Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-10-28

Editors Wilmington Journal:

ber, your editorial on the reorganization of
the State University, to convey to you the
lively feelings of gratitude and pleasure
which one preserving-though absent
from the State-the deepest interest in
eVerying that appertains to her welfare,
considers himself under to you, for your
patriotic and timely voice in its behalf !;
but since reading your paper Of the Sth
inst, which contains a communication
and also q second editorial on the subject,
and as you seem TO solicit an Interchange
of views on a matter 30 important, I
would beg leave to submit few thoughts.
In the frat place it is necessary to deter
| mine what should be our main object in
having an University. 1t is for the pur
pose of educating to the highest point
class Of young men, VII ose ain in life shall
| be to pursue q purely scientific and bellies
letters profession, Ia order that great dis
coveries in science, physics, &C., may be
made by them, or that they may become
competent teachers, while the great body
of the young men of the State and South,
both from desire and capacity, will be uE-
able to obtain any practical benefit from q
system of instruction founded upon such
a theoretical basis +?
But is it not rather our desire to have
| such system of instruction as will be for
the greatest practical good OF the greatest
number, and when in individual cases the
former object is in view, let the individual
go to institutions where such can be at
| tanned
For take it as impossible that any edu-
cational institution you con devise, call it
gymnasium, college. or university, can so
arrange its system of instruction as to COM
bine effectively these two objects: for
system of instruction, way of imparting
information, which would secure the
greatest amount of practical general know
ledge and skillful training to the student
in the way of giving him an education,
and that which would develop, as it were,
in an intellectual hot-house, the mind to
| the highest point Of scientific and soholas-
| tic attainment, is and must be different,
and no more to be commingled than oil
and water.
Which Of these two purposes ought we
| then to have in view ? To my mind the
| former is entirely out of the question,
even admitting we had the means and
| could obtain the men to organize and car
ry on such system as such q purpose
| would require.
There would have to be class of peo-
pie to be educated, such for instance, as
| generally speaking, the aristocracy Of mon
archical countries to furnish students for
such an institution whose wealth and
| mode of life call for an education entirely
| different from one that would do for us,
where there is no such class to be educa-
ted. IF, as remarked above, there are
| individuals whose wealth and the end they
| have in view, make such an high educa-
tion desirable, let them go elsewhere to
| obtain it lit would be better for one to go
elsewhere than for dozen.
Suppose we admit, then, that We want
such system Of instruction in our Uni
versity as will impart the greatest amount
of practical general knowledge in way as
will be accessible to the greatest number.
and in a manner as will best develop the
intellectual powers of the mind. And
| here we are confronted with the two sys-
TENS, popularly known as the Curriculum
aud University. And right here I plant
myself as in favor of the curriculum sys-
tenn for our University with some modif-
cations.
There is already one Institution in the
South. the University of Virginia, with
numerous others, who are initiating it's
system more or less approximately, where
in preparing themselves for, and an inten-
tion to follow, such pursuits as require an
unusual proficiency in particular branches
or departments Of knowledge, can obtain
all the instruction they may desire; and
what use can there be for multiplying
such institutions, when already there ale
more of them than there is demand, since
the class of men who require such an edu-
cation, is, and must be, very limited in
this country. And besides I maintain
that while, for professionally scientific and
bellies lettres men, as I would call them,
such an education is all very we'll, nay,
even necessary it would not be necessary
or desirable for the great body of the young
men, who are to be the farmers, lawyers,
editors, politicians and merchants OF
the State and South and as they compose
by far the greater body of those for whose
! education we are to provide, we should
have first in view their welfare. Again,
can ID be supposed that an educational in
stitution can be established in North Caro-
lima that will combine in itself all sthe
individual advantages and facilities for the
acquisition of knowledge which other in
stitutions in the North, in England and in
Europe possess, SO that one in search of
such advantages and facilities would not
have to go to such places to get them? Gould
the Philosophers be as exhaustively taught
in North Carolina as in Germany? Math
emaL1cS anu the CIasS1cS a5 u1Suly LauSuG
there as at Cambridge or Oxford ? or the
sciences as practically as at Harvard even,
or at Yale? What in my humble opinion
we want in North Carolina, is an institu-
ton where young men, at the age of twenty
or twenty-one, can be turned out, after
having been for four years well instructed
in all the useful as well as classical and
scientific branches of modern knowledge );
so that at graduation they will be prepared
| T0 nf 1Uffh
fair stock of general Knowledge on hand !;
with we'll trained intellect, and at the
proper age to choose what shall be their
profession in life and if a scientific or
bellies lettres one, then to 60 to an institu-
ton peculiarly fitted for advanced fnstruc-
tion in that line. A curriculum system
does not prevent young man from study
ing any subject for which he has partial
ity; it only compels him to pay some at
tention to lothers at q time of his life