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�In establishing a college on the ordinary basis, and with the
ordinary scope, there are few difficulties which earnest men and
moderate means will not readily surmount. The course required
is simple and single; the equipment is compact; instructors are
readily found for every department; precedents at every point are
abundant.
But the work committed to the Trustees of the Cornell Univer-.
sity is far larger, far more complicated. In most cases it has few
available precedents, in many it has none. The committee upon
organization, therefore, cannot hope to present a plan which shall
cover every point likely to arise in carrying on the institution
now to be commenced; but they hope to present a plan which
shall aid in setting the University in operation, and to suggest
ideas which will aid it in developing healthfully and largely.
Theory
of the
Plan
of
Organization.
The theory on which the committee have based their plan is
that throughout the national and State legislation preparatory to
the establishment of the institution, and also throughout the ideas
of the founder of the Cornell University, as explained to us by
himself, are two leading convictions as to the educational needs
of the country, and two corresponding ideas as to meeting these
needs.
Each of these convictions, and its corresponding idea, is sepa
rate and distinct, yet each is necessary to the other.
The first of these convictions is that there exists a necessity
never yet fully met, for thorough education in various special
departments, and, among them, the science and practice of Agri
culture, Industrial Mechanics, and kindred departments of thought
and action. The corresponding practical idea is that institutions
be founded where such instruction can be conducted with every
appliance necessary in discovering truth and in diffusing truth;
that such instruction be not subordinated to any other; that the
agricultural and industrial professions be regarded as the peers ’of
�every other; that access to these departments be opened as widely
as possible, and progress in them be pushed as far as possible.
The second of these convictions is that the system of collegiate
instruction now dominant leaves unsatisfied the wants of a very
large number, and perhaps the majority of those who desire an
advanced general education; that although there are great num
bers of noble men doing noble work in the existing system, it has
devoted its strength and machinery mainly to a single combination
of studies, into which comparatively few enter heartily; that where
more latitude in study has been provided for, all courses outside
the single traditional course have been considered to imply a
lower caste in those taking them; that the higher general educa
tion has therefore lost its hold upon the majority of the trusted
leaders of society, that it has therefore become under-estimated
and distrusted by a majority of the people at large, and that there
fore it is neglected by a majority of our young men of energy
and ability.
The corresponding practical idea is that colleges of wider scope
be founded; that no single course be insisted upon for all alike;
that various combinations of studies be provided to meet various
minds and different plans; thus presenting a general course to
meet that general want which existing colleges fail to satisfy.
Fundamental Plan of Instruction.
The labor imposed upon us then is two-fold.
First, we are to make provision for special courses—special
instruction in the departments of agriculture, mechanic arts, &c.
Secondly, we are to provide a general course—a general course
in which such instruction and culture be afforded as shall be de
manded by the young men who come to group themselves in the
different special courses.
Even if it should be claimed that the whole effort of the trus
tees ought to be devoted to agriculture and the mechanic arts
alone; even if we were to construe away the plain words of the
original act of Congress, which speaks of “other scientific and
classical branches ” as part of the object of the government grant
of lands, still the oft-repeated declaration of our founder that he
“ wishes to make such provision that every person can find oppor
tunity here to pursue any study he desires,” would be our suffi
cient warrant in using at least his munificent gift in supplementing
�5
the special instruction with general instruction, and rounding it
out into the proportions of an university.
•
Again, even were we to found merely technical schools, giving
instruction merely in special departments, the committee believe
that we should be very soon obliged to supplement these special
courses with a general course. Common sense, as well as general
experience teaches that there must be some variation in mental
labor. With rare exceptions, any man who pursues one science
or art alone, devoting his mind entirely to that, though he may at
first progress rapidly, soon shows that such progress is not normal.
It is very firmly believed that the great majority of men who
wish to attain a high place in any science or art, can rise higher,
even in that, by enlarging the mind by some parallel studies,
than by narrowing the mind constantly to their single pursuit.
Such contracted study gives facility and accuracy, but it is too
often fatal to the qualities which ensure eminence.
Your committee are therefore of the opinion that there should
be two great divisions of the university.
The first division should comprise the separate departments
devoted each to a special science and art. The second division
should comprise the department of Science, Literature and the
Arts in general.
In accordance with this division is presented the following plan:
Organization of Instruction.
I. Division of Special Sciences and Arts.
1. Department of Agriculture.
2. Department of Mechanic Arts.
3. Department of Civil Engineering.
4. Department of Commerce and Trade.
5. Department of Mining.
6. Department of Medicine and Surgery.
7. Department of Law.
8. Department of Jurisprudence, Political Science and History,
9. Department of Education.
II. Division of Science, Literature and the Arts in General.
1. 1st General Course.
2. 2d General Course.
3. 3d General Course.
4. Scientific Course.
5. Optional Course.
�6
The character of each of the departments named in the first
division is in the main, sufficiently explained by its title. Details
of courses of instruction in each cannot well be arranged until, the
trustees shall have consulted with the faculty, and it is recom
mended that at periods previous to the commencement of active
instruction, the Academic Senate be requested to convene for the
purpose of discussing.this subject and presenting plans.
But there is one department, regarding which, perhaps, some
explanation is needed here : the department of Jurisprudence—
Political and Social Science, and History.
We believe that although there will be some attention to these
subjects in the general course, there is need of a separate depart
ment devoted to a study of them, wider and deeper. We
believe too, that such a department should be established so soon
as we approximate a full corps of professors.
In various connections with institutions of learning, and in
various public employments, the committee have been convinced:
First—That great numbers of the most active young men long
for such a department, would work vigorously in it, and would
secure good discipline by it, and that these young men are many
of them not attracted to the existing colleges.
o
o
Secondly.—We believe that the State and nation are constantly
injured by their chosen servants, who lack the simplest rudiments
of knowledge which such a department could supply. No one
can stand in any legislative position and not be struck with the
frequent want in men otherwise strong and keen, of the simplest
knowledge of principles essential to public welfare. Of technical
knowledge of law, and of practical acquaintance with business,
the supply is always plentiful, but it is very common that in
leciding great public questions, exploded errors in political and
social science are revamped, fundamental principles of law disre
garded, and the plainest teachings of history ignored.
In any republic, and especially in this, the most frequent ambi
tion among young men will be to rise to positions in the public
service, and the committee think it well at least to attempt to
provide a department in view of the wants of these; a depart
ment where there should be something more than a mere glance
over one or two superseded text books,—where there should be
large and hearty study and comparison of the views and methods
of Guizot, and Mill, and Lieber, and Woolsey, and Bastiat, and
Carey, and Mayne, and others.
�There are among you, gentlemen of the board of trustees,
representatives of every walk in life, of every important profes
sion, of every party. There are among you, representatives of
the highest state and national employments, and we appeal to you
for corroboration of the statement, that whatever may be the
opinion of cloistered men, the opinion of men active in the world
at large, is decided, that there is a great branch of instruction
here, for which the existing colleges make no adequate provision.
It may be said that the function of colleges is to give discipline,
that knowledge is subordinate. We answer that they should give
both, and that as a rule, the attempt to give mental discipline by
studies which the mind does not desire, is as unwise as to attempt
to give physical nourishment by food which the body does not desire.
Discipline comes not by studies which are “droned over.”
Again, we believe that the knowledge given, is far more
important than many would have us think. The main stock in
political economy and history of most of our educated public men,
is what they learned before they studied for their professions.
Many an absurdity uncorrected at college has been wrought into
the constitutions and statutes of our great commonwealths, and
when we consider that constitution making for new states and old,
is to be the great work in this country, of this and succeeding
generations, surely, we do well to attempt more thorough instruc
tion of those on whom the work is likely to fall.
. One other department, needs, perhaps a few words of explan
ation—that of Commerce and Trade. Throughout the country
have sprung up schools known as “commercial colleges.” The
number of persons attending them is such as to show that they
meet a want widely felt, and the idea has suggested itself that at
some future day it might be well to try the experiment of a
department under the above name, in which a more thorough and
large instruction could be given, than in those at present so
numerous. Anything which will bring some university culture
to bear upon those preparing to lead in commerce and trade, will
be a benefit to the country. How far it can be done your com
mittee will not venture to say. At least one great European uni
versity has kept up a course of this sort for many years.
In the second division, it is necessary to give a more detailed
explanation of courses, and ideas upon which the courses are
based.
�8
The 11 First General Course ” comprises a combination of studies
mainly like the classical course at the existing colleges.
The “ Second General Course,” comprises a combination of
studies like the first, with the substitution of the German lano-uao’o
for the Greek. Giving, as such a course would, the two great
elements of our language, the Romanic and the Teutonic, it is
believed that it would be received with great favor by many of
the best minds dissatisfied with the existing college courses.
The “Third General Course,” comprises the same studies as the
previous courses, except that the two languages studied are French
and German.
The “ Scientific Course'' is combined in view of the wants of
those who intend devoting themselves wholly or mainly to the
natural sciences.
The “ Optional Course" is one in which the student is required
to choose three subjects of study from all those pursued in the
University, and to pass examination therein. This it is believed,
will add greatly to the efficiency of the institution. It is a course
permitted in some of the great universities of continental Europe,
and with excellent results. It has been tried thoroughly at the
State University of Michigan, and to nothing in its organization
is that institution more indebted for its acknowledged efficiency.
It is not recommended that all these departments be established
at once. The Cornell University must have a development—a
growth, though it is believed that its growth may be very rapid.
But your committee do not hesitate to declare their belief that
neither of these departments will attain full efficiency until all are
established. They believe that each additional department and
additional course will strengthen every other, by attracting more
and more earnest minds among teachers and taught; by stimula
ting emulation among professors and students: by throwing light
upon each science and art from every other; by presenting every
element of the best culture.
The committee, however, recommend the immediate establish
ment only of so much of the first division as is embraced in the
departments of Agriculture, the Mechanic Arts, Civil Engineer
ing and Mining.
o
o
They recommend the immediate establishment of so many
courses in the second division as shall be found necessary to meet
the wants of the students presenting themselves at the beginning
of the first term.
�9
In the second division it seems advisable to present some ideas
which have influenced them in determining the courses into which
the division is separated.
University Liberty
in
Choice
of
Studies.
The first question which arises in arranging general plans of
instruction is as to the amount of liberty to be allowed the student
in selecting his course.
On one hand are they who declare that students at the usual age
of entering college are unfit to select a course, and that it must be
chosen for them. Of those taking this view are some men held
in deserved honor throughout the country.
Ou the other hand are they who declare that the usual imposi
tion of a single, fixed course is fatal to any true university spirit in
this country; that it cramps colleges and men; that it has much
to do with that strange anomaly under the existing system—
scholars stepping out of the highest scholastic positions in college
classes into nonentity in active life; that it has been the main agent
in bringing about that relaxation of the hold which colleges once
had upon the nation, which all thoughtful men deplore.
The committee see much truth in the latter view. They think
that the first view contains a fallacy in the virtual assumption that
because a young student is not aperfect judge regarding his com
plete wants, therefore he is no judge at all, and shall have others
to choose for him; and but one course opened to their choice.
We hold, indeed, that most students need advice as to details
of study, and that probably none could construct the best possible
course of study; but we also hold that an overwhelming majority
of students are competent to choose between different courses of
study, carefully balanced and arranged by men who have brought
thought and experience to the work. By the aid of older friends,
and the faculty of the university, a young man ought to be able to
make a choice based upon his previous education and means of
future education—-upon his tastes, position and ambition. Cer
tainly the results could not be more wretched under such a sys
tem than under the existing system, even by the confession of its
most earnest advocates.
The committee have carried out these views by naming different
courses, so that while the student may have the benefit of the ex
perience of men older than himself, he may have some liberty of
choice; and they have added one course, giving to more mature
students complete freedom of choice.
�10
.
Leading Disciplinary Studies
in a
General Course.
The next question which arises regarding a general course, is as
to the classes of studies to be relied upon for mental discipline,
fundamental knowledge and general culture.
A large party unhesitatingly declare for the Greek and Latin
classics. They believe that nothing else gives so valuable a disci
pline or so perfect a culture.
The committee declare here their belief in the great value of
classical studies. They do not hesitate to advise those who have
time and taste for them to study them—the Greek for its wonder
ful perfection—the Latin for its great practical value as a key to
modern languages and to the nomenclature of modern sciences—
and both Greek and Latin for their value in the cultivation of
judgment. But while it is believed that these studies ought to
hold an honored place, the committee are strongly opposed to the
attempt to fetter all students to them, if for no other reason be
cause this would be to defeat the plain intentions of those who
framed the act of Congress to which the establishment of the uni
versity is due.
In the courses provided, the modern languages most in use, and
the sciences which in theory and practice have in latter years
attained such great importance, must be recognized at their full
value in imparting instruction, and in securing mental discipline.
The committee cannot forbear noticing here a fallacy regarding
mental discipline which they will endeavor to avoid in presenting
courses of study.
That fallacy consists in the idea that the only mental discipline
is that which promotes a certain keenness and precision of mind.
We believe that there is another kind of mental discipline quite
as valuable—discipline for breadth of mind. For the former, such
studies as mathematics and philology are urged; for the latter,
such studies as history and literature. To say that the latter are
not disciplinary is to ignore, perhaps, the most important part of
mental discipline. In American life there will always be enough
keenness and sharpness of mind. But the danger is that there will
be neglect of those noble studies which enlarge the mental horizon
and increase mental powers in reaching out toward it—studies
which give material for thought and suggestions for thought upon
the great field of the history of civilization.
Happily no studies are more enjoyed by the best American stu
dents than those which give this mental breadth—historical and
�11
political studies. This being the case, there need be no fears as
to their value in mental discipline, for discipline comes by studies
which are loved, not by studies which are loathed. There is no
discipline to be obtained in droning over studies. Vigorous,
energetic study, prompted by enthusiasm or a high sense of the
value of the subject, is the only kind of study not positively hurt
ful to mental power. Hence the great evil of insisting on the
same curriculum for all students, regardless of their tastes or plans.
Combination and Separation of Professorships.
In making provision for these different departments it will be
seen that they interpenetrate each other, one professorship
frequently extending through two or three departments.
So frequently is this the case, that it will be seen to be impos
sible to provide professors fully for any one department without
at the same time, making almost sufficient provision for the others.
Of the professorships to be filled at an early day, we would
present the following schedule :—
1st.
2d.
3d.
4th.
5th.
6th.
7th.
8th.
9tb.
I. Department of Agriculture.
Professor of the Theory and Practice of Agriculture.
Professor of Agricultural Chemistry.
Professor of General and Analytical Chemistry.
Professor of Geology and Mineralogy.
Professor of Zoology and comparative anatomy.
Professor of Botany.
Professor of Civil Engineering.
Professor of Veterinary Surgery and Breeding of Animals.
Physiology, Hygiene, and Physical Culture.
1st.
2d.
3d.
4th.
5th.
6th.
II. Department of Mechanics.
Professor of Physics and Industrial Mechanics.
Professor of Civil Engineering.
Professor of Architecture.
Professor of General and Analytical Chemistry.
Professor of Geology and Mineralogy.
Professor of Mathematics.
III. Department of Civil Engineering.
1st. Professor of Civil Engineering.
2d. Professor of Architecture.
�12
3d. Professor of Physics and Industrial Mechanics.
4th. Professor of Geology and Mineralogy.
5th. Professor of Mathematics.
1st.
2d.
3d.
4th.
Professor
Professor
Professor
Professor
IV. Department of Mining.
of Mining and Metallurgy.
of Civil Engineering.
of Geology and Mineralogy.
of General and Analytical Chemistry.
V. Department of Science, Literature, and the Arts.
1st. Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy.
2d. Professor of History.
3d. Professor of Political Economy.
4th. Professor of Municipal Law.
5th. Professor of Constitutional Law.
6th. Professor of Ancient Languages.
7th. Professor of French and South European Languages.
8th. Professor of German and North European Languages.
9th. Professor of English Language and Literature.
10th. Professor of Rhetoric, Oratory and Vocal Culture.
11th. Professor of Mathematics.
12 th. Professor of Astronomy.
13th. Professor of Physics and Industrial Mechanics.
14th. Professor of Geology and Mineralogy.
15th. Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy.
16th. Professor of Botany.
17th. Professor of Physiology, Hygiene and Physical Culture.
18th. Professor of Chemistry, General and Analytical.
19th. Professor of ^Esthetics, and the History of the Fine Arts.
20th. Professor of Architecture.
21st. Professor of Military Tactics.
22d. Professor of Physical Geography and Meteorology.
The entire university, therefore, would comprise the following
professorships:—
1. Theory and Practice of Agriculture.
2. Agricultural Chemistry.
3. Veterinary Surgery and the Breeding of Animals.
4. General and Analytical Chemistry.
5. Botany.
�13
6. Zoology and Comparative Anatomy.
7. Geology and Mineralogy.
8. Physics and Industrial Mechanics.
9. Mathematics.
10. Astronomy.
11. Civil Engineering.
12. Physiology, Hygiene and Physical Culture.
13. Moral and Physical Culture.
14. History.
15. Political Economy.
16. Municipal Law.
17. Constitutional Law.
18. Rhetoric, Oratory and Vocal Culture.
19. English Language and Literature.
20. French, and South European Languages.
21. German, and North European Languages.
22. Ancient Languages.*
23. ./Esthetics, and History of the Fine Arts.
24. Architecture.
25. Military Tactics and Engineering.
26. Physical Geography and Meteorology.
It will be seen, therefore, that there are twenty-six professor
ships needed at an early day. But it is not thought that it will
be necessary to have so many separate professorships at once, nor
to place all upon the same basis. Some professors must, to be
efficient, reside permanently at the seat of the university, giving
daily recitations or lectures, and conducting daily experiments.
Some will be perfectly efficient by a temporary residence,
during which recitations are heard, or lectures given. Hence
occurs at once, another division of a kind very different from any
we have previously made—the division into resident and non
resident professors.
Having in view this division, the committee present the follow
ing schedule:—
1.
2.
3.
4.
Resident Professors.
Theory and Practice of Agriculture
Agricultural Chemistry.
General and Analytical Chemistry.
Botany.
■To be separated into two or more professorships when circumstances shall demand it.
�14
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Zoology and Comparative Anatomy.
Geology and Mineralogy.
Physics and Industrial Mechanics.
Mathematics.
Astronomy.
Civil Engineering.
Moral and Mental Philosophy.
History.
Rhetoric, Oratory and Vocal Culture.
French, and South European Languages.
German, and North European Languages.
Ancient Languages.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Non-Resident Professors.
Veterinary Surgery and the Breeding of Animals.
Physiology, Hygiene and Physical Culture.
Political Economy.
Municipal Law.
Constitutional Law.
English Language and Literature.
^Esthetics and the History of the Fine Arts.
Architecture.
Military Tactics and Engineering.
Physical Geography and Meteorology.
Temporary Modifications of the Plan.
The question now arises, how much of this plan can be made
practical during the first year—how many of th3se professors
can we employ to advantage while the university is beginning its
operations?
Two plans suggest themselves. The first is to fill all these
chairs immediately, to make a beginning which shall give us a
reputation at once, to strike public attention on the first day of
the first term, by a large programme fully carried out.
The second plan is to hold during the first year, some professor
ships in abeyance, and of the remaining departments to combine
temporarily, several in one, thus commencing in a manner less
striking, feeling our way somewhat at first, finding gradually
what are the departments most needed.
The committee pronounce for the latter method. The policy
of the Cornell University has not been to make much proclamation
�15
of great purposes. Its founder has steadily gone on, always
performing more than his promises, and there are goodly signs
that the university authorities have caught his spirit. Two of
the noblest buildings for university purposes in the United States
have been reared; but there has been no pompous laying of corner
stones, no loud proclamations of new discoveries in the theory
and practice of education, no publication of programmes out of
all proportion to revenues, and it is to be hoped that we shall not
begin an ad captandum policy now. The only question worthy of
us is: What does the university practically need the first year?
It is believed that the duties may be so arranged that during the
first year eight or ten professors will be sufficient.
Possible Modifications of the Plan in Future.
Such is a general scheme offered as a point of departure in
arranging professorships. The committee know well that in
details it must often be departed from. The peculiar talents of a
valuable member of the faculty, have much to do with the final
shaping of the list of professorships. The demands made by stu
dents have also very much to do with it. A great demand upon
the professorship of Physiology, Hygiene and Physical Culture,
would make it necessary to change it from the non-resident to the
resident list, and so with others.
The number of students too, must have a very great influence
on this matter. As numbers increase, professorships must be sub
divided. Thus, until the numbers are large, the professor of
Physics can discharge the duties of professor of Industrial
Mechanics, but afterwards the latter department would probably
be detached.
As numbers increase, too, some departments will require
assistants. In some departments one system must be pursued and
the responsibility fixed on one man; it cannot therefore be divided.
But when numbers are greatly increased, it will probably be
necessary to appoint an assistant professor or instructor, who
should be subject as regards their plan of instruction, to the head
of the department. As any department developes also, it will be
necessary to subdivide it, and increase the number of professor
ships in it. Thus, for example, the department of Civil Engineer
ing, would be separated into three or four new departments, each
devoted to a special part of the work, and then must be added
instructors in geometrical and topographical drawing, &c.
�Non-resident Professors
for short
terms, or
University
Lecturers.
But there is a feature in the full organization which the
committee ask the trustees to consider especially. It is one which
several educators have in the recent years arrived at independ
ently of each other. It is one promising great results, but
demanding great care. This is the establishment of a system of
non-resident, short term professors, or university lecturers. The
plan is as follows : Have the full equipment of full term profes
sors above given, let the trustees elect each year a small number
of short-term professors or lecturers, from among the most distin
guished in their several departments, in this or other states;
let no general rule as to term of service, number of lecturers or
compensation be laid down, but let such special agreement be
made between each person thus called and the trustees, as shall
best secure the object desired.
Let the professors thus selected be either persons who are
accepted as authorities regarding matters upon which they
discourse, or persons whose talents, acquirements and reputations
are of the highest. Let them deliver, each, a certain number of
lectures, representing in a form and style as nearly suited to their
audiences as possible, what they themselves, consider the highest
results, or a summary of the main results of their labors. Let
their course of lectures be fully announced in the public prints to
the country at large. The advantage of such an addition to the
regular means of instruction, are believed to be very great.
First, great good would doubtless result to the Resident Faculty.
The great difficulty with bodies of professors remote from great
cities, and centres of thought and action is, that they lose connec
tion with the world at large, save through books; they become
provincial in spirit ; they lose that enthusiasm which contact
with other leading minds in the same pursuits would arouse;
they “ breed in and in;” their whole range of thought becomes
inevitably narrow. But, under this system now proposed, there
would be a constant influx of light and life from the great centres
of thought and action. The resident professors would be thrown
into close relations at once, with the special professors thus called.
Their views would be enlarged, their efforts stimulated, their
whole life quickened.
Secondly, great good would result to students in regular attend
ance. A great difficulty among students assembled in college is
�17
a regularity in routine, a dullness, a listlessness, a want of enthu
siasm. The general result of this, as regards study, is that it is
done mechanically; that most of the scholarly work is poor in
quality and small in quantity. The general result as regards conduct, is that too often, in a spirit of reaction against this listless
ness, the energies which would do great things if directed to study,
are directed to dissipation. It is believed by your committee that
if these special professors were men of the greatest ability and
eminence, an enthusiasm might be aroused among the students in
regard to various departments of knowledge, which would direct
their energies mainly into channels of study and thought.
The objection has indeed been made that these special courses
might cause confusion and dissipation in the minds of the students.
It is believed, however, that this will be the result with compara
tively few students, and even with these but temporarily. It is
believed that in the great majority of cases, the enthusiasm created
will far outweigh in good effects any evil effects arising from the
disturbance of the regular routine.
Thirdly, great good would result to large portions of the pub
lic in general, which under ordinary circumstances would not avail
itself of the ordinary privileges of the University. It is believed
that such special courses of lectures by distinguished men would
attract large numbers of citizens for brief terms, resulting in good
to them and to society at large, by an immediate extension of the
activity of the University among the matured minds and men
already in active life.
Fourthly, great good would result to the University itself. It
would enable the University to make a division of labor, selecting
members of the Resident Faculty, for their energy and working
ability, selecting men who have a name to make and ability to
make it, and not selecting men for the resident professors—for the
hard work of the University—who have attained eminence and so
outlived their willingness to do hard work.
Again, it would greatly strengthen the University as to reputa
tion. Let there be widely published each year, in leading jour
nals, in addition to a meritorious Resident Faculty, a number of
special professors or lecturers, whose ability in research, or in
presenting the results of research, is acknowledged, and the insti
tution would arrive in a very short time at a height of reputation
which other institutions have failed to achieve during long years
of ordinary administration.
2
�Again, the system thus proposed would strengthen the Univer* sity by attracting great numbers of students. The same simple
reasoning which we have used to show that this system would
give the University efficiency and power, also shows that it would
draw great numbers of students.
Nor would such a result be merely gratifying to pride. There
is an educating force of no mean value in the presence of a very
large body of students—a means of education through large
acquaintance, and through wide observation of character—a stimu
lus to effort through emulation, which in a small group can hardly
be attained.
Character
of
Scholarship in Professors.
The question next arises, what manner of men shall these pro
fessors be?
To maintain the efficiency and reputation of the University, its
faculty must constantly keep in view two great objects: first,-the
discovery of truth; secondly, the diffusion of truth.
By a certain class of men deservedly in high repute, there has
been fostered a spirit which tends not to the undue exaltation of
the discovery of new truth in science, for that cannot be unduly
exalted, but to the undue depreciation of the diffusion of scientific
truth.
Your committee believe that in the selection of a faculty, neither
of these two great functions of every professor should be exalted
at the expense of the other. It is not doubted that in the largest
minds devoted to science, the power of discovering truth and the
power of imparting it, are almost invariably found together. Men
should be sought for the faculty who can go on discovering truth
and imparting it. But it should not be forgotten that in an insti
tution of learning, facility and power in imparting truth are even
more necessary than in discovering it.
Where can these Professors be Found?
Many persons of high standing have answered this question
much as follows: “Your endowment is large: select the greatest
men in this country and other countries. Have perhaps fewer
professors, but range the country through and take from the lead
ing institutions their leading men, the men who give standing to
science, literature and art in America. Have the best.”
Other persons thoughtfully considering this problem have ans
�19
wered the question in a very different way: “ Your endowment is
indeed large, but it has to cover an immense field. The most effi
cient men for professorships are by no means necessarily those
most frequently paraded in newspapers. Often a hard working
man, who has never arrived at more than a local reputation, or a
young man who has not arrived at any reputation at all, is practi
cally better than men whose reputation is made, and who have out
lived the necessity of hard thought and work.”
There are important elements of truth in both these responses;
but your committee would answer this question as follows:
The division of the instructing body into the three great classes
of resident, non-resident and special professors or lecturers, already
recommended, suggests a solution of the problem.
To bring the University to the highest standard in science, lite
rature and the arts, at once,—to get such general advantages as
come from distinguished men and great names,—have a careful
eye to the selection of special lecturers; secure men for courses of
twelve or fifteen or twenty lectures, who, while they could not at
any sum be engaged permanently, can be secured for so short a
term by liberal compensation and the display of a promising field
of labor.
If it be said that such instruction will be fragmentary and super
ficial, we answer, that we believe such an assertion to be a great
mistake. The greatest course of lectures ever delivered before
an University,—the one which remodeled the science of history,
and which is felt to-day in every historical treatise of repute, con
sisted of but fifteen lectures. We refer to Guizot’s renowned
lectures on civilization ; and there are multitudes of similar exam
ples.
But for the steady hard work of the regular resident faculty, it
would be vain to seek such eminent men. It would cost immense
sums to take even a few of them out of the high places into which
they have climbed ; to tear them from the associations of a life
time ; to take them from the midst of their assistants, and to put
them again into a fresh field to begin their life-work anew.
To take Agassiz permanently from Cambridge, we must outbid
the Emperor of the French, who has already offered the most
tempting prizes in vain.
To take Dana permanently from Yale, or Dwight or Lieber from
Columbia, Guyot from Princeton, or Park from Andover, would
require our whole income ; and it is even then doubtful whether
�20
these men would do our work well as resident professors, building
up a new institution.
The opinion of the committee is, that the better course for filling
the resident body is to find out the names and characteristics of
of the most promising young men, who, under these distinguished
professors, have already commenced a career. Select those who
have a name to make, and who can make it. We can thus secure
enthusiasm, energy, ambition, willingness to work, and without
paying enormous salaries.
We do not, indeed, advise making up the faculty entirely of
such young men. It would be judicious to select from the most
successful instructors in the existing schools and colleges, men of
more experience to give the faculty steadiness ; but as a rule, the
committee believe that for a time, at least, the University must
rely upon young men for the hard work in building up this great
benefaction to the State and Naticn.
General Culture
of
Professors.
But while the first thing to be sought in professors is ability to
discover truth and to impart it, there is another requirement of
hardly less importance—general good culture and manliness.
If, to secure some great genius in any special department, we
have to bear with some lack of general culture, we ought perhaps
to sacrifice the lower qualifications for the higher ; but nothing
short of such extreme necessity should lead us to place men of a
low grade, as to general culture, among young men whose habits
of thinking and living are just receiving the form and impress
which they are to bear during life.
This University must not only make scholars : it has a higher
duty ; it must make men—men manly, earnest, and of good gen
eral culture. We must not make the mistake so common in older
colleges—in selecting to govern and guide bright, high-spirited
young men, tutors who do not and cannot know anything of the
world and of what the world is thinking,—instructors who lead
students to associate learning with boorishness or clownishness.
We must make no man an instructor simply because he is poor or
pious or a “squatter” on the college domain. We must have
men who are what we would have our sons be, and we must have
them at any cost.
And here the committee desire to say, that for instruction in
modern languages, as a rule, our best course is to secure Amcri-
�21
cans. The slight advantage in correct accent possessed by an
instructor from a foreign country is almost always too dearly pur
chased by sacrifice of the qualities which ensure success in lectures
or recitations. This suggestion is not made, of course, in any
narrow spirit of dislike for men of foreign birth, but under the
certainty that teaching American young men by foreigners has
almost universally proved a failure, both as to instruction and
discipline.
Methods
of bringing the General Culture of
BEAR UPON THE STUDENTS.
Professors
to
One of the saddest deficiencies in existing colleges is want of
free intercourse, and even of acquaintance, between professors and
students. In most of the larger colleges the great mass of stu
dents know really nothing of either President or Professors. They
are generally strangers, or worse than strangers. They have met
in lecture rooms or recitation rooms, but they have met as natural
enemies. Their only conversation outside the lecture room has
been when the student made excuses, or the professor gave re
proofs ’ and in these the student is normally a culprit, and the
professor a detective.
It seems all the more strange that such want of intercourse
should exist under a system which deifies classic culture, when the
Athenian ideal of that culture was obtained by frank, full, genial
conversation between teacher and taught.
It seems all the more sad, when every reflecting man knows
that hearty, manly sympathy in studies and pursuits established
between a young man and a man of thought, learning, character
and experience, is worth more than all educational programmes
and machinery.
In excuse for this it is asserted that the number of students in
college classes is generally so large that professors cannot know
them. It is believed by your committee, that this difficulty is
by no means insuperable. It has from time to time been over
come at various large colleges, and it is worth our trouble to try
some experiments at least in bringing students within range of
the general culture of professors, and keeping them within it.
- It is therefore recommended that the duty of acquaintance and
social intercourse with students be impressed upon the faculty,
and that additions be made to professors’ salaries expressly as an
indemnity or provision for such social privileges to students. The
�22
same principle which has led wise governments to make extra
allowances to ambassadors, for the express purpose of keeping up
genial social relations with the people among whom they are sent,
is the basis of the experiment now suggested. The experiment
can be tried, either by moderate additions to salary or deductions
from rents of University houses.
It is also suggested that some provision be made for weekly or
fortnightly reunions of faculty and students ; that at an early day
pleasant rooms be allotted for that purpose, and that some small
expenditure be made to render such gatherings attractive and pro
fitable. Even if some little time is taken from the ordinary rou
tine, the experiment is well worth trying.
Relations
of
Professors to Each Other.
The committee desire to impress here an idea which they con
ceive most essential to the success of the University ; simply this :
The University will tolerate no feuds in the faculty.
It may seem strange that this should be alluded to ; but in view
of the fact that more than one American college has been ruined
by such feuds, and that very many have been crippled ; in view
of the cognate fact that the odium theologicum seems now outdone
by hates between scientific cliques and dogmas ; that as a rule it
is now impossible to secure an impartial opinion from one scien
tific man regarding another; and that these gentlemen, in their
jealousies and bickerings, are evidently only awaiting some one
with a spark of the Moliere genius to cover them before the country
with ridicule and contempt, we do not think that the Board is
likely to give too much importance to this.
We advise that in the common law of the University it be a
fundamental principle, that harmony and hearty co-operation in
the work here are far more essential than any one or any half
dozen professors, and that in case feuds and quarrels arise, every
professor concerned be at once requested to resign, unless the dis
turbing person can be identified beyond a reasonable doubt ; that
if ever a general want of harmony be observed, and a rapid adjust
ment is impossible, the Gordian knot be cut, and that all con
cerned be replaced by others who can work together. Better to
have science taught less brilliantly, than to have it rendered con
temptible.
�23
How shall Professors be Found ?
Various methods of securing the best mon have been resorted
to, in the institutions already established.
One method is, to give notice quietly that a position is vacant;
to receive testimonials regarding candidates, consisting of their
own statements and the written recommendations of their friends :
and to select the person whose recommendations are the most
numerous or laudatory.
We believe such a method wretchedly delusive. A sad sort of
common law obtains in our country, by which a candidate for any
place has a right to demand that his townsman, neighbor or friend
shall put his name to any statement necessary to secure an elec
tion. No man of recent experience can doubt that an immense
array of petitions could be obtained for the rebuilding of the
Tower of Babel, and that an immense array of testimonials could
be obtained, attesting the fitness of the most knavish contractor
to build it.
Considering this facility with which recommendations are ob
tained, they ought never to be considered final, though they ought
always to be demanded.
It should also be laid down at the outset, as a fundamental law,
that no testimonials are to have any weight, no matter how great
the abilities of the giver, except as they are statements upon im
portant qualifications from persons who are unquestionable authothorities upon these particular qualifications. It ought to be fully
understood that the vague testimony of the foremost lawyer in
the State, as to attainments in organic chemistry or microscopic
anatomy, or other branches of science in which the legal gentle
man is not an expert, pass with this Board as so much blank paper.
Another method sometimes resorted to in Great Britain is, to
advertise for candidates—stating duties, salary, with testimonials
or tests. This has some advantages ; but after correspondence
regarding this plan, with some leading men who have thought and
wrought much for higher education, we do not recommend it.
The only safe method would seem that, by committee or other
wise, we make investigations for ourselves ; to obtain confidential
statements as to the abilities of candidates—statements sud sigillo
confessionis from those who desire our success and the promotion
of the most worthy, and who can give us real information and not
conventional praise.
It has happened that the papers of candidates have been thus
�24
far referred to this committee, and so far as possible, in the
absence of full powers, we have acted upon the plan here sug
gested. We recommend that some existing committee or some
new committee be authorized to receive the testimonials of candi
dates ] to make the investigations required, and to report to the
Board at a very early day.
The Administering Body.
Thus far the committee have occupied themselves with the
Instructing Body. They now turn to the question of the Admin
istering Body.
The immediate administering or governing body, subject to the
trustees, is naturally, as regards discipline, details of instruction,
&c., the Faculty. At the head of the Faculty should stand a Pre
sident, and in so large an institution there are reasons why it might
be well to name a Vice-President. These, while taking part in
the instruction, should take the lead'in the administration. The
experience of all institutions of learning puts it beyond a doubt
that such headship is necessary. The single attempt to dispense
with it, is one of the most wretched failures in the educational
history of this country.
The committee recommend that there be elected at an early
day a President of the University.
Method
of
Administration.
The question now arises, how shall the government or adminis
tration by the Faculty be conducted ?
Two methods have been in existence :
First. The discipline of students, and, indeed, the great mass
of ordinary business of the institution, is committed to the Presi
dent. The Faculty, in this plan, merely, as a rule, present reports
and give advice, leaving the initiation of measures and the final
decision and action upon them, to the head of the instructing body,
This is the method practiced in many colleges of New England,
and generally, it is believed, in those of New York.
According to the other method, the Faculty occupy altogether
a different position. They are not merely advisors, but legisla
tors. They cannot throw the responsibility upon the head of the
institution; they must take part in it themselves. This is the
system adopted in a few of the American colleges, and, among
them, in the State University of Michigan.
�25
Your committee are decidedly in favor of the latter method.
They believe that to the looseness of method incident to the
former system, are due many of the difficulties which disgrace
Faculties, and much of the bad discipline which ruins students.
Your committee recommend, therefore, that in each department
of the University, the Faculty belonging to that department form
a legislative body, with sittings at regular and short intervals,
presided over by the President, Vice-President, or a Dean elected
for that purpose ; that rules of order be observed ; that in cases
of discipline, or conferring degrees, every resident and non-resi
dent professor have a vote, and that such vote be by ballot.
The committee recommend that the combined Faculty of the
whole University also have stated meetings at regular intervals not
greater than once a month, presided over by the President, VicePresident, or a President pro tempore, for the purpose of conduct
ing the general administration of the institution and memorializing
the trustees ; discussing general questions of educational policy ;
presenting papers upon special subjects in literature, science and
the arts ;—that this body be known as the Academic Senate ; that
its proceedings be conducted according to rules of order; that
every person engaged in instruction, whether resident professors,
non-resident professors, lecturers or instructors, have permission
to speak, but that the right of voting be confined to the resident,
non-resident professors, and to assistant professors representing
complete departments in which no professor is appointed.
Official Term
of
Professors.
As regards the term of office of professors, the committee ask
your attention to the following considerations :
The usual, in fact the universal plan hitherto has been, to elect
professors to serve indefinitely. The power of removal in such
cases remains in the trustees ; but practically it has been found
difficult to exercise it, even where there has been great reason for
it. In his work on University Education, Dr. Wayland alludes
to the great difficulty under the existing system of removing
incompetent or superannuated professors. It has been a great
difficulty. Hardly a college which has not suffered from retaining
men not sufficiently capable, because it required positive action to
remove them, which action no one wished to initiate.
On the other hand, it is a matter of difficulty to engage good
men for short terms of service in a Faculty. The acquirements
�of a professor are not like those of a lawyer or physician, whichs
if not appreciated in one town, can be exercised in the next. His
fields of labor are comparatively few, and he naturally hesitates
greatly to commit himself to the chance of being cast out in a few
years. He will be very likely, under such circumstances, to prefer
a place of less honor and more permanence. To overcome this
feeling, salaries would have to be much larger than under the
usual system.
Again : It is not improbable that such reelections might lead to
cabals and intrigue, thus distracting the institution, defiling it,
and thwarting the purposes of this provision.
The advantages of engaging professors for short terms are appa
rent. Incompetent men would easily drop out at the end of six
years, if not before. Such a system, too, would probably inspire
every member of the Faculty to constant exertion. It is a ques
tion, however, whether his exertion would be mainly directed to
retaining his professorship by energy in instruction, or energy in
intrigue.
Your committee are not prepared to make any recommendation
regarding the term of service of the Faculty, leaving it entirely
to the future discussions of the Board.
Salaries of Professors.
Another question arises, of much immediate importance, regard
ing the salaries of the Faculty.
Professors’ salaries in the United States vary greatly. The sala
ries at Columbia College are generally about four to five thousand
dollars per annum; at Brown University, Providence, they are
fixed at about twenty-five hundred dollars ; at Yale College, at
about twenty-three hundred dollars ; at Union College, at about
eighteen hundred to two thousand dollars ; at Hamilton College,
at about twelve hundred dollars ; at Hobart College, at about one
thousand to fourteen hundred dollars; at the University of
Michigan, at about seventeen hundred dollars.
Your committee would be glad to see their way clearly to a
recommendation that each professor be paid according to an agree
ment with the trustees, having in view the value of services ; but
practically, they fear, this would be a matter of great difficulty.
The main value of one professor consists in his earnestness ; of
another, in his quickness ; of another, in his eloquence; of ano
ther, in his reputation. The value of one professor is determined
�27
by many hours, every day, of hard labor; the value of another,
by a single hour, every day, of brilliant labor. To balance the
claims of these is very difficult. To do it at all, without arousing
jealousies which would be likely to interfere with the easy work
ing of the institution, your committee fear would be impossible.
The committee, however, recommend for trial, that grades of
salary be established for resident professors and assistant profess
ors, which grades, however, shall make no difference in the stand
ing of such professors or assistant professors. The grade shall be
determined in each case at the election of the professor, and the
grade may be raised at any time by a vote of the trustees, regard
being had to the amount and value of services rendered, or to the
experience of the persons rendering them. Tn this view, they
present the following
Schedule of Salaries.
I. Resident Professors.
x
1st grade_________________________ _____ ___ $2,250
2d grade........ . ............. . ..................... ..... ................. 2,000
3d grade____ __________ _________ ______ ___
1,750
II. Resident Assistant Professors.
1st grade........ . ..................... ............. ......................... $1,750
2d grade___________________________ _______
1,500
3d grade............ ........... ......... ................... ............... .. 1,200
4th grade_____________ _____ ______ _________
1,000
The compensation of the non-resident professors, special pro
fessors and lecturers should be arranged by special agreement in
each case.
In addition to the officers already named for administrative pur
poses, will be required a Steward, who should occupy an office'
upon the grounds, keep close watch of the grounds and buildings,
superintend repairs, present certificates, receive dues, keep books,
etc., etc. His salary also should be matter of agreement.
Modification
in the
Official Term of Trustees.
In considering the arrangement of the governing body, the com
mittee cannot forbear to make a suggestion as to a modification of
the present charter. By that, the Board of Trustees are a selfperpetuating body; each trustee elected for life, and the whole
body form a close corporation. None can deny that while such
�28
an organization lias advantages as regards stability, it has disad
vantages as regards progress and activity. Your committee be
lieve that the history of great educational institutions, when fully
written, will show that this method of electing trustees is the
great cause why institutions of learning have so often been
dragged on behind the age, instead of being recognized as leaders
of the age. We are not prepared to present in all its details a
plan for the change desired ; but we recommend that as soon as it
shall be deemed expedient, some legislation be had by which the
term of office for trustees shall be six years; that the elected
trustees be classified by lot, and that a certain number of trustees
be elected each year. The committee would suggest that each
year, three new members be elected into the Board by the trus
tees, to take the places of three who annually leave it. They
recommend that this continue until such time as the graduates of
the University shall number one hundred ; that thereafter two
persons be elected annually into the Board by the Trustees, and
one be elected by the graduates. They also recommend that the
elections of the Board of Trustees be conducted in every case by
ballot, and that it require a two-thirds vote of the electing body
to re-elect a former trustee.
The advantages of this plan in general are evident. First, it
secures an influx of new life into the Board. Secondly, it does
this without any jar or disturbance of harmony. - Thirdly, it
recognizes the fact that the alumni of the institution never lose
their vital connection with it. Fourthly, it prompts every alumnus
to maintain a deep interest in the institution.
The committee recommend that by the same legislation, the
number of absences from meetings of the Board allowed by the
Revised Statutes, be diminished. It is surely not too much to ask
that men having the honor of a position in a Board of Trustees
like this, should discharge the duties, or that if they cannot dis
charge them, they give place to those who can. On a full attend
ance upon the meetings of the Board, depends in a great measuie
the success of this noble enterprise.
The Equipment
and
Illustrative Collections.
The next point to which the committee would call attention, is
the Equipment.
For the department of Agriculture there are two sorts of equip
ments. First, some farm buildings and tools are necessary at an
�29
/
early day to meet the demands of simple practical instruction.
Secondly, to give the department the character and efficiency it
deserves, there must be begun and carried on as rapidly as pos
sible, a Museum of Agriculture, embracing collections of imple
ments, productions, and matters generally relating to the depart
ment, in character similar to the State Agricultural collection at
Albany.
In the department of the Mechanic Arts, your committee believe
that the order of equipment needed is exactly the reverse; that
whereas in the Agricultural department an experimental farm is
first needed and the illustrative collection is secondary, in the
department of Mechanics the illustrative collection is first needed,
and the model workshop is secondary.
The reasons for this belief are as follows:
For the experiments in agriculture one farm is sufficient; the
main outlines of procedure in practical culture and experiments
are simple ; a small range of implements is sufficient for the whole
work.
To cover an equally extensive field in the mechanic arts would
necessitate a very great number of shops, with scores of processes
entirely dissimilar, with an immense range of machines and tools.
In agriculture one field will answer for nearly all the different
processes and experiments ; in mechanics, as a rule, one workshop
will only answer for each single branch to which it is devoted.
But, in addition to this great difference between the two depart
ments, in the ease of simple instruction in elementary practice,
your committee conceive there is a radical difference between the
necessities of the two departments. Scientific agriculture depends
largely on experiments. Whatever may be the results of strictly
scientific deductions, these results are not to be accepted until
experiment has proved them useful. Thus, agricultural chemistry
alone,, as a science coming out of the laboratory, is inadequate.
Its results must be submitted to practice on the farm. In actual
practice a great number of elements constantly arise to disturb
theoretical results.
In the department of Mechanic Arts, on the other hand, the
results of strict scientific investigation are seldom modified by
practice. Every calculation given by mathematical theory will be
found to work in practice.
In machines, theoretical calculations of power, modified by cal
culations of friction will, as a general rule, express practical
�30
results. There is, then, no such need of experimental workshops
in this department as of experimental farms in the other.
There are other reasons which might be adduced, but the com
mittee would pass them, and recommend at an early day that there
be commenced in this department a general collection, embracing
drawings, casts, sectional and working models, in general character
like the “Conservatory of Arts and Trades” at Paris.
They also recommend that the Board take into consideration the
establishment of a workshop, where young men may be employed
in making sundry implements and machines for the agricultural
department, and models for the collections illustrating various
other departments.
In the department of Engineering, collections are necessary of
drawings, engravings, models, casts, &c., in general scope like
that at Union College ; and among these the committee recom
mend at an early day, in the department of Mathematics, the
acquisition of a collection of the Olivier models, similar to those
at the Paris Conservatory, and at Union, Harvard and Columbia
Colleges, and at the Military Academy at West Point.
In the division of Science, Literature, and the Arts in general,
various collections are necessary. Of these, collections in Geology.
Mineralogy, Zoology, Comparative Anatomy and Botany, are those
most immediately needed. The University, by the munificence
of its founder, possesses already one of the finest collections extant
in Geology, only needing small additions in Lithology to make it
sufficient. It is here submitted that much might be done in build
ing up the collections, by employing active students in the work
of collecting specimens most accessible, and in conducting ex
changes. At the same time it will probably be advantageous to
keep watch of the collections which are from time to time offered
for sale in this country and in Europe, and thus secure, at comparativelv small cost, such collections as the Ward collection at
Rochester; the Lederer collection at Ann Arbor, and the Gibbs
collection at New Haven.
Philosophical Apparatus.
Another very important part of the equipment of any institution
of a high class is its collection of Philosophical Apparatus. It
is undoubtedly true that a skillful professor, with little apparatus,
is better than a bungler with much ; yet as it is our ambition to
have not only the best instructors, but also the best means of illus
�31
tration, it is our duty to look carefully to this portion of the
equipment, and to decide upon a policy regarding it.
The committee believe that the trustees should make every effort
to have the best; and that our policy should be two-fold : First,
the professors in the department of General Chemistry, Physics,
and kindred departments, should be furnished with the means of
illustrating the latest results of research and initiating new re
searches. Secondly, they should have the means of publicly illus
trating these brilliantly. We therefore hope to see, at an early
day, in the collections of the University, such comparatively rare
pieces of apparatus as that of Bianchi or Thilorier for the solidi
fication of carbonic acid ; the English apparatus for the direct
generation on a large scale of electricity from steam; the Boston
modification of Ruhmkorf’s coil for presenting on a large scale the
effects of electricity induced by the Galvanic current; the new
French apparatus for experimenting upon light; and in general
those aids to instruction and illustration proper to an institution
which we hope to place among the first of this country.
The earlier the philosophical apparatus is put on this footing,
the better; and while the committee do not urge an immediate
outlay sufficient to compass all that these departments should con
tain, they earnestly recommend at an early day a liberal expendi
ture toward a worthy beginning.
Collections Illustrative
of
Art.
The University can never attain to the proportions we hope for
it, without some collections illustrative of the great Arts of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting.
While galleries of statues and paintings by artists just now in
fashion, are too expensive to be thought of, art-collections of far
greater educational value can be formed at an outlay compara
tively trifling.
The collections of casts at the German University at Bonn, and
in the institutions at Boston, Ann Arbor and Toronto • the collec
tions of photographs and medallions illustrating architecture and
sculpture, and the collection of engravings illustrating the History
of Painting, now forming at the University of Michigan, furnish
examples of the equipment which ought ere long to be given to
this department.
�32
The Observatory.
In the ordinary working of an ordinary college, an observatory
can be dispensed with. But when an institution is to be made a
centre for men of the highest intellect,—when it is sought to in
crease knowledge,—when the aim is to bring every appliance to
bear in revealing the power of God and in developing the power
of man,—those in charge will naturally think of the establishment
of an observatory. So it has been almost without exception in
the great universities of the old world. So it has been at Har
vard College, at Yale, at the, University of Michigan, at the Uni
versity at Chicago, at the University of Alabama, at Hamilton Col
lege, and at Vassar College, in our own country.
It may be said that an observatory gives no part of what is
known as practical instruction. Even if it did not, the investi
gations which it aids are so noble, that the most severely practical
men have always held them in honor. But every man at all ac
quainted with higher education, will declare that the observatory
does promote practical education. From the observatories have
come some of the most practical benefactois of the race, and among
them, Newton, LaPlace, Lalande, Oersted, Arago, Mitchell. No
observatory was ever planned in a collegiate town, without stimu
lating greatly the study of the exact sciences, and thus promoting
progress and achievement in the departments where the exact
sciences bear practically upon the welfare of mankind.
We are sure that all the trustees join in our hope to see, at no
distant day, standing upon our grounds, an observatory which
shall be an honor to the State and Nation. No better gift could
be made by any of our wealthy citizens, and no nobler monument
could be reared by those who long to live in the memories of their
fellow men.
The cost of a suitable observatory varies. To erect a building
and place in it a telescope, meridian circle, astronomical clock, and
chronograph, wrould cost from forty thousand to eighty thousand
dollars, according to the size and perfection of the instruments.
The committee urge that this part of the equipment be not lost
sight of, though at present they do not recommend any applica
tion of funds for it.
�33
The Library.
The part of the equipment to which the committee would call
attention, finally, is the library. It is the culmination of all
touching all departments—meeting the needs of teachers and
taught. In it all Sciences and Arts meet; from it they draw a
vast part of their sustenance. We believe that, from the first, the
building up of a library suited to the wants of the institution, and
worthy of its aims, should be steadily kept in view. A large
library is absolutely necessary to the efficiency of the various de
partments. Without it, our men of the highest ability will be
frequently plodding in old circles and stumbling into old errors.
Say what we may of the necessity of original investigation, the
fact remains that science has never made great achievements save
when its votaries have had a plentiful supply of books wherein
to find necessary information and hints as to studies and investiga
tions. The history of the progress of modern science is the history
of development and accretion—development out of previous
thought and work—accretion upon previous thought and work.
The great progress in modern science is, to a very small degree,
the result of the original investigations of men removed from
access to the recorded labors of their predecessors.
This is the case with every science. To attempt either -of the
great functions of an university—the discovery of truth, or the
diffusion of truth, regarding the two main branches of our in
struction, Agriculture and Mechanics—without a liberal library,
would be to cripple these departments ; and to continue instruc
tion long in the departments generally without an ample library,
would be a farce, were it not so sad to see a body of professors,
ambitious to render services to science and to the institutions with
which they are connected, crippled by want of books.
What should be the character of the books ? It has been su<rgested that a library should be of the newest and best; that it
need only present the latest works as embodying the highest
results of thought. There is a germ of truth in this, which ought
to be borne in mind ; yet it should not be forgotten that there is
not a science or an art in which there are not some old investio-ations never superseded or surpassed.
There are multitudes of old works which must be within reach,
in order to an understanding of almost any science or art. The
general rule is, that a worthy library should possess the works of
every man who has made his mark in literature, science or the
3
�arts. This is true of different sciences and arts in different de
grees, but it is sufficiently true even of the most recent sciences
and arts, to show that no talk about old books and musty tomes
should for a moment delude us.
How should these books be obtained ?
Three methods suggest themselves : First, the different mem
bers of the Faculty might present lists of works in their several
departments, with indication of those most needed, and after a
collation of these lists by a committee, and a classification accord
ing to comparative necessity, purchases might be made from year
to year. This is an approved practical method, and is recom
mended.
But this does not cover the whole want of the institution. There
must be a reserved force of books. Very often a book necessary
to the success of an important investigation is not thought of until
the moment it is wanted. Very often a professor of great acquire
ments does not know where to find the record of an experiment;
and that hint at a method or fact of immense value to him, he
must seek in a full collection of works in his department, many
of which he would not think of naming as those most immediately
necessary.
The successful use of recent books, too, necessitates a large col
lection of those partially superseded. Partial quotations must
often be known wholly; doubtful quotations must often be verified.
A collection is needed as a centre to which men in all grades in
every kind of investigation may gather.
This can only be obtained by other methods. One of these is,
to take the catalogues of leading publishers and booksellers, and
having marked their valuable works, receive proposals for their
purchase. This is often a useful way, and is also recommended.
Another method of use in beginning a library, is the purchase
wholly, or in part, of carefully gathered special collections of
private individuals. Thus the University of Rochester purchased
the Neander Library, and Yale College the Thilo Library.
When and how can this be done ? Not in this country to any
extent, for nowhere in the world are valuable books sought so
eagerly and held so tenaciously. It is in foreign cities, and espe
cially in London, that collections of works in every department,
made by the most distinguished scholars, are brought under the
hammer of the auctioneer. Hardly a number of the London
Atheneeum is issued without advertisements of such collections.
�35
Within a very few years, the private library of Buckle, so full in
all its departments ; the private library of Lord Macaulay, con
taining vast stores in English history; the library of Humboldt,
containing the accumulations of his life ; and scores of others even
more important, have been thus broken up in the London market.
Your committee find that the prices of books thus disposed of
in mass are very low, except in the case of rarities competed for by
bibliomaniacs, and these are the very things for which the Univer
sity cares little or nothing. The solid material of a large library
*—the standard authorities and works of reference—the sets of
lieviews, periodicals and Journals of Societies, with few excep
tions, go at low prices. The committee are assured by one of its
members, who has himself frequented, and bought largely in these
sales, that collections of vast value, selected during a lifetime by
the most eminent scholars in various branched, and enriched often
with their notes, references and corrections, are constantly sold at
prices astonishingly low.
The committee, therefore, without recommending any hasty
action, would suggest that an eye be kept upon these frequent
sales, and that at the earliest convenient season an attempt be
made to avail ourselves of them.
It is also recommended that steps be taken to obtain for the
library certain valuable works published by foreign governments;
such as the wonderful Monographs upon the European Rural Popu
lation, by LePlay, published by the French government; and,
above all, in the department of Industrial Mechanics, the great
series of Patent Reports published by the English government,
copies of which are in the State Library at Albany, in the Astor
Library at New York, and in the Public Library at Boston. It
is believed that a copy can be obtained ot the English government
at the mere cost of mounting the plates and binding the several
volumes. A more valuable and appropriate work for that depart
ment could hardly be designated.
Preparation
of a
Code for
the
University.
To this committee was entrusted the preparation of a code of
laws for the government of the University. A large collection
of the statutes of different colleges has been made, but at the out
set a question meets us : What shall be the theory of discipline in
the institution ? Shall it be after the military pattern ; shall it be
the oidinaiy collegiate discipline which has been in part inherited
�36
from England ; shall it be an adaptation of the free university
system of continental Europe, where comparatively little is done
by college police, and much is left to the students themselves ? It
will be seen at once that this question must be decided before any
body of statutes is framed; for the radical difference between
these fundamental systems involves an entire difference between
the codes which express them. The first, the military system, has
undoubted advantages. It puts all students upon an equality in
mere outward advantages of dress, style and living ; it subjects
students to a more perfect control; it gives from among the stu
dents, officers to aid in enforcing rigid discipline. On the other
hand, the uniformity in dress, which is admired by some as con
tributing to equality, deprives the professor of one of his best
means of knowing who are before him in the lecture room,—how
he shall deal with individuals, and what allowances are to be made.
None acquainted with the best American colleges, will hesitate to
declare that, as a rule, no student loses anything among his pro
fessors or his fellow students, by clothing indicating poverty
and frugality. It is only in after life that this makes an impor
tant difference. In no community on earth is man estimated so
exactly by what is supposed to be his real worth, as in a commu
nity of college students. No collections of men were ever more
democratic. The rigid military government, it is believed, could
not possibly be applied to the whole University: for, by the fun
damental theory of the institution, there will be students of a great
number of different grades,—some attending merely courses of
lectures for a single season; some in regular courses of several
years ; some men not far from middle age ; some far below their
majority • some residing in the college building; some residing
in the town. While, therefore, military instruction must always
form part of the courses, it is not recommended that the govern
ment be military, except, perhaps, in some single departments,
where efficiency may be promoted by military forms.
As to the next system, the ordinary collegiate plan, although
to a certain extent it may have to be adopted on account of our
partial resort to dormitories, yet the system as a finality is not
favored by the committee.
The system of university freedom of government is believed by
the committee to be our best government. In this system laws
are few but speedily executed, and the University is regarded
neither as an asylum nor a reform school. Much is trusted to the
�manliness of the students. The attempt is to teach the students
to govern themselves, and to cultivate acquaintance and confidence
between Faculty and students. This the committee believe is pos
sible. They believe that by rigid execution of a few disciplinary
laws • by promotion of pleasant, extra-official intercourse between
teachers and taught, in ways hereafter to be specified ■ by placing
professors over students, not as police, but as a body of friends,
this government may be made to work better than any other. The
boundaries between government of students by university autho
rities and government by town authorities, will be discussed else
where.
The committee will, on a future day, recommend a simple pledge
and ceremony of matriculation, having in view self-governmenf by
the students.
Having thus given a basis for a code, we think it best to defer
details until a future report. The necessity for by-laws is not im
mediate, and much light can, it is believed, be gained from the
Faculty about to be chosen.
Remunerative Manual Labor
by
Students.
One of the most interesting questions which arises in the estab
lishment of our departments of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts,
regards the experiment of employing students at manual labor
during a portion of the day.
The argument generally used of late against this experiment is,
that it has been tried several times unsuccessfully.
This argument would have more force were it shown that the
institutions where the manual labor system has failed, have had
the means of trying the experiments fully and fairly. It is be
lieved that such has not been the case, and that our country has
seen no institution having such ample means of trying this experi
ment as has the Cornell University. Nor is it true, as is often
loosely stated, that this experiment has uniformly failed. The
reports of the State Agricultural College of Michigan, at Lansing,
show that its success there, if not brilliant, is substantial. Several
young men have supported themselves entirely, paying their fee
of tuition, room rent, board, fuel, washing, clothing, books and
traveling expenses out of their earnings upon the college pro
perty ; and a very large number in the same way have paid their
expenses partially.
Your committee are satisfied that the University ought to try
�38
this experiment. We are not, however, prepared to recommend
that every student in the University be required to do a certain
amount of manual labor. This we think would impose fetters
upon the student body, very dangerous to that character of
breadth and freedom which we hope to establish.
If, as is certain to be frequently the case, a student advanced
in years considerably beyond the usual student age, and who
already has labored and accumulated means to defray his expenses,
presents himself and wishes, in the shortest time possible, to tit
himself for a place as engineer, superintendent of chemical works,
or scientific miner, it would seem doubtful policy to force him
to give those hours which he desires to crowd with study, to
manual labor in which he has had full experience, and remunera
tion which he does not need.
True, it is often urged that the student can do more and better
mental work, with deduction of two or three hours of physical
labor, than without it. Though not one man in a million among
men at large acts upon this belief, it may be so among students.
But, until this theory proves itself by practice, we believe that it
would be a great mistake to attempt to place the entire University
rigidly upon this basis. When, in our progress here, this theory
shall be substantiated, there will be ample opportunity to enforce
this system in all the departments.
Again : Your committee are by no means certain that physical
labor among young men can be made to take wholly the place of
athletic sports and gymnastic exercises in giving restoration from
mental labor. Even if it keep up bodily strength, it seems hardly
possible that the minds of young men could be kept fresh, elastic
and energetic, when the only relief from tension is the change
from one form of labor to another.
We understand that even in manual labor schools it has been
found necessary to give some time to free, manly sports and games.
But there is one practical objection which will doubtless be
conclusive, even if theoretical objections are not.
If any such number of students as we expect, enter the Univer
sity, we could not provide labor for all of them.
The State University of Michigan, with far less attractions than
we hope to present, has fifteen hundred (1500) students. At two
hours a day of manual labor by each student,—and this is an hour
less than the usual allowance,—granting that the different divi
sions of working students succeed each other with perfect preci
�39
sion, one corps taking up the tools the instant the previous corps
throws them down, there would be a constant force to be profitably
employed and paid, equivalent to three hundred (300) laborers,
and the University cannot employ any such force with profit for
any long time.
But while we do not recommend general compulsory labor, we
are in favor of organizing corps of laboring students, and holding
out every inducement to join them ; and we are not prepared to
say that it may not be necessary to require manual labor from all
the students in some special departments.
We believe that a system of manual labor, rightly organized,
will work to the mutual advantage of the University and the stu
dents. There is a large amount of labor required at once upon
the ornamental grounds and the farm. There are trees to be
felled, roads and paths to be cut, depressions to be filled, eleva
tions to be graded down. There will be much work requiring
mere physical ability, and there will be much requiring the scien
tific guidance of the Professors of Agriculture, of LandscapeGardening and Engineering.
It will also be of use to the students in their muscular develop
ment, and we believe can be made to give substantial aid to many
pecuniarily.
Physical Culture.
Many plans of education have given goodly place to Physical
Culture in theory ; very few have given any adequate place to it
in practice.
No mistake could be more unfortunate. Better the mere rudi
ments of knowledge with a body sound, firm and strong, than the
best culture of the schools with a body permanently emaciated and
debilitated.
It is one of the strange things in the history of education, that
American votaries of classical scholarship have been so neglectful
of that bodily culture which, in the ancient civilization they justly
honor, was the main culture.
We cannot insist upon this part of an education too strongly.
As long as highly educated men are dyspeptics, so long will they
be deprived of their supremacy in society by uneducated eupevand so it ought to be.
We recommend: First, that in all, except the Optional Course,
attendance be required on a plain series of lectures upon Anatomy,
Physiology and Hygiene.
�40
Secondly, that there be provided, at the opening of the Univer
sity, a well-equipped Gymnasium, and that training in it, or equi
valent training in manual labor or exercises in the open air, be
obligatory upon all.
Thirdly, that an instructor in Gymnastics be appointed, who
shall conduct exercises at the gymnasium under some careful pro
gressive system, with as much regularity and under as stringent
rules regarding attendance and decorum, as are observed in any
college exercise whatever.
Fourthly, that in arranging hours for study, recitations or lec
tures, physical training be regarded as equally entitled to conside
ration with mental training, and that a regular and sufficient time
be always allowed for that purpose.
Fifthly, that grounds be set apart for the national game of base
ball, and that the formation of clubs be encouraged; also that
encouragement be given to the formation of clubs for boating upon
Lake Cayuga.
Sixthly, that the experiment be tried of framing an university
statute to the effect that deterioration in physical culture will be
held in the same category with want of progress in mental cul
ture, and that either will subject the delinquent to deprivation of
university privileges.
Seventhly, in view of the importance and practical novelty of
this whole subject, it is recommended that to the regular standing
committees of the Board of Trustees there be added a “ Committee
upon Physical Culture.”
Military Education.
It is recommended that the requirements of the congressional
law be met by careful provisions for teaching Military Engineer
ing and Tactics, and that the Board of Trustees at an early day
adopt some plan for encouraging military drill, or for making it
obligatory.
Actual Commencement of Instruction.
4
The committee would also report as to the actual commencement of instruction,—the practical beginning of general university
operations.
A sufficient number of professors having been secured, it is
recommended that at least three (3) months before the opening
of the University, an advertisement be inserted in papers of wide
�41
circulation, stating concisely the day when the examinations for
admissions begin, the courses of instruction, the professors and
their departments, the charges for instruction, the approximate
charges for board and lodging, the number and character of free
Scholarships, the duties of school commissioners in examining can
didates for them under the charter, and the names of persons to
■whom applications may be made for further details.
The University Year.
It is recommended that there be two terms in the University
year ; the first commencing on the second Thursday of September
and ending on the third week-day preceding Christmas ; the
second term commencing on the third week-day following New
Year’s day, and ending upon the third Thursday in June, when
shall be held the annual Commencement.
In order, however, to commemorate an event which the insti
tution ought ever to hold in remembrance, and, incidentally, to
give some intermission in the second term, which is much longer
than the first, it is recommended that the ordinary exercises be
Suspended on the fourteenth day of May, the day wThen the act
incorporating the University was passed, and that that day be
forever known as Founder’s Day, and that exercises be then held
expressive of gratitude to the benefactors of the University, and
to renew the memory of their benefactions.
It is recommended that some inaugural exercises be held at or
near the beginning of the first term.
Fees.
In nothing do American institutions of learning vary more than
in the fees required of students. At Yale College the charges
are as follows :
For tuition .................
$45
rent and care of one-half* room, average_________ 20
expenses of public rooms, repairs, &c._______ ___ 10
use of gymnasium_____ ______ _________ ____
4
society tax________________ ____ ____
g
Besides these, there are charges at graduation amounting to
average price of board, $5.50.
I11 the Massachusetts Institute of' Technology, at Boston, the
�42
fees in the first year arc $100; second year, $125; third and
fourth, $150 each.
At Harvard College the fees are as follows :
Instruction, library and lecture rooms, and gymnasium___ $104
Rent and care of room, &c._________________________
28
Special repairs_________ _______ ______________ ____
1
$133
Board is said to range from $4.50 to $7 per week.
In the Lawrence Scientific School, at Cambridge, the student
taking the courses of chemistry, engineering, botany, &c., pays in
regular fees each year, from $250 to $300.
In the Cambridge School of Mines, the fees are, for the first
year, $150, and $200 for each succeeding year.
At the State University of Michigan, by the catalogue of 1866,
any student from without the State pays a matriculation fee of
$20, and an annual fee of $-5.
At Dartmouth College, tuition in the Scientific School is, per
annum, $36 in the third and fourth, and $42 per annum in the
first and second years. In the College proper, the fees are :
For tuition.........................
$51
room rent from $6 to------------- ----------------------- 12
$57 to $63
At Hamilton College the tuition is .................
$45
Room rent........ ............
9
Sweeping and contingencies--------------- ------------------ 21
$75
At the State Agricultural College of Michigan, at Lansing,
tuition to students from that State is free, but from all other
States, per annum, $20 ; room rent, $4 ; matriculation fee, $5.
From this great diversity no rule can be deduced. After con
sideration, the committee, although there are one hundred and
twenty-eight (128) free scholarships already provided by law, and
although it is believed that instruction of the very best kind will
be furnished, have concluded to suggest that the charges for the
first year be very low, and they present the following schedule :
Matriculation fee------------------ --------------------------- - $15
Annual fees at $10 per term........................................... 20
$35
�43
For room rent they have based their calculations upon the per
centage which the dormitories ought to contribute upon the outlay
for them, arranging the rents so as to give a return of seven (7)
per cent per annum. The rent of a full suite of rooms in the main
building would be 55 cents, 73 cents, 109 cents per week for each
student, according as they have four, three or two occupants.
Arranging rents so as to bring a return of four per cent per
annum, the charges would be 32 cents, 42 cents, 63 cents per
week, according as the suites of rooms are occupied by four, three
or two persons.
But it is not expected that any large number of the students
can be accommodated in the University dormitories. There are
provided in the first building, accommodations for from sixtv-four
to one hundred and twenty-eight students. But it is believed
that these will fall short of the accommodations required.
It is not doubted that the citizens of Ithaca will do their utmost,
even subjecting themselves to inconvenience, in providing rooms
for students. And it is believed that they will do this at the
lowest terms possible ; for nothing could be more unfortunate for
the town and University than at the outset to have the impression
gain ground that student lodgings in Ithaca are costly.
Board.
In regard to board, the committee are decidedly .of the opinion
that the trustees should have nothing to do with furnishing it,
unless events force them to do so. For this the citizens of Ithaca
must be relied upon entirely. The same necessity for liberal
treatment and low prices obtains in regard to board as in regard
to lodgings. And in view of the great importance of a right
beginning in this matter, it is recommended that the President of
the Board designate a committee of the citizens of Ithaca, who
shall bring the matter before their fellow citizens and obtain assur
ances which shall enable the trustees in their first announcement
to offer, with the other attractions of the institution, the very
decided one of cheap rates of lodgings and board.
The same citizen’s committee should also be relied upon to fur
nish the University steward with names of persons willing to
accommodate students, and with lists of prices, so as to provide
at once for students on their arrival.
If, however, such appeal be unsuccessful, which is not believed
possible, it is recommended that the executive committee be em
�44
powered to lease in the town, or erect upon the college grounds,
a dining hall and kitchen, with the full understanding, however,
that the University shall not undertake to manage it further than
to lease it to the students. The students thus leasing it, shall
choose their own stewards, employ their own servants, purchase
their own provisions, and manage it in their own way, except that
the trustees may vote to advance money to the clubs thus formed,
to purchase leading articles of supply at wholesale, according to
the system recently established in the Yale College dining clubs ;
and the University authorities shall take measures, in case of need,
to preserve general decency and order.
Fuel.
It is strongly recommended that the University purchase fuel
at wholesale, to be retailed to the students at cost. This plan is
found to work beneficially at Yale, Harvard and many other
colleges.
The Dormitory System.
Two radically different ideas as to the function of an Univer
sity have produced two different systems of lodging students and
of supervision of them while not engaged in public exercises.
Under the first, the student is lodged in a dormitory and kept,
or rather supposed to be kept, under surveillance of the Univer
sity authorities. Under the second, lodging and any other than
general surveillance are looked upon as outside the proper
function of an University, and the student left to make arrange
ment for his lodging as any other person coming for a time into
the town would do, subject to certain general regulations by the
University. Care of him as a citizen is left to the town authori
ties ■ care of him as a member of a family, to the household with
which he is lodged—the University, of course, reserving the right
to inflict penalties for offences against University common law and
statutes.
The committee believe the latter system the more sound in
theory and the more satisfactory in practice. Large bodies of
students collected in dormitories often arrive at a degree of tur
bulence which small parties, gathered in the houses of citizens,
seldom if ever reach. No private citizen, who lets rooms in his
own house to four or six students, would tolerate for an hour the
anarchy which most tutors in charge of college dormitories are
compelled to overlook.
�45
But even were the discipline of dormitories thoroughly en
forced; the system tends to put the professorial corps in the atti
tude of policemen. And the situation is made all the worse by
the fact that the professor is armed with no authority under the
law of the land, and so comes to be regarded not even as a police
man, but as a spy—not as a judge, but as an inquisitor. Nothing
could be more fatal to hearty, kindly relations between teachers
and taught.
The dormitory system, as it has existed at Oxford and Cam
bridge, has been carried out logically in the construction of quad
rangles—great enclosures from which egress at unsuitable hours
is supposed to be rendered difficult, and in which good order can
be more easily maintained. That even this most costly plan has
failed every one knows, who has at all looked into the subject;
blit even the poor merit of the English system seems wanting
among ns,
The reasons for adopting even temporarily any modification of
the dormitory system in a new institution like ours, are two :
First, the necessity of some check upon persons disposed to ask
too large a price for student lodgings. Secondly, the necessity
of observations, experiments and work upon the college land by
large numbers of students. Of these reasons the first weighs
little ; the second, it is hoped, will weigh less and less as the
village of Ithaca is extended nearer and nearer to the University
domain ;—but they have been strong enough to induce the Board
of Trustees to erect a dormitory in which are provided tasteful
and well-ventilated study and sleeping rooms for from sixty-four
to ninety-six students. It is believed that no better accommoda
tions are afforded in any college within the United States.
It is recommended, however, that at the outset the policy of
tbe trustees be declared to be in favor of making residence in the
college buildings a reward of good work and conduct, and that
good order in every student hall be entrusted to the self-govern
ing powers of the students residing in it, with a full understanding
that the University authorities will enter into no inquisitorial pro
cess to discover the authors of disorder, but that if the tenants are
not able to maintain good order, they must give place en masse
to those who can. If this does not accomplish the purpose, the
hall should be closed altogether.
It is hoped that ere many years accommodations for students
may be mainly provided among citizens residing in neat, tidy
�46
dwellings bordering upon the University property. In these a|
kindly, restraining family influence would be exercised upon stu-|nja^|ofi(|#1 1
dents, never found in the prevalent poor imitation of the EnglisMaH^ifeEW
semi-monastic system.
1
The committee are decidedly opposed to any large adoption ofl
a dormitory system.
Relations between the Cornell University and other Insti-I
tutions of Learning in the State.
It is believed that the institution now to be founded can be
brought into perfect harmony with the sister institutions of the hl
State, While we hope for large numbers of students, it is highly fmmiQi,
4-1------------------ K---------- . .U„
-ly
[ij
improbable that the number at the .a.._ collegeswill 1be any M*
other
smaller than at present. Facilities for education, like facilities'!
for travel, increase the number of those using them. In this great,
commonwealth of four million souls, there is work for all.
.[Ji
So far from injuring the existing colleges, it is hoped that we s*'
can benefit them in one way at least most gratifying to their officers. In the Faculties of these colleges are some of the best^W Wp
minds in the country—some of the noblest men.' They are to-dayj
almost without exception, kept upon salaries wretchedly inadequate, and to a number of students far less than ought to enjdJ^MjW^W
the benefit of their teachings.
By our plan of Non-resident Professors, we can avail ourselvew
of the talents of these men—can give them a larger field and
newer, and can add to their salaries sums which will enable them |i
to work more freely in the colleges with which they are immediately connected. This plan also offers an incentive to every active
professor in every college, to distinguish himself as an investigatoiwO^bsfci
or instructor in some department, and thus will benefit science amH
education at large.
•
a
Relations
of the
a
University with the School System of the !
State.
The provisions of the charter of the Cornell University show k
that its promoters recognized the necessity of a vital connection
with the school system of the State. As that system is the sulm
stratum of all we hope to build, it cannot be left out of sight. It
ought never to be forgotten that we arc to draw life from it, and
that we must return life into it. No scholastic traditions should jWfemi.-fi
lead us to slight or undervalue this relation. It will be a greatj
�47
honor to us if we knit our work as an esteemed part, into the fabric
of education for a commonwealth of four millions of people.
Pains have been taken to establish a relation such as has never
existed between the system and any existing college. The Super
intendent of Public Instruction is ex officio a trustee, and thus
forms a vital link in the connection. The provision in the act of
incorporation regarding the choice of students to scholarships in
the different assembly districts, brings us directly into relations
with the whole body of school commissioners throughout the
State. Our labor should be to strengthen the ties thus established.
Entering heartily into this vast educational work, so cherished by
the people of this State, we are strong—holding ourselves aloof
from it, we are weak indeed.
irrnt
-»q
fonii
arm!
>" 9flt
itav<
iufeH
A Special Test in our Work.
In the arrangement of departments and in provision for them,
there is one test very simple and very effectual—the original Law
of Congress. That law we must neither wrest nor warp. We
f^iica must satisfy its requirements without mental reservation. We
must never lose sight of that great body of men to whose mental
needs the act makes special reference, and of whom it speaks as
the “ industrial classes.’7
ff. p The munificence of our founder does, indeed, enable us to add
to this provision; but nothing can allow us to take from it.
The monstrous perversion of trusts recently revealed by the
il'is^l Parliamentary Commission on Collegiate Education in England,
fguig must find no parallel here.
iiT 5
That original law will not fetter us in our endeavors to give the
qoaq people of this State the most advanced university privileges.
irrsq Having guarded us from a common error, and secured certain
faoT •;reat branches of practical education, it gives us by express declaroiii; ations the largest university scope—only insisting that we keep
n view the real wants of this land and people.
bl J
[tT J
The General Test
in
University Education.
The committee have now considered the practical questions
most likely to arise at the beginning of our work. That all such
questions have been met, is not claimed. In regard, however,
Ito those which may hereafter arise, we desire in conclusion to
present a general principle, fundamental and formative—a prin
ciple to serve as a test and guide ;—it is the principle so admirably
T
�enunciated by Wilhelm von Humboldt, and elaborated by John
Stuart Mill: “ The. great and leading principle is the absolute and
essential importance of human development in its richest diversity.”
This we conceive to express the object of any really great institu
tion of learning; this our founder proclaimed in his declaration
already cited.
This principle we believe can only be made operative through
the greatest freedom in study consistent with an University organ
ization—freedom in choice of studies—freedom in range of studies.
Development under this principle—moral, intellectual and phy
sical—Can only be normal and healthful in an atmosphere of love
of truth, beauty and goodness,’and adoration of the Centre of
truth, beauty and goodness.
We have under our charter no right to favor any sect or to pro
mote any creed. No one can be accepted or rejected as trustee,
professor or student, because of any opinions and theories which
he may or may not hold. On that point our charter is most care
fully guarded, and made to conform to the fundamental ideas of
our Republic—ideas which too many institutions of learning have
forgotten. Fervor, valor and strength in labors for truth, goodness and beauty, are the qualities to be sought in those who are
to work here; and if we secure men of this fervor, valor and
strength, we may be sure that, whatever their individual theories
on this or that dogma, their joint labors will be for the glory of
God and the elevation of man.
Upon the members of the Board the committee desire to im
press the necessity of earnest thought and energetic action. A
trusteeship of this University will be no sinecure. Never was a
nobler trust confided to any body of men. May we all feel our
great responsibilities in this matter, and work earnestly to dis
charge them; and in laying these foundations may we have the
blessing of Heaven, that all may be fitly builded.
ANDREW D. WHITE,
(Signed.)
Tor the Committee on Organization.
1
I
���
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Report of the Committee on Organization, presented to the trustees of the Cornell University, October 21st 1866
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Place of publication: Albany, USA
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Conway Tracts
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Education-United States
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Art. VI. — The Higher Education of the United States.
(1.) LInstruction Publique aux ftats-Unis, Ecoles Publiques,
Colleges, Universites, Ecoles Speciales. Rapport adresse au
Ministre de VInstruction. Publique, par M. 0. Hippeau, Professeur de Faculte Honoraire, &c. Paris. 1870.
(2.) The Educational Institutions of the United States: their
Character and Organization. Translated from the Swedish of
P. A. Siljestrom, by Frederica Rowan. 1853.
(3.) A Visit to some American Schools and Colleges. By Sophia
Jex Blake. 1867.
(4.) Various Reports:—Minnesota, Wisconsin, Chicago, Iowa,
1 llinois, a/nd Cornell Universities; Lafayette, New York City,
and Da/rtmouth Colleges; Norwich and other Free Academies;
various Polytechnic Institutes and Industrial Universities ; State
Normal Schools, and Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other Agri
cultural Colleges. 1867-8-9.
(5.) Reports of Vassar College for Young Ladies, and of Oberlin for
Youth of both Sexes.
(6.) The Daily Public School in the United States. Philadelphia.
1866.
1
.About a year and a half ago, we gave in this Review a tolerably
full account of the system of primary education pursued in the
United. States. We developed at some length the theory on
which it is founded—a theory unique in the history of educa
tion—which, regarding the people as potentially the rulers of
the nation, assumes that the Government, as representing its
collective will, has a right and a corresponding obligation
to secure for every member of the community, at its own
charge, instruction and training sufficient to prepare him to
exercise his duties as a citizen; and we showed both the
remarkable general success, as well as some of the conspicuous
shortcomings, of the actual working of the system. The sub
stantial accuracy, both of our facts and deductions, has been
admitted by competent authorities in the United States. Mean
time, the complaints of truancy, late attendance, apathy of
parents, culpable neglect of country school-boards, untrained and
inefficient teachers, poor school-houses, &c., are rather increasing
than diminishing, and the demands for authoritative interven
tion to adjust the practice to the theory wax louder and louder.
The political problem, indeed, of reconciling the almost un
bounded liberty of the American citizen with the right of the
State to constrain obedience, is still, it must be confessed, far
�2
Theory of American Primary Education.
from being solved; and this state of things largely influences the
condition of primary education in the United States. It is only
those who are ignorant of the facts that talk of that condition as
satisfactory ; all who carefully investigate them know that it
is not. It can, however, scarcely be doubted that the resolute
will of the nation will in time overcome this difficulty, and that
we shall see ‘ the most extensively educated people in the world’
(Fraser and Hippeau) also the most soundly educated.
We found this conviction in a great degree on the remark
able development within the last few years of the higher
education of the country, the influence of which cannot, in the
nature of things, fail greatly to stimulate and improve the lower.
We propose in this paper to describe at some length the
machinery by which that higher education is carried out, and in
doing so to testify to the spirit, energy, and intelligence of the
nation—the intelligence which perceives what is wanting to
place its educational institutions on a par with those of the
most advanced countries of the world, and the spirit and energy
which are devising the means for supplying it. In accomplishing
our purpose, we shall have to repeat a few of the particulars
before given, in order to present a clear view of the relation
between the several parts of the system.
The theory of American primary education contemplates a
continued course of instruction to be carried on at the public ex
pense between the fifth and eighteenth years of the pupil’s age.
When this course is concluded the responsibility of the State
ceases; it has prepared the youth for his d uties as a citizen.
Should he, for professional or other purposes, wish to continue
his education, he must, unless exceptionally aided by scholar
ships, &c., pursue it at his own charge. The full course of
elementary instruction which the State thus offers free of charge
to all its citizens, male and female, embraces three stages—
(1) the Primary School, for children of from five to eight or
nine years of age ; (2) the Grammar School, for those from nine
to thirteen; and (3) the High School, for those between thirteen
or fourteen and eighteen years of age. Together they form the
‘common-school’ system, and are so organically connected that a
child commencing the course in the primary school at five years
of age may pursue it, stage by stage, until he emerges at the
age of eighteen from the high school, prepared to commence the
ordinary business of life, or to enter on a collegiate or special
professional career of advanced instruction. This system, it
will be observed, offers not merely elementary but also superior
education to all the citizens ; such superior education, indeed, as
in other countries is generally monopolized by the rich and
�The Higher Education of the United States.
3
privileged classes. M. Hippeau enthusiastically descants on the
*
conception thus presented to his view :—
‘ Where,’ he says (p. 335), ‘is the nation that can boast, as the
Americans do, of possessing schools in which the whole juvenile popu
lation can learn, without charge, not only reading, writing, arithmetic,
drawing, and a little geography and history, as they do in our primary
schools, but everything which constitutes that secondary education
which amongst us is reserved for families in easy circumstances, and
which some timid spirits believe cannot be offered without danger to
the children of the working classes ? ’
The high schools, or schools for secondary education, which
we now proceed to describe in detail, form the culminating point
of the common-school system, and are in some respects its most
satisfactory exponent. The instruction given in them is con
ducted almost uniformly by men of eminent attainments, long
experience in teaching, and great zeal, who are as a general rule
fairly rewarded for their labours, a point by no means sufficiently
provided for in the case of the primary and grammar-school
masters, who are often miserably underpaid. The result is that
the high schools, especially in the larger towns, attain a very
advanced degree of excellence. Bishop Fraser, in describing
those of Boston, speaks of the American High School as one
which he would have liked, had it been possible, to ‘ put under a
‘ glass case and bring to England for exhibition, as a type of a
‘ thoroughly useful middle-class school.’ He was particularly
struck by ‘ the excellent spirit that seemed to pervade it—the
‘ healthy, honest, thorough way in which the work, both of
‘ masters and pupils, seemed to be done.’ The energy and life
of the high schools generally is attested by all who visit them.
M. Hippeau thus describes his own impressions on this point,
and in doing so also illustrates the external machinery of the
system:—
‘Wherever,’ he says (p. 72), ‘I have found these superior schools
established, I have witnessed in the pupils an eagerness to do well,
* M. Hippeau was deputed, in 1868, by M. Duruy, the then Minister
of Public Instruction in France, to examine into the education generally
of the United States. In November, 1869, he presented his very interest
ing Report to M. Bourbeau, M. Duruy’s successor. M. Hippeau examined
the whole field of American education, and reports upon it all in the most
favourable sense possible. He scarcely indeed hints at a fault anywhere.
All is couleur de rose. This somewhat indiscriminate panegyric detracts
from the value of his judgment respecting the merits of the American
system as a whole. He was evidently unprepared for the energy, zeal,
public spirit, and intelligence which characterize the efforts made, in the
large towns especially, to advance popular education, and eulogizes,
therefore, rather than criticises, what he saw.
�4
High School Curriculum.
a zeal, an emulation, which indicate the value that they attach to the
studies which they have voluntarily chosen for their course. They
pursue them without requiring constraint or severe discipline. Ample
and well-ventilated class-rooms in elegant buildings, provided with
everything that can render study attractive and profitable, libraries,
cabinets of chemistry, physics, and natural history, museums, musichalls, gymnasia for military exercises, short sessions, varied exercises,
frequent recreation—everything contributes to make these noble
institutions, confided often to the direction of superior men, interesting
to the pupils/
The curriculum of studies pursued with the advantage of
these means and influences is large and comprehensive. It
embraces classics, foreign languages (especially French and
German), mathematics in their fullest extent, with practical appli
cations to mensuration, surveying, navigation, &c.; political
economy, logic, mental and moral philosophy, natural theology,
the physical sciences, practical mechanics and engineering,
together with the English language and literature. It is not,
of course, to be imagined that every pupil introduced to this
formidable programme of arts and sciences ventures upon more
than a small portion of it. After a few months spent in ascer
taining that the foundation previously laid in the grammar
school is solid and may be depended upon, the parents of the
pupils are required to select for their children such studies ’ as
they may wish them to pursue, and from that time the course
determined on is maintained to the end. In the larger towns
there are Latin high schools, in which classical instruction takes
the lead, and English high schools, in which science and general
subjects are substituted for classics; the former answering, with
notable differences, to the Gymnasia, and the latter to the RealSchulen of Germany. All pupils are admitted on a ‘ thorough
and searching examination’ (Fraser), held twice in the year by
the principal and teachers of the high school, under the super
vision of the committee of the school, with a view to perfect
impartiality; ‘the reputation of the grammar schools being sup‘ posed to depend in public estimation upon the number of
‘ candidates which they succeed in passing.’ No pupil under
twelve years of age is allowed to compete for entrance, and in
many cases it is stipulated that the candidate must have attended
the grammar school for at least twelve months. The average
age of the pupils who pass is thirteen. About one-fourth of the
candidates are annually rejected, and sent down to the.grammar
schools from whence they came for further preparation. The
subjects of the entrance examination are in most cases spelling
(to which a high degree of importance is attached), reading,
�The Higher Education of the United States.
b
arithmetic, modern geography, and the history of the United
States. With this equipment the pupil enters the high school
course, which lasts for -four or five years, and ends, in some few
■of the larger towns—in Philadelphia, for instance—in the
attainment of a diploma attesting satisfactory advancement.
As an illustration of the intelligent teaching found in the
best of these schools, we may quote a passage from Bishop
Fraser’s Report. He was present himself during a lesson
in English literature, given at the girls’ high school at Boston
to a class of girls of about eighteen years of age. It consisted,
he says, of—
‘ reading, paraphrasing, grammatical analysis, mutual criticism, and
general literary appreciation and taste. The class bad commenced the
play of “ Hamlet,” and were engaged that day on a passage from the
first scene of the first act. It was read by one girl, paraphrased by
another; the paraphrase had to run the gauntlet of general criticism;
questions were proposed as to the meaning of this phrase, the definite
allusion in that; objections were raised to this and that interpretation,
illustrations were adduced, and the whole exercise was characterized
by much spirit and life.’
Mr. Anthony Trollope, in his ‘ North America,’ had pre
viously given an amusing account of his visit to a ladies’ school
at Boston which he does not name, but which was probably that
which is above referred to :—
‘In one of the schools,’ he says, ‘they were reading “Milton,” and
when we entered were discussing the nature of the pool in which the
devil is described as wallowing. The question had been raised by one
of the girls—a pool, so called, was supposed to contain but a small
amount of water, and how could the devil, being so large, get into it ?
Then came the origin of the word “ pool,” from
a marsh, as we
were told—some dictionary attesting to the fact—and such a marsh
might cover a large expanse. The “ Palus Meeotis ” was then quoted.
And so we went on, till Satan’s theory of political liberty, “Better to
reign in hell than serve in heaven,” was thoroughly discussed and
understood. These girls of sixteen or seventeen got up one after
another, and gave their opinions on the subject, how far the devil was
right, and how far he was manifestly wrong.’
He then expresses his surprise at the remarkable ease and
self-possession with which the girls discussed such questions—
‘just as easy in their demeanour as though they were stitching
‘ handkerchiefs at home.’
Notwithstanding the fun that Mr. Trollope gets out of his
peep into a girls’ class of literary critics, there can be no
doubt that much intellectual life is kindled and sustained by
the practice above described, which evidently aims at bringing
�6
Teaching of English Composition.
the pupil’s mind into as complete a contact as possible with the
author’s. It would be well if something of this ‘ spirit’ could be
substituted in many of our schools of superior instruction for the
stolid, stultifying adoration of the ‘ letter,’ which finds and
leaves the pupil’s mind entirely on the outside of the text which
he is professedly studying. At the same time we venture to
consider it very desirable, that while much indulgence is granted
to young pupils in their early efforts to think, a corrective
in the shape of definite knowledge should always be at hand,
lest easy speculations about morals, religion, and political topics,
eliciting no doubt much native talent, but not tending to
mental discipline, should come to be estimated at too high a
rate. A stricter training would probably do much to repress
that ‘tall talk’, which prevails so much in America, and which
so conclusively indicates the defective cultivation of the person
who indulges in it.
*
The tendency to this elevated style is, it must be admitted,
even fostered at some of the girls’ high schools by the practice of
handing over to the press, instead of to the waste-paper basket,
compositions which evince nothing whatever but the remarkable
immaturity of the writers’ minds, and the need of close and
severe mental discipline. It would be easy to illustrate this
morbid state of things by quotations from ‘Prize Essays’
before us; but it would be hardly fair to the writers to laugh at
them, inasmuch as the persons chiefly to blame are the teachers,
who have so badly consulted the interests of their pupils as to
let the world know that such essays ever were written. If we
judged, then, of the high-school system by its too frequent pro
duct in the matter of English composition, we should pronounce
it to be showy, flimsy, and unsatisfactory ; but we do not. The
mistake in such cases as this is not the production, but the
publication, of school exercises as specimens of English ‘composi
tion ; ’ a point in regard to which, as we have hinted, the teachers’
reputation, rather than the pupils’, is impeached. The tendency
to inflation and bombast in style is, however, by no means
* Take the following specimen, extracted from a speech delivered
in Congress three or four years ago. The speaker is referring to the
fruits of the recent war: —‘No gentle speech, “no candy courtesies,”
no dull oblivion of the pregnant past, befits the crisis that is on us
now. We have just trodden the wine-press of revolution, to encounter
at its closing doors the bloodier form of anarchy; while the untamed
fiends of the rebellion, their appetites inflamed and their hands drip
ping with the blood of the martyrs, laughed—as none but the damned
could laugh—at the rising vision, but dimly foreshadowed by the St.
Bartholomew’s of Memphis and New Orleans, of the opening of another
seal, which should turn our rivers into blood, and visit upon us and our
children more than apocalyptic woes.’
�The Higher Education of the United States.
7
confined to the crude exercises of pupils; it pervades the reports
of school superintendents, in which, not unfrequently, very small
thoughts are dressed up in unconscionably voluminous folds of
words. This ‘incontinence of words’ is a remarkable trait in
the educational literature of America. The late Horace Mann
—a man worthy of all reverence for his most honourable
labours in the cause of education—afforded frequent instances of
it in his, in other respects, valuable reports. He was by no
means convinced—at least, his practice belied such a conviction
—that the ‘ bright consummate flower’ of the highest literary
effort is simplicity. As regards this question of ‘ English com
position’ generally, we venture to suggest, by the way, that
the aim should be rather practical than literary, and that the
elementary teacher who succeeds in getting his pupils to write
with ease, simplicity, and grammatical accuracy on the commonest
topics of daily life and experience, does them a far better service
than the teacher who stimulates them to literary effort. The
seed-time should never be confounded with that of flowers and
fruits.
In view of the provision of a complete course of elementary
instruction for every citizen of the nation, it is natural to inquire
how far it is actually carried out. It is evident that the theory
can only be fully satisfied by the passing of all the children who
attend the elementary schools through the entire course. We
see, however, in what takes place in America in this as well
as in many other respects how difficult, indeed, how im
possible it often is, to realise a plausible theory. In the case
before us the theory which assumes that a certain quantity
of instruction (to say nothing of quality) is necessary for the
proper equipment of a citizen for his duties, is defeated by many
adverse causes, and especially by the imperative demands of
society for the work of its citizens, be their education what it
may. It appears from the report of a New York assistant
superintendent (quoted by Bishop Fraser), that ‘ not more than
‘ one-half of the children who attend the primary schools ever
‘ enter the grammar schools,’ and ‘ that a considerable number
‘ do not even complete the primary course ’—that is, they leave
school at about nine years of age. The general result indeed is,
that only about one in one hundred of those who enter the pri
mary schools ever pass on to the high schools; and of these about
one-fourth stop short at different stages of the higher course.
In Boston the proportion is about one in thirty-three, while in
Philadelphia it is only one in one hundred and fifty. Again,
it must be remembered that these statistics apply only to large
towns, in which alone high schools are required to be set up.
�4,
Charges against the High School System.
The law of Massachusetts—a State which presents the best
type of American education—requires a high school to be
established in towns of more than 4,000 inhabitants. In towns
of 5.00 inhabitants the grammar school, with its very limited
curriculum, is the necessary consummation of the theory of
‘ a complete course of instruction for all the citizens of the
‘ State? We state these facts, not with the view of reproaching
the Americans with their failures, but to correct that somewhat
loose and vague manner of talking about American education,
which confounds the theory with the facts.
It is important, in considering the general question of the
value of superior education to a commonwealth, to call attention
to the complaints which are beginning to be very freely raised
by some of the enlightened educationists of America, that the
superior or high school education is unwisely stimulated to
the injury of the lower and more essential instruction. It must
be remembered that at present gratuitous instruction is furnished
not only to the poorer classes, whose circumstances require help,
but also to those classes who do not need it, and who receive it
as a means of advancing the interests of their children by
preparing them for active and professional life. Now, the
training of the latter class involves an immense expenditure at
the public charge on the few who receive it, and the question is,
whether it is wise or just to lavish public money in stimulating
that which it is alleged would be secured in the case of those
really requiring it, through private and personal means
In
other words, the question is, whether the promotion of superior
education at the public expense brings with it an advantage to
the public interest, which compensates for the imperfect accom
plishment of the theory of ‘ the education of the citizen ’ in
the primary schools ? The author of the very interesting pam
phlet on 1 The Daily Public School in the United States,’ which
has been much quoted lately in England (especially by that
eminent educational authority, Lord Robert Montagu), argues
this question at length, and. shows, by adducing an immense
body of facts, as we also showed in our former article, that the
primary school system throughout the States generally is in a
very unsatisfactory condition, while at the same time the ambi
tion of the people leads to the unnatural—as he views it—
encouragement at the public expense of schools for superior
instruction. His views may be gathered from the following
extract:—
‘We shall not,’ he says (p. 24), ‘be understood as denying that
instruction of various and much higher grades than the daily public
school supplies should be easy of access to all who are disposed to seek
�The Higher Education of the United States.
9
it, but we maintain that this should be the natural outgrowth of the
public school, and should be sustained by other means than a general
public tax. The income from that source should be restricted to the
thorough accomplishment of the preliminary work. Why should we
not educate machinists, engineers, and farmers at the public charge, as
well as book-keepers and bank clerks 1 ’
To show that this question is not one of speculation only,
we may refer to the fact that in 1866 a motion was introduced
into the City Council of Philadelphia for disallowing the funds
for supporting the Boys'’ High School. The mover stated his
belief that a ‘majority of the citizens were in favour of abolishing
4 the school.’ 4 We tax the people,’ he went on to say, 4 to give
4 them an equal system of education, but only about four per
4 cent, of the pupils can be educated in the high school. Of
4 those educated there, at least seventy per cent, are drones
4 upon the community.’ This speaker, however, showed that
it was not sordid considerations of expenditure, but a patriotic
desire for the real interests of the commonwealth, which moved
him, by expressing his desire that the money gained by the
abolition of the high school should be expended in raising the
standard of instruction in the lower schools. Another speaker
insisted that they 4 should compel every child to attend school
4 until a certain age. He thought the 27,000 dollars asked for
4 the high school would be of more service if appropriated to
4 educate those who now never go to school. The city should
4 give a fair English education and nothing else.’ Another
4 doubted the propriety of maintaining a college out of the money
4 of the taxpayer;’ and a fourth 4 was in favour of abolishing
4 the high school, because the grammar schools would then be
4 fostered, and the system of cramming a few pupils to get them
4 in (into) the high school done away with.’ The grant was,
however, in the end carried, and the high school maintained.
It came out as a curious and anomalous feature of this debate,
that a motion for increasing the salaries of the teachers of the
primary schools (and thus, one would think, increasing the
desired efficiency of these schools) was negatived by a con
siderable majority. The writer of the pamphlet referred to;
after showing in some detail that the highest education of the
country was well provided for by the multiplication and ample
endowments of classical, polytechnic, and commercial colleges
of various grades, thus pursues his argument to its legitimate
conclusion:—4 So that in fact the real educational wants of the
4 country, in these higher grades, would be well supplied without
4 the elaborate and expensive machinery of high and normal
4 schools sustained at the public charge; and,’ he adds, 4 there is
*
�10
Imrortance of Principles and Theories.
‘ no principle sounder and more practical, touching the functions
‘ of government, whether civil or domestic, than that it should
‘ not do for people what people can and should do for themselves.’
At the same time he repeats his disclaimer of any desire to abate
in the slightest degree the interest that is felt in the higher
grades of schools. ‘We have no controversy,’ he says, ‘with
‘ the friends and advocates of the largest liberality in dealing
‘ with the whole question of popular education. Let the super‘ structure have whatever magnitude and fashion it may, our
‘ eyes are just now fixed on the foundation. Our fear (we may
‘ almost say our belief) is, that through neglect of this, and the
‘ desire to make a lasting and imposing display in school archi‘ tecture (material and metaphorical), we shall find sooner or
‘ later that even if we have a reading, we shall not have an
‘ educated people.’
The grave importance of the question at issue, as above stated,
must be our apology for the space we have given to it. It is
important, both in an economical and political point of view. To
give to those who are not in need what you withhold from those
who are, is bad economy; to stimulate to ambitious display
while you neglect what is fundamental but comparatively
obscure, is bad policy. On the other hand, it may be justly
argued that the encouragement of the higher education tends
to raise the standard of the lower, and that no nation can hope
to attain the highest rank which fails to appreciate the im
portance of the highest cultivation.
*
It is essential to diffuse as
widely as possible practical instruction suited to the daily wants
of the people; but it is also most important to carry on the in
struction so as to embrace principles and theories, which consti
tute, after all, the goal to be aimed at in a complete course of
mental training. The man of rules and formulae is not strictly
speaking an educated man, nor can he be so considered until he
is in possession of principles and theories as well. It is these
especially which give life and power; that life which quickens
life in others, that power which emancipates from the slavery
of routine. The man who merely understands the formula
2 + 2 = 4 is, as the accomplished author of the ‘ Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table’ ingeniously remarks, in a totally different
intellectual condition from the man who understands « + &=<?.
‘ We are mere operatives, empirics, and egotists, until we learn
‘ to think in letters instead of figures.’ At the same time,
however, that we admit the importance of encouraging by
incidental means, such as private endowments, &c., the culti* ‘ Le peuple qui a les meilleures ecoles est le premier peuple.’—Jules
Simon.
�The Higher Education of the United States.
11
vation of exceptional native talent, we rather agree with the
dissidents whose opinions we have cited in doubting whether
it is a duty of the State to supply with gratuitous education at
the public charge, those whose avowed object it is to make that
education merely a means of personal advancement. It is the
more important that we should in England understand this
question, as even now many students are receiving at the public
expense, in our normal schools for primary teachers, a course of
education which does not benefit the public service, inasmuch
as—so we are informed—an increasing number of certificated
masters, ostensibly trained for the public service, is regularly
employed in private schools. We cannot, however, pursue the
subject further in this place.
It is sufficiently evident from what we have said that the
high schools are the most characteristic and most successful
feature of the American system. The education given in the
primary schools (including the grammar schools) is not, perhaps,
on the whole, superior in quality to that given in our own
schools conducted by certificated masters, though the system of
grading by which, as we have before explained, the different
classes of schools are organically connected together, tends to
stimulate the more ambitious scholars to efforts transcending
those generally put forth among us. The number of such
energetic spirits, as tested by their advancement from one
grade to another, is, however, as we have shown, compara
tively small. Our remarks are intended to apply to the great
bulk of the schools, as scattered over the whole country,
*
and taught very generally in rural districts by utterly un
qualified teachers, who, itinerating from district to district every
few months in search of better pay, have no real interest in
the profession which they have for the time adopted, and whose
work is very rarely' tested by authoritative and competent
inspectors. These are not the schools which visitors are invited
to admire ; on the contrary, the reports of school superintendents
are filled to overflowing with complaints of their many and
striking defects—defects as regards management, school-work
ing, methods of teaching, and, in short, almost all the
acknowledged characteristics of really good schools.f It is
* It is computed that about twenty-eight out of every thirty children
in the United States attend the schools of the rural districts. It is to
them, therefore, and not to the privileged minority, that our remarks
apply.
t Some of these reports were quoted in our former article. The
following extract from ‘ The Daily Public School in the United States,’
as to the general results, is worth quoting, though the words are those
of a witness who is obviously concerned in making out a case:—‘ Such
�12
College and University Education.
true that they are gradually improving, and mainly because
female teachers, not so much given to wandering restlessly about
as the men, and qualified by zeal and earnestness and a fair
amount of knowledge, have in so many instances since the war
superseded the masters.
In passing from the High Schools to the Academies, Colleges,
and Universities of the United States, it is important to observe
that the latter have no organic connection with the former.
The commonwealth has done its work when it has conducted
its young citizens to the threshold of the collegiate course.
If they wish for further instruction, they must expect to gain
it, as a general rule, at their own charge, and in their own way.
Their special pecuniary or personal interests are supposed to
supply the requisite stimulus to further effort. The State has,
by theory, made them well-informed and well-trained men, but
it does not engage to make them architects, lawyers, engineers,
or farmers. The professional education necessary for success in
these pursuits is regarded simply as the means towards a
personal end, that end being presumably the attainment of
lucrative and honourable positions in cultivated society. As,
however, the State is itself interested in having these positions
occupied by well-qualified men, it comes forward, in many
cases, especially in that of the agricultural colleges, with sub
stantial aid towards the attainment of this object. In general,
however, the colleges and universities of America are the
product of magnificent private endowments, furnished by the
patriotic zeal of individuals, and are quite independent, in all
that concerns their internal management, of State control or
interference. The arrangement of studies, the appointment of
professors, and the distribution of funds, are directed by the
constituted authorities of the institutions themselves, and all
that the State has to do with them is to secure them in their
independence.
It is interesting to contrast for a moment the difference
between the spirit which has called these establishments into
being, with that which controls machinery of the same kind in
some of the older countries, for example in France, a point on
which M. Hippeau dwells with considerable fervour. In the
one case, we see individual or local effort taking the initiative,
‘ observation as we have been enabled to make in interviews with many
‘ thousands of children and youth [in the rural districts] satisfies us that
< nine in ten of them are incompetent to read properly a paragraph in the
‘ newspaper, to keep a simple debtor and creditor account in a mechanic’s
‘ shop, or to write an ordinary business letter in a creditable way, as to
< chirography, orthography, or a grammatical expression of ideas ’—
(p. 11).
�The Higher Education of the United States.
13
relying on itself for success, contriving its own machinery, and
only seeking to prevent that interference with its free action
which would compromise or neutralize its inherent spirit. In
the other we see a central administration, directing all the
schools, colleges, and universities of the country, appointing all
their officers, fixing all their programmes and methods of
instruction, specifying the text-books to be employed, and
regulating and controlling all the expenses. The end aimed at
in the two cases is the same; but how widely different the spirit
and the means ! We do not ourselves quite agree with M.
Hippeau in considering, as he appears to do, the one system as
altogether wrong, and the other altogether right. Centrali
zation is, we know, the bete noire of the Americans, to be shunned
and abhorred, as they believe, in its every aspect; but we also
know that, especially as regards their common school system,
they are at this moment suffering severely for their unwise
dread of it, and that the recent appointment of Mr. Barnard,
as the Minister or Commissioner, as they style him, of public
instruction, though a virtual compromise of the principle, has
been already attended with most beneficial results. When—
and that time will surely come—it is seen that a truly repre
sentative government is simply the embodiment of the popular
will, the co-ordination of the two apparently opposing forces of
centralization and decentralization will achieve successfully much
that is now accomplished feebly and imperfectly. Leaving,
however, this question unsolved, we proceed to quote again
from M. Hippeau a passage in which he paints in glowing
colours the actual working of the collegiate system in the United
States:—
‘ These colleges,’ he says, ‘ are not located in the midst of populous
towns, but generally in their neighbourhood, and are surrounded by
a pleasant open country, where the pupils breathe pure air, and can
walk without constraint by the banks of the brooks, or under the
avenues formed by grand old trees (arbres seculaires). Many separate
buildings, each having a special destination—chapel, class-rooms, library,
common hall, cabinet of natural history, scientific museums—are
grouped round the residence of the president. On all sides elegant
cottages serve as dwellings for the professors, who may there serenely
give themselves up to their favourite studies. Lastly, at no great
distance from the college there are private houses where the pupils
find board and lodging, ignorant of the vexations and restraints of
discipline, following the course of study laid down by their teachers,
working at their own time (ck leurs Aeures),and finding close at
hand all the necessary appliances, supplied for their use at great cost.
With the professors their relations are those of affectionate respect.
They listen to their advice with deference, and gather from their
�14
‘ Mixed ’ Colleges for both Sexes.
instructions a mass of information which happily supplements the
teaching of the class-room’—(p. 199).
We will not mar this charming picture by a word of suspicious
criticism, but proceed to describe in detail such of these insti
tutions as are characterized by special features.
Among them stand out some which, as far as we know, are
unique in conception, and well deserve our careful attention.
We refer to such as collect together under one roof, or, at least,
in one locality, and under one direction, large numbers of young
men and women for the purposes of united instruction. There
are so many obvious theoretical objections to such an arrange
ment, that we hear with some surprise of its remarkable
and increasing success.
M. Hippeau was fairly struck with
amazement at the working of a system which, as he could
not but allow, would be utterly impossible in France, and
which we must also allow, would be all but impossible in
England. We can well believe that the flagrant ‘ gallantry ’ of the
French, the ‘drinking habits’ so prevalent in some of our public
schools, the sensuality and debauchery of Sandhurst, and the
Vandalism lately displayed at Christ Church, Oxford (we refer
only to facts publicly stated), would accord but indifferently with
the moral habits of institutions in which ‘ all use of intoxicating
liquors ’ and even smoking are strictly forbidden —regulations
*
which, as appears by all the evidence accessible, exist not only
on paper but in fact. We do not pretend to discuss all the
phases of the interesting social and educational problem pre
sented by these ‘ mixed ’ colleges, involving as it does, amongst
other speculative questions, that of the mental equality of the
sexes; but we may fairly contend that if students of both
sexes could be brought together in pursuit of a common object
without danger to morals, many economical and social ad
vantages would result. Men would become more refined, -and
women more self-reliant, while it would be more generally
acknowledged that women have an especial stake in the interests
of society, with an ability and a right to discuss them, which
are now, to the detriment of those interests themselves, so fre
quently ignored or denied. AVe hold it to be an omen of
especial promise that women’s opinions are, amongst ourselves,
gradually but energetically acting on public opinion itself, and
moulding it, as we believe, for good. The extravagance which
manifests itself occasionally here, and to a far greater extent in
* ‘La defense de ftnner, partout prescrite et partout violee (in France),
‘ est scrupuleusement observee a Oberlin grace a la presence des jeunes
‘ filles, envers lesquelles aucun eleve ne voudrait manquer d egards.
—Hippeau, p. 111.
�The Higher Education of the United States.
15
America, in the utterance of those opinions, will be gradually,
we doubt not, corrected by the very exercise of the right to
express them, in proportion as women generally—not merely
‘ advanced women ’—take part in such discussions. When the
spectacle of well-informed, intelligent, sensible women, devoting
their special qualifications of acute perception, ready tact,
and aptness for business to the problems of society, shall
become less rare than it now is, we firmly believe we shall be
much nearer the solution of those problems. We further
believe that the improved education of women is the direct
means to that end, and that it is highly probable, though,
perhaps, not as yet proved, that the association together of the
sexes from earliest youth in the pursuit of a common object, in
which both are so deeply interested, is destined, by the mutual
aid and incentive it affords, to be the most powerful agency by
which that improved education will be secured. As to the
question of the capacity of women to compete in the intellectual
field, as far as common education is concerned, we hesitate not
to say that the American experience has removed it from the
platform of theory to that of fact. Whenever boys and girls,
young men and young women, are set down to an examination
paper, founded on instruction which they have equally received,
it is found that the average of success in answering it is quite
as often in favour of the weaker as of the stronger sex; and,
indeed, that those of the ‘ more worthy gender ’ are often
ingloriously beaten. Then, as to the vital question of morals;
all the evidence adduced by Miss Jex Blake, and confirmed in
every respect by M. Hippeau's more recent investigations, goes
to show that if there is any danger it is guarded against and
prevented by the wisdom and prudence of the directors of
these establishments, who, as M. Hippeau remarks, are not
so blind as not to see abuses if they existed, and not so
destitute of moral principle themselves as to tolerate them
if they saw them. These gentlemen are unanimous in de
claring that the evils hinted at exist in surmise only and
not in reality.
*
To our mind the most conclusive evidence of
all is the continued and ever-increasing prosperity of the largest
of these institutions—the Oberlin College, in Ohio—during
a period of nearly forty years.fi It would seem quite impossible
* M. Hippeau learned that in the course of the five years ending 1868,
only one girl out of the 200 or 300 of the higher classes was expelled at
Oberlin, and that was for an offence against order rather than morals.
He further attests that there is no town in the United States the streets
of which are, night and day, so quiet and undisturbed as those of Oberlin.
fi The number of students of both sexes (rather more than half of whom
ar© females) which, when Miss Jex Blake visited Oberlin in 1865, was
SOI, had increased in 1868, when M. Hippeau was there, to 1,258.
�16
Oberlin College.
in the nature of things that the parents and guardians of
1,300 pupils (the present number)—persons whose moral and
religious characters are quite as respectable as those of t^.
corresponding classes amongst ourselves—would send their
children to an institution against which any serious moral
charge could be brought. We assume, therefore, that no
serious moral charge can be brought against these mixed com
munities, though we dare say that a considerable amount of
folly and frivolity might be detected without a very close
inspection. Even on this point, however, the evidence is very
strong that the pupils in general are remarkably distinguished
by the earnestness and zeal with which they pursue their studies.
The Oberlin College, to which we have just referred, may
be taken as a type of those intended for the instruction of both
sexes. Its modest commencement in 1833—under the patriotic
impulse of the Rev. John Shepherd, a Presbyterian minister,
and his friend, Mr. Stewart, who had been a missionary among
the Cherokee Indians—in the midst of a clearing gained from
a dense forest of North Ohio, gave little promise, in the thirty
pupils established in log huts run up to meet the emergency,
of the seven large school buildings, representing a capital of
£32,000, the twenty professors (with numerous assistant-teachers)
directing six distinct courses of study, the 1,300 pupils of both
*
sexes, and the town of 5,000 inhabitants which now compose
the ensemble of Oberlin. When the college was first opened,
‘ the Indians’ hunting-path,’ we are told, ‘ still traversed the
‘ forest, and the howl of the wolf was heard at night,’ and for
more than two years ‘the devious tracks through the forest were
‘ often impassable to carriages.’ The design of the founders
was to establish ‘ a school, open to both sexes—preparatory,
‘ teachers’, collegiate, and theological—furnishing a substantial
‘ education at the lowest possible rates,’ and combining manual
labour with mental study. The idea thus sketched out has
throughout preserved its original features, though the last
condition, involving handicraft work of some sort for four hours
daily, is no longer obligatory. It still, however, exists for
those who may choose to avail themselves of it. The bulk of
the students at Oberlin are children of parents to whom economy
is an important object, and in order to reduce the expenses
of education to a minimum, and consequently to offer its
advantages at the lowest possible rate, rigid frugality reigns
* ‘ Coloured students, varying widely as to hue, form about a third of
‘ the whole number, and I suppose there is hardly any community in
‘ America where the coloured and white races meet on so real and genuin®
‘ a footing of equality as at Oberlin.’—Miss Jex Blake, p. 17.
�The Higher Education of the United States.
17
throughout the whole establishment. Hence the professors’
salaries even are ‘ meagre ’ (Miss Jex Blake’s expression), and
the arrangements generally of buildings and appliances, &c.,
exhibit ‘ an utter absence of all the appearances and pretensions
of wealth.’ The education given under such circumstances is
perhaps not of the highest order of excellence, nor are the
*
graces cultivated to an undue extent. Miss Jex Blake (who
spent ten days at Oberlin, and employed them well) speaks of
the ‘ almost absolute deficiency of polish of manner ’ which
prevailed. She was especially surprised at ‘ the incessant spitting
‘ that went on during class hours, as well as at all other times.’
It is to be devoutly hoped that the influence of the softer sex
may in time prevail so far as to repress entirely this distinctly
masculine accomplishment of too many native Americans. Our
lady reporter was not less amazed to see ‘ young men (at their
‘ classes) with their heels poised on the back of the next seat,
* about on a level with their heads, or their legs stretched out on
* the seat beside them, while an examination was going on in
‘ perhaps quite abstruse branches of study, which are usually in
‘ our minds associated with a very considerable degree of
‘ culture.’ These features are not pleasing in themselves, and
are less so when we consider that a large proportion of the
young men under instruction at Oberlin are destined to become
masters of the primary schools, and therefore models of manners
to their pupils. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however,
there can be no doubt that very much good work is done at
Oberlin. An earnest love of learning pervades the classes, in
most of which young men and women sit together (though at
different benches), and the general result is eminently satisfactory.
It should be remarked that it is the educational life only which
is common to both sexes—the social life, its boarding and
lodging, being completely separate, with the single exception
that the midday repast is pleasantly shared in common, without
any restriction upon the intercourse between the young men
and women, who meet as members of the same family. The
pupils of different sexes are forbidden, Miss Jex Blake assures
us, to walk to and from the classes together, a regulation
‘ which,’ she adds, ‘seemed to be well obeyed;’ but M. Hippeau,
whose rose-coloured glasses may have betrayed him, speaks of
their ‘walking and riding together within certain prescribed
limits,’ and even of the young men ‘ having the privilege of
* ‘It is only right to say that we had previously heard some accusations
‘ against Oberlin for want of thoroughness in study, and the recitations at
‘ which we were present hardly convinced us of the injustice of the
‘ charge.’—Miss Jex Blake, p. 22.
�18
‘ Religious Exercises ’ at Oberlin.
* admission to the house occupied by the young ladies at certain
‘ hours, after tea, for instance, until seven or eight o'clock in
‘ the evening.’ We evidently want further information on
some of these points. Into the details of studies, text-books,
&c., we cannot enter, but our description of Oberlin would be
incomplete without some reference to one very characteristic
feature. The institution was founded, in the first instance,
on a thoroughly religious basis. It was to be surrounded by
‘ a Christian community, united in the faith of the Gospel,’ and
a covenant of ‘ consecration to the work ’ was framed, binding
its subscribers to a ‘common purpose of glorifying God in doing
good to men.’ The spirit of this Puritan constitution is still
strictly preserved. The ‘ religious exercises’ are very frequent;
‘ morning prayer in the families, and evening prayer in the
‘ chapel, forming but a small part of them. There were in‘ numerable “ Sabbath-schools ” and prayer-meetings announced
‘ from the pulpit on Sunday, and during the week prayer‘ meetings and lectures seemed of daily occurrence ’ (Miss Jex
Blake). To such an extent are ‘religious exercises’ carried,
that every separate lesson begins with either a hymn or a
prayer. Miss Jex Blake confesses that she was more struck
than edified when present at a lesson on physiology, which was
preceded by the singing of ‘ All hail the power of Jesu’s
name,’ &c., and followed instantly ‘as the last word of the
* verse died out,’ by the voice of the lecturer briskly demanding
‘ What did I say were the physical functions ? ’ Upon the
religious element, which is thus seen to pervade the spirit of
Oberlin, and which is further manifested in the strongly
expressed desire for ‘ revivals ’ as a means for intensifying
it, we do not venture, in the absence of more definite infor
mation, to pronounce a judgment. We simply echo Miss Jex
Blake’s opinion, that unless very carefully watched over and
guided, it must tend to produce an unhealthy tone of cha
racter both as regards religion and morals. Nor is it irrelevant
to the subject to add that there appears throughout the entire
community an indisposition to physical recreation. There
is no suitable provision made for it, and no gymnasium exists
for either sex. ‘ During our ten days’ stay, we saw no sign
‘ whatever of athletic sports or exercises, unless indeed, some of
* the students belonged to a company of firemen recently
‘ established, who exercised in front of our windows. The
* utmost physical recreation seemed to consist in a country
‘ walk, and I doubt if even this was common, though a large
‘ number of the students had just returned from the disbanded
‘ army. This absence of desire for physical sports seems more
�The Higher Education of the United States.
19
‘ or less common throughout America3 (Miss Jex Blake). This
lack of a proper corrective, both to the effects of the very
earnest spirit of study that prevails at Oberlin, and the
tendency to morbid excitement which we have referred to,
is surely very serious, and ought to be supplied by the autho
rities, at whatever cost. It is, perhaps, both cause and effect
of the phenomena we have pointed out.
Leaving Oberlin, with its economical arrangements and
somewhat rough machinery, we next consider one of the largest
ladies’ boarding-schools in the world, the Vassar College, at
Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, which, with its palatial facade
of nearly eight hundred feet, pleasure-grounds of nearly two
hundred acres, library of seven thousand volumes, art gal
lery, music-room, laboratories, astronomical observatory (with
first-rate instruments), natural history museum, calisthenium
(containing a riding-school one hundred feet long, and a
gymnasium seventy feet long), bowling-alley for in-door
exercises, lake for boating in summer and skating in winter,
forms, it must be acknowledged, an institution of a truly
remarkable character. M. Hippeau, indeed, declares that
there is no place of instruction in the world equal in ‘mag
nificence’ to this college for young girls. It was founded
some seven years ago at the expense of Mr. Vassar, an opulent
brewer of Poughkeepsie, with a view to accomplish for young
women what colleges of the first class accomplish for young
men—that is, to furnish them the means of a thorough, wellproportioned, and liberal education, adapted to their wants in
life. Mr. Vassar gave during his lifetime (he died two years
ago) about £100,000 towards the accomplishment of this object,
and left at his death £30,000 more, to form. (1) a lecture fund ;
(2) a library, art, and cabinet fund ; and (3) an auxiliary fund;
the last for aiding students of ‘ superior mind and sound scholar
ship’ to enjoy the advantages of the place at a reduced rate.
The arrangements are adapted to receive 400 young ladies,
each of whom pays about £80 a year, exclusive of text
books, stationery, and music and riding lessons. The total
expense seems to be about £100, and there were 382 girls (every
five of whom have a common sitting-room) in the school when
the last yearly report was issued. It will be seen that, con
sidering the value of the capitalized income, and the (for
America) large sum paid by each pupil, there is no lack of
funds, and hence the noble scale on which the whole of the
educational machinery is framed. A candidate for admission
must be at least fifteen years of age, and must submit to examina
tion in arithmetic, English grammar, modern geography, and
�20
Vassar College for Young Ladies.
the history of the United States, so strict ‘ that further lessons
‘ in these subjects will not be needed, no provision being made
‘ for such instruction in the college.’ The programme of studies
for the four years’ course is large—even as some competent
European observers think, too large—but this ambitious fault is
one which generally characterizes the educational efforts of the
United States, and which only experience will correct. It will
in time be found out that ‘ Multum non multa,’ and ‘ Qui trop
embrasse mal etreint,’ are cardinal principles in the teaching of
the young. The plan of ‘ bifurcation’ allows each pupil to
choose between (1) the Classical course; and (2) the Scientific
and Modern Language course; and there is every reason to
believe that the instruction, received under the advantages of
first-rate professors and costly machinery of every kind, is of a
*
very superior order. W e are glad to see that the prospectus of
studies especially insists on the laying of a good foundation.
The first year, called the ‘freshman (!) year,’ is devoted to
mental discipline and solid attainments, not to specious advance
ment.
‘ Great importance is attached to this early part of the course, as
preparatory to what follows. It is a cardinal point in the plan to
teach nothing in a mere compendious and superficial manner ; and all
experience shows that it is a sad waste of time to set young girls of
fifteen or sixteen years of age, without any proper intellectual pre
paration, at (sic) the studies which belong to the junior and senior
years (that is, the third and fourth years) of the college course.’
Such is a brief account of the leading features of an institution
which M. Hippeau, after examining schools of all kinds through
out the United States, pronounced to be in many respects the
most remarkable of them all.
The colleges of America are very numerous, and present
every variety of type. They are mostly first called info being
by the noble generosity of private individuals, and afterwards
maintained by fees. A college, in respect to its curriculum of
studies, is generally an advanced high school, but having no
organic connection with the national system. There are said to
be in all the States together about 290 of these institutions,
with about 3,000 teachers, giving instruction to between 70,000
and 80,000 pupils. The libraries attached to the colleges contain
in all about 1,800,000 volumes. The title of ‘university,’ which
* There are eight professors and about thirty teachers on the staff,
besides Dr. Raymond, the president, and Miss Lyman, the lady principal.
The professor of astronomy is a lady (Miss Mitchell), as is also the resi
dent physician (Miss Alida Avery). The teachers of Greek, Latin, and
mathematics are ladies.
�The Higher Education of the United States.
21
is given to a few of them, appears merely to indicate an institution
in which the course of instruction is larger and more complete.
Many of these colleges are founded on a decidedly denominational
basis, and are intended for the special instruction, often mainly
theological, of various sects of Christians. This is particularly
the case with some of those which bear the distinctive name of
‘ Academies,’ which are governed generally by committees of men
holding strict religious opinions, and are selected by parents of
the same belief with the view of bringing up their children in
their own faith. The colleges and universities are generally
well attended. The University of Michigan has 1,500 pupils ;
Madison (Wisconsin), 775 ; St. Louis, 618 ; Cambridge (Harvard
College), 479; Yale, 505 ; Lexington, 650; Oberlin, 1,200;
Cornell, 425 ; St. Francis Xavier (Roman Catholic), 568.
Harvard and Yale College and Universities stand at the head
of all these institutions, though they are not the most nume
rously attended. The students are, however, generally of a
higher class, and the professors of a more distinguished literary
and scientific position, than those of the other colleges, while
the means and appliances of instruction are ample and sufficient.
Yale, especially, has, within the last seven or eight years, been
aided in a princely style by high-spirited, wealthy men, who
seem to take a pride in casting off their abundance into the
treasury of the educational fund. No less than <£180,000 has
been thus bestowed on Yale College from 1860 to 1868.
Amongst the donors, George Peabody’s name appears for
*
£30,000, and Joseph Sheffield’s for £34,000. It is extra
ordinary that amongst the fabulously wealthy noblemen and
merchant princes of England so very few similar examples are
to be found, f In America they swarm, as the history of nearly
every one of its grand educational institutions attests. It is not
necessary to enter into minute particulars with regard to any of
these colleges or universities. The problem being given how to
provide for the superior instruction of say from 300 to 700
students in a country where there is so little control over free
action, and where the initiative is usually taken not by the
State but by private individuals, we can readily believe that it is
frequently solved but indifferently—that the professors are not all
of a high order, nor the degrees which every college confers much
worth having. Indeed, the very idea of more than 300 centres of
* Mr. Peabody also gave £34,000 towards the Geological Museum at
Harvard.
t Mr. Whitworth’s recent appropriation of £100,000 to Scientific
Scholarships claims, however, to be conspicuously recorded as a noble
exception.
�22
University of Michigan.
learning sending forth as many guarantees of attainments, each
of course estimated on a different scale, seems, on the face of it,
absurd. To be a graduate of a college means, therefore, next to
nothing, and, generally, American degrees have not yet become
a power in the world of letters. They are often, too, most unac
countably flung at the heads of foreigners under the designation
of ‘ honoraryand there are at this moment English dissenting
* doctors ’ not ashamed to flaunt in the face of the world titles
thus, we might almost say surreptitiously, gained. The system
certainly reached the acme of absurdity when the College and
University of Waterville (a place we cannot find in any common
gazetteer) made a worthy Baptist minister—whom, probably,
not a single member of its faculty had ever seen—a ‘ Doctor of
Divinity.’ It is not only in literary style, as we showed before,
but in educational style also, that the Americans have still to
attain to simplicity. There is too much show, too much fuss, too
much ambition, too much pretension—in short, too much licence.
The common schools are suffering, as we have already said,
from the want of authoritative inspection, and the colleges for
want of a limited number of examining boards, which alone
should have the power of conferring degrees. Were some such
arrangement carried out on the pattern of our own University
of London, an academical degree in America would have a
definite and well-understood value, which at present it certainly
has not.
Among the numerous schemes for carrying out the funda
mental idea of a college or university (convertible terms, as
we have shown) in America, those of Michigan and Ithaca (the
Cornell) present some striking peculiarities. The former, with
its 1,500 students, is noticeable for its extensive range of studies,
and for the renunciation of all prizes and external distinctions
as incentives to exertion. Its curriculum embraces almost all
knowledge ; and it is evident, from all the evidence that
can be gained respecting it, that a very earnest spirit of work
prevails equally amongst teachers and taught. Its two great
divisions—the literary and scientific—are so arranged that
neither wholly excludes the other. It is justly conceived that
the humanizing influences of classical studies cannot be ex
cluded from the mental discipline which is necessary for a
complete education; while, on the other hand, it is seen that
to ignore in a country like America—teeming with practical
intelligence, and aiming at the subjugation of the powers of
nature to the daily service of man—the arts and sciences, which
directly minister to that conquest, would be not only absurd in
theory but impracticable in fact. The literary course, therefore,
�The Higher Education of the United States.
23
embraces a certain proportion of science and the scientific,
some initiation into the classical programme. As to the renunciation of prize-giving, the President, Mr. Haven, lately ex
pressed himself as follows :—
1 Young people,’ he said, 1 ought to learn early in life to perform
their duties without requiring us to appeal to their desire to obtain
first places, prizes, medals, or any other external reward of merit. It
is doubtful whether measures of this kind really elevate study, while
it is' certain that they engender discontent and envy—hatred, even—
and tend, moreover, to diminish proper self-respect in those who are
influenced by motives so ignoble. Experience,’ he adds, ‘ has proved to
the professors of our university, many of whom have been attached
to establishments in which the contrary method is pursued, that our
system is in no respect unfavourable to the efficiency of study, and
that it is incomparably superior to the other by the moral influence
which it exercises over the pupils.’
The remarkable popularity and success of the Michigan
University may also be regarded as a sufficient answer to
objections on this score. As a specimen of the style in which
educational apparatus is provided at Michigan, it may be men
tioned that the observatory is fitted up with instruments by the
first makers of Europe and America, with all the most modern
appliances for their use. The meridian circle is described as
magnificent, and is, indeed, the largest yet made, and the
refracting telescope has an objective lens of thirteen inches
diameter; so that, as M. Hippeau remarks, ‘We see here for
‘ the service of a university establishment in a small town of the
‘ United States, one of the most powerful and complete astrono‘ mical apparatuses to be found in the world.’ The art instruction
carried on at Michigan is also aided and stimulated by galleries
so richly provided with statues, busts, vases, medallions, and
copies of famous paintings, that M. Hippeau declares that
none of the colleges of Erance can show anything comparable
to them.
A distinctive feature worth mentioning is seen in the
curriculum of Lafayette College, at Easton, in Pennsylvania.
This is not one of the largest institutions of the kind, but it is
eminently distinguished by the intelligence and zeal which
pervade its arrangements (superintended by a first-rate Presi
dent, the Rev. W. C. Cattell, D.D.), and make themselves felt
in the success of the teaching. For some years past, under
the able direction of Professor March, the English language has
been made a prominent feature in the programme. The
professor treats the English author chosen for study—Milton,
for instance—as a competent classical teacher does Homer
�24
Normal Colleges.
or Virgil. The text is minutely analyzed, the mythological,
historical, and metaphysical allusions carefully investigated
and appreciated, parallel passages from English authors of
different periods adduced, and the rules of composition in
poetry or prose illustrated. As to the language itself, inde
pendently of the thought conveyed by it, investigations are
conducted into the origin, value, and chronological history of
the words, their formation, &c.; and in short, into everything
which belongs to the domain of comparative philology.
Nowhere else is the subject treated with equal competence and
*
success.
The Normal Colleges,which are numerous in the United States,
though owing their origin very generally to private munificence,
are, as being connected with the common school system, aided
by subscriptions from the State. They are mainly intended to
train teachers for the common schools, and the curriculum is
therefore somewhat limited in comparison with that of some
of the other colleges; but many of them are highly dis
tinguished by the earnest intelligence which permeates the
entire body, both of teachers and pupils; and what they attempt
and profess, they seem to do remarkably well. Miss Jex Blake
gives a most interesting account of that which she visited at
Salem, Massachusetts. She expresses her admiration in terms
similar to those in which Bishop Fraser praises the Boston
High School. She says, her ‘one regret was, that she could
‘ not transplant the whole affair bodily to England, that other
‘ teachers might share her pleasure in seeing any school so
* thoroughly well worked as this was by its excellent head
* master and a first-rate staff of most earnest lady teachers,
‘ whose actual erudition was almost overwhelming.’ ‘ Indeed,’
she adds, ‘ the amount of sheer learning acquired by really
* good teachers in America, has often surprised me.’ The
Salem school is for young women only, and from the account
given of its plans, it can hardly fail to turn out first-rate
teachers. The methods pursued appear to be characterized by
rare ingenuity and intelligence, while the tone and spirit of
the place is just that which one would wish to see repeated
in the schools where these young pupils are themselves to become
teachers. There seems every reason to believe that what in
the prospectus of the school is described as its ‘ aims,’ are really
attained. ‘From the beginning to the end of the course,
* Mr. March’s interesting “ Method of Philological Study of the English
Language ” (New York, 1865), is well worth the attention of teachers.
He has just published an “Anglo-Saxon Grammar,” which appears to be
far superior to any other that has yet appeared.
�The Higher Education of the United States.
25
‘ all studies are conducted with special reference to the best
‘ ways of teaching them. Recitation of English lessons alone,
‘ however excellent, are not satisfactory, unless every pupil
‘ is able to teach others that which she has herself learned.
‘ The great object of the school is to make the pupils investi* gate, think, and speak for themselves; to make the individual
‘ self-reliant and ready to meet whatever difficulties may
‘ arise.’ Here too, as in the Chicago University, in Dart
mouth- College, and others, extrinsic rewards of learning are
discountenanced. ‘ It is not deemed necessary to awaken a
‘ feeling of emulation in order to induce the scholars to perform
‘ their duties faithfully. The ranking of scholars according
‘ to their comparative success in studies is not here allowed.
‘ Faithful attention to duty is encouraged for its own sake, not
‘ for the purpose of obtaining certain marks of credit.’ These
are the words of the prospectus, and here is Miss Jex Blake’s
testimony, showing that the words are interpreted by deeds.
‘ Indeed, the whole spirit of the school seemed most admirable,
‘ whether as regarded the untiring zeal and energy of all
‘ the teachers—who were for ever doing work beyond what was
‘ required of them—whose one aim -seemed to be true and
‘ genuine success at any cost; or the ready industry and unflag‘ ging interest of the pupils—who co-operated so heartily with
‘ the teachers for their own progress ; or the general spirit of
‘ sympathy and natural goodwill that reigned over all. In the
‘ course of my many visits, I never once saw idleness or de‘liberate carelessness in a pupil, nor superficiality or impatience
‘ in a teacher; still less any appearance of jealousy or ill-will
‘ anywhere, and not a black look among the whole community/
Such a testimony from so competent an observer settles the
question in our mind (though we had no doubt before) of
the value of training for the teacher. It will be a bright
day for education amongst us when hundreds of such schools
shall be established in England, where every one ‘ who chooses
to think that he has a gift for teaching ’ is at perfect liberty
— without any knowledge whatever, and without the least
preparatory training—to perform any number of murderous
experiments, and for any length of time, upon the bodies, minds,
and souls of the wretched little victims whom evil fate throws
into his hands. The educational furore which is beginning
to take possession of the English public mind will, we venture
to say, avail comparatively little until the paramount want
of all—that of trained teachers—is felt and supplied. The
teaching of the teacher is the most vital question of the day;
and the solution of it concerns the whole community, from
�26
Scientific Schools and Institutes.
the patricians of Eton down to the urchins of the ragged
*
school.
If England is about the worst educated country in
Europe, it is not merely because so many children are not
taught at all, but because so many of our teachers know
nothing about the art of teaching. It is with them that our
efforts to improve English education ought rightfully to begin.
It is not surprising that with so practical a people as
the Americans, schools expressly founded to give instruction in
technical science, as well as Agricultural Colleges, should be
greatly encouraged. The progress that has been made in
this respect is truly surprising. Only the other day, Mr.
Siljestrom—whose report on American education still remains
by far the most thoughtful and philosophical of all that have
been published on the subject—expressed his surprise that
he found scarcely any institutions dedicated to the teaching
of the principles of science. He looked in vain for those
agricultural and technological colleges, which, as he deemed,
so well suited the genius of the people. At this moment he
would find thirty such institutions of the first class, richly
endowed with funds, and establishing themselves in the hearts
of the people by the intelligence and comprehensiveness of
spirit which conceived them and which maintains them in
efficient action. Among them the Sheffield Institute and the
Lawrence Scientific School, in connection respectively with Yale,
and Harvard Colleges, the Boston Technological School, the
School of Mines at Calombia College, the Agricultural Schools of
Amherst and Pennsylvania, have a deservedly high reputation.
The Technological Institute of Boston is one of the fruits
of the combination of private and State endowments, to which
*
we have so often referred. Its object is to form engineers, che
mists, builders, and architects. The four years’ course of instruc
tion embraces for the first two years (in which the studies are
common to all the students), algebra, geometry, descriptive
geometry, free-hand drawing, elements of mechanics, chemistry
with manipulations, descriptive astronomy, carpentering, the
English language and literature, French and German. The third
and fourth years are devoted to special instruction adapted to the
professions chosen by the students. The subjects are mechanical
engineering, civil engineering and topography, practical che
* “In no department of human activity is there such a pretentious
display of power, with such a beggarly account of results” (as in English
teaching).—Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh.
* Among the donors are Dr. Walker, £40,000; Mr. Huntingdon,
£10,000; Mr. Thayer, £5,000; Mr. Mason, £4,000; Mr. Hayward,
£4,000, &c.
�The Higher Education of the United States.
27
mistry, mining engineering, architecture, and a general course
of science and literature. To carry out these studies there
are vast laboratories for chemical, physical, and metallurgical
experiments, as well as schools devoted to practical car
pentering, levelling, geoiesy, and nautical astronomy. This
instruction is supplemented by visits to factories, mines, mills,
&c., so that the student goes forth to his business in life well
equipped with all that is necessary for success in it.
In the Agricultural Colleges the course pursued is very
similar. General education in literature and science precedes
the special business of the college, for teaching which, the
arrangements, made on a grand scale in the best of these
institutions, furnish every aid that is necessary. Practical
chemistry, animal and vegetable physiology and zoology, form
parts of the course, as well as experiments in the best methods
of cropping, manuring, planting, &c«
The question of the proportions in which the literary and
scientific elements should combine to form the cultivated man
is one of the highest interest to Englishmen as well as
Americans. It is under discussion in England, but it is
solving by action in America. The old traditions which are
still reverenced here are being superseded by antagonistic
movements there. The utilitarian spirit, which is liberally inter
preted amongst us, is more strictly interpreted amongst the
Americans. We have never in England tried the experiment
of training the mind on a scientific basis; our transatlantic
cousins are trying it for us. The results are, doubtless, interest
ing and striking ; but at present they must be considered as
inconclusive. Our limits, however, forbid our entering either
into a full discussion of the theory or a description of the results.
We may perhaps return, on some future occasion, to the subject,
contenting ourselves for the present with the remark that the
attempt to learn something of every science—an attempt which
has a strange fascination for Americans—is generally found to
end in failure. The average capacity of the human mind may
be looked upon as a ‘constant quantity,’ which you do not
permanently increase by inciting it to unwonted and often dis
tracting effort, any more than you increase the digestive powers
by unlimited supplies of food. It is still ordained that into the
kingdom of knowledge, as into the kingdom of heaven, we must
enter as ‘ little children; ’ nor can we conceive of a ‘ common
‘ measure ’ between the progress of a nation’s knowledge and
that of an individual, for whom, even were the sciences ten times
as numerous as they are, it will ever be necessary to begin his
Wn career with ABC.
We may, it is true, furnish
�28
The Cornell University.
an opportunity for learning everything; but then everything
cannot be learned. Non omnes omnia possumus. , Even to
know this requires something beyond mere knowledge ; and
should the provision of unlimited means of knowing lead only to
improved methods of cramming, the results will not be satis
factory. Cramming, we hold to be the unlawful attempt to
appropriate other people's work—to gain the results of labour
without the labour itself. The flowers thus plucked and stuck
into the ground may make a gaudy show, but they begin to
wither away at once, for they are severed from the root which
nourished and matured them. We do not say that the
American plans for superior education lead to cramming; we
merely point out an obvious cause of danger.
But we must give as complete an account as we can in a small
space of the last wonderful birth of the American earnest zeal
and lofty conception of the idea of a University. Nowhere
is this idea; realised as it is at the Cornell University at
Ithaca (N.Y.), an institution in which, in conformity with the
founder’s own conception, ‘ any person can find instruction in
‘ any study.’ Mr. Ezra Cornell, a private citizen of New York
State, adding from his own resources £200,000 to the Central
Government endowment—which is allotted to each State for the
special purpose of founding colleges of Agriculture and Me
chanical Arts—has achieved no ordinary fame in having his
name for ever associated with an institution which is, in many
respects, without a rival in the whole world. Every study that
has, in any age, been considered as forming a part either of the
training of the mind or of the practical exercise of its faculties,
finds here a representative department. There is, to use the
words of the prospectus, £ no fetichism in regard to any single
course of study’—all stand on the same footing; all have an
equal chance afforded them. The six main divisions are—(1)
Agriculture; (2) the Mechanic Arts; (3) Civil Engineering ;
(4) Military Engineering and Tactics ; (5) Mining and Prac
tical Geology ; (6) History, Social and Political Science. These
again are subdivided into forty-six special departments, each with
its separate professor and its distinct course of study. Then,
besides the professional staff which is responsible for the daily
teaching of the various classes, there is the novel feature of a
virtual affiliation of all the highest colleges of the United States
with this, by engaging their most eminent professors to take part
in the instruction given in the Cornell. These are attached
to the professional staff under the name of non-resident pro
fessors. The valuable services of Agassiz, Gilman, Dwight,
Lowell, Dana, Noah Porter, &c., are thus secured to the insti-
�The Higher Education of the United States.
29
tution. These gentlemen give courses of from twelve to twenty
lectures yearly, which are open without charge to the public of
Ithaca, as well as to all the students. It is needless to add that
all the material educational machinery—laboratory, library,
museum, gymnasia, observatory, &c.—is on a scale corresponding
with the fundamental idea. Everything is of the best modern
type—excellence, not cost, being the point of consideration.
There are a few exceptional points of interest in the idea and
the machinery of this university, which deserve further illustra
tion. First we note, what we have referred to already, the
extraordinary range of the curriculum, which simply compre
hends all human knowledge, theoretical and practical. In
consistency with this idea, the educational machinery embraces
the workshop and farmyard equally with the laboratory, the
museum, and the professor’s class-room, and, in short, arrange
ments are here made for teaching everything that anybody
can desire to learn. Everybody, moreover, who goes to Ithaca
has ‘ university liberty (a singular expression) in the choice of
studies;’ in other words, there is no prescribed course. The
constructors of the programme urge the great advantage of thus
allowing the student to choose the studies that he likes, inas
much as ‘ discipline {i. e., mental discipline) comes by studies
which are loved, not by studies which are loathed.’ We very
much question, however, the correctness of the principle thus
laid down, if it is to be strictly interpreted. It may be wise,
on the whole, to allow, under the circumstances, an un
restricted libertas discendi, but certainly not, as far as our
judgment goes, for the reason given. The very idea of mental
discipline seems to us to involve self-denial, restraint, patient
toil, endurance, and is, in fact, the fruit of the experience
gained by contending, by agonizing, as it were, with opposing
forces. Such discipline is surely not gained as a matter of
course, by doing merely the things we like and eschewing
those that we dislike, but mainly by the contrary course of
action. Few men probably have ever gained eminent rank in
arts, letters, or public life, whose position was not greatly
due to the fact of their being made by circumstances to do
things they did not like. Their conquest over difficulties, and
therefore over themselves, made them what they are. We do
not wish, however, in making these remarks, to seem captious,
but we do wish emphatically to demur to the principle laid down,
as the reason of a very important regulation. Experience will
at length decide the question at issue; but if in the meantime
it should be found that the studies which are easy attract much
of the love, and those which are difficult much of the loathing,
�30
Self-government of the Cornell University.
that result will only show, what was known before, that
American students are, after all, very much like those of other
countries.
The framing and the execution of the laws necessary
for preserving order are, for the most part, devolved on the
pupils themselves. After much deliberation, the authorities
decided to adopt 4 neither a military, nor the ordinary collegiate
discipline/ but the 4 free university system of Continental
Europe, where comparatively little is done by college police,
and much is left to the students themselves.’ ‘ In this system/
they remark, 4 the university is regarded neither as an asylum
4 nor a reform school. Much is trusted to the manliness of the
* students. The attempt is to teach the students to govern them4 selves, and to cultivate acquaintance and confidence between
4 Faculty and students.’ The author of ‘ Tom Brown/ in his inte
resting article in the July number of Macmillan, gives evidence
that the plan thus adopted at the foundation of the university
has proved efficient. In an institution to which the great bulk
of the students resort for the purpose of real study, and in which
disorder would defeat the very object in view, it is easy to see
that arrangements are possible, which, in our older universities
—which are for the most part attended by those who intend to
study as little as possible, and generally carry out their inten
tion—would be impracticable ; but we quite agree in spirit with
the author just quoted, in the wish that some stern authoritative
voice were appointed to thunder in the ears of hundreds of the
young men who are carrying on at Cambridge and Oxford the
farce of 4 study/ the old command—4 aut discite aut discedite.’
The expulsion of the drones from the hive would be a great gain
for English education.
In order to promote what is certainly a very desirable
object, a more free and sympathetic intercourse between pro
fessors and students, it is recommended 4 that additions be made
to professors’ salaries, expressly as an indemnity or provision/
to meet such expenses as might be involved, and arranging for
social meetings between the parties concerned. 4 The same prin4 ciple which has led wise Governments to make extra allowances
4 to ambassadors, for the express purpose of keeping up genial
4 social relations with the people among whom they are sent, is
4 the basis of the experiment now suggested.’ We are not
informed what success has attended this novel experiment.
Among the regulations, there is one curiously illustrative of
the business quality which prevails in all American arrangements.
It is,4 that the university will tolerate no feuds in the Faculty ;’
and it is founded on the fact 4 that the odium theologicum seems
�The Higher Education of the United States.
31
‘ now outdone by hates between scientific cliques and dogmas.’
The remedy is sharp and decisive: it is ordered that ‘ in case
‘ feuds and quarrels arise, every professor concerned be at once
‘ requested to resign, unless the disturbing person can be identi‘ fied beyond a reasonable doubt,’ and ‘ that all concerned be
replaced by others who can work together.’ ‘ Better,’ it is
added, ‘to have science taught less brilliantly than to have it
‘ rendered contemptible.’
Another of the notable features of this unique university is
the encouragement (not, however, the compulsory obligation) of
daily manual labour on the part of the students, with a view
both to improving their bodily health, and enabling those whom
it may concern to obtain the means of pursuing their education
at Ithaca. It appears that about a fifth of the five or six
hundred students of the institution have availed themselves of
the option given them. The experiment is yet in its infancy,
and no positive judgment can as yet be formed of its ultimate
success. It will probably not become a permanent feature of
the university. The time must arrive when the labour now
beneficially employed in the establishment itself will no
longer be needed, and the directors have no intention of setting
up workshops in rivalry of the industries of the country.
The last feature to which we shall refer, is the treatment
of the religious question. It is characteristic of the country in
which the university is situated, and indicates the condition of
things to which—as we believe for the honour of ‘ pure and
undefiled religion ’—we are tending in England. So long as
religion, or what is called such, is so closely connected with
social station, wealth and respectability, that ‘ each seems
either ’—religion being respectability, and vice versa—it is
difficult to distinguish that which is ‘ pure and undefiled ’ from
that which is not. The discussion of the principle, however, is
no part of our programme, and we therefore append, without
further comment, the official regulation:—
‘ The Cornell University, as its highest aim, seeks to promote
Christian civilization. But it cannot be sectarian. Established by
a general Government which recognises no distinctions in creed, and
by a citizen who holds the same view, it would be false to its trust
were it to seek to promote any sect, or to exclude any. The State of
New York, in designating this institution as the recipient of the
bounty of the general Government, has also declared the same
doctrine. By the terms of the Charter, no trustee, professor, or
student can be accepted or rejected on account of any religious or
political opinions which he may or may not hold.’
But we must stay our hand, while we leave an abundance of
�32
The Religious Difficulty.
interesting material untouched. We have aimed at presenting
an idea, as complete as our limits permit, of the vast machinery
employed in conducting the higher education of America. The
features which it has in common with those of similar institu
tions in the Old World, we have not dwelt upon. They can
easily be imagined. Those, however, which are typical and
illustrative of the remarkable public spirit, energy, zeal, and
intelligence which characterize the people, we have endeavoured
fairly and candidly to display.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The higher education of the United States
Creator
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Payne, Joseph [1832-1907.]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 32 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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[s.n.]
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[n.d.]
Identifier
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G5683
Subject
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Education
USA
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The higher education of the United States), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Education-United States
-
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Text
T 'JET K/
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
AT ITHACA, N. Y.
FIRST GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
TRUSTEES.
*His Excellency, REUBEN E. FENTON, Governor.
*His Honor STEWART L. WOODFORD, Lieutenant-Governor.
*Hon. WILLIAM HITCHMAN, Speaker.
*Hon. THOMAS H. FAILE, President State Agricultural Society
*Hon. VICTOR M. RICE, Superintendent of Public Instruction.
*Hon. EZRA CORNELL, Chairman of Board of Trustees.
*Hon. ANDREW D. WHITE, President of the University.
*FRANCIS M. FINCH, Esq., Librarian Cornell Public Libra/ry.
*ALONZO B. CORNELL, Esq., Ithaca.
Hon. HORACE GREELEY, New York.
Hon. EDWIN D. MORGAN, New York.
Hon. ERASTUS BROOKS,k New York.
Hon. WILLIAM KELLY, Rhinebeck.
Gen. J. MEREDITH READ, Albany.
Hon. GEORGE H. ANDREWS, Springfield, Otsego Co.
Hon. ABRAM B. WEAVER, Deerfield, Onf.tda Co.
Hon. CHARLES J. FOLGER, Geneva.
Hon. EDWIN B. MORGAN, Aurora.
Hon. JOHN M. PARKER, Owego.
*
HIRAM SIBLEY, Esq., Rochester.
Hon. JOSIAH B. WILLIAMS, Ithaca.
Hon. GEORGE W. SCHUYLER, Ithaca, Treas.ofthe University,
WILLIAM ANDRUS, Esq., Ithaca.
JOHN McGRAW, Esq., Ithaca.
* Trustees Ex Officio.
��RESIDENT PROFESSORS.
HON. ANDREW D. WHITE, EL. D.,
PRESIDENT AND PROP. OP HISTORY.
EVAN W. EVANS, M. A.,
PROP. OF MATHEMATICS.
WILLIAM CHANNING RUSSELL, M. A.,
PROP. OF SOUTH EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND ASSOCIATE PROF. OF HISTORY.
ELI WHITNEY BLAKE, M. A., PH. D.,
PROF. OF PHYSICS AND INDUSTRIAL MECHANICS.
GEORGE C. CALDWELL, M. S., PH. D.,
PROF. OP AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.
JAMES M. CRAFTS, M. S., PH. D.t
PROF. OF GENERAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY.
BURT G. WILDER, M. D.,
PROF. OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND NATURAL HISTORY.
JOSEPH HARRIS,
PROF. OF PRACTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL AGRICULTURE.
Major JOSEPH H. WHITTLESEY (U. S. Army),
PROF. OF MILITARY SCIENCE.
LEBBEUS H. MITCHELL, B. A., PH. D.,
PROF. OF MINING AND METALLURGY.
DANIEL WILLARD FISKE, M. A., PH. D.,
PROF. OF NORTH EUROPEAN LANGUAGES AND LIBRARIAN.
The following are to be elected in July and September.
PROF. OF MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY.
PROF. OF GENERAL, ECONOMIC AND AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY.
PROF. OF CIVIL ENGINEERING.
PROF. OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES.
*
�4
FACULTY.
PROF. OF BOTANY, HORTICULTURE AND ARBORICULTURE.
PROF. OF RHETORIC, ORATORY AND VOCAL CULTURE
NON-RESIDENT PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS.
LOUIS AGASSIZ, LL. D.,
prof, of natural history
.
(20 Lectures).
Hon. FREDERICK HOLBROOK, LL. D.,
PROF. OF MECHANICS APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE (12 Lectures)
JAMES HALL, LL. D.,
PROF. OF GENERAL GEOLOGY (12 Lectures).
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, M. A.,
PROF. OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
(12 Lectures).
Hon. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS, M. A.,
PROF. OF RECENT LITERATURE
(12 Lectures).
Hon. THEODORE W. DWIGHT, LL. D.
PROF. OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND LECTURER ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
states
(13 Lectures).
The following are to be elected at an early day.
PROF. OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.
PROF. OF RURAL ECONOMY AND ARCHITECTURE.
PROF. OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
PROF. OF VETERINARY SURGERY AND BREEDING OF ANIMALS.
PROF. OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY AND LECTURER ON INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION.
S
*
>
�CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
FIRST GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT.
The first term of the Cornell University, at Ithaca, N. Y.,
will open on the last Wednesday in September, 1868, with the
inauguration of’ the President and Professors.
The examination of candidates for admission will be con
ducted by the Professors elect in the several departments, on
the Monday and Tuesday preceding.
Though students can be received at a later period, it is
greatly desired that they appear on Monday and Tuesday as
above.
The organization of Divisions, Departments, Courses and
Classes will immediately follow the inauguration exercises, and
there will be no delay in the commencement of instruction.
All instruction at the University will be comprehended
under two Divisions.
I. The Division of Special Sciences and Arts.
II. The Division of Science, Literature, and the Arts in
GENERAL.
Departments and Courses, in these two Divisions, will be
organized as follows:
I. DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCIENCES AND ARTS.
1. The Department of Agriculture.
2.
“
“
The Mechanic Arts.
3.
“
“
Civil Engineering.
4.
“
“
Military Engineering and Tactics.
5.
“
“
Mining and Practical Geology.
6.
“
“
History, Social and Political Science.
�6
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
In all the instruction in these Departments a constant effort
will be made to educate men to speedily become practically
useful in developing the resources and in aiding in the general
progress of the country.
In the DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, science and
practice will go together, not to rear a body of amateur agri
culturists, but to bring scientific methods to bear in ordinary
agriculture, so that, tried by an economic test, the result shall be
to advance the prosperity of the country. Special attention
will be given to the education of young men, ambitious to
become instructors and professors in the numerous agricultural
colleges now rising in nearly all the States of the Union.
In the DEPARTMENT OF THE “ MECHANIC ARTS,”
science will also be applied to practice, fitting men to take
positions of influence and usefulness, in developing the manu
facturing and mechanical resources and interests of the country.
Special attention will be paid to the practical education of
those who wish to take charge of manufactories and work-shops
of various sorts.
In the DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING the
same idea of making thoroughly scientific men for speedy prac
tical use will be carried out.
The DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY ENGINEERING
AND TACTICS is placed under the supervision of graduates
of the National Academy at West Point.
The DEPARTMENT OF MINING AND PRACTICAL
GEOLOGY has for its aim the fitting of men to develop the
vast mineral resources of the nation. When it is considered
* what immense losses have been incurred under the manage
ment of unscientific or half-scientific men, the importance of
this Department will be recognized. Situated, as the Univer
sity is, near one of the greatest mining districts of the United
States, it presents special attractions to all students desiring
real preparation for work of the kind contemplated.
In the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, SOCIAL AND
POLITICAL SCIENCE, the need of the country for a higher
and more thorough education for the public service, will be
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
7
constantly kept in view. Principles, as thought out hy Econo
mists, Statesmen and Historians, will be constantly applied to
what has been actually wrought out in society. The trustees
will endeavor, in questions of Political Economy, upon which
good and able men differ, to have both sides ably presented and
discussed. No attempt will be made, however, to proselyte
students to any peculiar or partisan views.
II. DIVISION OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND TILE
ARTS IN GENERAL.
1. First General Course, or “Modern Course.”
This will extend through four years. To Modern Languages,
which have become so indispensable in a good education,
will be mainly assigned the place and labor usually given to
Ancient Languages. The course will be suited to the needs of
students, so far as possible, by the allowance of options-between
studies in the latter years of the course, on a plan somewhat
similar to that lately adopted at Harvard University.
2. “Modern Course Abridged.”
This course will extend through three years. This, as well
as the abridged courses which follow, are intended to meet the
needs of those students who have not time for a full general
course. It will give the main studies of the extended course,
the subordinate studies being omitted so as to decrease the time
one year.
3. Second General Course, or “ Combined Course.”
This course will extend through four years. In this the lan
guages studied will be Latin and German, the remainder of the
course being essentially the same as the “ General Course.” To
those who wish to make a thorough study of Modern Languages
this course will be valuable, as combining the most useful parts,
practically, of the courses usually pursued in Colleges, with a
broader course; giving the two sides of all the great Modern
Languages and literatures, including our own, and aiding the
�8
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
scientific student greatly in the literature and nomenclature of
science.
4. “ Combined Course Abridged.”
This wifi extend through three years.
character.
Its name explains its
5. Third General Course, or “ Classical Course.”
This will be mainly like the “First General Course,” with
the option of Ancient Languages for Modern. While making
full provision, in other courses, for Scientific instruction, full
attention will be given, in this course, to Classical instruction.
The aim will constantly be to provide a Classical Course, as
full and thorough as that of any College in the land—to make,
not smatterers, but sound classical scholars; to strengthen the
student, by giving him an insight into the great thoughts of
great thinkers—not to burden his mind with scraps of doubtful
philosophy and second-hand pedantry.
6. “ Scientific Course.”
This will extend through three years, affording a general
scientific preparation for either of the first four departments in
the “ First Division,” as named above. A special effort will be
made to bring this department fully up to the needs of the
times, both by the course adopted and by the professors elected
to maintain it.
7. Scientific Course Abridged.
This will extend through two years. Its name explains its
character.
8. Optional Course.
This is similar to that allowed American students in the
greater German Universities; also like the “Select Course” at
the University of Michigan ; and which, in both cases, has been
very successful. In this course the student, on consultation
with friends and the appropriate instructors, selects any three
studies for which he may be fitted, from the whole range of
studies pursued in .the entire University, follows them up to
*
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
9
such a point as may be agreed upon, and receives, from the
Governing Board of the University, at the completion of his
work, a certificate, showing the extent of the course he has
taken.
9. Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates.
Appropriate degrees, attested by diplomas or certificates, wiii
be conferred upon all students passing satisfactorily through
any of the above named departments or courses. But it is
thoroughly to be understood that no distinction will be made
between the courses extending through four years, as to the
name, character or value of the degree or diploma, and the
trustees pledge themselves to use every effort to prevent any
caste-spirit in any department or course as compared with
another. It is intended to confer the degree of A. B. (Bachelor
of Arts) on all students wTho shall have satisfactorily passed
either of the above courses, requiring four years of study.
It is intended to confer the degree of B. S. (Bachelor of Science)
on all students passing through the “ Scientific Course” (No. 6),
requiring three years of study.
REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION.
General Requirements. ’
All candidates for admission to any department or course
must present satisfactory evidences of good moral character.
All candidates for admission to any of the special depart
ments in the “First Division ” must be at least sixteen years
of age. All candidates for admission to any of the courses of
the “ Second Division ” must be at least fifteen years of age.
Candidates for advanced standing will be examined in the
previous studies of the course which they purpose to enter, and
if they come from another College or University will present
certificates of honorable dismission.
Entering the University will be considered a pledge to obey
its rules and regulations.
Candidates for admission to any department or course must
have received a good common English education, and be
2
�10
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
morally, mentally and physically qualified to pursue to advan
tage the course of study to which they purpose to give their
attention.*
Special Requirements.
Department oe Civil Engineering- and Archi
Military Engineering and Tactics, and Mining and
Practical Geology. In addition to the general requirements,
candidates will be examined in the whole of Elementary and
Plane Geometry.
2. For the “ Combined Course ” in the Second Division, in
which Latin is taken as an optional study in place of one of
the Modern Languages, in addition to the general require
ments the candidate will be examined in Caesar’s Commen
taries, Cicero’s Select Orations, six books of the EEneid and
forty-five exercises in Arnold’s Prose Composition, or in a
course equivalent to this.
3. For the “ Third General Course,” or “ Classical
Course,” an examination will be made similar to that for enter
ing the first year at the existing Colleges of a good grade.
1. In
the
tecture,
Of Candidates Imperfectly Prepared.
For candidates* found to be of good mental quality, but
defective in preparation, provision will be made for special pre
paratory instruction in a department separate and distinct, but
under the control and direction of the University Faculty,
until such students are fully competent to enter the University.
Students intending to enter are urged to give their main atten
tion, from the time of receiving this circular, to strengthening
themselves in a “sound, ordinary English education
such
as can be obtained in every good public school or academy.
Let their efforts be laid out in perfecting themselves in the
following course:
In English Grammar, the general practical principles, with
the strictest attention to exercises in Orthography. In En* The same qualifications as those named for the Lawrence Scientific School at Cam
bridge.
�THU CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
11
glisli composition each applicant should take pains to cultivate
skill and facility. To this end frequent and brief essays and
»imprCMnptu compositions, oral and written, are recommended.
In Geography, the leading facts of General Geography, with
special attention to the Geography of Europe and America, to
be learned, not by ‘"parroting” from text books, but by com
mon-sense study of any atlas, taking one map after another,
fastening into the mind the leading, physical and political
features in the Geography of each continent and of each
country, and finally grouping them mentally together. To
this end map drawing will be found of the greatest use. Three
weeks’ study, in this way, will do more than “ three years’ ”
study after the ordinary method. In Arithmetic, attention
should be especially directed to fundamental principles. These
should be clearly apprehended, and fairly fixed in the student’s
mind. In view of the course to be pursued in the University,
too much importance cannot be given to a thorough prelimi
nary drill in Mental Arithmetic.
Good health, good habits, and a good thorough education in
the common English branches, are then the simple requirements
for admission. Every failure in institutions for higher educa
tion may be traced to a defect in one of these respects. On
these, as a basis, the University pledges itself to build a good
superstructure.
Fees eor Tuition.
The fees for tuition to persons not exempt under the charter
as “ State Students,” are ten dollars for each term, or thirty
dollars for the year. Neither matriculation fees nor initiation
fees are required.
In special cases of students of decided merit, who are proven
to be in great need, a remission will be made, either wholly or
in part, of tuition fees, such remission being considered as a
loan, the student giving a note or promise to pay them so soon
as he shall become able after leaving the University. In all
other cases payment for each terra must be made in advance.
Students will be held responsible for any injury which mav be
done by them to the University property.
�12
* Payments
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
for
Materials
used in
Laboratory Practice.
Chemicals and other materials used in laboratory practice
will be charged to the student using them at actual cost price.
“ State Students.”
In the original act of incorporation of the University is the
following section:
“ § 9. The several departments of study in the said Univer
sity shall be open to applicants for admission thereto at the
lowest rates of expense consistent with its welfare and effi
ciency, and without distinction as to rank, class, previous
occupation or locality. But, with a view to equalize its advan
tages to all parts of the State, the institution shall annually
receive students, one from each Assembly District in the State,
to be selected as hereinafter provided, and shall give them
instruction in any or in all the prescribed branches of study in
any department of said institution, free of any tuition fee, or
of any incidental charges, to be paid to said University, unless
such incidental charges shall have been made to compensate
for damages needlessly or purposely done by the students to
the property of said University. The said free instruction shall
moreover be accorded to said students in consideration of their
superior ability, and as a reward for superior scholarship in the
academies and public schools of this State. Said students shall
be selected as the Legislature may, from time to time, direct,
and until otherwise ordered, as follows: The School Commis
sioner or Commissioners of each county, and the Board of
Education of each city, or those performing the duties of such
a board, shall select annually the best scholar from each acad
emy and each public school of their respective counties or
cities as candidates for the University scholarship. The candi
dates thus selected in each county or city shall meet at such
time and place in the year as the Board of Supervisors of the
county shall appoint, to be examined by a board consisting of
the School Commissioner or Commissioners of the county, or
by the said Board of Education of the cities, with such other
persons as the Supervisors shall appoint, who shall examine
said candidates and determine which of them are the best
scholars; and the Board of Supervisors shall then select there
from to the number of one for each assembly district in said
county or city, and furnish the candidates thus selected with a
certificate of such selection, which certificate shall entitle said
student to admission to said University, subject to the examina
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
13
tion and approval of the Faculty of said University. In
making these selections, preference shall be given (where other
qualifications are equal) to the sons of those who have died in
the military or naval service of the United States; considera
tion shall be had also of the physical ability of the candidate.
Whenever any student selected as above described shall have
been, from any cause, removed from the University before the
expiration of the time for which he was selected, then one of
the competitors to his place in the University from his district
may be elected to succeed him therein, as the School Commis
sioner or Commissioners of the county of his residence, or the
Board of Education of the city of his residence, may direct.”
Under this the Superintendent of Public Instruction will, at
an early day, issue a circular defining the duties of School
Commissioners regarding the examinations under this act, and
making suggestions as to the best manner of conducting them.
All students presenting themselves at the University with a
certificate, such as is contemplated in the section above cited,
showing that after an examination he has been adjudged the
“ best scholar,” will be admitted to any department or course
for which he is fitted, and continue for four years, or as long
as he shall profitably employ his time in the University, free
of all matriculation fees, term taxes, or any other payment for
tuition.
Booms.
Suites of rooms will be provided, in the College buildings
and near the grounds, sufficient for the accommodation of
about two hundred students. Each suite in the buildings con
sists of a study with bedrooms and closets adjoining. They
are large and convenient, with careful provision for heat and
ventilation, and no study or bedroom has been or will be con
structed without direct communication with the outer light
and air.
It is intended, at the expense of the University to provide
neat and durable furniture. The rent of rooms and furniture
will range from sixty cents to one dollar per week, according
to the occupation of the suite of rooms by two students or by
three. Rooms can also be obtained, at reasonable rates, with
families in the town.
�14
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
Board.
Board can be obtained in the village at moderate rates.
Probably good board could be secured, at a lower price, by the
formation of clubs among the students. The University stew
ard will be authorized, in such case, to aid clubs, by the pur
chase of stores for them at wholesale, and by securing rooms.
Fuel.
The direct communication with the neighboring coal mines
D
O
gives advantages in this respect. The University steward will
purchase coal at wholesale, and retail it to students at whole
sale prices.
OFFICERS AND EQUIPMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY.
Faculty.
A resident Faculty will be in readiness, which, it is believed,
will command the confidence of all friends of advanced and
extended education. In addition to these, it is intended to
secure, as non-resident professors, a number of gentlemen
especially distinguished to deliver courses of lectures in their
several departments. Several gentlemen of acknowledged
eminence in science, literature and the practical arts, have
already signified their willingness to accept such positions, and
it is intended to announce the names of the Faculty, resident
and non-resident, through the public prints, early in the summer
of 1868. The system recommended by the President in his
“Plan of Organization,” has been adopted, which is to “secure
for the resident professorships, for the hard work of building
up the University, active, energetic young men who have a
reputation to make and who can make it; and for the non
resident professors, men of the highest reputation, who will at
once elevate the whole tone of instruction and give us from the
outset a position which could not be attained in any other
manner.”
Buildings.
Two large stone buildings, four stories in height, have
already been erected; another of the same character is in prog
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
15
ress. In these, besides dormitories for over three hundred
students, are library, lecture and recitation rooms, over thirty
in number, and of various sizes.
Laboratories.
There will be two laboratories well equipped, one under the
'direction of the professor of agricultural chemistry, and the
other under the professor of general chemistry.
Collections.
The University already possesses the Jewett collection in
Palseontology and Geology, at a cost of ten thousand dollars,
and has received a donation from the State of a collection of
duplicates from the State geological collection, and has funds
now in hand to make large additional collections for illustration
in the different departments.
Libraries.
The trustees feel warranted in stating that the University
will commence with a scientific and general library sufficient
for the immediate wants of Faculty and Students, and constant
appropriations will be made for its increase.
Student Labor and Practical Instruction in Agriculture.
There is much labor to be done upon the farm attached to
the Agricultural department, and a large number of students
can be employed from one to three hours a day, at fair prices.
Shortly after the organization of the University, the University
steward will organize voluntary corps for systematized and
remunerated labor, unde” the direction of the Professors of
Agriculture and Engineering.
Student Labor and Practical Instruction in the
Mechanic Arts.
It is intended to erect workshops upon the University prop
erty where students, under proper direction, can have practical
instruction in Mechanic Arts. The first of these will be a
£
�16
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
workshop fitted with the proper machinery for working in
wood and iron, in which students can labor at fair prices
upon agricultural implements and machinery in general, and
upon models for the University collections of machinery and
apparatus.
Accomplished artisans will superintend this work, and the
attention of those young men who would qualify themselves,
by scientific study, for the most responsible and remunerative
positions as master mechanics and superintendents of work
shops, is invited to this feature in the course of practical
instruction.
Prizes.
The following prizes are offered by the Founder of the Uni
versity to aid meritorious students :
To the student of the Volunteer labor Corps in Agricul
ture, who, without neglecting his other University
duties, shall have shown himself most efficient,
practically and scientifically, upon the University
farm,............................................................................. $50
To the second in merit,..................................................... 20
To the third in merit,......................................................... 10
To the student of the Volunteer labor Corps in the
Mechanic Arts, who, without neglecting his other
University duties, shall have shown himself most
efficient, practically and scientifically, in the Uni
versity workshops,..................................................... 50
To the second in merit,..................................................
20
To the third in merit,............ '..............................
10
The above shall be known as the “ Founder’s prizes.”
00
00
00
00
00
00
The following prizes are offered by the President of the
University to aid meritorious students :
To the student showing the most satisfactory progress
in the “ Modern Course ” during the first year,... $50 00
To the second in merit,..................................................... 20 00
�17
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
7
To the student showing the most satisfactory progress
in the “ Combined Course ” during the first year,.
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the student showing the most satisfactory progress
in the “ Classical Course ” during the first year,...
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in General and Analytical Chemistry,.....................................................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Chemistry as ap
plied to Agriculture,................................................
To the second in merit,....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Practical Mechanics
and Physics,.................................................................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Civil Engineering,
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in General History,..
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Modern History,..
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious student in Botany,..................
Tb the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious Report or Thesis upon an
original investigation in Agriculture,....................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the most meritorious Report or Thesis upon an
original investigation in Geology,..........................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the writer of the best English Essay,......................
To the second in merit,.....................................................
To the third in merit,.........................................................
To the student who, without neglecting his other duties
as a member of the University, shall make the
most satisfactory development in physical culture,
To the second in merit, .. <,...............................................
To the third in merit,........................................................
8
K
$50 00
20 00
50 00
20 00
50 00
20 00
50 00
20 00
50
20
50
20
50
20
50
20
50
20
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
50 00
20 00
50
20
50
20
10
00
00«
00
00
00
50 00
20 00
10 00
�18
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
The committees of examination reserve the right to withhold
a prize where the competition shows a standard not sufficiently
elevated.
*
The above shall be known as the “President’s prizes.”
ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY.
The establishment of the Cornell University is due to the
combined bounty of the General Government and of the lion.
Ezra Cornell.
On the second of July, 1862, Congress passed an act grant
ing public lands to the several States and Territories which
may provide Colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the
Mechanic Arts.
1
Under this act thirty thousand acres for each of its Sena
tors and Representatives in Congress were appropriated to each
State, and under this provision the share of the State of New
York was in land scrip representing 990,000 acres.
From the first, the State of New York determined to cease
the policy of scattering its educational resources, and to con
centrate this fund in a single institution worthy so great a
Commonwealth.
Common sense, with the very signal failure of the Sta>te
of Michigan in scattering such a fund, and her great success
after concentrating it were conclusive in favor of such a
policy.
Acting upon this idea, the State first appropriated the entire
amount of land scrip to the People’s College upon certain very
easy conditions. These conditions not being complied with,
the Legislature, by chapter 585, of the Laws of 1865, following
the same policy of concentration, against much opposition and
many attempts to scatter the fund, re-affirmed its old decision
to concentrate the fund, by overwhelming majorities in each
house, and gave the proceeds of the entire amount of scrip to
the Cornell University on certain conditions, of which the most
important were, that Ezra Cornell should give to the Institu
tion five hundred thousand dollars, and that one student should
annually be received and educated, free of all charge for tuition,
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
19
from each of the one hundred and twenty-eight Assembly Dis
tricts of the State, as a reward of merit for superior scholarship
in the public schools or academies. Such.student to be desig
nated by a competitive examination, to be conducted on a plan
laid down in the act.
At the first meeting of the trustees thereafter, Mr. Cornell
complied with the conditions of the charter by a gift of five
hundred thousand' dollars in due form. He then made the
additional gift of two hundred acres of excellent land, with
buildings, as a farm to be attached to the Agricultural Depart
ment ; the Jewett collection in Geology and Palaeontology,
which had cost him ten thousand dollars, and since that time
other gifts to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Besides this, Mr. Cornell has expended about three hundred
thousand dollars in purchasing the land scrip anti locating the
lands for the University, and it is proper to state here, that, *
previous to all these gifts, he had erected in the village of
Ithaca, at a cost of nearly one hundred thousand dollars, a
free public library with large halls, and with lecture rooms
which will be exceedingly useful as affording supplementary
accommodations for the lectures and public exercises of the
University. Thus laying the foundation for a sure and a large
endowment, sufficient to enable the trustees to tender, as soon
as the fund shall suffice, free board as well as instruction to the
State Students.
Relations
oe the
University to the State.
The act organizing the Cornell University makes it an
organic part of the educational system of the State. The
Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State,. Superin
tendent of Public Instruction and Speaker of the House of
Assembly are ex officio trustees. • The President of the State
Agricultural Society is also ex officio a member of the board.
It’may be mentioned here, that the Board of Trustees are not
a body sitting for life, but that they are constantly renewed,
the term of office being five years ; three being selected every
year—one of them by the Alumni whenever they shall number
�20
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
fifty. This, it is hoped, will do much to insure vigor and
prevent the stagnation from which so many institutions of
learning have suffered.
Scope op the University.
The special department referred to above will be developed
conscientiously and as thoroughly as possible. The prominence
plainly given the first two by the Act of Congress will be loy
ally remembered. It must also be constantly recollected that
education is here to be made, not only scientific, but practical.
Military education will also be provided for. Moreover, the
trustees are also pledged to try fully and fairly the experiment
of allowing students in appropriate departments to do some
thing toward paying their way by organized manual labor,
under scientific direction. This, however, will be voluntary,
as the freedom of our University demands.
But beside these special departments, the trustees provide,
in accordance with the clearly expressed intent of the Congres
sional act, general instruction. Mr. Cornell’s gift is made in
order to round the whole institution into the proportions of an
University worthy of the State. He expressed plainly and
tersely the whole University theory when he said, “ I would
found an institution where any person can find instruction in
any study T
Features of the University.
First. Every effort will be made that the education given be
practically useful. The idea of doing a student’s mind some
vague general gofod by studies which do not interest him, will
not control. The constant policy will be to give mental disci
pline to every student by studies which take practical hold upon
the tastes, aspirations and work of his life.
Second. There is to be University liberty of choice. Several
courses carefully arranged will be presented, and the student,
aided by friends and instructors, can make his choice among
them.
When we consider that young men are constantly obliged to
make choice unaided in regard to matters of even more difii-
�*
THfi CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
21
culty and danger than courses of study, it will not be thought
so absolutely necessary that but one single course should be
allowed, and all men pf all minds forced to fit it.
Third. There will be no Fetichism in regard to any single
course of study. All good studies will be allowed their due
worth. While the beauty and worth of ancient classics will
not be denied, it is hoped to give the study of modern classics,
especially those of our own language, a far more important
place than they have hitherto held in our colleges. Special
attention will be paid to these.
Fourth. Historical studies and studies in Political and Social
science will be held in high honor, and will have more atten
tion than is usual in our higher institutions of learning.
Besides thorough regular courses, it is intended to present
special courses of lectures by non-resident professors of emi
nence.
Fifth. There will be no petty daily marking system, a pe
dantic device, which has eaten out from so many colleges all
capacity among students to seek knowledge for knowledge’s
sake. Those professors will be sought who can stir enthusiasm,
and who can thus cause students to do far more than under a
perfunctory piecemeal study.
Sixth. It enters into the plan adopted by the Board of the
Cornell University to bring about a closer and more manly
intercourse and sympathy between Faculty and students than
is usual in most of the colleges.
Seventh. The study of Human Anatomy, Physiology and
Hygiene, with exercises for physical training, will be most
carefully provided for.
Eighth. The Cornell University, as its highest aim, seeks to
promote Christian civilization. But it cannot be sectarian.
Established by a general government which recognizes no dis
tinctions in creed, and by a citizen who holds the same view,
it would be false to its trust were it to seek to promote any
creed or to exclude any.
The State of New York, in designating this institution as the
recipient of the bounty of the general government, has also
�2^
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
declared the same doctrine. By the terms of the charter, no
trustee, professor or student can be accepted or rejected on
account of any religious or political opinions which he may or
may not’hold.
”
*
The success of the University of Michigan, where the Faculty
comprises men of all religious sects and of all parties, is a suffi
cient refutation of those who assert that an institution of learn
ing must be sectarian to be successful.
Access
to the
University Town.
The Cornell University is established at Ithaca, Tompkins '
county, New York. From the south, east and west, the most
easy access is by the New York and Erie railway, leaving that
road at Owego and taking the cars for Ithaca.
From the north, east and west, access is easy by the New
York Central railroad, taking the “old road” between Roch
ester and Syracuse, and leaving it at Cayuga Bridge, whence
steamboats run directly to Ithaca.
Any additional information can be obtained of Francis M.
Finch, Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Ithaca, New York,
or of Andrew D. White, President of the University, Syracuse,
New*York.
'
'
REPORT.
To give in brief the latest exhibit of the affairs of the
University, the following report of the recent meeting of the
Trustees is appended, as published in the Albany Evening
Journal, of February 15th :
The meeting of the Trustees of the Cornell University, held
Thursday at the Agricultural Rooms, was one of the most
gratifying since the inception of that enterprise.
The reports presented by the various committees showed the
most satisfactory condition of the University in every respect.
The financial basis seems even better than the most sanguine
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
23
have hoped. Of the buildings, one large edifice in stone is
ready for students, and two more will be ready at the opening
of the University in September; giving excellent accommoda
tions for nearly four hundred students.
The Jewett Cabinet in Geology, etc., is all arranged ready
for use, and negotiations were ordered in relation to other
scientific collections, including that of Dr. Newcomb, of San
Francisco; which, with one or two exceptions, is the finest of
its kind in existence.
The report of the President showed that seven Professors
had already been appointed, as follows : .
President—Andrew D. White, LL. D., formerly Professor
of History in the State University of Michigan.
Professor of Mathematics—Evan W. Evans, A. M.
Professor of South European Languages and Associate
Professor of History—W. C. Russell, A. M.
Professor of Physics and Medicine—Eli W. Blake, Ph. D.
Professor of Chemistry—James M. Crafts.
Professor of Agricultural Chemistry—George C. Caldwell.
Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Natural History—
Burt G. Wilder, M. D.
•
The following Professors were elected Thursday:
Professor of Military Science—Major J. H. Whittlesey,
United States Army.
Professor of North European Languages and Librarian—
Daniel W. Fiske, A.M.
Professor of Mining and Metallurgy—J. II. Mitchell, A. B.
Also, the following as non-resident Professors:
Professor of Natural History—Louis Agassiz, LL. D.
Duties, twenty lectures each year.
Professor of Mechanics applied to Agriculture—Governor
Frederick Holbrook, of Vermont. Duties, twenty lectures
each year.
Professor of General Geology—James Hall, LL. D., State
Geologist of New York. Duties, twenty lectures each year.
Professor of English Literature—James Russell Lowell
Duties, twelve lectures each year.
�24
THE COKNELL UNIVERSITY.
Professor of Recent Literature—(jEorge Wm. Curtis.
Duties, tweive lectures.
Professor of Constitutional Law—Theodore W. Dwight,
LL. D. Duties, twelve lectures on the Constitution of the
United States.
All these gentlemen, with the exception of Governor Hol
brook, have already entered heartily into the plan, and will be
ready to give instruction at Ithaca during the first year, and it
is believed that Governor Holbrook will not hesitate to accept
this position. His election was the result of a vote taken in
the Executive Committee of the State Agricultural Society, at
the request’of the Cornell trustees.
It is intended to commence instruction on the third Wednes
day in September, with eighteen resident and about ten non
resident professors.
All the leading courses, general and special, will then be
opened, including modern course, scientific course, and classical
course, and special courses in agriculture, mechanic arts, civil
engineering, mining, military science, and history.
A gift was received from President White of one thousand
dollars to be distributed in premiums, to the most meritorious
students in the various departments, who jshall enter the first
year.
Another gift of three * hundred dollars was received from
another gentleman to be applied to the same purpose.
On motion of Hon. William Kelly, President White was
requested, during his approaching visits, to investigate the insti
tutions for Agricultural and Industrial Education in England,
France and Germany, and to report at his return. Also to
superintend purchases of bonks, apparatus, collections, etc.
The plan of general military instructions presented by Major
Whittlesey, was ably supported in its main features by Lieu
tenant-Governor Woodford, and adopted.
Much satisfaction was experienced regarding the elections
thus far for the Faculty.
The plan of organization of the President has been carried
out fully in this respect. That plan is “to have for the hard
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
25
work of building up the University mainly young and active
men—men who have a reputation to make, and who can make
it.” Great pains have been taken to secure the most promising
young men for this purpose, and the Committee have been
strongly aided by Professors Agassiz, Dana, Gibbs, Chandler,
President Alden, President Wilson, President McClintock
and others. With one exception, every one of these young
resident Professors "have had the best instruction, both in lead
ing American and European institutions.
Professor Evans, who graduated with the highest honors at
Yale, in 1851, was afterward acting Professor of Mathematics
at that institution, and then at Marietta College, Ohio, and in
both of these positions he distinguished himself as a teacher
and a writer. lie is the author of a mathematical text-book in
extensive use, and of papers in Silliman’s Journal. For the
last year he has been studying a second time in Europe.
Professor Russell graduated at Columbia College, N. Y.,
and won golden opinions as a Professor at Horace Mann’s Col
lege in Ohio. lie is now studying in Europe.
Professor Caldwell studied at the Agricultural College at
Cirencester, England, and afterward at the University of Got
tingen, Germany, and is now Vice-President of the State
Agricultural Society of Pennsylvania.
Professor Blake graduated at Yale, first in the classical and
afterward in the scientific school, then studied at Heidelberg,
Germany, four years. He has been Professor in the Uni
versity of Vermont, and is now acting Professor at Columbia
College.
Professor Crafts, after graduating at the Harvard Scientific
School, studied chemistry four years in France and Germany.
Though a young man, his original investigations were published
by the French Academy of Sciences and Silliman’s Journal.
He is now lecturing in the Cambridge Scientific School, where
he is Assistant Professor.
Professor Wilder is a graduate of the Lawrence Scientific
School, and now the First Assistant of Professor Agassiz.
Though one of the youngest of all he has distinguished himself
4
�26
THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
as a lecturer, he having delivered a course of the “ Lowell Lec
tures” in Boston, and a course of University lectures at
Harvard. He is the author of sundry contributions to Silliman’s Journal and the Atlantic Monthly.
Professor Harris studied at the Agricultural College at
Cirencester, England; was afterward leading editor of the
Genesee Farmer, and lias succeeded in applying science to
agriculture in a common-sense way and in 'making it pay.
Professor' Whittlesey is a graduate of West Point, Major in
the regular army, and the estimation in which he is held is
shown by the fact that he was appointed by General Grant
expressly to draw up a national plan for military education to
meet the wants of the increased army, to be presented to
Congress.
Professor Fiske was formerly at Flamilton College, where
he attracted attention for his zeal in literature. lie afterward
studied at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, and
Upsala, in Sweden. Returning to America, he contributed to
the New American Encyclopaedia, and did other excellent
literary work. Going abroad again, he was .for a time the
secretary and trusted friend of Motley, the historian, our min
ister at Vienna. Returning, he was made literary editor of
the Syracuse Daily Journal, where he gained the respect of a
large circle of friends.
He is now traveling in Egypt and the Holy Land as a cor
respondent of several leading journals. It should be mentioned
that while he was contributing to Appleton’s Encyclopaedia he
was assistant librarian at the Astor Library, where he gained
the experience which induced the Cornell authorities to make
him not merely a professor but also librarian of the University.
Professor Mitchell is a St. Lawrence county boy, who studied
engineering at Union College under the lamented Gillespie;
then was an engineer upon sundry railroads, then Principal of
the High School at Davenport, Iowa, where he organized the
whole school system and distinguished himself as an instructor;
thence to Harvard, where he graduated among the first in his
class; then into the army, where he did faithful service in the
�THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
27
Topographical Engineers; then to the Training Schools of Paris
and Frey berg.
It will be seen that these are “ live men,” and in selecting,
them the Committee have been guided by the fact, not merely
of their energy and ability, but also of nobleness of character.
The Committee have been mindful of the fact that a Professor
to succeed must be not only a scholar, but a man and a gentle
man, and it is believed that in the above selections such have
been secured.
Of the non-resident Professors it is unnecessary to speak.
The reputations of Agassiz, Governor Holbrook, James Rus
sell Lowell, James Hall, George William Curtis and Theo
dore W. Dwight, are part of American History.
ft was determined to have a joint meeting of Trustees and'
Faculty immediately after the return of President White early
in July, and to make at that time all final arrangements neces
sary for commencing active instructions in September.
��
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y. : First general announcement
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cornell University
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Ithaca, USA
Collation: 27 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1868]
Identifier
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G5684
Subject
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Education
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Cornell University at Ithaca, N.Y. : First general announcement), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Cornell University
Education-United States