Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-08-23

teachers and learners be all possessed by
THE inspiration which it imparts, and one
could hardly anticipate too largely the ex-
cellent results that might be reached. It
would find its pupils chiefly among the
truth loving and ambitious, who had already
laid good foundations, and would desire to
make higher attainments in all departments
of learning than they could find the means
of elsewhere. It's instructors should be of
the choice spirits of the land, and each ca
pable in his own department of carrying
his pupils on through its widest extent,
and of training them to the finest taste and
exactest Judgment of what is true and
worthy in it. Nor should he be satisfied if
they fall short of SO much. There is no
doubt that an Institution which should adopt
this standard and purpose, and which could
afford to adhere to it unfinchingly for a
while, would soon command the confidence
and respect, and SO the patronage of our
Ipeople. Men, as by instinct wish to be
educated, and wish to have their children
educated, where they are persuaded that
the best education can be had.
In the present low state of feeling am ong
us in regard to education, it would require
no slight amount Of courage to carry out
such scheme The unfit would have to be
refused, and the Indifferent must be denied
the reward that is due only to merit. Per-
haps no mere private institution could af-
ford to exercise the necessary severity
To no nd
supported by the State. The State only
could properly arrange the lower grades
of instruction, which must be preliminary
to this. Something of this sort, doubtless,
was in the mind of Mr.. JEFFERSON, when
he formed the plan of the University of
Virginia. His intent was that the gradu-
ates of other Colleges should resort to his
Institution for higher instruction and more
perfect training. That scheme has proved
failure, SO far'as this intent of its founder
is concerned. Yet certainly very much
may be done in that direction, and there
should be on the part of all the friends of
sound learning and culture a constant pres
sure towards it.
! One convenience in plan of this kind is
its comparative cheapness. 1t would call
for able men in its corps of teachers but
the staff need not be very numerous. For
large part of the more recent sciences and
the practical ones might be left out alto
gether, or taught in their general method
only. The range of those studies that are
needful for purposes of culture and disci-
pline mainly, is not very wide one. Let
me illustrate this by an extract from o let
ter of the Rev. T. W. ROBERTSON, an En-
glish clergyman of some note, which has
just fallen under my eye "In Oxford
four years are spent in preparing about
fourteen books only for examination ; but
this is only partial representation of the
matter, for those fourteen books have been
the subject of school-work for years. These
are made teXt-b Ooks, read, re-read, diges-
ted, worked, got up, until they become
part and parcel of the mind about four
histories, three or four philosophical works.
four poets, and two or three miscellaneous
works. These are the choice master-works
of two languages, and whosoever has mas
this statement one may easily infer the gen
eral character and aim of University edu-
cation in England. Compared with the
course in many of our Colleges how narrow
is theirs at Oxford. But on the contrary
what men they turn out there and what
scholars In minuteness of knowledge, in
delicacy of taste, in power of thought, orr
best can be no more than pigmies beside
those who have been nurtured under such
q discipline.
Certainly our system of Public Instruc-
ton cannot be pronounced complete until
we have an Institution of this sort among
us. Let there be Schools for practical Uses
elsewhere, Professional Schools, Polytech-
mic Institutes, Academies for all degrees of
minor instruction. But let US have also
one University in this higher sense, where
the best culture i'll every kind is the aim,
and can be surely realized where those
who have finished at other Schools may be
carried on to still wider and more perfect
attainments, and where all the faculties of
mind and soul shall be developed to the
noblest forms of manhood where our SONS
may be trained in fit ways to become phi |
losophers and statesmen, learned in the |
principles and methods of all thought and
all science, and wise and true men. To
make such an Institution what it should be |
is not the work of day or of a generation |
But even now something may be done, the |
plan may be entered on with the best ap- |
pliances we have, to bear such fruit in our
day as it may, and to be made by the teach
ings of our experience, year by year, more
perfect.
To meet the needs of such an Institution |
all the lower Schools must of course be |
changed and brought up. Yet the exis-
tence of such an one would tend, of itself, |
very powerfully to bring about that eleva- |
ton, and so it's indirect service to the State |
would be hardly less than that of its direct |
and positive working. Our University |
seems in some respects in good condition |