Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-07-04

flat Ito parpit would chose TO remove ~
child frcm MS own immediate supcrir;en,,
ance ard direction, before tie prcsiess ofii,
education necessarily demanded i, aid Ia,
consroueHtv the term OF schooi-hstructc,
should be made to extcrd &c that period Wiz,
the contemplated objects can no longer be os.
tanned by it. We arc mucA mistaken ii, rs..
withstandng the plainness ot.thIs princp,e,
it is practical rule to parents and INSTRUCTORS
Thus much We certainly know--,hat We haze
ourselves seen youths, and very freouertiy
too, who had rot completed their acqusintance
with the Latin and Greek classics, with t.s
grammar of their own language, Arithmetic,
Geography and the elementary parts Of &c.
onetrv, removed q: very tender age 10 our
colleges, and we speak from personal know.
ledge when we say, that the tiiIrd cl.ss OF stu.
dents at the college at Princeton, whose stu.
dies are those Just enumerated, is composed
principally of youths from the age OF II dow.
wards. Now the remark we have to make
on this is--not only thatthese studies may bs
prosecuted to more advantage at home, but
all those which are eomprehended in the col.
legiatc coursc-and that II betrays very
blameable indifference to the improvement,
and most shameful neglect OF the morals Of
our youth, to commit them at SO early an age,
or any age at all, to the care Of amy alma Mqttr
between the Hudson and the Savannah. Nor
do we know of any New-England college, the
university Of Cambridge, OF which We s!.all
speak presently, not excepted, which can
claim to be exempt from this general censur:.
To assert that our colleges are thus mere
.,..o.Q,,;,;a. (,o eoy po.bipor yorsel ,xiil -.
likely to appear very absurd and very pre-
sumptuous but as we are very sure that the
principle we have laid down In the first In.
stance is correct, and VIC see In it avery strong
argument in favor of our assertion, we do not
think we h gard any thing i'll making it. We
therefore rest the whole strength OF our ar
eument on the demonstration of this point
that the advantages offered 10 the student by
cur colleges are Tot equal, nor nearly equal
to those to be reaped by remaining at home,
the probable waste Of time and of money, and,
what We reckon of most importance to our ar
gument, the probable perversion OF morals,
taken into account.
Those who may happen to be ignorant OF
the extent of the collegiate course of study,
before they can estimate the correctness of
this assertion, must in the first place be IN
formed as to this particular. The university
of Cambridge excepted, which we are disPos-
ed to rank higher than any other seminary In
the u. States, the outline Of the course Of stu.
dy pursued in every college in the union re.
sembIes that Of Princeton college, or Gully
differs from it perhaps in being less compre-
hensive now the second, or junior, class in
this institution land matriculates seldom or
never enter the only class higher than this en-
ploys its year in the study Of Euclid's Eie-
ments, Algebra, Trigonornetry, Comic Sec
tons. Surveying, Navigation and a little Ma
tural Philosophy; and the graduate or senior
year is devoted to finishing the course OF Ma
tural Philosophy ard Chymistry, TO Bhair's
Lectures as course Of Rhetoric and Bellies
Letters, Iirle Logic. Moral Philosophy, and
exercises in IMPOSITION. All this sounds
vastly we'll E; and 1t viii do doubt be asked
what more we desire than young gentleman
well versed in the Mathematics, Natural and
Moral Philosopher, a Losic;an and aChynlist,
deeply i.nbued in the fount Of the Bellies Let
tiers, and traine by Blair to impart these i'm
portant acquisitions to othersin the smoothest
sty.e, and the purest English.
When il is known, however. that the text.
books which are used in the above mentioned
studies are all procursble at home, and all 'e-
ny Ineligible to most young men, assisted
by teacher Of moderate abilities and inor.
nation when it is allowed that, unless there
be some very important aids held out to the
student which he does not possess at home,
there is no mysterious inspiring Or improving
influence in an Academic atmosphere, and if
it can be proven that in being educated at
bone, the moral advantages are greater and
the intellectual equal, We see no necessity
for sending away youth 200, or 600 xiilts,
even allowing him to return from his expedi.
ton possessed ofall the supposed accom-
plishments of which we have given cata-
logue. Now all doubt on the score Of moral
ity is out Of the question: nobody ever sent
his child to college to take lessons on sobri-
ely, and really as they are regulated at pre-
sent, we would no more send youth there
for improvement from their lessons to bis H.
telIect than from their manners to his heart.
We are not shaken in this opinion BY the COM
,ooo aror,,noon+ or IN e<reaf evy,.