480 [Assembly 



rental supervision and government, and tested by accurate recitations 

 and stringent examinations. Either in its incipiency it will fall a 

 victim, to imbecility, or be eclipsed by keen and active com- 

 petition — a calamity which alone can be averted by a superior stand- 

 ard of attainments, and a popularity acquired by accomplished 

 professors and pre-eminent local advantages. 



For everything being equal, an inferior course of instruction ever 

 sinks an institution of learning to its own corresponding level. It 

 is a noble emulation to mount on high ground; here the student can 

 take a survey of the whole field of operation, or fill his soul with a 

 glowing aspiration for substantial utility and excellence. Just as a 

 traveller ascends some lofty height where the eye can have a bound- 

 less prospect of the embellishments of art and the magnificence of 

 nature, which will swell his heart with the sublimest emotions. Let 

 there b*e a nursery where there will be a healthy growth of mathe- 

 matical knowledge, an appreciation of the mental triumphs of past 

 generations, embodied in facts and a coincidence with the experience 

 of practical men. The principles of mechanism, in a liberal sense, 

 in order to calculate the amount and expenditure of laboring force, 

 the motion of machiner)', and the investigation of its properties, the 

 theory of the steam engine, a complete mastery of mensuration, to- 

 gether with physics, are the largest and most philosophical doctrines 

 which can form the practical and intelligent farmer. For they have 

 a tangible reality, and come in requisition in rural economy. 



And what can be paramount in a republican government to a 

 mental discipline, that will train the aspiring youth to arrange his 

 ideas in a proper order, investigate the nature of evidence, and be 

 deeply versed in the fundamental rules of rhetoric and composition. 

 I would by no means have him ignorant of general laws, but more 

 particularly state and national constitutions should be treasured up in 

 his ingenuous mind. And who can estimate the importance of chem- 

 istry,, geology, and electricity, which lie at the very foundations of 

 scientific agriculture? 



And what is better calculated to elucidate the best method of im- 

 proving the breeds of the lower animals, than comparative anatomy 

 and animal physiology? Botany must have a prominent place in 

 the course, and whatever relates to the growth, acclimation and arti- 

 ficial improvements of plants, especially the cerealia, grapes, forest, 

 shade, fancy and fruit trees, esculent roots, together with noxious 

 weeds, should be at the perfect command of the student, and in order 



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