The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-30

byterian Church to sustain the college at Car
Isle (since so prosperous in the hands of our
Methodist brethren) rendered 1t still more inn
peratye that this new and more advantageous
position should be held and made secure, at a
time when all the leading denominations were !
establishing colleges i'm the eastern part OF the |
State. This great region between the Delaware |
and the Susquehanna, fast filling up with col
leges, bid fair to become the seat of great EN-
pre Of learning, and everything consplreu ~ w
make Easton the very location for q college; lts |
proverbial healthfulness; the simple ana mex
pensiye style of living that characterlZes tne |
community; the scenery unequalled lot beauty |
and grandeur; and IL is not too much TO say that |
his sagacious mind saw in the probable de-
yelopment of that region, fertile in SOIL |
and exhaustless in mineral wealth, what an I'M |
portant relation the town would hold to the sur
rounding country, realized now when 1t has slN |
daily trains to Philadelphia, and twelve to New |
York and almost daily communication with the |
South and West. As to Princeton Conege, the |
honored and venerated Mother OF us all Or. |
Alexander apprehended from the new institution |
''no injurious competition, but probable benefit, |
while as to the Church and the community at |
large, the advantages would be immeasurable.
1.-THE founding of a college" said he, rs a
great matter, and the man who will undertake
and carry it through that it shall live and
grow in succeeding years will have done a |
great work, if he spend his whole lie
in it. l should be very sorry to see the ground
at Easton abandoned, and the labor lost. 1t must
not be- Let DR.. Junkin not be discouraged, but
90 forward! !" DR.. Junkin adds, mo man can
ever know how these words of the venerable
sage thrilled in my soul but there are some
here who know with what brave heart and
resoute will and unhagging zeal Dr. Junkin
did ''go forward" from that time-through what
trials and discouragements; so unwearled In
labor, so fertile in eXpedients, bearing thls
college like one of his own children ever upon
his heart and in his daily prayers. And he lived
to see his prayers answered. None of all that
crowded assembly in the church in Easton at the
commencement, year before last, can ever forget
49, r1a,,t Tho hln nHU tn
the front of the stage to pronounce the benedic-
tion, and pointing to the noble buildings upon
College Hill, in full view from the church, eX-
claimed, with voice trembling with emotion
and the tears streaming down his furrowed
cheeks, 'All that this fond heart of mine ever
dared TO hope for Lafayette College is now being
realized. Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant
depart in peace
And now, sir, as to the Establishing of Lafay-
cite College," it would not be withoutE interest
TO dwell upon the successive administrations of
those who followed DIR. LJunkin in the Presi-
dency, and to note the part taken by each in the
final and successful accomplishment of this
great work. l have collected ample material
for such history, which hope 10 give to the
public when / have leisure to put it in shape.
The services rendered to the college by those
who remained faithful, even through the darkest
days, deserves permanent record but the pro-
prieties of the present occasion, and the limited
time dare ask of your courtesy, restrict me to
what has been done under my own administra-
ton, and only O brief notice of that.
In the fall of 1863 when | entered upon the
duties of my office, the college, notwithstanding
the learning and ability of my predecessor, was
down again with an unusually severe attack of
its old complaint and with the addition of
very alarming tumor in the shape of debt
This increased of course, as the number of
students diminished, and those in actual attend
ance amounted to about thirty. So nearly had
the esprit du corps departed from the college,
that the commencement exercises for that year
had been entirely omitted! But the most pain
full evidence of Generalization was seen in the
funds OF the college, which allowed only forty
nine hundred dollars as the sum total paid to the
entire Board of Instruction. You understand,
Mr.. .Chairman-not forty-nine hundred dollars to
each of us, but forty-nine hundred dollars
to the entire Corps of Instructors. There
were at that time nine of us in the Faculty,
and it takes but little knowledge of the higher
mathematics to ascertain that the average paid
to each professor would be less than the amount
earned that year by many Cet with his shovel
and pick. Yet my colleagues were men OF known
learning and ability, and accustomed to the
usages of educated and refined society This
economical scale of expenditure continued nearly
three years, and how those who had no means of
their own managed TO erlst not to say HCe, on
this compensation, | leave You to imagine.
Under these circumstances my first efforts
were of course to secure a permanent endow-
ment. Money is the sinews of college, as well
of war. am well aware that money alone
win not make college. As Mr.. Pardee told us
at the commencement dinner of 1866 it must,
''like the paints of the old artist, be mixed with
brains" But the old painter could not use his
brains for pigments. And for the successful
work of the college, money was an absolute
necessity, not only for the comfortable support
of the professors, but for additional apparatus,
cabinets, books, buildings, and grounds, all OF
which the college greatly needed. | need not
remind you that no institution for the higher
education can be supported by tuition fees
alone, however great the number OF students
In some countries the government annually
grants such institutions large subsidies, but in
our own country, while the common schools are
supported by the State, it is through the gene
rous benefactions of the rich that the funds are
mainly supplied by which college education is
cheapcned that ii is within The reach of the
masses. And in thus making provision for the
support of Professors, independent of tuition
fees, these gentlemen are not only providing in
struction for the masses, but they are sending
out, in the interests of mankind an advance
corps of explorers in the domain of science and
letters. Our university and college faculties, in
the intervals of their special work of instruc-
tion are the men who carry on the great inyes-
LEGATIONS into the laws OF nature, and give to the
world its best treatlses upon philosophy, Ian
guage, and physics Occasionally you will find a
man like Mr.. Gladstone, who, amid all the cares
and labors of high Office, sends forth valuable
contributions to the learning of the age; or, tC
come nearer home, such men as Mr. Charles f
Smith, of the Reading Railroad, who finds lei
sure amid his pressing official duties to pursue
scientific Investigations; but in general we mus
look to our professional educators who live IL
the great libraries and in well-furnished labora
tories, and whose daily duties in the recitation
room and lecture-hall (if not oVerworked) in
crease their efficiency by bringing them into con
slant contact with scientific and literary subjects
1t is to them we must look as the great Aca
denny" for the advancement of science and learn
ing. / can assure you, sir, that the faculty o
Lafnyette while Jealous and faithful in the in
struction of their classes, which is their frs