The History of Dartmouth College

by Baxter Perry Smith

"The principle which has generally obtained in regard to the colleges of this country, of making them merely introductory to a professional education, is one too important in its connections and results to be hastily relinquished. The correspondence which usually exists between the genius of civil governments, and the arrangement of literary institutions, has been very happily exemplified in our system of schools, rising in regular gradation from the primary to the professional, and wisely accommodated to the public convenience and necessity. This system, whatever defects may have existed in some of its practical operations, has been found, on the whole, admirably suited to the condition of society. Its parts having kept their fair proportions, each one performing its peculiar office, and all acting and reacting upon each other, it is out of question that the results of the whole, in the general diffusion of knowledge and elevation of the public character, have been salutary to a degree unprecedented in the history of the world; and its general adoption, with modifications according to the different circumstances of society, may be contemplated as one of the surest pledges of our national prosperity. Apart from the multiplied facilities of instruction, which upon this system are afforded at the cheapest rate to all who would enjoy the benefits of education, that spirit of fair and honorable competition, which is necessarily excited between so many kindred institutions, would seem to insure improvements proportioned to the means which are afforded them, and prove a check upon those abuses which have usually attended establishments of more extended influence and less responsibility.

"But it would seem important to the continued success of this system, that its several parts should still be kept distinct and subordinate. I will not say that they may not subsist harmoniously, and be conducted usefully upon the same ground. I will not say that an university, sectional or national, that shall, in its separate colleges and halls, prepare our youth for the various departments of life, may not consist with the spirit of our civil governments, and be guarded against the evils which have generally attended establishments so complicate, and of such numerous resort. However this may be judged, it will be found, I apprehend, the wisdom of our scattered institutions, to preserve their individuality, and remain true, as to their general regulations, to the purpose of their foundation. With respect, particularly, to the arrangements of a college, it would seem not less true than in regard to the efforts of an individual mind, or the operations of a machine, that however numerous and various these arrangements may be in detail, the most beneficial results cannot be expected without unity of design. Between that kind of cultivation and discipline necessary as a foundation for professional eminence, and that which is required for success in mercantile, mechanical, or agricultural occupation, there is a very natural and obvious distinction. And not only is it desirable that they who will be successful mainly as they shall be conversant with books, who require to be learned men, and they whose concern lies principally in the active business of life, in skill or labor, should have in some respects a different course of study, but be subjected to the influence of different minds, and examples, and rules, and scenes, and associations, corresponding to the different relations which they will sustain. 'Non omnia possumus omnes,' is a proverb applicable both to teachers and to pupils, and it would forbid the supposition, that minds which act upon others for widely different purposes, should do it always with the best effect, or that they who are so acted upon, should not sometimes suffer injury from the inadequate or ill appropriated influence that is exerted over them.

"But the evils of commingling within the walls of college, and subjecting to the same general influence, persons or classes, requiring a different preparatory training, would not, probably, be greater than those which would result from an attempt to carry collegial instruction above the simple groundwork of the professions, and to accommodate the course of study and discipline to the future intended course of life. To whatever extent improvement should be carried in the preparatory schools, of whatever qualifications young men should be possessed, at the usual time of admission to college, their term of residence here cannot reasonably be thought too long, nor their facilities too ample, for general elementary cultivation. It were not the worst of the evil of providing for professional education at college, that the time which should be devoted to mental preparation would be lost, and young men would go forth into life unfurnished; but many minds uncertain and vacillating soon wearied with the dry elements of one department, would presently attempt another and a third, and disgusted, at length, with all, would resign themselves to a stupefying indolence, or a consuming licentiousness. The examples of other times, when the learning of universities all had respect to the future political and ecclesiastical relations of the student, and these institutions became little better than panders to allied despotism and superstition, may teach us to cultivate our youth in the elements of general knowledge, and impart vigor and force and freeness to their minds, in the course of sound fundamental study, before they are permitted to engage in any merely professional acquisitions; to practice them well on the broad threshold of science, before they are exposed to be blasted or bewildered by the premature unfolding of its mysteries. They will then go forward, prepared, not merely to acquire the technicalities of a profession, but to investigate its essential principles; to avoid those ignes fatui, which so often, with the appearance of truth, mislead and destroy, and draw out from the depths, the living form of truth itself; and thus contribute to the destined emancipation of the world from ignorance, and prejudice, and misrule, and the worse influence of false philosophy. I would not be extreme; but when we consider the controlling influence of mind of those who are accredited as the teachers and guides of other men, and how important that this should be an influence of reason, of knowledge, and of truth, and how slowly and carefully its foundation requires to be laid in the youthful mind, we may well dread to embarrass the process, either by any accidental impressions and associations, or by prematurely trusting to its completion. Nor should an exception be claimed even in favor of the Christian ministry. However desirable that they who contemplate this office should be early qualified for the service of God, and of their fellow men, yet they may not safely trespass upon college hours, by anticipating those higher studies, which await them on other grounds.

"I shall be obliged to trespass further upon the time of this assembly, while I glance at a few particulars connected with the attainment of the single end of a collegial education. It has been alleged, that the preparatory schools have frequently failed in qualifying the mind for successful application to the exercises of college. And it has been answered, that college has sent out into the schools inadequate instructors. The evil which is admitted is probably on both sides, and an obvious remedy will be found, in stating and rigidly exacting such terms of matriculation as shall at once bring into requisition the most thorough preparatory instruction, and provide that such instruction may always be obtained.

"It is evident that, other things being equal, those who, by reason of superior early advantages, are prepared to enter upon the prescribed exercises of college with more readiness and effect than others, will ordinarily prosecute and finish their course with proportionably higher reputation. Indeed, to the want of a thorough initiation into the rudiments of learning may be traced much of that indolence and fickleness and easy yielding to temptation, by which the mind, untaught in the labor of successful occupation, and discouraged by the failure of its imprudent efforts, is presently paralyzed, and lost to every honorable and useful purpose. If then it may be provided that early instruction shall be more adequate, and the mind of the student shall be prepared to enter with readiness and effect upon the studies of college, we shall inspire him with that confidence in his own ability and endeavors which is one of the strongest inducements to exertion, and shall insure a degree of improvement limited only by his capacity and application. It may be true, that some of our colleges, by reason of the temptations of poverty, and the zeal of competition, accommodating themselves to the convenience of youth, have not increased in their demands in proportion to the advances which have been already made in elementary instruction. Such have doubtless mistaken their true interests. It is believed, that those institutions which shall lead in exacting the most extensive and thorough preparation, will have a distinction and a patronage proportioned to the benefits which they shall thus render to society.

"It is of equal importance, that our colleges should be furnished with the materials of study. It was a significant maxim, I think of Juvenal, that it is a great part of learning to know where learning may be found. For, after ascertaining the place of treasure, it is usual to feel the kindling desire of acquisition, and the mind at once receives a corresponding impulse to exertion. The man who has wasted his best days in mental inaction, may feel himself so humbled amidst the productions of genius and learning, which have not instructed him, and instruments, of which he knows not the use, and specimens and models whose properties and beauties he cannot distinguish, that he will wish rather to retreat and forget his poverty, in the gratifications of inferior appetite. But, on these same scenes, the fires of youthful unprostituted ambition glow with a new intensity, and the mind, here waking to the consciousness of its own energies, aspires to the elevation and dignity for which it is designed. The well stored library and philosophical room and cabinet, create an atmosphere, in which it acts with an unwonted freedom and force, and strengthens itself for the high and laborious service to which it is devoted.

"But, apart from the influence of such scenes and their associations, there are more palpable reasons, which especially at this day, call for a great increase of books and apparatus in our literary institutions.

"The time has been, when a few worn out text books, descending from one generation of students to another, were thought sufficient for the purposes of a liberal education. But, in that wider range of investigation, to which the mind is now directed, in all departments of study, every source of information requires to be laid open. It is not the lesson from a single author, that is alone sufficient to be committed, but the subject, of which possibly a score have treated, that requires to be examined and understood. And neither can the teacher nor the student feel himself adequate to the services before him while any valuable authority, on the broad field of his inquiries, is not accessible, or any means of illustration are unattempted. But these facilities are clearly beyond the resources of individuals, and however voluntary associations of students may, to some extent, compensate for private inability, there is a point beyond which public sentiment declares this to be a burden; and it demands that the institutions themselves, which proffer the benefits of education, should supply the means by which this end is to be attained. The question between different places of education, is coming to be decided, more frequently, by reference to the comparative advantages which they afford in this respect; and, however it may be necessary that a college should hold out some show of other accommodation, yet neither the convenience of its situation, nor the splendor of its edifices, nor the number and variety of its departments and instructors, will be held in estimation, without corresponding advantages for an extended course of study.

"In regard to a course of study, it were almost adventurous for one without the advantages of experience on this subject, to remark beyond what is already obvious, that it should be simply accommodated to the most perfect discipline and instruction of the mind. And yet, perhaps, it were more presumptuous to suppose, that improvement in this respect has already reached its limits. The changes which have taken place, and are still occurring in the methods of instruction, at the preparatory schools, may be hoped so far to hasten the development and strengthening of the intellectual powers as that the student may come, at an earlier period of his college course, to that class of studies which call more immediately for the use of reason, and give it direction in its inquiries after truth. The impulse which the mind receives from an acquaintance with its own powers, and their application to some branches of intellectual philosophy, is a matter of general experience. Every one recollects the pleasure of his first acquisitions in this department of study, and the ardor with which he thenceforth aspired to higher attainments. He breathed a free air, he went forward with a new confidence, and his application to all the duties before him became more easy and more successful. If, then, we might, almost on the threshold of a public education, habituate the mind to itself, and aid it in some of the more simple essays of its own powers, it would seem, that we should prepare it for the readier perception of classic beauties, and for mastering more effectually the elements of mathematical, political, and moral science. Study in every department ceases to be a mechanical process, when the mind is thus accustomed, and then we have assurance that study will be a pleasure, and that what becomes a pleasure will be gain and glory.

"If it were asked, whether any branch of college study might be spared, few, probably, would be ready to affirm. However, in the zeal of innovation, the utility of classical learning has been decried, it is not probable that the name of scholar will ever be awarded to one who has not loved to spend his days and nights upon the pages of antiquity, nor drunk deep from these original sources of taste, and genius, and philosophy. We believe it has rarely, if ever happened, that one has attained to a symmetry and finished excellency of character, in the varieties of any one department of learning, who has not, at least in the early stages of education, received inspiration from the oratory and poetry of other times, when language was an index to the passions and emotions of the soul, and conveyed, not the names only, but the properties of things, the qualities of mind. The very vigor of thought and power of eloquence with which many, with a parricidal spirit, have assailed the literature of antiquity, were borrowed from its stores; and should their schemes of reform prevail we might fear that other generations, inheriting only their prejudices, without their refinement, would degenerate into comparative barbarism, and with that of learning, that the light also of religion would be extinguished. It is the worst of this spirit that it would seal up the treasures of heavenly wisdom, and take away the armor in which we trust for assailing the enemies of God. And however it may be with other interests, we will hope that in this respect, as well as ordinarily in all others, the pulpit will prove a defence of the true interests of man. But, it may be questioned whether, if the field of labor were narrowed, and instead of gleaning as is usually done, from many writers, the student should be more thorough in his application to a few of the most approved, the end of this branch of study would not be as fully answered, and opportunity be afforded for greater acquisitions in the literature of modern times. It has been said, particularly in regard to our own language and country, that the style of writing, of conversation, and of public speaking, among educated men, generally fails of that accuracy, propriety, and refinement which might reasonably be expected from their course of preparatory and professional study. The college is undoubtedly the place where the evil, if it be admitted to exist, should be corrected. And its correction would be found in the greater progress of the student, beyond the task of composition, to the examination of the most approved vernacular writings. It is not so much by his own imperfect attempts as by familiarity with the nature and finished productions of other minds, that he may expect to facilitate his conceptions, to extend the circle of his thoughts, to correct his judgment and his taste, and thus increase the readiness, propriety, and effect of his future efforts. A course of thorough reading and comparison of accredited authors, in connection with occasional researches into the history of English literature and essays at higher criticism, will probably do more towards the accomplishment of polite scholarship than all the principles of grammar and rhetoric, however perfectly understood, without opportunity for such an application.