Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1854-04-13
thank the Senate for having allowed me
TO make these remarks.
From thu Carolina Timci.
EDcEF1ELD G.. H., Feb. l3, 1854.

EDcEF1ELp G.. H., Feb. l3, 1854.
I'm Dear Sir:-Your noble vndicalion
Of the cause of learning ANT, popular educa'
ton in our State, must serve tn revive the
dropping hopes of many who feel deeply on
these subjects, and will, am sure, lead TO
important and happy results The high po,,
sition Won claim for our State College, and
the bold dignity with which ycu have por-
lrayed its true aims, rejecting at the same
time, the false arprndages, which purely
u'iIitarian spirit is seeking to throw around
it, cannot but excite the approval aud adni-
ration Of every scholar. The habit. so char,
acterstc of our age and country, Of crowd,
ing the mind with insulated facts before it
has been trained 10 systematic effort. or to
investigate the causes or first principles OF
things, while lowering the genera esteem for
real scholarship, has created among us
taste for frivolous and superficial atainnents'
The additions sought to be made to the
ColIeee course will, it is eviden:, only tend
to increase these nnpromising results. An
elevated standard of knowledge, arising from
a high development OF our intellectual pow
ers, is alone to be attained by keeping the
College true to its Legitimate objects; and
these as view them, are-to develop the
more mastery faculties of the mind and soul
to form the literary taste of our young men
for the higher and broader fields of knowl.
edge-in word, to enable our youth to
grapple with the great principles Of science,
and to bring order and use out Of the world
of detail surrounding us.
I concur with you, that to accomplish
I these ends, the style of instruction pursued
in our College, is better adapted than thai
usually termed the University system. The
freedom of the University affords too loose
Il rein to our impatient youth, while the dog
n,atical dscourses OF the University lecturer
would be little calculated to educe their
mental energies, or to lead them To any very
thorough research. Dialec,ic Instruction
sharp catechetical contest between the
Professor and the Pupil is the surrst, perhaps
the only mode, by which the latter can be
urged properly to tax his mental powers
The German Universities, so fanaed for thei
literature and science, derive their chief val
ue, in my humble Judgment, from two i'm
portant adiuncts: first from the Gymnasia
which are most excellent preparatory acade
mics; secondly, from deep devotion tc
knowledge, from that national literary enthn
siasm, to be found nowhere out of Germany
While urging, therefore, no charge, at leas
for the present, in our College curriculum,
must however, be permitted 10 state that
without some change in the preparatory in
struclion of our young men, the fall benefits
of the College can never be realized. Stu
dents too often enter College in 4 raw state
with their minds slightly disciplined, and viii
mere smattering of the branches to whiri
they have given their attention How is i
possible they can be prepared Ibr the severe
discipline required OF them within The COLLEGE
walls How can they be expected right,
to appreciate the profound reasoniTgs, ant
close analytic teachings of the earned Pro
fessor? How master the abstrusc, ditficul
questions occurring in mental and mora
Philosophy che complicated problems AM
thcorcms Of the higher Mathematics, 4 tn