University of the South Papers Series A, No1

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understanding that whatever provision of this kind may be immediately necessary shall involve no vast exhaustion of funds, and shall disappear as the community which must shortly gather here shall in its growth render them unnecessary--having in my own personal observation of the extraordinary capabilities of the site, and the healthful and bracing tone of its exhilirating atmosphere, become satisfied that intellectual labor may be vigorously pursued here at any season of the year, and being accordingly convinced that the evils of isolated and cloistered colleges are not likely here to be incurred, I frankly and freely own myself to-day, reconciled to the location, and satisfied of the wisdom which has selected it.

One peculiarity further I have to notice. It is proposed here to create a University not through the slow growth of years, but immediately and at once. The scheme has been substantially perfected, the means for the most part secured, and it is now proposed that the realization shall be as sudden as the birth of Minerva, full armed, from the head of Jupiter. It is curiously in keeping with the character your people, of the race to which we belong, and the history of the continent we inhabit, that we should improvise an University complete in all its appliances and all the instrumentalites for the fulfillment of its comprehensive functions. And why should we not improvise an University? We improvise towns, we improvise great cities, we improvise even sovereign States, which spring up like magic in the heart of the wilderness, and with a suddenness almost startling present themselves in the halls of our federal legislation, demanding admission to the Union. To improvise an University is an undertaking not much greater, yet the old Universities of Europe have been the growth of centuries. Ought not ours to grow up to greatness by a similarly tardy progress? I think not. The slow growth of those venerable institutions of the old world was a necessity arising out of causes which have, for the most part, disappeared. When Alfred founded the University of Oxford, when William of Champeaux opened his lecture halls in Paris, there was the classical learning of Greece and Rome, there was

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the philosophy of Aristotle, there were the mathematics of Euclid and Apollonius and a few more; but beside these things what did the field of human knowledge embrace? The literature and science which have sprung up since the revival of letters and the invention of the art of printing were without existence. Books were few, and of necessity so long as they could only be multiplied by the slow labor of the pen, costly and difficult of attainment. Collections in Natural History, in Physical Science, in Agriculture, and other subjects now so beautifully illustrated in many places, were unknown. But in this day all these instrumentalities for aiding the learner or the investigator may be secured, without waiting for them to form themselves by the slow accretions of centuries. Take, for instance, what seems perhaps the most difficult of all--the formation of a library. Such are the facilities now of communication between the remotest parts of the civilized world--so complete are the affiliations of the book trade throughout all Europe and America, that it is only necessary to know what we ought to prossess in order that, with the means in our hands, we may obtain it. A bibliographic scholar may to-day collect a library embracing all that is valuable in the Imperial Library at Paris, or the vast collection of the British Museum, in less than a decade of years. But this is a point which need not be argued, for this had been actually done before the eyes of the living generation. The Astor Library was formed on paper before a book was purchased. Its accomplished director, Dr. Cogswell, so efficiently and so sagaciously addressed himself to the weighty responsibility entrusted to him of gathering it, that though it embraces individual volumes whose cost reached nearly the large sum of $1,500, yet of almost one hundred thousand he was able to report that the average price scarcely exceeded one dollar. Thus then, though it is a great thing and a grand thing to improvise an institution such as itis proposed to make this University, yet it is certainly a very possible thing; and I look forward with the most undoubting confidence to its early accomplishment.

I fine, I have one word to say about the plan of or-

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ganization which is, as I understand, in the form of a project not yet fully perfected, under the consideration of the Board. I have examined this plan with earnest and deep interest. As a whole it strikes me as a most admirable embodiment of that which a great university should be. If there are any particulars in the details in which I should be pleased to see some slight modifications, none of these, nevertheless, reach the essentials or disturb the outline. In its comprehensiveness also, it may be pronounced satisfactory almost without qualification. Perhaps it may be pardoned to me as an educator if I suggest, however, that my own profession has apparently been overlooked, and express a desire to see a school of pedagogic science, or of the philosophy of education added to tthe number already provided for. The principles which underlie the art of teaching have received, in these modern times, careful attention and profound investigation. The name "pedagogy," as applied to the science, has become technical in Germany, and is adopted in England and this country. The term is not elegant, at least to ears unfamiliar with its sound, yet it is the name of one of the most important of modern sciences. Its design is to demonstrate the order most fit to be adopted in the cultivation and discipline of the intellectual faculties, the subjects of study most fit in each case to supply this discipline, and the manner in which they should be taught; and also the extent to which disciplinary education should be carried in each direction, and where the learner may be wisely abandoned to pursue his own further intellectual culture unassisted. To this may be added all that relates to the training of the sensibilities and the culture of the heart; and likewise no less to hygiene, and the development of the physical powers. With this enlargement of the programme laid down to guide the operations of this noble institution, I should have no further criticism to offer. And presuming that the plan will, in substance at least, if not in all details, meet with the sanction of the Board, and that, being adopted, it will soon be carried vigorously into effect, I see no reason why this University may not, at no distant day, rival the renown of the most distinguished of its class

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in the old world. Nay, having gathered here, as it must, all the helps to study and investigation, as well as the instrumentalities for teaching which the world can supply, and attracting to this spot, as it cannot fail to do, the most eminent talent in every walk of letters and science which the country affords, I deem it no ebullition of a visionary enthusiasm to predict, that the time will come when the glories which have clustered in other times around Wittenborg and Goettingen, and Heidelberg, and Padua, and Bologna, and Paris, and Rotterdam, and Oxford, and Cambridge, will be more than equalled by the lustre which shall surround and clothe and radiate from the "University of the South."

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Agriculture, as it furnishes bread--"the staff of life,"--must ever claim the careful thoughts and attention of the great mass of our countrymen. It makes just demands upon science for aid in the accompishment of its high and noble aims. These demands it is among the purposes of our University to meet and answer. In its advocate to-day many of you will recognize our distinguished fellow-citizen, the Hon. Jno. M. Bright.

SUMMARY OF MR. BRIGHT'S SPEECH.

He commenced by regretting that the duty which had been laid upon him had not devolved upon some experienced veteran, rather than upon one who must consider himself but a tyro in the great business of agriculture.

He then proceeded to speak directly of the claims of agriculture upon science. It might be asked, Are you going to found this great university, and erect these expensive buildings, for any such purpose as that of imparting instruction in the simple, practical and common sense matter of farming? Yes; for as a university it was to teach science, and science in some of its most important departments was involved in so common a business as agriculture. In the analysis of manures, con

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taining as they do acids, alkalies, and various gasses, we cannot take a single step without Chemistry, for instance; in the analysis of soils Geology also is involved; in the classification and growth of plants, Botany and vegetable Physiology.

He then went on to speak of the dignity of agriculture illustrating it by the fact that in Paradise, man's most perfect condition, it was the life employment assigned to him by his Creator, and continued even after his fall to be still his employment. But especially since the earth was cursed and blighted for his sake, and from thenceforth to bring forth thorns and thistles instead of bread, does he need the aid of science to enable him to preserve the fresh vigor of her productiveness--renew her wastes and reclaim her barrenness.

Next he spoke of man's duty in this respect. This earth is God's footstool, made for the dwelling-place, the sustenance and happiness of His creatures. This earth is likewise our nourishing mother, with distended udder wooing us, her sucklings, to her fond embrace that she may feed, and nourish, and invigorate us to act manfully our part in the great battle of life. We often speak of our possessions as if we held in fee simple that portion of the earth's surface which we call our own. But we have in it only a life estate. We therefore are not at liberty to abuse and impoverish it, but are in duty bound to preserve and improve it, and hand it down to our children in as good condition at least as we found it, and not impoverished, scathed and peeled, cursed by us as well as for us. And is the establishment of this University to contribute at all to this result? Will it be likely to render more industrious, and therefore more prosperous and happy, the half-employed and the unemployed patrons of the rising generation? It will; for what is generally pursued from necessity, as a means of subsistence, will receive a charm from the light of science which will tend to render it a pursuit from pleasure as a means of recreation.

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It is with feelings of peculiar satisfaction that we wel-

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come to a participation in the ceremonies of this occasion our Brother, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Smith, of Kentucky. His presence here is an additional evidence of that interest which is felt almost universally in the success of our enterprise, and especially of that sympathy which unites us all in the noble and exalted aim which I may proclaim the words, "Pro Deo--Pro Ecclesia-Pro Patria." I present to you the Rt. Rev. Bishop Smith, of Kentucky.

BISHOP SMITH'S ADDRESS.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

How many years it is since the wild Indian roved through these interminable forests, I do not know; but how little conscious were they, through their ignorance, of the vast mineral wealth beneath their feet. And how long, without culture, would it have been before the hardly less wild pioneer would have developed the inexhaustible resources of our vast coal fields, iron mines, and marble quarries? It was the magic touch of mind which invoked the scene which met mine eyes this morning. These teeming multitudes--where did they spring from? It would seem that they could have sallied forth from the hollows of the trees; and all at the summons of awakened and cultivated mind, to provide here, on this mountain top, the means of an higher culture.

We sometimes look, with a touch of jealousy, upon the commercial and colonial policy of England. But we forget that all these triumphs are the victories of cultivated mind; that the whole Anglo-Saxon race are engaged in but one common work--the diffusion of knowledge, sanctified by religion. We belong to a branch of the Church in which the influence of cultivated mind has strongly tended to preserve us as an unbroken unit. And we trust that, by a higher culture, sanctified by a deeper piety, we shall bear more than our part in preserving forever unbroken the Union of these States. And I trust in God that our country will

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prove immortal, until our work is done; and until we have accomplished our high vocation, which is distributing the open Bible over all lands, and diffuse the blessings of civil and religious liberty as widely as the literature of our Mother Country is diffused, and the English language is spoken.

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