drudgery and worldly anxieties to give a portion of their energy to the furtherance of learning and science; a second, by providing further accommo- dation for our students, that we may receive and house comfortably all who ap- j)ly ; a third, by erecting a gymnasium for the bracing of the bodily frame; a fourth, by enlarging our library or our scientific apparatus ; a fifth, by founding a scholarship or junior foUowshijj for the encouragement of letters and high merit among students ; and a sixth, by founding a new chair required by the progress of knowledge. We have scope here for every man's tastes and predilections. TIIK I'OSSIHILITV OF STATE UNlVERSITIfiS. Speaking of the desirableness of elevating the learning in our higher institu- tions, I have sometimes thought that as Oxford University combines some twenty-two colleges, and Cambridge eighteen, so there might in this country be a combination of colleges in one university. Let every State have one univer- sity to unite all its colleges, and appointing examiners and bestowing honors of considerable pecuniary value on more deserving students. Some such a combi- nation as this, while it would promote a wholesome rivalry among the colleges, would at the same time keep up the standard of erudition. Another benefit would arise : the examination of the candidates being conducted, not by those who taught them, but by electeil examiners, would give a high and catholic tone to the teaching in the colleges. I throw out the idea that thinking men may ponder it. nassat; iiai.l in pautictlau. But returning to ourselves. New Jersey College has a great prestige, second, I believe, to no other in the United States. But we cannot live on our past reputation — any more than our frames can be sustained on the food of which we have partaken days ago. In these times, when it is known that all things move, earth and sun, stars and constellations, we cannot stop or remain stationary, ex- cept at the risk of being thrown out of our sphere without the power of returning to it. In this new country we have to look to our children more than our fathers, and "instead of the "fathers shall be the children." You will have seen from the whole train of these observations that I aim at keeping up the academic standard at Princeton. I have not torn myself from my native land and friends to be the mere head of a mechanics' institute; I would rather you should send me back to my old country at once than make me and your college submit to such humiliation. This college will repay the debt which it owes to the country not in a depreciated currency, but in the genuine coin, with the flying eagle upon it and the golden ring. Parents and guardians sending their sons to this vener- able institution must have a security that they will receive as high an education as any college in this country, as any college in any country, can furnish. VII. — WHAT PLACE SHOULD RKLIGION HAVE IN OUR COLLEGES. In Scotland the established church long claimed an authority over the col- leges, and over all their teaching, and provided a form of religion. I can testify that it was little more than a form, and this not always the form of sound words. For years the control of the Church of Scotland over anything but the theological professors has been taken away, and with it all that remained of the form has disappeared ; and now the Scottish colleges profess to give nothing more than secular instruction, men of piety always seeking to imbue their whole teaching with a religious spirit. The keen battle being at present fought in England is likely to terminate in the same issue. But good men concerned about the relig- ion and morality of young men cannot allow things to continue in that state. — How, then, is religion to be grafted on State colleges open to all, whatever their 32 religious profession ■? I liave thouglit much on tliis subject, ami labored with some success tx> realize my idea, in Belfast. Let the State provide the secular instruction, and the churches provide the religious training in the homes in which the students reside. But passing from foreign topics, this college has had a religious character in time past, and it will be my endeavor to see that it has the same in time to come. Religion should burn in the hearts, and shine, though they wis it not, from the face of the teachers ; and it should have a living power in our meetings for wor- ship, and should sanctify the air of the rooms in which the students reside. And in regard to religious truth, there will be no uncertain sound uttered witiiin these walls. What is proclaimed here will be the old truth which has been from the beginning; which was shown in shadov.' in the Old Testament; which was exhibited fully in the New Testament, as in a glass ; which has been retained by the one Catliolic Church in the darkest ages; wliich was long buried, but rose again at the Reformation ; which was maintained by the grand old theologians of Germany, Switzerland, England, and Scotland, and is being defended with great logical power in the famous theological seminary with which this college is so closely associated. But over this massive and clearly-defined old form of sound words I would place, no theological doctor, not Augustine, not Luther, not Calvin, not Edwards, but another and {av fairer face, lifted up that it may draw all eyes towards it, "Jesus, at once the author and the finisher of our faith." A religion of a neutral tint has nothing in it to attract the eye or the heart of the young or the old. I believe that the religion which can have any power in inioving the minds and moulding the character of students or of others must be the pure evangel of Jesus Christ. But you will expect of one descended from the old covenanting stock, who fought so resolutely for the rights of conscience, and whose blood dyed the heather hills of Scotland; from one who was brought up in a district where there are martyrs' tombs in every churchyard : from one who was connected for so man}' years with the Irish system of national educa- tion, which allows no one to tamper with the religious convictions of pupils — that he shall take care that every one here shall have full freedom of thought ; that whatever be his religious creed or political party, be he from the North or be he from the South, bo he of a white or of a dark color, he shall have free ac cess to all the benefits which this college can bestow ; and that a minority, nay, even a single conscientious individi^al, shall bo protected from the tyranny of a majority, and encouraged to pursue his studies without molestation, pro- vided always that, not being interfered with himself, he does not interfere with others. You have called me to the highest oflice, so I esteem it, which your great country could place at my disposal. But if I know my own heart, I am not vain, I am not even ]>roud as I might be, of the distinction which has been conferred upon me. I am rather awed at the thought of the responsibility lying upon me. I come here, I find, amid high expectations, and how am I eVer to come up to them? I get this College with a high reputation, and what if its lustre should diminish ? My name is this day added to the roll which begins with Dickinson and Aaron Burr, embraces Jonathan Edwards, Davies, Finley, Witherspoon, Smith, Green, Carnahan, who have left their impress not only on this college but on the country, and comes to one who for long years felt so deej) an interest in the welfare of the students, who was able to teach nearly every department in the institution over which he presided, and whom we will all delight to honor as he passes his remaining days in peace among us. Of a king in Israel it is said that they buried him in the city, " but they brouii'ht him not into the sepulchres of the Kings of Israel." I confess I should like, when my work is finished, to be buried among these kings in the realms of thought, thatniy dust may mingle with their dust, and my spirit mount to ])ure and eternal communion with them in heaven. I feel that the labor mean- while will be congenial to me. My whole past life, as a student, as a minister, and as a professor, should prepare me for it. My tastes have ever led me to- wards intercourse with young men. I have the same estimate of youth that the Spartans had when Antipater demanded of them fifty youths as hostages ; they answered they would rather give twice the number of grown men. I rejoice that my lot calls me to labor among young men. I wish to enter into their feelings, to sympathize with them in their difficulties, with their doubts in these days of criticism, to help them in their fights and rejoice with them in their triumphs. And so I devote my life, any gifts which God has given me, my experience as a minister of religion in a great era in the history of Scotland, my experience as a professor in a young and living college, under God, to you and your service.