Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-08-08
The Object of the state A Ericulfu-
raj College.

The following extract from the Inaugural
Address OF President Angell is the best exposi
ton yet Offered to the public of the object of
the new Institution at Burlington. As it comes
from the highest authority, and from one who
more than any one else is concerned in securing
it, we commend 1t to the careful attention of
our readers
But while continuing to do all that she has
done in the pas, tue University now takes upon
herself new duties and new responsibilities
Congress, prompted and guided largely, We are
proud to say, by the intelligence and r-sighted
wisdom of one of the Trustees of thi, Institu-
tlon, MIR. MORRILL,, has made liberal grant of
land to each state for the endowment of a school,
in which instruction shall be given in the branches
OF knowledge, which pertain to Agriculture, the
Mechanic Arts aud Military Tactics. This
s,ta,e has entrusted to this Institution the work
of giving that instruction on conditions which
are known to you all. We shall therefore now
be able to open some new courses of study, and
to give more extended and special instruction
than has heretofore been possible in certain
branches which have long been taught. The
wonderful develo opments which have been made
within a comparatively short period In several o
the physical sciences, and the urgent demand
which Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts are
Justly making for instruction in those sciences,
have presented an important question to all the
colleges in this country 1t is beyond dispute
that there is large, an increasing, and reason
able demand for ampler scientific instruction
| than was formerly furnished in the regular cur
riculum of our colleges. 1t is equally clear that
this demand must be and will be met by some
kind of institutions. The question is, shall our
colleges shut their ears to the appeal for this
kind of education, which every one comedies 10
needed, and deprive themselves of the active
sympathy of a large portion of the people, or
snail they, while retaining intact their classi-
| cal courses, endeavor to furnish the special
| scientific training desired, and thus meeting at
once the classical and the scientific wants of
| the age, live In most intimate and friendly COM
| munion WITH 1t ? | need not rehearse the ar
gumsnts which have been adduced in the va
rious answers to this question. But practically
every college OF nigh standing Is returning the
same answer. Every one, which has the means,
| has already established, or is now establishing,
| a special scientific course.-Not one, which has
| such course, complains that, in consequences
of it, the old branches of study less earnestly
sought, or less effectively taught, or less vgor-
ously pursued. l recall with pleasure in this
connection that iorty years ago President Aarsh,
in his Inaugural Address, expressed the hope
that, by the diffusion of education, every ar
tist should understand the principles of his art
and the iabors of the agricuiturist should be no,
altogether empirical; that each should be % vel
acquainted with the exercises Immediately oon
nected with his daily occupation - to be pro
pared to adopt or to invent the most useful and