EDUCATION OFF A KM ERS. 37 



cry, or the fashion of the times. If, however, they have ceased to 

 be useful ; if they no longer answer the purposes for which they 

 were designed, let them be abandoned ; or if they are no longer 

 adapted to our circumstances, and cannot fill the place they once 

 did, then let them be replaced by others, and by those which are 

 better. 



These remarks are made in consequence of the opinions which 

 have been freely expressed in some quarters, particularly in agri- 

 cultural meetings, that our colleges and higher schools of learning 

 are not adapted to fulfil the wants of the /farmer ; or in other 

 words, that he needs an institution of a different character, and 

 founded upon a different plan ; for as they are not to be lawyers 

 or clergymen or physicians, but are destined for a different sphere, 

 so their education should be adapted to fit them to move in that 

 sphere, or to be more definite, their education should be agricul- 

 tural. This view of the subject is very plausible, and it is not 

 strange that many should fall in with it, and believe that it is 

 the very thing which will do for them. 



But let us see how much real soundness there is in the position. 

 In the first place, if this view of the subject is the right view, then 

 it would ap})ly to all persons who design to be educated : and the 

 lawyer must have his, the physician his institution, and so on 

 But again, in order to get at the merits of the question, how the 

 farmer shall be educated, we must understand first what the colle- 

 giate course of study is designed for. We answer, they are de- 

 signed to develop the mind. All the collegiate exercises and stu- 

 dies have no other end than the development of the intellectual 

 powers ; the student is trained by a systematic course, which 

 though it is in mathematics, or languages, yet it has no reference 

 at all, necessarily to his future business ; it looks not to the ques- 

 tion whether he is to become a clergyman, lawyer or physician, 

 farmer or watchmaker. The whole course of instruction is to be 

 considered as preparatory ; it is only to lay a foundation ; it is 

 disciplinary. In this disciplinary course, however, he acquires 

 something more, it is true, than the mere rudiments of knowledge ; 

 much of it is eminently practical, but still the course is designed 

 for discipline and for development of the intellect. For secur- 

 ing this object, it proceeds in regular gradations from the less to 

 the more diflficult and abstruse studies ; it is intended to lead the 



