The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-26

these sublime men. SO as l looked
upon the structures which Mr.. Jeffer
son planned, drafted and supervised,
l could see him as none saw him who
merely observed his physique.
Poets have never been born in
valley; the strongest souls have
been reared among the hills and
mountains. So here the noble man
lived, thought and grew. Here he
conceived plan of public education
and of university instruction for the
whole nation which was later taken
up by Horace Mann and made to ex-
press itself in the town and graded
system, which is now doing exalted
service for the whole people; and his
recommendations as to the higher
grades of education are beginning to
be adopted, as in Michigan and other
States. He is really the father of the
elective courses now adopted in some
of our higher institutions. He recog-
nized the mistakes of England,
France and Germany by building ed
ucationally downward; the college
first and the common school after
wards. Mr.. jefferson said this must
be reversed; the common school at
the bottom, the academy next and the
college last. He dared to confront
fashion and aristocracy. He felt up
on this height concentrations falling
upon him from the stars; the noun
tsins babe him go on; the glorious
sunrises and sunsets gave good cheer,
the song of the birds, the hum of in
sects babe him proceed; and the whis
pering of the leaves and even mute
nature were inviting him up higher.
To him the world came to exist for
the education of every man. To him
as facts melted into history, sooner or
later became poetry. So Homer now
sings of Troy and Burns of Bonnie
Doom. This life, he seemed to be-
lieve, was priced about with Babylon,
Egypt, Athens and Rome. Accord
ingly as he sat here and unused, he
built in imagination an academical
village in the valley below, in plain
sight of his Monticello. 1t was to be
to his lofty retreat what Troy was to
Mount Ida.
When this highest work was ACHE
we'd, then he took pencil in hand
and put on paper his ideal. The
draft, which is still in the keeping of
kin, is remarkable as embodying
what no architect hitherto had draft
ed as a plan for a University
Friends looking upon it, admired and
then asked whence the masons to
build such an institution? Thinker
and doer soon answered as he set
spaders, stone-spliters, stone cutters,
masons, carpenters and painters to
work. He imported some workmen
from Italy.
Let us now descend to the marvel
GUS work. 1t stands in the midst of
two-hundred and forty three acres
inclining to the south and east,
broken somewhat into rising and fall
ling ground and backed by the Blue
Mountain ridge. We will approach
it from the west. A wide and long
campus court opens up directly be-
fore us. Either side of which is
walled in by ten pavilions, two stories
high, united by dormitories one story
high, for boarding houses, and at the
extreme end is rotunda modelled
after the Pantheon a, Rome, it would
seem, containing magnificent room
for library and four fine lecture
rooms, with one hundred and eight
apartments for students. Arcades
cover the walks running along the
side of the pavilions and dormitories,
so that students going to and fro to
college exercises need not be exposed
to the outdoor weather. Then there
are the museum, gymnasium, medical
building, chapel, other professors
houses, dormitories and boarding
quarters which have been added from
time to time as the demands re-
quired. The establishment is on an
immense scale and really unlike any
thing else in our country. 1t is GER
tainly unique. 1t has cost more than
a million and half dollars.
Before the war the University had
an attendance of some more than six
hundred students, and at present
they number five hundred and fifty
nine, with faculty of twenty
professors and seventeen instructors.
The institution has educated more
men by far than any other in the
South and many of the ablest men of
the country have graduated from it.
Its prospects are now Frightening.