LP 226 
 .U36 
 Copy 1 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 PRESENT COLLEGIATE SYSTEM 
 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 FRANCIS WAYLAND 
 
 BOSTON: 
 GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN, 
 
 59 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1842. 
 
L l\-'^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842; 
 
 By Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
//^/ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages are submitted to the public 
 with great diffidence because they propose changes ; 
 and the author has lived too long to be a passionate 
 admirer of innovation. Let it however be re- 
 membered that he merely suggests the points to 
 ^e aimed at where alterations are to be made ; 
 leaving the time and manner and degree of altera- 
 tion to the decision of those whose duty it is to 
 judge of the circumstances in each particular case. 
 Should he have done no more than direct attention 
 to the questions here discussed, the labor which he 
 has bestowed will not have been wholly mis-spent. 
 These pages have been written amidst frequent 
 interruptions arising from pressing Collegiate en- 
 gagements, as well as from unusual public anxiety. 
 They have been printed at so great a distance from 
 home, that the author has been unable to revise 
 the proofs with all the care that he could wish. 
 With all their imperfections, he offers them as" 
 an humble contribution to the cause of Collegiate 
 Education. 
 
 Brown University ^ August 1, 1842. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE 
 OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM i 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION IN THE 
 UNITED STATES 18 
 
 i. Of the Visit orial Power .... 22 
 
 2. Of the Executive Officers .... 25 
 
 3. Of the Responsibility Assumed ... 28 
 
 4. Of the Course of Study .... 32 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 OF THE DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE EDUCA- 
 TION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH 
 IT MAY BE IMPROVED 43 
 
 Sect. 1. Of the Visitorial Power .... 43 
 
 Sect. 2. Of the Faculty, or Officers of Instruction 62 
 
 Sect. 3. Of Collegiate Education ... 76 
 
 Sect. 4. Of College Discipline . . . .112 
 
VI 
 
 CHAPTER. IV. 
 
 OF SOME PREVALENT ERRORS IN REGARD TO COLLEGIATE 
 EDUCATION 132 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
 
 i. Corporations or Boards of Visitors 
 
 2. Of the Organization of our Colleges 
 
 3. Of the Officers of Colleges 
 
 4. Of the Discipline of our Colleges 
 
 5. Of Premiums 
 
 150 
 151 
 153 
 156 
 157 
 159 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF 
 
 COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE 
 OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 
 
 The opinions at present entertained on the subject 
 of education afford us a decisive proof that the 
 movement of civilization is onward. Through- 
 out all protestant nations, the obligation of the 
 community at large to make provision for the in- 
 struction of the young, is very commonly admit- 
 ted. Nor is this conviction confined to those 
 forms of social organization which more closely 
 resemble our own. On the contrary the almost 
 unlimited monarchy of Prussia has been foremost 
 in this good work. France is laboring with 
 zeal and efficiency in the same cause. Great 
 Britain has already made a good beginning and 
 will doubtless before long do something worthy 
 of the rank which it holds among civilized 
 nations ; while, In our own country, the constitu- 
 1 
 
tion of our General Government is founded 
 upon the presumption that every man is possessed 
 of some degree of education ; and every State in 
 the Union acknowledges its obligation to provide 
 the means by which every citizen shall be taught 
 the rudiments of knowledge, at least so far as to 
 reveal to him the treasures of science in his own 
 language, and place in his hands the power of in- 
 definitely improving himself. 
 
 I have remarked that this fact denotes the pro- 
 gress of our race in the career of civilization. It 
 teaches us that the principles of benevolence are 
 becoming better known, and that the obligations 
 of benevolence are also more widely acknowl- 
 edged. He who is willing to spend his property 
 for the purpose of elevating the intellectual char- 
 acter of his remotest fellow citizen is surely a bet- 
 ter man than he who cares for the improvement 
 of no being beyond the circle of his own family. 
 The nation which has risen from the low level of 
 individual aggrandizement to the high ground of 
 universal philanthropy has presented a new claim 
 to our grateful veneration. It shows that every 
 man has come to entertain a more heartfelt re- 
 spect and a profounder love for his brother, that 
 the fountain of good-will has gushed up from a 
 deeper recess in his bosom, and that the stream is 
 fresher, purer and more abundant. Charity is al- 
 ways lovely ; but when it penetrates the very sub- 
 stance of a whole society, and becomes an essen- 
 tial element of national character, without losing 
 aught of its beauty, it partakes largely of the 
 sublime. 
 
The increasing attention to the general diffusion 
 of the means of education shows us also that 
 mankind are growing wiser as well as better. It 
 is a convincing proof that the views which once 
 were peculiar to far sighted and meditative men 
 have now become common to the whole commu- 
 nity ; that, instead of contending with evils as they 
 throng upon us on every side, we are resolved to 
 dry up the sources from which they emanate ; 
 that, extending our views beyond the narrow limits 
 of the present, we are seeking to learn lessons 
 from the past and are reaching forward to wield 
 for purposes of good the destinies of the future. 
 It is thus alone that we can lay deep and broad 
 the foundations of the social fabric and render 
 certain the progress of men in virtue and intelli- 
 gence. It is thus that goodness becomes so 
 nearly allied to wisdom, and this alliance is the 
 more closely cemented, as wisdom is more pro- 
 found and goodness more intense and more 
 universal. 
 
 It may I suppose be taken for granted that the 
 settled policy of the United States is to furnish 
 the means for obtaining a common English educa- 
 tion to every citizen, and to improve that educa- 
 tion from time to time without any assignable 
 limit. It may then be hoped that within a short 
 time every American citizen will be able to read, 
 write, and keep accounts, and that at no very dis- 
 tant period he will also be familiar with all the 
 more important branches of elementary knowl- 
 edge. Our resources must be strangely misap- 
 
plied, and our efforts cursed with suicidal blind- 
 ness, if these anticipations be not to a considera- 
 ble degree realized within the experience of the 
 present generation. 
 
 It is too obvious to require extended remark 
 that the universal diffusion of the means of com- 
 mon education cannot be accomplished without 
 creating a great demand for education of a higher 
 grade. If a population of five millions of chil- 
 dren and young persons are to be taught, we shall 
 need more than an hundred thousand teachers to 
 instruct them. Our common schools will also be 
 almost worthless unless they be well taught. If 
 teachers are ignorant, the office of teacher will 
 soon sink into contempt. Our schools instead of 
 being filled with pupils from every class of soci- 
 ety, as they ought to be, will contain only the 
 children of vagiants and mendicants. They will 
 lose all favor with the yeomanry of the country, 
 who will soon tire of supporting an institution 
 from which their children can derive no benefit. 
 Thus the common school system would prove a 
 failure and all our efforts to promote its success 
 become abortive. It is manifest then, that if a 
 system of general education be adopted, it can 
 only be sustained by providing a competent 
 supply of well instructed teachers. And if it be 
 asked how high should be the standard of attainment 
 for persons of this profession, I answer the same 
 as that for persons of every other profession. 
 There can be no reason assigned why the instructor 
 of a neighborhood, he to whom is committed the 
 
office of forming the minds of our children, should 
 not be as well educated and intelligent a man as 
 our Lawyer, our Physician or our Clergyman. 
 
 I by no means suppose the whole duty of a 
 teacher to be fulfilled by the performance of the 
 labors of the school room. If a suitable person 
 be engaged for this office, and if the station be 
 rendered permanent and sufficiently attractive by 
 the social consideration which properly belongs 
 to it, a multitude of indirect benefits will naturally 
 follow. Such an instructor would be the friend 
 and companion of his pupils after the relation 
 of master and scholar had terminated. He would 
 encourage and direct the studies of those who 
 wished to pursue their investigations by themselves. 
 He would cultivate science and stimulate his 
 neighbors to literary acquisition by the delivery of 
 lectures, the formation of libraries and every other 
 means of popular improvement. In this manner a 
 class of professional men would be raised up among 
 us whose influence would be felt most benignly over 
 every class of society, and of whose labors the 
 benefit would be incalculable. Such a system 
 therefore, in order to be in any eminent degree 
 successful, involves the necessity of a class of 
 higher seminaries, seminaries capable of teaching 
 teachers, in other words institutions for profes- 
 sional education. 
 
 Besides, I suppose it self evident that no 
 nation can derive the benefit which God intended 
 from the intellect which he has conferred upon 
 it, unless all that intellect, of what sort soever 
 
6 
 
 it be, have the means of full and adequate devel- 
 opment. The rare and more precious gifts of 
 God are surely not the only ones that are to be 
 thrown away as useless. The gigantic and far 
 searching mind which can discover and apply the 
 laws of nature, is at least as important to society 
 as the more common mind which can only make 
 use of the law after it has been discovered. I 
 have a strong conviction of the importance to a 
 nation of the labors of its ship builders and 
 machinists ; but I ask would they have clothed 
 the civilized world with garments, and subjected 
 the ocean to steam, and peopled the valley of the 
 Mississippi with nations without the directing 
 genius of Arkwright, and Watt, and Whitney, 
 and Fulton. The army of Italy which annihilat- 
 ed in rapid succession legion after legion of 
 the veterans of Austria, was lying in its encamp- 
 ments, ill-fed, cowering, despairing and almost 
 disbanded, until it was roused into energy by the 
 unrivalled genius of the Emperor Napoleon. 
 I honor the yeomanry of my country. I would 
 confide in their integrity and good sense in prefer- 
 ence to those of any men upon earth, but 
 of what avail would be the trial by jury had there 
 been no Washingtons and Franklins and Madisons 
 to frame our constitution, and no Jays and 
 Marshalls and Storys to unfold the principles of 
 eternal justice, and hold steadily before the eyes of 
 men the light of universal law. And thus must it 
 be always. Whatever be the form of government, 
 the very existence of society supposes that offices 
 
must exist, demanding the highest order of in- 
 tellect, cultivated by thorough discipline, and 
 enlarged and ripened by profound acquaintance 
 with whatever of truth the history of past ages 
 has revealed for the instruction of man. 
 
 Nor is this necessity for elevated talent rendered 
 less imperative by the general diffusion of knowl- 
 edge. By this you may enable men the better 
 to understand the principles by which they are 
 to be governed, and the laws, by obedience to 
 which, their condition may be improved ; but 
 something more than this is requisite in order to 
 enable men to discover or to unfold those hidden 
 truths, that lie at the foundation of national 
 prosperity. Nay more ; in every condition of 
 society there will always be produced native 
 talent, vast power of influencing mankind, united 
 with restless, aspiring and insatiate ambition. And 
 this talent will be unfolded in greater proportion 
 as common education is more generally diffused. 
 The question then, is not whether such talent 
 shall or shall not exist. The only practical 
 question is, whether these rare endowments 
 shall be cultivated and disciplined and cautioned 
 and directed by the lessons of past wisdom, or 
 whether they shall be allowed to grow up in 
 reckless and headstrong arrogance, and wear out 
 the energies of society by perpetual agitation 
 of all the baser passions of mankind. It is 
 merely a question whether the extraordinary talent 
 bestowed upon society by our Creator, shall be 
 a blessing or a curse to us and to our children. 
 
8 
 
 I feel however, that this part of the discussion 
 need not be protracted to any greater extent. 
 The importance of liberal education is fully ad- 
 mitted by every American citizen. Most of 
 the older States have from the earliest period 
 of their history devoted special attention to 
 the establishment of Colleges and Academies. 
 In many of them, institutions of this kind have 
 been liberally if not munificently endowed. Many 
 of our most distinguished private citizens have 
 contributed largely of their property to the same 
 object. In all the new States magnificent foun- 
 dations have been laid for the endowment of 
 Colleges and Universities. The American Al- 
 manac for this year, (1842,) contains a list of the 
 Cofleges in this country, amounting to one hundred 
 and one in number. To these, additions will for 
 some time to come, be annually made. The 
 same work gives us a list of thirty-nine Theo- 
 logical Seminaries, ten Law Schools, and thirty- 
 one Medical Schools. It may then safely be 
 taken for granted that the people of this country 
 are already deeply impressed with the importance 
 of collegiate and professional education. 
 
 Taking this part for granted, I need offer no 
 apology for the following remarks. If so much 
 of the intellect and the wealth of this nation is 
 most laudably devoted to the promotion of this 
 branch of education ; if it be the settled policy of 
 the country to appropriate to it whatever its true 
 necessities may require, if the stream of private 
 munificence flows more readily in this channel 
 
9 
 
 than in almost any other, It is of the utmost im- 
 portance that all this expenditure of wealth and 
 talent should be wisely directed. And yet more. 
 Our institutions in this country are, to a considera- 
 ble degree, in a state of formation. They are 
 not yet hedged about by precedents which can 
 never be abolished, nor bound up by statutes which 
 can never be amended. With every year, how- 
 ever, change will become more and more difficult. 
 A college must, of necessity, be in some sort a 
 legally established foundation, and precedents and 
 usages grow up more rapidly, and sink their roots 
 deeper in this soil than in any other. And this is 
 more particularly the case where a number of 
 institutions are united together to accomplish a 
 similar object. If formed on the same model, 
 they create a necessity, to a considerable degree, 
 of similarity of action. It is practically difficult 
 for any one to deviate from the others, and hence 
 a course which each one allows to be unwise, 
 will frequently be persevered in by all, because no 
 one is willing to incur the disadvantage of being 
 the first to separate from the rest. Under these 
 circumstances it cannot be out of place to enter 
 upon a brief examination of the principles on 
 which this part of our educational system has thus 
 far proceeded. 
 
 The present system of collegiate instruction is 
 very much the same throughout the United States. 
 With but very few exceptions it consists of a four 
 years course, terminating in graduation, all the 
 students pursuing the same studies, the same labor 
 
10 
 
 being required from all, and the same time being 
 allotted to each. I merely allude in these few- 
 words to the character of the system, as I shall 
 have occasion to explain its nature more fully in 
 the following chapter. I here wish only to ob- 
 serve the universality with which this model has 
 been copied. The older institutions have in no 
 important respect ever ventured to deviate from 
 it, and the new ones have considered their own 
 organization perfect in just so far as they have 
 been able to approximate to it. 
 
 In connexion with this fact it is proper to 
 remark that for a very considerable period, a very 
 general opinion has prevailed that something in the 
 system required material modification. 
 
 At one time an attempt was made to supply 
 what was believed to be a deficiency in the system 
 of collegiate education by the establishment of 
 Gymnasia or High Schools. In several instances 
 gentlemen of ripe and varied learning, with much 
 knowledge of the systems of European education, 
 were induced to connect themselves with semina- 
 ries of this character. Teachers in abundance 
 and of high reputation were secured, and pupils 
 in great numbers resorted to them for instruction. 
 But in a few years these experiments totally failed. 
 Parents were, I believe, more dissatisfied with 
 them than with the colleges which it was at one 
 time supposed they would supplant. Next fol- 
 lowed Military High Schools, or seminaries for 
 instruction in the higher branches of learning, 
 formed after the model of the U. S. Military 
 
11 
 
 Academy at West Point. These very rapidly 
 followed the course of the Gymnasia ; their 
 buildings were deserted, and I believe that in a 
 iew years the establishments themselves generally 
 came under the hammer. 
 
 These seminaries were commonly very expen- 
 sive, and their advantages were of course con- 
 fined exclusively to the children of the wealthy. 
 This was considered by many persons as the 
 cause of their failure. The next experiment was 
 varied in this respect, and Manual Labor Schools 
 were established. The benevolent were called 
 upon to invest a large amount of property in 
 buildings and land, with the expectation that stu- 
 dents would be able by their own labor to support 
 themselves, while acquiring a liberal education. 
 These institutions also flourished, until the invest- 
 ments had all been consumed, and they then 
 shared the fate of their predecessors. No one of 
 them, I believe ever produced at the best more 
 than two or three per cent, on the principal, so that 
 it would have been far more economical to have 
 placed the original capital at ordinary interest, and 
 have bestowed the proceeds upon persons deserv- 
 ing of the charity. The money thus squandered 
 has not however been wholly thrown away. It has 
 taught good men to examine somewhat more care- 
 fully into the rationale of schemes of benevolence, 
 and has served to demonstrate that no man can 
 devote the time necessary for acquiring a profes- 
 sional education without the expenditure of money. 
 If he do not pay for it himself he must by some 
 
12 
 
 means or other induce his neighbors to make the 
 payment for him. 
 
 'IMiL'se various modifications in the form of in- 
 stitutions for education in the higher branches of 
 education having failed to answer the expectations 
 of the pubhc, nothing remained but to attempt to 
 improve the colleges themselves. The forms in 
 which this attempt has been made are various, and 
 they have been attended with various degrees of 
 success. Some few of them are deserving of a 
 passing notice. 
 
 It has been said that the course of study in 
 our colleges was formed in a remote age, and that 
 it is adapted only to a state of society very differ- 
 ent from our own. Specially has it been urged 
 that the study of the classics is at best but useless, 
 that it has no relation to our present duties and 
 every day engagements, and that the time devo- 
 ted to it had much better be employed upon the 
 study of the Modern Languages. Besides, it has 
 been said that our collegiate course should extend its 
 benefits to merchants, manufacturers, and every 
 class of citizens. These persons desire the hon- 
 ors of a degree as much as others. They do not 
 however wish to waste their time in the study of 
 the classics, and therefore the studies required of 
 the candidate for a degree should be accommoda- 
 ted so as to meet these their reasonable wishes. 
 It was predicted that as soon as this change should 
 be made, our colleges would be crowded with 
 those who were anxious to avail themselves of 
 these advantages and to obtain the honor of a 
 degree. 
 
13 
 
 In obedience with these suggestions a change 
 was made some years since in the studies of some of 
 our colleges. Both a classical and scientific course 
 were estabhshed, the first requiring the study of 
 the Learned and the other substituting in their 
 room the Modern languages. Teachers were 
 engaged, classes were divided, each student had 
 his option, and all who wished were invited to be- 
 come candidates for a degree upon these modified 
 conditions. But what was the result ? No one 
 came to accept of what was thus freely offered. 
 The system dragged for a few years, and then per- 
 ished from mere inanition. 
 
 Very much the same course has been pursued 
 in regard to the higher mathematics. The same 
 objections were made to this branch of a liberal 
 education, and it has been proposed to substitute 
 in their place the study of history or of natural 
 science. To a considerable degree this experi- 
 ment has been combined with the other, and with 
 very much the same result. The colleges so far 
 as I know, which have obeyed the suggestions of 
 the public, have failed to find themselves sustain- 
 ed by the public. The means which it was sup- 
 posed would increase the number of students in 
 fact diminished it, and thus things gradually after 
 every variety of trial have generally tended to 
 their original constitution. So much easier is it 
 to discover faults than to amend them ; to point 
 out evils than to remove them. And thus have 
 we been taught that the public does not always 
 know what it wants, and that it is not always wise 
 to take it at its word. 
 
14 
 
 But as the number of students in most of our 
 colleges was commonly much less than could be 
 desired, and as colleges have steadily continued 
 to multiply, it was next supposed that the reason 
 why they were not more numerously attended was 
 the high price of tuition. The price of a colle- 
 giate education, however, it may be remarked in 
 passing, has always been exceedingly low in this 
 country. It is, and has long been much less than 
 that of private tuition ; and the officers of col- 
 leges are always remunerated at a much lower rate 
 than other professional men. Still it was believed 
 that collegiate education would be in a more pros- 
 perous condition if tuition could be much more 
 nearly given away. When the number of stu- 
 dents in a college began to diminish so that the 
 pittance granted to instructors could no more be 
 doled out, an effort was next made to raise addi- 
 tional funds for the support of instructors. This 
 fund has sometimes been used for the endowment 
 of professorships, and sometimes for the general 
 reduction of tuition or for the support of indigent 
 students. Very large sums have been from time to 
 time appropriated to this purpose. This of 
 course will partly remedy the evil. When a val- 
 uable consideration is to be given away, it is not 
 generally difficult to find persons willing to accept 
 of it. 
 
 In this manner there is no doubt that a college 
 may be supported. If after buildings have been 
 erected, and a considerable amount of funds in- 
 vested, and the teachers remunerated at the lowest 
 
15 
 
 possible rate, pupils cannot be attracted in suffi- 
 cient numbers to support the establishment, we 
 may yet be allowed to draw upon the charities of 
 the public to make up the deficiency, the system 
 may doubdess be sustained. And this is I believe at 
 present the very general condition of colleges 
 among us. I doubt whether any one could attract 
 a respectable number of pupils, however large its 
 endowments and however great its advantages, did 
 it charge for tuition the fees which would be requi- 
 site to remunerate its officers at the rate ordina- 
 rily received by other professional men. In some 
 of our colleges education is given away to every 
 person who enters the plea of indigence. Others 
 are in possession of funds appropriated to a con- 
 siderable amount to this purpose. In most of 
 them, candidates for the ministry are educated 
 gratuitously or at a great reduction from the ordi- 
 nary charge for tuition. In this manner collegi- 
 ate education has come to be considered to a very 
 great extent a matter of charity ; and the found- 
 ing of a college consists not so much in providing 
 means for higher education and thus elevating the 
 general standard of intellectual attainment, as the 
 collecting of funds for eleemosynary distribution, 
 by which those who desire to pursue the course 
 which we have marked out may be enabled to do 
 so at the least possible cost. 
 
 Now I cannot but look at this as an unnatural 
 state of things. Let a man reflect upon the wages 
 of labor in this country, at the ease with which 
 industrious men in every occupation arrive at com- 
 
16 
 
 petence, let him pass through our streets and enter 
 our houses and inspect our modes of living and 
 he will surely say that a very large portion of our 
 people are able to meet the expenses of bestow- 
 ing upon their children as good an education as 
 they can receive with advantage. There does 
 not appear from our outward circumstances any 
 reason why a man should not pay a fair price for 
 the education of his son just as he pays a fair 
 price for the education of his daughter ; or for 
 the furniture, the carpets, the pianos, the mirrors 
 of his parlor, or the implements, the stock, and 
 the acres of his farm. Nor can it be said that as 
 a people we are unaware of the advantages of 
 knowledge. In all our cities and towns, the pri- 
 vate instructor is liberally paid. There are cer- 
 tainly all the elements in existence out of which 
 must arise a strong desire for the intellectual im- 
 provement of our offspring. And yet while this 
 is the fact we find all around us very large invest- 
 ments made for the purposes of public education, 
 the interest of their investments is bestowed upon 
 the public, and yet we cannot induce men to pursue a 
 collegiate course unless we offer it vastly below 
 its cost, if we do not give it away altogether. 
 
 From the preceding facts I think we are war- 
 ranted in coming to the following conclusions. 
 First, that there is in this country a very general 
 willingness both in the public and on the part 
 of individuals to furnish all the necessary means 
 for the improvement of collegiate education. 
 Second, that the present system of collegiate edu- 
 
17 
 
 tion does not meet the wants of the public. The 
 evidence of this is seen in the fact that change 
 after change has been suggested in the system with- 
 out however any decided result, and still more 
 from the fact that although this kind of education 
 is afforded at a lower price than any other, we 
 cannot support our present institutions without 
 giving a large portion of our education away. 
 Third, that this state of things is neither owing to 
 the poverty of our people nor to their indifference 
 to the subject of education. Our citizens seem 
 really more willing to educate other men's sons 
 than their own, to provide the means of educa- 
 tion rather than to avail themselves of them after 
 they have been provided. Now, do not these 
 facts indicate the necessity of some change in our 
 educational system. A liberal education is cer- 
 tainly a valuable consideration. Can it not be 
 made to recommend hself ; so that he who wishes 
 to obtain it shall also be willing to pay for it ^ 
 Cannot this general impression in favor of educa- 
 tion be turned to some practical account, so that 
 the system may be able to take care of itself.^ 
 Or at any rate, if after all that has been done we 
 remain without having effected any material 
 change, may it not be well to examine the whole 
 system and see whether its parts may not admit of 
 some better adjustment and work out a more per- 
 fect result. To pursue such an inquiry is the 
 object of the following pages. 
 
 2 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION IN 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 In any combination whatever for the accom- 
 plishment of a specific purpose, there must of ne- 
 cessity be some arrangement of parts co-operating 
 together so as to bring about the intended result. 
 There must have been an original conception com- 
 prehending all the parts and the manner of their 
 working. Thus when we speak of a system of 
 government we refer to the general conception of 
 its executive, judicial, and legislative functions, 
 their powers and limitations, and the modes in 
 which they accomplish their purpose. And it 
 is evident that we can never judge correctly of 
 the value of such a system, unless we are enabled 
 to form a clear conception of its several parts 
 and to observe their adaptation to the end for 
 which they were designed. 
 
 The arrangements for public professional 
 education, from the nature of the case, comprize 
 a system in the manner above specified. They 
 involve several varieties of official station, having 
 
19 
 
 difterent and dissimilar functions, and each respon- 
 sible to a different authority. Thus, for instance, 
 a college is an endowed or eleemosynary insti- 
 tution, this endowment is vested in corporators who 
 are under obligation to see that it is appropriated 
 according to the will of the donor. The college 
 has the power of conferring degrees, a power with 
 which it is intrusted by the public and it is the 
 business of these corporators in behalf of the public 
 to inquire into the manner in which this power is 
 exercised. There is, again, the faculty or exec- 
 utive officers of the college whose duty it is to 
 instruct according to the statutes, and who are 
 appointed by, and are responsible to, the corpora- 
 tors, or those officers who are intrusted with the 
 visitorial power. Suppose all these powers to 
 have been defined, and the system ready to go 
 into effect, it may then be inquired what is it 
 that is intended to be done, how is it to be done, 
 and what are the means for carrying it into effect. 
 In examining any collegiate system all these 
 subjects of inquiry will naturally arise. They 
 are manifestly of importance, and they may be 
 treated of with the greater freedom because they 
 have nothing whatever to do wiih individuals. 
 They are abstract questions having simply to do 
 with a system, and that system may be considered 
 good or bad, wise or unwise, perfect or imperfect, 
 without calling in question in the slightest degree 
 the wisdom or the learning or the ability of those 
 by whom the system is carried into effect. The 
 question is not whether one man or another is or 
 
20 
 
 is not able and judicious, and praiseworthy, 
 but, granting him to be all these, whether or not 
 he might under another system accomplish more 
 successfully the objects to the advancement of 
 which he has devoted his talents. 
 
 It is very evident that our present collegiate sys- 
 tem was derived immediately from that of Oxford 
 and Cambridge Universities. Both involved the 
 same points in every thing material. Both adopt the 
 principles of established classes, to each of which 
 a whole year of study is allotted ; of a fixed 
 course of study for every pupil ; of considering 
 every pupil a candidate for a degree ; of residence 
 within the college premises ; and, of course of res- 
 ponsibility in the officers for the moral conduct 
 of the pupil, and connected with this a provision for 
 the students' board. In other words, every college 
 is a large boarding school for pupils of an advanced 
 age, providing for each student, board, lodging 
 and oversight, and obliging every one to go 
 through the same course of studies within the 
 same time, and terminating, unless for some special 
 cause, in the degree of Batchelor of Arts. In 
 all these essential points of the system the English 
 and American colleges exactly coincide. 
 
 The points of difference are (ew, and so far as the 
 present discussion is concerned, unimportant. An 
 English College does not confer degrees ; these 
 are conferred only by the University, a corporation 
 at present constituted from the members of the 
 several colleges collectively. The University 
 gives no instruction, or next to none, but confers 
 
21 
 
 degrees on those whom the colleges have instruct- 
 ed. Our colleges both furnish instruction and 
 also confer degrees. If we were to isolate 
 Trinity or St John's College, Cambridge, from the 
 University, and grant to it the power of conferring 
 degrees, we should have at once the model on 
 which all our early New England colleges were 
 constructed. Like the English colleges they 
 were also originally established with only a Presi- 
 dent and Tutors. To these subsequently Pro- 
 fessors were added ; but this addition, though a 
 material improvement, in no manner changed the 
 system. It has greatly added to our means of 
 instruction, but it has, in no respect, altered the 
 relations which the various parts of a university 
 sustain to each other. 
 
 The first colleges in this country were estab- 
 lished by graduates from Cambridge and Oxford, 
 and principally from the former. The more re- 
 cent American colleges, were again established by 
 graduates from the older ones, and thus, without 
 reflection as to the adaptedness of this form to pro- 
 mote the purposes of education, it became the inva- 
 riable model to which all our institutions have from 
 time to time been conformed. With this brief no- 
 tice of the history of our collegiate establishments, 
 I shall proceed to examine the several parts of 
 which they are composed, and the manner in 
 which they attempt to accomplish their design. 
 
22 
 
 1 . Of the Visitorial Power. 
 
 It is obvious that if a large amount of public 
 property, or of property which has been contribu- 
 ted or bequeathed by private charity for a public 
 purpose be intrusted to special agents for the ac- 
 complishment of that purpose, some individual or 
 corporation must exist, to whom these agents 
 must be held responsible for the due discharge of 
 their duties. In the case of a College, to this visito- 
 rial power properly belongs the oversight of the 
 property of the institution, the appointment and 
 removal of officers of instruction, the establish- 
 ment of laws for the government of the society, 
 and the general duty of ascertaining from time to 
 time whether the ends desired by the founder or 
 the State are accomplished. Sometimes a part of 
 these duties are, I by the terms of the foundation, 
 differently appropriated, and the members of the 
 college exercise, or are supposed to exercise, 
 visitorial powers over themselves. This is evi- 
 dently an abuse and is inconsistent with the well 
 being of the institution. In this case, the visitorial 
 power proper is more limited in its authority. It 
 cannot then originate statutes and can do nothing 
 more than see that the statutes, whatever they 
 may be, are enforced. This is commonly the 
 case with the English colleges. Every college 
 has its visitor appointed by the statutes of the 
 foundation, commonly the King, a Nobleman or 
 Bishop, and his duty, if he really have any, is 
 merely to see that the injunctions of the founder 
 
23 
 
 are obeyed. I need scarcely add that in this case 
 the authority is in general merely nominal. 
 
 In this country the visitorial power is almost 
 universally vested in a corporation commonly de- 
 nominated the Board of Trustees. Sometimes 
 there are two or more boards and the visitorial 
 power is divided betwen them. On this corpora- 
 tion, whether simple or complex, devolve the du- 
 ties to which I have alluded in a preceding para- 
 graph. They hold the property of the Institution, 
 appoint and remove all officers of instruction and 
 government, fix and alter their salaries, enact all 
 laws, and see that these laws are carried into 
 effect, or at least they assume the responsibility of 
 performing all these duties. This corporation is 
 created in the first instance by the Legislative act 
 which grants the charter to the college, and they 
 have the power, in most cases, of filling their own 
 vacancies. The office is commonly for life. 
 For the discharge of its duties these corporators 
 are responsible to no one. If they do well they 
 receive no praise, and if ill, no censure. They 
 make no report of their proceedings, for there is 
 no power to which they are amenable. They 
 are wholly independent of all authority. They 
 receive no payment for their services and are re- 
 munerated for their labors merely by the personal 
 consideration which may be supposed to attach to 
 their office. 
 
 I have said that the members of the Board of 
 Trustees, in an American college hold their offices 
 for life, and fill their own vacancies. This is 
 
24 
 
 generally the fact. In a few cases they are ap- 
 pointed for a term of years by the Legislatures of 
 the State by which the college is established, and 
 in some other cases they are composed in part of 
 the officers of government. These however are 
 the exceptions. The general rule is as I have 
 stated. 
 
 So far as I know, this corporation meets about 
 once a year, at the time of the annual commence- 
 ment. Their meeting commonly occupies but a 
 portion of a day. In this time, vacancies in the 
 Board of instruction, and in their own board are 
 filled, the salaries of instructors are voted, they 
 receive a general account of the condition of the 
 college, attend to a few items of miscellaneous 
 business, and their duties are discharged for the 
 year. Every thing else appertaining to the work- 
 ing of the system is carried on by the officers of 
 instruction. I ought to have added that all de- 
 grees are conferred by the Board of Trustees. 
 
 I have said, that occasionally, their exist two 
 boards instead of one. I may add that to one of 
 these not unfrequently, a more direct influence over 
 the course of instruction is confided. In such a 
 case, it sometimes happens that this board meets 
 oftener, and that to it are occasionally referred 
 matters of serious discipline, or proposed regula- 
 lations in the course of study. This is however 
 a modification of the form rather than of the fact. 
 The corporators do not consider it necessary in 
 this case more than in the other, to make them- 
 selves familiarly acquainted with the subject of 
 
25 
 
 education. They are generally men of high pro- , 
 fessional standing, deeply immersed in business ; 
 and, relying, in the main, upon the superior prac- 
 tical knowledge of the senior officer of college, 
 in general, yield an assent to his suggestions, and 
 assist him more by dividing with him the responsi- 
 bility than in any other manner. 
 
 2. Of the Executive Officers of Colleges. 
 
 These consist very generally of a President, 
 Professors, and Tutors. The first two offices 
 are held during good behavior, that is, unless 
 some serious disqualification be proved, for life. 
 The office of tutor is annual, and the incumbent 
 generally holds it for two or three years, for the 
 purpose, mainly, of perfecting himself in his clas- 
 sical and mathematical studies, previously to en- 
 tering upon the immediate preparation for his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 On these officers devolves the whole labor of 
 the instruction and government of the college. 
 The president, besides being the principal execu- 
 tive officer, is generally charged with some depart- 
 ment of instruction. To each professor is com- 
 mitted a particular department, although it is not 
 uncommon, when the necessities of the college 
 demand it, for one to take a share in the labors of 
 another. The instruction given by the tutors is 
 generally confined to the two lower classes. It is 
 however commonly understood, in theory at least, 
 that the professor is responsible for the instruction. 
 
26 
 
 in his department whether that instruction be given 
 by himself or by a junior officer. It is therefore 
 his duty to superintend the labors of the tutor and 
 give to him all the advantage of his superior 
 knowledge and experience. The care of the col- 
 legiate discipline is generally devolved upon the 
 whole body of the faculty. Sometimes however 
 the reverse is the case and a part of the officers 
 of instruction have no other duty than that of 
 teaching, while the discipline is confided to the 
 others, or to persons specially appointed for this 
 purpose. 
 
 These officers are all appointed by the corpora- 
 tion or Board of Trustees, or that body, by what 
 name soever it may be called, which exercises 
 visitorial power. Their salaries are, I believe, 
 generally the same during their continuance in 
 office, and are rarely if ever either increased or 
 diminished in consequence of the success or the in- 
 sufficiency of the incumbent. If the number of stu- 
 dents in college increases, the additional receipts 
 are devoted to the erection of buildings, the em- 
 ployment of other professors, or the reduction of 
 the price of tuition, and not to the augmentation 
 of the salaries of the present instructors. And as 
 these salaries are commonly so small that to re- 
 duce them would oblige all the officers to resign, if 
 the number of students becomes so far diminished 
 that even the present salary cannot be paid, an ap- 
 peal is at once made to the charity of the public 
 to sustain the institution. This appeal is common- 
 ly made on the ground of the necessity of educating 
 
27 
 
 young men for the office of the christian ministry ; 
 and it is commonly successful. A whole college 
 faculty is thus sometimes for a considerable period 
 supported in part by charity; their fees for tuition 
 being sufficient to pay but a portion of their salary. 
 
 The assignment of the duties of the different offi- 
 cers, is, I believe, generally either left to them- 
 selves ; or is adjusted by usage. No one has any su- 
 pervision over any other, except in the case of junior 
 officers already mentioned. The number of pu- 
 pils attendant upon a particular professor is never 
 influenced by his peculiar merits ; inasmuch as 
 every student is a candidate for a degree, and ev- 
 ery candidate for a degree must attend the instruc- 
 tions of every teacher. Here is of course the 
 smallest possible encouragement to individual ex- 
 ertion, and to elevated attainment since whether 
 the teacher do much or little, whether he be suc- 
 cessful or unsuccessful his emolument and the 
 number of his pupils will remain almost unchange- 
 ably the same. 
 
 It might be supposed that when the system has 
 thus removed all the ordinary stimulants to pro- 
 fessional effiart, it w^ould supply their place by in- 
 creased vigilance in the visitorial power. But 
 this I believe is never done. The connexion be- 
 tween the visitorial and executive branches of in- 
 struction is, in this respect, so far as I know, 
 almost a nullity. For all practical purposes it might 
 almost as well never exist. A Board of Trustees X 
 too frequently neither knows, nor provides itself 
 with the means of knowing any more about the 
 
28 
 
 internal working of the college, over whose desti- 
 nies they are chosen to preside than any other 
 men. 
 
 3. Let us now consider for how much the Col- 
 lege, thus constituted, assumes the responsibility. 
 
 The portion of education conducted in a col- 
 lege is that which intervenes between the elemen- 
 tary studies of the academy and the immediate 
 preparation for one of the three learned profes- 
 sions. In the academy are taught the several 
 branches of an ordinary English education with 
 such an acquaintance with the Latin and Greek 
 languages as the college may require as the condi- 
 tion for matriculation. The college therefore as- 
 sumes the responsibility of furnishing the knowl- 
 edge required at the present day, in order to qualify 
 a well educated man for the generous pursuit of 
 his profession. This at present is understood to 
 comprehend instruction beyond what has been ac- 
 quired in the academy, in Latin and Greek, in the 
 Mathematics to a considerable extent, in the vari- 
 ous branches of Natural Philosophy, in Rhetoric, 
 theoretical and practical, in various branches of 
 Natural Science, and in Moral and Intellectual Phi- 
 losophy together with their kindred sciences. — It 
 cannot be denied that all this knowledge is desira- 
 ble, and being desirable, the college undertakes to 
 furnish it. 
 
 A broad distinction here should also be observed 
 between the English and all other European Uni- 
 
 I 
 
29 
 
 versities. The English Institutions not only fur- 
 nish education, but also board and lodging for the 
 student ; hence assuming the responsibility of 
 moral guardianship over him. For this purpose 
 they were originally designed, and all their ar- 
 rangements both material and intellectual were 
 constituted accordingly. The form of an English 
 college is always a quadrangle, or hollow square. 
 To this square the entrance is by a single gateway, 
 at which a porter is always in attendance, until a 
 certain hour of the night. After the gate is closed, 
 all ingress and egress are intended to be impracti- 
 cable. If a student is out of his room at night, 
 or if he return to it at a late hour, it is of course 
 known to the officer to whom the student is res- 
 ponsible. Within the quadrangle all the students 
 and officers reside. The officers were at first all 
 monks, (for these were originally Catholic founda- 
 tions,) and even now all the Fellows are prohibited 
 from marrying. The students were in ancient 
 times all boys. Corporal punishment was some- 
 times inflicted so late, it is said, as the time of Mil- 
 ton ; and I have seen it stated that a law is now 
 found in the statute books of one of the universi- 
 ties, prohibiting the undergraduates from playing at 
 marbles in front of the Senate house. The stu- 
 dents and officers all eat at a commoji table ; hence 
 the origin of the word commons. In fact, the 
 whole establishment is constructed upon the plan 
 of a common family, all the members inhabiting 
 parts of the same edifice ; the undergraduat^es 
 being placed in the matter of education and disci- 
 pline wholly under the care of the seniors. 
 
30 
 
 The same plan as I have before intimated was 
 adopted in the foundation of American colleges, 
 but without the same means for carrying it into 
 effect. The officers, here as well as abroad, as- 
 sume the charge of the board and lodging, and of 
 course of the moral discipline of the student. 
 But our buildings are constructed with no regard 
 to such a supervision. The Professors ar^ com- 
 monly married men, residing at a distance from 
 college. The commons table is occupied fre- 
 quently by students alone ; and there is no body 
 of Fellows who are supposed to have a care over 
 the morals and discipline of the younger members 
 of the society. It is manifest that under these 
 circumstances this responsibility has been assumed 
 without sufficient reflection, and without the 
 means necessary to carry it into effect. 
 
 I may remark in passing, that this particular 
 feature of the English and American colleges is 
 altogether peculiar to themselves. It is not found 
 in any of the Universities on the continent, or in 
 Scotland. Every where else, the student who 
 enters upon an University course is supposed ca- 
 pable of self government. His parents provide 
 for him a suitable residence, and such supervision 
 as may be demanded by his age and circumstances, 
 and he visits the University only for the purposes 
 of instruction. In this manner the Institution is 
 responsible for nothing but his education proper. 
 The rest devolves upon himself or upon those to 
 whom, by his parents, he may have been commit- 
 ted. It will be perceived that this division of the 
 
31 
 
 responsibility must render the duties of an instruc- 
 tor in these two cases very dissimilar, and must 
 materially affect the whole system of the institu- 
 tion. The mode of its operation will be consid- 
 ered in another place. 
 
 In connexion with this circumstance another 
 may be mentioned. If a college is conducted on 
 the boarding school plan, it will of course be sup- 
 posed by parents that their sons when at college 
 are under parental supervision. Hence they are 
 sent to such institutions at a very early age. 
 Young persons may be admitted to our colleges at 
 the close of their fourteenth year, and many enter 
 at that early age. The requirements of our col- 
 leges are, however, so moderate, that a young man 
 who has commenced life with other expectations, 
 may, at a much more advanced age, change his 
 pursuits, and in a year or two be prepared for 
 admission to college. Thus, a considerable pro- 
 portion of every class have attained to twenty-five 
 or thirty years of age. Thirty-two or three is not 
 an uncommon age for a candidate for the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts. Here then are students of 
 very dissimilar ages associated together, pursuing 
 the same studies and subjected to the same rules. 
 It is obvious that the rules suitable for one party, 
 would be unsuitable for the other ; and yet the 
 necessity Is apparent of subjecting every member 
 of the same society, to the same regulations. 
 Such, in these respects, is our present system. 
 While it has many excellencies, it is clear that the 
 carrying it into practical working, must be attend- 
 
22 
 
 ed with greater and more complicated difficulties 
 than to many persons, would be apparent. 
 
 4. Of the Course of Study. 
 
 Supposing a faculty of instructors to have been 
 thus organized. Let us proceed to examine the 
 working of the system. At the commencement 
 of every collegiate year, a new class is formed 
 called the Freshmen class. The candidates are 
 admitted upon an examination conducted by the fac- 
 ulty. A room is assigned to each student within 
 the college buildings. In most instances two stu- 
 dents occupy the same room ; though in the 
 more recently erected college buildings, two dor- 
 mitories are attached to each sitting room. The 
 student is required to be in his room during study 
 hours, and always at night. Board is generally 
 furnished at the price of cost by the college. 
 The same charge is made to every pupil for tuition 
 and board and room rent. The other expenses 
 depend upon the student himself. 
 
 There are generally three daily recitations or 
 lectures to be attended by each student through- 
 out the whole course. A recitation or lecture 
 commonly occupies one hour, though this time 
 may in some colleges be abridged. When a class 
 is large, it is formed into two or three sections, 
 each pursuing the same studies, unless, as it some- 
 times happens, the division is made on the princi- 
 ple of scholarship, and then the better scholars are 
 tasked more severely. The upper classes are 
 
33 
 
 not so commonly divided, as their instruction 
 is to a greater extent carried on by means of 
 Lectures. 
 
 A year, in imitation of the English colleges, is 
 divided into three terms, and three vacations. 
 The vacations occupy about twelve or thirteen 
 weeks. During this time students and officers 
 are at liberty to employ their time as they please. 
 One of the vacations extends to the length of 
 six or eight weeks, and takes place either in the 
 summer or winter. The former is the proper 
 season for vacation, if the health of the faculty 
 and students, and the interests of education are 
 considered. The latter, however, is frequently 
 chosen, in order to accommodate those young 
 men who wish to be absent for the purpose of 
 teaching schools in the country. 
 
 Examinations are held at the close of each 
 term, or at the close of the year, or at some other 
 specified time, of all the students, in all the 
 studies to which they have attended. These 
 examinations are viva voce, and occupy in the aggre- 
 gate a considerable portion of time. As, however, 
 in this manner only one person can be examined 
 at a time, the scrutiny which falls upon any indi- 
 vidual can neither be very severe nor very long 
 continued. The examination is, I believe, always 
 restricted to the book which has been studied ; 
 the student not being considered responsible for 
 any thing that may not have been acquired in the 
 recitation room. 
 
 Examinations are, so far as I know, always 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 conducted by the instructor himself. It is of course 
 the special duty of the visitors to be present on 
 such occasions, but, so for as I know, this duty 
 is almost never discharged. Sometimes they 
 appoint a committee of examination, from their 
 own number, and when this has been made an 
 office of small emolument, I have known it to be 
 discharged with punctuality ; but never otherwise. 
 Sometimes, committees are appointed from the 
 community at large, consisting of persons who are 
 supposed to be interested in the cause of educa- 
 tion. This plan has sometimes succeeded, but 
 in other cases I have known it to fail altogether. 
 In but few districts of our country could it be 
 relied upon as at all an efficient aid to the labors 
 of instructors. 
 
 If, after examination, a student is found to be 
 deficient in the studies of his class, his deficiency is 
 sometimes publicly announced, sometimes he is re- 
 quired to make up this deficiency in vacation, and 
 in some institutions, he is not allowed to become a 
 candidate for a degree unless he have passed his 
 examinations in all the studies of the college 
 course. 
 
 The studies of each class occupy one year. 
 At the close of the year those students who have 
 incurred no disability, are advanced to the next 
 higher class. Those who have been thus ad- 
 vanced through all the four classes are candidates 
 for the degree of Bachelor of Arts ; and proceed 
 to this degree as a matter of course. 
 
 The studies of each College are appointed by 
 
35 
 
 its Corporation or Board of visitors. These may 
 differ in some unimportant points, yet are in all 
 the Northern colleges so nearly similar that students 
 in good standing in one institution find little diffi- 
 culty in being admitted to any other. In order to 
 illustrate the nature and amount of the studies 
 pursued in a New England college, I here abridge 
 from one of the catalogues published within the 
 present year, 1S41-2, the statutory course pre- 
 scribed for a candidate for the degree of A. B. 
 In Latin, select portions of Livy, Tacitus, Ho- 
 race, Cicero de Oratore, Juvenal ; — In Greek, 
 select portions of Xenophon's Anabasis, Me- 
 morabilia, the Iliad, some of the tragedies 
 *of Sophocles and Eschylus, with Demosthenes' 
 Oration for the Crown ; In Mathematics, Geom- 
 etry, plane and solid. Algebra, Trigonometry 
 plane and spherical, and its applications to 
 practical mathematics, and Analytical Geometry ; in 
 Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Pneumatics, Hy- 
 drostatics, Optics, and Astronomy ; — In natural 
 Science, Chemistry, Vegetable and Animal Phys- 
 iology, and Geology; — In Intellectual and Mora, 
 Science, Rhetoric, theoretical and practical, Logicl 
 Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Political Econ- 
 omy, Butler's Analogy, and the American Con- 
 stitution. Many of these studies, besides being 
 pursued by means of a text book, are illustrated by 
 full courses of lectures and ample experiments. 
 
 I have remarked that the degree of Bachelor 
 of Arts is conferred in course upon every pupil 
 who has, with a reasonable degree of success. 
 
pursued the studies of the college course. I 
 ought to mention that in some instances, of late, 
 the course has been divided. At the option of 
 the student, after the first year, the Modern 
 languages and History with some branches of 
 Physical Science may be substituted for the further 
 prosecution of the Latin and Greek languages 
 and the Mathematics ; and students pursuing this 
 latter course are equally entitled to a degree with 
 the others. 
 
 The degree of Master of Arts is conferred upon 
 every Bachelor of three years standing, who ap- 
 plies for it and pays the customary fee. After 
 his graduation, the connexion of the student with 
 the University or College ceases. Jn England,* 
 by paying a small annual fee, he continues a mem- 
 ber of the University, is entitled to a seat in the 
 scnatus academicus, and a vote upon all ques- 
 tions coming before that society, and if he choose, 
 may proceed regularly to the higher degrees in 
 the several faculties of Law, Medicine or Divin- 
 ity. With us, all degrees besides those of A. 
 M. are honorary, and are supposed to be confer- 
 red on account of high professional attainment. 
 Coileges confer these degrees on the graduates of 
 each other ; although, more properly, I suppose 
 they ought to restrict themselves to their own grad- 
 uates. These degrees are, as I have said, al- 
 ways conferred by the Board of Visitors, or as it 
 is called, the Corporation. 
 
 It has always I believe been found necessary, in 
 order to secure the amount of diligence desirable 
 
37 
 
 in a course of academical education, to provide a 
 system of accessory stimulants in addition to those 
 derived from the simple love of truth. The love 
 of pleasure is commonly in young persons, too 
 strong to be controlled by the love of knowledge, 
 or by the remote prospect of professional success. 
 Nay, even the principle of duty too frequently 
 requires to be strengthened by the hope of present 
 advantage ; and hence the kind and the degree of 
 stimulants, entering into a College course, deserves 
 a portion of our attention. In the Universities 
 of the continent, the difficulty of procuring situa- 
 tions of honor or emolument, and the impossibility 
 of being admitted to them without good Uni- 
 versity standing, provides all the stimulus which 
 the nature of the case requires. 
 
 In the Universities of England, the system of 
 stimulants is carried, as it seems to me, to an inju- 
 rious extent. The number of premiums, schol- 
 arships and exhibitions, each of considerable 
 pecuniary value, annually conferred upon success- 
 ful scholarship, is very great. Besides these there 
 are in the possession of each University, between 
 three and four hundred fellowships, worth, I think, 
 about two hundred pounds sterling per annum, 
 exclusive of residence, and these are awarded, 
 commonly by examination, to the most distin- 
 guished graduates. 
 
 The Fellows may hold their office for life, and 
 from them the tutors, and heads of colleges, and 
 the professors and other officers of the University 
 are always selected. In addition to these, about 
 
38 
 
 four hundred Church livings are in the gift of 
 each University, or of the several Colleges ; and 
 these are always bestowed upon the Fellows or 
 other distinguished members of the society. 
 
 All this is visible and tangible. But this 
 presents only a most imperfect conception of 
 the stimulating force applied to the student in 
 an English University. Oxford and Cambridge 
 form a part, and no unimportant part, of the social 
 system of Great Britain. To these institutions, 
 the youth of the higher classes, from every part 
 of the realm, resort to spend the latter period 
 of their pupilage. There the youthful aristoc- 
 racy meet and become acquainted with each 
 other. Thither are the eyes of parents from 
 every county in the Kingdom turned with fond 
 anxiety. Thither do the bar, the pulpit, and 
 the senate look for the young men who have 
 there made it known that nature has marked 
 them for distinction. And besides all this, there 
 was never so vast a people bound together by 
 so many and so indissoluble social ties as that of 
 Great Britian. The British Nation, or rather 
 the elite of that nation in a remarkable degree 
 form one great family. London, '' that mighty 
 heart," sends out its pulsations to every extrem- 
 ity of the empire, and is in turn receiving from 
 every extremity the hfe-blood which it vitalizes 
 and sends back again. Every man of distinction 
 is expected to report himself there during some 
 part of the ''season," and he must do it in order 
 as Sir Walter Scott says, "to keep himself 
 
39 
 
 abreast of society." Hence men of eminence 
 are much more generally known to each other 
 than in any other country that ever existed. And 
 hence the stimulating effect of social opinion is 
 stronger than in any other country upon earth. 
 
 Now the Universities live and move and have 
 their being in the very blaze of this social efful- 
 gence. Every distinguished man holds, and is 
 proud to hold through life, his connexion with his 
 College and his University. He hears with inter- 
 est of all that concerns its prosperity. He feels 
 a pride in every pupil of his College or University 
 vvho has distinguished himself. At the last 
 election of High Steward for the University of 
 Cambridge, gentlemen went from all parts of the 
 Kingdom, merely to give their vote, though public 
 cares obliged them to return the very next hour after 
 they had done it. An instance of this kind 
 came within ray own knowledge. Nor is this 
 an uncommon case, but the contrary. Such is 
 the interest which the educated classes in Eng- 
 land take in these cherished institutions of learning. 
 
 The University thus stands prominently ante 
 ora omniurru To obtain rank there, is to place 
 oneself immediately in a position in society ; it 
 shows to all, who in their several departments,- 
 need the aid of talent, that a man is worth taking 
 up. He becomes a marked man. Something is 
 expected of him and he feels that if he only jus- 
 tifies this expectation, his fortune is made. I was 
 passing one day through the courts of Westmin- 
 ster HalJ, with an intelligent and excellent friend, 
 
40 
 
 a member of parliament, and I was struck with 
 the fact, that, as he pointed out to me the judges 
 and barristers of distinction, he never failed among 
 the first items of information concerning them, to 
 mention their University standing. Now where a 
 position in society is a matter of so much impor- 
 tance as in England, it must at once be seen that 
 the means for obtaining such a position which the 
 Universities afford, must be of incalculable value. 
 And thus when the whole power of the social sys- 
 tem is brought to bear upon the University, we can 
 form some conception of the stimulus which it 
 exerts upon the student of high and generous im- 
 pulses. 
 
 Now to all this we have nothing that bears even 
 the shadow of a resemblance. There is in this 
 respect no point of analogy which by any law of 
 association, would lead us to think of the two 
 systems in connexion. Tn most of our colleges, 
 rank is assigned to the orators at commencement 
 according to scholarship ; but even this custom is 
 in danger of passing into desuetude. Some of 
 our institutions, awed by the hoarse growl of 
 popular discontent, have feared that a distinction 
 of this kind savored of aristocracy, and have 
 dropped it like a polluted thing. In but one of our 
 Colleges, to my knowledge, is there any system of 
 premiums for excellence in scholarship. Our com- 
 munity is divided into state sovereignties, and so- 
 ciety has here no centre, no heart like London, 
 nor can it ever have. A graduate leaves his Col- 
 lege when his course is completed, and his cod- 
 
41 
 
 nexion with it and his interest in it cease. We 
 have no centre to which talent of all kinds tends. 
 A class, as soon as it leaves the walls of College, 
 is scattered in a few days to every State and Ter- 
 ritory in the union. The College or University 
 forms no integral and necessary part of the social 
 system. It plods on its weary way solitary and in 
 darkness. 
 
 Ibant soli sub node per umbram. 
 
 The Colleges have but little connexion with 
 each other. The public, when strenuously ap- 
 pealed to, does not deny them money. They are 
 interested in education in general and are desirous 
 that the means of education should be afforded 
 to a large class of the community. But here the 
 interest ceases. After men have bestowed money, 
 they seem utterly indifferent as to the manner in 
 which it is to be employed. The educational 
 system has no necessary connexions with any thing 
 else. In no other country is the whole plan for 
 the instruction of the young so entirely dissevered 
 from connexion with the business of subsequent 
 life. At West Point Military Academy, the stand- 
 ing of a young man in his class, determines his 
 place in the army. Every one must see how 
 strong an impulse this connexion must give to 
 diligence and good behavior. Our Colleges suf- 
 fer greatly from the want of something of this 
 kind. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to present a plain view 
 of the collegiate system of the United States. 
 
42 
 
 To some readers it may seem tediously minute, to 
 others brief and unsatisfactory. I have, however, 
 thought it necessary to present an outline of this 
 character in order to the accomplishment of my 
 purpose. I wish to examine the system as it is, 
 and it seemed useless to undertake such an exam- 
 ination without reviewing briefly the nature of the 
 thing to be examined. 
 
 I shall now proceed to consider the different 
 parts of the system, point out the defects of each, 
 and offer a few suggestions in passing respecting 
 the mode of their improvement. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE EDUCA. 
 TION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH 
 IT MAY BE IMPROVED. 
 
 Sect. 1. Of the Visitorial Power. 
 
 The first question that here presents itself for 
 discussion is the following : — Whence arises the 
 necessity for the exercise of visitorial power 
 in a system of collegiate instruction. The answer 
 to this question will immediately- present itself, 
 when we have considered the difference between an 
 establishment for public, and one for private educa- 
 tion. A private school or academy is established by 
 the instructor on his own responsibility, and solely 
 for his own benefit. Like any other producer, 
 he asks what is the product most in demand in 
 the market, and having answered this question 
 satisfactorily to himself, he offers to furnish the 
 product to those who may desire and can pay 
 for it. If he and his employers agree, his 
 business prospers. If they differ, his business fails , 
 and he must either abandon or modify it. If his 
 
44 
 
 employers are satisfied, his end is accomplished. 
 If he be incompetent or unfaithful, the thing 
 speaks for itself, and in a very short time works 
 its own remedy. The public is in no manner 
 interested in the result. Beyond the parents who 
 pay the teacher, the success or failure of the 
 experiment is no man's concern. No immunities 
 are granted to the instructor. The public sup- 
 ports him by none of its funds, and therefore 
 the public has no right to interfere with his 
 affairs, or to inquire whether he manage them 
 well or ill. 
 
 In the case of a public institution, however, all 
 this either is or ought to be reversed. This will 
 appear from several considerations. 
 
 1 . A collegiate establishment is supported in 
 part by the public. Either the whole State, or 
 a large number of individuals in the State have 
 advanced a considerable amount of funds which 
 are devoted exclusively to the support of the in- 
 stitution. Not unfrequently legislative grants are 
 annually made for the same purpose. The 
 amount of capital thus invested in New England 
 alone, would amount, I presume, to more than a 
 million and a half of dollars. This sum having 
 been invested for a particular purpose, it is evi- 
 dent that the public has a right to visitorial power, 
 in order to ascertain whether the income arising 
 from it be appropriated according to its original 
 design. Boards of Trustees or Corporations, are 
 the agents to whom this power is committed, and 
 they are bound to exercise it according to the design 
 for which they were appointed. 
 
45 
 
 2. To these institutions is committed the pow- 
 er of conferring academical degrees, or publicly 
 recognised certificates of a certain amount of lit- 
 erary and scientific acquirement. These degrees 
 were formerly to a great degree, necessary to en- 
 trance upon the study of either of the learned 
 professions. The rules in these professions have 
 of late been in this respect, greatly relaxed, yet 
 the desire even at present manifested to obtain a 
 degree, shows whatever may be said to the contra- 
 ry, that this form of testimonial has not by any 
 means lost its value. It is always understood to 
 mean that a man has passed through that course of 
 liberal study, which, in the judgment of the com- 
 munity in which he lives, is necessary lo a well 
 educated man. It is obvious that such a testimo- 
 nial, if conferred with any thing like a strict regard 
 to merit and attainment, must be of material value 
 to any young man just entering upon the duties of 
 active life. It creates a presumption in his favor, 
 which is no contemptible advantage. It is the 
 guarantee to the public, without examination of 
 the candidate, that a certain portion of his life 
 has been devoted to liberal studies. And it is 
 manifest that the general literary and intellectual 
 character of a community must be greatly affected 
 by the degree of attainment which this testimonial 
 is made to represent. What would be the intel- 
 lectual condition of a community if nothing were 
 required of the candidate for a degree but a 
 knowledge of English Grammar and Geography ; 
 that is, if this amount of knowledge were all 
 
46 
 
 that was required of him who was recognised as a 
 liberally educated man. The exclusive power of 
 conferring this testimonial being thus given to col- 
 legiate institutions, it constitutes a second differ- 
 ence between them and private establishments for 
 the purpose of education. 
 
 Let us next observe the reason for which these 
 privileges are conferred. 
 
 I think it will be admitted without controversy, 
 that this capital is not invested and these privi- 
 leges are not conferred for the purpose of sup- 
 porting instructors in Colleges. They deserve 
 nothing more for laboring in this vocation than in 
 any other. A man can no more claim a salary 
 from the public as a matter of right, because he 
 teaches Greek and Geometry, than because he 
 teaches English Grammar and Arithmetic. A man 
 who teaches the former branches of education 
 may incidentally derive benefit from the arrange- 
 ments which the community may make with re- 
 gard to this subject, but this is not the reason for 
 which the community has made them. 
 
 Nor is it, I think, the object of the public, in 
 the encouragement which it gives to collegiate 
 education, simply to multiply the number of pro- 
 fessional men, whether Lawyers, Physicians, or 
 Divines. This is a matter which may very well 
 be left to individual preferences and individual 
 talents. In all intelligent communities, the supply 
 of professional labor will commonly be at least 
 equal to the demand for it. The demand, as in 
 other cases, creates the supply. If this mode of 
 
47 
 
 labor be lucrative, it will attract producers in suf- 
 cient numbers to meet the exigencies of society. 
 With respect to two at least of the professions, 
 there is more reason at all times to apprehend a 
 glut, than a scarcity. 
 
 3. Nor is it the object of these encouragements 
 to fix a general standard of acquisition, and then 
 induce as large a number as possible to attain to it. 
 For, in the first place, it would be difficult if not 
 impossible, to hit upon such a standard as would 
 meet the wants of those who desire a valuable 
 education, and be at the same time within reach 
 of all who wished to attain to it. And, besides, 
 the only method by which all who desired to 
 make this acquisition could be reached, would be 
 to give it away altogether. If this were done, it 
 would greatly increase the number of those who 
 would make this modicum of attainment, but to a 
 large portion of them the gift would be worse than 
 useless. It would unfit them for more active 
 pursuits, and would not enable them to procure a 
 sustenance by intellectual exertion. It would 
 produce a large amount of very moderately edu- 
 cated talent, without giving any real impulse to 
 the mental energy of the community. 
 
 4 . The object then for which I suppose these en- 
 couragements to a liberal education are given is, 
 to furnish means for the most perfect development 
 of the intellectual treasures of the country. In 
 order to the most perfect condition of any society, 
 it is necessary that, whenever unusual talent of any 
 kind exists, it be so cultivated as to be able to ac- 
 
48 
 
 complish the highest results of which it has been 
 made capable. This talent is very equally dis- 
 tributed among the various orders of society, least 
 of all is it limited to the rich. But the means 
 for the thorough and radical training of a human 
 mind are very expensive. They involve the cost 
 of libraries, philosophical apparatus, laboratories, 
 and a formidable array of teachers of distinguished 
 ability. Were these to be provided by individual 
 enterprise, the expense would be so great that 
 none but the rich would be educated and by far 
 the larger part of the talent of a country must per- 
 ish in useless obscurity. Hence arises the reason 
 why a large portion of these means, all that which 
 involves the outlay of considerable capital, should 
 be the property of the public, and why it should 
 be open to the use of all who might by the use of 
 it be rendered in any way benefactors to the whole. 
 The design therefore of university establishments, 
 so far as the public is concerned, is not to furnish 
 education to the poor or to the rich, not to give 
 away a modicum of Greek and Latin and Geom- 
 etry to every one who chooses to ask for it, but to 
 foster and cultivate the highest talent of the nation, 
 and raise the intellectual character of the whole, 
 by throwing the brightest light of science in the 
 path of those whom nature has qualified to lead. 
 
 From these remarks, we may easily learn the 
 nature of that responsibility which devolves upon 
 the Trustees or Corporation, or in general, upon 
 the visitorial power of a college. The visitors are 
 entrusted with all the capital appropriated by the 
 
49 
 
 public, or by individuals, for carrying forward this 
 specific purpose. They have the power of ap- 
 pointing and removing all college officers. They 
 alone confer degrees, and they determine the 
 course of study which shall be pursued by the 
 candidate for a degree. They have a general 
 power of visitation, and may, within legal and 
 constitutional limits, alter or amend or modify the 
 course of liberal education as they please, and 
 thus to a considerable extent, cause the intellect- 
 ual character of the community to be what they 
 wish. And when we consider that the Trustees of 
 the Colleges in New England alone are intrusted 
 with more than a million and a half dollars, ex- 
 pressly set apart for the accomplishment of this 
 purpose, and that they have the authority to direct 
 the energies of a large body of able and indus- 
 trious men whose lives are devoted to the labor of 
 instruction, I think it will at once appear that few 
 offices can be held of greater importance than 
 tlieirs ; and that, if our system of education and 
 general improvement fail, on them by far the 
 greater portion of the responsibility, and of course 
 the disgrace of that failure must rest. 
 
 Supposing these principles to be correct, let us 
 proceed briefly to- inquire what are the proper 
 qualifications for that office in which the visitorial 
 power resides. 
 
 1. The members should be capable of fulfilling 
 their duties. One of these duties is that of ap- 
 pointing teachers, another that of removing thern, 
 for incompetency, another that of prescribing the 
 4 
 
60 
 
 course of studies proper to be pursued. Now all 
 this supposes a considerable amount of knowl- 
 edge, and an acquaintance with the theory, if not 
 the practice of education. A school committee 
 is considered incompetent to its trust, if it cannot 
 decide correctly on the merits of the candidate 
 for the mastership of a district school. But it 
 is to be remembered that the school committee 
 are exactly visitors, and they sustain to the school 
 precisely the same relation that a Corporation 
 does to a College. Besides, the weight of char- 
 acter of such a board depends much upon its 
 known learning and ability. I remember to have 
 heard when a boy, of a Trustee of a College 
 who attended an examination in Greek, and for 
 two hours used his book upside down. Were 
 these instances frequent, but little respect would 
 be paid to the decisions of such a Corporation. 
 
 2. They should be from station and character 
 elevated above the reach of personal or collateral 
 motives. A College, in order to succeed well, 
 must be governed by its own principles. Its object 
 is the intellectual cultivaton of the community. So 
 long as this is made the governing principle of all 
 its arrangements, it will prosper ; for it will accom- 
 pHsh the object which men of sense desire to 
 see accomplished, and its works will speak for it. 
 Bu4 if it be made subservient to any other end, 
 it will and it ought to fail. Its Corporation should 
 therefore be men who are incapable of acting 
 from fear, favor, or affection. In all official acts, 
 they should look with equal eye upon the merits 
 
61 
 
 of the nearest relative, and upon those of a stranger. 
 They should know no parties either in politics or 
 religion ; and knowing nothing but the duties and 
 obligations of their office, should appoint and 
 remove solely and entirely for the good of the 
 institution of which they are the appointed gov- 
 ernors. 
 
 3. They should be few in number. That 
 corporations have no conscience I would by no 
 means assert, but I believe it will generally hold 
 true that their conscience is inversely as their 
 number. In large bodies responsibility is too 
 much divided. The overawing power of major- 
 ities is greater. Party spirit is more readily 
 excited and perpetuated, and intrigue is much 
 more successfully carried forward. A few men 
 who look each other directly in the face, and 
 every one of whom feels that he is personally 
 responsible to his equals for his acts and his 
 opinions, is a safer repository of an important trust 
 than a larger, and of course more miscellaneous 
 assembly. 
 
 4. They should be chosen for a term of time, 
 and not for life. A body chosen for life is pecu- 
 liarly liable to attacks of somnolency. Every 
 thing in such a society tends in a remarkable 
 degree to repose. Inefficient men, like Jeffer- 
 son's office holders, " rarely die and never resign." 
 Yet the period of office should not be so brief 
 as to interfere with the steadfastness of plan 
 and comprehensiveness of design. It would 
 probably be wise to construct a board in such a 
 
62 - 
 
 manner that a portion should go out of office 
 every two or three years. In this manner a 
 majority would always remain acquainted with 
 the affairs of the institution and able to resist 
 any premature and unadvised changes. It is no 
 small advantage to be able to drop an inefficient 
 member of any corporation. 
 
 5. They should, if possible, be elected by 
 some body out of themselves to whom they 
 should be responsible. This would do much to 
 secure efficiency and would leave opportunity 
 to apply suitable correctives whenever they 
 became necessary. If this cannot be done, they 
 should annually make a report of their doings ; 
 so that their acts may in some way come under 
 the supervision of the public. 
 
 I think it manifest that, in a collegiate system, 
 the visitorial power in order to discharge its 
 duties with efficiency, in other words, to perform 
 the functions for which it is created, should be 
 chosen for the reasons, and somewhat in the man- 
 ner that I have here indicated. When, however, 
 I speak of their efficiency, I do not suppose it 
 necessary that they should be always present, 
 superintending every act, and directing every 
 recitation. Much less do I intend that they 
 should usurp the powers and functions of the 
 faculty of instruction. These last have their own 
 proper office, and their peculiar responsibilities 
 and duties; and these are no more to be incroach- 
 ed upon by the board of visitors, than by any 
 one else, A system, in order to work well, 
 
53 
 
 must be pervaded in every member by vital 
 energy, each part performing in its own appro- 
 priate functions in harmony with the rest, but yet 
 not interfered with by them. It is the business 
 of the visitorial power so to construct the system, 
 so to arrange its various stimulants and so to 
 bring then to bear upon every department, that the 
 machine will go of itself without perpetual tink- 
 ering. The principles must be laid down and 
 the laws enacted, but these laws must be executed 
 by the faculty, and in the execution of these, 
 their appropriate duties, they must be free and 
 independent. But they should be free and inde- 
 pendent within law ; and should be so situated 
 that every man shall receive the result of his 
 own actions, whether that result be success or 
 failure. 
 
 Let us now examine the visitorial power as 
 it exists among us, and observe how far it 
 corresponds in its organization with the above 
 principles. 
 
 1 . Are the boards of colleges chosen simply 
 in view of their qualifications, for this peculiar 
 office ? Are they, in general capable of judging 
 of the qualifications of the persons whom they 
 appoint, or of their success after they have been 
 appointed. Are they specially interested in the 
 subject of education ? Do they, in consequence 
 of their appointment to this office, make the sub- 
 ject of education their particular study ? Do 
 they as a matter of duty devote any portion of 
 their time to this particular labor ? Are they 
 
64 
 
 chosen for political, or sectarian, or other reasons, 
 instead of those which have been here suggested ? 
 The answer to these questions it is not necessary 
 that I should suggest. Every one acquainted 
 with the practical working of our collegiate sys- 
 tem, can answer them as well as I. 
 
 By these remarks I hope it will not be supposed 
 that I am capable of the least feeling of disrespect 
 towards those of my fellow citizens who hold this 
 office. I know them to be frequently chosen from 
 the best men in the land ; and I believe that they 
 will be the last to take offence at any suggestions 
 which are neccessary to a full discussion of this 
 subject. I speak not of the men but of the sys- 
 tem. They have rarely if ever sought the places 
 which they occupy ; and have generally accepted 
 them at the wish of the friends of the institutions 
 which they represent. They were not expected 
 to perform any labor, and they have not supposed 
 that it was their duty to perform any. It is the 
 error not merely of boards of visitors, but of the 
 community. The importance of the subject has 
 been forgotten, and hence every one of its depart- 
 ments has suffered the effects of that forgetful- 
 ness. 
 
 2. With regard to personal honor, our Boards 
 are I believe as unexceptionable men as could any 
 where be found. They could not easily be in- 
 duced from personal considerations to deviate 
 from what they believe to be the course best adapt- 
 ed to secure the good of the institutions which 
 they govern. That when appointed by Legisla- 
 
55 
 
 tures they have not sometimes been influenced by 
 political considerations I would not be so ready 
 to affirm. The temptation to error in this respect 
 arises sometimes from differences in religious be- 
 lief. Almost every college in this country is either 
 originally, or by sliding from its primitive founda- 
 tion, under the control of some religious sect. 
 Hence it is in matters of this kind taken for granted 
 that the predominance of that sect, if not its ex- 
 clusive occupation of office, is at all events to be 
 maintained. This, according to the circumstances 
 of the case may be just or unjust, and the Board 
 may be as they frequently are, tied down by enact- 
 ments of the founder ; but from what principles 
 soever it may proceed, it of course limits compe- 
 tition ; and instead of placing an institution on its 
 proper basis that of a seminary of learning, it 
 places it in a complicated position in which a part 
 of its energies are wasted upon an extraneous 
 object. I do not say that this alliance of two ob- 
 jects is unnecessary or unwise. I am fully 
 aware of the aids which religion has extended to 
 learning. This union may prevent greater evils 
 than it engenders ; nay it may be that without the 
 aid of religious sects, our colleges would scarcely 
 have existed. I refer to the subject merely as a 
 matter for consideration and in order that it may 
 be suitably 'weighed. If it be a necessary evil 
 let us have no more of the evil than is necessary 
 to the attainment of good. 
 
 I say that our error arises, in part, from this 
 source. But it is only in part. The feeling 
 
66 
 
 which pervades us on this subject, I think, is, that 
 a college requires to be patronized, that it must be 
 recommended to tiie public by an array of names 
 of such distinguished persons as are understood to 
 countenance it. A list of such names at the head 
 of its catalogue of officers, is supposed to add 
 dignity to the institution, and at the same time to 
 offer a guaranty to parents that the institution will 
 be well conducted. It is understood that the du- 
 ties to be discharged, are merely nominal, and the 
 honor of the place is a full compensation for the 
 appearance of responsibility which it imposes. 
 It is given and received and held as a ceremony. 
 It stands between the public and the College ; I 
 had almost said, depriving both of the influence 
 which each would exert on the other. If it at- 
 tempt to carry out the wishes of the public, act- 
 ing with imperfect knowledge of the subject, it is 
 very liable to act wrong. If it act not at all, it 
 still serves as a shield to protect the faculty from 
 observation, and from the just result of negligence 
 in office. Said Jeremy Bentham on one occa- 
 sion, "• I do not like Boards, for," added he, 
 punning upon the word, " Boards are always 
 fences.''^ That they are liable to be, is evident. 
 That it need not to be so I believe. That it 
 would not be so if the gentlemen who hold this 
 office, were aware of the responsibility which 
 really rests upon them, I confidently trust. It is 
 for the honest purpose of setting before them this 
 responsibility, that these pages are written. They 
 ought not to allow themselves to be used by way 
 
67 
 
 of guaranty, unless they really act as guarantees. 
 If they allow a college to rely upon their names, 
 instead of relying upon its own ability and skill, 
 they will injure instead of benefit the cause of 
 Education. 
 
 3. The number of persons composing our 
 boards of trustees is various. It rarely if ever 
 falls below twelve, and sometimes rises as high as 
 fifty. Where there are two Boards composing the 
 Corporation, it is, I think, sometimes even larger 
 than the latter number. Where important res- 
 ponsibility is confided, and efficient action is con- 
 templated, I imagine that twelve is the greatest 
 number compatible with success. Our Boards 
 are, therefore, if I mistake not, by far too large. 
 
 4. The offices in our Boards of trustees are 
 held alm.ost universally for life. The vacances 
 which occur are filled by themselves. Hence they 
 are responsible to no one. Their proceedings 
 are rarely published. In such a case the large 
 majority having been in office from time immemo- 
 rial, the tendency is almost irresistable to allow 
 things to continue as they have been. In this 
 respect our organization is as defective as it can 
 be. 
 
 So far as we have proceeded, it will, I think, 
 appear evident that this part of our collegiate sys- 
 tem was originally formed without any reflection 
 upon the duties which these officers were called to 
 discharge and without any inquiry into the mode 
 in which the discharge of those duties could be 
 most successfully secured. The plan first adopt- 
 
58 
 
 ed has been somewhat servilely followed, and no 
 attention has as yet been directed to the question 
 how it might be changed for the better. And yet 
 I think it must be evident that upon this part of 
 the system more than any other, the improvement 
 and perfection of any plan of education mainly 
 depends. The reader who wishes to see this sub- 
 ject discussed with great learning and ability, will 
 find much to interest him in an article on Univer- 
 sity Patronage, in the Edinburgh Review, No. 1 1 9, 
 for April, 1834; I presume from the pen of Sir 
 William Hamilton, Professor of Logic, in Edin- 
 burgh University. 
 
 But perhaps it may be said that although the 
 organization of our system be defective, yet its 
 duties are faithfully performed. It may be the 
 case that the members of our collegiate boards in 
 New England are deeply impressed with the fact 
 that the intellectual character of the nation de- 
 pends for its elevation and development emphati- 
 cally upon themselves, and that under the full im- 
 pression of this solemn conviction they are seri- 
 ously engaged in discharging the duties of their 
 high vocation, that our higher seminaries owe that 
 portion of success which they have attained to the 
 efforts and labors of the visitorial power. I say 
 all this may be, but I think it is not commonly so 
 understood. I fear that the public does not ex- 
 pect, nor do the boards of trustees generally per- 
 form any labor of this kind. Nor are they great- 
 ly to blame for this. It arises from a want of 
 attention directed seriously to the.subject. 
 
59 
 
 Or again it may be said that our colleges are so 
 organized as to need no such supervision as that of 
 which I have spoken. I here say nothing of the 
 individual officers composing the College Faculties 
 in our country. More amiable, intelligent, and up- 
 right men could rarely be selected ; but I say that 
 the system of our colleges more than almost any 
 other, requires a special supervision. The offi- 
 cers are paid by salary, their remuneration in the 
 same college is generally equal, good or ill success 
 has but a small and indirect power to increase or 
 diminish it ; there is involved in the system no 
 appeal to pecuniary interest or love of distinction. 
 In this absence of all the usual stimulants to 
 effort, it is manifest that the motive arising from 
 the knowledge that their labors are seen and ap- 
 preciated by those in whom the community has 
 reposed this high trust, must be in the highest de- 
 gree salutary, if not absolutely indispenslble. — 
 There are no men in our country from whom im- 
 portant labor is expected whose position is so arti- 
 ficial and so at variance with the ordinary principles 
 of human action as the officers of American Col- 
 leges. Were they not honorable and virtuous 
 men, they would not accomplish the tenth part of 
 what they do. 
 
 If the above suggestions be well founded, it 
 will appear evident that one step, not to say the 
 very first step, in the improvement of American 
 Colleges will be the improved organization of the 
 Boards of Trustees or of Visitors. It seems to 
 me that either they have a real and most impor- 
 
60 
 
 tant duty to discharge, or else they have none at 
 all. If no duty really devolve upon thetn, then 
 the office which they hold had better be abolished, 
 since by standing between the Instructors and the 
 public, it diminishes the responsibility of teach- 
 ers, and is thus injurious to the system. If the 
 office which they hold be really and vitally impor- 
 tant, then it follows that those who hold it should 
 be so organized as to be able to discharge its du- 
 ties in the best possible manner. They should be 
 placed under such responsibilities as will best stim- 
 ulate them to labor in their appropriate office with 
 zeal, efficiency and honor. 
 
 To all this I well know that many objections 
 may be urged. For instance, it may be said that 
 Colleges commonly, are eleemosynary corpora- 
 tions, bound by the law of the founder, and that 
 the present arrangements are frequently a part of 
 that foundation. This is true, and so far as it is 
 true, I see not how amendment can take place, 
 except by intrusting the whole visitorial power to 
 a small and responsible committee. It may be 
 said again, that colleges are frequently endowed 
 by a sect for the particular purpose of educating 
 men for the gospel ministry, and that they would 
 not consent to throw open the whole system on 
 the simple grounds which I have mentioned. 
 Here again may be an insuperable obstacle. Or 
 again it may be said that the plan of appointing 
 Boards of Trustees for a term of years by Legis- 
 latures, has failed in consequence of the malign 
 influence of party politics. All this I admit. If 
 
61 
 
 politicians, like Virgil's harpies, will insist on de- 
 filing what they cannot eat, I know of no remedy 
 that can be anticipated from that source. Or 
 again, it may be said that there is not interest 
 enough on this subject in the community to carry 
 forward any change in this respect ; or that if the 
 theory of the system were changed, it would inev- 
 itably fail in practice, inasmuch as it would be im- 
 possible to find men competent to such a trial, or 
 that if found competent they would not give to it 
 the time and labor necessary for the successful 
 discharge of its duties. If this be so, I grant the 
 case to be hopeless. The other obstacles might 
 be surmounted. Where there is a will there is a 
 way. But for indifference on such a subject, 
 there is no cure ; and we must wait until the com- 
 munity attain to a higher sense of social and moral 
 obligation. 
 
 Supposing however, all this to be so, two con- 
 clusions will follow. If there exist not in the 
 community, sufficient energy and self denying 
 effort to carry forward institutions of learning, let 
 the blame be laid at the right door. Let not col- 
 leges be blamed for not doing what the apathy of 
 the community renders impossible to be done. 
 Instead of changing college courses, and trying 
 experiments on college discipline, let us strive to 
 arouse the nation to a conviction of the impor- 
 tance of the subject. Let us strive to cure the 
 ailing member. If the heart be diseased, let us 
 DOt persist in blistering the head. If the commu- 
 Dity will take an intelligent interest in the subject, 
 
62 
 
 all the other disorders will easily remedy them- 
 selves. 
 
 But, if we despair of this, and whether or not 
 it must be dispaired of, every man must judge for 
 himself; then another idea suggests itself; the 
 system must be changed. The present system 
 rests fundamentally on the power of visitation. 
 The board, as I have said, is really in the place 
 of the public. If it cannot be so constructed that 
 it shall be able to discharge its functions, then let it 
 be abolished, and let the rest of the system be so 
 constructed that this deficiency may be supplied in 
 some other manner. 
 
 Sect. 2. Of the Faculty^ or Officers of In- 
 struction. 
 
 In speaking of the nature of a private school, 
 in the preceding section, I have remarked that 
 such an establishment is simply an arrangement 
 between the parent and the instructor. The pa- 
 rent ascertains for himself the character of the 
 instructor, and acts accordingly. If he find that 
 he has been deceived, he seeks another teacher. 
 Any other instructor may be employed to perform 
 the service, no one having any prescriptive privi- 
 leges more than another. But, in the case of a 
 public institution, the circumstances are changed. 
 
6S 
 
 Here, the community have granted a special privi- 
 lege, that of conferring degrees, and this degree 
 can be obtained no where else but from a College 
 or University. Besides, the public having under- 
 taken to superintend such institutions, have en- 
 dowed them with the public money, and have 
 virtually promised to take care that this money be 
 well appropriated ; and that the education there 
 given shall be as perfect as the circumstances of 
 the community shall render practicable. 
 
 Such being the case, it is clearly necessary to 
 such a system, that the best teachers be appointed, 
 and that they he placed under such conditions that 
 all the motives to diligence and success which 
 ever impel men to their duty, shall be called 
 into action here. 
 
 And first, as to the mode of securing the best 
 men for instructors. In order to accomplish this 
 result, the appointing power should most properly 
 reside with the visitorial corporation. They have 
 no interest to subserve, and if they are able and 
 willing to perform their duty, all that is needful 
 can be done. But supposing this be the case, 
 how shall they ascertain the desert of the candi- 
 date. In Scotland, elections to professorships 
 depend I believe, mainly on family, or political, or 
 ecclesiastical interest. In England, Professors 
 are generally appointed by such persons as the 
 statutes of the founder may have ordained, and 
 their offices are generally bestowed as the reward 
 of successful scholarship, and are not considered 
 as a part of the working system of the university. 
 
64 
 
 In France, all appointments in most of the de- 
 partments, are made to depend upon a rigorous 
 and searching examination of the candidates by a 
 competent board ; and on the examination, which 
 the candidates conduct, of each other. In Ger- 
 many, as every graduate may obtain a license to 
 teach in the University, every one has an opportu- 
 nity of showing to the public his ability, and of 
 thus enforcing his claim to the honors of a vacant 
 chair. What mode should be adopted with us I 
 pretend not to decide, but that it should be such as 
 to secure the highest amount of talent and skill, is, 
 I think, evident. It should therefore be such as to 
 allow free competition, and it should involve such 
 tests as would inevitably secure the public against 
 imposition, and it should be conducted with per- 
 fect impartiality. Were professorships in all our 
 colleges open to competition, and were every can- 
 didate sure that the election would be decided 
 upon the merits of the case, the stimulus to intel- 
 lectual cultivation in this country would be greatly 
 increased, and the honor of an academical ap- 
 pointment immeasurably augmented. 
 
 Secondly. The tenure and the emoluments of 
 office should, as far as possible, be made to de- 
 pend upon the labor and the success of the incum- 
 bent. A small salary might properly be guaran- 
 teed to bin), and the rest should depend upon him- 
 self. This might be acccomplished by authorizing 
 him to receive payment for tickets. This would 
 however b^ of no avail if every person were 
 obhged to take a ticket who was a candidate for a 
 
65 
 
 degree, unless parallel professorships were appoint- 
 ed in case the regular incumbent failed to satisfy 
 just expectation. Were professors, appointed in 
 the manner I have suggested, ihey would be placed 
 under the same motives to labor as any other man. 
 Every one knowing that his emolument and dis- 
 tinction would be increased in proportion to his 
 exertion, would throw his whole soul into his 
 work, and the public would thus derive the benefit 
 of his full and concentrated mental effort. Were 
 this the case also, there would be no difficulty in 
 equalizing labor. Where labor brings its appro- 
 priate reward, it is rather sought after than de- 
 clined. Every man, in such a case, is desirous of 
 doing all in his power, and of doing it as well as 
 he can. In this most important point, therefore, 
 the necessity of visitation is to a considerable de- 
 gree removed, since the system is so arranged 
 that it will go of itself. 
 
 If these are the true principles cgi which officers 
 of instruction in colleges should be ai)pointed and 
 continued, our system in this country is defective 
 in several particulars. 
 
 The whole power theoretically rests with the 
 Corporation, or Board of visitors. This re- 
 quires no alteration. But let us inquire how are 
 appointments generally made ? Is any compe- 
 tition invited or even admitted ? Are the candi- 
 dates ever examined as to their fitness for the 
 office to be filled ? Are any means taken to enable 
 the board to secure the best man that the office 
 will command ? So far as I know, this is very 
 5 
 
66 
 
 imperfectly done, if it be done at all. In some 
 of our Southern Colleges I know that vacancies 
 are announced and candidates are invited to send 
 in their testimonials. Upon the strength of these 
 testimonials elections are generally made. But 
 no one who has any practical acquaintance with 
 the manner in which testimonials are commonly 
 procured, would rely upon them in any matter 
 of importance. The testimonials of a candidate, 
 if procured by himself, are too frequently evidence 
 of his perseverance, rather than of any other quali- 
 fication. 
 
 But it may be asked, if this method is not 
 adopted, how are appointments made. I answer, 
 generally, I believe, upon the recommendation of 
 the faculty. The Faculty have in theory no 
 voice in the appointment of their colleagues, but 
 inasmuch as the Board to which this duty spe- 
 cially appertains, is unable to devote to it the 
 attention which ^ts importance demands, they are 
 commonly obliged to perform an office which 
 does not properly belong to them. They gen- 
 erally from the persons within their knowledge 
 select one who in their opinion is best suited to 
 the office, and their wishes, are acquiesced in 
 by the Corporation. Thus they really nominate 
 and the corporation appoint. But since where 
 there is a good understanding between the parties, 
 their nomination is almost always confirmed, they 
 may be considered as in fact filling their own 
 vacancies, and making their own appointments. 
 
 As the system is at present constructed, this 
 
67 
 
 probably is the best method which could be de- 
 vised. When Boards having no deep interest 
 in education, and unaware of their responsibility, 
 make appointments without consuhing the officers 
 of instruction, they are liable to influence from 
 motives from without, either political, or secta- 
 rian, or personal. I have known instances 
 in which most unsuitable candidates have thus 
 been elected, and imposed for life upon a college 
 faculty. This is a case of most aggravated injus- 
 tice. It is not only a sacrifice of the great 
 interests of education to the most contemptible 
 selfishness, but it obliges a number of industrious 
 and worthy men to support an inefficient, nay 
 sometimes an injurious colleague, out of their own 
 honest earnings. 1 do not say, that any honor- 
 able men would be guilty of so great a wrong, if 
 they would pause to reflect upon the consequences 
 of their action ; but honorable men, when associ- 
 ated together, not unfrequently, by reason of 
 thoughtlessness, are responsible for wrongs which 
 individually ihey would be the last to justify. 
 
 But it must be evident that the officers of in- 
 struction themselves must be greatly embarrassed 
 in the selection of the candidate \\bomthey would 
 recommend for appointment. In the first place, the 
 situation is by no means easily to be filled. It re- 
 quires a great variety of qualifications, which do not 
 always ijieet in the same person. A teacher, in 
 addition to learning in his particular department, 
 must have ability to communicate knowledge. 
 He must also be a disciplinarian, competent to 
 
68 
 
 control his classes and excite them to diligence, 
 and prompt to bear his share of labor in main- 
 taining the good order of the College. Besides 
 this, as officers in an American college are so 
 intimately associated together, he must be a man 
 of amiable manners, and sufficiently well endowed 
 with radical good nature and spontaneous fellow 
 feeling. Now all these are not always associated 
 in the same person. 
 
 In the next place, the Faculty have but little 
 range of selection. They are restricted in a 
 considerable degree within the list of their own 
 graduates. Those who have left the institution 
 for several years are commonly deficient in the 
 habits and the peculiar learning necessary to the 
 successful discharge of professorial duty ; and 
 moreover, but few of them if well established in 
 an active profession could be induced to return 
 to the confinement of a college ; specially by 
 such remuneration for their labor as a college 
 would be able to offer. The tutorial office con- 
 stitutes a good school for professors, but then 
 it is held for a short time, and is commonly re- 
 linquished before the incumbent has attained to 
 sufficient age and reputation to render him a promi- 
 nent candidate for a professorship. In this 
 manner, the choice of a faculty, when a vacancy 
 in their number occurs, is commonly much re- 
 stricted as well as embarrassed. As no competition 
 is offered, they know not who will take office. As 
 no examination is ever sustained they have but 
 imperfect means of ascertaining either the present 
 
69 
 
 ability or the future promise of the candidate. 
 Hence they are obliged to feel about in the dark, 
 and after balancing the various points in the case, 
 recommend the person who, upon the whole, 
 promises to succeed the best. 
 
 But suppose now an officer appointed who is 
 well adapted to the discharge of his duties. The 
 emolument which h© receives is perhaps greater 
 than he would receive for the first few years of 
 his life in another profession, but vastly less than 
 he could ordinarily receive after he became well 
 established in it. It is by salary, and it is com- 
 monly unchanged during his whole continuance in 
 office. At first he labors assiduously to prepare 
 himself for success in his department. He in a 
 few years attains to all the knowledge which, 
 owing to the fixed nature of our system, he is able 
 to communicate. Beyond this his calling presents 
 to him no reason for advancing. Were he ever 
 so much distinguished, his compensation would be 
 no greater nor his field of scientific labor more 
 extensive. Beyond his own associates and his 
 small class of pupils, no one is aware either of his 
 labors or of their success. Under these circum- 
 stances one of these results will commonly ensue. 
 Either he will settle down into a willingness to be 
 satisfied with that to which he has already attained, 
 or he will devote himself to writing for the press, 
 and thus employ his most valuable energies, while 
 the College receives only the remainder, or else 
 he will engage in part in some secular or profes- 
 sional pursuit from the emolument of which he may 
 meet his increasing expenses. 
 
70 
 
 But suppose the case to be reversed. Sup- 
 pose that an unsuitable man has been appointed, 
 and that he is unable from want of talent, learning, 
 or industry to discharge with effect the duties of 
 his office. His instruction is known to be almost 
 worthless. He goes through his routine of duty 
 mechanically and every student in turn is obhged 
 to attend upon his appointed exercises. He per- 
 forms the least possible amount of labor consistent 
 with physical obedience to the law. The College 
 suffers. The mdolence originating in his depart- 
 ment either spreads into all the others, or must be 
 counteracted by the increased effort of his associ- 
 ates. In the mean time the number of students 
 in consequence of his inefficiency diminishes, and 
 the means of the institution are impaired. He is 
 not only supported by his associates, but they 
 are, by his failure rendered less able to support 
 either him or themselves. Suppose all this, and 
 what, I ask, is the remedy. 
 
 It may be said that the corporation has the 
 power of removal. True, but for what cause 
 except incompetency ? And who does not know 
 that this is one of the most difficult things to be 
 proved ? Where is the standard of competency, 
 and how is it to be applied in this case. That 
 he does not do his duty, every body knows. 
 That the College is suffering from his incompe- 
 tency, no one doubts. But is he so incompetent 
 that he must be dismissed, and his living taken 
 away .'' What can he do if he is removed ? 
 These are the questions tha,t would b,^ asked at 
 
71 
 
 once, instead of the question whether it be righu 
 for a man to get his living by wasting the time and 
 ruining the intellectual habits of all the young men 
 who are so unfortunate as to come under his 
 charge. 
 
 But suppose that a deficieny be palpable and 
 capable of proof sufficient to satisfy any rea- 
 sonable man. How is action in the premises to 
 be commenced. The matter belongs wholly to 
 the Corporation, or Board of visitors. It is essen- 
 tially a part of the visitorial power and one of 
 the special purposes for which that power was 
 created. But, in the first place, this Board as I 
 have said never attends the recitations, lectures 
 or examinations ; or, if they do, they never attend 
 for this purpose. They are not always quali- 
 fied to judge. And again who is to be the pros- 
 ecutor. In such a case men almost always 
 throw the burden of an unpleasent duty upon 
 each other, that is, throw it off entirely. Here 
 then but little relief is to be expected. The 
 only remaining hope is in the Faculty. But is it 
 their duty ? Ought it to be in honor or consis- 
 tency devolved upon them ? Should they be 
 obliged to make known the deficiencies of each 
 other ? Suppose that urged by conscience and ne- 
 cessity they represent the case to the corporation, 
 at once there will be raised the cry of persecu- 
 tion ; and those who yesterday complained most 
 loudly of the deficiency in instruction, will, to 
 day, be loudest in the denunciation of the only- 
 means by which it can be remedied. 
 
72 
 
 But suppose all this to have been overcome, 
 and the case to be honestly brought before the 
 visitorial power. The incumbent is incompetent. 
 But he was appointed without examination. Is 
 he more incompetent than he was when appoint- 
 ed ? His sins are sins of omission, how shall these 
 be proved. If then he be a man destitute of honor 
 and public spirit and determined to hold fast to 
 the emoluments of an ofilce while incompetent to 
 the discharge of its duties, it may be very difficult 
 to relieve the institution of the incubus. In 
 the face of all these obstacles, is it remarkable if a 
 Faculty bear for life an infliction of this sort, and 
 see their labors rendered comparatively useless, 
 and the young men committed to their charge 
 wasting a large portion of their time, and look on 
 in hopeless despondency because they know of no 
 practicable method of relief. I have myself known 
 of a case in which a gentleman utterly unfit for 
 his office was appointed to preside over a very 
 important department of college education ; for 
 more than twenty years he kept that department 
 down under the intolerable pressure of his own 
 inefficiency ; and thus more than twenty classes of 
 young men were sent out into the world without 
 any adequate instruction in one branch of their 
 education ; w-ithout the mental discipline which 
 this portion of study ought to have afforded ; by 
 so much unfitted for the study of a profession, and 
 prepared only to depress the standard of educa- 
 tion whenever they were employed as instructors. 
 I think that any sober man will agree with me that 
 
73 
 
 this is a serious evil. But, I ask, where in our 
 present collegiate system, shall we find the reme- 
 dy ? And is it not time that a remedy be pro- 
 vided ? 
 
 How often cases of this kind occur, it is not for 
 me to say. In showing that they are liable to 
 occur, I have shown the defect of the system. 
 Its tendency is to offer a bounty for indolence and 
 incapacity, for it rewards them as well as industry 
 and talent. Things always follow their tendencies. 
 Hence, in so far as the system has any effect, that 
 effect is to depress the energy of the laborious by 
 obliging them to bear a gratuitous and unreasonable 
 burden. Nor is this by any means the worst point 
 of the case. Its tendency is to keep down the 
 standard of education, and expose the best por- 
 tion of a young man's life to shameful and ruinous 
 waste. 
 
 But it may be asked, have not our colleges on 
 the whole, done well for the country, and are they 
 not deserving of the public patronage. I answer 
 most sincerely in the affirmative. They are in 
 the main well officered ; and the incumbents are 
 generally able and industrious men. But what 
 they accomplish is done not in any manner through 
 the co-operation of the system, but in defiance of 
 it. If they do so much when laboring at every 
 disadvantage, what might they not accomplish 
 were their energies uncramped, and a free field of 
 professional enterprise opened before them. The 
 fact is that in this country every one must labor, 
 or be supposed to labor. The whole College Fac- 
 
74 
 
 uliy as a body must perform the labor necessary to 
 a respectable discharge of their duties, or the 
 whole system would go down. What one will 
 not or cannot do, must some how or other be done 
 by some one else ; and besides this, there is, with 
 every high minded and public spirited man, a love 
 for the labor in which he is engaged, and a willing- 
 ness to make sacrifices of personal ease, and even 
 of personal reputation, to support the character of 
 an institution of which he forms a part. These 
 high qualtities have conspired in no small degree 
 to maintain our colleges at the point of respecta- 
 bility to which they have attained. I can with the 
 most delightful recollections bear witness to their 
 existence ; and I do from my soul mourn that they 
 are obliged to be exerted in so unfavorable a 
 field and under so many and almost intolerable 
 discouragements. These however are as we shall 
 see but a part of the difficulties under which the 
 Instructors in American colleges are obliged to 
 labor. 
 
 From what has been advanced I think it will be 
 sufficiently obvious that our system in these re- 
 spects is susceptible of important improvement. 
 It requires to be so constructed that every man 
 shall receive the result of his own actions, and not 
 of the actions of another. In order to accom- 
 plish this one of two things as it seems to me must 
 be done, either the appointment to office must 
 be made by examination, and be subject to strict 
 and impartial supervision, including removal from 
 office at the judgment of the Board of Visitors ; 
 
75 
 
 or else every officer must be so situated that his 
 emolument will in the nature of the case depend 
 upon his desert, so that if his instruction be 
 worthless, no one will be obliged to pay him for it, 
 and if it be valuable, it may attract pupils accord- 
 ing to its value. In this manner, a remedy will 
 be applied by the system itself, and thus the ma- 
 chine will, so far as this point is concerned, go 
 alone. Suppose that this plan had been adopted 
 from the first commencement of our literary insti- 
 tutions, no one can conceive the change which 
 would have been effected in their power. A pro- 
 fessional career would have been opened to every 
 collegiate instructor as wide, and as far reaching as 
 to men in every other department of intellectual 
 exertion. Talent of the highest rank would have 
 been attracted to our colleges. Emulation of the 
 loftiest character would have been awakened. In- 
 stead of a great number of , small and ill supported 
 Colleges, we should have had a small number of 
 real and efficient Universities. 1 believe that this 
 change alone would have increased the learning 
 and intellectual vigor of the nation an hundred 
 fold. 
 
76 
 
 Sect. 3. Of Collegiate Education. 
 
 We have considered the collegiate system, 
 so far as it concerns the visitorial and execu- 
 tive branches. This presents us with a view 
 of the working powers of the machine. We 
 next proceed to consider what it undertakes to ac- 
 complish. We shall comprise this under two 
 heads, Education and Discipline. Our business, 
 at present, is with Education proper. 
 
 I have already remarked, that in imitation of 
 the English Universities, our collegiate course 
 was, at the beginning, fixed at a period of four 
 years. The studies of each class occupy one 
 year. There are, therefore, in every College, 
 four classes ; and a regular student passes in suc- 
 cession through them all. The studies of each 
 year are fixed by statute. Every student is sup- 
 posed to be a candidate for a degree, and of course 
 every one passes through the whole course. This 
 period of study is designed to occupy the time 
 which intervenes between leaving the academy 
 and entering upon a profession, and is supposed 
 to be sufiicient to obtain the knowledge which 
 society requires in a well educated man. It is, I 
 suppose, the most important period in the pre- 
 paratory portion of a young man's life. 
 
 If, as I have said, the design of public semi- 
 naries is specially to develope, and cultivate to the 
 highest perfection, the intellectual power of the 
 nation, the education given during this period 
 
77 
 
 should be of the very highest order. The 
 knowledge communicated should be of the greatest 
 value ; the intellectual discipline prescribed should 
 be rigid, vigorous and noble ; and all the powers, 
 whether of acquisition, investigation, discovery, 
 or communication, should be thoroughly and gen- 
 erously fostered. A system will accomplish the 
 purposes for which it was intended, in proportion 
 as it succeeds in producing these results. On this 
 subject, however, I need not enlarge. The ne- 
 cessity of thorough collegiate education has been 
 so often and so ably set forth by others, that I 
 may proceed at once to the more practical details 
 of our system. 
 
 The knowledge required by the candidate, for 
 entrance, in the early history of our Colleges, was 
 not, so far as I have been able to discover, ma- 
 terially different from that required now. I how- 
 ever here refer specially to those Colleges which 
 were founded during the Colonial period of this 
 country. There was then demanded as the con- 
 dition for entrance, a considerable acquaintance 
 with Greek and Latin, together with the usual 
 amount of knowledge derived from the English 
 language. The number of books required, was 
 undoubtedly less ; but the knowledge of the 
 languages was, I think, in general more critical 
 than that at present given in most of our prepara- 
 tory academies. I presume that the knowledge 
 with which President Edwards and the young men 
 of his day entered Yale or Harvard Colleges, 
 would have admitted them, without reproach, into 
 most of our Colleges at the present day. 
 
78 
 
 The fact T believe to be this. During our Colonial 
 history, a large portion of our teachers were di- 
 rectly from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, 
 and many of our young men who entered the 
 learned professions here, completed their educa- 
 tion abroad. The consequence was that the tone 
 of classical education was elevated, and our acad- 
 emies were well sustained. After the Revolution, 
 this communication with the older country, except 
 formatters of business, ceased. Men were ex- 
 tensively engaged in the accumulation of wealth 
 and the character of education deteriorated, and after 
 some years had passed, it had sunk lamentably 
 low. It has since improved, but I doubt whether 
 in many points it has yet surpassed its ante-revo- 
 lutionary standing. 
 
 So much for entrance to our Colleges at the 
 time of their foundation. The Colleges them- 
 selves adopted in substance the same course of 
 education as the institutions which they had taken 
 for their models. This course consisted of the 
 study of Latin, Greek and Mathematics, Logic, 
 Elementary Theology, and a small amount of Nat- 
 ural Philosophy. There were no means afforded 
 for gratuitous instruction. Every man was left to 
 provide for himself; and hence the effort to obtain 
 an education rendered an education doubly valua- 
 ble. Four years, as now, was the period allotted 
 to the course. The number of subjects of study 
 was limited. A larger opportunity was allowed 
 for the thorough research and original investiga- 
 tion, and if I do not mistake, the effect of the 
 
79 
 
 Colleges upon the community was powerful and 
 beneficial. 
 
 The question here forces itself upon us, are 
 our Colleges at the present day, better or worse 
 instruments for effecting mental cultivation, than 
 they were before the Revolution ? The circum- 
 stances of the community are so changed, that 
 probably it would be difficult to form a correct opin- 
 ion upon the subject. Yet if we suppose that the ob- 
 ject of such institutions is to cultivate and develope 
 to the highest perfection the best minds of the coun- 
 try, and if we estimate their success by the degree 
 in which this result has been attained, and com- 
 pare this portion of the public mind before and 
 during the revolution with the same portion now, 
 no one can contemplate the earlier literary institu- 
 tions of this country without the most profound 
 respect. Compare the Pulpit for fifty years be- 
 fore the revolution, as it appears in the press, 
 with the pulpit fifty years after that event. Look 
 at the Bar in all the colonies, read the speeches 
 and discussions to which the revolutionary struggle 
 gave occasiori^ ; observe the ripe learning, the 
 acuteness, the sagacity, the knowledge of law, of 
 the philosophy of human rights, which is manifest 
 on every page, and compare these with the dis- 
 cussions on many similar topics as they are found 
 in the various conventions for constitution-making, 
 with which our age abounds, and I must say that 
 our fathers, if they blush, must blush for their de- 
 scendents. Chatham declared that nothing in 
 Thucydides was to be compared to our revolu- 
 
80 
 
 tionary papers. ''There were giants in those 
 days." In looking back upon them, we sympa- 
 thise with Nestor, who always referred to the pe- 
 riod, three generations ago, when he was the friend 
 and coadjutor of heroes and demigods. If these 
 men are a true exponent of the character of the 
 instruction given at our older Colleges in the first 
 period of their existence, these institutions have 
 surely no reason to be ashamed of their alumni. 
 
 But to return from this discussion. We see 
 that the College course, at the period of their first 
 establishment, commenced substantially where it 
 commences now. The same time, four years, 
 has been allotted to it in both cases. But, let us ob- 
 serve the different amount of knowledge for which 
 in the two cases the college system is held respon- 
 sible. The Mathematical course has been greatly 
 extended. The same is true of Natural Philoso- 
 phy in all its branches. Optics has become near- 
 ly a distinct science. Chemistry, Geology, Po- 
 litical Economy have since that time, almost be- 
 gun to exist. Intellectual Philosophy and Rhet- 
 oric have been either added to the course, or else 
 have been greatly enlarged, and the same may be 
 said of Physiology. All these additions have 
 been made to the studies required of him who is a 
 candidate for a degree, and all these must be pur- 
 sued by every student. Besides all this, the num- 
 ber of books prescribed in the course of Latin 
 and Greek, is very much increased. The amount 
 which the college is required to teach, is doubled, 
 if not trebled, but the time in which all this is to 
 be done, remains to a day just as it was before. 
 
81 
 
 The principles which have led to this result^ 
 seem to be something like the following. It has 
 been assumed that every young man who goes to 
 College, must take a degree ; that he who takes a 
 degree, must be acquainted with all branches of 
 knowledge not strictly professional, and that he 
 must acquire all this knowledge in the four years 
 subsequent to his leaving the Academy. The 
 least reflection will convince every well informed 
 man, that this demand is made under conditions 
 that render the demand itself absurd. Johnson, 
 somewhere, when speaking of Milton's skill in in- 
 struction, remarks, that let the capacity of the 
 teacher be what it may, his ability to teach, must 
 be limited by tho capacity of the pupil to learn. 
 Does any one believe it to be in the power of 
 young men to acquire all this knowledge, in such 
 a manner as to insure valuable mental discipline, 
 within this time. In conversing with English and 
 Scottish instructors on this subject, when I stated 
 the amount and the number of studies pursued by 
 the students in American Colleges, I received the 
 uniform and spontaneous reply, " The thing is 
 impossible. You cannot do that work in that 
 lime." I think that every reflecting person will 
 acknowledge that they were in the right. 
 
 Let us now consider briefly the effect which 
 must be produced by crowding into the space of 
 four years an amount of study so great that it can- 
 not be thoroughly accomplished. And first, let 
 us observe its effect upon the pupil. The object 
 of education is to communicate knowledge and to 
 6 
 
82 
 
 confer discipline. But time enters as an element 
 into both of these results. A man cannot acquire 
 knowledge by cursory reading, or by rapid unre- 
 flecting mental action. In order to fix our con- 
 ceptions in the recollection, they must be thor- 
 oughly mastered, deliberately reflected upon, and 
 surveyed in all their bearings and relations. Nor 
 is this all, they must be reviewed and re-examined, 
 until they are safely lodged in the memory ; nor 
 until this is done can they assume the name of 
 knowledge. And yet more, the mind, if it would 
 acquire discipline must investigate subjects for 
 itself, compare the results arrived at by other 
 minds, weigh and balance contradictory reasonings, 
 and, on all points of speculative importance, put 
 forth original action and come to its own mature 
 and well wrought decision. Thus only can it be 
 prepared for the labors of active life, where, left 
 alone, it must, on every subject before it, decide 
 in the main for itself. Now every one sees that 
 this is not the work of hurry or thoughtlessness. 
 It is very different from merely getting a lesson, and 
 requires time and deliberation, and vigorous labor. 
 In estimating the amount of study proper for 
 a collegiate course it is to be remarked that 
 several of the quantities are fixed. We have 
 ourselves limited the time to four years. Again, 
 the ability of the students is fixed. Young men 
 at this age, or men at any age, are able to do a 
 certain amount and no more. Again, the diligence 
 of pupils in general is limited to a certain degree; 
 that is, there is an average amount of it, which, 
 
83 
 
 practically, cannot be exceeded. Now if we 
 increase our demand upon the pupil beyond the 
 limit which nature has established as the utmost 
 bound of possibility, the result must be that some 
 or all his studies must be neglected. If, for 
 instance, students, during the early history of our 
 Colleges, were judiciously occupied upon the 
 then existing course, and we have increased three- 
 fold the amount to be studied, it follows that 
 the work at present must be more imperfectly 
 done ; the knowledge must be more superficial, 
 and the discipline less exact. Habits of study 
 deteriorate. Radical and original thought be- 
 comes more and more impossible. The stu- 
 dent acquires the habit of going rapidly over 
 the text book with less and less thought, and a 
 tendency is created to the cultivation of the 
 passive power of reception instead of the active 
 power of originality ; he thus knows a little 
 of every thing, but knows nothing well. No- 
 thing tends so strongly to arrogance as surperfi- 
 cial knowledge. Nothing so leads a man to rash 
 judgments and contempt of the lessons of expe- 
 rience, as the idea that he has compassed the 
 whole circle of human knowledge by the time 
 he has become of age. Solomon had observed 
 a good while ago that there was more hope 
 of a fool than of a man wise in his own conceit. 
 Whether the public is at present suffering from 
 the too rapid propagation of this form of folly, 
 I leave it to others to decide. 
 
 Suppose the four years of a College residence 
 
84 
 
 to be so crowded with a multiplicity of objects 
 of pursuit that nothing can be studied thoroughly, 
 and the effect upon officers of instruction must 
 be apparent. Suppose the time to be all occupied 
 by the existing course. You add to it another 
 study, and the time allotted to all the rest must 
 be contracted to make room for it. You add 
 another, the same result takes place ; and so 
 onward as far as you choose to proceed. In the 
 meantime the Teacher must curtail his amount 
 of instruction within the limits of the lime allot- 
 ted to him, and must either confine himself more 
 and more to the inculcation of elements, or else 
 must go over the whole ground more and more 
 superficially. Hence the knowledge which the 
 discharge of his duties requires becomes less and 
 less, and the stimulus to his own improvement 
 becomes more and more inoperative. He is 
 very soon able to acquire all the knowledge 
 which he can by any possibility communicate, 
 and is it wonderful if he be tempted to stop at 
 this limit ? If he acquire more knowledge he 
 cannot use it in his profession. Nay, if he ac- 
 quire more he must use it extra-professlonally, 
 his interests become absorbed in pursuits extra- 
 neous to the College, and thus, while he is 
 improving himself, and enlarging the domain of 
 science, he becomes really a less valuable College 
 officer. 
 
 And hence, under the present system, the 
 multiplication of professorships in a College by 
 endowment or otherwise is, beyond a limited 
 
85 
 
 amount, an ambiguous benefit. All the knowledge 
 communicated must be communicated in four 
 years. A small number of able officers will 
 teach all that a class of young men can well 
 learn in this lime, if the labor is well divided. 
 After this, every one that you add only renders 
 the labor of the others less effectual and really 
 less valuable. It is manifest that we might under 
 these circumstances multiply officers until the 
 whole system would be a perfect nuisance, a 
 superficial going over a multitude of subjects 
 without the acquisition either of knowledge or 
 mental discipline. And hence it is, that, with 
 us, there seems so little difference between a 
 young College, with three or four professors and an 
 old one, with ten or twelve. Nay, it not unfre- 
 quently happens, that the institution the worst 
 appointed in this respect, really confers the sound- 
 est and most valuable education. It could not 
 from the nature of the case be otherwise. 
 
 The course thus pursued leads almost of 
 .necessity to the employment of textbooks. This 
 mode of teaching, as I am well aware, possesses 
 pecuhar advantages. If the text book be well 
 prepared and present a well arranged outline of 
 the science on which it treats ; and if it be 
 thoroughly mastered by the pupil, he cannot fail 
 of acquiring a comprehensive view of the subject, 
 and of thus forming a nucleus to which his subse- 
 quent knowledge will readily attach itself. It 
 must not however be concealed that this mode 
 of study may be carried too far. It will be car* 
 
86 
 
 ried too far if it interfere with the exercise of the 
 original powers of the pupil and of the instructor. 
 Suppose, for instance, that the student attend 
 three recitations a day of one hour each; and that 
 three hours are allotted to each study. Two 
 hours will be occupied in preparation for recita- 
 tion, and the remaining hour, which is spent with 
 the instructor, must be consumed entirely in reci- 
 tation and examination. There will therefore be 
 but little time left to the student for reading, 
 reflection, writing or original investigation. He 
 will acquire the doctrines of the text book and 
 nothing more, without having been enabled to 
 pursue them out to their results, or compare them 
 with the views of other writers on the same sub- 
 ject. And moreover, a corresponding effect is 
 produced upon the instructor. This mode of 
 study allows him no time for forming or unfold- 
 ing his own views. He is from the necessity of 
 the case limited to the inculcation of the doctrines 
 of the text book. However profound may be 
 his knowledge he has no means of unfolding it.. 
 Hence his motives to increased intellectual exer- 
 tion are wholly aside from his profession. And 
 hence all teachers are reduced to very nearly the 
 same level. If the professor have mastered his 
 text book and be able to inculcate it upon his 
 pupils, it is all that is required ; nay it is all that 
 the system allows. This is evidently a serious 
 disadvantage to an instructor of ability and enter- 
 prize, and its efl^ect upon the cause of education 
 cannot but be disastrous. That text books, or 
 
87 
 
 abstracts of a course of instruction should not be 
 used, I by no means assert ; all I affirm is, that 
 they should not be so used as to supercede the 
 necessity of the vigorous and original action 
 of the mind of the instructor upon the mind of the 
 pupil. 
 
 And, once more, this superficial education, of 
 necessity, propagates itself. The imperfectly 
 and superficially educated man is placed at the 
 head of a preparatory school. He communicates 
 the same sort of knowledge which he receives, 
 and in the same manner. He was never taught 
 to study, and he never teaches his pupils to study. 
 He sends to College a second and inferior edition 
 of the type of intellectual character which he him- 
 self received there. The candidates for entrance, 
 are found more and more imperfectly prepared, 
 and thus the standard of College education is 
 year after year more and more depressed. The 
 College cannot resist the tendencies which it has 
 itself created. The same results exhibit them- 
 selves in the other professions. He who in Col- 
 lege has formed the habit of superficial thought, 
 carries it to the Pulpit, the Bar, and the Senate. 
 Having acquired all the science, in four years, like 
 Napoleon in his exaltation, he thinks that nothing is 
 impossible. He believes that every thing can be 
 comprehended at a glance, and that -the starlight 
 wisdom of the past must fade away before the 
 meridian efiulgence of his own far-seeing intellect. 
 And not unfrequently the College itself comes in 
 for a share of his illuminations. He despises all 
 
88 
 
 exact and ancient knowledge, because it is behind 
 the age. He would have nothing taught but what 
 is useful, and he believes nothing to be useful 
 which is not popular. It is too commonly popu- 
 lar to pull down whatever is established, and thus 
 not unfrequently, the very men whom the College 
 has educated, as well as the system would allow, 
 are the foremost to join in the cry against every 
 thing which is designed to elevate the intellect- 
 ual character, and cultivate the public senti- 
 ment of the nation. 
 
 Thus much of the four years course as a con- 
 stituent element of our collegiate system. It 
 will be necessary before closing this part of the 
 subject, to refer to one or two incidental topics- 
 And, first, of stimulants. 
 
 I have remarked already on the excessive stim- 
 ulants in the English Universities. In these In- 
 stitutions they occupy so prominent a place, as to 
 render the labor of Collegiate and University in- 
 struction comparatively unnecessary. The Uni- 
 versity furnishes residence, books, all the appli- 
 ances for study, and offers such rewards as are of 
 themselves sufficient, in a large number of instan- 
 ces, to secure all the diligence that could be de- 
 sired. A large portion of the instruction at pres- 
 ent, is performed, not by officers appointed by the 
 University or the Colleges, but by private tutors 
 provided by the student himself. The pupil en- 
 ters the University, becomes a member of a Col- 
 lege, and frequently employs his own instructor at 
 his own expense. If his tutor be competent, the 
 
89 
 
 pupil may, if he please, pay very little regard to 
 the regular instructor under whose care he is nonn- 
 inally placed, and yet, if he be able and diligent, 
 he may attain the highest honors of the Univer- 
 sity. Thus were the instruction of the University 
 wholly withdrawn and its labors restricted solely 
 to the examination of students, and the conferring 
 of rewards, the system might go on in many 
 respects as it does now. It is a matter of com- 
 plaint in these Institutions at the present day, that 
 the tendency of the system is to render the in- 
 struction of the regular College Tutors compara- 
 tively unnecessary. Nor is this all. A system 
 of this sort is liable to the vice of substituting the 
 love of the reward for the love of that for which 
 the reward is conferred ; to induce study for the 
 mere love of the emoluments of scholarship in- 
 stead of the love of intellectual improvement. ' That 
 such has been the ease in England, there is reason 
 to fear. In the Universities, there exists bril- 
 liant scholarship and enthusiastic diligence up to 
 the point necessary to the attainment of a Fellow- 
 ship, but here it too frequently stops. The ob- 
 ject having been attained, the effort ceases. I 
 know not how else to account for the fact that 
 with such magnificent endowments, such illimita- 
 ble means for research, abounding in men of de- 
 cided ability, and situated in the very bosom of 
 the most highly civilized nation on earth, a nation 
 peculiarly proud of her illustrious men, these 
 venerable institutions have for the last century ad- 
 ded so little to the amount of human knowledge. 
 
90 
 
 I make these remarks with the most sincere re- 
 spect for the Univeisities of Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge. I speak of the system as it is, and not 
 of the men by whom it is administered. 
 
 'iliis it will be admittted, is stimulus in excess. 
 But this by no means supposes that stimulus is 
 unnecessary. I grant, at once, that the intellect- 
 ual motive for study is the love of knowledge ; and 
 the moral motive, the desire to serve God in the 
 way which his Providence has marked out for us. 
 But God has seen fit in the constitution under 
 which he has placed us to set before us collateral 
 advantages which shall quicken our efforts, and 
 present additional motives to exertion. Thus he 
 has told us that knowledge wnll increase our pow- 
 er. "A wise man is strong, yea, a man of under- 
 standing increases strength." He has set before 
 us the good opinion of our fellow men as a motive 
 to exertion. " A good name is better than 
 riches." He has told us that diligence leads to 
 eminence. " Seest thou a man diligent in busi- 
 ness, he shall stand before kings, he shall not 
 stand before mean men." And all this we see 
 verified in actual life. When the youth grows up 
 to manhood, all these consequences are vividly 
 spread out before him, and produce their full 
 effect, for he is now capable of appreciating 
 them. They are not designed to be, and they 
 should not be his controlling motives ; they are 
 merely auxiliary, and they should so be treated. 
 They however have a place assigned them by 
 the Creator; and I see not why they should be 
 
91 
 
 ejected from this place. xVll that is required, is, 
 that they should never usurp the place of higher 
 motives. 
 
 But to young persons in general, these motives 
 are seen, if seen at all, in ilie dim and shadowy 
 distance. Other and more immediate motives, 
 adapted to their age and inexperience, must be 
 brought into action. What parent ever presented 
 the love of knowledge and of duty to a child as 
 the reason why he should at first go to school. 
 Were he to rely upon these and no other, I appre- 
 hend that the business of school teaching would 
 soon come to an end. 
 
 He directs his child to go, and tells him that he 
 thinks it will be best for him, and this ends the 
 matter. When the child has grown to be a boy, 
 he would, in nine cases out of ten, prefer play to 
 study. He must feel it necessary to go, and know 
 that he may expect the displeasure of his parent 
 if he be a truant. But this is not enough. He 
 is an intelligent being, and it is desirable that he 
 be placed in such circumstances that he would of 
 himself desire to go to school and to be diligent 
 while he is there. If he see not the value of a 
 knowledge of Latin Grammar, and what boy ever 
 did see it, let him see that by acquiring that 
 knowledge he may obtain something else on which 
 he places value. Let there be set before him 
 collateral advantages, such as, under the govern- 
 ment of God, would attach to diligence in subse- 
 quent life. The great principle of that govern- 
 ment is, that every man receives the consequences 
 
92 
 
 of his own actions. As a pupil can rarely ap- 
 preciate the ullimate consequences of his present 
 actions, let us place before him immediate conse- 
 quences, so far as possible, analogous to those 
 which must afterwards inevitably ensue. He will 
 thus be in the best manner trained up for what is 
 in reality before him. 
 
 These remarks apply in principle, to Colleges, 
 as truly as to schools. If true, they would teach 
 us to present rewards to diligence which shall be 
 immediate, operating; on the youthful mind from 
 term to term, and from day to day. Let the 
 student see that in College as in life, he receives 
 according to what he has attained. The rewards of 
 diligence may be acknowledged standing, or pre- 
 miums for excellence in scholarship, or both of 
 these combined. And 1 doubt whether any system 
 of instruction for young persons will be energetic 
 and efficient, unless it involve to a considerable 
 degree this important element. 
 
 In the Colleges in this country, the practice in 
 this respect is various. In some cases, the stand- 
 ing of each scholar is assigned relatively at the 
 close of every term. In one College, besides 
 this, medals are awarded to distinguished scholar- 
 ship. In otliers, pupils are divided into several 
 ranks according to their attainment, each rank 
 comprizing a considerable number of individuals. 
 In others, the relative standing of the student is 
 not made public by the faculty until the close of 
 the Collegiate course, and then it is expressed by 
 the place assigned to each person, in the exercises 
 
93 
 
 on the anniversary Commencement. And in 
 others, this principle is totally set aside, and no 
 distinction whatever, is made either during the 
 whole course, or at the close of it, from the fear 
 of fostering improper emulation. 
 
 For myself, I believe this principle as here ex- 
 plained, to be a valuable coadjutant both for in- 
 struction and discipline. We allow the necessity 
 of the use of penalties. If a student be idle and 
 worthless, we are obliged to give pain to him and 
 to his friends hy removing him from College, or 
 by the infliction of disagreeables of some sort or 
 other. We require him under this necessity to 
 attend upon his Collegiate exercises, and to be 
 prepared for his private and public examinations. 
 Why should we not also act on his hopes, and 
 make him feel that it is as much for his interest to 
 do well, as merely to escape from the censure of 
 doing badly. Both are aside from the motives of 
 love of study, and the fear of God ; but I do not 
 see why one is not as innocent and as worthy to 
 be employed as the other. I do not however in- 
 tend to argue this point ; neither my time nor in- 
 cHnation prompt me to the undertaking. While I 
 respect the motives of those who differ from me 
 on this subject, I am constrained to believe that 
 they have taken a one sided view of the question. 
 The last topic to which I would advert under 
 this head is examinations. So far as I know in 
 this country, these are always conducted viva 
 voce. The class or a portion of the class, as the 
 case may be, appears in the examination room. 
 
94 
 
 and each one, in order, is called upon to recite 
 some portion of the author that has been studied 
 during the previous term or year, and is then 
 questioned by the examiner, (who is I believe, 
 always his instructor,) in the presence of such 
 persons as may be invited, or as chose to be pres- 
 ent. Only one person is examined at a time. 
 The portion in which he is examined, is assigned 
 by the teacher, or wbich is better, is determined 
 by lot. Of course, the time which can be devot- 
 ed to each individual, is very short. Suppose 
 twenty young men are to be examined for two 
 hours. No one can be under examination more 
 than six minutes. During all the rest of the time, 
 he is entirely unoccupied. 
 
 Now every one must perceive that a system of 
 examination of this sort must fail in almost every 
 essential particular. In the first place it creates 
 no satisfactory test of the students acquaintance 
 with the subject. He may have read three or 
 four books of Homer, and he is examined on five 
 or six lines. He may have studied a system of 
 Moral Philosophy, and he is examined on two or 
 three paragraphs. He has studied the Elements 
 of Geometry, and he is examined on a single 
 proposition. If tlie instructor assign him his por- 
 tion for examination, it is in his power to select 
 the passage with reference to his own particular 
 views. If the portions are determined by lot, then 
 the appearance of each individual is, to a consid- 
 erable degree, a matter of chance. One draws an 
 easy passage, and, tliougb moderate in scholarship, 
 
95 
 
 may do brilliantly; another far his superior, may 
 fall upon a difficult one, and appear indifferently. 
 Hence, not being a thorough test, it cannot be 
 honestly relied upon, and a student's scholarship 
 must be determined, to a considerable degree, by 
 his general scholarship during the term. 
 
 Much less can it be relied on as a test of relative 
 scholarship. No test can be accurate, unless the 
 same demand be made upon every competitor. 
 If all have the same work set before them, then a 
 comparison can be instituted between those who 
 do the whole, and those who do a part ; and among 
 those who do the same work, between those w^ho 
 do it well, and those who do it less well. In this 
 manner a satisfactory test can be presented, and 
 as every one must be convinced that he has bad a 
 fair chance, no one can reasonably be dissatisfied 
 with the result. In this manner alone, can exam- 
 inations present a sound and universal stimulant; 
 for, in this manner alone, can they accurately re- 
 veal the absolute and relative standing of the can- 
 didate. 
 
 In every respect, therefore, it may be consider- 
 ed that our stimulants to study are extremely im- 
 perfect. There is, in but few cases, such a report 
 of standing and proficiency as shall appeal to the 
 love of high scholarship; there are very rarely 
 premiums offered, and these premiums are for rela- 
 tive instead of absolute scholarship; and our ex- 
 aminations are not of such a nature as to deter^ 
 mine scholarship, so as to enable either instructor 
 or pupil to rely upon them with certainty. 
 
96 
 
 The absence of this power creates the necessity 
 of additional strictness, and more minute supervis- 
 ion. In proportion as the student is feebly moved 
 by the hope of reward he must be urged the more 
 sternly by the fear of deficiency. The mode of 
 study must be such that this deficiency will be ap- 
 parent at shortly recurring periods. Hence, the in- 
 struction must for the greater part be conducted by 
 means of recitations from a text book, and fre- 
 quent if not daily examination must be made of 
 the pupil's progress. If he incline to negligence, 
 he must be spurred onward by the dread of dis- 
 grace, the loss of his present standing, or the ulti- 
 mate loss of his degree. It will hence occur that 
 great labor devolves upon an officer to keep a class 
 from running down, to urge onward the lagging, 
 and to save the indolent from utter abandonment. 
 Now I do not speak of this because I wish to 
 render the life of an instructor an easy one. Woe 
 be to tlie cause of education when this is the 
 case. No man can do his duty in any profession, 
 and in that of teaching, least of all, without zeal- 
 ous and incessant labor. But I say that suppos- 
 ing the amount of labor fixed, it is desirable to ren- 
 der it as efficient as possible. If a system can 
 be devised "which will enable an instructor to de- 
 vote his abilities to the cultivation and develop- 
 ment of mind, and which will stimulate his pupils 
 to avail themselves eagerly of his instructions, it is 
 to be preferred to a system which in its nature 
 tends to render them indifferent to tlpe objects of 
 their professed pursuit, and imposes upon him the 
 
97 
 
 necessity of pressing them onward in the path of 
 duty by the force of personal and official in- 
 fluence. Men act more freely and more power- 
 fully from hope, than from any depressing motive, 
 and the stronger the operation of this principle, 
 the more readily is formed that esprit du corps 
 that literary enthusiasm, that eager love of truth 
 and desire for intellectual development, without 
 which a University is but the letter without the 
 spirit, a body without a soul. 
 
 It seems to me then that our literary institutions 
 in this country, are greatly deficient in this im- 
 portant element of a well arranged Collegiate sys- 
 tem. I see no reason why the standing of every 
 student should not be publicly announced at the 
 close of every term, or just as often as the in- 
 structor sees fit. The public opinion of the 
 society is thus brought to bear upon each indi- 
 vidual. But, besides this, I think that great 
 advantages would result from the establishment 
 of a large variety of premiums for distinguished 
 excellence in the various branches of study. Such 
 premiums should not, I apprehend, be given simply 
 for relative rank, for then it is the mark of no 
 particular attainment ; the best scholar in a poor 
 class may win it as well as the best scholar in a 
 good one. Under an indolent instructor all may 
 be moderate together. I apprehend therefore 
 that prizes should be offered only for the doing 
 of particular things, the wTiting of essays, or 
 poetry in the English or other languages, the 
 solution of high and difficult problems, and the 
 7 
 
98 
 
 authorship of dissertations of pre-eminent merit 
 on some branch of science or literature. These 
 should never be awarded solely by the instructor, 
 and they should never be bestowed unless the 
 performance entered for competition be not only 
 relatively the best, but also absolutely good, and 
 deserving in itself of the commendation of an 
 University. Thus prizes might be founded for 
 Latin or Greek dissertations on a given subject, 
 for Latin or Greek poetry ; for extempore trans- 
 lation into Latin or Greek prose or verse, for the 
 extempore solution of mathematical problems of 
 a high character, for disquisitions on subjects of 
 philosophy or morals involving a thorough and 
 generous knowledge of those branches of science 
 in which the competition was created. In this 
 manner, the stimulant would operate both upon 
 the officer and the student. Unless the officer 
 taught well, his pupil could not gain the reward. 
 And let the teaching be what it would, unless 
 the student were diligent he would have no hope 
 of success. In this manner a new incitement 
 would be made to operate upon both, and both 
 would be urged by a new motive to the accom- 
 plishm.ent of the same result. 
 
 But I would not confine the system of pre- 
 miums to proficiency while in College. It is of 
 great consequence to elevate the standard of 
 qualifications for entrance. I would therefore 
 award several premiums to those who were mat- 
 riculated with the highest attainment. This 
 would induce much better scholarship in those who 
 
99 
 
 are fitting for College. It would be an inducement 
 to young men to remain longer at the preparatory 
 school, and thus render this branch of teaching 
 more generous and more perfect. And if, in 
 addition, the name of every prize scholar were 
 designated on the annual catalogue, with the name 
 and place of his instructor, this form of stimulus 
 would extend itself was beneficially to this part 
 of the educational system. 
 
 I have spoken of the oral character of our 
 examinations and of its defects. In the Univer- 
 sity of Cambridge, England, all examinations are 
 conducted in writing. The questions for exami- 
 nation are printed beforehand, and delivered 
 to the class in the examination room. They 
 then see them for the first time. Every student 
 is furnished with a copy. The same time is 
 allotted to all. When the time has expired, each 
 student signs his name to his papers and hands 
 them to the moderators. By a comparison of 
 these the standing of the scholar is decided. 
 The same work is set before all, and the value 
 of each question is previously established. In 
 this case, it is not difficult to decide who has done 
 the greatest number or those of the greatest value. 
 And I believe that in no case has the least sus- 
 picion of unfairness been awakened. Nor, al- 
 though competition is keen and earnest beyond 
 any thing that we conceive of, is any unkind or 
 envious rivalry apt to be engendered. It is only a 
 short time since, that two young gentlemen, intimate 
 friends, were after examination, the acknowledged 
 
100 
 
 sole competitors for the highest honor of their 
 year, the appointment of senior wrangler. This 
 competition had never produced in their bosoms the 
 least feeling of coldness or alienation. When the 
 hour at which the result of the examination was 
 to be declared arrived, they walked out together 
 to avoid the excitement of the occasion. The 
 conversation naturally turned upon their mutual 
 chances of success and each one assigned the 
 palm to the other, and each honestly thought 
 his friend more deserving of it than himself. 
 When they returned from their walk, the rank 
 liadbeen awarded, and the University was re-echo- 
 ing the acclamations of rejoicing at the event. 
 They both in entire simplicity of heart united in 
 the excitement of the scene, and no one would 
 have known from ought that appeared, or as my 
 informant believed, from ought that existed, which 
 was senior or which was junior wrangler. This 
 is noble, and as it becomes high minded men. 
 It teaches us how much better it is to eradicate 
 envy by the inculcation of higher principles and 
 the carrying out of even handed justice, than to 
 yield to it and thus cultivate it, by admitting that 
 you dare not do justice from the fear that it should 
 be awakened. I have had some experience on 
 this subject, and I have never seen less envy 
 than when, on the principles of pure justice, the 
 standing of every man was publicly set forth. 
 I never have seen so much of it, as among those 
 who would have all distinctions abolished from 
 the fear that it would be excited. 
 
101 
 
 The objection to this mode of examination is 
 its expensiveness. The printing of so much 
 Latin and Greek and Mathematics would form a 
 heavy bill, and in the neighborhood of many of 
 our Colleges could not be executed. It is how- 
 ever probable that the same result could be at- 
 tained in some other way. Another objection is 
 the amount of labor which it involves. When ex- 
 aminations are to be held in so many branches of 
 study as are taught in our Colleges, and where 
 every officer is so fully employed, and where it 
 would be difficult to procure persons not members 
 of College to undertake the labor, a serious ob- 
 stacle is presented. How this is to be obviated I 
 do not very well see. It would however involve 
 but little difficulty to make the experiment on a 
 small scale, and if it was found to answer a valua- 
 ble purpose, means might be found to extend it 
 throughout the whole system. Of one thing I 
 feel confident, and that is that no system of edu- 
 cation will be successful in this country, without 
 the introduction of strict, impartial and searching 
 examinations. In what manner these can best 
 be effected every one must be left to judge for 
 himself. 
 
 The question will here be asked what are we to do 
 with the four years course? I answer, it seems to 
 me of but very little consequence whether we do 
 with it or with out it. The whole course, origi- 
 nally, like the apprenticeship to trades, extended to 
 seven years, at which time the pupil proceeded to 
 Master of Arts, with the full liberty of teaching or 
 
102 
 
 lecturing wherever he pleased. The degree of 
 Bachelor was only initiatory, and did not excuse 
 the student from residence at the University during 
 the remaining three years of the course. This 
 has been since abridged to four years, and nothing 
 additional is required of the candidate for the sec- 
 ond degree. There is nothmg magical or imper- 
 ative in the term of four years, nor has it any 
 natural relation to a course of study. It was 
 adopted as a matter of accident ; and can have, 
 of itself, no important bearing on the subject in 
 hand. 
 
 But is it not important to have some standard 
 fixed ; and to have this standard as high as possi- 
 ble, to which the candidate for the certificate of a 
 liberal education shall conform. I answer most 
 truly, and I would elevate rather than depress it. 
 I by no means sympathize with the efforts made 
 in various forms to render the requirements for a 
 degree less exact or comprehensive or scholarlike. 
 Some Colleges maintaining the four years course 
 allow so much time for vacations that the period 
 of study is actually reduced to three years. Oth- 
 ers vary the requirements in such a way that the 
 discipline and attainments demanded are very dif- 
 ferent from those formerly established. We see 
 therefore that fixing the time to be occupied osten- 
 sibly in liberal study, by no means accurately fixes 
 the amount of knowledge required for a degree. 
 
 I am by no means tenacious of the term of four 
 years. I certainly would not have the period cur- 
 tailed, commencing with the present or even with 
 
10^ 
 
 much higher requirements for admission to the 
 University. But 1 would not have it a matter of 
 time. Instead of fixing upon a period of four or 
 five or six years, I would designate the amount of 
 knowledge and discipline which could be attained 
 by ordinary talent and persevering diligence during 
 that time. But supposing this time to be fixed, 
 the question is how shall it be occupied ; in thor- 
 ough or in superficial study ; in full and manly de- 
 velopment of the powers of the mind or in merely 
 running over elements. That is to say, shall we 
 so arrange the course that every subject taught can 
 be so far pursued as to render the student a profi- 
 cient in it, and thus impart to his mind the charac- 
 ter of manliness and original power ; or shall we 
 oppress the time by the multitude of particulars 
 crowded into it, so that neither pupil nor teacher 
 can either communicate or receive any thing more 
 than an outline of science. It seems to me that 
 the proper course is marked out by plain common 
 sense. Let the requirements for a degree be 
 high, but let them be high in attainment of knowl- 
 edge and not in the number of things to be prop- 
 erly learned. Or, if it be thought that everything 
 at present taught should be required of the candi- 
 date, then let the period of study be extended. 
 What we do let us do well, and then our syst>em 
 will recommend itself. 
 
 I am fully aware that this is the most difficult 
 part of the subject, and the point at which the 
 greatest number of objections will be raised. It 
 will be said that the custom of a four years course 
 
104 
 
 has been so long established ibat it cannot be al- 
 tered, that the people require a cheaper, a naore 
 universal education, that they will not bear any- 
 thing which shall render the attainment of degrees 
 more difficult ; and I allow that all these so far 
 as they are true, belong to the nature of objections. 
 I allow them their full effect. I have great res- 
 pect for the opinions of the people when they are 
 expressed deliberately, after a full knowledge of 
 the facts and reasonings in the case. Without 
 deliberation and knowledge, however, the public 
 sentiment is as liable to err as the sentiment of an 
 individual. Do just as the people direct, if you 
 do unwisely they will like it no better for their 
 having directed it. Do rightly and well, whether 
 they have directed or not, and they will in the 
 end approve it. I firmly believe that if our 
 system of Collegiate education can be improved 
 it will be received with greater favor than at pres- 
 ent ; and with increasing favor in proportion to the 
 value of the improvement. 
 
 And, again, in suggesting changes I am very 
 far from believing that any wholesale revolutions 
 could be effected immediately without great inju- 
 ry. Such revolutions in matters of civil govern- 
 ment are never effected without great peril and 
 seldom without social disorganization. It is the 
 same with respect to any thing which has been 
 long established, which has taken deep root in the 
 feelings of men and become interwoven with the 
 usages of society. I therefore in this and in all that 
 I say, recommend nothing of this kind. My de- 
 
105 
 
 sire is merely to make out the points at which we 
 are to aim in the changes which we attempt to in- 
 troduce. I leave to others to say when and how, 
 and in how far they may be adopted ; if worthy 
 of being adopted at all. We have proceeded for 
 nearly two centuries on the same plan, adopted by 
 imitation from the then existing institutions of the 
 old country. It surely cannot be deemed obtru- 
 sive, since we seem at present determined to mod- 
 ify our system, to examine its construction and in- 
 quire with what object, and tending to what design, 
 our changes are to be made. 
 
 Let us then, taking the present condition of our 
 Colleges as our starting point, inquire in what man- 
 ner they may probably be changed for the better. 
 
 1. It is certainly practicable to enlarge our re- 
 quirements for admission. We may deinand a 
 much more thorough and scholarlike acquaintance 
 with Latin, and Greek, and Arithmetic, the ele- 
 ments of Mathematics, Geography, History, An- 
 cient and Modern, and the English Languages. 
 The benefits of such a change would be manifold. 
 It would materially improve the condition of all 
 our academies. It would render the office of 
 principal, of far greater consequence ; as it would 
 require more thorough scholarship, and command 
 a higher remuneration. In England, the teachers 
 of the preparatory schools hold a rank among the 
 ablest and most distinguished of her scholars. 
 The Masters of Westminister and Eton, of 
 Rugby and Harrow, stand side by side with 
 Bishops and Heads of Colleges. There is no 
 
106 
 
 man in Great Britain at this moment, enjoying a 
 more enviable or a better deserved reputation 
 than Dr. Arnold, the beloved and revered Master 
 of Rugby. Why should it not be so here ? 
 Why should our academies so frequently be com- 
 mitted to young men preparing for the professions, 
 who only teach for the sake of the emolument of 
 two or three years labor, and then abandon the 
 occupation forever. Just in proportion as we re- 
 quire more, will more be done by academies, and 
 the more that is done there, the higher will be the- 
 rank, and the more pleasant the situation of the 
 principal. 
 
 But again, by raising the requirements of Col- 
 leges, we shall enter students of a more uniform 
 and more advanced age. The advantages of this 
 alteration are easily seen. Students are now com- 
 monly admitted on the completion of the fourteenth 
 year. At that age, they may be able to acquire 
 the knowledge of languages required by our stat- 
 utes ; but they are by no means generally prepar- 
 ed for the increasing difficulty of the course as it 
 is now constituted. They are not of sufficient 
 maturity to be left to self reliance. Hence many 
 of them fail when they so rapidly approach the 
 more abstruse branches of study. And besides, 
 they are at once associated with men of twen- 
 ty-five or thirty years of age. The manner of 
 teaching adapted to persons so widely differing 
 in age, should manifestly be different. But under 
 the present system, the same lessons are to be 
 learned by all, throughout the whole period of 
 
107 
 
 College tuition. This is manifestly disadvanta- 
 geous to the instructor and to the pupil. Were the 
 requirements such as to detain at the Academy 
 the youngest class of our students for two or three 
 years longer, it would, as it seems to me, be of great 
 service to both parties. Of this our students who 
 graduate young are almost always convinced. I 
 have rarely conversed with one of these on this 
 subject, even although he may have attained to 
 high scholarship, who has not declared that he 
 now felt himself prepared for nothing so well as to 
 pursue his whole Collegiate course over again ; and 
 who did not deeply deprecate his misfortune, in 
 having gone over so important subjects of thought, 
 at so immature an age. 
 
 The advantages to scholarship from this altera- 
 tion are equally obvious. With more thorough 
 knowledge and a more mature understanding, the 
 student would more fully appreciate the value of 
 time, and more accurately estimate the bearing of 
 his present diligence upon his ultimate success. 
 He would be the better able to put forth his al- 
 ready developing powers of original investigation. 
 He would feel in some degree, his ability to in- 
 quire for truth for himself and not merely to trea- 
 sure up the know^ledge which is contained in text 
 books. His mental occupations would thus assim- 
 late more nearly to those in which he is to be en- 
 gaged in professional life. And I cannot but be- 
 lieve that the result would be a more manly, intel- 
 lectual stature and a fuller and freer mental devel- 
 opment. 
 
lOS 
 
 Tlie effect upon teachers, would I apprehend, 
 be equally beneficial. As it is at present, there is 
 but little division of labor between the teachers of 
 Academies, and the teachers of Colleges. Both do 
 very much the same work, and from want of being 
 done well, it is of necessity, to be done over and 
 over again. Both are confined very greatly to 
 the inculcation of elements. The student, owing 
 to imperfect preparation, and the limited time de- 
 voted to each branch of study, is unable to enter 
 upon the higher and more widely related depart- 
 ments of science, and the instructor is equally un- 
 able to put forth whatever of talent he may pos- 
 sess, in his peculiar profession. Any plan which 
 would give freer scope to the abilities of both par- 
 ties would, surely, materially subserve the best in- 
 terests of education. 
 
 And now supposing a change of this kind to 
 have been made ; there are three modes in which 
 our present system might be modified. 
 
 First, the number of studies pursued during the 
 College course, might be limited in such manner 
 that whatever is taught may be taught thoroughly. 
 The College would in this case be open only for 
 persons who are candidates for degrees. The 
 standard of attainment may be as high as is con- 
 sidered desirable. The difierence aimed at would 
 be this, that, instead of learing many things im- 
 perfeclly^ we should learn a smaller number of 
 things well. I am sure that every man in active 
 life would, on retrospection, wish that his educa- 
 tion had been thus conducted. By learning one 
 
109 
 
 science well, we learn how to study, and bow to 
 master a subject. Having made tbis attainment 
 in one study, we readily apply it to all other 
 studies. We acquire the habit of thoroughness, 
 and carry it to all other matters of inquiry. The 
 course of study at West Point Academy is very 
 limited, but the sciences pursued are carried much 
 farther than in other institutions in our country ; and 
 it is owing to this that the reputation of the insti- 
 tution is so deservedly high. The English Uni- 
 versity course is, in respect to the number of 
 branches pursued, limited, and yet it is remarka- 
 bly successful in developing the powers of the 
 mind. Observe the maturity and vigor which the 
 young men there frequently obtain. They some- 
 times go from the University, as for instance, Pitt, 
 Fox, and Canning, directly to the House of Com- 
 mons, and are competent at once, to take an im- 
 portant part in the labors of that august assembly. 
 And yet more, I apprehend that the acquisition of 
 the habit of thoroughness is the true method of 
 arriving at the most extensive attainments. A 
 (ew years since I had the pleasure of meeting one 
 of the most leai'ned German scholars who has 
 visited this country. I asked him how it was that 
 his countrymen were able, at so early an age, to 
 obtain the mastership of so many languages. He 
 replied " I began the study of Latin at an early age. 
 Every book that I studied I was made thoroughly 
 acquainted with. I was taught to read and re-read, 
 translate forwards and backwards, trace out every 
 word and know every thing about it. Before I 
 
110 
 
 left a book it became as familiar to me as if writ- 
 ten in German. After this I never had any 
 difficulty with any other language.'''' 
 
 2. But secondly. Suppose a course so limited 
 does not find favor, and it be contended that as the 
 branches of knowledge are multiplied, a greater 
 number must be included in the course of liberal 
 education. If this be thought preferable, let us 
 do this. But let us not attempt impossibilities, 
 nor let us be contented with superficial education. 
 Let us extend the term. It was originally in fact, 
 seven years. Let us make it five, or six. If the 
 requirements of admission were greater, and the 
 College course increased by the addition of one 
 or two years, a great gain would be made to the 
 cause of education. I think that there is but 
 small fear of our doing too much, if we only do it 
 well. 
 
 3. The third plan would be to make a Col- 
 lege more nearly to resemble a real University ; 
 that is, to make it a place of education in all the 
 most important branches of human learning. 
 This might properly include instruction in all pro- 
 fessional, as well as ante-professional science. It 
 should comprize teaching in Latin, Greek, 
 French, German, and Hebrew languages. Math- 
 ematics, Mechanics, and all the branches of Nat- 
 ural Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Intellectual 
 Philosophy, Physical Science in all its depart- 
 ments, Rhetoric and its kindred literature. His- 
 tory, as well as instruction in Law and Medicine. 
 
 Of these branches, those might be selected 
 
HI 
 
 which should be required of the candidate for the 
 degree of Bachelor of Arts, and his graduation 
 might depend not on time of residence, but on 
 proficiency to be determined by examination. 
 Another course embracing other studies might be 
 made requisite to the obtaining of another degree. 
 If one is Bachelor of Arts, the other might be 
 Bachelor of Science, or of Literature. And still 
 more, in order to bring the whole course of study 
 within the scope of University stimulants, the de- 
 gree of Master of Arts, instead of being confer- 
 red without additional attainment, as it is at present, 
 might be conferred only on those who have pursu- 
 ed successfully the whole circle of study marked 
 out for the candidates for both degrees. The de- 
 gree of Master of Arts would then designate a 
 degree of positive attainment, and would be a val- 
 uable and efficient testimonial. As it is now, to 
 all practical purposes, we throw this degree away. 
 It exerts no power of motive whatever. The 
 best and the worst scholars are equally entitled to 
 it on the third year after graduation. It might be 
 made, as it seems to me, to subserve a valuable 
 purpose in a system of education. A still further 
 modification of the studies taught in a College 
 will be suggested on a subsequent page. ^ 
 
 It may be a question which of these plans is 
 best suited to the purposes of our country. Either 
 would I think be preferable to our present system. 
 One may answer better in one place and another 
 in another. I merely suggest these as topics for 
 consideration to those who are interested in the cause 
 
112 
 
 of Collegiate education. I am desirous at least 
 of laying the case before the visitors and officers of 
 Colleges among us for candid consideration. If 
 they should contribute in even so small a degree 
 to direct the public attention to the points to be 
 aimed at, or even to be avoided, I shall receive 
 a full reward. In this country, if a movement can 
 only be but commenced in the right direction, it 
 will soon make ample progress. I say a movement 
 in the right direction, for I have no idea that any 
 change of value can be made instantaneously. If 
 however the learned and able and self-sacrificing 
 men who are now engaged in the profession of 
 teaching can be led to act wisely and in concert on 
 this subject, and the public can be brought into har- 
 mony with their action, I believe that a mighty 
 impulse might be communicated to the cause of 
 education among us. 
 
 Sect. 4. Of College Discipline, 
 
 I have thus far spoken entirely upon the intel- 
 lectual part of a College education. The Physi- 
 cal arrangements remain yet to be considered. 
 This part of the subject will not require so ex- 
 tended a discussion as the preceding. 
 
 The physical arrangements of an American 
 College are,' I believe, generally these. The 
 
113 
 
 College erects buildings for the accommodation of 
 students, consisting almost entirely of domitories. 
 The buildings are commonly after the same model, 
 disconnected from each other, three or four stories 
 high, and containing from about thirty to nearly 
 fifty rooms in each. One, or more commonly, I 
 think two students occupy the same room. The 
 residence is assigned to each pupil by the Presi- 
 dent or some other ofhcer. The junior officers 
 occupy rooms in the College building during the 
 day and night, and the senior officers in some in- 
 stitutions during the day. All the rooms in many 
 Colleges, are visited by the officers during some 
 part of the day and evening, for the purpose of 
 preserving order, but how universally this practice 
 obtains, I have no means of judging. 
 
 In most Colleges, a commons table is provided 
 for the students and for the junior officers if they 
 choose, at the nett cost. In some cases, the 
 pupils are obliged to board in commons, in others 
 this is optional. In general, then, the College un- 
 dertakes to stand to the student in the place of a 
 parent, providing for him board and lodging, and 
 the services usually included in this charge, as well 
 as education ; and it assumes the responsibility 
 which attaches to this undertaking. 
 
 The laws respecting residence, are, therefore, 
 constituted upon this principle. The student is 
 required to arise for public prayers and recitations 
 at an early hour in the morning ; to attend his rec- 
 itations and lectures as often in a day as he may 
 be directed ; to remain in his room during study 
 8 
 
114 
 
 hours, and always in the evening ; to attend no 
 places of pubHc amusement ; and in general, the 
 laws are constructed upon the supposition, that the 
 pupil requires during his residence, something like 
 parental supervision, and this supervision the Col- 
 lege undertakes to supply. 
 
 Under such a system, of course, the rules 
 must be uniform. No difference can ever be 
 shown in the administration of a law. The stu- 
 dent of twenty-five or thirty years of age, must be 
 subjected to the same law as the student of fifteen. 
 Nor can any allowance be made for difference of 
 character and habits. The principle on which the 
 system is based, is supervision, and responsibility 
 for the moral character of the pupil. Those who 
 need this supervision, and those who do not need 
 it, must equally conform to its requisitions. All 
 this is evident, for a rule which is put in force, only 
 at the will of the executive, ceases to be a law, 
 and becomes nothing more than an arbitrary exer- 
 cise of power. 
 
 Let us now impartially consider the advantages 
 and disadvantages of this part of our Collegiate 
 system. 
 
 The first argument which is advanced in favor 
 of it, is its economy. It is believed by many per- 
 sons, that the cost of board and lodging is much 
 less than it would be if students procured accom- 
 modations in families in the vicinity of the Col- 
 lege. So far as this is true, it is well worthy of 
 consideration. Whatever can reduce the cost of 
 education without reducing its value, is a gain to 
 
115 
 
 the community ; just as the reduction of the cost 
 of flour, or fuel, or any other article [oi use is 
 an advantage to every consumer, and equally in 
 the end to the producer. 
 
 2. Tt is believed that under a system of this 
 kind, the morals of pupils will be more effectually 
 guarded. It is supposed that the temptations to 
 vice will operate much less efiectively upon a 
 young man placed under the care of his instructors. 
 Residence in College buildings, under the circum- 
 stances which I have described, is supposed to 
 furnish the means for such a supervision. Were 
 the student permitted to go and come when he 
 would, to be absent or at home by night at his own 
 pleasure, he would be liable to all the seductions 
 of bad company, and the allurements of vicious 
 example. This is a point deserving of the 
 gravest consideration. The most important end 
 to be secured in the education of the young, is 
 moral character. Without this, brilliancy of intel- 
 lect, will only plunge its possessor more deeply in 
 temporal disgrace and eternal misery. If this 
 part of our present system really produce the best 
 moral effect, it should never be abandoned ; for, if 
 we have so constructed our plan that this end is 
 attained, we may be assured that every other bene- 
 fit that falls within the range of its influence, will 
 follow in its train. 
 
 3. It is also said that the advantages of a pub- 
 lic education could not in many respects be attain- 
 ed without this species of residence. A young 
 man comes from home with various incidental pe- 
 
116 
 
 culiarities, the growth of his local associations as well 
 as the results of his own individual idiosyncracies. 
 In the friction of a College life, these are rubbed 
 off, and the man, with his practical faculties quick- 
 ened, and his own self estimation rectified, is the 
 better prepared to act his part on the theatre of 
 life. There is reason also in this consideration, 
 which is well worthy of attention. So far as this 
 sort of practical education is gained, it is valuable. 
 All that we have to guard against, is the paying for 
 it too dearly. These I believe are the principle 
 reasons urged in favor of this feature of our pres- 
 ent system. 
 
 On the other hand, various objections will occur 
 to the mind of every man who calmly reflects 
 upon it. 
 
 The first fact which strikes us in looking upon 
 these arrangements, is that tJiey are unnatural. 
 The family, with all the sympathies of relation- 
 ship and society, is the natural place for the young. 
 They are at an age in which they require attention 
 in time of sickness, and care in time of health. 
 They are soon going out into the world to suffer 
 or to enjoy as the punishment or reward of the 
 actions of every day. It would seem desirable 
 that they should be gradually introduced to the 
 responsibilities which they are called to assume. 
 As they are going from home on probation, wis- 
 dom would seem to direct that their situation 
 should combine in as great a degree as possible, the 
 elements of the situation which they have hardly 
 left, with those of the situation which they are 
 shortly to occupy. 
 
117 
 
 Now I think it obvious that the present system 
 is unsuited both to the younger students, and to 
 those that are farther advanced in age. The former 
 would be better situated under more perfect super- 
 vision, while to the latter, so large an amount of su- 
 pervision is unnatural and unnecessary. A pupil, of 
 the age at which many of our students enter College, 
 requires to be much more directly under the influ- 
 ence of his instructor ; he needs to be quickened, 
 and directed by counsel and personal intercourse ; 
 otherwise he is tempted to spend much of his time in 
 light and frivolous reading and in useless amusement. 
 His habits are not yet formed, and nothing but as- 
 siduous attention will be likely to form them aright. 
 And besides, he is commonly unaware of the pre- 
 cautions necessary to preserve himself in health, 
 or to take care of himself in sickness. He is left 
 in his room to assume the charge of himself as 
 though he were of mature age. He is shut out 
 from all the influences of home, and removed at 
 once from all restraints which arise from being 
 under the inspection of parents and relatives. 
 Every one must be aware that no young person 
 can be placed in such circumstances without ex- 
 posure to great risks. 
 
 But the same discipline is generally unsuited 
 for those who are farther advanced. There is no 
 reason why an instructor should assume any spe- 
 cial moral responsibility for young men who have 
 already attained to majority, who are recognised by 
 law and the customs of society as competent in 
 all respects to govern themselves, and who are, in 
 
118 
 
 all other circumstances, held to be perfectly res- 
 ponsible for their own actions. It seems unrea- 
 sonable that they should be subject to a discipline 
 which prescribes rules for their residence, and also 
 for their presence by day and by night. It might 
 well be supposed that they are competent to act 
 in these respects for themselves, and to take the 
 consequences of their own conduct. But College 
 law, can make no difference in its treatment of un- 
 dergraduates. What is the rule for one, must be 
 the rule for all. If therefore the system is adapt- 
 ed to the young, it will be unsuitable for the older, 
 if adapted to the older, it will be unsuitable for 
 the young. If a half way course is adopted, it 
 will be suitable for neither. A large part of 
 the difficulty which occurs in course of Collegi- 
 ate discipline, arises directly from this source. 
 
 It is not inappropriate to mention the bearing of 
 this part of our system upon health. It has the 
 advantage of regularity, but this is almost the only 
 one, of which, in this respect, it can boast. The 
 buildings being all contiguous, no necessity of ex- 
 ercise is imposed. Hence, in almost all our Col- 
 leges, young men suffer severely from intense phys- 
 ical indolence. They spend day after day in warm 
 rooms, leaving them only at the hours of recita- 
 tion, prayers and commons, and then only to 
 cross a small court or pass from one building to 
 another. In sickness, they are from necessity, 
 deprived of all the ordinary comforts which their 
 situation demands. From their habits of social 
 intercourse, as well as from proximity of resi- 
 
119 
 
 dence, the lighter infectious diseases are rapidly 
 communicated. I have sometimes known a large 
 portion of the students in a College disabled from 
 attendance on their literary exercises from the 
 prevalence of measles, mumps and similar disea- 
 ses. These, it may be said are minor evils, yet in 
 deliberating upon a question of this kind, they are 
 not unworthy of serious consideration. 
 
 Let us in the next place consider the moral 
 bearings of this question. 
 
 The advantage of the present system, on the 
 score of morals, arises from the supervision which 
 is extended by officers over their pupils. I am 
 by no means inclined to underrate the value of this 
 supervision. 1 know that it is considered by Col- 
 lege officers as one of the gravest of their respon- 
 sibilities. They frequently devote to it a large 
 portion of their time, and of their most anxious 
 thought. Besides bestowing upon it a large amount 
 of personal attention, they labor to cultivate such 
 a tone of moral feeling as shall render vigilance 
 comparatively unnecessary. They do all that 
 the circumstances of the case allow. But let 
 us see in how far they are enabled to accomplish 
 their object. 
 
 The buildings in this country are never con- 
 structed with a view to supervision. They are 
 open from the beginning of the term to the end of 
 it, by day and by night. The Colleges are always 
 within a short distance of the usual temptations 
 of youth. And in this respect, it. matters really 
 but little whether an Institution be situated in 
 
120 
 
 a town or in llie country. Place it where you 
 will, in a few years, there will cluster around it 
 all the opportunities of idle and vicious expendi- 
 ture. Under such circumstances, it is obvious 
 that no physical means can be devised which 
 shall furnish such supervision as will present an 
 impassable barrier to unlawful inclination. 
 
 But still more. In most of our Colleges, the 
 larger portion of the officers are heads of families, 
 residing at a distance from the College premises. 
 Their studies are sometimes, perhaps more fre- 
 quently, within the College buildings. These they 
 occupy during the day, and perhaps during the 
 evening. But after they have retired, the whole 
 supervision of the Institution is committed to the 
 smaller number of junior officers. The imme- 
 diate charge of one or two hundred pupils is left 
 to three or four persons residing in different parts 
 of several unconnected buildings, and all of them 
 open by day and by night. These officers would 
 always disperse any noisy or unsuitable assem- 
 blage within the College walls, and take notice 
 of any absence during the hours of visiting. 
 They can however do but little more. We fre- 
 quently hear the disorders of the English Univer- 
 sities made a matter of remark, but there, all the 
 College buildings are constructed with reference to 
 this object, and all the officers, both young and old, 
 besides a large number of Fellows reside within 
 the College v^alls. We expect a much more 
 perfect supervision without having provided any 
 of the means for carrying it into effect. If we 
 
121 
 
 really intend to cany cut a system of exact moral 
 respcnsibility, it is manifest that our arrangements 
 stand in need of a radical change. In order to 
 put this subject in a true light, suppose that a 
 building similar to one of our Colleges, and provi- 
 ded with the same means of moral restraint were 
 erected in one of cur cities, for the purpose of 
 boarding and lodging young men of from fifteen 
 to twenty five or thirty years of age. Would 
 any parent consider his son belter situated in 
 such an establishment, than in such a boarding 
 house as he might select for him. I cannot, for 
 myself see that such an establishment would pos- 
 sess any peculiar advantages. No one that I 
 have ever heard of, has yet made the experiment. 
 But, aside from all this, there are particular 
 disadvantages arising from this intimate association 
 of so many young persons, so far from all tlie ordi- 
 nary influences of society. Where so many young 
 men are collected together, it is manifest that not a 
 few will have been already addicted to habits of 
 vice. It will, I fear be found too generally true, 
 that the wicked are much more zealous in making 
 proselytes than the virtuous ; and here, as in any 
 other case, the danger of contamination is great- 
 ly increased by the nearness of the contact. 
 Older residents, influence for evil those who have 
 more recently entered. The succession is thus 
 kept up, and he who has any tendency to vice, 
 will in such a society, readily find associates and 
 abettors. Young men are, to a proverb, frank 
 and confiding. Entering upon a new scene, they 
 
122 
 
 easily become allied, without reflection, to those 
 who have been long initiated, and who seem dis- 
 posed to patronize them. In this manner, associ- 
 ations are frequently formed in the very commence- 
 ment of a Collegiate course which give a sad, if 
 not a fatal tendency to the whole period, if not to 
 the whole of a young man's subsequent life. 
 The greater the number of young men associated 
 together, and the more intimate this association, 
 the greater is the danger from this cause. And 
 yet it is into precisely this danger that parents 
 are anxious to plunge their sons at the earliest 
 period at which it can be allowed. 
 
 Besides, it is to be remarked, that a College 
 forms a community by itself, an imperium in im- 
 perioj isolated to a great extent from connexion 
 with the community around it. To the w^orld in 
 general, it seems, 1 believe, surrounded by an at- 
 mosphere of inexplicable mystery. The students 
 are not exposed individually to the salutary re- 
 straints of public observation and public opinion. 
 Nay, it has frequently been held that they are not 
 amenable, like other persons of their age, to the 
 authority of civil and municipal law. I have known 
 a distinguished President of a New England Col- 
 lege, to be severely censured because he exposed 
 to the penalty of the law, young men who had 
 been guilty of the most flagitious violations of it ; 
 just as though those, who were under the most im- 
 perative obligations to set an example of high 
 minded and honorable conduct, should be the only 
 persons who should be permitted to set all law and 
 
123 
 
 order at defiance. I do not however intend to 
 discuss the principle involved in this question ; I 
 only refer to the fact, for the sake of illustrating 
 the very injudicious notions which have been suf- 
 fered to obtain in regard to the nature and obliga- 
 tions of a College community. 
 
 Now where persons are collected together un^ 
 der these circumstances, shut out from the or- 
 dinary rules of society, they will form by in- 
 stinct, a system of rules, unwritten, of course, 
 for themselves. And these rules will be always 
 the exponent of the character, and age, and cir- 
 cumstances of the society by which they are 
 formed. Being separated, in a considerable de- 
 gree, from the rest of society, the first principle of 
 the code will be laid in the distinction between 
 themselves and others, or between the obligations 
 which they owe to a member of their own com- 
 munity, and of those which they owe to a mem- 
 ber of the community around them. Young per- 
 sons are reckless of consequences, fond of present 
 pleasure, extremely sensitive to the disapproba- 
 tion of their fellows, easily making allowance for 
 vice if it be not accompanied by meanness, fond of 
 social hilarity without any appreciation of its re- 
 sults, and restive under restraint without having 
 arrived at the maturity necessary to self-govern- 
 ment. Of course the rules of conduct instinct- 
 tively formed by such a society, will be the natural 
 result of the combination of all these elements. 
 As I have said before, things follow their tenden- 
 cies. Counteracting principles may from time to 
 
124 
 
 time be introduced wbicli shall modify for a while 
 the result. But, in the long run, place in inti- 
 mate and exclusive association, a number of 
 young persons ; and a social system such as I 
 have alluded to, will of necessity be formed. The 
 question to be considered here, is therefore this, 
 does a society organized under such circumstances, 
 present a better opportunity for moral cultivation 
 than society at large ? 
 
 Were I disposed to extend these remarks, I 
 might pertinently advert to the effect upon man- 
 ners which is produced by the continued associa- 
 tion of young men, for so long a time, with no 
 others than persons of their own class ; to the 
 waste of time which must result from frivolous con- 
 versation, where the opportunities of conversation 
 are so abundant ; and the ignorance of the w^orld 
 which must necessarily arise from opinions formed 
 in so secluded, so exciting and so unnatural a po- 
 sition. I have however, no desire to press this 
 subject. I. wish merely to present the case in 
 such a light, that those interested in the subject 
 may be able to estimate the advantages to moral 
 cultivation which the present system does and does 
 not possess, in order that they may form a correct 
 opinion of its relative value. 
 
 Another argument in favor of the existing sys- 
 tem is derived from its cheapness. 
 
 In order to decide upon this point of our inquiry 
 correctly, it will be necessary to consider it in 
 respect, first, to the students and secondly^ to the 
 community. 
 
125 
 
 So far as students are concerned, the question 
 to be considered, is simply this, could board and 
 lodging be procured in the vicinity of a College, 
 at as cheap a rate as they are furnished by the 
 College itself. After much reflection on this sub- 
 ject, I am of the opinion that the average differ- 
 ence would be so small as scarcely to be worth 
 taking seriously into the account. If the College 
 buildings yielded a fair interest on the investment, 
 the price of room rent would be much higher than 
 it would be if otherwise procured. I doubt also, 
 whether any thing whatever is saved by boarding 
 in commons. Living in this manner, is always 
 from various causes, unnecessarily expensive. In- 
 asmuch as all pay at the same rate, no one feels 
 the necessity of economy, for no one can enjoy 
 more than a very small portion of the saving of 
 expense which economy secures. And, as no one 
 is willing either to plead poverty, or to be accused 
 of meanness, no one is willing to oppose the de- 
 sire of his neighbors to luxurious living. Hence 
 the expenses of such a table will generally be 
 greater than a large part of the commoners are 
 able to afford, or else complaint and ill nature, in 
 consequence of the quality of the food, will con- 
 tinually arise. The natural remedy for these 
 evils is to allow every pupil to find board for him- 
 self wherever he pleases. When this is permit- 
 ted, every one will provide for himself according 
 to his previous habits and circumstances. The 
 rich will not then press the poor into expenses 
 which they are ill able to afford ; and the poor 
 
126 
 
 will not be obliged to waste their resources in a 
 manner which conduces in no respect to their ad- 
 vantage, from the fear of being considered indi- 
 gent or penurious. The experience of the Col- 
 leges in this country, I believe fully sustains me in 
 these views so far as the experiment has been 
 tried. The case of the English and Scotch Uni- 
 versities is also full in point. The system of the 
 English Universities involves residence, and board 
 the same as our own, and its expensiveness is 
 proverbially great. The Scotch Institutions fur- 
 nish nothing but Education, and leave the pupil to 
 provide every thing else for himself and are pro- 
 verbially cheap. Young men, it is said, frequent- 
 ly come to Edinburgh and Glasgow, from the in- 
 terior counties, and from Ireland, with nothing 
 more than sufficient to pay for their tickets, the 
 rent and fuel of a single room, and the potatoes 
 and salt on which they are to subsist. Such men 
 frequently attain the highest distinction and rise to 
 deserved eminence. No one either knows or asks 
 how or where they live. They appear in their 
 places at the recitation room, and bear away the 
 palm at examinations ; and thus are subject to no 
 mortification from the narrowness of their circum- 
 stances. The system in a word, allows every 
 man to use his means, whatever they may be, in 
 such manner as is most pleasing to himself; and 
 this will in the end always be found the cheapest 
 mode of living. I might add that no Universi- 
 ties in Europe, except those in England, assume 
 the responsibility of providing for the residence 
 
127 
 
 and board of students, and no others are one half 
 so expensive. This expensiveness moreover, 
 does not resuh at all from the high price of tuition 
 in Oxford and Cambridge, for this is by no means 
 excessive ; but merely from the costliness of gen- 
 eral living which such a system necessarily en- 
 genders. 
 
 J am of the opinion therefore that no particular 
 advantage accrues to the student himself so far as 
 expense is concerned from this feature of our 
 system. Let us ask whether it be economical to 
 the community itself. I have already remarked 
 that probably somewhat more than a million and a 
 half of dollars have been invested in New England 
 for the support and maintainence of Collegiate ed- 
 ucation. In consequence of this part of our sys- 
 tem, I suppose that probably twelve hundred 
 thousand dollars of this sum has been expended 
 upon bricks and mortar. If this be a necessary 
 expense, no reasonable objection to it can be made, 
 but, if otherwise, it is a most unfortunate niisap- 
 plication of property. That it is not necessary, 
 is I think evident from the fact that by far tlie 
 greater number of institutions of learning through- 
 out the world do without it. That it possesses no 
 peculiar advantages is evident also from the fact 
 that where this plan is adopted, the expenses of 
 an education are peculiarly great, and the students 
 are not particularly moral. It would seem then, 
 at the best, a matter of doubtful expediency. 
 
 But let us take another view of the subject. 
 
128 
 
 Suppose that this plan had never been adopted, 
 and that the funds thus expended had been appro- 
 priated to the partial (and I would have it no 
 more than partial) endowment of professorships, 
 to the purchase of libraries and instruments of 
 philosophical investigation and illustration ; and 
 that this being done, each professor had been 
 at liberty to render his course as valuable as 
 possible, reaping from his diligence and talent the 
 reward to which he was entitled ; I think that e very- 
 one must be convinced that our Colleges and 
 Universities would have attained to a rank very 
 different from that which tiiey now hold. At 
 present, almost all that these institutions have to 
 exhibit is, a series of buildings for the residence of 
 young men. It would not be difficult to show 
 among us Colleges which have expended a hun- 
 dred thousand dollars in buildings, and yet are al- 
 most entirely destitute of even the rudiments of a 
 library or a philosopliical apparatus. Had the funds 
 thus employed been devoted to furnishing the mate- 
 riel of Education instead of that of residence, we 
 should at this moment have been in the possession 
 of libraries that would vie with those of many 
 European institutions. As it is, we have in this 
 country scarcely any thing that can be called 
 a library. The means do not exist among us 
 for writing a book, which in Europe would be 
 called learned, on almost any subject whatever. 
 I cannot but believe that our destitution in this res- 
 pect is to be ascribed in a great degree to this 
 part of our Collegiate system. 
 
I go still farther. I apply the same principles 
 to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. I 
 have walked over the grounds of Trinity and St. 
 Johns College, Cambridge ; I have admired the 
 unsurpassed beauty of Kings College Chapel ; I 
 have stood beneath the elms of Magdalen College, 
 Oxford, and surveyed the magnificence which 
 crowds upon the eye as it turns in every direction 
 upon that '*^ city of palaces ;" and as I entered 
 quadrangle after quadrangle of the inimitable edi- 
 fices that meet the gaze of the traveller at every 
 turn, a sinking despair has come over my spirit 
 when I reflected that no such glorious yet solemn 
 loveliness would ever greet the eye of man in the 
 land of my birth. It is done, and let it ever 
 remain. Never would I willingly see an angle 
 defaced, or suffer a buttress or a tower, or even an 
 uncouth ornament to moulder away. It is all sa- 
 cred to the past, and it should be kept forever in- 
 violate. But when I reflect that this expenditure, 
 if otherwise appropriated, would have given to 
 Great Britain twenty Universities instead of two, 
 each one offering to the student as ample means 
 of mental cultivation as are enjoyed at present ; and 
 would have also provided such means of education 
 for the poor as would have rendered every native 
 born Englishman a well educated man, I am 
 constrained to say that never was a taste for 
 architectural beauty gratified at so costly a price. 
 A magnificent edifice is a delightful object of con- 
 templation , yet I know not that to the philosopher or 
 philanthropist it is aught more delightful, than the 
 
130 
 
 spectacle of a whole people cultivated to the 
 highest degree of intelligence, free and indepen- 
 dent, moving forward the pioneer of our race in 
 the march of civilization, and scattering broadcast 
 upon the nations "the benefits of knowledge and 
 the blessings of religion." — 
 
 I might here allude to the bearing upon instruc- 
 tors of this part of our system. It would be 
 easy to show that it imposes obligations upon 
 officers which they have no means of adequately 
 discharging ; that, if these duties are discharged 
 faithfully they must of necessity consume a large 
 portion of their time and attention, and greatly 
 interfere with their opportunities of self-improve- 
 ment ; and, that if discharged negligently, great 
 irregularity of habits and loss of character among 
 their pupils must be the necessary result ; but these 
 points I willingly pass over. The question is one 
 of too grave and universal importance to allow of 
 the consideration of individual inconveniences or 
 even individual sacrifices. Still, it is worthy of 
 consideration, that no system is congruous to 
 human nature in which public and private interest 
 do not blend in harmony. If we require self 
 sacrificing duty and ofier but small remuneration, 
 we can expect to engage the services of such men 
 only as have but little to sacrifice. Things, in the 
 long run, will always find their level ; and, de- 
 ceive ourselves as we may, we rarely find that, 
 with all our shrewdness, we can purchase an 
 article worth more than we pay for it. 
 
 From these considerations I have been led to 
 
131 
 
 doubt the wisdom of our present system, in re- 
 spect to residence and discipline. I cannot per- 
 ceive its advantages so clearly as most persons 
 who are interested in Collegiate education, and I 
 seem to myself to foresee advantages in a change, 
 which others may not so readily admit. I may 
 perhaps be permitted to add, that these views are 
 the result of considerable experience. A large 
 portion of my life has been spent within the walls 
 of a College. I do not think that in any situation 
 the lines could have fallen to me in pleasanter 
 places. The relation which I have held with the 
 gendemen with whom I have had the honor to be 
 associated in office, has generally been of the 
 most interesting character. From the young gen- 
 tlemen whom it has been my happiness to instruct, 
 I have received demonstrations of regard beyond 
 my deserts as they were beyond my expectations ; 
 and I feel, at this moment, that I can number 
 them, scattered as they are over our country, as 
 my personal friends. I can cheerfully bear testi- 
 mony to their general diligence, good conduct 
 and honorable bearing. I am influenced in offer- 
 ing these remarks therefore by no disgust at the 
 profession in which so large a portion of my life 
 has been spent. But having devoted myself to 
 the office of an instructor, I feel bound to offer 
 these suggestions, I hope with the sole motive of 
 being useful to the cause of education. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF SOME PREVALENT ERRORS IN REGARD TO COLLEGIATE 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 I HAVE thus far considered the system of Col- 
 legiate education by itself, and have endeavored 
 to point out those of its defects which seem to me 
 to stand most in need of correction. I beg leave 
 now to direct the attention of those who have had 
 the perseverance to follow me thus far, to some 
 prevalent misconceptions on the subject, which 
 need only to be understood, in order to be aban- 
 doned. 
 
 The first of these which I shall consider, is 
 the cost of Collegiate education in this country. 
 It is by many persons believed to be dear. We 
 are continually reminded by all the friends of Col- 
 leges that it will never do to increase our expenses. 
 College education, it is said, must be cheap, or a 
 College cannot be sustained. If a new branch 
 of study is to be introduced, or an additional in- 
 structor to be appointed, or any improvement is 
 suggested, we are told to go on by all means, if 
 the change would be advantageous, only taking 
 care that the education shall not cost any more. 
 And I think that I do not greatly mistake in assert- 
 
13S 
 
 ing that in the larger number of instances parents de- 
 cide upon the institution to which their sons are 
 to be sent, rather by the cheapness of the educa- 
 tion, than by any other fact in the case. And 
 hence it is that to most of the annual cata- 
 logues of Colleges is appended a statement of ex- 
 penses including not only the cost of tuition, board 
 and lodging, but also of fuel, lights, washing, and I 
 know not how many other et ceteras. By a com- 
 parison of these, a parent or student can easily 
 learn which is the cheapest College ; and as all 
 lead to the same degree, that is, all confer the 
 right to attach the same letters to the graduates' 
 name, that which is the least expensive, has the 
 best prospect of success. 
 
 Let us then inquire what is meant when we 
 affirm that an article is cheap. 
 
 If we turn our attention to any article but edu- 
 cation, we can answer the question in a moment. 
 When a product is brought into the market, and 
 we know the cost of its creation, and ascertain 
 that the price merely pays the cost of investment, 
 labor and interest, and yields to the producer the 
 ordinary^ rate of remuneration, we say that it is as 
 cheap as it can be afforded. If it be sold for a less 
 price, the producer must be ruined. If it yield 
 an extravagant remuneration, it is dear, and we 
 know that so long as capital and labor are free, it 
 will be by competition brought down to the average 
 profit of other investments. 
 
 And still more, every one is aware that by no 
 possible shrewdness can we permanently keep an 
 
134 
 
 article below the cost of its production. We 
 may, if we choose, declare that we will not give 
 more than half the price which we hav^e formerly 
 given. But this will not in any manner alter the 
 case. The producer cannot be induced to give 
 away the half of his product. If it cannot be 
 brought to market at our price, he will cease to pro- 
 duce it and we must do with out it ; or else, as is 
 more probable, he will make use of a cheaper 
 and less valuable material, employ less skillful 
 workmen, and produce an article which will af- 
 ford him a reasonable profit at our arbitrary prices. 
 "We get it for a less sum, but we get it no cheap- 
 er ; we pay a low price for a poor article, and have 
 laid out our money in spite of ourselves at a de- 
 cided disadvantage. 
 
 These principles are exceedingly obvious, and 
 they apply as truly to the case of College Educa- 
 tion as to any other. The natural price of such 
 education would be estimated as follows. We 
 should first estimate the amount of capital invested 
 in buildings, libraries, apparatus, and charge upon 
 .this sum the ordinary rate of interest. We should 
 add to this, the salaries of professors and other 
 teachers at the rate of remuneration ordinarily 
 earned by persons employed in similar labor. 
 These two items added together, would form the 
 cost of College education ; and if nothing more 
 were charged, the article would be furnished at its 
 natural price. It would be cheap just in propor- 
 tion as the sum charged fell short of these amounts. 
 
 What now are the facts in this case ? The 
 
135 
 
 whole amount invested in grounds, buildings and 
 libraries, is almost actually sunk ; that is, it is 
 either given to the public outright, or else it is 
 made to pay but a very small rate of interest. In 
 a College, for instance, with which I am acquaint- 
 ed, the property of the Institution, inlands, build- 
 ings, &c., is probably worth one hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars. The interest of this sum would 
 be nine thousand dollars per year. The whole 
 amount paid for the use of it by the students is 
 about eighteen hundred dollars, or less than two 
 per cent. And it is to be remarked that out of 
 this sum is to be deducted all the expenses neces- 
 sary for important repairs. I presume that the 
 College does not receive for this property much 
 more than the nett sum of one per cent. This is 
 certainly as cheap a rate as could be demanded. 
 For the use of this property and the labors of its 
 professors, the College receives of the students 
 about seven thousand five hundred dollars. That 
 is, for the use of its buildings and means of educa- 
 tion, together with the labors of eight officers, it 
 receives fifteen hundred dollars less than it could 
 obtain from this property alone at the ordinary 
 rate of interest. In fact were the property to be 
 sold and the purchase money invested, it could 
 pay a larger salary than at present to its officers, 
 and give away their labors without a cent of remu- 
 neration. 
 
 Were this all, it would be sufficient to establish 
 the truth of what I have asserted. But this is not 
 all. Most Colleges are in possession of funds to 
 
136 
 
 a considerable amount. In some cases the funds 
 are large. But whether large or small they are com- 
 monly given to the public, that is they are appro- 
 priated either to the support of indigent students, 
 or else they are applied to the several purposes of 
 the institution, that is, to the payment of instruc- 
 tors. In this latter case they reduce the price of 
 tuition to the whole public to precisely the amount 
 of their value. In the College to which I have 
 alluded, fifteen hundred dollars annually are appro- 
 priated to this purpose. To how great an ^extent 
 these remarks apply to other Colleges I am not 
 competent to say, but I know that in spirit they 
 apply to all. Whatever means the College may 
 possess are always appropriated upon the same 
 principle, and with the same design, to reduce, as 
 far as possible, the price of tuition. I ask any 
 one in the least acquainted with political economy 
 whether there be any thing in the market as cheap 
 as College education. 
 
 But this is not all. I have thus far only stated 
 that the investment in College education is almost 
 entirely given to the public. The next item of 
 cost is the salaries of teachers. I will now add 
 that I beheve that the instructors of Colleges in 
 this country, are remunerated, at a lower rate 
 than almost any other professional men. ^ I 
 know but very few who are competent to their situ- 
 ation, who might not earn a larger compensation 
 in any other profession. That this is the case, is 
 manifest from the fact that few young men with 
 fair prospects before them can be ever induced to 
 
137 
 
 leave their profession for any office that a College 
 can offer. It is my impression that professorships 
 in New England Colleges vary from six hun- 
 dred to twelve hundred dollars per annum. And 
 I ask, what inducements could such an income 
 offer to a lawyer, physician, or a elegy man, who 
 had only even begun to take rank in his profession. 
 And besides this, it is to be remarked that this sala- 
 ry can very rarely be increased by any efforts 
 of the incumbent. As it is in youth so must he 
 expect it to be in age. It holds out before him 
 the cheerless prospect of circumstances becoming 
 with every year narrower, terminating at last in 
 death which leaves his widow and children, pen- 
 nyless. 
 
 But the officers of Colleges are not only under- 
 paid, if we compare them with men of other pro- 
 fessions ; they are underpaid if compared with 
 private instructors. In any of our large towns a 
 private instructor who is competent to his place 
 receives a handsome remuneration ; a remuneration 
 I presume frequently twice as great as that re- 
 ceived by the professors in the nearest College 
 in his vicinity. The price of tuition in a classi- 
 cal day school, in any of our cities is twice or 
 three times as great as that demanded by Colleges. 
 That is, for the labors of six or eight competent 
 men, you pay but half or one third as much as 
 you pay for the labors of one man. In the one 
 case you require the instructor to be responsible 
 for the conduct of the pupil for the whole four 
 years ; in the other you require of him attendance 
 
138 
 
 only during the hours of study and assume the 
 other responsibihty yourself, in the one case you 
 have the advantage of a very large investment al- 
 most for nothing, in the other no investment is re- 
 quired except the rent of a convenient room or 
 two for the purposes of study and recitation. If 
 this be the case it must appear evident either that 
 the instructors of Colleges are greatly underpaid 
 or else that they are exceedingly unfit for their 
 offices. But whether fit or unfit, whether the ar- 
 ticle which they furnish be good, bad or indifferent, 
 no one reflecting on these facts can for a moment 
 doubt of its cheapness. It is, I have no doubt, 
 afforded to the public at from half to one third of 
 its cost, while the cost itself is reduced from twen- 
 ty-five to fifty per cent, below the ordinary wages 
 of similar labor. 
 
 To a person whose attention has not been at- 
 tracted to this subject, all this may seem strange ; 
 but I am persuaded that I have not spoken in the 
 language of exaggeration. I have never convers- 
 ed on this subject with a gentleman at all acquaint- 
 ed with active business, who was not surprised at 
 the low rate of College expenses. Parents have 
 assured me that they were obliged to send their 
 sons to College because they could not afford to 
 bring them up in a good counting house. For the 
 reasons which I have given, a liberal education 
 for a son, is much less expensive than a corres- 
 ponding education for a daughter. And in a word, 
 it not unfrequently happens that a young man of 
 industrious and frugal habits, who enters College, 
 
139 
 
 with nothing more than one or two hundred dol- 
 lars, by laboring in vacations, and sometimes by 
 devoting an intermediate year to teaching, will 
 graduate without being in debt, and will in a year 
 or two obtain a situation more lucrative than that 
 of most of his instructors. Where this is the 
 case I think there can no complaint be made of 
 the dearness of a Collegiate education. 
 
 I have treated this part of the subject at greater 
 length than I intended, because I think it needs to 
 be understood. I am desirous that this whole 
 matter should be examined ; and I am satisfied 
 that such an examination will result in the general 
 conviction that Collegiate education is not only 
 cheap, but that it is too cheap for the good of ed- 
 ucation. I am sure that every one who reflects 
 upon the subject, will be convinced that the in- 
 structors of Colleges should be remunerated with 
 a larger salary, or else be placed in circumstances 
 in which they may be more able to benefit them- 
 selves by the exercise of their talents. If we pay 
 for nothing but moderate capacity, we shall em- 
 ploy nothing but moderate capacity. And woe be 
 to the cause of Collegiate education when it falls 
 into the hands of third or fourth rate men. I hope 
 that I have made it evident that College education 
 in this country is cheap enough, so cheap that no 
 one can reasonably complain of it on that score. 
 I proceed then to examine another opinion inti- 
 mately connected with this idea of cheapness. 
 
 It is frequently said that this is a republic, here 
 we are all equal, the avenues to distinction are, and 
 
140 
 
 of right ought to be, open to all ; every man wheth- 
 er poor or rich, of whatever occupation, should 
 have the opportunity of improving himself to the 
 utmost ; this is demanded by the nature of our in- 
 stitutions, and it is important to success in the arts 
 as well as necesLsary to the full development of the 
 universal mind. To all this I fully agree. It is 
 the expression of my own long cherished senti- 
 ments. I would foster these ideas to the utmost 
 of my ability, and I wish that they were universal- 
 ly diffused and universally acted upon. I have 
 here only to remark upon the bearing which they 
 have upon the present question. 
 
 1. It is granted that it would be very desirable 
 to establish means, for the improvement in science 
 and the arts, of all classes of the community. I 
 think it desirable that it should be furnished, in 
 many cases, I care not if in all, gratuitously. 
 But I ask if you are about to make a present to 
 your neighbor, is this any reason why you should 
 not pay for it. If you wish to give away educa- 
 tion, is this any reason why instructors should not 
 be as well recompensed as other men. It would 
 certainly be an ambiguous charity to oblige your 
 neighbor to furnish you with his goods at half price 
 because you intended to give them away. Or on 
 the other hand, if you really desire to afford the 
 means of improvement to every citizen, is it wise 
 to pay for his instruction so small a price that the 
 education which he receives is worthless ; so 
 worthless that he will not receive it as a gratuity. 
 Look at our common school system in New Eng- 
 
141 
 
 land. Here we offer to all the means of obtaining 
 a common English education. It is all, in some 
 sense, given away. But is this ever considered as 
 a reason why the instructors should be under- 
 paid. And still further ; where instructors in our 
 schools have been poorly paid, it has been univer- 
 sally acknowledged to be bad economy ; the schools 
 have been badly attended, badly taught, and in ill 
 favor with the public ; on the contrary, where in- 
 structors have received sufficient remuneration, 
 good men have been without difficulty employ- 
 ed ; schools by a change of this kind, have 
 been doubled and almost trebled in numbers, and 
 the system has at once received the favor of the 
 public. If therefore, it be granted that the 
 good of the whole requires the means of education 
 to be open to all, it by no means follows either 
 that teachers should be underpaid, or that the edu- 
 cation should be rendered of but little value, by 
 driving from the profession those who are by talent 
 and discipline, capable of conferring the greatest 
 benefits upon the community. 
 
 But let us examine this argument in another 
 point of light. It is asserted that it is important 
 to present to all men in every rank of life the 
 means of full mental development — and therefore, 
 that Collegiate education must be reduced to the 
 extremest^degree of cheapness. I grant the premi- 
 ses but I deny the conclusion. 
 
 If it be desirable to furnish the means of intel- 
 lectual development to all, and I believe it to be 
 so, then it follows that we should provide the 
 
142 
 
 means of this intellectual culture, either by private 
 munificence or public endowment. I know of but 
 one instance in this country in which this has been 
 done, and that is the instance of the Institution in 
 Boston so nobly endowed by the late Mr. Lowell. 
 By the will of that distinguished benefactor of his 
 native city, a provision has been made for the gra- 
 tuitous delivery of courses of Lectures to the citi- 
 zens of Boston on the most important branches of 
 Science. The design has been carried out ac- 
 cording to the intention of the testator, and with 
 the most triumphant success. The ablest talent of 
 New England, and even of Europe, has been se- 
 cured for this service, and the lectures have been 
 attended by thronged audiences which have filled 
 one of the largest rooms in the city. The benefit 
 which this charity will confer upon the citizens of 
 Boston in awakening the slumbering intellect, in 
 stimulating the active mind to more zealous inqui- 
 ry, and in binding together in one, all the different 
 classes of society will be incalculable. And 
 I think I may add that the success of this ex- 
 periment has arisen in no small degree from the 
 tact that the institution has been conducted on prin- 
 ciples analogous to those which I have suggested. 
 Listead of frittering away the means at his disposal 
 by creating a large amount of tolerably good in- 
 struction, the gentleman under whose control the 
 bequest has been placed, has determined to render 
 it as valuable as this or any other country could 
 supply. The lecture room has become a centre of 
 universal attraction. How different would have 
 
143 
 
 been the result, had courses of inferior lectures 
 been delivered in every school district in the city. 
 No one would have accepted the gift, for no one 
 would have thought it worth his acceptance, and 
 the whole charity would have been a failure. 
 
 I say then that granting the importance of pro- 
 viding means of intellectual cultivation for all the 
 community the only inference from the assumption 
 is that such means ought to be provided. I hope 
 the time will come when all our large towns as 
 well as our cities will be thus endowed. But I 
 say that Colleges are not at present such insti- 
 tutions ; they are at present merely schools prepar- 
 atory to entrance upon some one of the professions. 
 Whether therefore tuition be cheap or dear, the 
 argument stated above can have no reference to 
 them. Whether it be cheap or dear, the College 
 as at present constituted, can be of no service 
 to those classes of the community referred to in the 
 argument. 
 
 I say a College with us is not an establi^iTmen^-- 
 for the instruction of any one in whatever he 
 pleases, but for instruction in a particular course, 
 and that in consequence of its forming an isolated 
 society it naturally repels from its association 
 all who are not engaged in similar pursuits. 
 Now this being the case the question at once 
 arises, is there any reason why the public should 
 make a special effort merely to increase the 
 number of professional men. If a man wishes 
 to pursue one profession rather than another, 
 or to change the profession which he has already 
 
144 
 
 chosen, he has a perfect right to do so. But is he 
 therefore an object of charity ? Are we in 
 special need of recruits to fill the ranks of the pro- 
 fessions ? Or still more, because he wishes to 
 enter a profession is it desirable in order to accom- 
 modate him that we reduce the price of tuition in 
 such a manner as to render the tuition itself of 
 small value not only to him but to all the rest of 
 the community. 
 
 But it will doubtless be asked why should not 
 these means of general improvement be con- 
 nected with Collegiate establishments. Why 
 should not professors in Colleges deliver courses 
 of lectures which would be attractive to the whole 
 community ; and why should not the means which 
 are at present available to a part be made availa- 
 ble to the whole ? I answer at once, I see no 
 reason whatever why it should not be so. I 
 think that such an arrangement would be a great 
 benefit to the officers, the College, and the com- 
 munity. It would open to the instructor a wide 
 and attractive field of professional exertion. It 
 would enlist in favor of the College all the sym- 
 pathies of the public, and it would spread before 
 the whole people such means for intellectual 
 improvement as the necessities or tastes of each 
 individual might demand. 
 
 I am aware that in order to accomplish this 
 result some changes must be effected in our 
 College system, and if this instruction is to be 
 gratuitous, additional professorships must be en- 
 dowed. The professor must be relieved from 
 
145 
 
 much of the pohce duty which devolves upon 
 him at present. A variety of courses of instruc- 
 tion must be provided for, which do not enter into 
 our present arrangements. But I see no insuper- 
 able difficulty in devising a plan which might meet 
 the exigency, specially if such changes should be 
 introduced into our system as I have elsewhere 
 suggested. It is not, however, my intention to 
 enter upon the discussion of this subject. My 
 object is merely to show that the importance of 
 the diffusion of valuable knowledge only teaches 
 us that means for accomplishing so desirable an 
 object should be provided ; that it does not apply 
 to Colleges which are merely professional schools ; 
 or that if it apply to them at all, it merely 
 goes to prove that they might confer a much 
 wider benefit upon the community were they ena- 
 bled to modify their present system and greatly 
 enlarge their foundations. 
 
 But it will here be asked, what is to be done 
 for our students for the ministry, if the expenses 
 of Colleges are increased. How shall the churches 
 of our land be supplied with pastors. I answer 
 first, if the ministry be adequately supported, and 
 duly sustained, there will be no difficulty in this 
 respect. We shall surely confer no benefit on the 
 ministry by hiring men to enter it, by the promise 
 of an education, and then keeping them in pov- 
 erty for the rest of their lives. I answer again, 
 this is a question respecting general education, and 
 is therefore to be judged of upon its own merits. 
 If our arrangements for the education of the 
 10 
 
146 
 
 ministry are at variance with the general advance- 
 ment of the community, our arrangements must be 
 changed. If we wish to educate a young man 
 for the ministry, there is no reason why we should 
 not pay that price for his education which shall se- 
 cure the best instruction both to him and to every 
 one else. To do otherwise would be to inflict 
 an injury both upon ourselves and upon the 
 public. In a word, when we are deliberating upon 
 a plan for the intellectual improvement of the 
 whole community, let us keep that object simply 
 and steadily in view, and we may be assured that 
 if the good of the whole be promoted the good 
 of the part cannot be neglected. 
 
 I had intended in this place to inquire into 
 the tendencies of the present system of ministe- 
 nal education and trace out the probable results 
 of creating a general fund, (as is the case with 
 education societies,) for the use of all persons who 
 are willing to prepare for the sacred office ; and 
 also to inquire into the expediency of multiplying 
 Colleges, as they have of late been multiplied by 
 all the religious sects. I have supposed it easy to 
 show that from this latter cause, the supply of 
 professional education has far outrun the demand, 
 and, as in every similar case, led to what may 
 be cahed, for the want of a better name, under- 
 bidding each other ; and that it has thrown the 
 responsibility of their support, not on the results 
 of their own labor, but on the charities of the 
 sect by which they have been established. But 
 all this I willingly waive. I fear that many of 
 
147 
 
 these benevolent efforts will prove monuments 
 rather of the charity than the wisdom of the 
 present generation. As however this topic does 
 not fall directly within the range of the present 
 undertaking, I cheerfully leave the discussion of 
 it to others. 
 
 In answer to all that I have said. I am perfectly 
 aware that it may be urged that I am recommend- 
 ing dear instead of cheap education ; that I wish 
 to restrict the number of educated men ; and that 
 all this is at variance with the nature of our insti- 
 tutions. To the suggestion I can only reply 
 that I can conceive of no motive which should 
 induce an American citizen either to entertain 
 or to promulgate such an opinion. As to the 
 charge of wishing to render education dear, I reply 
 in the first place that nothing that I have said is, so 
 far as I know, chargable with this inference. It 
 has been commonly taken for granted that our first 
 and most important business is to make educa- 
 tion cheap. This assumption I have denied and 
 on the contrary have asserted that our most im- 
 portant business is to make it good ; that its 
 goodness is our first concern, and its cheapness 
 only secondary ; and that by seeking first of all 
 to render it cheap we were in danger of render- 
 ing it useless. 
 
 But this is not all, I have endeavored to show 
 that by multiplying Colleges, and spending so 
 large an amount of our funds in buildings, we have 
 rendered our means for the reduction of the 
 price of tuition almost useless. I also believe 
 
143 
 
 that another system might be adopted which by- 
 attracting a greater number of students, and stim- 
 ulating teachers to greater energy and efficiency, 
 would attract higher talent to the professional 
 chair ; without in the least increasing the expenses 
 of each individual pupil. What I propose then 
 in this respect, may be briefly summed up as 
 follows: Let the education in our Colleges and 
 Universities be exact, generous and thorough ; 
 let it be rendered capable of improvement, and let 
 it be for the interest of all connected it with to im- 
 prove it, whether it cost more or less than at 
 present ; And secondly let it be rendered as cheap 
 as is consistent with goodness ; and still more, 
 let provision be made either in connexion with 
 Colleges or independently of them, for the wide 
 dissemination of knowledge in science and the 
 arts ; and let this knowledge be of the very best 
 description which American scholarship can sup- 
 ply. Such are in few words ray sentiments on 
 this subject, and I hope that I have not uttered any 
 thing at variance with them. 
 
 I close this chapter with one other remark ; it 
 is upon the commonly received notion that a 
 course of education must be popular. If by 
 being popular it is meant that it must follow every 
 whim of the day, and introduce or discard 
 studies because for the time being they may be in 
 vogue or out of it ; if it be meant that our course 
 of discipline must change at the will of every 
 popular convention which may endorse the theo- 
 retical notions of an educational reformer, I must 
 
149 
 
 be permitted to live a little longer in doubt of the 
 assertion. If it however be meant that it must 
 commend itself to the good sense and patriotism 
 of the American people, I assent to it most cor- 
 dially. Nothing which is not popular in this 
 sense can be or ought to be sustained. But in 
 order to secure this kind of popularity, we must 
 strive to render education good. We must adopt 
 our plans not only for the present but for the fu- 
 ture ; we must honestly strive to render our whole 
 course of higher education as valuable and as 
 universally available as possible. We must not 
 only do this but we must spread before the pub- 
 lic our reasons for so doing and explain the man- 
 ner in which we intend to accomplish it. I do 
 most honestly believe that by so doing we shall 
 carry the whole community with us. If we would 
 be popular let us remember that we can never 
 attain our end by aiming at it directly. The ap- 
 probation of our fellow citizens will in the end be 
 conferred not on those who desire to please 
 them, but on those, who honestly do them good. 
 Popularity is valuable when it follows us, not when 
 we run after it ; and he is most sure of attaining it, 
 who, caring nothing about it, honestly and in sim- 
 plicity, and kindness earnestly labors to render his 
 fellow men wiser, and happier, and better. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 I HAVE thus considered at considerable length, 
 some of the most important points of our present 
 Collegiate system. Unless I have been greatly 
 deceived I have shown that this system calls 
 for serious revision ; if we desire that it should 
 be adapted to the existing wants of the commu- 
 nity. 
 
 I propose in these few concluding remarks to 
 review briefly the points which I suppose to call 
 most loudly for attentive consideration. I beg 
 leave, however, to repeat what I have often stated 
 before, that I only present these topics as matters 
 for consideration. I by no means suppose it prac- 
 ticable, or even wise were it practicable, to trans- 
 form all our Colleges at once, in order to conform 
 them to the plans which I have indicated. There 
 is a demand for a change in our Collegiate system. 
 Changes are from time to time effected, without 
 as it would seem, any great practical improvement. 
 My object is simply to point out the objects at 
 which we should aim in our attempts at change. 
 If it should seem that in any respects I have in- 
 dicated the direction in which we should move, 
 
151 
 
 let US move in that direction. If I have illustrated 
 the evils under which we labor, let us strive to re- 
 move them. If I have totally failed in this at- 
 tempt, let some one better qualified accomplish 
 the task more successfully. But at any rate, let 
 us have the object which we desire to attain placed 
 full in our own' view, and in the view of the wliole 
 community ; and let us all labor for its accom- 
 plishment, sincerely, earnestly and harmoniously. 
 In this manner alone, can we hope to improve the 
 condition of higher education throughout our 
 country. 
 
 1 . / begin then with the Corporations^ or Boards 
 of Visitors^ in our Colleges. On them devolves, in 
 truth, the incipient action which shall effect this 
 whole subject. They are the appointed guardians 
 of education. In them is vested the whole power 
 of ordering, directing and governing the institutions 
 of higher learning. They hold . all the funds 
 appropriated ehher by private or public munifi- 
 cence to the purpose of elevating the standard of 
 knowledge in the youth of our country. They 
 appoint and remove ofiicers, fix the rate and man- 
 ner of their compensation, ordain the studies to be 
 pursued, and on them it is devolved to see that 
 the designs of the public or the founder are car- 
 ried into effect. This power can be exercised by 
 no other person whatever. So long as they hold 
 their office, no one else can act in the premises, 
 without usurpation. If they do not act according 
 to their solemn promises, no action can be had. 
 Such being their power and their responsibility. 
 
152 
 
 I beg leave most respectfully to remind them of 
 their duty. Unless they make themselves ac- 
 quainted with the subject of education, unless they 
 will devote to the proper duties of their office a por- 
 tion of their time, unless they will assume the re- 
 sponsibiHty which must be incurred by efficient ac- 
 tion, unless in a word they will make an earnest 
 effort to improve^^ the present system of education^ 
 on them a charge of grave dereliction of duty will 
 rest. If, as is doubdess in many instances the 
 case, their organization is imperfect, it may be 
 modified. If the duties to be discharged are 
 onerous, they may be divided among them. In 
 the officers of Colleges, they will, I am convinced, 
 find ready and active coadjutors. If these two 
 principal agents in the Collegiate system seriously 
 undertake a revision of its fundamental principles, 
 I am convinced that they will confer a most im- 
 portant benefit on the community. It is in their 
 power to extend the blessings of higher education 
 very widely among all classes of our fellow citi- 
 zens, and also render education incomparably 
 more valuable than it has ever been in this country. 
 But the work must commence with the visitors. 
 To them it properly appertains. They owe it to 
 the public to whom they are responsible. They 
 owe it to the rising youth of our country, who in 
 this respeci, are placed specially under their pupil- 
 lage. They owe it to their God who has com- 
 mitted to their charge so solemn a responsibility, 
 and placed in their hands in no small degree,^ the 
 destinies of this great republic. I cannot believe 
 
153 
 
 for a moment that they wiJl be recreant to so 
 grave and important a trust. 
 
 2. Of the Organization of our Colleges. Our 
 Colleges as I have already remarked are at present 
 scarcely any thing more than schools for the 
 education of young men for the professions. So 
 long as we continue the present organization 
 they can be no other. While we construct our 
 system for this purpose and adhere to a regular 
 gradation of classes and prescribed studies for 
 each, we may make what changes we please, 
 but the regular course will control every other. 
 But while we have made our College course a 
 mere preparation for professionsal education, we 
 have so crowded it with studies as to render it 
 superficial and probably less valuable for its 
 particular purpose than it was originally. I 
 am not sure that we are not already suffering 
 from the effect of the course which we have 
 pursued. I rather fear that the impression is 
 gaining ground that this preparation is not essen- 
 tial to success in professional study. A large 
 proportion of our medical students are not gradu- 
 ates. The proportion of law students of the 
 same class is, I rather think, increasing. The pro- 
 portion of students for the ministry who resort to 
 College is much larger than formerly. This is 
 owing in no small degree, to the aid of education 
 societies. What would be the case if this aid 
 were out of the question, I am unable to determine. 
 If these things be so, it would seem that while we 
 have been restricting our Collegiate education to 
 
1-54 
 
 one class, its value by that class is less and less 
 appreciated. 
 
 But while this is the case, in consequence of 
 this unintentional restriction, a very large class of 
 our people have been deprived of all participation 
 in the benefits of higher education. It has been 
 almost impossible in this country, for the mer- 
 chant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, to educate 
 his son, beyond the course of a common academy 
 unless he gave him the education preparatory for 
 a profession. This was not the education which 
 he wanted, and of course, his son has been de- 
 prived: of the cultivation which the parent was 
 able and wilHng to bestow. Now the class of so- 
 ciety that is thus left unprovided for, constitutes 
 the bone and sinew, the very choicest portion of 
 this or of any community. They are the great 
 agents of a production, they are the safest depos- 
 itories of political power. It is their will, that, in 
 the end, sways the destinies of the nation. It is 
 of the very highest importance, on every account, 
 that this portion of a people should possess every 
 facility for the acquisition of knowledge and intel- 
 lectual discipline. Nothing would tend so much 
 to the progress of wealth among us as the diffu- 
 sion throughout the whole people of a knowledge 
 of the principles of science, and the application 
 of science to the arts. And besides, a knowl- 
 edge of moral and intellectual philosophy, of the 
 fundamental principles of law, of our own consti- 
 tution, of history, of vegetable and animal physi- 
 ology, and of many other sciences is just as ne- 
 
155 
 
 cessaiy and just as appropriate to the merchant, 
 the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the farmer, 
 as to the lawyer, the clergyman, or the physician. 
 Why should it be supposed that all higher knowl- 
 edge should be engrossed exclusively by the pro- 
 fessions. If a man wishes to give his son a good 
 education why should he be obliged to make him 
 a lawyer, a physician, or a clergyman. Why 
 should not the highest intellectual endowment, 
 cultivated by the best preparatory discipline be 
 found in every mode of occupation. And if this 
 be so why has this whole subject been so long 
 neglected among us. Is it not time that our sys- 
 tem should in this matter undergo a complete and 
 radical revision. 
 
 What I would propose on this subject then is 
 briefly as follows. In the first place let the 
 course preparatory to a profession be distinctly 
 marked out and let it be generous and thorough. 
 Let it embrace such branches of study as are par- 
 ticularly necessary for fitting men for the profess- 
 ions, and let it be carried on to such an extent as 
 shall communicate enlarged and generous knowl- 
 edge, and vigorous mental discipline. But while 
 this is done let our system be so enlarged in its 
 provisions that the means of education in other 
 branches may be open to all who choose to avail 
 themselves of them. Let there be established 
 courses of lectures on all the subjects which I 
 have specified, and as many more as may be ne- 
 cessary, to which men of all classes may resort. 
 Let there be no compulsory residence, let every 
 
156 
 
 man come by ticket, and let him be admitted to 
 every privilege which the nature of the case de- 
 mands. In a word let the College be the grand 
 centre of intelligence to all classes and conditions 
 of men, diffusing among all the light of every kind 
 of knowledge, and approving itself to the best feel- 
 ings of every class of the community. Let it, 
 besides being a preparatory school to the profess- 
 ions, be a Lowell Listitute to the region in which 
 it is placed. I know of nothing that would tend 
 so strongly to promote the growth of wealth and 
 civilization and refinement among us. Nothing 
 would so surely annihilate that division of the com- 
 munity into classes, which, already, in spite of our 
 democratic institutions, threatens the direst evils 
 to our republic. 
 
 3. Of the Officers of Colleges. I have in the 
 preceding pages endeavored to set forth the evils 
 of our present organization in this respect. I would 
 suggest the importance of opening our professor- 
 ships to a freer competition, so that the College 
 may have the benefit of a choice from all the tal- 
 ent that is willing to employ itself in the profes- 
 sion of instruction. Besides this I would have the 
 emolument of every professor so adjusted that he 
 shall feel directly the results of his diligence and 
 ability, or of his indolence and inefficiency. There 
 can be no reason why a teacher in College should 
 not be placed under the same inducements to labor 
 as any other man. Li no other way can we ex- 
 pect him to devote his whole talent with earnest- 
 ness to his profession. On no other principles 
 
157 
 
 can we expect the cause of education to be sus- 
 tained with the vigor and efficiency which its im- 
 portance so clearly demands. 
 
 If it be said that this is impracticable, then there 
 are other means which must be resorted to. The 
 College must be placed under close and active su- 
 pervision. The board of visitors must annually 
 examine its condition, and without fear, favor or 
 affection, remove from time to time, every unsuit- 
 able incumbent. This would accomplish the same 
 result in another way, but it would be an onerous, 
 an unpleasant and an odious duty. It is better to 
 construct the system in such manner, that an ineffi- 
 cient officer would have no desire to remain, than 
 to make the place desirable for him and then dis- 
 place him by an arbitrary act. 
 
 4. Of the Discipline of our Colleges. I have 
 endeavored to show that our discipline is too 
 lax for the young, and unnecessarily strict for 
 the older students. Two methods would present 
 themselves for relieving this embarrassment. The 
 one is to admit no student until he had attained to 
 the age of self government, and then leave him to 
 his own responsibility. The other would be to 
 admit the young, but place them under stricter su- 
 pervision. I think that either plan would have ad- 
 vantages over our present system. How far such 
 a change could be carried into effect, I must leave 
 to the judgment of the officers of each particular 
 institution. I am however well convinced that our 
 Colleges would be greatly improved by raising the 
 requirements of admission to the regular or pro- 
 
158 
 
 fessional course so high that the student might be 
 obhged to spend a year or two years longer in the 
 grammar school. The studies of most of our 
 Colleges during the first year, might be more suc- 
 cessfully pursued in school under the eye of the 
 instructor, than within the walls of an University. 
 A change of this kind would be greatly for the ad- 
 vantage both of the College, and of the grammar 
 school. And if the plan which I have suggested 
 were carried into effect, that is, if the advantages 
 of the institution were thrown open to every class 
 of society, this extension of the requirements 
 might the more easily be enforced. There would 
 be no crowding into the regular course, of those 
 who enter merely for the sake of the benefit of 
 particular studies, and who wish to graduate at the 
 earliest practicable age. Their object could be 
 accomplished more successfully in another way. 
 Each course of instruction would stand on its own 
 merits, and the object of the institution would be 
 to render each one as perfect as the nature of the 
 case would permit. 
 
 On the subject of residence in College, I have 
 already suggested an opinion It seems to me 
 that in investing so large a portion of our funds in 
 erecting domitories, we have committed an error. 
 The funds have however been thus appropriated, 
 and they cannot be recalled. Were the system 
 of residence abandoned, these buildings could be 
 of no use except for the residence of professors. 
 If this part of our plan be injudicious, we can 
 however cease to repeat our error. We can re- 
 
159 
 
 frain from spending any more of our money in 
 this manner. And we can, as opportunity occurs, 
 try the experiment of allowing residence out of 
 College. If it be found on a fair trial to succeed, 
 it will at least demonstrate the important fact that 
 a College or University can be established, with all 
 the means of instruction which we now possess, at 
 half or one third of the expense which it now in- 
 volves. This will certainly be an important addi- 
 tion to our knowledge on the subject. 
 
 5. Of Premiums. I have alluded to the impor- 
 tance of this mode of stimulants in a course of 
 education. I will only add that I would extend 
 the benefit of this incentive to every branch of 
 knowledge taught by a College, not merely to the 
 regular preparatory course, but to every other. 
 Were this done, I am persuaded that a keen and 
 honorable emulation would be excited among all 
 classes of students. Prizes would be borne away 
 by young men in every occupation. Mechanics, 
 Farmers, Merchants and Manufacturers, would vie 
 with their fellows preparing for the professions, 
 and would as often be entitled to the distinction 
 conferred upon merit. The effect of this upon 
 all classes of the community would be incalculable, 
 and I can conceive of no case in which it would 
 not be beneficial. In this manner also, deserving 
 young men of narrow means might be most ad- 
 vantageously assisted. The prize, if in money, 
 would materially reheve their wants, while instead 
 of being bestowed as an alms, it would be con- 
 ferred as a reward of merits ; instead of depressing 
 
160 
 
 the recipient by proclaiming his poverty, it would 
 distinguish him in the eyes of the community as 
 one who had deserved well. I believe that if a 
 large part of the funds appropriated in our Col- 
 leges for the support of the indigent were distribu- 
 ted in this manner, it would have the most benefi- 
 cial effect upon the cause of education. 
 
 Here T close these remarks which have, I fear, 
 been already too far extended. It has been my 
 lot to speak chiefly of the defects of our system of 
 education. It would have been much more 
 agreeable to treat of its excellencies, which I be- 
 lieve to be great and manifold. To speak of 
 these however, did not come within the scope of 
 my design, which was merely to take notice of 
 those things which need to be improved. The 
 motive with which I have written, so far as I am 
 conscious of it, has been to contribute my mite 
 towards the improvement of higher education in 
 our country. I offer it to the consideration of the 
 public with unfeigned diffidence, in the humble 
 hope that it may in a small degree contribute to 
 the wider diffusion of intellectual cultivation among 
 all classes of the community. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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