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 COIiliEOIATE EDUCATION. 
 
 AN 
 
 ADDRESS, 
 
 IN BEHAIF OF THE 
 
 Bocktji for tl)e promotion of (Holkfjtate anlr (2:i)eoloigical 
 €btrxation at tl)e Uleet, 
 
 DELIVERED IN TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON, 
 
 y 
 
 
 MAY 
 
 31, 
 
 1848, 
 
 PROF 
 
 . Cl 
 
 
 y/ 
 
 HADDOCK, 
 
 OF DARTMOUTH COLLBOE. 
 
 iff? 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
 
 1848. 
 
A Public Meeting in behalf of the Society poe, the Promotion op 
 Collegiate and Theological Education at the West, was held in Tre- 
 mont Temple, Boston, May 31st, 1848. 
 
 Hon. Joel Parkee, Professor of Law in Harvard University, one of the 
 Vice Presidents of the Society, presided. The meeting was opened with 
 prayer by the Rev. E. N. Kirk, of Boston. 
 
 The Pev. Prof. C. B. Haddock., of Dartmouth College, had been solicited 
 to occupy the whole time of the meeting in the discussion and application 
 of principles involved in the great objects of the Society. He accordingly 
 delivered on that occasion the accompanying timely and eloquent Address, 
 which is now given to the public in the belief that it will not only give a 
 new impulse to the particular enterprise in which the Society is engaged, 
 but promote the great cause of Collegiate Education throughout the land. 
 
 Theron Baldwin, Secretary. 
 July 7, 1848. 
 
 *^* Donations to the Society may be sent to the Treasurer, Marcus 
 Wilbur, Esq., 3 Pine Street, New York. 
 
 «f'- 
 
 •■3r 
 
 # 
 

 ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. President: — 
 
 A man dependent on a college for his bread, cannot 
 be an indifferent witness to the value of such institu- 
 tions ; he will hardly be thought impartial. And yet 
 there is a kind of acquaintance with academic life 
 possessed to the same degree by nobody else. To 
 men engaged in other pursuits, the routine of scholastic 
 duties, the incidents of college history, the style of man- 
 ners and the tone of society prevalent in these rare re- 
 treats, are but imperfectly known. The gusts of temper 
 that sometimes agitate our serene atmosphere, the farces 
 that occasionally discompose our gravity, and the out- 
 breaks of folly and crime that now and then sadden and 
 disgrace us, are well enough and quite widely enough 
 known. With them tradition long feeds the prurient 
 ear ; and vulgar wonder stands aghast at the tale in all 
 the corners of the land. Little more than this is under- 
 stood of the real concerns and internal character of a 
 College, by a large part of the community. It is held to 
 be a nice place for the young rogue to learn new tricks, 
 and for the young rake to spend the old man's money. 
 
 Even the educated men of the country, who, in their 
 day, have been inmates of our halls, actors in the busi- 
 ness and the romance of our life, still look back to the 
 scene with young eyes ; retain often the most vivid im- 
 pressions of the least memorable features of academic 
 
life, the conflicts of juvenile ambition, and the freaks and 
 the fun of youthful adventure ; and are carrying along 
 with them, in many cases, very inadequate estimates of 
 the discipline and the morals of the university. 
 
 It is not, therefore, quite presumptuous in me, I trust, 
 to assume, that the spirit and tendency of college life can 
 be better appreciated, on the whole, by none than by 
 those whose grateful duty it has been to preside over the 
 scene and to mingle in intimate and happy intercourse 
 with the generations which sucessively appear to act their 
 parts in it — parts not seldom brilliant and prophetic, al- 
 ways diversified with the pleasing, ever-changing hues of 
 the morning of life. 
 
 It has happened to me to be employed in a College for 
 nearly thirty years ; and to watch with increasing, ever 
 fresh delight, the experience and progress of as many 
 classes of young men annually gathered from the moun- 
 tains and the sea-board, from the remote farm-house and 
 the ambitious village, and after their four years novitiate, 
 sent forth with classic honors and the benedictions of 
 their Alma Mater, to the strifes of enterprise and the 
 perils of active virtue. Some of them I have lost sight 
 of; some died early ; some had as well died even earlier ; 
 but far the larger part are in active life, filling useful 
 spheres of influence, sustaining important enterprises, con- 
 tributing to the public intelligence and social order, 
 adorning the professions, and enjoying the intercourse of 
 cultivated men. 
 
 It may be permitted me, therefore, perhaps to speak 
 with some fulness and some little confidence, of the 
 claims of Collegiate Education to the patronage of all 
 patriotic citizens, all good men. 
 
 There is, I feel, some awkwardness in treating the sub- 
 ject here. It does seem a little odd to be arguing for the 
 patronage of institutions of learning, in the very place, 
 where, more than two hundred years ago, one of the first 
 acts of the very first Legislature of Massachusetts was an 
 
act for the establishment of a College. Standing so near 
 the venerable halls, thus founded within ten years after 
 the arrival of the colonists in yonder bay, and in the 
 midst of benefactors whose munificence has made the Uni- 
 versity an enduring monument of their love of learning 
 and one of the chief ornaments of their country, I feel 
 myself to be much in the condition of the man, who 
 undertakes to demonstrate a self-evident truth — laboring 
 to prove what never has been doubted. 
 
 Time, however, has made some changes here, and 
 among them changes of no little importance in the rela- 
 tions and the public sentiments not of Massachusetts 
 alone, but of New England. Two centuries ago, the 
 university which has done more for the city, under her 
 wing, and for this whole shore, than all the commerce of 
 the sea, was anxiously soliciting the " deep poverty " of 
 the sisterhood of feeble colonies for bread, and sensibly 
 grateful for the private gift of a "pewter flagon," or a 
 few pecks of corn. The appeal was every where re- 
 sponded to ; the colonies gave according to their means 
 and beyond their means ; heroic sacrifices were every 
 where made ; the prosperity of the new settlements was 
 identified with that of the college ; the feeling was gene- 
 ral, it was strong, it amounted often to enthusiasm, that 
 the great objects of the emigrants, the establishment of a 
 free State and the enjoyment of a free Gospel, were utterly 
 impracticable without an institution for the cultivation of 
 true learning, of profound, severe, Christian science. 
 
 Mr. Folsom, in his history of Saco and Biddeford, gives 
 an extract from the town records, which shows a little the 
 widespread popular zeal upon this favorite subject of Col- 
 legiate Education. "In 1655, Mr. Thomas Williams was 
 chosen town treasurer, ' and to take note of such as con- 
 tribute to the college.' Contributions in aid of the col- 
 lege at Cambridge were solicited in all the towns at that 
 period. In the court records we find William Wardwell 
 presented (1654) for denying the college to be any ordi- 
 
nance of God, and therefore it was not his judgment to 
 give anything to it, when there was something demanded 
 of him for it." p. 108. 
 
 The institution thus cherished in her infancy grew with 
 the settlements ; others were, in time, founded ; and the 
 industry, the arts, the liberty, the general inteUigence, the 
 singular happiness of these Eastern States, must be traced, 
 by the historian, in no small degree, to the power of 
 thought, the liberal learning, the well-balanced, propor- 
 tioned, mature character, of which the foundations have 
 been laid in their Colleges. Such was the original spirit 
 of Education in New England, and such has been the in- 
 fluence of the Institutions founded here. 
 
 Now, when as a member of a greater sisterhood. New 
 England is called upon to do something for infant col- 
 leges, in newer settlements, struggling for existence, not 
 only have the particular claims of these colleges to be ar- 
 gued, but the question is considered not quite settled, even 
 among us, whether the system of collegiate education 
 itself is entirely sound ; whether it is really republican ; 
 whether there is not something a little too much savoring 
 of aristocracy in it for a democratic state ; whether it is not 
 too conservative for our notions of progress ; behind the 
 age ; of doubtful utility to any body ; absolutely foreign 
 to the interests of society at large ; serving at best to train 
 up a set of men of very little use in the world ; and by 
 being securely moored in the stream of improvement, to 
 mark the rapidity of the current by which the rest of the 
 world are borne along. 
 
 It cannot be doubted, that the Colleges have, to some 
 extent, lost the sympathies of the people. Public opinion 
 has a good deal changed upon the subject of the higher 
 education. 
 
 It is true much greater sums are given to public institu- 
 tions than in the early periods of our history — princely 
 bequests are made to them — ample foundations laid, in 
 their lifetime, by men of large means and larger hearts — 
 
but the proportion of such as take much interest in these 
 objects is sensibly diminished. The patronage of the 
 State is in some instances entirely withdrawn ; in no in- 
 stance has it increased in correspondence with its increased 
 resources. It is the fashion to recommend the common 
 schools, as the truly popular institutions. They are be- 
 coming more and more matters of general concern. This 
 is all right ; the public schools of New England can never 
 be too highly valued or too carefully fostered. In them 
 we all receive the elements of learning. The body of the 
 people are of necessity almost wholly indebted to them 
 for direct instruction. But it by no means follows, that, 
 therefore, a college is an institution for the rich alone ; 
 that the hard-working, frugal majority of the country 
 owe nothing to it and have nothing to 'expect from it ; 
 that the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, enjoys none 
 of its sunshine, and feels nothing of its genial warmth. 
 Such sentiments do indeed prevail ; I fear they are in- 
 creasing ; the arts of demagogues and the extravagances 
 of advocates for the improvement of the common 
 schools, unite together to promote them. But they were 
 not the sentiments of the Fathers of New England ; 
 with them the college was first in order ; the school for 
 teachers before the schools for children ; they began with 
 establishing a University. We are in danger of reversing 
 this order. 
 
 A New England college is a public institution — a popu- 
 lar institution ; its benefits are common benefits ; bene- 
 fits confined to no party, no sect, no class. If there be 
 any partiality in the distribution of its blessings, it is in 
 favor of the middling and lower classes : it is emphati- 
 cally the poor man's institution, and in this respect differs 
 from the common schools, chiefly as the upper springs 
 differ from the lower, by flowing farther and making glad 
 a wider space upon the hill-side. No religious creed is to 
 be subscribed as a condition of admittance ; no religious 
 or political opinion need interfere with the amplest enjoy- 
 
 / 
 
8 
 
 ment of its advantages ; no degree of poverty will neces- 
 sarily exclude one from it. There is not a young 
 man so destitute, so bereft of patrons, so orphaned and so 
 friendless, that he may not by the various aids afforded to 
 industry and enterprise in a well-endowed college, and by 
 his own resources of ingenuity and economy, possess him- 
 self of the substantial parts of the best education con- 
 ferred in the country. Under the disadvantages of his 
 early condition, he may, indeed, start somewhat later than 
 others ; his growth may be slower ; but even these evils 
 are not without compensation ; he comes forth in the sun 
 and in the wind ; he has a healthier complexion, a firmer 
 fibre, and the prospect of a longer life. In him the intel- 
 lectual faculties are not matured before the physical ; the 
 uses of instruction are not lost for want of capacity to ap- 
 preciate it, or energy of purpose to make the most of it. 
 
 In point of fact, full three-fourths of the members of 
 the country colleges are from families with small means, 
 if not absolutely poor. Of the whole number annually 
 graduated in the country, a large majority are of compara- 
 tively humble parentage ; very many of them dependent 
 on their own resources, owing little else to their parents 
 but a capacious soul, an intelligent early nurture, a vir- 
 tuous, generous example, a sleepless care, and an ever 
 earnest intercession with the only true " Guide of our 
 youth." I do not speak of it as a light obligation ; we 
 can owe no greater debt to parental love. The son of 
 intelligent a'nd worthy parents is of the true nobility ; 
 heir of incorruptible riches, he enjoys a rarer, costlier, 
 more efficient discipline than wealth can purchase. What 
 I mean to say is, that these advantages alone, at any of 
 our well-endowed colleges, will secure to a young man 
 the best education, provided for his countrymen. 
 
 It must be too familiar to the observers of college life 
 to need an apology for the remark, that much of the very 
 best mind we have to act upon, and the best character we 
 have the privilege of moulding, are brought to us in the 
 
9 
 
 rough material of the mountain quarries, committed to 
 our arts, by hard working men and women, who have 
 scarcely anything besides, which they can call their own, 
 and who have not command enough of the language of 
 nature to conceal the inward struggle, with which they 
 make the sacrifice. I may be publishing an academic se- 
 cret, but really in the country colleges we do almost dread 
 to see a rich man's son, and especially from one of the 
 large towns. We have some how or other an uneasy 
 feeling, that he mq,y have been sent to college because his 
 father does not know what else to do with him ; or, be- 
 cause a country college is considered a safe place for bad 
 boys ; or, because an education is regarded as a gift that 
 may be purchased with money. There are indeed excep- 
 tions ; instances not a few of heirs of wealth unconscious 
 of the fact, gifted by nature, and trained to a character 
 as faultless and a life as gentle, as their advantages are 
 singular. 
 
 But boys brought up in affluence and in town, are in 
 danger of knowing too much before they enter college, 
 and in quite as imminent danger of knowing too little 
 when they leave. It is a misfortune for the taste and the 
 passions to get ahead of the understanding and the con- 
 science ; for the graces of intellect to be matured before 
 the intellect itself; for the gentleman to anticipate the 
 man. We know how to work outward ; give us the 
 vital principle in the heart of the plant, and we have little 
 anxiety about the grace of the branches or the beauty of 
 the foliage ; they are the natural, spontaneous form of 
 the living power within. But it is hard working the 
 other way. 
 
 The mind developed by the higher institutions of this 
 country is, to an extent that would surprise a careless ob- 
 server, not the mind of any privileged or high-born class 
 of citizens, but of the industrious, aspiring, enterprising 
 yeomanry, artisans, and traders of the country. And 
 2 
 
10 
 
 therefore I say, that these institutions are essentially pop- 
 ular — institutions for the people. So far from being aris" 
 tocratic, they furnish our most certain security against the 
 evils of an aristocracy of any kind. They are the very 
 best safeguards of republican equality ; the most efficient 
 levellers, acting always in the right direction — ennobling^ 
 in the next generation, the commoner of the present, and 
 holding out, to patient self-culture and indomitable ener- 
 gy, all the hopes that stimulate ambition. There is not 
 a father so humble^ that he may not see his son a man of 
 learnings exercising one of the liberal professions, sustain- 
 ing the interests and raising the dignity of his country by 
 the honorable execution of some of its high trusts. 
 
 It is much to be descended from illustrious ancestors ;: 
 the honor of a respectable parentage is to be coveted ; but^ 
 by one's own merits to entail honor on his house, by 
 worthy deeds and exemplary virtues to leave a venerated 
 name behind him, is still more to be coveted. This the 
 son of a poor man may do, by means of the very institu- 
 tions which he is taught to look upon with jealousy a& 
 monopolies of the rich. 
 
 It is hardly too much to say, that in this free country,, 
 without hereditary offices, or hereditary ranks, — where 
 personal intelligence and personal character have so much 
 to do in securing and maintaining social consequence, — 
 the people are as much indebted to the universities as 
 they are to the common schools. Are they not all inter- 
 ested in the discoveries of science, in the improvement of 
 the arts, in the promotion of a sound Christian literature ? 
 Is any man unaffected by the general intelligence, the 
 spirit of the society in which he lives and educates his 
 children I A comprehensive public policy ; a well-con- 
 sidered, consistent legislation ; a wise, profound adminis- 
 tration of the public law ; a skillful practice of the pro- 
 fessions, — are these matters of indiiference to the common 
 people ? To accomplish men for these great duties, is 
 the very end of a public education. The college and the 
 
11 
 
 professional schools are endowed and conducted for this 
 sole purpose, — to qualify men, by the discipline of in- 
 struction, by the lights of learning and the suggestions of 
 -experience, to counsel and to act for the well-being and 
 improvement of the whole community. Every well- 
 taught man, every great mind is the property of the 
 whole community — one of its richest treasures and bright- 
 est ornaments. And the spirit that would hold up such 
 men to popular suspicion and popular odium, is an insult 
 to the public intelligence. In proportion as this spirit 
 prevails, w« approximate to the most hopeless of all 
 states — that in which men have no chance of success, 
 who have nothing but their merits to recommend them. 
 When it is considered that a large part of those, who are 
 fitted for the higher duties of life, are taken immediately 
 from the bosom of the people and trained for eminence 
 by the discipline of education, the interest of the people 
 at large, in the institutions which thus raise their own 
 sons to distinction and power, is yet more manifest. 
 
 Moreover, the truly educated man becomes, himself, an 
 educator — an efficient public teacher. His example is 
 contagious ; his ideas, his tastes, are insensibly communi- 
 cated to others. He never acts without doing good ; he 
 does not speak without imparting or illustrating truth ; he 
 cannot live without increasing the general respect for 
 mind, and holding out new motives to duty. By his in- 
 fluence the standard of thought is raised, and the zeal for 
 improvement rekindled. To him the common school and 
 the academy owe much of their prosperity ; he is himself 
 a practical school ; his reflections improve the lowest of 
 his neighbors ; something of his spirit descends to the 
 humblest tillers of his fields, and insinuates itself gently, 
 and unobserved, into all the families around him. A sin- 
 gle strong-minded, rightly-cultivated man, is of more 
 value to a village, or a town, in forty years, than all they 
 have to pay to sustain their institutions of learning. 
 
 There is one feature, of our college education, connect- 
 
12 
 
 ing it intimately with the common schools, and, through 
 them, with the common mind of New England, worthy 
 of particular mention. I allude to the practice of sending 
 out so large a proportion to teach during the winter, and 
 supplying the high schools and academies with in- 
 structers. The effect is to bring into these schools and 
 academies young men of superior attainments and higher 
 character — examples of intellectual culture, of force and 
 readiness of thought, of accuracy and compass of ideas, 
 and of general elevation of mind ; and, in this way, to 
 awaken emulation and give direction to talent in these 
 institutions and throughout the community. Mind, like 
 the sun, while it illuminates all below, draws all upward 
 towards itself. Teachers exert an influence not simply 
 in proportion to their acquaintance with the particular 
 subjects of their instruction, but in proportion, also, to 
 their general intelligence and mental cultivation. There 
 is an air of respectability in a well-taught man — a certain 
 grace, a quiet consciousness of knowledge, a compass and 
 clearness of view, of quite as much influence in opening 
 and elevating the juvenile mind, as any particular accuracy 
 or skill he may chance to show in the rule of three, or 
 the laws of syntax. Many a young man, relieved from 
 the routine of summer toil and indulged with the luxury 
 of a winter's school, has been inspired by the presence 
 and conversation of a thinking and disciplined mind, in 
 the person of the master of the district, to conceive 
 wholly new ideas of life, and to form new purposes. 
 Nothing, to be learned, has henceforth seemed arduous to 
 him ; study has become a delight ; his habits of diligence 
 and enterprise have been communicated ; others emulate 
 him ; a natural sympathy connects him with more or less 
 who are looking forward to the university ; and before he 
 is, himself, fully aware of it, his whole being has under- 
 gone a transformation ; and, in the rapid flight of years, 
 he has risen from an obscure boy, no more gifted than 
 multitudes of others, and by only the common advan- 
 
13 
 
 tages afforded by the system of education established by 
 the Fathers of New England, to be an object of regard 
 and reliance to a wide circle. Of such importance it is 
 to have the teachers of our common schools men of a 
 degree and kind of culture beyond what the common 
 schools, themselves, can be expected to give. 
 
 The hundreds of young men who leave the colleges of 
 New England, every year, to teach a three months' school, 
 though many of them ill enough qualified, exert, never- 
 theless, a wide and improving influence. I think the 
 general high character of our public schools, and the gen- 
 eral elevation of sentiment and character in the society of 
 New England are, in no small degree, owing to this in- 
 fluence. It is a striking proof of this, that where a dis- 
 trict has been fortunate, in a single instance, in securing 
 the services of an intellectual, exemplary man, a poor 
 teacher, or an ordinary man, can no longer be tolerated. 
 A taste has been formed which silently rejects him. 
 
 The benefits of collegiate education, Mr. President, be 
 they what they may, are at least not exclusively confined 
 to some privileged few ; they are common, universal. 
 And the only question that remains is, whether they be, 
 in fact, benefits to any body. Is not university education 
 antiquated, a scholastic idea, and deserving to be buried 
 with other follies of the dark ages ? Has not the time 
 gone by for fitting men for society by shutting them up 
 for years in cloisters ? Are not colleges hot-beds of vice ? 
 And is not the risk to a young man's morals there a full 
 offset to any intellectual or literary advantages he may 
 enjoy ? These are grave questions ; and certainly, if they 
 cannot be satisfactorily answered, we are very ill em- 
 ployed, at the colleges of New England, and have poor 
 encouragement to found or assist others at the West. 
 
 College society is not faultless ; college morals are not 
 pure. Is any other society faultless ? Are morals perfect 
 any where ? We have, unfortunately, rowdies, smokers 
 of tobacco, and drinkers of wine. Are there none else- 
 
14 
 
 where ? The social feast sometimes grows noisy, and 
 the stillness of night is interrupted by the song and the 
 shout of the reveller. Does this never happen out of 
 classic halls ? Mischiefs are done, depredations commit- 
 ted upon public property, and disturbances of the public 
 peace. Do such misdemeanors disgrace no other places ? 
 
 I speak upon reflection ; and I am clearly of opinion, 
 that the deportment of young men in college is as harm- 
 less, as quiet, as becoming, as virtuous as that of the same 
 number of persons of the same age, in any pursuit, or 
 place, or circumstances. Their recreations are as inno- 
 cent ; their mirth as chaste ; their fun as harmless ; their 
 whole life as guiltless, as amiable, as honorable. You 
 hear as loud laughter, songs as licentious, shouts as sense- 
 less and as boisterous from the fathers as we do from the 
 sons. Nor would it be quite just to academic life to leave 
 the comparison here. The advantages are decidedly, in 
 my judgment, in favor of the college, in point of intel- 
 lectual and moral discipline, over every other sphere of 
 occupation, for the same period of life. 
 
 Here it should be remarked, that the unfavorable 
 changes of character developed in college, are not all to 
 be ascribed to the influences there exerted. They have, 
 in a majority of cases — I think it not too much to say, 
 majority of cases — an earlier origin ; they may be traced 
 back to the academy, and, it may be, still farther. The 
 signs are pretty marked, early, and the extreme difiiculty 
 of eradicating, or even curbing these early formed pro- 
 pensities, while it constitutes one of the burdens of our 
 hearts, impresses us, as almost nothing else does, with the 
 importance of that parental discipline, which precedes 
 our own, and determines, in so many cases, whether the 
 ofl[ice of the public teacher shall be an ever new delight 
 or a continual sorrow. 
 
 Again : it should be remembered, that the period of life 
 usually spent in college is the very period, in which the 
 most remarkable changes of character are exhibited. Tt 
 
15 
 
 is just when the natural fears and peculiar restraints of 
 youth are beginning to be thrown off, and before reflec- 
 tion and experience have supplied their place with manly- 
 principles. From sixteen to twenty is a critical period 
 in our history — the period, in which the question is 
 oftenest settled, whether the man is ever to lay aside 
 his " childish things." 
 
 The course of study and of duty is, I suppose, much 
 the same in all our Institutions. It has been long adopt- 
 ed ; not hastily introduced, it has not been acquiesced in 
 without reflection. It has marked and most salutary 
 features. At the dawn of the day, the little community 
 of students of God's works, summoned by the morning 
 bell, hasten from their various quarters to the place of 
 common prayer, to listen to a portion of God's Word, and 
 be led by the Rev. Head of the College in a brief and 
 fervent supplication for His paternal blessing. At fixed 
 hours, the several classes, assembled by the same uniform 
 signal, meet their respective instructors, in the various 
 branches, for a drill and a familiar discussion of questions 
 pertaining to the lessson for the day. At the setting of 
 the sun the fraternity are again collected, in their place 
 of worship, to chant their evening hymn of praise, and 
 commend themselves for the helpless night to the care of 
 Him who never sleepeth. The worship of the Sabbath, 
 enjoined as a duty, becomes often a habit. A portion of 
 Scripture is, in most colleges, made the subject of critical 
 examination, in one of the original languages, once a week. 
 
 The subjects of study are the elements of all knowl- 
 edge, — the ancient Languages, our models still of eloquent 
 and beautiful expression ; the Mathematics, a science at 
 once of microscopic exactness and of infinite comprehen- 
 sion ; the Theory of the Earth and of the Heavens ; 
 Logic and Rhetoric, the one the philosophy of reasoning, 
 the other of speech ; Chemistry, the doctrine of the con- 
 stitution of material bodies ; Morals, the science of our 
 duties ; Politics, the theory of the State ; Mental Philo- 
 
16 
 
 sophy, the science of our own nature ; and Theology, the 
 doctrine of Providence and the spiritual life. Upon each 
 of these and other subjects, the pupil is made to study 
 and comprehend some able elementary treatise, with the 
 advantage of a living master to clear up obscurities and 
 quicken the attention. 
 
 The most obvious intellectual benefits of this systematic 
 Academic Education are, that it obliges the student to 
 master something ; that it forms him to habits of early 
 rising, of order, and of punctuality; that it presents to 
 him an outline, a comprensive sketch, of the whole field 
 of human knowledge ; that it introduces him to some 
 acquaintance with the immense repositories of knowledge 
 in the libraries of the University ; that it exhibits to him 
 daily in the persons of experienced teachers, examples of 
 scholarship and models of thought ; and that it brings 
 him into familiar acquaintance and generous competition 
 with minds of a high order and of his own standing. 
 
 This last circumstance deserves something more than 
 a passing allusion. It is remarkable how manifest, how 
 exciting, electric sometimes, is the impulse communicated 
 to a class by the signal exhibition of talent, or taste, or 
 manliness, in a single mind. I have doubted, in particular 
 instances, whether all the other excitements to ambition 
 together, equal that of one superior intellect, in the person 
 of a member of the class, when there have happened to 
 meet in it those other moral and social traits, which give 
 dignity to intellect, and add to the power of genius the 
 charm of a sweet and gentle spirit. 
 
 It is beautiful to see the deference sometimes paid to 
 excellence. When by his ordinary rendering of a passage 
 of Eschylus, or Thucydides, or by his luminous, elegant, 
 unambitious demonstration of a proposition in mathe- 
 matics, or metaphysics, a gifted young man enchains 
 attention, and, quenching in his goodness of heart every 
 mikind jealousy, draws forth, every day, the silent visible 
 admiration of fifty or a hundred of his equals in age, it 
 
17 
 
 may be a sin, but I do envy him that gift — a gift to do 
 good beyond the ordinary lot of benefactors. 
 
 Of the strictly moral and religious influences of College, 
 it would be unjust to these institutions not to speak still 
 more particularly. And the first fact that occurs to me 
 connected with this subject is, that a larger proportion of 
 professors of our holy religion, are found among the 
 undergraduates of the New England colleges than among 
 any other class of men in the community. From a third 
 to one half, in many cases, perhaps on an average, belong 
 to the church of Christ, and unite with reverend age and 
 earnest manhood to celebrate, from time to time, the com- 
 munion of the body and blood of their crucified Redeem- 
 ■er. In the course of their four years residence at college, 
 it is not extravagant to say, that as many at least are led 
 to a serious devotion of themselves to the service of 
 Christ as among the same number of persons any where 
 else. Seasons have not been uncommon, in the Ameri- 
 can colleges, within the last thirty years, in which large 
 numbers, by a common heavenly impulse, have simulta- 
 neously joined themselves to the people of God. Not a 
 few of the best scholars and most eminent men of this 
 generation, among us, trace back their Christian experi- 
 ence, the spirit that still animates their toils, and the sweet 
 hope that brightens life even as it hastens to its decline, to 
 some season of spiritual refreshing among the groves and 
 by the altars of their Alma Mater. And many a heart, 
 long after it bade adieu to those altars and those groves, 
 has found, in the faithful memories of the bygone scene, 
 a much needed guide, a priceless peace. 
 
 Since the last Anniversary Meeting of this Society, in 
 four out of the six Western institutions assisted by your 
 means, nearly fifty young men have come to entertain the 
 hope of a personal participation in the renewing grace of 
 our blessed Lord. 
 
 Of these Western colleges in general, I suppose the 
 3 
 
18 
 
 spirit and conduct to be as purely evangelical, as decidedly 
 Christian, as in our own. 
 
 There is no such audience to preach to, certainly none 
 compelled to attendance, so quick to see, so sensible to 
 feel the glorious truth, the transcendent beauty of the 
 Religion of the Son of God. And it seems to me the 
 Gospel has no where else achieved so certain and so fruit- 
 ful triumphs. The sermons of President Dwight, on 
 Infidelity, converted the college. The lectures of Apple- 
 ton found an intelligent response in the most juvenile un- 
 derstanding. Clear logic and a warm heart are never 
 more certain to be appreciated by any audience, than by 
 an assembly of young men, too cultivated not to perceive 
 the force of argument, and still too generous to refuse 
 their homage to true goodness. 
 
 In most classes there is a decidedly virtuous public sen- 
 timent. And the power of this principle is no where 
 more active or more efficient. The cautions and admoni- 
 tions of age may be disregarded ; the general conscience 
 of the society of our equals comes home to us with the 
 authority of Law. If on some accounts the association 
 of members of the same age, and by themselves, exposes 
 to bad influences ; it is equally apparent, that the same 
 association gives peculiar vitality and energy to good 
 principles. 
 
 We hear a great deal of the dangers of College. Hu- 
 man life and human character are entirely safe no where. 
 Intellectual oecupation is no certain security against the 
 intrusions of temptation ; books of morals, and the great 
 examples of virtue may be studied to no purpose ; the 
 young heart will sometimes go astray amid all the guards 
 with which the vigilance of love surrounds it. The 
 spectacle is sad indeed, but it is our unhappiness some- 
 times to witness it, of bright and generous youth, alive to 
 the softer and more honorable sympathies of our nature, 
 falling an irresolute, reluctant victim to some implacable 
 habit, some inexorable vice. The young man fails, and 
 
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 faints and dies amid earnest deprecations and deep regrets. 
 It is our last melancholy duty to deliver the poor remains 
 of youthful beauty and manly promise to his natural pa- 
 rents, to be buried in the living grave of a disappointed, 
 dishonored home. 
 
 If there be a sadder sight it is only that of a young 
 heart soured, in the midst of the amenities of Literature 
 and by the altars of Religion, towards its only true friends, 
 reckless of the propagation of vices that have embittered 
 its own life and poisoned its once sweet home ; resolutely 
 bent, insanely resolved, on the temptation of early virtue 
 and the ruin of innocence ; pressing the bitter cup to un- 
 suspecting lips and pouring the " cursed hebenon " into 
 unconscious ears. No fouler murder cries to Heaven, 
 Such spectacles, rare among us, are not peculiar to seats 
 of learning ; they every where blight the fondest hopes 
 of age, and darken the bright picture of youth. They 
 are more remarkable in academic life, because the victim 
 is a costlier sacrifice and the place polluted by the immo- 
 lation more conspicuous and more sacred. 
 
 A pretty careful observation has satisfied me that the 
 chances are decidedly in favor of the educated. How 
 small a part of any generation come to much in any line 
 of life. The boys with whom we set out, the playmates 
 of our first bright years, where are they ? How many 
 vegetated well for a few summers, and withered and rot- 
 ted. How many imbruted by vulgar profligacy, sunk 
 early to forgotten graves. More, clearly more, I am sure, 
 die of dissipation, without leaving the home of their 
 childhood, more in proportion, than are found to stain the 
 annals of College by their revels, and profane classic 
 ground by their corruption. Science is not wisdom ; 
 learning is not virtue ; but wisdom is yet wiser for the 
 truths of science, and virtue somewhat safer with the 
 lights of learning. And under the protection of God, I 
 know no place so safe for a son as a well principled, well 
 ordered seat of science, nor any discipline so likely with 
 
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 God's blessing, to preserve him from the dangers of the 
 critical age of incipient manhood as the discipline of good 
 learning and Christian philosophy. 
 
 The application of these remarks to the immediate ob- 
 jects of this Society is too obvious to detain us long. 
 
 We hope to do something, by the promotion of Aca- 
 demic and Theological Education at the West, to preserve 
 its teeming population from misdirection, misrule and su- 
 perstition. If there be any other way to effect this object, 
 but by the elevation of the public mind, we profess no 
 knowledge of any such way. If the public mind of that 
 vast multitude, assembled from all countries, is to be ele- 
 vated, liberalized, Christianized, saved, it is to be done by 
 institutions of knowledge and religion. And if any body 
 may be expected to know the value of these institutions, 
 who so likely to do so as those, who have seen their ope- 
 ration in their own native, prospered, happy New England ? 
 Who are under such obligations to do something to ex- 
 tend the blessings of Education, as we who have enjoyed 
 them ? Who owe so much to the enlightened, liberal pol- 
 icy of their ancestors ? Who are bound by such trans- 
 cendent gifts of knowledge and means of knowledge ? 
 And of whom may heaven justly require such sacrifices 
 for the less favored children of the same Father and heirs 
 of the same inheritance of liberty and Christianity ; — an 
 inheritance to be fully enjoyed by ourselves and transmit- 
 ted to coming generations, only through the same means, 
 by which it was secured and handed down to us — by in- 
 stitutions of Learning and Religion, such as the Fathers 
 planted wherever they made a clearing in the wilderness ; 
 such as reared the great men of the Revolution ; the men 
 who have filled the Professions, and framed the Constitu- 
 tions, and enacted the Laws and administered the Justice, 
 and guided the destinies of this country.