CONTENTS. THOUGHTS ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. CHAPTER I. IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. THE opinions at present entertained on the subject of education afford us a decisive proof that the movement of civilization is onward. Throughout all protestant nations, the obligation of the community at large to make provision for the instruction of the young, is very commonly admitted. Nor is this conviction confined to those forms of social organization which more closely resemble our own. On the contrary the almost unlimited monarchy of Prussia has been foremost in this good work. France is laboring with zeal and efficiency in the same cause. Great Britain has already made a good beginning and will doubtless before long do something worthy of the rank which it holds among civilized nations; while, in our own country, the constitu tion of our General Government is founded upon the presumption that every man is possessed of some degree of education; and every State in the Union acknowledges its obligation to provide the means by which every citizen shall be taught the rudiments of knowledge, at least so far as to reveal to him the treasures of science in his own language, and place in his hands the power of indefinitely improving himself. I have remarked that this fact denotes the progress of our race in the career of civilization. It teaches us that the principles of benevolence are becoming better known, and that the obligations of benevolence are also more widely acknowledged. He who is willing to spend his property for the purpose of elevating the intellectual character of his remotest fellow citizen is surely a better man than he who cares for the improvement of no being beyond the circle of his own family. The nation which has risen from the low level of individual aggrandizement to the high ground of universal philanthropy has presented a new claim to our grateful veneration. It shows that every man has come to entertain a more heartfelt respect and a profounder love for his brother, that the fountain of good-will has gushed up from a deeper recess in his bosorn, and that the stream is fresher, purer and more abundant. Charity is always lovely; but when it penetrates the very substance of a whole society, and becomes an essential element of national character, without losing aught of its beauty, it partakes largely of the sublime. |