149

68

physcial geography is the most christianizing in its in-
fluences? (Long continued applause.)

------------

It must be a cause of common congratulation among
us all, I am sure, to have with us, on this occasion, a
gentleman whose devotion to the interests of education
has been manifested, not by words of commendation on-
ly, but by the consecration of his talents and the earnest
labors of his whole life, to the development of its true
principles--its elevation to a just estimation among our
countrymen, and its practical application to the wants
and condition of our country. I announce to you the
name of the Rev. F. A. P. Barnard, President of the
University of Mississippi.

PRESIDENT BARNARD'S ADDRESS.

Dr. Barnard spoke, in substance, as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen:

As one whose life has been devoted to the cause of
education in the Southern States, it is with unusual sat-
isfaction that I avail myself of this opportunity afforded
me to offer to the enlightened projectors of this magnifi-
cent educational enterprise which we are assembled to
inaugurate to-day, the humble tribute of my congratula-
tion upon the brilliant prospect opening itself before
them. This noble project has for me as an educator the
deepest interest, in that it is designed to supply a se-
rious defect in our educational system--a defect which
has been often signalized in later years by our leading
literary and scientific men, who have omitted no oppor-
tunity when the slightest promise of success presented
itself, to urge the importance of its removal. It is not
now ten years, since the most distinguished among the
educators of the Northern States made a concerted ef-
fort to prevail upon the Legislature of the State of New
York--a State probably selected on account of its vast
resources--to build up an institution of this kind in the

69

city of Albany; but this effort, like many similar though
perhaps less determined before it, utterly failed, and
there remains now a monument to its sincerity and
earnestness, in the Astronomical Observatory which eu-
tered as one feature into the scheme, and which would
had shared the fate of the rest, had its perpetuity de-
pended on public munificence.

In speaking of the want of a University as a present
defect of our educational system, I am not forgetful
that we have many universities already if to bear the
name, and to bear it by legislative enactment, can make
them so. I stand here myself as the representative of
one of these, and I am proud to be such; but I need
not say that neither this one nor any other of its class
occupies the position or fulfills the function of the great
Universities of the European continent. But if I under-
stood the original proposition of the projector of the
great institution which it is purposed to erect on this
spot, or if I understand now the views of those who
have associated themselves with him in the undertaking
which seems to be so near to its realization, the design
is not to add another to the list of nominal Univestities
already existing in the country, but to create one which
shall do a work far superior to that which they are ca-
pable of doing. It is designed to erect here a school of
learning to which not merely youth, but men, may re-
sort; and in which not merely the rudiments of knowl-
edge shall be taught, but every branch of letters and
science may be pursued throughtout all its ramifications,
and aids may be furnished for that independent research
and original investigation by which the boundaries of
the field of knowledge may be carried forward into the
region of the still unkown.

This being, as I understand it, the design of this pro-
posed institution--a design from which I trust its pro-
jectors and patrons will not swerve or shrink back a
single hair's breadth--as an educator I look upon it
with feelings of the intensest interest, for the influence
which it is destined inevitably to exert upon our whole
educational system. It is impossible that a higher order
of intellectual culture be introduced among us, without
improving the thoroughness and elevating the tone of