ADDRESSES 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 Rey. JAMES WALKER, D. D., 
 
 PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 
 
 TUESDAY, JNIAY 24, 1853. 
 
 -C 
 
 .CAMBRIDGE: 
 JOHN BARTLETT 
 
 BOOKSELLER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1853. 
 
ADDRESSES 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 Rev. JAMES ^YALKER, D. D 
 
 / 
 
 PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE, 
 
 ^ 
 
 y 
 
 TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1853. 
 
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 5 CAMBRIDGE: 
 JOHN BARTLETT 
 
 BOOKSELLER TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 18 5 3. 
 
 # 
 
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 lb t 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 JOHN BARTLETT, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 METCALP AJTD COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITT. 
 
NOTICE. 
 
 Mr. Jared Sparks, LL. D. having sent his resignation of 
 the Presidency of Harvard College to the Corporation, to take 
 effect at the close of the first term of the Academical year 
 1852-3, the Corporation chose, on the 27th of January, 1853, 
 Professor James Walker, T>, D. as his successor, and this ap- 
 pointment was unanimously confirmed by the Board of Over- 
 seers on the 3d of March following. 
 
 In selecting the 24th of May as the day for inducting, by 
 public ceremonies and in presence of the official representa- 
 tives of the State, the new President into office, the considera- 
 tion of most weight regarded the w^elfare and good order of 
 those immediately connected with the College. An interrup- 
 tion of regular study by a new holiday is always prejudicial to 
 discipline and scholarship ; and the inconvenience and injury 
 are most serious in the second term, where a number of estab- 
 lished holidays already exist, and where the course of the 
 Senior Class is shortened by a few weeks to enable them to pre- 
 pare for Commencement. By placing the Inauguration on the 
 day immediately preceding the May recess, the evils in ques- 
 tion were reduced within as narrow limits as possible. 
 
 On the 26th of March, a committee, consisting of Hon. S. A. 
 Eliot on the part of the Corporation, and Professor Bowen, 
 Professor Levering, Professor Child, and Professor Lane, on 
 the part of the Faculty, with W. Gr. Stearns, Esq., the College 
 Steward, was appointed to make arrangements for the Inaugu- 
 ration. 
 
A public dinner, such as had been given bj the College on 
 similar occasions to the Alumni, students, and invited guests, 
 was not recommended by the committee at the present time. 
 So great has been the recent growth of the College that it is 
 not practicable to accommodate the students at dinner with the 
 Alumni and strangers ; and it was not thought advisable to 
 give a dinner, and exclude from this part of the enjoyment of 
 the day those so immediately interested in it as the under- 
 graduates are. A public reception in Harvard Hall, such as 
 was given at the inauguration of President Sparks, had prac- 
 tical difficulties which were thought to render a repetition of 
 that hospitaUty inexpedient. Moreover, their experience at 
 the last two inaugurations had satisfied the committee, that an 
 illumination of the College buildings was likely, in the present 
 crowded state of the city of Cambridge and its neighborhood, 
 to attract into the College grounds a crowd of visitors of a de- 
 scription to do little honor to the occasion. So far as such a 
 demonstration may be interpreted as a mark of honor to the 
 President whose inauguration it celebrates, it is confidently be- 
 lieved that those feelings of respect and attachment which all 
 connected with the College, as well as the community at large, 
 feel on the present occasion, will be expressed in a form which 
 will give better satisfaction.* Believing that the inaugura- 
 
 * At the inauguration of President Leverett, on the 14th of January, 
 1708, it is recorded in Judge SevvalFs Diary: "The Governor prepared 
 a Latin speech for the instalment of the President : then took the Presi- 
 dent by the hand, led him down into the Hall (from the Library). The 
 books of the College records, charter, seal, and keys were laid upon the 
 table running parallel with that next the entry. The Governor sat with 
 his back against a noble fire." The inauguration of President Wads- 
 worth, in 1725, was on Commencement Day. At the inauguration of Pres- 
 ident Holyoke, in 1737, a public dinner completed the performances. An 
 illumination of the College buildings was first introduced at the inauguration 
 of President Willard, in 1781, and has been repeated at every inauguration 
 since, till the last. The dinner at President Willard's inauguration is de- 
 scribed in the books of the Corporation as a " very decent entertainment." 
 
tion of a President of Harvard College was never of greater 
 moment to the republic of letters, to the common weal of this 
 State, or to the whole country, than at the present time, and 
 feeling a sincere desire to pay the truest and highest re- 
 spect to a gentleman who was to give new honor to an office 
 which was already so distinguished by those who had formerly 
 filled it, the committee came to the decision that the simple liter- 
 ary and religious ceremonies usual on such occasions, the pro- 
 cession of students and Alumni, of those who were just putting 
 on their armor and those who had already taken it off, the 
 impressive unfolding of the College charter, the handling of the 
 College seal and keys, the notes of the organ, and the prayer, 
 with the literary performances of the day, were most in accord- 
 ance with the best taste of the community, with the nature of 
 the institution, and with the character of the President to be 
 inducted into office. 
 
 Although the attractions of the anniversary week in Boston 
 kept away some who otherwise would have found pleasure in 
 
 These ceremonies and festivities, thus begun, have been continued with 
 little variation to the present day, except exchanging Latin for English in 
 most of the addresses, and a ball in the evening occasionally. Sometimes 
 the whole College dined with the Corporation and guests ; at other times 
 only the two higher classes. At the inauguration of President Langdon, 
 in 1774, all public ceremony was omitted except the reading, in presence 
 of the students, of the Corporation's letter of appointment, and the Presi- 
 dent's reply, on account of the extreme peril of the country. An omission 
 to illuminate the College buildings at the recent inauguration caused less 
 disappointment to the students, partly because it had lost of late the 
 attraction of novelty, and partly because some expected to be absent at 
 their homes during the recess. The tendency in all such matters at the 
 present day is towards greater simplicity. Formerly the induction of 
 Professors into office was celebrated with Latin and Hebrew, with dinners 
 and illuminations. In 1786, the Corporation passed a vote forbidding the 
 students to illuminate the College buildings, at the induction of Rev. E. 
 Pearson as Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental languages, 
 on account of the embarrassed state of the public finances. 
 
attending, the friends of the College assembled in large num- 
 bers at three o'clock, in Gore Hall, agreeably to announcement 
 in the newspapers and cards of invitation to strangers and 
 gentlemen officially connected with the College. 
 
 At a quarter past three o'clock the procession began to be 
 formed at the north avenue from Gore Hall, under the direc- 
 tion of S. E. Guild, Esq., Chief Marshal, and at half past 
 three o'clock took up its march in the following order : — 
 
 "ORDER OF PROCESSION FROM GORE HALL. 
 
 Undergraduates in the order of Classes. 
 
 Resident Graduates and Members of the Professional and 
 
 Scientific Schools. 
 
 Music. 
 
 Librarian with the College Seal and Charter. 
 
 Steward' with the College Keys. 
 
 Members of the Corporation. 
 
 Professors and other Officers of Instruction, and Government 
 
 in the University. 
 
 Ex-Presidents Quincy, Everett, and Sparks, and former 
 
 Members of the Corporation. 
 
 Ex-Professors. 
 
 Sheriffs of Suffolk and Middlesex. 
 
 His Excellency the Governor, and the President Elect. 
 
 The Governor's Aids. 
 
 His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, and the Adjutant-General. 
 
 The Honorable the Executive Council. 
 
 The Honorable and Reverend Overseers. 
 
 The Trustees of the Hopkins Fund. 
 
 The Committee on the Boylston Medical Prizes. 
 
 The Committees of Examination for the present year. 
 
 Gentlemen specially invited. 
 
 Presidents and Professors of other Colleges in New England. 
 
 Professors in Theological, Law, and Medical Schools in 
 
 Massachusetts. 
 
Judges of the State and United States Courts. 
 
 Other Officers of those Courts. 
 
 The President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of 
 
 Representatives. 
 
 The President of the Convention for the Revision of the 
 
 Constitution of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Auditor, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of Cambridge. 
 
 School Committee, Clerk, and Treasurer of Cambridge. 
 
 Alumni of the College in the order of Classes." 
 
 After passing along the north avenue from Gore Hall to 
 its intersection with the path from University Hall, the pro- 
 cession moved up the latter path to the front of University 
 Hall, and thence to the First Parish Church, which it entered 
 at three quarters past three o'clock. The services in the 
 Church proceeded as follows : — 
 
 "ORDER OF EXERCISES IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 I. MUSIC BY THE BAND. 
 
 II. HYMN.* 
 
 In pleasant lands have fallen the lines 
 
 That bound our goodly heritage. 
 And safe beneath our sheltering vines 
 
 Our youth is blessed, and soothed our age. 
 
 What thanks, O God, to thee are due, 
 That thou didst plant our fathers here. 
 
 And watch and guard them, as they grew, 
 A vineyard to the Planter dear ! 
 
 The toils they bore our ease have wrought : 
 They sowed in tears, — in joy we reap ; 
 
 " Sung also at the inauguration of President Everett. 
 
8 
 
 The birthright they so dearly bought 
 
 We 'II guard till we with them shall sleep. 
 
 Thy kindness to our fathers shown, 
 In weal and woe, through all the past, 
 
 Their grateful sons, O God, shall own. 
 While here their name and race shall last. 
 
 III. PRAYER, 
 
 BY THE REV. DR. LOTHROP. 
 
 IV. ADDRESS AND INDUCTION INTO OFFICE, 
 
 BY HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLIFFORD. 
 
 V. REPLY, 
 BY PRESIDENT WALKER. 
 
 VI. MUSIC BY THE BAND. 
 VII. ORATION IN LATIN, 
 
 BY CHARLES CARROLL, OF THE SENIOR CLASS. 
 
 VIII. MUSIC BY THE BAND. 
 IX. INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
 
 BY PRESIDENT WALKER. 
 
 BY THE REV. DR. FRANCIS. 
 
 XI. DOXOLOGY. 
 
 From all that dwell below the skies, 
 Let the Creator's praise arise ; 
 Let the Redeemer's name be sung 
 Through eveiy land, by every tongue. 
 
Eternal are thy mercies, Lord ; 
 
 Eternal truth attends thy word : 
 
 Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, 
 
 Till suns shall rise and set no more. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The presence of three ex-Presidents upon tlie stage, Hon. 
 Josiah Quincy, Hon. Edward Everett, now Senator in Con- 
 gress, and Hon. Jared Sparks, was an interesting sight, and so 
 unusual that it could never have happened before in the history 
 of the College at the inauguration of any President. 
 
 On the 28th of May the Corporation passed a vote, inviting 
 President Walker to print his Inaugural Address in the usual 
 form. Subsequently the undergraduates made a similar re- 
 quest, as appears by the following correspondence. 
 
 " Harvard College, June 7, 1853. 
 "Reverend and Dear Sir: — 
 
 " In behalf of the Undergraduates, we respectfully request the 
 publication of your Inaugural Address. 
 
 " The earnest tone that pervaded it convinces us that you have 
 the interest of the University near at heart, and that your Presi- 
 dency will be a source of great prosperity to Harvard. 
 " Yours, with high respect and esteem, 
 
 " C. Fred. Livermore, Theodore Lybian, 
 W. I. Shreve, Langdon Erving, 
 
 Edw. Graham Daves, Chas. T. Howard, 
 Geo. W. Soren, Richard A. Barret. 
 
 Geo. E. Dana, 
 " To President Walker." 
 
 " Cambridge, June 9, 1853. 
 " Gentlemen : — 
 
 " I thank you for your obliging note, requesting, in behalf of 
 the Undergraduates, the publication of my Inaugural Discourse. 
 1 hasten to reply, that the printing of my Discourse is no longer at 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 my disposal, as the Corporation have voted to publish the usual 
 pamphlet on the occasion, including some account of the pro- 
 ceedings, and all the Addresses. 
 
 " I am, very truly and affectionately, 
 
 " Your sincere and obliged friend, 
 
 " James Walker. 
 
 " To Messrs. C. F. Livermore, etc." 
 
 It is in place to mention, in this connection, that on the 
 morning of the day of inauguration the Senior Class waited in 
 procession upon Mrs. Sparks and Mrs. Walker, and presented 
 bouquets to them. Shortly after, they were accompanied by 
 President Walker to the grounds near the southwest corner of 
 Gore Hall, where a tree was planted in honor of the occasion. 
 The tree selected was a fine Norwegian spruce, furnished by 
 Dr. Gray from the College Botanic Garden. To a brief ad- 
 dress by the Marshal in behalf of his Class, the President re- 
 plied, hoping that the young men before him, like the tree they 
 were planting, would not only live but grow, and then threw 
 in the first shovelful of earth. This simple ceremony, while 
 the Class stood round with uncovered heads, was interesting 
 and significant. 
 
 For the Committee, 
 
 JOSEPH LOVERING. 
 
 Cambridge, June, 1853. 
 
A D D K E S S 
 
 OF 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY, JOHN H. CLIFFORD, 
 
 GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH, 
 
 AND 
 
 REPLY 
 
 OF 
 
 PRESIDENT WALKER. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 Reverend Sir, — The simple and unostentatious 
 ceremony which we have assembled here to-day to 
 witness and to perform, is fraught with a significant 
 and impressive interest. 
 
 In confiding to your care and guardianship this ven- 
 erable institution, consecrated by our fathers to Christ 
 and his Church, we seal and sanction, by these public 
 solemnities, your formal assumption of a trust that 
 may well task, to their utmost capacities, " the wisdom 
 of the wisest, and the virtues of the best" of men. 
 
 The imperial purple, the regal crown, the judicial 
 ermine, or whatsoever other outward badges of au- 
 thority distinguish the ruler or magistrate, are the 
 symbols of no mightier power, of no more august re- 
 sponsibilities, than are assumed by him to whom is 
 intrusted the moral and intellectual training of the 
 youth of a country, " the expectancy and rose of the 
 fair State," in an institution like this. 
 
 I am too conscious that the part assigned to me 
 in these proceedings is owing only to the circum- 
 stance of my ofiicial position, not to feel that it would 
 be presumptuous in me to prescribe rules for your 
 
u 
 
 guidance in those duties which you have undertaken 
 to perform, and the nature and extent of which no 
 one can understand more clearly or appreciate more 
 justly than yourself 
 
 But I should fail in my own duty to the Common- 
 wealth, whose interest in the welfare and prosperity 
 of this ancient seat of learning can scarcely be exag- 
 gerated, if I did not give expression to some of the 
 just expectations with which your entrance upon this 
 high office is accompanied, and welcomed. An act 
 of the present Legislature, to which I have recently 
 had the satisfaction of affixing my official signature, 
 has given to the State a more immediate and direct 
 interest in the conduct and condition of our colleges 
 than has ever before attached to them. I refer to 
 the act establishing State scholarships, — by which 
 provision is made for extending the elementary in- 
 struction of our common schools to the highest 
 range of intellectual culture that those colleges can 
 furnish ; so that the humblest and poorest of our 
 citizens are assured of as thorough an education for 
 those who are the best endowed and most meritori- 
 ous among their sons, as if they enjoyed all the 
 means and opportunities of wealth ; — an act of le- 
 gislation, among the noblest that Massachusetts has 
 ever placed upon her statute-book ; the provisions 
 of which deserve to be recorded in letters of gold, as 
 their results will be written in letters of light upon 
 the character and condition of our people, when time 
 shall have fully developed them. 
 
 In welcoming you. Sir, to the tasks and the re- 
 
15 
 
 wards of a new position, it is a source of special 
 gratification, that I am addressing one who has 
 shown himself so deeply imbued with the spirit of 
 integrity, wisdom, and the love of truth, which ani- 
 mated our fathers, and which was the better portion 
 of their legacy to us ; one who has proved, by his 
 successful labors in a kindred office, his eminent 
 qualifications for the more anxious and arduous toil 
 of the position you are now to assume. The great 
 influence you have ever been able personally to exert 
 over the minds of your pupils, as well in their moral 
 as in their intellectual training, we trust will not be 
 lost or relaxed in the new sphere of duty in which 
 you are to move; but that, aided and strengthened 
 by the earnest and cordial cooperation of your asso- 
 ciates in the government of the College, you will 
 continue to apply yourself to the establishing and 
 fostering of those principles of Christian morality, 
 without which education itself is only a calamity and 
 a curse ; in the absence of which, increasing knowl- 
 edge is but increasing mischief, and intellectual light 
 becomes moral darkness. 
 
 If there is any source of solicitude more fruitful of 
 anxieties and misgivings to the parental heart, or any 
 season of trial more perilous to the objects of that 
 solicitude than all others that are encountered in 
 this world's experience, it is the change to which 
 our youth are exposed, from the salutary discipline 
 and vigilant guardianship of home, to the compara- 
 tive freedom of college life. And if there is any 
 duty resting upon the government of these institu- 
 tions, paramount to all others, it is that the young 
 
16 
 
 who resort to them shall find, on the part of those 
 to whose guidance and authority they are intrusted 
 during the most critical period of their lives, some 
 compensating watchfulness and wisdom, to stand in 
 the place of a father's counsels and a mother's love. 
 We look to you, Sir, with an undoubting trust, that, 
 in this most important department of your duties, 
 every reasonable expectation that is entertained of 
 our ancient University will be fully realized. 
 
 We doubt not, also, that your influence will be 
 given to every judicious effort to raise and sustain 
 the standard of intellectual culture, upon which the 
 reputation and usefulness of such an institution must 
 greatly depend, and to which Harvard has already so 
 largely contributed. In this age of unprecedented 
 activity in every sphere of human effort and enter- 
 prise, the community at large has become fully per- 
 suaded of the necessity of education in many differ- 
 ent directions and departments, and will no longer 
 be content with that preliminary and general culti- 
 vation of the minds of the young, which was once 
 dignified with the name of a " liberal education." 
 Instead of being finished, it is now more common, 
 and more just, to regard a young man's education as 
 only commenced, when he has completed his pre- 
 paratory term of college life. While, therefore, I 
 would earnestly commend to you, as the objects of 
 your chief interest and care, those who are in this 
 most critical and important period of their career, 
 let me also invoke your encouragement of those 
 severer and more directly practical studies, which 
 are pursued in the advanced schools placed under 
 
IT 
 
 the general charge of the Corporation. The public 
 have witnessed with great satisfaction the increasing 
 facilities and opportunities which, from time to time, 
 have been afforded for the prosecution of those 
 studies, in the immediate results of which the whole 
 community has the deepest and most direct interest. 
 That comprehensive law which governs the world of 
 trade and commerce, that the supply must be pro- 
 portioned to the demand, cannot be excluded from 
 the domain of education. Its jurisdiction is as uni- 
 versal as the operations of nature or the enterprises 
 of man. Its influence is already felt, in the more 
 ample and generous means which are here furnished, 
 for higher attainments in that noble science, on the 
 full comprehension of which, not only personal 
 rights and the rights of property, but the security 
 of public liberty and public order, so vitally depend ; 
 for the acquisition of a more exact and enlarged 
 knowledge of those laws, by the observance of which 
 alone a sound mind can be retained in a sound body ; 
 and for those extended researches in the various 
 departments of natural science, the thorough and 
 persevering prosecution of which is advancing in so 
 great a degree the true progress of the country in 
 all its internal and external relations. These will 
 all come under your general supervision, and will not 
 fail, I trust, to receive a just proportion of your 
 fostering care. 
 
 It is not, however, merely positive knowledge that 
 we seek in education ; nor is its communication to 
 his pupils the highest province of the teacher. The 
 3 
 
18 
 
 successive classes of young men, who are to throng 
 these halls, and who will receive an impress from 
 your hands which all the after years of life will not 
 obliterate, can only obtain here that true education 
 which it is the object of the College in all its depart- 
 ments to give, by a sedulous exercise and discipline 
 of all their moral and intellectual powers. I need 
 not remind you. Sir, or your associates, that those 
 who are to compose this long procession — whose 
 march, we trust, may never be stayed or interrupted 
 — will bear with them hither the precious hopes of 
 many a parental heart, and that the light of many a 
 home is destined to be extinguished or kindled into 
 new brightness by their success or failure here. 
 
 It is with a cheerful and well-grounded confidence 
 that we commit them to your care ; looking forward 
 to a new career of prosperity for the University, 
 under the fresh impulse it will receive from the con- 
 scientious devotion of your talents and influence to 
 its growth and success. 
 
 And congratulating you. Sir, upon the greater op- 
 portunities of usefulness you will possess, I now 
 place under your charge this ancient Charter, " the 
 ample page of knowledge to unroll," which for more 
 than two centuries has given a beneficent power to 
 your predecessors ; with this Seal, whose impress, I 
 feel assured, will never, by your hand, be made the 
 witness or verification of any act unworthy of this 
 noble institution ; and these Keys, whose solidity 
 and polish are fit emblems of the strength and beau- 
 ty of those intellectual treasures it will be your privi- 
 lege to unlock. 
 
REPLY. 
 
 May it please your Excellency : — 
 
 I ACCEPT these symbols of a sacred trust with emo- 
 tions which I find it difficult to reconcile or express. 
 I will not affect to be indifferent to the honor of 
 being called to fill such a place, and to succeed such 
 men. But I also know the difficulties and perplex- 
 ities which await me. I have listened — we all have 
 listened — to what your Excellency has said, with such 
 just and fervid eloquence, of the dignity and respon- 
 sibilities of the teacher ; of the need there is that 
 education should be improved and extended in order 
 to meet the advancing wants of the age, and above 
 all, that the whole should be touched by Christian 
 influences ; but this only makes me feel my incompe- 
 tency the more. 
 
 It is too late, however, now, to dwell on discour- 
 agements. I am glad to know that I live in the 
 midst of a community, and under the shadow of a 
 Commonwealth, where every well-meant effort in the 
 right direction will be welcomed, and candidly and 
 generously appreciated. In the hope that my po- 
 sition will enable me to do something to quicken and 
 
20 
 
 mould minds, which are hereafter to exert a control- 
 ling influence in Church and State, — in the hope that 
 I may succeed in doing something, however little, for 
 the consecration of the genius and learning of this 
 country, — I also find the strongest motive to ani- 
 mate my endeavors. And I have another dependence, 
 without which all else is empty and vain : I am to 
 live and act in that mysterious and awful Presence, 
 whose strength will be manifested in my weakness, if 
 I have the grace to seek it in the spirit of faith and 
 of prayer. 
 
LATIN ORATION, 
 
 CHARLES CARROLL, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SENIOR CLASS 
 
ORATIO 
 
 More antiquo hodie in hunc locum convenimus ut 
 munere duplici fungamur. Nam primum vir ille 
 clarissimus doctissimusque, quinetiam nobis omnibus 
 carissimus, qui quatuor jam annos rebus nostris prae- 
 fuit, — is igitur nobis est hodie cura exsolvendus ; 
 contra autem alterum, pari fama atque doctrina, nobis 
 profecto baud minus exspectatum, Praesidem atque 
 Patrem debemus salutare. Magna est hujusce mu- 
 neris gravitas. Hie enim qui jam claves ceteraque 
 honoris insignia accepit, omnibus posthac hujus loci 
 studiis et exercitationibus praesidere debebit. Non 
 solum discipulos ipse litterarum disciplina exercebit, 
 sed etiam, ut olim gymnasiarchi illi, quae ad com- 
 modum spectent vel magistrorum vel discipulorum 
 omnino curabit. Nonne igitur valde opus erit ut hie 
 quam maxime sit constans, strenuus, omnino denique 
 probus sapiensque 1 Quid solennium nostrorum 
 quam hocce quod nunc agimus vel gravius vel au- 
 gustius putemus 1 
 
 At non solum gravitas officii memoranda esse vide- 
 tur, sed etiam loci dignitas et convenientia. Hie 
 enim multos per annos discipuli nostri, ad gradus 
 
24 
 
 academicos perducti, Almae Matri triste illud ac 
 longum " vale " dicere solent ; quorum quam multi 
 olim in laudem et auctoritatetn, suo quisque in 
 genere, pervenerint, baud cuiquam nostrum ignotum 
 esse arbitror. Oratores quoque et poetae, omni 
 venustate ac facundia ornati, clarissimi denique qui 
 in bis regionibus reperiri potuerunt, sermonibus 
 quotannis in hoc loco babitis maximam laudem con- 
 secuti sunt. Quare equidem mibi non alium locum 
 videor patriae nostrae recordari litterarum dignitate 
 ac laude insigniorem. 
 
 Sed etiamsi abesset loco omnis bujusmodi dignitas, 
 tamen certe eam non desideraremus quum tantum 
 nobis faventium consessum videremus. Magnam 
 conspicimus frequentiam, non solum eorum qui bic 
 quondam instituti Almam Matrem nobiscum commu- 
 nem babent, sed etiam aliorum, elegantium docto- 
 rumque, qui aliis quidem scbolis instituti, tamen banc 
 nostram prope ut matrem alteram diligunt atque ob- 
 servant. Nos quidem, qui adbuc studiis implicati 
 intra portions et nemora Academiae nostrae libenter 
 moramur, gratias vobis vebementer agimus. Non 
 enim, mebercle, penetralibus nostris longe abditi, in 
 nostras modo res incumbimus, laude apud sodales 
 nostros comparata contenti, omnino famae, auctorita- 
 tis, laudis externae incuriosi. Quod tantum abest 
 ut verum sit, semper vestrum aditum sermonemque 
 colimus, sententias vestras captamus ; si nos juvatis 
 baud ingrati sumus; si quid consilii offertis reve- 
 renter accipimus ; affligimur reprehensione vestra, 
 laude magnopere efFerimur atque gaudemus. 
 
25 
 
 Sed quum vobis, viri docti et honesti, gratias per- 
 niagnas agere debeamus, turn baud scio an huic 
 illustri ingenuarum ac formosarum frequentiae sint 
 etiam majores persolvendae. Yos enim plerumque, 
 ut hie adessetis, pietate aliqua vel desiderio impulsi 
 estis, — notas hasce sedes revisendi studio, vel juven- 
 tutis annos in memoriam revocandi ; ita ut vestra 
 ipsorum quoque ut hie adsitis quodammodo videatur 
 interesse. His autem nulla hujusmodi pietas vel re- 
 cordatio. Benevolentia, ergo, in nos, vel potius in 
 omnes bonas artes ae disciplinas, benignitate sola 
 atque sincera hue adductae sunt. O nos fortunatos, 
 qui omni quod in hac regione vel formosi, vel ve- 
 nusti, vel suavis inveniri potest concionem nostram 
 ornatam videamus. Qui tandem oratores, qui phi- 
 losophi, qui magistratus corona unquam insigniore 
 sunt honorati 1 
 
 Sunt his temporibus multi, boni illi quidem for- 
 tasse atque justi, non tamen satis aeuti, qui hane 
 nostram ceterasque ejusmodi scholas semper repre- 
 hendunt et insectantur. Studia nostra ii vel damno- 
 sa vel certe inutilia esse putant. Discipulos nostros 
 aiunt diffieiles, segnes, somniantes evadere ; vel 
 si doctrinae aliquantulum nobis coneedant, tamen 
 certe ad negotia nos parum aptos existimant. Quo- 
 rum sententiae et auetoritas tantum apud plerosque 
 valent ut major fortasse pars civitatis nostrae ab 
 hujusmodi seholis vel fere vel plane sit aliena, 
 cum credat viros illos bonos et illustres qui omni 
 aetate vitam ae soeietatem humanam artibus, litteris, 
 institutis auxerunt disciplinae in seholis aceeptae 
 4 
 
26 
 
 plerosque fiiisse expertes. Quae sententiae certe, ut 
 modeste loquar, ab universarum rerum historia dis- 
 crepant. Etenim ut exempla proferam ex rebus per- 
 antiquis, — nonne Graeci illi philosophi, Aristoteles 
 et Plato, litterarum disciplina accuratissima instructi 
 sunt? Quid de eorum scholis dicam ac disciplinis, 
 quae in omni philosopbia atque artibus maximam 
 vim usque ad hunc diem babent? Jam ut saecula 
 insequentia praeteream, ex bis ipsis temporibus 
 exempla capiamus eorum qui quum docti sapientes- 
 que tum etiam prudentes fuerunt, qui in litteras 
 iidemque in negotia incubuerunt. Nam paucis his 
 annis mortuus est " rerum Romanarum florentissi- 
 mus auctor," lumen Germaniae, qui quum in Unguis 
 et historia longe eruditissimus fuerit, tum etiam in 
 omnibus publicis negotiis maxime fuit strenuus 
 atque prudens. Quid autem de viro illo dicam inter 
 Britannos historia doctissimo, qui etiam inter argen- 
 tariam faciendam, dum usuram sane et fenus et syn- 
 graphas quotidie tractat, tamen in rebus Graecis 
 componendis assidue versatur'? Sed quid ego per 
 alia tempora vel alias civitates exempla conquiram ? 
 Nonne hie inter nos ipsos virum ilium amplissimum 
 videmus, qui fere prima juventute ab Alma Matre no- 
 stra praecipuis auctus honoribus, — insequenti aetate 
 laudem singularem litterarum et eloquentiae conse- 
 cutus, — deinde negotiis ac magistratibus in foro et 
 in curia et domi et foris bene actis, quum in civitate 
 honores permultos acceperit tum denique ad dignita- 
 tem pervenit paene supremam "? 
 
 At longum est omnia hujusmodi memorare. Pru- 
 
27 
 
 dentissimo cuiqiie patet, ut uno verbo dicam, ratio- 
 nem ac disciplinam hujus nostrae et ceterarum ejus- 
 modi Academiarum bonis universis artibus, quinetiam. 
 negotiis, non modo non repugnare, sed etiam, si modo 
 rite utamur, magnopere prodesse. 
 
 Quare viris illis illustribus qui olim Academiae 
 nostrae praefuerunt gratias ego existimo hodie solen- 
 niter ac publice agendas. 
 
 Jam primum senem ilium eloquentem et augu- 
 stum, qui plus quindecim annos quondam res nostras 
 assidue curavit, nos reverenter salvere jubemus. 
 Fortunati sane nos adolescentes sumus quibus senes 
 tam venerabiles hodie liceat salutare. 
 
 Proximum ilium, qui jam curiam ac senatum reli- 
 quit ut iVlmae Matris solennia pie observaret, mihi 
 quidem uni salutandum non existimo. Ad vos ille, 
 cives, amicos, fautores sues respiciat. Ego quidem 
 honores ejus jam memoravi; nunc vestri demum 
 vultus et voces et plausus dignissimam ei habent 
 gratulationem. 
 
 At te, vir venerande, qui hodie curam nostrarum 
 rerum solenniter deponis, — te et salvere et valere 
 jubemus. Breve profecto tempus apud nos commo- 
 ratus es. At scio equidem nobis non querendum 
 esse, vel certe baud murmurandum. Etenim munus 
 istud beneficiumque quod Academiae nostrae ut 
 Praeses ejus attulisti, quamvis sit gravissimum, ta- 
 men cetera ista vix adaequare potest quae multos per 
 annos Uteris non solum patriae nostrae praestas sed 
 etiam universis. Itaque eo aequiore animo te nunc 
 exsolvere possumus, quod scimus te quanto majore 
 
28 
 
 opera atque cura, nostra causa suscepta, hodierno die 
 leveris, tanto majorem continuo collaturum esse in 
 litteras atque annales patriae nostrae illustrandos. 
 Neque tu, credo, visum tuum aditumque a nobis 
 plane amovebis. Tu his in sedibus usque versaberis, 
 tuas virtutes nobis conspicere atque imitari, sermone 
 ac sapientia tua perfrui licebit. Quum tu igitur pla- 
 cide ita et honeste inter nos versaberis, profecto beatis- 
 simus eris, ut qui magno illo et insigni bono fruaris, 
 senectute erudita, et utili, et sancta et honorata. 
 
 Te nunc, Princeps sanctissime, nos omnes qui hie 
 adsumus, vel una voce, singulari laetitia atque gau- 
 dio iterum ac saepius salvere jubemus. O Matrem 
 nostram felicem, quae inter filios sues semper clarissi- 
 mos habeat ad ipsius utilitatem paratos. Tu prima 
 adolescentia praemiis maximis honoris ab Alma Ma- 
 tre affectus es ; deinde multos post annos ad eam re- 
 versus vitam ei operamque dicasti. Nunc omni- 
 bus rogantibus obsecutus es ut priore loco dece- 
 dens in istam dignitatem ascenderes altiorem. Nemo 
 sane, multis his annis, auspiciis insignioribus dignita- 
 tem istam suscepit. Quid enim ea quae omnibus 
 bene nota sunt commemorem 1 Quid quae ipse ser- 
 mone audivi eorum qui prioribus annis te amicum 
 fidelem, vel magistrum eruditum, vel pastorem sanc- 
 tissimum habuerunf? Non est quod faciam; quin 
 hie illustris faventium conventus, singularis ilia 
 omnium consensio atque laetitia quod tu in honorem 
 istum arcessitus es, horum denique ora et gestus et 
 voces, haec inquam declarant quam vehemens in te 
 sit omnium spes et caritas et fiducia. Quam Mem 
 
-«■ 
 
 29 
 
 tu, obsecro, ne destituas. Vide enim quam grave 
 munus susceperis. Fidei tuae posthac flos juventutis 
 nostrae, etiam spes civitatis, mandabitur. Hie ado- 
 leseentes ii instituendi sunt qui annis insequentibus 
 in litteris, moribus, negotiis omnibus hujus eivitatis 
 vel maximam vim sine dubio habebunt. Fac igitur 
 ut illi quam maxime sint fortes, probi, sapientes. 
 Quod si rite feceris, nomen tuum atque fama non 
 solum in nostrum sed etiam in omne tempus semper 
 crescente honore celebrari debebit. 
 
INAUGURAL ADDEE8S, 
 
 PRESIDENT WALKER 
 
ADDEE S S. 
 
 The symbolic parts of this formal and public in- 
 duction to office remind us of other days. From the 
 earliest times, the chief magistrate of the Colony, 
 and afterwards of the State, has consented to be 
 present on these occasions, to transfer the charter and 
 keys and seal of the College to the person whom 
 the proper authorities had appointed to that trust. 
 He is understood as representing here this ancient 
 Commonwealth, and representing her in that char- 
 acter under which she has won the highest distinc- 
 tion and renown ; I mean, as the friend and patron 
 of learning, and the guardian of its rights. 
 
 What most distinguishes the early settlers of Mas- 
 sachusetts, is the interest and care they took in edu- 
 cation, and especially in the institution of a system 
 of common schools, to be sustained at the public 
 charge. Here they were first. In other things they 
 thought wisely, and acted nobly; but in this, and 
 perhaps in this alone, they were original. Honor, 
 immortal honor, to the men who, while still strug- 
 gling for a scanty and bare subsistence, could yet 
 find the means and the heart to do what had never 
 5 
 
34 
 
 been done or attempted before ; placing the advan- 
 tages of a competent instruction within the reach of 
 all. By taking this course, what a noble confidence 
 they manifested in the truth of their principles, and 
 in the justice of their measures ! nay, they thus 
 showed that the only ground of their attachment 
 to their principles and measures was the belief that 
 they were true and just, and would bear the light. 
 
 But the founders and early settlers of Massachu- 
 setts did not limit their views of education to com- 
 mon schools. Many of their leading men had studied 
 at the English Universities, and were imbued with, 
 or at least could appreciate, the highest scholarship 
 of that day. They also knew, on general grounds 
 and as practical men, that the public good requires 
 the advancement, as well as the diffusion^ of knowl- 
 edge ; in short, that both must go together ; that the 
 streams will soon cease, if the fountains fail. 
 
 A glance at well-known facts in the history of our 
 own College will show that the attention of the 
 colonists was turned to the necessity of classical and 
 professional instruction first of all. One of the ear- 
 liest accounts of the settlement, prepared by persons 
 who had themselves been witnesses and actors in the 
 scene, contains this familiar but memorable record : 
 " After God had carried us safe to New England, and 
 we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for 
 our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's 
 worship, and settled the civil government, one of the 
 next things we longed for and looked after was to 
 advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity ; 
 
35 
 
 dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the church- 
 es, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust." * 
 Accordingly, in 1636, only seven years after Higgin- 
 son had landed at Salem with the charter, and morQ> 
 than ten years before the act for the establishment 
 of free schools, the General Court passed an order 
 agreeing " to give four hundred pounds towards a 
 school or college," whereof two hundred pounds 
 were to be paid the next year, and two hundred 
 pounds when the work was finished. But the colo- 
 nial government, with the best intentions, was not in 
 a condition to do any thing whatever to give effect 
 to this purpose. In 1638, John Harvard died, be- 
 queathing seven hundred pounds, and his entire li- 
 brary, to the above-mentioned object. This oppor- 
 tune, and in the circumstances even munificent gift, 
 was welcomed as a providential interposition ; the 
 giver was regarded at the time as being, in the words 
 of the old tract just referred to, " the first founder " 
 of the institution ; and hence, as it is expressly said, 
 the institution itself was called after his name. Still 
 the Colony continued to look upon the College as its 
 ward, and in some respects as its foster-child, and 
 favored and nourished it, as its own straitened means 
 would allow. 
 
 Under countenance of the State, but chiefly by the " 
 liberal benefaction of individuals, the College has 
 grown up to be what it is. And now, at the inaugu- 
 ration of its nineteenth President, the question natu- 
 
 * New England's First Fruits, London, 1643, p. 12. 
 
36 
 
 rally arises, whether the public considerations which 
 led our fathers to found this College do not still 
 exist, only with added force, for its encouragement 
 ^nd support. 
 
 My answer to this question will take the form of 
 a plea, not for this College alone, but for all colleges, 
 and especially for those in this country. I do not 
 enter upon it in a tone of complaint, or even of dis- 
 trust. I do not mean to imply, by any thing which I 
 am going to say, that the community in which we 
 live takes no interest in these institutions, or that it 
 is wanting in a disposition to support them, and 
 even, as new wants are developed, to improve and 
 extend them. If I were inclined to take this ground 
 anywhere, it would not be here; for we are sur- 
 rounded by monuments which prove the contrary. 
 Even here, however, it seems to me that the advocacy 
 of colleges is often put on a false, or at least on too 
 narrow a basis. An impression prevails, at least 
 in some quarters, that what is done for common 
 schools is done for the public ; while what is done 
 for colleges is done, at best, for learning and learned 
 men. The State is often hindered, I believe, from 
 legislating in favor of colleges by an opinion hastily 
 formed, that it would not be to legislate for the pub- 
 lic, but for a class. I hope to be able to show, that 
 this opinion is without any solid foundation ; that 
 it originates in certain popular mistakes and fallacies, 
 which it will not be difficult to expose ; that every 
 man and woman and child in the country has a sub- 
 stantial interest in the prosperity of these institu- 
 
37 
 
 tions ; that, from their first establishment in the 
 Middle Ages to the present hour, they have consti- 
 tuted one of the most active and eff'ective of the 
 democratic elements of society ; and consequently, 
 that it ill becomes a people who have placed them- 
 selves at the head of the great democratic movement 
 of modern times, to suffer these institutions to de- 
 cline, or to become so expensive for want of public 
 aid as to exclude all but the rich from their ad- 
 vantages. 
 
 I suppose I may begin by taking it for granted, 
 that a thoroughly educated man is a great public 
 blessing. Here and there an individual is to be met 
 with who still counts the disparities of genius and 
 learning among the difficulties in Providence ; as if 
 the bestowment of genius and learning were a kind 
 of favoritism. But this is to forget that to increase 
 knowledge is not the same thing as to increase hap- 
 piness ; on the contrary, if we may believe the He- 
 brew sage, it is to increase sorrow. When God 
 raises up a Sir Isaac Newton, it is not that he may 
 make Sir Isaac Newton any better or any happier 
 than other men ; if he happens to be so, it is from 
 causes which are open to others as well as to him. 
 Sir Isaac Newton lives that all men may be benefited 
 by his discoveries ; the instrument is one, the bless- 
 ing is manifold and universal. 
 
 Perhaps it will be said, that the public benefactor is 
 not he who discovers a new and important principle, 
 but he who applies it, who introduces it into com- 
 mon practice, and so makes it the property or privi- 
 lege of all. 
 
X 
 
 38 
 
 I have neither space nor disposition to reopen 
 here the vexed question between the scholar and the 
 practical man, which contributes most to human 
 progress. Both are necessary. Sometimes, indeed, 
 both happily concur in the same person, and then 
 we have not merely the skilful artisan, but the great 
 artist ; not merely the adroit and successful politician, 
 but the great statesman. One thing, however, is 
 plain ; principles must be discovered before they can 
 be applied. Moreover, the cases are extremely rare 
 of important discoveries, even in the social sciences, 
 which are struck out in the collisions of active life ; 
 they almost always come as the reward of patient 
 and solitary study. Adam Smith's " Inquiry into the 
 Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," is 
 one of the four works named by Sir James Mackin- 
 tosh as having " most directly influenced the general 
 opinion of Europe during the last two centuries." 
 Yet Adam Smith was a solitary thinker, a mere 
 scholar, and what is w^orse, in the opinion of some, a 
 professor too. To show how little he sympathized 
 with practical men, and how little the practical men 
 of his day sympathized with him, it is enough to say, 
 that Pitt could not understand him, and that Fox 
 would not take the trouble to read him. This was 
 true, not more than fifty years ago, of speculations, 
 many of which have now become as household words. 
 In short, nothing better illustrates the influence of 
 pure speculation on the prevailing habits of thought, 
 and the material interests of the community, than 
 the whole history of political economy. What has 
 
39 
 
 been done is simply this. Thinking men first in- 
 formed their own minds by earnest and patient study 
 on the matters calling for change. They then pub- 
 lished to the world the results ; the conclusions, and 
 the reasons on which the conclusions were founded. 
 The world read. It saw, it could not help seeing, 
 wherein it had erred, and that it had erred, moreover, 
 to its own wrong and hurt. The light found its way 
 gradually among the people, into the text-books of 
 the common schools, into the education of the com- 
 mon mind. Thus what is a great discovery made by 
 scholars and scientific men in one age, becomes the 
 common sense of the age that follows. 
 
 But again it may be objected, that all these things 
 can be gained, and have been gained, without the 
 help of colleges. The greatest inventors in the use- 
 ful arts, not a few of the greatest geniuses in science 
 and literature, some of our ablest and most renowned 
 public men, were not brought up in colleges. Frank- 
 lin, Bowditch, Shakspeare, who stands alone, and 
 Washington, another who stands alone, — these, and 
 a thousand others who have been lights and guides 
 of the world, w^ere not brought up in colleges. 
 They were what are called self-educated men, — self- 
 made, self-taught. 
 
 Without meaning to derogate, in the smallest de- 
 gree, from the merits or the actual attainments of 
 such' men, without meaning to question that their 
 merits were greater in proportion as their advantages 
 were less, I cannot help observing that these terms, 
 self-educated^ self-made, self-taught, are vague and 
 
40 
 
 loose expressions, which can hardly be interpreted to 
 the letter. How can a man teach himself what he 
 does not already knowl Strictly speaking, nobody 
 is self-educated, self-made, self-taught. We are all 
 born into a state of entire dependence on others : it 
 is from others that we learn, not only how to read 
 and write, but also how to speak, how to think, how 
 to walk. Home is a school ; the church is a school ; 
 society is a school. Hence there is not a so-called 
 self-educated, self-made, self-taught man among them 
 all, who does not owe much the largest part of what 
 he knows or believes to the teaching of others. The 
 only real distinction between men in this respect 
 would seem to be, that some have better teachers 
 than others, and have them longer. 
 
 The principal recommendation of the self-made 
 scholar is, that he has to exert his own mind in every 
 step he takes, and this can hardly fail to improve 
 his mind. But the same must also be true of the 
 pupil of the best teachers, if he aspires to eminence. 
 The object aimed at in a university education is not 
 to lessen the amount of intellectual labor, but to 
 make that labor more effective. The earnest and 
 ambitious student is supplied with the best facilities 
 for thoroughly mastering what is already known in 
 a particular department, in order that, with the same 
 amount of labor, he may be able to reach, much 
 sooner than he otherwise would, the existing boun- 
 dary of human discovery in that direction, and so 
 be in a condition, while yet in the prime of life, to 
 enter upon really original investigations. Besides, 
 
41 
 
 we are not now speaking of what is good for tlie in- 
 dividual, for his self-improvement, but of what is 
 good for the public. The public gains nothing di- 
 rectly from having the same truths re-discovered, or 
 the same processes re-invented, over and over again. 
 What adds to the intellectual wealth of the com- 
 munity, and ultimately to its progress in other re- 
 spects, is the actual enlargement of the boundaries 
 of human knowledge. Hence the public good re- 
 quires that the acquisition of what is already known 
 should be simplified and expedited by the help of 
 books and the living teacher ; a necessity which 
 must be more and more felt, because the progress of 
 science is continually lengthening the way to be gone 
 over, before the point of proper original discovery is 
 reached. 
 
 There are also two other advantages incidental to 
 a collegiate education, compared with private or self- 
 education, which are of public importance. In the 
 first place, the habit of measuring one's self with 
 equals, and looking up to teachers, begets a spirit of 
 concession and deference. Who, in reading the lives 
 of great men, has never been struck with the tender 
 respect, the almost filial regard, with which they are 
 accustomed to look back on some favorite teacher, 
 speaking of him, and bearing themselves in his pres- 
 ence, to the last, as if the old relation were, for the 
 moment, renewed, and they were his pupils still. 
 Men of a timid or morbid nature, like Cowper, may 
 complain and lament over the rudenesses, the cruelties, 
 and other and not unfrequent abuses, pertaining to 
 6 
 
42 
 
 the society of students collected together in large 
 numbers. To such natures, such society may not be 
 well suited; but to the majority of minds it is found 
 to be a most effectual antidote to infirmities and vices 
 which infest the wealthy and educated classes ; such 
 as effeminacy, affectation, and self-conceit. Though 
 there are pedants and charlatans in plenty, it is 
 a mistake to suppose that colleges make them ; on 
 the contrary, they do more than all other causes put 
 together to unmake them. In colleges themselves, 
 this sort of pretence cannot live under the storm of 
 merciless ridicule it incurs. And this is not all. By 
 multiplying the number of really learned men, and 
 thus elevating the standard of public opinion, col- 
 leges make it less and less possible for the mere pre- 
 tender to escape public exposure and contempt. 
 
 Another favorable circumstance pertaining to a 
 liberal and systematic education is, that the student 
 is neither expected nor tempted to make up his mind 
 definitively on any particular subject, much less to 
 commit himself to it, or act upon it, until he has 
 completed his survey of the whole field of human 
 knowledge. Of course this survey must be general, 
 and in parts quite superficial, but sufficient, never- 
 theless, to secure a deliberation and breadth of view 
 which will do much to save him from hasty and one- 
 sided judgments. To this we are to look, as it seems 
 to me, for one of the best correctives of an evil which 
 threatens the order and stability, I might almost say, 
 the very existence, of modern society. I am no 
 alarmist ; still, I suppose all will agree that the 
 
43 
 
 boasted civilization of the nineteenth century is be- 
 ginning to run out into follies and extravagances, 
 which, to say the least, were not expected. Crude 
 and sometimes noxious theories in science, politics, 
 and religion, schemes of reform which unsettle every 
 thing and settle nothing, popular beliefs every whit 
 as absurd as witchcraft, and not supported by half 
 so much testimony, and which, fifty years ago, would 
 not have been able to obtain even so much as a hear- 
 ing, are now agitating the community everywhere. 
 And why? We must not think to trace this state 
 of things to mere ignorance on the part of the peo- 
 ple ; for mere ignorance is slow and dull to all 
 changes, whether for the better or the worse. And 
 besides, the primary education of the people was 
 never attended to more generally or more successfully 
 than now ; nay, never so generally or so successfully. 
 And even as regards the leaders of the people, who 
 are chiefly responsible for these erratic movements, it 
 is not necessary to question their natural ability even 
 as leaders, nor, for the most part, their good inten- 
 tions. They have probably thought a great deal on 
 the question at issue, and understand it perhaps in 
 some of its bearings better than most persons ; their 
 error consists in refusing or neglecting to consider 
 it in all its bearings. Very probably they have a 
 natural and just sense of the evil to be removed, but 
 their defect consists in this : they do not comprehend 
 the magnitude of the difficulty ; they have not a full 
 view of all that relates to the question. Though 
 not, perhaps, deficient in sense, they want what Locke 
 
44 
 
 calls " large, sound, round-about sense " ; as a means 
 of obtaining whicb, tbey also need a " large, sound, 
 round-about " education. 
 
 The radical difficulty in modern society may be 
 expressed, as it seems to me, in two words, — intel- 
 lectual anarchy ; a difficulty not likely to be over- 
 come or essentially reduced by merely attending to 
 and improving common schools. Indeed, there is 
 doubtless a sense in w^hich it may be said that the 
 favor and success of common schools have contributed 
 to the anarchy here complained of, and furnished the 
 best reason and excuse for it, by lessening the differ- 
 ence between common education, which is the prop- 
 erty and the right of all, and the highest education, 
 which, in the nature of things, is accessible to but 
 few. Some are so convinced of this, and withal so 
 alarmed at the tendency of events, as to be more 
 than half inclined to wish back the good old times 
 when the multitude were content to believe as they 
 were told, and do as they were bid. But, thanks to 
 God, this will not, cannot be ; neither is it necessary 
 as a means of restoring a proper order and subordi- 
 nation in the intellectual world. Extend and im- 
 prove common schools to the utmost : it is a neces- 
 sary condition of self-government ; it is the sole 
 guaranty of popular liberty ; constituted as modern 
 society is, it may almost be said to mark the distinc- 
 tion between a standing and a falling commonwealth ; 
 it is the last hope of mankind ; and no evil, no in- 
 convenience, will grow out of it, provided only that 
 you at the same time attend to and improve colleges 
 
45 
 
 and universities in the same proportion. Then the 
 difference between common education and scientific 
 and professional education will remain as great as 
 ever, which is all that is required ; for it is on this 
 recognized and felt superiority, that all legitimate, all 
 true authority is built. 
 
 The learned professions complain, that they are 
 gradually losing their just proportion of influence 
 over the public mind ; not merely on general subjects, 
 but also on those to which they are specially devoted. 
 To a certain extent this is probably true ; but what 
 is the remedy '? Influence is not a thing to be had 
 for asking, or sued for as a charity, or enforced as a 
 matter of police ; homage, to be real, must be spon- 
 taneous. And here I hardly need say, that the peo- 
 ple have no interest in being misled* If they folloAv 
 false lights, it must be because the true lights do not 
 shine out so clearly and distinctly, but that honest 
 minds may mistake one for the other. Let the true 
 lights shine out more clearly and distinctly ; there is 
 no other way. If the learned professions are ever 
 to regain their ascendency, each in its appropriate 
 sphere, it will not be by the spell of names or forms, 
 nor yet by that of caste or social position ; it will be 
 by obvious and incontestable evidence of superiority. 
 I do not mean the superiority of a few individuals in 
 each profession ; this is an end which is sufficiently 
 secured by natural genius, and what is called self- 
 culture : the profession itself must be raised, which 
 can only be done by raising the standard of profes- 
 sional education. 
 
46 
 
 In saying this, I do but say what the heads of all 
 the professions feel and acknowledge. Everywhere 
 they are awake to the public need ; nay, more, are 
 doing what they can to supply it. Considerate men of 
 all parties are beginning to see, that a wise conser- 
 vatism and a wise reform go together. If we would 
 keep things as they are, if we would retain the old 
 adjustments of society, we must not only accept, but 
 provide for, those changes which the progress of 
 societv demands. In order to maintain the natural 
 and necessary balance among the great social agen- 
 cies, if we would go back in some things, we must 
 go back in all ; if we would go forward in some 
 things, we must go forward in all. And hence it 
 follows, that the impulse which has been given, and 
 so nobly given, to primary education, only makes it 
 the more indispensable as a condition of social order, 
 and even as a matter of pure conservatism, that a 
 corresponding impulse should be given to secondary 
 or higher education. 
 
 But the question will here be raised. Are colleges 
 and universities the fittest places for the acquisition 
 of this secondary and higher education ? 
 
 What are colleges and universities'? I purposely 
 waive the logomachy as to the proper and distinct 
 meaning and application of these terms ; partly be- 
 cause it has nothing to do with my argument, and 
 partly because it is not likely to lead to any definitive 
 or satisfactory results. Use, reputable use, and not 
 reason or consistency, determines, for the most part, 
 how words are to be understood ; and reputable use, in 
 
47 
 
 this case as in many others, varies in diiferent coun- 
 tries. University has one signification in Germany 
 and Scotland ; another in England ; and still another 
 in France. In this country, also, the ambiguity has 
 been still further complicated by an accident of his- 
 tory. Our oldest colleges, in the beginning, were 
 nothing but colleges in the most limited sense of 
 that term, and therefore were so denominated. Some 
 of them, however, when considered in connection 
 with their scientific and professional schools, have 
 grown into a resemblance to the German and Scotch 
 universities, but still prefer to retain the old name ; 
 while, on the other hand, colleges of yesterday, 
 which can hardly yet aspire to be colleges, have 
 chosen to begin by hanging out what I suppose is 
 regarded as the more showy and attractive sign of 
 university. Be this as it may, I have nothing to do 
 with names ; I look at things. By college or uni- 
 versity^ for, according to the common practice here, I 
 use these terms interchangeably, I mean an institu- 
 tion founded and provided for the purpose of giving, 
 not primary instruction, nor intermediate instruc- 
 tion, but the highest instruction. A college or uni- 
 versity aspires to impart, not merely the measure of 
 teaching which is necessary to practical life and good 
 citizenship, but that which is necessary to scholars ; 
 in one word, the highest form of the learned culture 
 of the age. And in order to fulfil this function, that 
 is to say, to do in fact what it aspires to do, it must 
 have an ample public library, and scientific appara- 
 tus, and also a corps of living teachers, each one of 
 
48 
 
 whom is expected to know the last word in his par- 
 ticular department of study. 
 
 Now I say that such an institution is not only a fit 
 place for the highest intellectual culture, but, in the 
 existing state of human knowledge, indispensable to 
 it. In the infancy of science, when the sciences^ 
 were but few, and one after another was to be creat- 
 ed, genius was every thing. For this reason, in the 
 early history of every science the greatest names are 
 those of solitary thinkers and experimentalists. Less 
 than a century ago, Priestley, with the rudest instru- 
 ments and materials, could immortalize himself by 
 brilliant discoveries in chemistry. But to take up 
 chemistry now, where he and his illustrious followers 
 have left the science, and to extend it by further dis- 
 coveries equally brilliant, requires all the genius of 
 Priestley, and in addition to this all the refinements 
 of art, together with a familiar acquaintance with 
 whatever has been done by others in the same field 
 of inquiry, as the ground of new experiments and 
 new generalizations. If it should be said that books 
 alone might supply the necessary teaching, I answer, 
 that the question is not what might be, but what will 
 be. And besides, in the present state of science, and 
 especially of what are called the progressive and de- 
 monstrative sciences, what are books, what are jour- 
 nals even which aim to make us acquainted with the 
 latest movements in the scientific world, — what are all 
 these, at least to beginners, without the cabinet and 
 the laboratory ? Moreover, the true teacher, above 
 all, if he is looked up to as one who has mastered 
 
49 
 
 and extended an important branch of human knowl- 
 edge, does more than teach ; he inspires. And one 
 teacher for every thing will not do. Some of us can 
 remember when what now make eight or ten distinct 
 sciences were taught as one, and by one person, un- 
 der the name of Natural Philosophy, and eight or ten 
 more in the same way under the name of Natural 
 History. But so rapid of late has been the progress 
 of the sciences thus grouped together, and, as a natu- 
 ral consequence, so complete the subdivision of sci- 
 entific labor, that now a teacher, in order to keep 
 himself on a level with the highest teaching in any 
 one of these subdivisions, and still more, in order to 
 assist in elevating it, must make it his specialty, and 
 live for that alone. Meanwhile, the unity and integ- 
 rity of human knowledge must not be broken. At a 
 place of the highest general education, all the legiti- 
 mate elements of a liberal culture must be provided 
 for ; all must be represented in their connection and 
 just proportions in the mind of the institution : not, 
 of course, in a single mind, for that, as we have seen, 
 is impossible, but in an aggregate mind; and this 
 aggregate mind constitutes a college, a university. 
 
 Let me not be understood to mean, that passing 
 four or seven years at a college or a university will 
 compensate for the want of natural ability or of 
 moral character. Natural ability and an earnest pur- 
 pose in life without a liberal education will do a 
 great deal more for the individual and for the public, 
 than a liberal education without natural ability and 
 an earnest purpose in life. I am no advocate, I am 
 7 
 
50 
 
 no admirer, of refined and polished mediocrity. Cul- 
 ture is no substitute for genius. The alternative is 
 not genius or culture ; we would have both. In the 
 existing state of society and the human mind, where 
 the interests and connections of men have bepome so 
 multiplied and complicated, it seems to me that no 
 one can hope to exert a marked influence on the 
 great courses of thought or action, without doing 
 about as much harm as good, unless he has both; — 
 genius, that culture may not be thrown away upon 
 him; and culture, that genius may not run out into 
 presumption and extravagance. And this is pre- 
 cisely what colleges would bring about in the edu- 
 cated classes. Colleges do not create genius, I allow ; 
 neither do they stifle or extinguish it where it 
 already exists: their highest function is to make 
 genius wise, many-sided, and safe. 
 
 But there are specific and radical objections to col- 
 leges in general, and to colleges constituted as they 
 now are, which it will be proper to explain, and, if 
 possible, to bbviate. 
 
 In the first place, it is objected, that colleges are 
 naturally retrospective and stationary ; that no gen- 
 erous movement for truth or humanity ever origi- 
 nated here, or ever found countenance and sympathy 
 there. For this reason, some are inclined to regard 
 them as a standing army in the pay of a bigoted and 
 selfish conservatism ; others, unwilling to ascribe to 
 such institutions vitality of any kind, prefer to stig- 
 matize them as no better than the hulks of a strand- 
 ed past. 
 
51 
 
 There is generally, in objections which have taken 
 fast hold of many minds, some nucleus, or at any 
 rate some show of truth, out of which the whole 
 has grown. And so in this case. I admit that the 
 natural position of the scholar in respect to change 
 and reform is that of liberal conservatism, or, as I 
 should prefer to express it, conservative liberalism. 
 As a general rule, the inmates of colleges do not 
 belong to that class of the people who are likely to 
 be stung into revolt by want or oppression. And 
 besides, it cannot be denied, that the more a man 
 knows, especially of history, society, and human 
 nature, the more distrustful he becomes of mere out- 
 ward and artificial revolutions, — of any revolutions, 
 in short, which are not the providential unfolding of 
 principles, of an inward and organic life already be- 
 gun. Unless we have the proposed object at least 
 in idea, that is to say, unless the people and their 
 leaders know what they want, agitation and revolu- 
 tion are almost an unmixed evil ; and so, I suppose, 
 colleges as a body would pronounce. So far, I am 
 willing to admit, they are naturally allied to the great 
 conservative interests of society. If, however, on the 
 strength of this, any should hurry to the conclusion 
 that colleges, as such, are opposed to progress, or to 
 just and practicable reform, it would be in contradic- 
 tion to nature and fact. 
 
 Consider, for a moment, who they are who make 
 up the public opinion which prevails in these institu- 
 tions. They consist, for the most part, of young 
 men, in whom hope predominates over fear, enthusi- 
 
52 
 
 asm over calculation and interest, whose appointed 
 studies make them familiar with the bold and origi- 
 nal thinkers of all ages, and whose private reading 
 and private sympathies are apt to be attracted to the 
 writers constituting what is called Young Europe or 
 Young America, and this, too, with little knowledge 
 of the practical difficulties in the way of radical 
 change. Now, reasoning from the nature of the 
 case, are these the persons whom we should expect 
 to carry to excess a reverence for ancient landmarks, 
 give up the thought of improving upon what has 
 been, and be but too content to stand still ? Look, 
 then, at the facts. If we go back into the Middle 
 Ages, it is impossible to read the life of such men as 
 Abelard without being convinced that whatever there 
 was then of free thought, or of progress, which is 
 the child of free thought, found its centre of action 
 in the universities. Likewise in the Lollard move- 
 ment in England, the aurora of the great Reforma- 
 tion, we are told that the universities partook, with 
 the quickness and heat of young life, of the national 
 awakening ; so much so, that Wiclif and his follow- 
 ers were on the point of gaining the upper hand at 
 Oxford itself, — nay, would probably have done so, 
 but for the interference of despotic power. And 
 when Luther came, he met nowhere with a more 
 earnest and efficient support than among the stu- 
 dents who flocked from all quarters to the University 
 of Wittemberg, until it became, to borrow Luther's 
 own expression, " a perfect hive." 
 
 The same general observation applies to the more 
 
53 
 
 recent struggles for civil freedom. On the eve of our 
 own Ee volution one of the Fellows of this College 
 wrote to Thomas Hollis respecting the students here : 
 " They have caught the spirit of the times. Their 
 declamations and forensic disputes breathe the spirit 
 of liberty. This has always been encouraged, but 
 they have sometimes been wrought up to such a 
 pitch of enthusiasm, that it has been difficult for their 
 Tutors to keep them within due bounds ; but their 
 Tutors are fearful of giving too great a check to a dis- 
 position, which may, hereafter, fill the country with 
 patriots." And after the war was over, it would 
 seem that the College was thought to have redeemed 
 its early pledges ; for Governor Hancock, in his 
 speech at the inauguration of President Willard, did 
 not hesitate to call it, " in some sense, the parent and 
 nurse of the late happy Eevolution in this Common- 
 wealth." But why multiply instances to prove what 
 we might confidently conclude beforehand would 
 be 1 Who does not know that, in all the efi'orts 
 during the present century to introduce free insti- 
 tutions among the Continental nations of Europe, 
 the professors and students in the universities have, 
 as a class, hazarded the most, and sufiered the most '? 
 Sagacious observers, judging after the event, may 
 pronounce these men precipitate, — blame them for 
 plunging the masses into a conflict for which they 
 were unprepared, and which has ended, as might 
 have been expected, in riveting their fetters more 
 strongly than ever. They may do more ; they may 
 hold them up as a warning against theoretical poll- 
 
54 
 
 ticians and reformers ; some may even have the heart 
 to deride them as martyrs and confessors to a folly, to 
 a dream. All this I can understand; in part of it I 
 am disposed to concur ; but I cannot understand how 
 any one, in the face of such facts, should still insist 
 that the influence of colleges is adverse to human 
 progress, or that liberal studies disincline men to 
 take part with the people against their oppressors. 
 
 Indeed, this whole charge is a striking instance of 
 the power of mere assertion and reiteration to give 
 currency to an opinion which, whether well-founded 
 or not formerly, is now not only untrue, but the 
 opposite of true. To whom is it owing that the 
 physical sciences have made more progress during 
 the last quarter of a century, than in any two centu- 
 ries which preceded it. 1 will not say, to colleges 
 wholly ; but I believe I may say, to colleges mainly. 
 Even in theology, which for obvious reasons is more 
 stationary than any other science, wherever theo- 
 logical schools or colleges are established, I care not 
 on what foundation, and the lights of a varied and 
 concentrated erudition are brought to bear upon the 
 study of the Sacred Volume, we soon begin to see a 
 progress. So noticeable has this at length become, 
 that cautious men have begun to feel that the danger 
 is not on the side of stability, but on the side of 
 change. The passion for making discoveries, for 
 original investigation, for new ideas, has seized us all. 
 This love of innovation is also beginning to show it- 
 self, not merely in the results, but in the methods of 
 study ; and the danger is, not that we shall attempt 
 
55 
 
 too little, but too much ; that the practicable will be 
 lost, or compromised, in a vain striving after the im- 
 practicable. 
 
 Another objection sometimes made against col- 
 leges, especially in this country, is, that they are 
 essentially aristocratical institutions ; that they are 
 an ti- democratic in principle, inasmuch as their ten- 
 dency is to uphold a privileged or favored class. 
 
 Here, again, it is not difficult to trace to its source 
 the natural jealousy, on the whole salutary, which 
 has given birth to this charge. Colleges, of course, 
 are, for the most part, founded and endowed by the 
 rich: they are also frequented by the sons of the 
 rich, whose social position and means of expense 
 sometimes, though not often, give them there, as they 
 do their fathers in general society, an artificial and 
 undeserved consequence. Add to this, that in some 
 countries they are aristocratical institutions. In 
 England, for example, political and religious causes 
 have conspired, ever since the Reformation, to make 
 Oxford and Cambridge little more than what they 
 have sometimes been called, — the great finishing 
 schools for the sons of the nobility and gentry, with 
 a sprinkling of talent from the middle classes, mostly 
 intended for the church. There are also other coun- 
 tries in Europe, Austria, for example, where the 
 whole scheme and apparatus of instruction, from the 
 lowest to the highest, are avowedly conceived on the 
 plan, not of making good scholars, but good sub- 
 jects ; and every body knows what absolute govern- 
 ments mean by good subjects, I do not seek to 
 
56 
 
 hide or extenuate these facts. View them, however, 
 in what light you please, they do not originate in 
 the constitution of colleges, as such, but in the gen- 
 eral constitution of society, or in the social or polit- 
 ical structure of particular states. 
 
 If, then, we turn from these mixed and anomalous 
 cases, and look at the constitution of colleges, as 
 such, we must admit that, so far from being anti- 
 democratic in principle, they are eminently the re- 
 verse. In them, theoretically, at least, merit deter- 
 mines rank ; natural nobility is every thing ; the 
 nobility of birth and wealth nothing. And history 
 shows that it is not so in theory alone. Throughout 
 the Middle Ages the Church constituted almost the 
 sole democratic element in society ; that is to say, it 
 opened a way, and almost the only one, by which the 
 gifted and active in humble life might raise them- 
 selves to the highest places. But it did this mainly 
 through its great conventual and cathedral schools or 
 colleges, which had the effect to reveal talent wher- 
 ever it existed, to persons who knew how to appre- 
 ciate talent, and turn it to account. And so in 
 modern times. I do not mean that colleges are the 
 only avenues to distinction, which are here open to 
 all ; it is the glory of a free country like ours, that 
 every avenue to distinction is open to all. Extraordi- 
 nary administrative talent, extraordinary capacities 
 for business of any kind, if accompanied by industry 
 and integrity, are sure to raise a man to eminence. 
 Our great merchants, many of whom began with 
 nothing, are great men ; some of them, as was said of 
 
57 
 
 those of Tyre, " are princes " ; but so, likewise, are 
 our great scholars. It is a sad page in the history 
 of letters, which records the early struggles of the 
 poor scholar ; — the father laboring- beyond his 
 strength, the sister ready to give up her last indul- 
 gence, and the mother her last crust of bread, that 
 he may complete his education. But soon the scene 
 changes, and we behold that poor scholar standing 
 erect and self-confident before kings. 
 
 I am aware that this objection is sometimes made 
 to assume a subtler form : it is said, that the poor 
 scholar, as soon as he takes his place among aristo- 
 crats, becomes an aristocrat himself That there 
 have been cases of recreancy of this sort, under cir- 
 cumstances peculiarly offensive, I do not deny ; but 
 I believe that they exist much oftener in the jealou- 
 sies and suspicions of persons who would be glad of 
 an opportunity to do the same thing, and think this 
 evidence enough that all do it who can. At any 
 rate there are considerations, not applying to distinc- 
 tion won in business and by wealth alone, which are 
 likely to keep the educated man true to his early 
 professions and sympathies. In the first place, I 
 may mention again the liberalizing effect of his 
 studies ; then, too, as a writer or public man, he is 
 more entirely and publicly committed to his princi- 
 ples, which makes the abandonment of them more 
 difficult ; and even if all other motives should fail, 
 there is the pride of intellect, which finds its gratifi- 
 cation, not in going over to other men's opinions and 
 ways, but in bringing them over to his. 
 8 
 
58 
 
 And what shall I say of that part of Xhe charge 
 which represents colleges as upholding a privileged 
 or favored class 1 That they uphold a learned class, 
 and that without them no such class could well ex- 
 ist, I readily admit ; but why this class should be 
 called a privileged or favored class, I am yet to learn. 
 By a privileged or favored class, taken in an objec- 
 tionable and offensive sense, I understand a class 
 which is better paid than others, or which the com- 
 munity is, in some way or other, heavily taxed to 
 support. But this certainly cannot be alleged against 
 the learned class with any semblance or shadow of 
 justice. I do not say, as some have done, in their 
 eagerness to repel the charge, that no labor is so ill- 
 requited as intellectual labor ; for this would not be 
 true. Of course intellectual labor, considered gen- 
 erally, is at a higher rate than manual labor ; but 
 the intellectual labor which is at the highest rate is 
 administrative and financial, and not learned. You 
 pay the agents and treasurers of your great corpora- 
 tions more than you do your judges. A privileged 
 or favored class, forsooth ! Take the whole profes- 
 sion of teachers in this Commonwealth, including 
 religious teachers, whose work is not only intel- 
 lectual, but learned. Looked to as a means of ob- 
 taining an independence, or even a competency, who 
 will pretend that it holds out a better prospect, or so 
 good a prospect, as many of the mechanical trades 1 
 At the same time, I do not suppose that complaints, 
 or remonstrances, or agitation, are likely to be of 
 much avail in this case. The evil, as in respect to 
 
59 
 
 most other depressed and suffering classes, is doubt- 
 less, for the most part, the consequence of a law in 
 political economy ; the supply is greater than the 
 demand. But where the majority of a learned body 
 are confessedly over-worked and under-paid, it is a 
 little too hard to turn round upon them, and mock 
 their poverty by calling them, in a worldly sense, a 
 privileged or favored class. 
 
 But the gravest objection to colleges, and that 
 which is most frequently in the mouths of consid- 
 erate and good men, is drawn from the moral dan- 
 gers, real or supposed, by which they are beset. 
 
 For a full discussion of this important topic I 
 have not time ; and, besides, it would lead to state- 
 ments and counter-statements, some of which would 
 be out of place on an occasion like the present. But 
 it must not be passed over in silence, nor with a 
 mere declamatory appeal, of which, as it seems to 
 me, we have had quite enough, as its tendency is to 
 leave a false impression as regards the actual state 
 of things, and to create vague and unreasonable ex- 
 pectations. 
 
 As the inmates of colleges are collected from the 
 whole community on no principle of selection, except, 
 perhaps, that of worldly competency, which is not a 
 moral distinction, it follows almost necessarily that 
 all moral tendencies are represented there, from the 
 best to the worst. It is not true, as a general rule, 
 that bad moral tendencies begin to be developed 
 there ; the whole responsibility of colleges consists 
 in this, that these tendencies, being freed from many 
 
60 
 
 domestic and school restraints, find opportunity there 
 for a more rapid development. With a few, a very 
 few melancholy exceptions, the future course of a 
 student, both morally and intellectually, may be pre- 
 dicted with an almost unerring precision by the end 
 of the first term. In my communications with par- 
 ents, there is nothing which has perplexed me more, 
 than my apparent inability to make them understand 
 this plain statement, that to three quarters of every 
 class, college is one of the safest places in the world ; 
 to the other quarter, one of the most dangerous. 
 
 But some may ask. Why this distinction between 
 the three quarters, who, according to the ordinary 
 measures of human imperfection, are upright and 
 strong, and the one quarter, who are weak and frail ] 
 Why not bestow more care on the one quarter who 
 are weak and frail, and make them all upright and 
 strong "? 
 
 I will begin my reply to these questions by telling 
 the public a secret. Even as it is, more than half 
 the care of every College Faculty in this country is 
 actually bestowed on the one quarter who are here 
 commended to their special attention. Is not this 
 their full proportion 1 Are they alone to be thought 
 of, and the rest neglected 1 But perhaps it will be 
 said, that want of success is proof that the care is 
 not wisely bestowed. If by want of success is meant, 
 that colleges are not as successful in this respect now 
 as formerly, or here as elsewhere, a fair allowance 
 being made for the diiference in general society, I 
 deny it utterly. If, on the other hand, the words 
 
61 
 
 are to' be taken absolutely, if you are expecting that 
 there are to be absolutely no failures, you are ex- 
 pecting from colleges what is to be found nowhere ; 
 what never has been, and never can be, until God 
 shall change the constitution of human nature. 
 
 Let me not be understood to mean, that colleges, 
 as at present conducted in this country, are in all 
 respects what they ought to be, and might be. Some 
 of the difficulties are, I suppose, irremediable. Young 
 minds are full of good principles and dispositions ; 
 but these good principles and dispositions have not 
 taken the form of habit : that is to say, they have 
 not become character^ but act as impulses only ; and 
 the best impulses cannot be depended on like charac- 
 ter. Public opinion in colleges, which has so much 
 to do with the morality of most persons, is also sub- 
 ject to an obvious defect. It does not grow up, like 
 the public opinion of the world, out of an amalga- 
 mation of the opinions of the young and old of all 
 classes, one extreme balancing and correcting anoth- 
 er ; it grows up out of an amalgamation of the opin- 
 ions of young men of a single class, and of course is 
 liable to all the prejudices and illusions of that age 
 and class, only made more intense by a sense of num- 
 bers. Furthermore, these evils are aggravated in 
 American colleges by the circumstance that under- 
 graduates, or at least the two lower classes of under- 
 graduates, though they are of an age, and in general 
 are pursuing the studies, proper to a high school, are 
 put under college or university discipline ; that is, 
 are left, for the most part, to take care of themselves. 
 
62 
 
 Something is done by the daily routine of study, and 
 by the personal influence and intercourse of teachers 
 to limit this danger ; as much, I am inclined to think, 
 as ever was done, and, judging from the records of 
 this College, and from my own recollections and ex- 
 perience, with as much success. More, however, 
 might doubtless be done. I concur, therefore, in the 
 feeling, so frequently and earnestly expressed by some 
 of the best friends of the College, that what is most 
 needed here, as a means of greater moral security to 
 the students, is the constant service of a holy, devout, 
 earnest preacher and pastor. I am aware of the 
 obstacles to such a measure ; but, so all-important is 
 the end proposed, I cannot help thinking that, in the 
 minds of sensible and practical men, these obstacles 
 will soon be found to give way. For my own part, 
 the religious opinions of the candidate would be a 
 secondary matter, provided only, that he had the 
 necessary power of personal influence, and the right 
 spiritual endowments. 
 
 Meanwhile nothing is gained, as it seems to me, 
 by exaggerating the evil or the danger. In this Col- 
 lege, and under the present constitution of things, as 
 much religious instruction is given as ever, and in 
 addition to this the students have access to all the 
 other and usual means of Christian nurture. About 
 one third of the undergraduates pass their Sundays 
 at home ; about one quarter worship in the difl'erent 
 churches in this city ; and the rest, in the College 
 Chapel. If any should say, that this is found to be 
 to no efiect, they speak without reason, and against 
 
63 
 
 evidence. Some, I know, are disposed to infer the 
 irreligious condition of colleges in general, and of 
 this College in particular, from the fact that fewer 
 graduates go into the ministry now than formerly; 
 but it is easy to see that this is owing much more to 
 the altered state of the Church, than to the altered 
 state of colleges. The same remark is applicable to 
 the growth of extravagance and expense in colleges, 
 which is a constant theme of complaint, and of just 
 complaint. Who does not know that this also is to 
 be traced to changes in general society, much more 
 than to any changes in colleges, or to any thing 
 which any changes in colleges could prevent 1 If 
 you would reform colleges eifectually, in this respect, 
 or in most other respects, it would be better to begin 
 by reforming general society, and especially what is 
 called " good society." Again, there are those who 
 can see nothing but a total secularization of colleges 
 in the circumstance that the teachers are now seldom 
 taken from the clerical profession. This, however, 
 is not because less importance is attached to religion, 
 or to the religious character of teachers, but because 
 teaching has become a profession by itself, made ne- 
 cessary by the demand of a higher special prepara- 
 tion. When a vacancy occurs among teachers, it 
 is likely, of course, to be supplied out of the num- 
 ber of those who have specially fitted themselves 
 for it. 
 
 Next to religion, there is no subject on which there 
 is so much cant as education ; and the cause of it is 
 the same in both cases. All men have occasion to 
 
64 
 
 speak of both, and many persons speak at a venture, 
 or are tempted to say what they think they ought to 
 think, and not what they think in reality. This 
 cant is the more to be regretted, because its tendency 
 is to dishearten practical educators, and hinder them 
 from attempting useful reforms in education ; for, as 
 far as it prevails, it indicates one of two things: 
 either that the people are expecting what is impos- 
 sible, or that they do not know what they want. 
 These reforms must be left, as it seems to me, in the 
 hands of practical men, and not in the hands of prac- 
 tical men in general, but of practical educators ; in- 
 asmuch as, for reasons mentioned above, it will not 
 do to argue from human nature and public opinion 
 as manifested in the world, to the human nature and 
 public opinion of colleges. 
 
 To all that has been said, some may reply, We 
 have no objections to colleges, but only to their being 
 encouraged and supported at the public expense. 
 The common schools are for the poor, and ought, 
 therefore, to be an object of the public care ; but col- 
 leges are for the rich, and hence may safely be left 
 to take care of themselves. 
 
 I warn the people, and the friends of the people, 
 against this doctrine. To adopt it would be to act 
 in concert with that portion of the rich, who avow it 
 to be their policy, as it unquestionably is, to make 
 the highest culture as expensive as possible in order 
 to exclude competition, or secure a monopoly to 
 their own children, to whom the expense is nothing. 
 Colleges are, it is true, for the rich: it is a great 
 
65 
 
 public advantage that their sons should be educated 
 there, whether they become distinguished as scholars 
 or not. They will have leisure to occupy, and wealth 
 to dispose of; and it is of great importance, even in 
 a public point of view, that they should know how 
 to do both with wisdom, refinement, and taste. But 
 colleges are not exclusively for the sons of the rich : 
 they are for all those, whether rich or poor, whose 
 character and natural gifts and aptitudes mark them 
 out for success and eminence in science and letters. 
 The problem is, to hold out encouragement to such 
 persons, without having it operate, at the same time, 
 as a lure to the idle and incompetent; and I think 
 with your Excellency, that in the recent act for 
 the establishment of State scholarships the Legis- 
 lature has solved this problem with admirable 
 wisdom. 
 
 And let not the munificence of the Legislature or 
 of individuals be restrained by the cry, that, do what 
 we may, we never cau rival the princely institutions 
 of learning in the Old "World. A large proportion 
 of these princely- institutions of learning in the Old 
 World would not continue to flourish for an hour, if 
 the patronage of government were to be withdrawn. 
 The Eector of the University at Munich, in an ad- 
 dress delivered to the students last year, expresses 
 himself strongly to this point. " It cannot be denied 
 that in our days a great majority of students resort 
 to the University only for the end, and with the pur- 
 pose, of some time or other attaining to a public 
 appointment in this way. If this end could be 
 
66 
 
 accomplished without the evidence of completed uni- 
 versity studies, the number of those resorting to the 
 most frequented universities would surely be counted, 
 not by thousands, but by hundreds."* Why say 
 that the possibility of rivalling or equalling such in- 
 stitutions is placed for ever beyond our reach'? I 
 suppose that the people of the Old World are not 
 any older when they are born than we, are, and that 
 they do not know any more than we at that time. 
 Whatever they know, they, like us, must learn after- 
 wards : the difference, therefore, must grow out of a 
 difference of facilities ; and these facilities must con- 
 sist, for the most part, in books and in men. As 
 good men we can have; for we can send our own, as 
 is not uncommon now, to be educated under all their 
 advantages ; and besides, as we have found, in more 
 instances than one, we can have the best of their 
 men. And what shall I say of hooks. There is 
 nothing of which it is so difficult to convince men 
 who are not scholars, as of this crying want of books, 
 of all the books that enter into the history of any 
 and every important discussion. Among scholars, 
 however, nothing is more discouraging, more fatal to 
 ambition and high endeavor ; for with what heart can 
 they undertake original investigations in the existing 
 state of science or letters, knowing beforehand, as 
 they must, that many .of these investigations will 
 soon be arrested by the failure of the necessary 
 
 * Dr. Hieron. v. Bayer, Ueher die Bestimmung der TJniversitaten und 
 den Beruf der Sludirenden, pp. 5, 6. 
 
67 
 
 authorities, and all their labor be lost 1 When, how- 
 ever, we consider how much a single individual has 
 done in a neighboring city, not only to found a great 
 library, but to provide for its continual increase, and 
 reflect, at the same time, that the library of this Col- 
 lege is likely to become more and more an object of 
 the liberality of a whole community, whose liberality 
 never fails, we need not despair. 
 
 We have been ridiculed for placing our golden age 
 in the future, and not, as other nations do, in the 
 past. But the vast and imposing destinies of this 
 country are beginning to arrest the attention of 
 those who a little while ago affected to despise us as 
 a people of yesterday, without a literature or a his- 
 tory. Whatever civil or industrial distinction is in 
 reserve for us, let us hope, let us believe, let us re- 
 solve, that it shall be crowned by an equal distinc- 
 tion in science and letters. 
 
 I turn to you, young gentlemen, as the living 
 vouchers of the truth of what I have said in favor of 
 colleges ; as the strong arms and warm hearts which 
 are to assist in working out every hope I have 
 uttered. All else is vain, — a breath of air, — if this 
 argument should fail. 
 
 Though assuming new relations, I am glad to 
 know that I do not come among you as a stranger, 
 or with any purpose or wish to change essentially 
 the discipline of the College, or the spirit with which 
 it has been administered. Faithfully to administer 
 this discipline is a duty I owe to the reputation and 
 success of the College itself, in which I trust we all 
 
68 
 
 take a common pride ; and I also owe it to you; 
 You come here — I know that most of you come 
 here for the literary advantages of the institution^ 
 and I owe it to you to do what I can to make it a 
 quiet and safe place of study. But let me hope that 
 more and more may he done through a paternal and 
 Christian influence. Let me hope that more and 
 more may be done by the very genius of the placa 
 The spirits of the sainted dead, who consecrated this 
 school of the prophets to Christ and the Church, 
 hover over us now. In that presence remember 
 what you owe to your parents and friends, whose 
 affections and pride, whose very life, are bound up 
 with the hope of your well-doing. Remeaiber what 
 you owe to your country. If there is not wisdom 
 enough, if there is not moderation enough, in the 
 educated classes, to restrain the heats of party, — the 
 violence, the inconsideration, the injustice on all 
 sides, — our best hopes are in imminent peril. What 
 is wanted is, not that a man should be indifferent to 
 the evils in the country, but that he should deal with 
 them in the spirit of one who loves his country. 
 Remember what you owe to God. All the distinc- 
 tions of birth, and wealth, and intellect will pass 
 away : what will endure for ever of your labors here, 
 is the earnest purpose to fulfil the high vocation of 
 the Christian scholar. " This also we humbly and 
 earnestly beg, that human things may not prejudice 
 such as are divine ; neither that from the unlocking 
 of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater 
 natural light, any thing of incredulity, or intellectual 
 
69 
 
 night, may arise in our minds towards divine mys- 
 teries. But rather, that by our mind, thoroughly 
 cleansed and purged from fancy and vanities, and 
 yet subject and perfectly given up to the Divine 
 Oracles, there may be given unto faith the things 
 that are faith's." 
 
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