Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-07-06

If We could detain one IN I'VE, or better,
one in ten, rear after graduation, in order
to study specially some special branch or
branches. Postgraduate courses should be
provided for these. In these, the very
highest studies and investigations in the
several arts and sciences should be pursued,
say in languages or in science or philoso.
ply. They might be taught as advanced
courses BY ihe undergraduate professors,
or by special professors Of high gifts. They
should be open only to those who have
taken degree in one or other of the cole.
giate departments, or by faver to special
students who have reached high attachments
in particular branches. These would be
eagerly seized by our higher minds, with
taste for higher work, and ready to 60 on
with it. These are the youths who would
conduct original research and make original
observations, and advance learniog and
make discoveries, and bring glory to the
place at which they receive their
education. and to their country at
large. They should be encouraged
by scholarships and fellowships, which
would furnish partial support to those fol-
lowing these high pursuits, and be recognized
and rewarded by degrees which would at
once stamp those earning them as possess.
irg high qualities and at once emitting
them to be chosen to positions of honor and
influence. By this means, America could
produce scholars and observers equal to
those in Europe. This cannot be accom-.
plished If students are constrained to give
up learning as soon as they have earned
their first academic degree, state of things
almost universal in this country.
1t should have
va-iIGs Sous III degrees
in which different kinds of studies culmi-
nate.
Every university should have
degree in arts. This in my opinion,
should be the essential one in all
our universities. which might
do without every other degree, but should
not be tolerated with this. This is the
degree which implies, or should imply that
the person possessing it has culture. All
students should be allured, though it may
be they cannot be compelled, to take it
before they enter any other school, such as
that of law or medicine. Happily it
is required on the part of most churches
before entering on the study of theology.
In this way we might secure q
body of truly learned men in all our learned
professions. They have vastly more Of this
in the European countries than in America.
Thus, in Great Britain, since began to
take an interest in public questions, very
considerable amount Of general scholarship
is required of those who would enter on the
study of medicine; and, to my personal
knowledge, the character of physicians has
been greatly raised in this last age; their
skill is acknowledged to be vastly greater,
their manners have been refined, and the
respect in which they are held greatly in.
creased. In no way could the medical
profession be 80 effectually elevated IS by
provision of this kind.
But in order 10 accomplish these and
other good ends, the standard Of scholarship
should be kept up in the Arts Department.
1t should embrace the new branches ss they
become established; but it should also hold
by the old. If it is to serve its end, and keep
its high position, we must retain such
branches as Greek and Logic and Ethics;
and scholars must fight determinedly to hold
this fort.
The Grand Aim of a University
should be to promote all kinds of high
learning, in literature and science, in the
liberal arts and in philosophy.
In particular, it should encourage and
csrry on original research. The question is
sometimes discussed whether the chief Office
of college should be to instruct the young
or to advance knowledge. take my side
on that question very decidedly. | hold
that it should be the primary aim, both OF
college and university, to educate the prom
ising youth of country. But / maintain,
at the same time, that every high.clsss teach
er should be carrying on researches OF his
own. This as it becomes known, will slim
ulste his pupils powerfully and make them
more earnest and enthusiastic in pursuing
their studies. AS he asks them to join with
him, they feel that they are fellow.workers
with him, and in sense sharers in the glory
that gathers round him.
In carrying out this idea university
should always seek to employ as professors
those who are ready to undertake active
work in their department and to widen the
boundaries of knowledge. They might even
include in their body few persons not
specially fitted to teach large classes, but
who, in conducting their own researches,
may give instruction to a select few, who
are determined to penetrate deeper into the
secrets of Nature, and who are to advance
the science of the world.
Suppose now that, in America, there is
person, or a body of persons-say college
wishing to establish university. | may
be permitted, without at all debating to
them, to throw out few hints as to how
they should proceed.
would have them bear in mind that they
do not require, in erecting university,
To Proceed De Novo.
They should remember that the ground is
already so far occupied. There are, at this
moment, toward 400 colleges in America
with the power OF granting degrees. They
are scattered over the country, and many
of them supply able and efficient teaching.
They have sprung up spontaneously in the
country, and are suited to its genius and its
circumstances. They have the instinct OF
Efe-preservation, and they shrink from ami
hilation. Most of them are doing good
and to kill them would be murder in the
first degree. They are not to be swept
away but to be elevated. Some of them
are 10 be made the basis on which our uni
versities are to be built.
There are colleges which may be, and
should Aim to be Universities.
use this guarded language, because do
not believe that every college should call
itself university, or strive to rise to this
elevation. A college may do boundless
good for time and Tor eternity without striy-
ing to swell itself into more ambitious d.
mensiens. 1t may educate body OF young
men to occupy high positions as ministers
of religion, as lawyers, as doctors, and, in;
deed, Of all professions No college should
seek prematurely to be university. For
myseh, have hitherto resisted all attempts
to designate Princeton by that name. But
there are colleges which may legitimately
and laudably aim to reach the higher
status. They have been adding new de-
,,.r,mentu and new professors until the have