The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 6, May, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 6, May, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
The paper on _Collegiate Education_, beginning at page 165, volume ii,
is much more than a sufficient reply to that Essay in the _Old
Bachelor_ of Mr. Wirt, in which the attempt is made to argue down
colleges as seminaries for the young. Mr. Walsh's article does not
uphold Mr. Barlow's plan of a National University--a plan which is
assailed by the Attorney General--but comments upon some errors in
point of fact, and enters into a brief but comprehensive examination
of the general subject. He maintains with undeniable truth, that it is
illogical to deduce arguments against universities which are to exist
at the present day, from the inconveniences found to be connected with
institutions formed in the dark ages--institutions similar to our own
in but few respects, modelled upon the principles and prejudices of
the times, organized with a view to particular ecclesiastical
purposes, and confined in their operations by an infinity of Gothic
and perplexing regulations. He thinks, (and we believe he thinks with
a great majority of our well educated fellow citizens) that in the
case either of a great national institute or of State universities,
nearly all the difficulties so much insisted upon will prove a series
of mere chimeras--that the evils apprehended might be readily
obviated, and the acknowledged benefits uninterruptedly secured. He
denies, very justly, the assertion of the _Old Bachelor_--that, in the
progress of society, funds for collegiate establishments will no doubt
be accumulated, independently of government, when their benefits are
evident, and a necessity for them felt--and that the rich who have
funds will, whenever strongly impressed with the necessity of so
doing, provide, either by associations or otherwise, proper seminaries
for the education of their children. He shows that these assertions
are contradictory to experience, and more particularly to the
experience of the State of Virginia, where, notwithstanding the extent
of private opulence, and the disadvantages under which the community
so long labored from a want of regular and systematic instruction, it
was the government which was finally compelled, and not private
societies which were induced, to provide establishments for effecting
the great end. He says (and therein we must all fully agree with him)
that Virginia may consider herself fortunate in following the example
of all the enlightened nations of modern times rather than in
hearkening to the counsels of the Old Bachelor. He dissents (and who
would not?) from the allegation, that "the most eminent men in Europe,
particularly in England, have received their education neither at
public schools or universities," and shows that the very reverse may
be affirmed--that on the continent of Europe by far the greater number
of its great names have been attached to the rolls of its
universities--and that in England a vast majority of those minds which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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