536 Dedication of Polytechnic Hall — Address. [November, 



ing powers, if he would, by tbis course, or by the course which 

 has been pursued, think of waking up the great agricultural com- 

 munity, or any other department of society, while even the present 

 course is deemed more than sufficient in its requirements, even for 

 professional life, and that too, while our colleges, theoretically and 

 practically, undervalue the attainments for any of the industrial 

 pursuits, and especially that of Agriculture, which is the one pre- 

 occupied by far the largest number. We rarely see the collegian resort 

 to the plow or the workshop ; and the prevalent feeling among the 

 learned and unlearned alike, is, that if his talents are so employed, 

 they are eflfectually lost to the world, buried in a napkin, while at 

 the same time there could be no greater mistake. Yes, the young 

 man, often ambitious of distinction, entering college with the full 

 intent of becoming a scientific farmer, by the time he has reached 

 his junior year, and often before he has entered college, has acquired 

 quite a disrelish of his father's pursuit, and the one of his own 

 choice, and often has he become so disgusted with its menial char- 

 acter, as almost to be ashamed of the mother who rocked his cradle, 

 and the rough exterior, the bronzed vizage, and hard hands of the 

 father — the earnings of whose toil and sweat he is enjoying without 

 gratitude, and almost without feeling — his eye directed, as he sup- 

 poses, to some lofty station — made so by the perverted notions he 

 has imbibed — by the false views inculcated. 



Public sentiment is doing much at the present time to modify and 

 mold anew the organization of our colleges, in regard to their 

 course of study, and it is to be feared, often greatly to their injury ; 

 in many cases, by frittering away to a mere smattering the studies 

 to be pursued, and by introducing others esteemed more practical; 

 for example, numerous modern sciences, thus multiplying greatly 

 the number of subjects to be studied, or to use a more appropriate 

 term, gone over, without prolonging the time for their prosecution, 

 thus rendering superficiality of attainment inevitable. It now is a 

 little of everything, and not much of anything, and the consequence 

 is nothing. 



How idle it must appear to every reflecting mind, that any consid- 

 erable number of the subjects laid down in almost every collegiate 

 catalogue can be mastered, or great proficiency be attained, in the 

 brief period allotted. And still it will be found true, as a general 

 rule, that the students in our colleges, notwithstanding this great 

 multiplication of subjects, graduate at an earlier period in life than 



