Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1854-04-13
/ thank the Senate for having allowed me
10 make these remarks.
From the Carolina Times.
EpcEr1ELp c. f., Feb. l3, 1855


EDcEFIELD G. f., Feb. l3, 1854.
lIy Dear Sr:-Your noble vindicalion
OF the cause of learning and, popular educa'
ton in our Stale, must serve to 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.
stion yon claim for our State College, and
the bold dignity with which you have por.
trayed its true aims, rejpcting at the same
time, the false appendages, which a purely
uliIitarian spirit is seeking to throw around
it, cannot but excite the approval aud adnl-
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 TO systematic effort. or To
investigate the causes or first principles of
things, while lowering the general esteem for
real scholarship, has created among us a
taste for frivolous and superficial attainments.
The additions sought to be made TO the
College course will, it is evident, only tend
10 increase these nnpromsing results An
elevated standard of knowledge, arising from
IL high development of our intellectual pow
ers, is alone to be attained by keeping the
College true to its Legitimate objects; and
these ms 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.
edre-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 u.s.
I concur with you, that to accomplish
these ends, the style Of instruction pursued
in our College, is better adapted than that
usually termed the University system. The
freedom of the University affords too loose
a rein to our impatient youth, while the dog.
nlatcal discourses OF the University lecturer
would be little calculated to educe their
mental energies, or to lead them to any very
thorough research. Diaeclic Instruction
sharp catechetcal contest between the
Professor and the Pupil is the surest, perhaps
the only mode, by which the latter can be
urged properly to tax his mental powers
The German Universities, so famed for their
literature and science, derive their chief val.
ue, in my humble Judgment, from two i'm
portant adjuncts: first from the Gymnasia,
which are most excellent preparatory acade.
mics; secondly, from a deep devotion to
knowledge, from that national literary enthu.
Siasm, to be found nowhere utof Germany.
While urging, therefore, no change, at least
for the present, in our College curriculum,
must however, be permitted 10 state that
without some change in the preparatory in.
struction of our young men, the full benefits
of the College eau never be realized. Stu.
dents too often enter College in a raw state,
with their minds slightly disciplined, and with
a mere smattering Of the branc hes to which
they have given their attention How is il
possible they can be prepa, q for the severe
discipline required Of them within the College
wallis How can they be expected rightly
to appreciate the profound reasoniags, and
close analytic teachings of the earned Pro.
fessor? How, master the abstruse, difficult
questions occurri 3 in mental and moral
Philosophy the complicated problems and
theorems Of the higher Mathematics, the