Daily American telegraph., 1852-05-28
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.
From the National Era
Professor Turner's Plan for An Indus
trial University.

Theoretical in this Democratic age Of ours.
1t has now come to be thought that it is no
merely necessary to think but one must thinl
to the purpose. The teacher must teach to tn
purpose, and this purpose must be practical
To accomplish this practical purpose, the
courses Of study in our academies and colleges
have been gradually modified to embrace ne"
sciences thus diminishing the time TO De de-
voted to the languages, with their Philosophy,
and the pure mathematics. The obvious eVli
of this change has been the croWdlhS ol too
great number Of studies within an made
quate period of time; ana yet attenuon tc
these new sciences has become necessary &c
the very idea of liberal education. Cores
pondine with the introduction of these new
sciences, the mother tongue has come gradually
to be the great medium of thought and senti
ment, giving us specimens of rhetoric equal tt
those of by-gone ages, leaving the study o
Latin OF little use, except to the student of tht
barbarous technicalities of Law and Medicine
ard the study of Greek and Hebrew of no prac
teal use but to the polemic theologian. To
many one the question has occurred Cannot
the mind receive rs much discipline in the ac-
QUESTION of knowledge which is now filling
the world with thought and life, as in the de-
votion of years to the study of the dead Ian
guages, again to forget them within five years
after leaving school IF the students of law,
medicine and theology, must still master these
languages. is the time usefully employed in
this acquisition for the merchant, the farmer,
and the mechanic But if not, the merchant,
the farmer, and the mechanic need to have
the true manhood developed by u thorough
course of mental discipline, no less than the
lawyer, the physician, and the theologian.
Is this practicable in the study of what will
L. &c ha
cessary engrossment of time in the practical
pursuits of after life, in the toll, thought and
activity of manhood Can the reasoning pow
ers the imaginative susceptibilties, and the
moral and religious nature, be adequately cul-
tivated in course of education adapted to the
wants of the industrial classes? The atfrma-
tive opinion has led President Wayland of
Brown University, to recommend the adoption
of a scientific course in that institution, and
led to an attempt, on a small scale, to establish
an industrial school in connection with Harvard
College.
But to secure this idea its complete fulfil
ment, Professor ]. B. Turner has proposed
plan for an Industrial University for the State
of Illinois, to embrace, in addition to those
branches of knowledge necessary for every
intelligent mind, instruction also in those
branches particularly useful to the farmer the
mechanic, and the merchant.
The Legislature of Illinois holds in trust
more than one hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars under the names of College and Seminary
Funds
1t is proposed with this fund to establish a
State Industrial UniueratN with courses of
study especially adapted to the wants of those
who do not propose to enter the learned profes-
sions, in order that our farmers mechanics
and merchants, may be as well educated as the
lawyer, the physician, and the theologian-the
education of each class resting upon the same
broad basis of general information, and the
thorough mastery of the elementary sciences;
while beyond this, the candidates for success
on the farm, in the mechanics shop and in
the store will be ughtrespectively in branches
of knowledge of everyday use in their future
career of thought and activity
In order, however to make the course Of
study complete and universal, the plan admits
of the incorporation Of a classical department
for those who wish to acquire this branch of
knowledge for mental discipline, or practical
use in the professions.
The plan proposes the accumulation, as fast
as may be, of cabinets of specimens, models
and drawings illustrative Of the natural SCI
ences, and the collection of a library adequate
to the idea of an Industrial University The
Professors are not only to teach in their re-
spective departments but they are also to make
experiments to establish uncertain points-thus
increasing the wealth and happiness of the
community by giving certainty to the direction
OF labor, where now it is uselessly expended
upon false theories, or in obedience to mere
routine" the son doing as the father did,
The various journals devoted to agriculture
horticulture, and the mechanic arts, are doing
much to establish certainty where there is now
uncertainty. But with how much more success
might experiments be prosecuted in such an
institution as is proposed, than in the hdp-bd--
ard manner in which isolated experimenters
make now an experiment on one subject and
then another experiment on another subject
reporting them in n jumbled manner, in jour.
mails whose editors know nothing of the merits
OF the case, and cannot discriminate the valu
abe from the valucless. 1t has been truly said
that on the farm and in the shop one-haIf the
labor is still thrown away Notwithstanding our
advancement in science and the arts; and yet,
at this late day, the nation is without institu-
tons Tor securing light and progress in these
sciences OF the working-man.
For the man OF work this plan proposes col
lege as extensive and courses Of study as thor
ough as those which have been reared for the
men OF letters. 1t is proposed to add the ex-
element Of study and the beauty of science to
pursuits which are only repulsivc because those
engaged in them have not been able to find out
the hidden beauty and exhilaratinp spirit
which a properly directed education win re.
veal
In the State of Illinois, the appropriation o
this one hundred and fifty thousand dollars vii
make beginning of what may become mag
nifcent College of Industry monument t
the worth and dignity of labor; and shoul,
there be such an institution in every State, on
nation would have series of fertilization
against the encroachments of despotism, NOR
protective than all the ornaments of tn