OF THE I
I  I
OF M * - P
OF M ISSISSIP PI.
BY
FREDERICK A. P. BARNARD, LL.D.,
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.
OXFORD:
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.
1858.
UNIVERSITY 
I      7
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I
.e 
T R U S T E E S
OF TIIE
~
HIS EXCELLENCY WILLIAM McWILLIE.
R~crtiar1 Ull  rasIrmtr
iHON. JAMES M. HIOWRY.
HON. JAMES ALEXANDER VENTRESS,
HON. ISAAC N. DAVIS,....
HON. JAMES M. HOWRY,...
HON. ALEXANDER H. PEGUES,..
JAMES BROWN, ESQ.,...
HON. WILLIAM L. SHARKEY,..
GEORGE H. YOUNG, ESQ.,..
HoN. COTESWORTH P. SMITH,..
HON. JOHN J. McRAE,...
WILLIAM F. DOWD, ESQ.,...
HON. J. W. CLAPP,...
HoN. CHARLES CLARK,...
HoN. ALEX. M. CLAYTON,.
Zniltivrrsit   of  Sig~is~i#pt.
. _ 
ra,
FXf~iBR11t.
WVOODVILLE.
PANOLA CO.
OXFORD.
LA FAYETTE CO.
OXFORD.
JACKSON.
WAVERLEY.
'WO ODVILLE.
CLARK CO.
ABERDEEN.
HOLLY SPRINGS.
BOLIVAR CO.
MARSHALL CO. 
I
I 
LETTER.
TO THIE AEMBERS OF
THE BOARD OF
TRUSTEES OF TEHE UNIYERSITY OF MIISSISSIPPI:
GENTLEMEIN:   CERTAIN matters of weight relating to the system of
education and instruction pursued in this institution,
have long appeared to the undersigned to require, when
the fitting moment should arrive, your deliberate and
careful attention.  The undersigned has therefore, for
the last two or three years, constantly cherished the
purpose to lay these matters before you, so soon as the
internal condition of the University, in regard to its instrumenltal means and material conveniences for impart
ing instruction of the highest order, should have begun
to approximate to that degree of perfection at which
you have been so steadily and perseveringly aiming
That period, accelerated by the provision made by the
Legislature of the State, at its session of 1856, in response to your appeal, appears now to have arrived;
I
anih-rzit2 of                g'SSI[I    Ttjut la,   5. 
LETTER.
and there remains no longer any reason why the consideration of the matters to wilich allusion has just been
made should be any longer deferred.
In the beginning, it may seem proper to explain for
what reason the undersigned has chosen to adopt the
present form of communication with the members of
your honorable body, instead of awaiting the period of
your stated annual meeting, and embodying the topics
here discussed into the usual official report of the head
of the University. Were these topics such as to call
only for ordinary legislation, this latter course would
undoubtedly be the most appropriate. But involving,
as they do, a consideration of the expediency of introducing into the arrangement and division of the
subjects embraced in the educational course already
existing, changes of some considerable moment, it is
eminently desirable that they should be made subjects
of more mature and deliberate reflection, than tlhe
usually brief duration of your annual sessions allows;
and it will no doubt be considered by yourselves also
an advantage to be al)le to make them a subject of consultation withl the friends of education  among  the
people of the State, before you shall be called on to
pass upon them your final judgment. These reasons
have determined the undersigned to express his views
in the form of a circular letter, issued long enough before the period of your annual assembling, to enable
you to bring to the meeting opinions unembarrassed by
hesitation or doubt.
6 
LETTER.
It need hardly be called to your attention that the
educational world has long been agitated by the question, whether the American college system has not
failed to keep pace with the intellectual advancement
of the age in which we live.  So large have been the
conquests of mind, especially in the field of physical
science, during the present century, that a much more
considerable amount of positive knowledge is now expected of a liberally educated man, than was the case
when the system originated. Such knowledge it is demanded that the colleges shall impart; yet the popular
voice, in making this demand, disregards almost entirely
the consideration that the college system, in its theory,
contemplates not so much the communication of knowledge as the discipline and training of the intellectual
powers. And the attempt to silence the importunity
by holding up this consideration, is practically vain;
for if the value of the knowledge and its necessity to
the completeness of a finished education be admitted,
the fact that it can nowhere be generally obtained if
not in colleges, is alwvays deemed a sufficient reply  It
is therefore claimed that, however exclusive of all purposes but one may have been the original idea of the
system, the condition of the world forbids that it should
longer continue to be so. It is claimed that the necessity of the age requires of colleges, that they should
no longer teach merely with the view, through the exercise of the mind upon the subjects taught, to develop
the intellectual powers; but that, besides this, they
7 
LETTER.
should mnake knowledge itself, for its uses, the end of
their teaching, and should therefore, teach much more
than was esteemed necessary-more, in fact, than existed
to be taught-a century ago. The colleges have tacitly
admitted the justice of this claim. They have yielded
to the urgency of a demand which they saw no means
of resisting. They have adopted successively into their
course, many studies which have no especial disciplinary value, and many which, fifty years ago, were not
regarded as having any proper place there. In some
instances this has undoubtedly been done in the sincere
hope of enlarging their usefulness; in others, through
the apprehension of a loss of public patronage, without;
and in others still, merely from a spirit of imitation.
But, in the mean time, the period covered by the entire
course has remained unaltered. AIuch more in quantity
is nominally taught, but no greater length of time is
devoted to the teaching.   The conclusion is therefore
irresistible, either that the original design of the college
is no longer perfectly secured, or that the additional
subjects are very inadequately taught, or-a supposition
more probable than either-that both these disadvantages exist together.
That the efficiency of the college course, considered
as a system of intellectual discipline, has been impaired
by the additions which have been made to it, is a point
which need hardly be argued; for it is self-evident that
if it were tolerably well adjusted in the beginning, it
must now be excessively overloaded.  Nor need we seek
8 
LETT ER.
to fortify the argument by insisting on the comparatively imperfect adaptation of many of the added
studies to the purposes of mental training; since, whatever may be their character in this respect, it is impossible that they should be productive of beneficial effects
except in proportion as they can be mastered within the
time allotted to them.  However trub it iBay be that
the mind is improved and strengthened by the pro
cesses through which it is informed, it is certainly not
reasonable to look for such results from those hasty or
confused operations which fail clearly to inform it. It
is only those efforts of the understanding which termi
nate in a consciousness of real mastery over a subject of
thought, which, in an educational point of view, are
truly useful; and it is certain that the instruction given
in colleges is, in this sense, just so far thrown away as
it leads to the formation of superficial, vague, or
shadowy notions of truth.
Should the conjecture be hazarded that the evil here
charged upon a system, is possibly due only to the inefficiency of men-that if the knowledge imparted by our
colleges upon many of the subjects which they professedly teach, is actually imperfect and vague, the fault is
to be ascribed to want of zeal or ability in the teachers,
and not to the nature of things-it appears to the undersigned that the injustice of such an imputation may
easily be made to appear.   For this purpose it will be
quite sufficient to consider in detail the various subjects
in science and letters which the course embraces, and
9 
LETTER.
to compare the aggregate with the limited time which
is allotted to their study. If we reduce this time to
days or weeks, and then divide it by the total number
of subjects, the result will be to indicate, of course,
what is the average space allotted to each particular
subject within the four years to which the course extends.   Inasmuch, however, as tlhe pressure is chiefly
on the two latter years, and as it is to these that the encroachments made by modern additions have been principally confined, it will be by considering them apart
from the earlier years, that the disproportion between
matter and time will be made most striking.
Now, if we examine the curriculum of study as laid
down in the prospectus of the University of Mississippi,
we shall find that, during the Junior and Senior years,
we profess to give instruction in four languages besides
the English-two of  them  introduced  during  these
years for the first time and that to these subjects
we add the History of Ancient Literature, Ethics,
Metaphysics, Political Economy, Natural Philosophy,
Astronomy, Civil Engineering, Chemistry, M-ineralogy,
Geology, International Law, and Constitutional Law-v-in
all sixteen subjects, most or all of them of great extent.
The time allotted to the study of these, deduction being
made for examinations, amounts to two sessions of forty
weeks each, in all eighty weeks; which allows, upon
an average, five weeks to each study. But if we consider that several of the titles here enumerated are general titles, embracing under them several subordinate
10 
LETTER.
but quite distinct subjects, it will be immediately evident that even the small average of time above stated
must be still further reduced.   Several of the subjects
of Natural Philosophy cohere so loosely as hardly to
be united except by a common name.   Astronomy has
three or four ramifications, broadly distinct.  General
Chemistry has two large sub-divisions;  and applied
Chemistry, as related to metallurgy, to manufactures, to
medicine, to agriculture, and to analysis, several more.
Geology is descriptive, theoretic, and economical; and
Paleontology, an allied science, has attained a position
almost independent.   Civil Engineering is a mixed
science, involving many applications of mathematical
principles and physical laws, and in addition to these,
the gathered results of much actual observation and
experiment, and the practical rules of several mechanic
arts.   Should we, thlerefore, endeavor to subdivide the
material embraced under the several titles drawn, as
above, from the publislhe programme of the University
course, into portions each sufficiently differing from
those with which it is associated to justify its distinct
enumeration as a separate subject of study, we should
obtain as a result a total of between thirty and forty;
and by consequence, an allotment to each of little more
than two weeks.
It is true that the system of instruction pursued in
colleges, founded, as it is, on the principle of keeping
the several faculties of the mind in proportionate and
enarly simultaneous activity, requires that several of the
11 
L E T T E R.
studies above enumerated should be pursued together;
so that no one of these subjects is actually dismissed in
the short time which these calculations would assign to
it. But it is no less true that, however long any one of
them may continue to constitute a part of the daily
employment of the student, it cannot actually, in the
final aggregate, occupy a greater portion of his attention than the computation shows; or, at least, that if it
should do so, the advantage could only be secured at
the expense of the rest.  This exhibit is, therefore,
sufficient in itself to demonstrate that if there be superficiality in the attainments of the graduates of our colleges, this fault, or this evil, is not fairly chargeable to
the instructors.   It is the system itself which has become vitiated by the attempt to make it accomplish
something inconsistent with its original design.
The evil has been the growth of years. It has accumulated by degrees almost imperceptible. Each successive addition has probably seemed inconsiderable to
those who made it, but the united sum has become intolerable.   Could it, in the nature of things, have been
possible that a proposition should at any one time have
been made for a sudden change from the system as it
existed a century ago to the system of to-day, it is inconceivable that it should have been entertained by
enlightened educators for a moment.
There can be no doubt that the views here presented
have taken a strong hold of the minds of the friends of
education throughout the United States. There can be
12
L. 
LETTER.
no doubt of the existence of a disposition widely extended, to adopt some mode of relieving the course of
undergraduate study in our colleges of some part of its
excessive burthen. This- has manifested itself in various
ways.  It has manifested itself, in some instances, in the
introduction of parallel courses of study, as at Brown
University, the University of Rochester, Union College,
and partially at Harvard. It has manifested itself in
attempts to throw open all the departments of learning
to the choice of the undergraduate student, after the
plan,of the University of Virginia- an institution which
has pursued this policy from the beginning; but this
expedient, however apparently successful in that now
celebrated seminary, has elsewhere usually entailed infinite annoyance, and not seldom disaster, upon those who
have adopted it. It has manifested itself, again, in a
manner more visibly productive of valuable results in
the creation, in connection with some of our colleges,
of extra-collegiate departments, devoted mainly to theoretic and practical science, and to the applications of
Chemistry and Philosophy to the arts. And finally, it
has manifested itself in the establishment, in a college
which had previously presented but a single course of
study terminating in the degree of Bachelor of Arts, of
a second course, intended to commence where the first
ends, and leading to the higher degree of Master of
Arts.
This last mode of dealing with the case has long
seemed to the undersigned to be the most judicious; and
13 
LETT ER.
its adoption in this University has seemed to him to be
the measure best adapted to increase the usefulness of
the institution, while possessing the additional recommendation of at the same time elevating its character.
It is a measure further recommended by the approval of
very high authority, and by the precedent of some of
the most distinguished institutions of learning in the
country. The Southern Quarterly Review, in an article
published in the spring of 1856- an article understood
to be from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Thornwell, late the
president of the College of South Carolina, a gentleman
without a superior among Southern educators-points
out precisely this mode of relieving our colleges of their
burthen. In the re-arrangement of the system of instruction of Brown University, which took place in
1850, in accordance with the ably argued views of the
eminent man then at the head of that institution-Dr.
Wayland a course of study for the Master's degree
was introduced as a part of the new system. The University of Virginia, which permits to all its students to
select their departments of study, makes, nevertheless,
definite exactions of all who aspire to the degree of
Bachelor of Arts; and much higher exactions of such
as aim to proceed to the degree of Mlaster. And during
the past year, Columbia College, in the city of New
York, one of the most wealthy institutions in the country, and also one of the earliest established, after a long
period of deliberate inquiry and extensive correspondence with the most experienced friends of education
14 
LETTER.
throughout the United States, has instituted exactly the
system which is here recommended.
The expediency of adopting a similar system here,
cannot, therefore, be justly regarded as problematical.
The system has, in effect, been already tried; and its
adoption by the enlightened Board of Trustees of
Columbia College, during the past years with the results
of experiment, and the approving opinions of the most
competent authorities in the country before them, is evidence that it is in accordance with the exigencies of the
case, and with the spirit of progress which characterizes
the age.
It will probably be expected of the undersigned,
not merely in general terms to suggest a division of
the studies now pursued in college into two distinct
and separate courses; but to specify particularly the
subjects to be embraced by each,-or, where subjects
are identical, the comparative extent which it is proposed to give to the corresponding studies in the two
successive courses.   The sub-graduate course may  be
defined by the very simple process of excluding from
the curriculum of study as it stands at present, all those
branches of science which are confessedly modern additions, and along with these, the modern languages. This
course will, therefore, as re-constructed, embrace the
English, Latin, and Greek languages, all the elementary
branches  of the pure Mathematics,  the  mechanical
branches of Natural Philosophy, Logic, Rhetoric, the
principles of Criticism, Moral and Mental Philosophy,
15 
LETTER.
Composition, and Elocution. These several branches of
study are to be pursued to something like the extent,
and with something like the thoroughness contemplated
in tile earlier period of the history of our collegiate
instruction.  To these, it may not be thought improper
to add, during the concluding year, succinct expository
courses in Chemistry and the subjects of Natural Philosophy, not strictly mechanical; these topics being taught
avowedly in outline only, and not as matters to be embraced in the examination for the Bachelor's degree.
The design of this feature, if introduced, will be, in part,
to vary to the student the interest of his daily occupations; but chiefly, by giving some slight foretaste of the
nature of the subjects thus treated, to awaken  in him a
desire to enter upon the more thorough study of the
same subjects in the higher department.   The amount
of time bestowed in this way need be but limited.
Whatever is more than enough to secure the ends just
mentioned, and especially the latter of them, is capable,
during the period of the student's education here considered, of better occupation.
To the post-graduate department, may be turned over
those branches of science and letters which are excluded
from the former, and which are confessedly at present,
but imperfectly taught; and the number of these may
from time to time be increased, by adding new ones as
the wants of the public and the growing resources of the
University may demand or justify. Thus, it nmay immediately include Astronomy, Geology, Mineralogy, Chemis
16 
LETT ER.
try, Natural Philosophy, Meteorology, Civil Engineering,
the higher branches of the pure Mathematics, Greek and
Roman Letters, the Modern Languages and their Literature, Political Economy, International Law, Constitutional Law,  and the History of Philosophy; but it
probably will include at first only such of this list as are
most practical in their nature. As' in creating this
department, the design should be from the beginning,
to build up here ultimately a University in te largest
acceptation of that term, it is to be expected that, in
the progress of years, schools of Agriculture, of Natural
History, of Medical Science, of Civil and Political History, of Oriental Learning, and others, will be established
as they shall appear to be needed; and that the existing
School of Law will be strengthened by the addition of
new professorships.
The instruction given in all the schools of this higher
department is to proceed on the supposition that the
student is familiar with every thing taught in the subgraduate course, relating to the branches of study
corresponding to those he is pursuing. Since, however,
the design of the proposed change is to insure to the
student a thorough and satisfactory acquaintance with
extended and difficult subjects of knowledge, in regard
to which the present system furnishes him only with
indistinct and superficial notions, it is a feature of essential importance in the new plan, that every post-graduate
student shall be perfectly firee to choose the schools in
which he will study; and that no one shall be obliged
2
17 
LETTER.
to study any thing which he does not choose. But
since the degree of Master of Arts, if ever conferred,
must have a certain significancy in order to be of
value, it would be proper to adopt here such rules on
this subject as exist in the University of Virginia, and to
admit to the honor of this degree only those who have
exhibited proficiency in a prescribed number and variety
of schools. The Master's degree, moreover, should not
be conferred upon any who have not been previously,
either in this University or in some other, graduated as
Bachelors of Arts.  This regulation will have a favorable influence in encouraging young men to begin at the
beginning, and to take the regular collegiate course,
rather than to attempt the studies of the higher department without the important preliminary intellectual
training.
The  department ought, nevertheless, to be freely
open to all who may wish to enter it, and who  may
have prepared themselves, either in schools or by private study, to avail themselves with profit of the opportunities it affords. But it should not undertake to
furnish such preparation, since this would be to defeat
its own object. With elementary instruction it should
have nothing to do. But if any one, whether a graduate
of a college or not, should desire to go thoroughly to
the bottom of any subject which the University professes to teach, he should be free to pursue his object in
this department, and should be furnished with every aid
which books, and instruments, and competent teachers
18 
LETT ER.
can afford. Thus, if it is the desire of any young man
to obtain a satisfactory acquaintance with the applications of mathematical principles and physical truths to
the art of construction, and with the accumulated results
of observation and experiment in this important branch
of practical science, let him come here and make, if he
pleases, Civil Engineering his exclusive study, until such
time as he may begin to feel some confidence in the
value of the knowledge he shall have acquired. Or if
his aim is to become a master of the art of Chemical
Analysis, or of Chemistry as applied to Agriculture, let
him have the opportunity to turn his attention with
equal exclusiveness in that direction, and the assistance
which may be necessary to enable him to attain the
desired end. And so of the several other branches of
letters and science which may be provided for in this
higher department of the University-embracing in the
ultimate design, of course, every possible subject of
human learning or human investigation; let all be accessible to all applicants whose degree of intellectual advancement is such at the outset as to enable them to
profit by the opportunities afforded.
It is, of course, assumed that the students in this
higher department will be in earnest in the pursuit of
knowledge; an assumption which cannot safely be made
of the body of the under-graduates of our colleges. Nor
is it difficult to find reasons for a fact of so general observation.  One of these is, doubtless, the immaturity of
the youthful student himself; in consequence of which
19 
LETTER.
he is yet to learn both the importance of mental culture,
and the value of positive knowledge. Another is presented in the circumstance that the under-graduate student is not always, perhaps not usually, a member of an
institution of learning entirely of his own voluntary
choice; but that he has become such in compliance with
the wishes of his parents and friends; often with no
other feeling on his own part than a desire to make his
college life pass away as agreeably as circumstances will
allow; a desire which does not always prompt him to
seek for enjoyment by the most rational means. As the
avowed  end, however, of the sub-graduate course is
mental discipline, the institution would not be true to
this end if it failed to make study a necessity; anid to
hold every student, so far as its means of coercion
extend, to the continuous, steady, and faithful performance of his scholastic tasks.
It is this circumstance, principally, which shapes the
visible system of instruction in operation in most educational institutions. Since the student is to be held to
regular daily effort, it follows that in the absence of a
disposition to labor voluntarily sufficiently prevalent to
be safely relied on, some effectual means must be employed of verifying the degree of fidelity with which the
constantly recurring tasks are performed. Hence is
apparent the propriety of requiring the student, at
stated and frequently recurring intervals, to show how
far he has acquainted himself with the subjects which.
have been assigned him for study, and how far he has
20 
LETTER.
comprehended the explanations and direct instructions
which his teacher may have given him on the same
subjects.  This he can only do, or can best do; by
expressing his knowledge in words  that is to say, by
recitation.  Accordingly, it is primarily for the sake of
securing this end, that the recitation system exists, not
only in colleges, but in schools generally. According to
Sir William Hamilton,  all instruction  was originally
given in the Universities of England, as it continues to
be in the continental Universities, by lecture. The
colleges and halls which now monopolize the principal
work of teaching in those venerable institutions, were
erected to provide for the physical wants of the students,
and to secure a vigilant supervision over their morals.
The officers, called tutors, employed by the colleges for
the latter purpose, gradually took upon themselves the
character of instructors, by exacting from the youth
under their charge a repetition of what they had learned
in the public lecture-halls. To this kind of recitation
they subsequently added recitation from books. The
evident design of the exercise in its origin, was that in
which we find its chief utility at present-to insure the
attention of the pupil to the subject which he is required
to know. The distinctive name given by the French to
the officer whose duty it is merely to hear recitations
makes it sufficiently evident what idea is associated with
the exercise by them. This name repe'titeur'-suggests
to the mind the bare repetition of a task, as that which
it is the business of the officer to secure.
21 
LETTER.
Now, the great importance-the indispensable neces sity, in fact-of a recitation system as a part, and a
principle part, of the plan of operations of an institution
designed to secure the mental training of the young, at
a period when they can have attained no adequate
notion of the value of this discipline, when fondness for
amusement is a predominant trait of the character and
when the love of learning exists, at best, but as an
unsteady and wavering flame, has apparently led to the
formation, not only in the popular mind, but even in the
judgment of philosophic thinkers, of a notion regarding
the position of this exercise among educational appliances, both as to its dignity of function, and as to its
own inherent utility, which greatly exaggerates its importance.   However general may be the surprise, or
however wide the dissent, which this remark may be
fated to encounter, it may be pardoned to the undersigned to have made it, since it can lead to no practical
difference between him and those whose views may fail
to harmonize with his; inasmuch as he has acknowledged the conviction that, to the under-graduate course
of instruction, the system of recitation, or of daily
examination, is absolutely indispensable; and inasmuch
as he is equally free to admit that, if employed at all,
its uninterrupted and rigorous prosecution is a condition
in the highest degree essential to its utility.
But recitation-repetition-per Be, is manifestly an
exercise which, to the student who is really in earnest in
the pursuit of knowledge, is hardly worth the time it
22 
L E T T E R.
occupies. It is not denied that it is an advantage to
any man, young or old, to express his ideas on any
subject in a definite form of words, nor even that the
immature mind is greatly benefited by the effort necessary to do so.  All that Melanchthon has said, all that
Hamilton has said, all that any panegyrist of the system
of daily examination as a means of instruction has said,
in regard to the incidental advantages growing out of
the method, is admitted without any hesitation. It
stimulates emulation, it cultivates self-possession, it encourages or enforces precision of speech, it abates conceit, it convinces of deficiency. But all these resultant
benefits presume the immaturity of the learner; and
most of them presume furthermore that an unceasing
constraint is necessary to compel him to profit by the
instructions he receives.   The undersigned is nevertheless, fully persuaded that, for minds which have been
subjected to such a system of training as our undergraduate course provides, which are to a certain extent
already informed, and which are animated to effort by a
sincere and earnest desire for higher attainments, no
such system of constraint is necessary; and that the
plan of daily examination, in so far as it is designed to
exert a constraining power over minds like these, is
unnecessary and out of place.
In order to be perfectly candid, however, the admis.
sions already made will be even still further extended.
It will be conceded that, considered as an instructive
and not as a coercive method, the system of daily exam
23 
LETTER.
ination is attended with some incidental advantages
besides those which have just been enumerated. It is a
possibility that a student who has failed to comprehend
some point embraced in the text of his lesson, may be
enlightened by listening to the performance of a fe]low student.   It is also a possibility, or rather a fact of
frequent occurrence, that the imperfect performance  of
an individual scholar, may indicate to the instructor the
deficiencies of that individual, and so elicit explanatory
comments or illustrations.   It is further true that the
instructor may volunteer explanations and elucidations
of points of difficulty, even though occasion may not
arise to force their introduction.  An  acute instructor,
moreover, by the ingenious selection of interrogatories,
will bring out the weak points of a pupil, as a lawyer
does those of a witness; or will bring into prominent
relief the points of the subjects under consideration
which are of highest importance. But beyond this, it
is certainly true that it is only in so far as, for whatever
reason, the instructor does actually superadd his own
teachings to the text of the lesson, that any talents or
attainments which may belong to him personally can be
of any sort of use to his pupils.. For all the purposes
of mere recitation, any man who is capable of.under.
standing what the pupil says, and of reading the book
or books from which he has learned it, so as to compare
the performance with the text, is as good and as capable
a presiding officer and examiner in a class-room, as any
other. The teacher, therefore, who meets his classes for
24 
LETTER.
no purpose at any time but to "hear their recitations,"
is not really a teacher, except in so far as he engrafts
upon this exercise the expository feature which is the
distinguishing characteristic of the plan of instruction
by lecture. To do this, however, to any extent, in the
recitation-room, without seriously interfering with the
specific design for which the exercise Of recitation was
primarily instituted, is proved by experience to be impracticable. Class recitations have, at best, the great
disadvantage, that either but few out of a large number
can perform at all, or that each one who performs shall
be under examination for so brief a space of time as
nearly to defeat every useful object, and to render the
exercise little better than an idle form.
And here we have the key to one of the causes which
divest the exercise of daily examination of much of its
assumed value.  In a class, or a division of a class, of
forty students-and this number is not an unusual
one-if each individual is called upon to perform in a
recitation of an hour's duration, each will have, as the
time in which to display his proficiency-no allowance
being made for moments lost in passing from one to another, in pointing out passages in the classics, in enunciating the data of problems in the mathematics, and in
other similar ways-exactly one minute and a half.
Give each one who performs five minutes (which is
certainly not a large allowance), and not one third of
the class can be taken up at each exercise. These facts
the student can observe, these calculations the student
25 
LET T E R. 
can make, as well as the teacher; and it follows as a
necessary consequence, that the recitation system, considered as a system of coercion, largely fails of its object;
while in regard to the points in which there is claimed
for it an educational efficiency, its usefulness is correspondingly reduced.
Another serious vice of the system is its pernicious
influence on the teacher. To whatever degree it may
be coercive to the student, it is not in the least so to
him. It stimulates him to no self-improvement, and
awakens in him no ambition for higher attainments, on
the one hand; and it affords him no adequate field for
the display of genius, or for the turning of accumulated
knowledge to use, on the other. Instead of this, the
opportunity which it offers him of sinking, without observation, into a mere cypher, is a real, a perpetual, and
a most insidious temptation to sloth. The difficulty of
employing, in the recitation-room, the expository mode
of instruction, without encroaching too far upon the
exercise proper to the hour, is enough in itself to repress in the teacher the teaching spirit, and to cause him
constantly to tend to the level of the mere repetteu.
How dangerously is this tendency increased, by the fact
that its downward direction coincides precisely with
that in which the native love of ease is perpetually dragging all mankind! For this great evil there is but one
antagonistic influence which can be of any avail: it is
that ofa living, fervent, zeal in his work, existing in the
instructor himself; a zeal, not in the work of conducting
26 
L E T T E R.
recitations, as the remark might seem to imply, but
which would be ridiculous,-a zeal rather in the higher
and nobler work of training immortal minds to vigor,
and capacitating them for usefulness. The college officer,
therefore, of the present day, whose interest in his profession is bounded by the fact, certainly uninspiring,
however important to himself, that it secures to him the
means of living, is in imminent danger of lapsing into a
mere automaton.
The drift of the foregoing observations will now be
perceived.  In the higher department of the University,
it is proposed to employ the plan of recitation only to a
limited extent; and in so far as this plan is recommended at all, it is not that it may serve as a coercive power
impelling the student to diligence, but rather that the
instructor himself may be enabled by its aid to discover
in what direction his efforts are most needed. This he
may do, either by recitations held at stated times regularly recurring, or by similar exercises appointed at his
own discretion, as he may consider them to be needed.
The proposition is, however, to give instruction in
this department mainly by oral exposition on the part
of the teacher. According to this plan, if the teacher
possesses any knowledge on the subject of study which
is not contained in the books of the course, or not easily
accessible to the student, or if the sources from which
such knowledge may be obtained are above the present
level of the student's capacity, this knowledge will be
brought out and made available.   And if he possesses
27 
LETTER.
any power of clear analysis, of luminous illustration;
if he possesses, as he ought, in order to occupy fitly a
position of this high responsibility, that mastery over
his theme which belongs to the man who has ceased to
think of the truth which he teaches as of a something
found in books, and of which all that he knows is knowledge gathered at second-hand;'but who has independently interrogated the sources of information himself,
and stands in immediate contact with nature and with
thought, feeling no need of an interpreter,-if this is his
own intellectual character, this the degree of his intellectual cultivation, and this the comprehensive scope of
his acquired resources,-then his teachings will carry with
them to the minds of his hearers a fulness of satisfaction,
and fasten themselves there with a permanency of impression such as no amount of perusal of mere lifeless
text-books, written down to the level of their immediate
attainments, no matter how earnestly attentive, or how
conscientiously faithful the perusal may  be, can ever
produce.
Not that from such a system of instruction, books
are to be discarded. By no means. Not only will the
necessity of books continue to be as absolutely imperative as under any system whatever of recitation from a
text; but the multiplication of books will be an inevitable consequence.   For while the instructor will aim to
expound all that relates to theory or doctrine, he will
not embarrass his class-room with  the lumber of innumerable applications, which, however useful they may
28 
LETTER.
be, are the proper labor of the student himself in his
solitary study; neither, in regard to simple matters of
plain fact, of which a multitude are strewn along the
path of every walk in science, will he consider it expedient to occupy time in stating in minute detail what
can be found in every book, and what needs but to be
read once to be understood. For their necessary enlightenment in matters such as these, he will refer his pupils
to certain selected authors, of which he will designate
the portions which require their attention with as much
regularity as if they were to be subjected to examination upon the same passages.  But he will not always
confine himself to one author, nor always give the same
author preference; for his business is to teach a subject
and not a book; and books, therefore, are not his guides
but his helps.  l\or will the student find it quite a practicable thing to disregard the recommendations thus
made, or to neglect the perusal, or rather severe study,
of the books designated; for he will shortly discover
that this study is indispensable to his understanding and
properly profiting by the instructions of his own immediate teacher.
The two salient merits of the method of instruction
here proposed, then, for the class of learners contemplated, are first, that. it both permits and compels the
teacher to be a teacher; and neither constrains nor
allows him to sink into inactivity, nor to content himself with presiding in empty state over an exercise to
which he is conscious of contributing nothing valuable:
29 
, LETTER.
and secondly, that it makes knowledge itgef, and not the
substance of any treatise upon knowledge, not any artificial forun into which knowledge has been thrown, the
immediate subject of teaching.
In the actual execution of the plan in this University, it is proposed to introduce a feature somewhat
peculiar, which appears to be well adapted to increase
its usefulness. This is to afforJ to the members of the
class pursuing their studies in any school, the opportunity, after the instructor shall have completed the exposition of the topic of the day, to bring up f,r re-examination points which still remain to them obscure, or
to ask further information in regard to matters which
may not have been fully explained. This is, in fact, to
inaugurate a species of recitation in which the student
and teacher reverse the positions usual in this exercise.
The student questions; the teacher replies. The student should even be permitted, if he pleases, in cases
which admit of argument, to -take issue with his instructor, and to present his reasons for his opinions. Discussion will be advantageous to both parties, and will keep
more actively alive the interest felt by the class in the
subject of study. It is hardly necessary to add that,
by the encouragement of the usages here recommended,
it is not intended in any manner to countenance the
introduction of trivial or fiivolous questions; but on
the other hand, supposing the practice to be carried out
with a sincere desire on the part of the learner to profit,
and on the part of the instructor to bestow benefit, it
30 
LETTER.
is one of which the possible utility is too obvious to
require to be enforced by argument.
Nothing has thus far been said in regard to the duration proper to be given to the successive courses of
sub-graduate and post-graduate study. That is a subject which may perhaps with propriety be left for the
independent consideration and determination of the
Board of Trustees. Columbia College, New York,
under its new organization, proposes to confer the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the end of three years of
study; and that of Master of Arts, after two years additional. Brown University has fixed the course for the
degree of Bachelor of Philosophy at three years; while
that for Bachelor of Arts is suffered still to extend to
four years.  In the University of Virginia, degrees are
conferred only on proficiency, whatever be the time of
study necessary to secure the necessary qualification;
but in that institution, it is believed that a faithful
student can attain the Bachelor's degree in three years,
and the Master's in four or five. Whatever be the
lengths of time fixed on as proper for the case of this
University, it is clearly expedient that here, as at the
University of Virginia, proficiency and not a determinate period of residence, should be made the test of
fitness for the honor of graduation; and that the degree of proficiency of candidates should not be a mere
matter of inference from the recorded results of their
daily performances,-a criterion fallacious in the ex
31 
LETTER.
trema,-but should be directly ascertained at the close
of the course, by rigid written examinations.
Were the University of Mississippi an institution
having no higher a duty to discharge than that which is
immediately visible, and no higher destiny to fulfil
than that which she is fulfilling to-day, the undersigned
might at this point feel at liberty to lay down his pen.
But with a deep conviction pressing upon his mind that
this is not the case, he feels irresistibly impelled to trespass still further upon your attention.
The considerations already presented are believed,
indeed, to be sufficient in themselves to show the expediency of the change which it is the object of this communication to propose. The oppressiveness of the existing system, the fallacious promise which it holds out
to the learner and the public, of thorough instruction in
twenty subjects within a time scarcely adequate to the
proper mastery of one, and the degree to which these
things impair the efficiency of the system itself for the
purposes contemplated in its theory, but which in practice, have been almost left out of sight, constitute an
overwhelming mass of argument in favor of a measure
doubly recommended, at the same time, by its fitness at
once to afford relief and to secure a higher order of
mental culture. But while these anticipated benefits
are thus sufficient to justify and even to demand the
adoption of the measure recommended, and while therefore the advisability of the measure is placed distinctly
32 
LETTER.
upon the basis of its own independent merits, the undersigned does not hesitate candidly to avow that the
change proposed is a project especially favorite with
him, and that its inauguration, should it receive your
sanction, will be regarded by him with especial satisfaction, for a reason entirely distinct from the former-the
consideration that the University, in Conforming itself
to the new plan of organization, will take a first decided
step in the direction of that higher development toward
which its relations to the general educational system of
the State, and its peculiarly responsible position in reference to the State itself-not only as the nursery of the
unfolding intellect of her sons, but as the most prominent representative of her intellectual character and the
most significant index of her grade in the world of
letters and science-bind it continually to look; and
toward which all who are in any manner, directly or
remotely, connected with its management, its Faculty,
its Board of Trustees, the Legislature of the State, and
the people of the State themselves, ought constantly, by
every stimulating influence at their command, to impel
it to advance. In every act of legislation affecting the
operations of an institution destined, like this, to exert
forever an influence incalculably vast over all the future
of a great and powerful people, destined at some coming
and not very distant period to do more than any other
single cause-nay more than all other single causes combined-to stamp upon the intellectual character of Mississippi the impress it is to wear, to determine the
3
33 
LETTER.
respectability of the State in the eyes of mankind, to
stimulate her industry, to multiply the sources of her
material wealth, to elevate and purify the tastes of her
people, to enlarge their capacities for happiness, and
to enable them to fill up those capacities by supplying
them with continually growing means of rational enjoyment-in every act affecting the'operations of such an
institution, it is not merely the exigencies of the present
which are to be regarded; but it is that grave and
weighty mission whose responsibilities extend far forward into the future, and whose influences are to be felt
so long as the State of Mississippi shall have a place
upon the map of the world-this it is above all things
which is to enter into and give its color to the decision
of every important question which the governing body
is called on to decide.
Nor let it be said that the magnitude or the permanence of the influence thus prospectively ascribed to the
University is exaggerated. The University is to be the
prime mover of the entire educational system of the State.
The character of every school, from the highest to the
lowest, within our borders, is to be determined ultimately
by the respectability or the inferiority of this. Though
it is true that but a fraction of the people will receive
their personal instruction within the University halls,
yet all, without exception, will be partakers of the
benefits of which the University is to be the fountainhead and the central source. If the institution does
not immediately teach the entire people, it will teach
34 
LETTER.
their teachers; or; what is equivalent to this, it will
force every instructor whom it does not itself instruct,
to come up to the standard it prescribes  on penalty of
being else driven from the educational field.
Thus the University is destined in coming time to
act, invisibly it may be sometimes, but always powerfully,
in every county, and district, and neighborhood in the
State; even as already in its infancy, its influence is beginning, in one quarter and another, to be perceptibly
marked, elevating the character and improving the efficiency of all other schools. For this influence cannot
be confined within limits, nor restricted to any particular
grade of educational agency.   It will comprehend no
less those common schools, in which the children of all
the people receive the first elements of their instruction,
than those more pretending seminaries in which science
and classical learning are placed within the reach of the
aspiring student; or the colleges which professedly plant
themselves upon its own leyel. This immense, and in
the inevitable tendencies of things, hereafter to become
all-controlling, power over the whole educational system
of a populous State, imparting its tone and color to the
instruction given in every town, and village, and neighborhood, and household, is one of the possession of
which the University cannot divest itself if it would,
and in regard to the exercises of which it cannot be per.
mitted to choose or to refuse. As the honorable preeminence which it implies has been neither usurped nor
arrogated, so the responsibilities which it involves can
35 
neither be declined or shaken off. With a conviction
of this important truth, every member of the enlightened body of Trustees which at present presides over its
interests and controls its destinies, is believed to be
deeply penetrated.  And whenever any important measure is originated within that body itself, or is proposed
to the same body from without, of which the effect may
be to modify permanently the modes in which the University discharges its functions, it is believed that a no
less inquiring and anxious attention will be given to the
consequences which the proposed innovation may entail
for good or for ill upon that distant future which the
action or non-action of to-day must affect, than to the
advantages or disadvantages which may promise to be
its immediate results.
Therefore it is that the undersigned feels it to be a
duty, to insist strongly upon the view that the measure
proposed herein for the deliberation of the Board is one
which is demanded in order to the just fulfilment of
that high responsibility which rests upon the University,
in consequence of its peculiar relations to the educational system of the State. The institution would be
faithless to its trust, if its tendencies were not always upward. The hour has arrived in which it is proper and
fitting that it should take, so far as its visible arrangements and instrumentalities are concerned, the first upward step. That it has been, internally and inconspicu.
ously to the public eye, heretofore steadily advancing in
improvement from year to year, is at least to be hoped
L E T T E R.
36 
LETTER.
and is certainly believed. The time has come when,
ceasing to be content with improving what it is, it shall
cultivate the nobler ambition which aims actually to be
something more than it is something more comprehensive in its scope something more far-reaching in its
purposes. Not that it should abandon the ground it
at present occupies, or cease to discharge its present
functions.   The position which  it actually holds it
should still maintain substantially unaltered; and the
system of instruction in operation within its walls today, should still be preserved unchanged, except in
what concerns its more energetic prosecution, and its
improved efficiency.
But what i8 the University of to-day? WNhat but a
training school for immature minds-impaired, indeed,
in its usefulness for this purpose by the very attempt to
accomplish, along with it, other and entirely incompatible objects? If the people suppose that this is a
place to male practical men, or learned men, or profoundly scientific men-if they suppose that it is within
the reach of possibility for the University,' under the
existing system, to turn out accomplished engineers, or
expert chemists, or proficient astronomers, or profound
philosophers, or even finished scholars-we know very
well that they are deceived. Not that this institution
falls any farther short of accomplishing these ends, or
fails any more signally to meet this popular impression,
than other American colleges; but that the power to
do these things seems, by force of a general hallucina
37 
LETTER.
tion, to be attributed to colleges as a class, while, in
point of fact, it does not actually exist in any one of the
whole number.  At  least, if any exception is to be
made from this remark, it can only be of those which
have already introduced into their plan of organization,
some modification substantially like that which it is proposed to-day to introduce into the University of Mississippi.
This University is, then, at this time but a school
for youth of minds still immature. What this class of
learners require is mental discipline, mental culture,
mental development,-not the obtrusion of a flood of
information, no matter how valuable, in regard to every
subject of human knowledge, upon minds unprepared
to receive it, or to store it systematically away, or to
turn it to the uses to which it is capable of being
applied. Why should we not, while engaged in this
great preliminary work of education, adopt the only
course which is truly efficient, that of confining to it our
entire and exclusive attention. If education has really
two great and broadly distinguished functions to fulfil
-to operate on the mind itself, and to furnish it with
material for its own future operations-to draw out or
educe its faculties, and to supply the same faculties with
the aliment which is to maintain their subsequent vigor
-and if nature herself points out the order in which
these functions should succeed each other, why should
we disregard her obvious indications, or neglect to
conform our practice as well to the dictates of common
3S 
LETTER.
sense as to the principles of a sound philosophy? If we
admit the justice of this reasoning, why should we
hesitate to draw a distinct line of division between the
period devoted to the first great educational end, and
that allotted to the second?   Even should we propose
to ourselves to do no more than we have hitherto done
in behalf of positive learning or positi-e science, can any
good reason be assigned why we should scruple to say,
it is here that the first of our labors ceases, and here
that the second begins?   No reason at all, good or
otherwise, for not doing this, can exist, unless it be that
the moment we make such an avowal,'we shall feel ourselves bound to enter upon the second part of our task
with the purpose, with the arrangements, and with the
instrumentalities, which shall render its results, what
they are far enough from being now, a substantial
reality. We shall feel ourselves bound, in short, to rise
above the grade of the German gymnasium-which is
precisely our grade of to-day-and to assume, by approaches which the force of circumstances may indeed
make gradual, but which must be no less steady and
persevering, the character of the German university.
But this is precisely the thing which, in the view of
the undersigned, it is our manifest duty to do. It is not
every college, indeed, upon which such an obligation
rests, any more than it would be the duty of every
gymnasium in Germany to aspire to transform itself into
a university.  It is by no means  necessary that tile
schools for what is called supplementary education
39 
LETTER.
schools which open up to all comers the way to the
most thorough attainments in each special department of
letters and science-should be as numerous as the col leges. And even if it were so, it is manifestly impossible
that the colleges of this country should become generally
universities. In order that an institution of the highest
learning may exist at all, the firstof all necessities is an
ample endowment. There is not a college in the whole
country which can provide itself with books, and instru ments, and collections in natural science, and all the
other appliances essential to thorough instruction, with
no resources beyond the fees paid in by students for
their tuition.  There is not one which can even pay its
officers for their services, unless it be upon a scale which
starves rather than compensates, if it possess no better
reliance than this. The higher education in this country,
in the words of Dr. WVayland, is the cheapest of all commodifies in the market.   It is thrown, in fact, into the
market so far below its cost, that it may, with all but
literal truth, be said to be given away.   There is nothing in this, indeed, to be regretted, so long as the
quality of the education thus furnished is not vitiated by
its cheapness.  There would be nothing to be regretted,
if it were not only almost, but absolutely and altogether
given away. For this would be only for a community
to supply one of its own indispensable necessities after
the cheapest manner. Neither would the wealth apparently consumed in the operation be by any means
sunk or lost. The process is simply a transfer of a given
40 
LETTER.
value from the benefactor-the college corporation or
the State- to the beneficiary, who is the student; and
the value transferred is at the same time transformed
into a more useful shape: from inert it is converted into
living gold. Among all the investments which it ever
entered into the heart of the most greedy capitalist to
conceive, there is none so productive'as this. Nature
only has provided any thing like it, in the case in which
she returns, for the seed committed to her bosom, some
an hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty.
There would be nothing to be regretted, if not only
the higher education, but if all education, in all its
grades, were given away; by which, of course, nothing
can be meant but that it should be furnished to all the
people at the expense of all the people.  For this would
only be to alter the mode of making an investment,
which ought, as no sensible man will pretend to deny,
by all means to be made. The people ought to be educated; and by whatever system this is done, the people
must ultimately pay for their own education. They pay
at present irregularly, unsystematically, and unequally;
and the thing is done ill.  They might pay according
to some just and equal rule; and then, all education,
from the highest to the lowest, being controlled by the
State itself, and subjected to one uniform, consistent, and
enlightened method, it would be done well, and the
same opportunities would be extended equally to every
citizen.
But this matter is aside from the purpose of the
41 
L LETTE R.
present communication. It will be observed that the
undersigned regards the-cheapness of the higher educa tion as a gratifying circumstance, only with the reserve
of an important proviso, that the quality of the education
thus furnished shall not be vitiated by its cheapness.
It is much to be apprehended, however, that the
prejudicial consequence here hinted at, is too often a
reality. If it is true that, in the present stage of the
world's advancement, science cannot be properly taught
without costly apparatus; if it is true, also, that without
opportunity of access to many books, without, in other
words, expensive libraries, the learning of instructors
cannot be profound; if it is still further true that, in the
educational field, as in every other, high attainments and
brilliant talents cannot be commanded unless they are
adequately compensated,-then it is self-evidently manifest that colleges of humble endowments, or of no  endowments at all, cannot furnish to their students educational advantages equal to those offered by institutions
in this respect more favored. Without, however, for the
moment insisting upon this point, it is safe at least to
say that such colleges can never rise to the rank of universities; and it may be added that it is not desirable
that they should.
It is nevertheless a fact that true universities are at
this moment among the most urgent of the intellectual
wants of our country. And it is an important circumstance that there is already in existence a class of collegiate institutions whose relations to the municipal au
42 
LETTER. 
thorities of the States within which they exist point
them out as the agencies most fit to supply this want.
In addition to this, the resources of these institutions
are also, in some instances at least, already adequate to
the demand which the imposition upon them of this
higher function would create. This is especially the
case with the University of Mississippi, the accumulated
proceeds of whose original munificent endowment by the
Congress of the United States, were stated by Gov.
McRae, in a message to the Legislature two years ago,
at more than one million of dollars. Of this fund, the
Legislature, in the original act of charter creating the
University, committed to your honorable body the exclusive control. And though, by a subsequent act of
legislation, this provision of the charter was repealed,
and the Legislature resumed to itself the control over
the trust, yet, whenever the necessities of the University have required appropriations, such appropriations
have always been cheerfully granted, and they may with
reasonable confidence be equally relied on for the future.
The University, then, is amply provided with the resources necessary to enable it satisfactorily to discharge
those high responsibilities ywhich have been pointed out
as properly resting upon it. For its present operations,
its immediate income is sufficient. It is only necessary
that the law of 1856 be permanently extended-and this
must be done, in any event, if the Legislature would not
thrust down the institution below its present level
instead of permitting it to rise-and it is hardly proba
43 
LETTER.
ble that further drafts upon the fund will be needed
within the lifetime of the present generation. For the
generations which are to succeed, we may safely trust
to the enlightened intelligence of the Legislatures into
whose hands the guardianship of this inestimably important trust shall then devolve.
From what has been said, the inference follows that
the State universities of the Union occupy the position
and possess generally the resources which make it both
fit and practicable for them to supply the great educational want which has just been signalized.   Some of
them, among which the University of Michigan deserves
honorable mention, have from the beginning recognized
their obligation in this respect; and without discarding,
or in any important particular modifying, the collegiate
feature common to all institutions of the same grade,
have organized themselves under the visible form of
true universities.
Thus far in this argument, the want of institutions of
a higher than merely collegiate grade has been assumed
and asserted as an unquestionable fact. The assertion
may not, nevertheless, be suffered to pass without
question; and accordingly there can be no impropriety
in looking for a moment into the evidence on which it
rests. Now, the existence of the want as a reality is
made evident by the earnest and urgent demand, spoken
of earlier in this communication, which has been, for
the last thirty or forty years, so extensively heard, for
something or other which the existing educational sys
44 
LETT ER.
tern does not supply. This demand, so far as it has proceeded from scholars and men of science, has taken the
specific form of a demand for universities called by that
name; because scholars and men of science have been
able to perceive distinctly that the university was the
precise thing needed to satisfy the want. But when it
has come from the people-and from -the people it has
come very steadily for at least a quarter of a centuryit has been, not for the university by name, but for new
schools of some vaguely conceived description; for colleges to be broken up and destroyed in all that regards
the province of their past usefulness, and built up anew
upon some visionary plan and according to some impracticable theory; for schools of science as applied to the
arts of construction, of agriculture, of manufactures and
every thing useful to mankind, but chiefly things useful
according to that literal sense which lconfounds utility
with increase of wealth; for schools, in short, which
should do what the collegiate schools do not do, and
what we know that it is not necessary or even proper
that they should do-prepare men, so far as schools can
prepare them, to take directly hold of the real business
of life. No one is ignorant that this demand has existed for a period at least as long as asserted; that at times
it has been vociferous and violent; or that, not content
with insisting on the creation of new schools to accomplish the ends desired, it has turned occasionally, almost
in a spirit of vindictive destructiveness, upon the old,
because they did not accomplish those same ends.
45 
These demands the undersigned ventures to assert,
are evidence of the wvant of higher universities. Not
because they ask for the university; not because their
authors, if the university were proposed to them as a remedy, would be likely to accept it; but because the present inconvenience which is so sensibly felt, is one which
the university would remove, though those who feel it do
not perceive how.  And why not? Because first, looking
at universities as they have been in past centuries, as the
repositories of literary lore, as the resorts of scholars dealing with abstractions, as the burrowing places of bookworms eating out the hearts of the black-letter volumes
of the sixteenth century or of the manuscripts of the
sixth, as the unchallenged domain of grammarians and
lexicographers, of commentators upon Aristotle and Longinus, ingenious speculators upon the mysteries of the digamma, and indefatigable elaborators of ethical and logical niceties, they picture them in their imaginations, even
to this hour, as solemn and shadowy retreats, still smelling of the dust and mould of antiquity, where philology, linguistic philosophy, and the sublimer metaphysics
brood, like the pensive owl in Gray's churchyard turret,
with none to
" Mfolest their ancient solitary reign."
But this conception is entirely erroneous. The University, in the sense in which the name is now generally
received no matter what may have been its original
acceptation, is Unziversitas Scientia7wm;, it is, in other
46
LETT ER. 
LETTER.
words, an institution in which the highest learning of its
day is taught in every walk of human knowledge. When
classical learning, philosophy, and logic, were subjects of
the highest interest in human estimation, it is not surprising that the character of university teaching should have
been principally determined by them. But inasmuch as,
at the present day, physical science hat attained a position of actual dignity immeasurably higher than it then
enjoyed, and as its useful applications have become almost
endlessly mnore numerous and varied, the university of today would fail to be what its name imports, if it did not
assign a corresponding prominence to these subjects,subjects, be it observed, which happen to be the same
for which the agitators we have been speaking of demand
that a special provision of special schools shall be
made.
There is, however, a second class of agitators, who,
while admitting the justice of the foregoing representation, are not disposed to accept the university as a rem'
edy for the inconvenience which they suffer, because,
while it gives them all that they demand, it gives them
at the same time much more -mnuch for which they do
not ask, and for which they do not care. They fear so
great a project as the creation of an institution professing
and really preparing itself to teach every thing embraced
in the entire circle of human knowledge. They fear that,
in attempting this, they shall attempt what is beyond
their means; and that by grasping too much, they shall
lose every thing. It is believed that all this class of per
47 
LETTER.
sons, if they rightly interpret our views, will find that
we are entirely in accordance with them, and they with
us. For no such visionary scheme is entertained by any
one connected with this institution, as that of creating
here in a day, a university complete in all the manyfaced aspects of a repository of universal truth, and a
dispenser of universal knowledge.  What is aimed at,
what is recommended, is only, as already stated, to take
a first step in the right direction-a step which shall, indeed, ultimately conduct to the fulfilment of the great
idea, but which shall not be itself the fulfilment-a step
which will mark only the beginning of a progress, in
which advancing only as the growing intelligence and
increasing wants of the people of the State shall urge
it, the University of Mississippi may, to the eyes of a
future generation, at length present the lustrous spectacle which the comprehensive idea of a true university
implies.
There is, however, still another class of persons,
whose views on this subject ought not to be overlooked,
though they are a class who do not agitate-a class who,
on the other hand, are well enough satisfied with things
as they are, and whose quiet contentment results from
the belief that the age has no wants which the colleges
do not or cannot supply.  This class of men fully admlit
all that is said of the value of modern science; but
then they supposes that no better schools of science than
the colleges are needed. Taking up the prospectus of
the college course of study and receiving it as true to
48 
LETT ER.
the letter, it is not surprising that they are led into
error.  They observe this prospectus to embrace  the
titles of all the sciences whose usefulness is most extolled, to say nothing of many others, such as zoology,
botany, and the remaining branches of natural history,
concerning the usefulness of which their notions are less
clear; and resting on the largeness of tie promise, which
they accept as evidence of performance, they turn round
and demand the use of making any new provision for
that which, according to the showing of more than a
hundred official publications, is abundantly provided
for already.  It is believed that the number of those
who thus plant themselves as obstructions in the way of
the improvement of higher education in America, is not
small.  It is believed that there are even some such in
our own  State, looking on with  jealous eyes, while
propositions are in agitation whiich involve a higher
development withiin the University of Mississippi.  Why
should there not be multitudes of this description everywhere, when it is considered that more than a hundred
thousand of the fallacious promises of colleges in regard
to this matter are annually sown broadcast over the
whole land!  Let such persons be only correctly in.
formed-let them take the simple exhibit presented in
the earlier pages of this letter as their guide-and,
assuredly, respecting science, and honoring science,
and feeling as they do the need of a more general
diffusion of a science which is sound and solid, instead of
being unsubstantial and shadowy, they must, if it were
4
49 
LETTER.
only to preserve their own consistency, go along with
those whom they now regard as idle innovators.
There is still another class whose views on the subject under consideration cannot be overlooked-a class
possibly the most numerous of all those who concern
themselves about it; or, if not the most numerous, at
any rate, by far the most impracticable.  Those are here
indicated who deny the utility of high learning alto.
gether.  They are, of course, utilitarians in the technical
sense of that word. Let any thing tend to promote the
bodily comfort of the race-let it furnish man with food,
or keep him warm, or put a barrier between him and
the weather —and that is a useful thing. By consequence, therefore, science does, occasionally, in some of
its practical results, command their partial consideration;
but for science or learning as a whole, a matter between
which and the increase of wealth no connection in the
relation of cause and effect is to their minds obvious,
they have no respect whatever. To elevate the intellectual man in the scale of being, to enable him to form
larger and juster views than his unaided senses or his
individual, casual, and unsystematic observation has
qualified him to conceive, of the power and wisdom and
goodness of the great Architect of the universe, to introduce him to a world of enjoyments growing out of
the exercise of the godlike intellect upon subjects of
beauty, and sublimity, and deep-seated and with delightfully difficult effort laboriously unraveled truth,-enjoyments such as doubtless occupy cherubic intelligences in
50 
LETTER.
their rapt contemplation of the wonderful works of
God,-all this the mere utilitarian philosopher, ever like
the man with the muck-rake in Bunyan, looking downward, fails to comprehend and to appreciate;  and all
arguments addressed to him, founded upon the consideration, to which he is insensible that knowledge is valuable for its own sake, are wholly thrown away.
And yet, is there not a dignity in knowledge? And
is not intellectual wealth a priceless treasure, even though
it be that kind of intellectual wealth which heaps no delicacies ravished from tropical climes upon the board of the
banqueter, and clothes no luxurious limbs with the spoil
of the gorgeous East? If this be not true, then God
certainly has made man in vain. The domestic animals,
which spend their contented lives in his society; the
dog, for instance, which wastes his idle days untasked by
any toil save the light labor of the chase, or such other
trivial services as his instincts prompt him to enjoy, if
he be but comfortably housed, and sufficiently fed, and
kindly treated by his master, is happy, quite as happy
as a dog can be. And the human animal, who cultivates
only his lower propensities, or at best, of his mental
powers allows only the humbler to be active, though he
may be somewhat more discriminating than the brute
in regard to the degrees of luxurious enjoyment, yet he
too, when he is warmed and filled and handsomely
sheltered, he too is happy; but he is no happier than
the dog,.  Surely we were born for something nobler
than this!  Surely it is a better and a higher happiness
5.1 
LETTER.
which fills up the capacities of our superior nature, when
developed by mental discipline, purified by moral culture, and led to look through nature up to nature's
God, it expands to the sublime stature of that glorious
image in which man was originally created sinless, and
makes the fallen mortal to appear, even yet, but a little
lower than the angels. 
But, abandoning this line of argument, which, however just, has been experimentally found to be practically useless, it is by no means difficult to meet the
utilitarian upon his own ground. Or rather, it i difficult; and the difficulty springs not out of the lack of
material for argument, but out of the embarrassment
which attends any attempt at argument at all, upon
a subject with which the contending parties are not
equally familiar; and in some degree also out of the
invariable propensity of the objector in this case to
raise up trivial side-issues, and to resort to idle special
pleading. 
If, in what follows, the undersigned has chosen to
confine himself chiefly or entirely to subjects connected
with physical science, this is only because in the measures projected for the improvement of the University,
it is science chiefly which involves the question of ex
pense.
Is, then, scientific knowledge useful?  Few objectors
will take the broad ground of denying all utility to
science; or of denying utility to all sciences. Few will
hesitate to admit that every science furnishes some facts
52 
LETTER.
that are useful. Even the patient and diligent collector
of bugs, and butterflies, and caterpillars, though looked
down upon in a general way by the utilitarian with an
amusingly sublimne loftiness of contemptuous regard,'if
he but intimate a belief that he is upon the sure trace of
a method of exterminating the insect scourges of the cotton-field, is listened to with respectful, nay, with greedy
ears, and is elevated at once to a position of comparative
dignity.   No scoffer at science, therefore, ever scoffs at
the science, or at the facts of science, which he understands; understands, that is to say, not as simple, isolated
facts, a thinig which is generally easy,-but understands
in all their bearings and relations, and far-reaching affiliations with other facts with which they have no obvious
or visible connectionia thing which is often not easy at
all.  And it is because of this difficulty, because many
of the most valuable of all the facts which science has
revealed, present themselves to the general mind with
no evidence of their usefulness about them,-hence it is
that the objectors, abandoning every position which permits to meet them upon the basis of their own knowledge, resort to that vexatious system of special pleading to which allusion has been nfade, and demand that
we shall demonstrate the utility of detached truths, one
after another in endlessly provoking detail, which they
do not understand.  The case is even worse than this.
In every branch of human investigation some truths
may possibly be brought to light which are merely incidental to the inquiry, and are without perceptible ulte
53 
LETTER.
rior importance: precisely as in working a quarry, some
fragments of granite or marble may be encountered
which are well enough as fragments of a mountain, but
which are hardly worth the trouble of carting away.
Now, though in science it is hardly safe to say that any
truth, however seemingly insignificant, may not have,
wrapped up within it, a latent value which may yet draw
towards it the admiring attention of all mankind; and
though experience has shown that it is becoming, every
day we live, less and less safe to dogmatize on these subjects, yet it is not to be denied that here and there a
solitary fact may, by dint of great diligence, be hunted
up, which science has made known and recorded, but of
which we may deem it no shame to confess that we know
not at this moment how to put it to use. Now, it is precisely upon this unhappy class of facts, of immediately
doubtful utility or of no presently known utility at all,
that the decriers of scientific research are always ready
to descend. And yet it is a matter entirely notorious to
every one in the slightest degree acquainted with the
history of science, that in the whole list of truths which
investigation has revealed, there is hardly a single one
which, at the time of its discovery, and in some instances
long after, did not stand in this same unfortunate class.
The truth is, that speculations upon the value of any
discovery whatever, in the moment in which the discovery is made, are totaly idle-are worse than idle-are
foolish. The alchemists, in their indefatigable though
empirical and blind researches in quest of the philoso
54 
L E T T ER.
pher's stone, discovered many curious compounds which,
since they availed nothing towards the production of
gold, were held by them in low esteem; yet among
these are some of those energetic re-agents which, in the
hands of modern chemistry, and directed by modern
intelligence, have heaped up gold in mountains beyond
even the alchemist's wildest dreams, in the heart of
every civilized land.
To descend to later times, and to speak with more
specific particularity, when Priestly, in 1774, turning the
focus of his burning lens upon the substance known in
the shops of the apothecaries under the name of red
precipitate, detached bubbles of a gas identical with
that which, in the atmosphere, supports life, wlio could
presume that, in thus freeing one of the metals from its
companion element, he had detected the composition of
many of the most useful ores, and furnished a hint
which was yet to reduce all metallurgic art, from the
smelting of iron to the reduction of aluminum, under
the dominion of chemical science, and to the severe rule
of an intelligent and a productive economy? When, in
the same year, Scheele, by operating on the acid of seasalt, made first visible to human eyes that beautifully
colored gas whose suffocating odor is now so well known
to all the world, who could foresee the astonishing revolution which a discovery then interesting only for its
curious beauty, was destined to introduce into the manufacture of paper, of linen textures, and of a vast multitude of other objects, of daily and hourly use?  Or
55 
LETTER.
what imagination could have been extravagant enough
or fantastic enough in the exercise of its inventive
power, to anticipate that a substance, for the moment
not merely useless but seemingly noxious, would in the
nineteenth century accomplish what without it, no
instrumentality known to science or art could have
accomplished,  find aliment for the rapacious maw of
a letter-press whose insatiable demands, already grown
vast beyond all conception, grow yet with each succeeding year? When the chemists of the last century ob served the discoloration and degradation which certain
metallic salts undergo in the sunlight, who could possibly read, in a circumstance so apparently trivial though
occasionally troublesome, the intimation that the sun
himself was about to place in the hands of Niepce, and
Daguerre, and Talbot, a pencil whose magical powers of
delineation should cause the highest achievements of
human pictorial art to seem poor and rude in the comparison?  When Malus, in 1810(, watching the glare of
the sun's rays reflected from the windows of the Luxembourgh to his own, noticed for the first time the curious phenomena attendant on that peculiar condition of
light which has since been known by the name of
polarization, what prescience could have connected a fact
so totally without any perceptible utility, with the manufacture of sugar in France; or have anticipated that an
instrument founded in principle on this very property,
would, forty years later, effect an annual saving to the
French people to the extent of hundreds of thousands of
56 
LETT ER.
francs?  When CErsted, in 1819, observed the disturbance of the magnetic needle by the influence of a neighboring galvanic current, how wild and visionary would
not that man have been pronounced to be, who should
have professed to read in an indication so slight, the
grand truth that science had that day stretched out the
sceptre of her authority over a winged Messenger, whose
fleetness should make a laggard even of Oberoni's familiar sprite, and render the velocity which could "' put
a girdle round the earth in forty minutes," tardy and
unsatisfying?
Questions of this kind, suggested by the history of
scientific progress, might be multiplied to fill a volume.
Indeed, it has almost come to be a dogma in science,
that there is no new truth whatever, no matter how wide
a space may seem, in the hour of its discovery, to divide
it firom any connection with the material interests of
man, which carries not within it the latent'seeds of a
utility, which further discovery in the same field will
reveal and cause to germinate.   And it has also almost
come to be a rule, that new discoveries in regard to the
properties of material things, or of the laws that govern
them, ghall belong to the class of seemingly useless
truths. For the obvious applications of known natural
laws, the obvious utilities inherent in familiar physical
qualities, have, under the untiring scrutiny of myriads
of penetrating eyes, been long since brought to light,
and, inwrought into the endlessly varied operations of
human art, have been made tributary to the service of
5,7 
LETTER.
mankind. The superficial placers have all been overrun and exhausted; the golden sands of the pleasant
river valleys have yielded up their dazzling and easily
won treasures; the rifled surface presents no longer any
thing to recompense the labor of the eager adventurer;
but deep in the everlasting rocks, and locked in an
adamantine prison, lies yet the precious object of desire;
still attainable, but attainable only at the price of a toil
that never tires, as the conquest of an energy which
difficulties only stimulate, and as the reward of a
patience which no discouragements can exhaust.
The analogy between the two cases here presented, that of the miner for material treasures, and the
delver after scientific truth, is up to this point complete. But the gold of the miner is still the same gold,
whether it be picked up loose-lying from among the
sands of the river, or torn with sweat and toil from the
bowels of the earth.  The  deep-lying truths, on the
other hand, which the patient and persevering inquirer
succeeds in occasionally bringing, one by one, to the
surface, resemble in point of value the gold of the mine,
not through identity of uses with truths before known,
as gold is identical in properties with other gold, but
through their adaptation to new uses which still remain
to be brought to light. And thus a new truth of this
class, though in its bosom may lie buried the germ of a
wealth to which all the gold of California would be but
as the light dust of the balance, may yet for years occupy in men's estimations no higher a place than that of
58 
LETTER.
a fact of curious knowledge; even as the priceless diamond in the cottage of the fisherman of the eastern tale
was esteemed capable' of being turned to no better account than to serve as a plaything for children. Not
even useful truth is useful until it is known to be so,
and until it is known how it is to be so. And no matter
how numerous and multiform may be the novel facts
which the invading armies of science, in their grand
march through the regions of the unknown, may sweep
together as their   spoil, and no matter what infinity of
benefit to man may be hidden among the rich bootyall this availeth nothing to the world which it so deeply
concerns, until, by patient study and unwearied perseverance, and experiment endlessly varied and feeling its
way cautiously in the obscurity, it has been made manifest to what useful ends the results of the conquest may
be applied. Thus, when Volta, by piling up bits of
metal and moistened card-board, one upon another, succeeded in producing a feeble disturbance of electrical
equilibrium, he discovered, as early as the year 1800, a
truth pregnant with consequences of incalculable moment to science, and destined to contribute more  to
human comfort and the wealth of nations, than the
discovery of a dozen Californias. Yet several years
elapsed before, in the hands of Davy, the wonderful fertility of this great germ-truth even began to be revealed; and still, at this very day, after the lapse of
more than half a century, after a long series of illustrious
investigators, some of them made chiefly illustrious by
59 
L E T T E R.
their very association with this subject, have added
their labors to his,-after the inventive genius of a
Hare, and a Wollaston, and a Daniell, and a Grove, and
a Bunsen, have been successively employed in exalting
the energy of the combinations, and the intelligent
sagacity of an Ampere, an Arago, a Hienry, a De la
Rive, and a Faraday, have been busying themselves
with the applications, and opening out to view a brilliant array of resultant truths; when all things in earth
and air and sea have yielded to this next to miraculous
power the secret of their composition; when the obdurate puzzle of the earth's magnetism has melted away
before it; when a net-work of electric wires has annihilated the breadth of continents, and the two mightiest
nations of the earth are preparing to stretch out the line
which links thought with thoughlt, from shore to shore
of the ocean itself,-even now, the progressive development of the great germ-truth is still unchecked, and the
world is full of laborers exploring, with unabated zeal,
the field first opened to their research by the intelligent
observation and appreciative genius of Volta.
If it is difficult, then, for philosophers themselves to
judge, in the first moments of discovery, in what precise form, and through what precise practical application, any new truth may become palpably useful to man,
how much more so must it be for the multitude who are
not philosophers! And if, in the experience of centuries, it has happened, in instances which defy enumeration, that the insignificant truth of to-day has been
60 
LETTER.
exalted to a position of the hi,ghlest dignity to-morrow,
how shall we venture to say, of any known fact of
science, however it may surpass our present penetration
to discover any connection, immediate or remote, between it and the increase of human wealth or comfort,
that it is a useless fact, or that the labor which may
have been expended in bringing it to light has been
thrown away.
The science of astronomy is that which seems, to the
view of most men at the present day, to occupy itself
more than any other, with laborious triflinig.  Not that
the uses of astronomy in general, are altogether denied.
Most persons know that astronomy has something to do,
in some way or other, with navigation; and nobody
need be told that navigation has something to do with
commerce, or commerce with human wealth. But the
idea seems to be generally prevalent, that all the service
which astronomy can render to navigation has been rendered long ago, and that observers are now idly gazing
up into the skies for the gratification of a transcendentally refined curiosity. The fact then, that this science
has already done much to promote men's most substantial interests, seems to be esteemed an argument in disproof of the probability or the prospect of its ever doing
more.  But it is true, notwithstanding, that astronomy
is still too far short of the point of perfection, to assign
the place of a ship on the ocean within a narrower limit
of error than three or four miles.
Now, the importance to an individual navigator of
61 
LETT ER.
being able to determine his longitude, is perhaps intelligible enough to need no illustration; but the importance which commercial nations have always attached to
the possession of a general method, which should enable
all their navigators, at all times and on every ocean, to
do the same, may be best understood by considering
what governments have done in order to secure such a
method. As early as 1598, Philip III., of Spain, offered
a reward of one thousand crowns to the person who
should solve the problem. The Dutch States shortly
after followed with an offer of ten thousand florins. In
1714, the British Parliament proposed the magnificent
prize of twenty thousand pounds to any one who should
furnish a method by which longitude on the ocean could
be ascertained within thirty geographical miles. The
same body offered also the lesser reward of fifteen
thousand pounds for a method which should be correct
within forty miles; and ten thousand, for one true only
within sixty.  In 1716, France, under the regency of the
Duke of Orleans, offered to the same end, a prize of one
hundred thousand livres. But no really important results were ever arrived at, until after the establishment
of regular astronomical observatories. When, in 1674,
St. Pierre, a French competitor for the prize offered by
Parliament, presented to the court of Charles II. an
astronomical method for the determination of the longitude, no better tables of the heavenly bodies existed
than those of Tycho Brahe. The commissioners appointed to examine St. Pierre's claim, applied for advice
62 
LETTER.
to Flamsteed, then the most eminent of British astronomers. He replied that the method was valueless, on
account of the errors of the tables; and that every
astronomical method must be equally so, unless  the
places of the heavenly bodies should be observed anew.
It is said that Charles, on reading this letter, exclaimed
impulsively, "But I must have them observed!" and
these words from the lips of royalty laid the foundation
of the Observatory at Greenwich. That single institution has done more for the increase of the world's
wealth, than would have sufficed to support, at their
ease, all the astronomers and physicists that ever lived,
since the days of Hipparchus; to build and furnish all
the observatories the world ever saw; to establish and
endow all the universities colleges, and schools, of every
grade, from highest to lowest, throughout the globe; to
erect and provide for all the hospitals, alms-houses, and
eleemosynary institutions of every kind, in all civilized
lands; and to build all the churches and parsonages, as
well as defray all other expenses attendant on the support of religion, in every Christian country, from the
advent of our blessed Saviour down to the present hour.
To make even a conjectural estimate of the true value
of its services to mankind, would, from the nature of
the case, be impracticable, since the  eleinents which
must enter into such an estimate are as numerous as the
endlessly varied articles of human consumption.  It is
even impossible to make a comparative estimate of the
value of astronomical agency considered along with
'*....
63 
LETTER.
other agencies concerned in promoting the same interests; since all the improvements.of art or science which
tend to give increased development to commercial enterprise, and all the stimulating influences which incite
men to engage or encourage them to continue in commercial pursuits, steal from astronomy at last half their
efficacy, by availing themselves of the security which it
has provided for the immense aggregate  of treasure
constantly afloat upon the waves.  But without particularly regarding this circumstance, we need not hesitate
to assert that the observatories of Europe, beginning
with those of Greenwich and Paris in the seventeenth
century, have done more in widening the scope of the
world's  comniercial  operations,  and  quickening  the
energy which has pervaded and filled them everywhere
with activity, than all other influences put togetherthan the temptation to human cupidity offered from all
antiquity in the fabled wealth of India, Cathay, and the
Islands of Spices than the intoxication of that delirium
with which the world of the sixteenth century ran mad
over the metallic treasures of the two Aniericas-than
the resistless allurement held out during the same historic period, to the spirit of wild adventure, by the uncertain riches of the portions of the New World still
unexplored, or by the deep mystery which hung over
the silent and yet untempted wastes of the great South
Sea-than all the powerful stimulus applied by interested governments, in the form of favoring legislation,
grants of monopolies, and the investment of trading
.....
64 
LETTER.
companies with exclusive rights and privileges-than
all the improvements of naval architecture, increasing
the strength, the stability, the capacity, and the speed
of sea-going vessels-than all the discoveries in marine
geography, disclosing the hidden dangers of the ocean's
bed, and the insidious currents of its.urface-than all
the progress made in studying the laws which govern
the winds, as to their direction, their violence, and their
fluctuations; or control the storms that from time to
time lash the watery waste into fury-than the natural
enlargement of the field, from the up-springing and
growth to greatness of colonies upon wild and untenanted shores than the simultaneous enlargement of the
material, by the discovery of new articles adapted to
the uses of man, or the application of articles of ancient
knowledge to new uses —than the enlargement of human
wants, through the facility with which the simpler wants
of the earlier centuries are supplied in the later-than
the enlargement of human wealth itself, which tends
ever, through commercial enterprise, to enlarge itself
still more-than, finally, the great improvement of the
nineteenth century, the invocation of the powerful arm
of steam to the propulsion of the mercantile marine,
securing a rapidity and a definite duration of transit on
the longest voyages, which are next in value to wealth,
itself. Yes-, it is repeated-superior to all these influences, and to all other influences which may have
operated to give expansion to the commercial enterprise
of the world, has been, during the last two centuries, the
5
65
-   3.,.. -. 
LETTER.
increasing security with which its magnificent undertakings hlave been surrounded by the science of Astronomy, and by the patient, weary, long-continued, seldom
adequately appreciated, and never adequately paid,
labors of the obscure and neglected astronomer. Obscure in life, neglected in life, jostled to the bottom of
the heap in the heterogeneous mixture of human society, where the light weights too usually come uppermost; but in death appreciated, in death.magnified, in
death honored with statues and monuments, in death
made the object of panegyric and eulogy! Attentions
how empty and idle!  Honors how vain and useless!
For the astronomer who has written his name upon the
starry heavens, needs no human tongue to praise him,
no human monuments to perpetuate his memory; he
dies no more. The bright companions of his many
painful night-watches, when they miss him at his tube,
will whisper his name softly to the spirit of his toiling
successor; and so if will go down with a starry lustre
about it, from one generation to another, till the last
patient sentinel in the celestial watch-tower shall suddenly be arrested in his vocation, and in his latest gaze
through the field of his protracted labors, shall behold
the heavens themselves rolling together like a scroll!
This great benefit conferred by astronomy upon
commerce, and through commerce upon. the world's
wealth, has resulted from the operation of a very simple
principle.  In whatever human enterprises wealth is set
at hazard, the ventures will be greater in proportion as
66 
LETTER.
the hazard is less. It is conceivable that the dangers of
the ocean might be so great as to arrest transmarine
commerce altogether.  It is also conceivable that they
might be totally annihilated, so that commerce by sea
should be subject to no greater burthens or discouragements than commerce by land. In this latter state of
things, the natural causes stimulating enterprise would
have free scope, and produce their full and legitimate
effect.  Between the extremes, commerce would assume
every intermediate aspect of vitality and degree of freedom, from vigorous life and total unrestraint on the one
hand, down to absolute torpidity and complete inaction
on the other. Now, among the Athenians, according to
Say, marine insurance bore the extravagant rate of sixty
per cent. per annum, or thirty per cent. per voyage on
the total value insured. Say supposes this extraordinary
fact to be in part attributable to the barbarous habit of
the peoples with whom the Athenians traded; a supposition apparently quite gratuitous, since no producing
people is hostile to commerce, and no  non-producing
people is worth trading with.  But he attributes it also,
with greater justice, to the dangers of navigation; and
adds this significant remark: "There was more danger
[to the Athenian merchant-sailors] in a voyage from the
Piroeus to Trapezus, though but three hundred leagues
distant, than there is now [1826] in one from L'Orient
to China, which is a distance of seven thousand" This
statement alone is sufficient to show that the reduction
of marine dangers in modern times-a reduction mainly
67 
LETTER.
due to astronomy-has been sufficient, ten times over, to
stimulate into vigor a struggling trade; and hence that
that rich oriental commerce which lived and flourished,
and in the hands of the Venetians, and the Portuguese,
and the Dutch, poured wealth into Europe, in spite of the
difficulties and dangers-greater than those of oceanof the overland route, in spite of the indefinite perils
and perpetual losses of the tedious voyage by the Cape,
in spite of the months of time wasted in the transit
during which the capital lay a dead investment-the
commerce which under all these disadvantages not only
continued to live, but which enriched its possessors,
must, under the almost boundless development given to
it by the favoring circumstances of modern times, have
contributed to the world's wealth to an extent which no
figures can compute.
The condition of the astronomical tables at the
founding of the Royal Observatory was such, that they
could not, by any possibility, be made the basis of a
method of practical navigation; since the place of a
ship as determined by them, might possibly be in error
to the enormous extent of nine hundred miles; nor was
it in the power of any correction practicable without
new and laborious observation, to reduce this limit of
error to less than one fourth of its amount, or nearly two
hundred miles.  On the establishment of observatories,
the first and largest steps toward improvement were
comparatively rapid and easy; the more recent have,
on the contrary, been slow and difficult. It is so with
6S 
LETTER.
all progress toward the ideal of perfection. The
sculptor blocks out his statue with a bold and heavy
hand. The rough and massive fragments fall off in
showers upon every side; and, in a space incredibly
brief, the figure of the image reveals itself dimly, as if
it were already a real existence, smothered beneath a
rocky incrustation.  But when this rigid veil begins to
grow thin, and the looker-on almost expects to see the
impatient master tear it impulsively away, then it is
that the true labor only commences. Then it is that
the coarse chisel and the heavy mallet will serve no
longer but with a more delicate implement, and a more
cautious hand, and a more anxiously watchful eye, the
master sculptor detaches the remaining superfluities,
grain by grain. And so with astronomy. Great lumps
of error fell away in the lifetime of the first public
astronomers; but the outline of a satisfactory method of
navigation by the stars still failed to appear. The
moon, "the inconstant moon," had still to be watched
through muay a weary revolution, and nearly a century
passed away before the image in the rock at which the
patient laborers had been so long toiling, could be distinctly traced. Not till near the close of that long
period, had astronomy presented to the world a method
of ocean longitude, within the outside limits specified by
the parliamentary act of 1714. If, then, to make but a
modest approach  toward  theoretic perfection, when
practical astronomy was yet on every side open to easy
improvement by the first comers, was a labor arduous
69 
LETTER.
and slow, what must have since been, what must yet
continue to be, the toilsomeness of the task of working
out its still higher improvement, and carrying it onward
toward that standard of ideal perfection, which science
will continue to approximate while the world stands, but
after all, will never fully attain.
It is sometimes made our reproach, it is spoken of as
if it were a preposterous thing, that we should desire to
see M1ississippi, as well as the rest of the world, doing
something to promote the progress of this great work.
Surely they upon whom the responsibility of the undertaking must fall, cannot be supposed to have any selfish
feeling to gratify, any personal interests to serve, in
urging this thing. To those to whom such an impression
may have occurred, it would be instructive, if it were
possible to observe an astronomer at his work. It is no
child's play which occupies him. In the long, deep
silence of the world's repose, sleepless himself though
weary, fixed motionless in attitudes often painful, with
an attention which must never flag, and al eye which
must never relax its strain, he watches for hours the
monotonous stars as they pass; and automatically, as if
he were a part of the instrument which he controls,
notes down the moment of their passage with the
electric key.   Night after night he follows up  this
unvarying and uninteresting toil. Day after day he
elaborates the results with a lavish profusion of numnerical computations, which leave the labors of the banker's clerk and accountant far in the shade. And this
70 
LETT ER. 
work, prosecuted for some years, enables him at last,
perhaps to say that he has contributed his share toward
removing one more small chip from the block in which
the ideal perfection is still locked up. The picture may
excite admiration; but certainly, seen from this point of
view, there is nothing in it to invite emulation, or to
promise ease. We admire, as we admire the elaborators of lexicons, and of concordances to the Holy Scriptures. And when we see one man after another
devoting his strength to this exhausting work, and
wearing himself out in the patient scrutiny of the starry
heavens, instead of regarding him as anil idle squanderer
of the time and talents that God has given him, ought we
not to look upon him rather, as truly as we do on Galileo
himself, as belonging to the number of those whom
science may justly rank in her noble army of martyrs!
The fact that the state of refinement which practical astronomy has attained to-day is such, that the
observations of to-night cannot be turned to immediate
account to-morrow morning, but that the accumulated
results of many observations are necessary to a single
additional step of progress, is one which places the
science at a great disadvantage, when its claims are
canvassed in the world. The incidental facts of discovery, therefore, which astronomers occasionally pick
up, and which are of a nature to be generally understood, though they illustrate in no manner the great and
proper labors of these useful men, are often seized upon
71 
LETTER.
by those who ignorantly depreciate the value of astronomical research, as if they were appropriate examples of the objects and ends of all modern astronomy.
A telescopic comet is announced, and the discoverer is
rewarded, perhaps, by a royal medal.   Now, what of
this comet? says the objector, and how is the world the
better for its discovery?   Well, for the present, we
allow that we have nothing to say of the comet.   We
freely admit that we shall sleep no warmer in our beds,
nor wake any richer in the morning, on account of it.
Yet the reward is a just reward for vigilance, and vigilance certainly is valuable.   Experience has, moreover,
shown that the observation even of comets has no slight
interest in its relations to the theory of gravitation, to
the physical condition of the realms of space, and to the
permanence of the system to which we belong. But let
the comet go; class it with the Antarctic continent discovery by Wilkes, or with the boomerang of his Fejee
islanders.  We  are not at all the happier or the less
happy for the one or for the other; yet the Antarctic
continent is, after all, a great fact; and the boomerang
is a small one, which there was surely no harm in
recording.
The objector sometimes, however, unconsciously
founds his strictures upon discoveries which are not
trifles. The undersigned has heard the question gravely
raised, what advantage has the world derived from the
discovery of the planet Uranus?  The fact, remairks the
objector, is called an important one; and yet, for nearly
72 
LETT ER.
six thousand years according to Usher, mankind had
got along very well without it.  Now, this latter remark,
be it observed, is very little to the purpose.  MIankind
got along well enough for a time without buttons and
without breeches; and nmuch longer without the printing
press, and without the steam-engine. M1ankind felt no
need of cannon lwhen there was  no gtunpowder, or of
telegraph posts when there was no galvanism.  Mankind
got along very well without Uranus, and could have got
on nmuch longer under the same privation, had not
Uranus been discovered.  But to say that the discovery
has been of no use,-this is an admission which we are
not prepared to make. It has been of use, as may be
easily illustrated.
First, however, let attention be drawn to an analogous discovery of somewhat later date, the history of
which, both curious and instructive, may best precede
what relates to Uranus. On the first day of January, of
the year 1801, the very first day of the nineteenth century, the distinguished astronomer, Piazzi, of Palermo,
observed a minute planet, never  before noticed by
human eye, since kftown by the name of Ceres.  Compared with Uranus, it is but a sand-grain to a mountain.  Compared even with our moon, it is but an insignificant globule a pepper-corn to an orange. Yet its
discovery had a value.  Piazzi silently observed it, designing, so soon as he should leave satisfactorily determined
its orbit, to surprise the world by the announcement of
a new member of the solar system; but it soon plunged
73 
LETTER.
into the overwhelming blaze of the solar radiance, and
was lost to view for months.  Unable, from  the few
observations he had gathered, to determine the path of
the stranger, Piazzi at length laid the observations themselves before the astronomical world. The period of
the probable emergence of the body from its veil of
light having arrived, innumerable telescopes were directed toward the region of the heavens in which its track
was presumed to lie; but not all the scrutiny nor all the
perseverance of all the astronomers of Europe could
suffice to recover the lost planet again to human view.
Gradually a suspicion began to be whispered that the
pretended discovery was no discovery at all; but that
Piazzi had fabricated the observations with the malicious
design to puzzle and annoy his contemporaries.
Nowv, at about this very period, a mathematician of
Igermany had had his thoughts turned toward a defect
in the existing state of astronomical science, in regard
to the determination of planetary paths. While this
defect continued, it was impossible to test the question
whether the observations were genuine or not. The
occasion stimulated him to supply the defect; and the
result, the " Theoria Afotu  Corporn Coeetium"n?  of
Gauss, was one of the most valuable contributions to
mathematical science ever made.  By the aid of the
"Theoria Motu," the path of' the planet Ceres was
traced from the time when it escaped from the hands of
Piazzi.  Gauss said to the astronomers, "Look yonder,
and you will find your truant star." They looked, and
74 
LETT ER.
the little globule was recovered on the first clear night
thereafter.
Now, what the planet Ceres did for the world was,
to improve mathematical science-the science whose useful applications on the earth are infinitely varied, and
without which all our knowledge of the heavens derived
from mere observation, would be of no value whatever,
either to navigation or to any other end.  And what
the planet Ceres did, that the planet Uranus has done in
a different manner.
From an early period following its discovery, this
planet had been a very burthen upon the patience of
astronomers, and a sore trial to their faith. From its
motions as actually observed, its prospective motions as
they ought to be, were deduced by computation; and
its path was prescribed to it with a confidence which the
tested power of physical astronomy had rendered somewhat strongly assured.  But Uranus seemed very little
to heed the dictates of the astronomers, and the path
which they assigned hiln was one in which he chose not
to walk.   Moreover, after his discovery, the fact pre.
sented itself that he had already been observed nineteen
times before, without being recognized as a planetonce so long before as 1690; and that when the positions which he occupied at the times of those ancient
observations were compared with what they should
have been according to the law of his later motion,
there was a disagreement to an extent so large as to
make it impossible to assign any path whatever to this
75 
L LET'TER.
contumacious planet, which should at the same time
recognize the theory of gravitation, and harmonize the
old observations with the new.  Here was a case of real
perplexity.  It brought directly up the question whlether
or not the law of gravitation is, after all, one which can
be universally relied on.  Evidently the decision must
go against the law, unless it can be shown that some disturbilng, body heretofore overlooked, exists within the
limits of the system, and of which we know nothing
now except what we read in the seeming caprices of
Uranus.  The data on which the discussion of this question was to proceed were evidently very slight  much
slighter than had existed when Gauss attacked the
problem of Ceres.  Ceres had been seen-the unknown
disturber of Uranus, never. But as if to illustrate the
truth that, as difficulties accumulate, human energies correspondin,ly rise to their encounter, it was this time not
a single champion who rushed forward, to the support
of troubled science, but two simultaneously, who, with
equal enthusiasm, equal perseverance, and equal final
success, attacked the difficulty, and bore off the plaudits of the world. Leverrier wrote to his friend at Berlin, "Examine the point I describe, and you will find
the disturber." Galle turneI his telescope in that direction, and in the self-same hour, Neptune was found.
Simultaneously, Adams laid his finger on the map of the
heavens, and said to the astronomer of Cambridge, "It is
in this lurkin-place, precisely, that you will find the
author of all our confusion."  The astronomer, Challis,
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L E T T 1 R.
distrusting isolated observations, commenced a systematic sweep of the whole region.  HLe saw and recorded
the planet twice without knowing it; and failed to make
the discovery simply because he deferred the comparison
of his observations until too late.  Thus the benefit
which has resulted ultimately to the world from the discovery of Uranus, is analogous to that of which Ceres
was the occasion: it has wonderfully stimulated the
ingenuity of men in the improvement of mathematical
methods, and has thus contributed to the advancement
of that science, without which no other exact science
can exist.
It is hard, however, to be compelled to rest the argument for utility upon so narrow a basis as this.   It is
hard not to be permitted to think it useful, and as a lesson to human conceit valuable, to know that the insignificant ball on which we dwell is really, after all, not a
very great nor a very magnificent portion of God's vast
creation, or even of the planetary system to whichl it immediately belongs; that minute and insignificant as it appeared in the circle of its sister planets before the discovery of Uranus, its dignity was doubly dwarfed in conse.
quence of that discovery, by the expansion of the system
to twice its previously ascertained colossal dimensions, and
has been a second time reduced in the same proportion,
by the more recent discovery of Neptune.
And besides all this, it is really both annoying and
discouraging to think that it seems not to be permitted to
the hard-working and pains-taking astronomer to discover
77 
LETT ER.
any thing for which he cannot find an immediately practical
use, into the advantages of which all the world, learned
and unlearned alike, can at once enter. What if there were
no use in the occasional discovery of a planet or a comet,
beyond the gratification it affords to the astronomical
world?  Is not that enough I? Does not the astronomer
render, in a thousand other ways, service enough to mankind to warrant his occasional indulgence in the luxury of
a new planet?  "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he
treadeth out the corn," was the humane command of the
Levitical law.  If astronomy is of service to the world,
at least let the world permit to the astronomer some
sources of enjoyment from the results of his own labors.
, In addition to the general considerations thus far
presented, the undersigned now begs leave to offer a few
specific arguments in favor of the project which he has
had the honor, in the earlier portion of this letter, to
submit to the enlightened deliberation of your honorable
body.
I. In the first place, the existence of a school of
higher learning in Mississippi is of essential importance
in view of the instrumentality of such institutions in the
development of native genius. There is no doubt that,
among every people, there exist capacities that, for want
of opportunity, are never developed. There is no doubt,
that favoring opportunity has been the immediately
stimulating cause of nearly all the greatness which the
world ever saw. If the names of Washilngton and Greene,
and Hancock and Jefferson, will forever ring in the ears
78 
LETTER.
of the human race, it is no doubt to the opportunity
opened to them by the American Revolution, that their
celebrity is to be ascribed.  If the gigantic name of Napoleon fills up all the earlier years of the nineteenth
century, it is no doubt to the opportunity presented to
the youthful soldier by the command of the army of
Italy, that his rapid march to empire is mainly attributable. There is probably not an ancient churchyard in
the world, to which the expressive lines of Gray may
not be appropriately applied:
"Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands which the rod of empire might have swayed
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
"Bzut knowledge to their eyes her arple page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll"
Ah, there the poet has touched the heart of the
secret! Knowledge, indeed, is the potent instrumentality, after all, most essential to draw out the latent
capabilities of the soul. For lack of knowledge many a
Sheridan, unconscious of,his powers, may have gone
down voiceless to his grave; many a Milton, "mute and
inglorious," may have passed away without a song; possibly, many a Newton, though the world has known but
one, may have innocently held all his life the Ptolemean
philosophy; and many a Brahe, or a Bessel, or a Herschel, may have attained to no greater intimacy with the
stars of heaven than was enjoyed by the Chaldean shepherds whom they "gladdened on their mountain tops,"
in their solitary night-watches. If there is native genius
79 
LETTER.
in Mississippi, how withlout knowledge, here any more
than elsewhere, can that genius waken into activity,
ripen into streng-th, soar into celebrity?  And if the
opportunity is not here offered for the attainment of that
knowledge which is so necessary to distinction, how or
where shall it be obtained?
It is no reply to say that philosophers have sprung
up independently of schools; and have grown famous
without the aid of masters. The surface of the scientific
field has been long since skimmed; and the original,
unaided, and unschooled investigator must begin always
at the surface. When the gold lies in nuggets, exposed
to view, the first adventurer may pick it up and make it
his own.  The Chaldean could sit upon his hill-top, and
become an astronomer as he watched his flock. From
Hiipparchus to Tycho Brahe, instrumental observation,
though it had created the science anew, continued to be
of the rudest kind, and anybody might employ it. Since
Brahe's time, such as been the progress of improvement,
that to-day, no man can becoane a practical astronomer,
except within the walls of a regular observatory.  There
may be those who believe that, if we h,tve youth among
us of scientific tastes, and scientific ambitions, it is of no
sort of importance whether they be drawn out and encouraged to labor for distinction to themselves and to
their native State or not. With such, the undersigned
can hold no argument, since the parties have no common
ground on which to meet.   The value, no  less to a
people than to individuals, of an honorable reputation,
80 
LETTE R.
must be admitted, or every discussion, involving any but
the most mercenary motives of action, must fall to the
ground.
Will it, then, be said that the sources of the knowledge which has been represented as so valuable, will
not be wanting to the ambitious aspirant, even though
Mississippi should fail to furnish it?'Vill it be said
that other States and other institutions hav-e already
made the provision which is here demanded; and that
our youth may enjoy all the advantages which can be
desired, without subjecting us to additional expense?
The remark is sufficiently true as to its facts; but is not
by any means so as to its inferences. The aspirant for
scientific distinction can, it is admitted, seek sources of
information elsewhere, after he begins to aspire; but
what we want are the instrumentalities by which his
aspirations are to be awakened. The benefits of distant
institutions may be enjoyed by those who will go to a
distance to find them; but, none will go who have no
previously excited interest in the thing they seek.
Will it again be objected that, after all, there can be
but fewa at most, who will devote themselves with ardor
to the pursuit of high learning, or the prosecution of
profound investigation-too few to deserve that we
should make a special provision for them. The objection in its premises will be once more admitted without
hesitation; but the justice or reasonableness of its conclusion will be wholly denied.  Were all men to become
philosophers, there would be no philosophers; were all
6
81 
LETTE R.
men to become learned, there would be no learned men.
Who does not remember, and who does not feel, the deep
wisdom of the remark of the judicious and liberalminded Huger, of South Carolina, on occasion of a pow
erful vindication before the legislature of that State, I)by
the youthful M'Duffie, of the college which educated
hiinm-a remark which has not been so often repeated
but that it will bear repetition again: "Had the college," said Judge Huger, "never done the State a single
service except to educate that young man, she would
have made an ample return for all the money that has
ever been lavished on her."  If any thing is needed to
dispose of the objection thus suggested, it may be found
in the spirit of this observation. Comment would only
weaken the argument.
It is held, then, that the measures of higher development to which it is proposed that the University of
Mississippi should now begin to conform her policy, will
be attended with at least one recognizable, tangible,
definable advantage. Let us inquire whether there be
no other.
II. Throughout the entire South, for the past twenty
years, and in the years immediately preceding the
present, with an intensity constantly growing, we have
heard continually the demand earnestly uttered in every
quarter, that Southern youth should be educated in
Southern institutions of learning. From the press, from
the platform, from the pulpit, from the legislative
benches, and from the executive chair, in our own and
82 
LETTER. 
in every neighboring State, one unanimous and emphatic
expression of opinion on this subject has proceeded, each
confirming and strengthening the rest, and altogether
forming a solid and compact mass of public sentiment
which cannot be mistaken.   And the public sentiment
is right. If we had no peculiar interests to render the
home education of our youth specially important to us,
it would unquestionably be the part of the highest
wisdom to rear up our youth to manhood among the
scenes with which they are to be in life identified. The
ulterior value of early acquaintances and of the ties of
co]leg,e friendship, is too great to be thrown indifferently
away, as it is thrown away to every useful purpose when
a  youth  is educated  a thousand  miles from  his
home, unless in view of some great countervailing advantage.
Few Southern parents can be found, who are not
ready to admit the truth of all this.   And yet a great
many Southern parents are found, who still send their
children away, not merely to other Southern States, but
to New Jersey, to New York, and to New  England.
What reason shall be assigned for this?   Is there any
describable benefit which these parents expect to secure,
by a measure so in conflict with public sentiment all
about them?   And if there is, is there any benefit sufficient to countervail the great and obvious evil of foregoing home influences, destroying home  associations,
renouncing home friendships?  Certainly they believe
that there is; and this advantage they believe that they
83 
LETTER.
find in superior institutions, and superior means and appliances for the communication of knowledge.   Is their
belief correct?
If we trust the testimony of our presses, if we yield
credit to the expressed convictions of our fellow-citizens
on every side, we shall be slow to admit that there are
anywhere to be found educational advantages superior
to those which we possess. Not a public exhibition can
be held in any Southeri college, not a public examination can take place in any Southern school, without
eliciting a volume of delighted and exultant praise, which
exhausts the vocabulary of panegyric, and leaves the
enthusiastic commentator and critic at a loss for words.
We have no such thing as a second-rate school among
us.   We have no such thing as a school with its strong
points and its weak points.   All our schools are strong
-they have no weak points. Their strength is capable
of expression only in the superlative degree; they are
superlative in general excellence, and all their parts,
their departments, their operations, their accommodations, their apparatus and their personnel are superlative
also. Our system is the wisest system, our discipline is
the most judicious discipline, our Faculties are the ablest
Faculties, and our scholars are the very most proficient
scholars, the world ever saw. To sum up all in one
grand expressive word-our advantages-a term of convenient comprehensiveness, into the meaning of which
it is well not too curiously to inquire,-our advantages
surpass by far all ever before offered, in any age of the
84 
LETTER.
world, or in any community, to the appreciative patronage of an enlightened public.
This can hardly be called a caricature. Scarcely a
word or sentence has been employed, of which the
counterpart may not be found in the columns of the
Southern press, passim; and as to the sentiment of the
whole, it is the most familiar of all that salute our ears.
Who ever heard of a college or a school of any pretensions within our borders, which was not all that is here
described?  Now, the total absence of every thing like a
discriminating, or appreciative, or just mode of dealing
with the claims and merits of our institutions of learning, on the part of those who undertake to direct public
opinion, is pernicious in a variety of ways.  It checks in
the institutions themselves the spirit of improvement;
since if they can so cheaply win the guerdon of superlative praise, they will hardly think it worth their while
to labor for a substantial merit which nobody appreciates. It misleads, most unhappily, the public mind, by
producing a contented faith in a merit which is in too
many cases, more imaginary than real; and thus averting from the institutions that outside pressure, which is
the most effectual stimulus to internal improvement.
But, finally, it is clearly 8een tlirough by the well-educated and intelligent, and dispassionately judging among
ourselves; who, disgusted with hyperbole, and anxtious
for a little honest fact, send, therefore, their children to
distant institutions, of long-standing and undoubted
character; reconciling themselves, as well as they can,
85 
L E T T E R.
to the unwelcome necessity, by the consideration that if
their children are denied the benefit of an education at
home, they will at least enjoy the benefit of an  education.
But, after all, have we no institutions capable of
thoroughly educating our own youth upon our own soil?
It is not the undersigned who has assumed so broad a
ground as that we have not. It is only those Southern
parents who, bewildered by the system of universal
laudation which prevails among us, are unable to discover whether we have or not; and so cut the knot at
once, by withholding their patronage equally from all.
But dismissing for a moment the question here raised, in
so far as it relates to that branch of education which
has been distinguished as disciplinary, it is an opinion
which the undersigned is compelled to entertain, that, in
regard to all that relates to the second, or doctrinal,
branch, there is not at present-unless by the enlightened
action of your honorable body, within the last two
years, an exception may be fairly assumed to have been
created here-an institution of learning in all the South,
which can justly claim for itself an undeniable equality
of merit with any one of several of the older colleges
of the North; much less one entitled to arrogate to
itself superlatives of praise.
To you, Gentlemen, is certainly to be awarded high
honor for your distinct perception of these things, and
for the energetic measures which you have taken, and
are still taking, to remove one Southern institution at
86 
LETTER.
least from the sweeping category. It is not, therefore,
to you that the undersigned feels bound to apologize for
the plainness of his speech. To his fellow-citizens he
would say that if the language here held is more novel
than complimentary, this is only because, in order that
we may mend our deficiencies, it is necessary first that
we should look them distinctly in the face.
What, then, is it which leads so many Southern parents to prefer Northern institutions to their own?  If
there is difference of merit, in what does the difference
consist?  All the educational advantages which institutions of learning present to seekers after knowledge,
must be traceable to one or other of the three following heads: 1. The personal ability of teachers; 2. The
material and instrumental means and appliances auxiliary to instruction; and 3. Tile methods.  The third
and last of these heads may be at once dismissed, since
the practical methods of instruction in all our colleges,
instrumental illustrations-.apart, are so similar that the
consideration of methods of instruction is rarely the
determining one in the mind of a parent.  The first
deserves to be dwelt on a little more maturely. The
personal reputation of a teacher highly distinguished
for his attainments in letters or science, not seldom
weighs much in a question of this kind; but when we
consider in how many of our colleges, from Virginia to
Louisiana, there are really teachers of eminent ability,
well-known learning, or profound science, we must be
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L E T T E R.
satisfied that it is not here that we are to look for the
solution of our present difficulty.
What then remains, if it be not the imperfect provision which exists in so many of our colleges, as compared with those in the North to which Southern youth
chiefly resort, in regard to the material and instrumental
means of imparting knowledge mainly upon subjects of
physical and chemical science, of geology, mineralogy
and natural history, all of them matters esteemed, in the
present age of the world, to possess a high practical
value, and of which, under the galloping system of
teaching already abundantly signalized in this letter, it
is only by the aid of the most ample illustration that
any thing can be really taught at all.
There need be no hesitancy in saying that our
Southern colleges, as a class, are in this respect generally deficient. They may occupy eligible locations;
they may possess learned and able teachers; in what
relates to mental training and discipline-to education,
in short, in the proper and literal sense of that wordthey may be entitled to all the praise they claim; but, as
to the second branch of their business, as to instruction,
as distinguished from education, and as to their means
of making it clear, comprehensive, and thorough-their
libraries, their philosophical and chemical apparatus
their collections illustrative of the mineral, vegetable,
and animal kingdoms,-as to these things, the contrast
between them and those richly endowed and venerable,
institutions which so many Southern parents prefer, is so
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LETTER.
glaring as to throw itself upon our notice, whether we
will regard it or not.
What  is the remedy? Not denunciation, surelynot reproach  not crimination.  No! Instead of all this,
it.is to throw around our own institutions precisely the
same attractions, and without any exception all the attractions, which exist elsewhere to draw our youth away.
It will cost money-true; but then the money will be
well expended.  From a pretty extensive examination of
college catalogues, the undersigned is prepared to believe
that not fewer than two hundred Mississippi youth are
now  constantly pursuing their education beyond the
limits of the State; many of them, it is true, in Southern
colleges, but colleges supposed to be better provided
than ours with the instrumentalities necessary to the
satisfactory presentation of subjects of physical science.
The offer of sufficient counter-attractions here, may reasonably be presumed likely to detain hereafter at least
one hundred of this numberat home.  Now, the education
of every such student may, without extravagance, be
estimated to cost-tuition, and living, and clothing, and
books, and travelling to and fro, to say nothing of
pocket expenditures, being included-not less than six
hundred dollars per annum; so that a total sum of one
hundred and twenty thousand dollars is annually raised
in Mississippi and expended abroad, of which one half
at least might be just as well retained at home.
And this sum, if not more, as a consequence of the
judicious, and thoughtful, and far-seeing policy which
89 
LETTER.
has prompted the expenditure of a much less consider able amount in strengthening the University of Missis sippi in the point where strength has been most needed,
probably will in coming years be saved to the State.
Having brought into so strong relief, what is believed to
be the principal cause of the want of popularity of
Southern colleges with Southern men, the undersigned
would commit an unpardonable oversight, were he not
to express his conviction that this University is, to-day,
in possession of a philosophical and chemical apparatus
as a whole without a superior on the continent, and in
many of its details unequalled; that it possesses a mineral collection of which the rare beauty of the specimens
is rivalled only in the richest cabinets of the country;
and that in conchology it has a treasure to which no similar institution in the United States can present a parallel.
Mluch of what is here described, though provided by
your own order, has not yet been presented to your inspection. At your next assembling, you will have the
satisfaction of seeing one Southern college, which, in
regard to the most important and popular branches of
physical science, will present every attraction to the
learner which can be offeredl by the oldest and best
appointed in the entire country.
Astronomy yet remains to be provided  for.  That
portion of the plan of improvement sanctioned at your
meeting in July, 1856, which relates to this science, has
as yet but imperfectly been carried into execution.
Your observatory remains incomplete, and instruments
90 
LETTER.
for observation remain unprovided. Now, whatever may
be the opinions men may entertain in regard to the importance of creating facilities for forming an acquaintance
with the heavens in connection with our colleges, however superciliously men may regard practical astronomy
for its own sake, nobody can deny that the possession of
such facilities does actually contribute to tlie consideration in which the institutions where they exist are held;
nobody can deny that they are really attractions which
exercise a powerful influence upon the imagination, and
that they are positively effective in securing patronage.
At the meeting of 1856, to which allusion has just been
made, it is believed that every member of your honorable body who was present was fully satisfied of the correctness of this principle, viz: that whatever attractions,
no matter of what kind, may exist elsewhere, to draw
the youth of Mississippi away to institutions of learning
foreign to the State, the same attractions ought to be
created here, simply because they are attractions. It is
believed that it was then admitted without controversy
to be unnecessary to discuss in labored detail the intrinsic merits of every specific measure of improvement proposed, provided it could be said of it that it is a measure which other and distant colleges have adopted, and
which is capable of being urged as evidence of the superiority of those institutions by citizens of our own State
who choose to patronize them.  Not that, by acting on
this principle, we are really in danger of adopting any
measure intrinsically useless; but that the principle
91 
LETTER.
affords a short cut to a good and sufficient reason for
what we do, and sets aside the necessity for many and
weary words. 
Now, from the manner in which the measures pro posed here in regard to practical astronomy have been
spoken of by some, one would imagine it to be an unprecedented thing for a college in the United States to
possess an observatory. And yet there are nearly a
dozen American colleges fully provided in this respect,
in most or all of which active observation is constantly
kept up; and among the number are three or four possessing instruments which rank among the most magnificent in the world.  Nothing is aimed at in the University
of Mississippi more than all these colleges have already
done; and if the propriety of carrying out to completion
the measures initiated in 1856, be rested on no higher
ground than that of the self-interest which should
prompt us to endeavor to clothe ourselves  with all
the attractions which other institutions possess, further
argument would seem to be unnecessary.
At any rare, it is quite undeniable that there is but
one way in which we can put ourselves entirely in the
right, when we demand of Southern parents that they
shall educate their sons at home; and that is by following out the policy indicated above, no matter to what
results it may lead us, no matter what measures it may
force upon us.  So long as we leave any opening whatever for such parents to say that we fail to provide here
the advantages, and all the advantages, which can be
92 
LETTER.
found elsewhere, so long we must refrain from reproaching them if they see fit to resist the temptations we do
really lay before them, and still pass us by to prefer the
North.
There remain two further considerations only, which
the undersigned desires, before concluding, to suggest as
matters of reflection. One of these has reference to our
feelings of honorable pride; the other, to our sense of
duty.
III. And first, as to our pride. We certainly cannot
but desire that the institution in which we all of us feel
so deep an interest shall not only accomplish'a good
and useful work, but that it shall build up for itself an
honorable and enviable reputation. There is not a
Mississippian anywhere, in whom it would not excite a
feeling of proud exultation to hear the University of the
State of which he is a citizen, spoken of by people
at a distance in terms of respect and admiration. It is
folly to affect contempt for a consideration of this kind.
When character losesits value in the minds of men, the
basis of all motive to improvement, the stimulus to all
honorable aspiration, is swept away. The love of approbation is implanted in our natures by God himself;
and so long as those natures remain unchanged, so long
will it be a legitimate argument in favor of any act
or any measure, that it is adapted to secure the good
opinions of mankind.
Now, the only infallible mode of acquiring an honorable reputation, and a reputation which shall be not
93 
LETTER.
only honorable but permanent, is to deserve it. And
our desert is measured not merely by the degree of our
well-doing in that which we do, but also no less by the
loftiness of our aims, and the magnitude of our attempts.  If we confine our views to the comparatively
humble object of training boyish intellects, and do this
faithfully and successfully, we shall have accomplished
a good work, and have entitled ourselves to be  well
spoken of; but our reputation will correspond with the
grade of our labor, anid will hardly overpass the boundaries of our own State.  But if our ambitions are more
aspiring, and we aim to satisfy the cravings of maturer
minds; if, not content with an humble station in the
vestibule of the temple of science, we pass the sublime
portals, and plant ourselves as ministers at the radiant
shrine itself,- then, if our success be in any mainner proportioned to our daring, we shall have accomplished a
much greater work than the former, and have assured
to ourselves a wider consideration, which it depends
only on ourselves to exalt into celebrity. Of this fact
we may be well assured, that the attention of men
will be drawn to us just in proportion as the level on
which we choose to plant ourselves is more elevated.
In this respect there is an analogy between moral and
material things. That object is ever most conspicuous
whose position is highest. A city in a valley may easily
be overlooked; but the city which is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Nor must we overlook the reflex influence upon the
94 
LETTER.
instructor himself whiclh must be consequent upon increasing the dignity of his task. In the ordinary routine of collegiate instruction there is little to stimulate
the teacher to self-improvement, or to inspire him with
the ambition to make larger attainments than are necessary to fit him  for the business of conducting the daily
examinations of the recitation-room. it has already
been pointed out in what manner the system of college
instruction which depends on examination exclusively,
tends to repress the properly teaching spirit; it may be
added, as a circumstance no less to be lamented, that
it actually furnishes a screen to the deficiencies of the
teacher. There is indeed no disposition to deny that
an honest and conscientious- man who feels lhimself deficient, may endeavor to improve, out of a mere sense of
duty.   It is, on the other hand, freely admitted  that
men may, if they will, be personally as proficient under
one system as under another; but all this does not make
it the less true that men in every situation are influenced
by circumstances, as well as by principle and the sense
of duty;  that different systems do not equally stimulate
men to effort; and that, in the long run, it will generally be found-a consequence probably of the weakness
of human nature-that the aggregate of performance in
the discharge of duty is proportioned more to the force
of external influences than to the weight of moral obligation.  In proportion as the duty of the instructor is
of higher grade, in proportion as it involves the necessity of larger attainments, in the same proportion he
95 
LETTER.
must himself rise, and the comprehensiveness of his
knowledge must be wider.  And if at the same time
the system of instruction to which he is obliged to
conform be such that, instead of permitting him to act
the part of a mere listener to the performances of his
pupils, it compels him to be himself the living expositor
of his subject, then he is brought under the influence of
the highest stimulus to exertion by which a man in his
position can possibly be actuated, the ambition to attain
an honorable personal reputation; an ambition secretly
reinforced by the consciousness that to be deficient is to
incur inevitable exposure, and that to be exposed is to
be disgraced.
Nor in vindicating the policy of aiming to elevate
the grade of teaching in the University of Mississippi,
are we without an argument of a more utilitarian, or,
as it may perhaps be called, a more mercenary chlaracter. If it is true that, in thus elevating our aims, we
may reasonably hopDe to secure for the institution a
higher, a more honorable, and a more extended reputation, it cannot but be anticipated, as a necessary consequence, that the number of those who resort here for
instruction will correspondingly increase. In this consideration we may find a justification, not merely of the
measure now immediately under discussion, but of every
measure of improvement, and of every expenditure of
every kind, which creates here a new attraction to
counteract those other attractions which are continually
drawing the youth of Mississippi to distant colleges
96 
LETTER.
The undersigned is well aware with how grave misgivings the expenditures made for the sake of improving
the internal efficienoy of colleges, and their general attractiveness to students, are often regarded by outside
observers. But really such expenditures are among the
most judicious investments that can. possibly be made;
and sooner or later they infallibly pay for themselves.
A slight permanent increase of the number of students
will in due time reimburse the treasury for a large
expenditure; a larger increase will do it sooner; and
when it is done, the objects of the investment will become a permanent addition to the capital, while the
income will be increased by a perpetual annuity. Suppose, for example, one thousand dollars to be applied in
some such way as to be a means of adding a single student to each class in college. Form the annual payments of these additional students, which are made at
the beginning of each year in advance, into a sinking
fund, and the debt with interest will be cancelled in five
years; after which the revenue of the institution will
be permanently increased about two hundred dollars
per annum.
In speculating on a matter of this kind, we must consider that it is always quite impossible. to say precisely
what increase of number has been effected by any
given measure of improvement, whether it be one which
involves expenditure or not. But, on the other hand,
when  improvement is followed by increase of number,
it is equally impossible to doubt the reality of a con        7
97 
nection between the two events in the relation of cause
and effect;  and when this increase is considerable, it
needs no very great arithmetical ability to demonstrate
that the money it may have cost has been well laid
out.
Nor need this assertion be deemed inconsistent with
what has already been said, of the impossibility of sustaining colleges upon fees alone. It must be considered
that there are certain large investments which must be
made in the very beginning, in order that the college
may  exist.  These  are locked up  in buildings and
grounds, or take the form of foundations for professorships. Now, the number of students may very largely
vary, without occasioning any material variation in the
amount thus invested. If we suppose that all necessary
buildings are provided, and that some of the officers, at
least, are supported by the endowment, then the tuition
fees constitute a fluctuating source of revenue, which
may largely increase before there need be any material
increase of expenditure. Hence, though it i8 a fact
that collegiate education is furnished below its cost, this
does not make it, as at first thought this statement
might lead one to suppose, like other kinds of losing
business, a source of larger loss in proportion as more
of it is done. There is, on the other hand, at present
rates of tuition, low as they are, a pecuniary advantage
in having many students; and hence it is a wise economy
which expends money in adding to the educational
advantages offered by any institution of learning, since
98
LETT ER. 
LETTER.
the inevitable result of such expenditures is to attract
increase of patronage.
Thus far it has been argued, that the measure of
improvement recommended in this communication will
only react advantageously upon the reputation of the
University, and thus secure certain specific advantages
to the institution itself. But this is by no means all;
the effect will not stop here, but will extend in a sensible degree to the people of the entire State. It is, in a
great degree, through their institutions, that the characters of communities are judged. There is no institution in Mississippi, and evidently there can  be none,
whose aspect, in the eyes of distant observers, will ever
present a more significant or decisive indication of the
intelligence of our people, than that of this University.
Whatever raises the character of the University, raises
the State in the consideration of mankind. There are
reasons why, in the nature of things, it must be so.
The University, as the chief educational institution of
the State, will ultimately determine the kind and grade
of teaching in all other schools; and the popular enlightenment must always maintain a certain definite
relation to the character of the schools in which the
people are taught. Distant observers will judge of the
invisible effect, by the visible cause. If the University
stands high in a literary and scientific point of view, the
inference is a natural one, that it cannot be other than
an intelligent people whose educational training is subject to such a control.  There is another mode of view                                     *'*     *s  * 
99 
LETTER.
ing the subject, from which the same inference may be
drawn.  Regarding the University not as acting upon
the people, but as being acted upon by them, not as
determining the popular character for intelligence, but
as being determined in its own character by the popular will, it will follow no less than before, that precisely
according as its own intellectual position is assumed at
a higher or lower level, the repute in which the State
itself is held abroad will also be higher or lower.
This topic is sufficiently fertile to warrant further
expanlsion; but already this letter has reached  an extent unanticipated, and larger than could have been
desired. A few words only will therefore be added
upon the remaining point.
IV. The measure of improvement proposed, recommends itself to our sense of duty.  Whatever  may be
said of the value to mankind of this or that fact of
scientific discovery, or of this or that achievement of
literary genius, there can be no sort of doubt of the
general truth that letters and science have actually
made men both happier and better.  If we extend our
views no further than to what concerns the physical
comfort of the race, it'is undeniable that all the advancement the world has ever seen has been due first of
all to mental improvement, and to the resulting con quests of mind over matter. Wide as is the interval
which divides savage from civilized life, its existence is
a living testimony to the power of cultivated intellect
of which exclusively it is the creation. Now, it is char
100 
LETT ER.
acteristic of the triumphs of mind, that their resultant
benefits to mankind are not restricted by any natural
limitation to specific localities or, to particular peoples.
From the moment in which they are achieved, they are
equally capable of contributing, and so far as the prejudices and perversity of the race will permit, they do
immediately contribute, to the well-being of all nations,
and the prosperity of all lands.  It is, furthermore, a
dictate of the sense of right and justice innate in every
rational being, that the reception of benefits imposes on
the recipient reciprocal obligations, which are morally
if not legally binding. In return for the protection
thrown around us by the civil and political institutions
under which we live, no one questions that it is the duty
of every citizen to contribute to the support of govern
ment;  and in this  case, as  the  security of society
depends upon  the fulfilment of  the obligation, the
coercive power of the law is employed to reinforce in
men's mninds the too often  inoperative convictions of
duty. Where there is less at stake, or where it is less
easy to point out specifically whiat and how much  it
belongs to each individual to do toward the dischlarge
of a debt in which all are debtors, in such cases if the
moral sense is not active enough to stimulate performance, the obligation remains unfulfilled. But in such
cases it is far nobler to obey the promptings of duty,
than in those in which the option is taken away; pre.
cisely as'it is nobler to do right because it s right, than
to do it because it is a necessity.
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LETTER.
And in precisely this condition are all communities
of men everywhere, in regard to and in consequence of
the benefits which they have derived from the softening
influence of letters in ameliorating manners, and the all
but creative power of science in improving arts. The
obligation rests upon every people who have been partakers of the vast advantages which flow from intellectual illumination, to do something on their own part to
feed the flame whose light has shone so gloriously for
them.  It becomes, in short, a high-minded people to
manifest the existence within itself of a sentiment loftier
than that of the sluggish selfishness which accepts without hesitation and enjoys withlout scruple whatever creative genius has produced of beautiful or useful, yet
never on its own part aspires to create, or seeks to contribute to the potential sources of human happiness.
Would a people fulfil its duties to mankind growing
out of the considerations here succinctly presented, it is
not to be done by a personal contribution to the great
fund of literary or scientific treasures which make up
the intellectual wealth of the world, on the part of each
individual member of society.  Enough has been already
said to show, that in the existing state of the'world's
advancement, it is no longer in the power of the occasional student or of the casual observer, to forward to
any material degree the progress of either literary or
scientific improvement.  The devotion of long years of
faithful industry is necessary to an adequate understanding of the existing condition of the field of labor; and
102 
LETTER.
evidently no champion can be in position to attack the
unknown with success, until he shall have made himself
first master of the known.   Therefore it is, that the
debt which every enlightened people owe to the world,
in return for the benefits which they themselves have
received at the hands of science and good learning, can
only be repaid by creating the instruimentalities which
shall raise up among themselves scientific and learned
men. Such mnen, entering the field of original and
independent investigation, may give back to the world
at least a modest tribute of newly discovered truth,
in return for the inestimable treasure of accumulated
knowledge which they have received; and in doing this
they will at the same time draw down imperishable
honor on the people by whom their genius has been
stimulated to activity, and on the land which their
labors have made illustrious.
Is it possible that the people of Mississippi do not
recognize the obligation which it is attempted here,
imperfectly and feebly, to explain and to bring into
relief? Shall we, too, illustrate anew to the world the
truth of the tyrant's dogma, that letters wither, that
science perishes, beneath the mephitic breath of republican institutions?  Shall it continue forever to be the
reproach of civil liberty, the opprobrium and scandal
of democratic governments, that they are unfavorable
to the advancement of the race in all that constitutes
its truest grandeur and glory?
There are pleas, it is not forgotten, by which it is
103 
LETTER.
attempted to evade or break the force of appeals like
these. Mississippi, it is said, is still in her infanvcy; and
it cannot be expected of her that she should undertake
labors such as have marked the history of other commu nities only in the maturity of their powers. But in this
reasoning there lurks a certain fallacy, which destroys
all its force.   Considered as a'political organization,
Mississippi is indeed an infant State; but in so far as
the word infancy as applied to nations is understood to
imply recent emergence from barbarism, or a present
feeble diffusion of intellectual light, Mississippi is not
infant.  The bulk of the actual population of this State
consisted in the beginning, as a great'portion of it still
consists, of natives of the older States situated upon the
Atlantic coast, whose origin dates back to times antecedent to the American Ilevolution. It was not a class
of ignorant and needy adventurers who planted themselves upon these fertile river valleys, and laid here the
broad foundations of a future magnificent State.  They
were intelligent and enlightened  men, many of them
highly educated, some of them wealthy, nearly all of
them in comfortable circumstances. They left behind
them nowhere a community more respectable in an
intellectual point of view, than they themselves constituted here. Nor has Mississippi retrograded. If the
sons of her immigrant citizens have not always found
education at home, they have found education. And
therefore, if the State is really infant in point of intellectual development, to the extent that she may fairly
104 
LETT ER.
plead her infancy in bar of the just claims of the world
upon her, then the whole continent is infant, and all
America is entitled to equal immunity fromn the pressure
of similar obligations.
Neither can Mississippi be said to be infant in point
of resources.  Already among the foremost of the producirg States of the Union, and annually increasing
the amount of her production with a rapidity outrunning all preconceived anticipation, she is at this moment,
regard being had to her numerical population, one of
the richest states in the world.  Moreover, if this were
not true, the question immediately in discussion relates
not to the diversion of any part of the wealth of MAississippi herself to the encouragement of literary advancement or of scientific discovery; but only to the wisest
and best mode of applying a fund of origin foreign to
the State, held by Mississippi in trust for the educational
benefit of her own sons.
Another objection, however, is sometimes raised. It
is said that the entire educational system of the State is
at present in a condition. of very imperfect efficiency,
and is almost destitute of any consistent organization.
Under these circumstances, it is urged, with some plausibility, as the dictate of expediency, that we waive for
the moment the claims of the higher education, until we
shall have made ample, or at least adequate, provision
for the lower. No citizen of the State is a more ardent
advocate, or a more zealous friend, of the cause of popular education than the undersigned. But it is for this
105
4 
LETTER.
very reason that he advocates, first of all, the perfection
of the institutions of the highest learning. It is only
through the instrumentality of these, that the schools of
inferior grade can be made efficient.  If schools without
any teachers at all would be good for nothing, then
schools with teachers themselves of inferior scholarship
and a limited range of attainments are not much better.
It would therefore be but idle legislation which should
provide, no matter how liberally, for the support of
schools, and should fail to provide at the same time for
the education of teachers. Nowv, in a prima-facie view
of the case, two circumstances present themselves which
apparently break the force of this argument; yet which,
on closer examination, only serve to confirm it.  The
first is, that teachers of merit are often actually found
to take charge of the primary and secondary schools in
States in which, as in past years in Mississippi, collegiate institutions have not existed in sufficient number, or
on a scale sufficiently enlarged, to supply them; and the
second grows out of the circumstance that the teachers
of the most numerous class of schools-the common
schools, as they are called-are not usutally formed directly by the colleges, but by the schools of secondary
grade.  As to the first of these facts, observation will
show that the teachers not made by ourselves and for
ourselves, but who appear to be thus made to our hand,
are teachers who have been formed in the schools of
higher learning in other States, many of them in distant
States, and who have come among us because they per
106 
LETTER.
ceived an advantageous field to be here open. This
supply of educational assistance is evidently precarious
in its character, and without any guaranty for its uniformity of merit or consistency of practice.  More than
this, if there be any who can believe that it is in keeping
with the proper dignity of a great and wealthy State
like Mississippi, or with what is due to-a just sense of
self-respect in her, to depend on foreign aid for the
supply of the first of her educational necessities, such
persons take a view of the case which is entirely incompatible with the convictions of the undersigned.
As to the second of the facts above suggested, viz.,
that many teachers of the primary schools, perhaps the
greater number, are not graduates of collegiate institutions, and as to the inference which is very frequently,
and at first view not unnaturally, drawn from this circumstance, that the colleges have nothing to do with
the grade of their scholarship,-if we consider that these
teachers must nevertheless be formed somewhere, and
that the schools in which they are formed must be in
the hands of teachers of a higher order, who themselves
must depend upon the colleges for their education, it
will be evident that the reasoning which would make
popular education on thlis account independent of the
higher, is entirely fallacious.   The conclusion is inevitable, that if we would have good common schools, we
must first of all have good colleges.   And if we would
aim by legislation to elevate or depress, in the directest
and most expeditious mode possible, the character of
107 
LETTE R.
such common-school education as we have, we can accomplish this object in no other way so decisively as by
exalting or degrading the character of the higher seminaries.
Now, beyond the objections which have been thus
disposed of, it does not really appear that there exists
any other capable of being even plausibly urged as a
reason why Mississippi should not make some original
contribution on her own part, to the world's advancement in letters and science.   Why should she not?  Is
there any thing in her laws to fetter genius; in her climate to paralyze industry; in her public sentiment to
discourage ambition? Or will it be urged in her behalf, as an excuse of her dearth of performance, that the
intellect of her sons is unequal to the task of achieving
for her an honorable name in the great republic of letters? Surely none of these things are true.
What, then, is the obvious dictate of duty?  Is it not
to build up here, upon a foundation already laid-the
fittest foundation which could be selected in all our borders-of an institution of the highest learning-an institution, which, while it shall continue to discharge its
present functions even more perfectly than ever heretofore, shall nevertheless lift its aims to that higher level,
at which it may number, not immature youth only, but
earnest men in the ranks of its scholars; and so stimulate the activity of native genius as presently to secure
for Mississippi a recognized place among the positive
promoters of the intellectual progress of the race?
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L E T T ER.
If among the modles by which it has been proposed
to enlist Mississippi in the service of science, astronomical observation has been early and prominently presented, this is because astronomical observation affords
one of the most direct means of associating useful scientific labor here, with useful scientific labor in other
parts of the country, and in other parts of the world.
Practical astronomy is a science which continually opens
out to itself new fields of labor, even while yet the ancient fields are far from being exhausted. Many subjects
require a delicate, refined, and long-continued scrutiny,
in which the associated efforts of many observatories
have a peculiar value.  Thus, at this moment, a series of
observations upon the moon is going on in this country,
originally suggested by Professor Bache, the able chief
of the United States Coast Survey, in concert with the
eminent physical astronomer of Harvard University,
Prof. Peirce, in which the co-operation of all the observatories of the Union is invoked, and in reference to which
computations made in advance for the meridian and
latitude of Oxford, with maps of the phenomena as predicted for this place, have been forwarded from Washington to this University, at intervals, during the past
eighteen months. Yet in this labor, in the unprovided
state of the observatory of the University, it has not
been permitted us to bear our part.  Let the building
but be completed, and the instruments contemplated in
its plan be erected, and the University of Mississippi
may become immediately and honorably associated with
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L E T T E R.
every other institution engaged in the promotion of
astronomical science, and may shortly become familiarly
known in every civilized land, as one of the noblest cre ations of the enlightened intelligence of modern times.
The task, Gentlemen, proposed to himself by the un dersigned in the preparation of this letter, is ended.
With whatever success it may appear in the event that
he shall have succeeded in impressing his views upon
your minds, he will ever carry with him that species of
contentment which springs from the consciousness of
having, according to the light within him, honestly discharged his duty to the Board who have honored him
with  their confidence, to the University in  the prosperity of which he feels so deep an interest, and to the
cause of education, in all its grades, throughout the State
of Mississippi.
To your hands is committed, for the present generation at least, the moulding of the policy of this institution. Even thoughoit should seem to you advisable still
to restrict the University to the comparatively humble
field of usefulness within which its operations have been
hitherto confined, it will yet be a valuable institution,
and one with which you may be justly proud that your
names are to be forever associated. For this will be
your noblest monument; and no matter in what other,
and temporarily perhaps  more brilliant, walks of life
your services may have been or may be required by
your State, you will leave behind you no record more
permanently visible or more emphatically honorable
zo0
11 
LETTER.
than this. Political distinctions may fill up the present
hour with idle parade, and call forth noisy applauses
fiom unthinking crowds. If they have been or shall be
yours, you may well afford to esteem lightly the reputation they leave; but it can never be without a feeling
of the deepest satisfaction that you can look forward to
that period in the distant future, when your children
and your children's children shall find here a prouder
memnorial of your wisdom than all the boastful legends
ever carved in brass or marble could afford; and pointing to the University, with an exultation which only
the worthy descendants of worthy sires can fully comprehend, shall be able to say, " Behold! their works do
praise them."
Should you, however, see fit, from this time forward
to open to the University that higher sphere of labor
and influence which it has been the object of this communication to suggest, there may be in reserve for it a
future not only of usefulness but of renown; and to
those whose wise discernment shall have enabled them,
at this early day, to discover all the greatness and grandeur of its true mission, and whose judicious action shall
have put in the way to fulfil its lofty destiny, posterity
will award the homage of a still higher reverence.
For grudgingly as a world too usually parsimonious
where it should be liberal, and lavish where it should
be firugal, may be disposed to contribute of its abundance for the encouragement of objects whose tendency is to elevate the race in point of intelligence
ill 
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and true dignity, it is yet, after all, not slow to
appreciate that breadth of view and loftiness of aim
which it is incapable of emulating; and it honors, at
least with its applauses, though it may fail to load with
its gifts, all who contribute directly or indirectly to the
prosecution of the mighty conquests of the human understanding.  Well, indeed, may it do so!  For what are
all the structures man can rear of polished marble or
ponderous granite, in comparison with the grand and
imperishable creations of the majestic intellect! And
what though it be given but to few, by the force of
native endowments or the energy of an indomiitable perseverance, personally to assist in lifting to a loftier and
still loftier height the proud temple which the conspiring
labors of successive generations have reared to science in
the midst of the nations, surely, no one of all mankind
can be insensible to the sublimity of an ed(ifice whose
foundations are as broad as the boundaries of the earth,
and whose vaultecd  dome is studded with the stars of
heaven.
With the highest respect, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
F. A. P. BARNARD.
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