Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-08-23
the multitudes who have had no reason to
he ashamed of their education there should

Ieffectually hinder it. The permanent IN
terest of the people of North Carolina
whatever be the humor of to-day-impe-
riously forbids it. IF their sons are to be
educated, without a humiliating DEEPEN
dence on Virginia or on Massachusetts, if
there is to be any system of Public Instruc-
ton among us, we must have an Unlver-
sity. It can hardly be that North Carolina,
which has given to the leading men of the
South their education in past years, and
has Justly prided herself on this mark of
her superiority, will cease now and here
after to provide for her own children, even
that which has made so many others great
It may be assumed, also, as hardly less
certain, that the University is not to re-
main what it has been. I cannot but be-
lieve that it will rise to yet higher dis
tinction, or that at least it will be so framed
as to exert hereafter wider and mightler
influence than ever before. In the seventy
years of its existence it has very much
and often introduced changes into its plan
of studies and methods of instruction. It's
Board of Trustees have shown a willing
ness to adopt its course, SO far as has been
in their power, to the progress OF science
and the demands Of the public and the
Faculty have faithfully labored to make
most effective the system selected for them
Whether the changes have always been
wisely made and the Institution kept fully
up to the movement of the times, may per-
haps be questioned. Yet there can hardly
be a question of the readiness of those who
have had charge of it--prudently and with
out haste-to keep pace with it; or that
they will continue to use such means as
they shall have in an earnest following out
| the same ends.
| In few days the Trustees are to meet.
The summons that has been issued was con-
ceived in words of alarm. They will of
course consider deliberately all the facts
that bear upon the character and usefulness
| of the Institution, and will, it may be
hoped, be able to devise some way of en-
| surfing its future prosperity. They may
certainly make one more appeal to the pa
triotic pride of our people, and adopt
such measures as may restore their waning
confidence in its future management. Two
courses are open to them, and two only
and either of them will answer, as men may
differently Judge, the question, what sort
of University ought to be in North Caro-
lima. There are two ideals of an Universe
ty, which may be distinguished, generally,
as the English and the German. The main
% 1O+o
lies in the end to be achieved. In the one,
this end is the attainment Of The highest pos
sibIe culture in the other the cOzanaunica-
ton Of The largest amount Of hno1rIedqe The
two ends will of course, to some extent, in
7Clve each the other, and so far coincide.
Yet they soon deviate from each other, and
as the one or the other prevails, it will give
it's peculiar character to all the methods of
the system it controls. The effort has been
made in the most of the Colleges of our
country to combine the two, and the plan
OF instruction has been framed according
ly. Such has been the case with our Uni
versity, which has therefore been rather a
College than properly University. In
deed, the same is true Of all the SO. called
Universities in our land not one o them,
not even that of Harvard or of Virginia, be-
ing modelled as yet on the distinctive Uni
versity idea. Some Of them are nov strug-
Cling towards a better realization of the
one or the other-the most still OF both
of the distinct University forms. They are
doing this gradually, deliberately, as the
means are furnished to them, and as the
necessary changes are made in other de-
partments of education and in the growing
wants Of our people. Such ought to be the
aim of the Trustees, and such the resolute
purpose of North Carolina, in reference to
our own University.
One, then, of the points to he settled by
the Trustees and by the public is, what
shall be the end to be reached by the in
struction and discipline of the University?
Shall it be the attainment of the highest
possible culture =? In regard to this ques-
ton it should be remembered that the great
and universal defect in American educa-
ton is want of thoroughness and COM
pleteness. And this defect exists in respect
than to intellectual training. Our young
men snatch hastily at so much information
as they may imagine will enable them to
enter on some course of practical life, and
then at once have done with their teachers.
The result, of course, is that their know
ledge of what they claim to have learned is
exceedingly scanty and imperfect 1t is
too true, that in many schools and colleges
thesystem $50 managed as to fall in with, GER
tainly not so as to discourage, this rushing
haste. In the matter of intellectual dis
cipline the case is much worse. Men gen
orally set little value On it, in comparison
with learning facts even.
The school which shows the longest list
of books to be studied is like to prevail in !
the competition. Our people seem to have
fancied that the love of truth and habits
of accurate thinking and of careful investi-
cation, come of themselves and need no