Report on a Course of Liberal Education. 319 



is more various than that of the colleges. But while an 

 academy teaches a Uttle of every thing, the college, by di- 

 recting its efforts to one uniform course, aims at doing its 

 work with greater precision, and economy of time ; just as 

 the merchant who deals in a single class of commodities, or 

 a manufacturer who produces but one kind of fabrics, exe- 

 cutes his business more perfectly, than he whose attention 

 and skill are divided among a multitude of objects. 



If our treasury were overflowing, if we had a surplus fund ^ 

 requiring us to look out for some new object on which to ex- 

 pend it, there might perhaps be no harm in establishing a 

 department for a brief and rapid course of study, so far con- 

 nected with the college, as to be under the superintendence 

 of the same board of trust. But it ought to be as distinct 

 from the four classes of undergraduates, as is the medical or 

 law school. All the means which are now applied to the 

 proper collegiate department, are barely sufficient, or rather 

 are insufficient, for the object in view. No portion of our re- 

 sources, or strength, or labor, can be diverted to other pur- 

 poses, without impairing the education which we are at- 

 tempting to give. A London university, commencing with 

 a capital of several hundred thousand dollars, and aiming to 

 provide a system of instruction for the youth in a city whose 

 population is more than a million, may well establish its high- 

 er and inferior courses, its scientific and practical depart- 

 ments, its professional, mercantile, and mechanical institu- 

 tions. But shall a college, with an income of two or three 

 thousand a year from funds, affect to be at once a London 

 university? Should we ever become such an institution, 

 our present undergraduate course, ought still to constitute 

 one distinct branch of the complicated system of arrange- 

 ments. 



But might we not, by making the college more accessible 

 to different descriptions of persons, enlarge our numbers^ and 

 in that way, increase our income ? This might be the opera- 

 tion of the measure, for a very short time, while a degree 

 from the college should retain its present value in public es- 

 timation ; a value depending entirely upon the character of 

 the education which we give. But the moment it is under- 

 stood that the institution has descended to an inferior stand- 

 ard of attainment, its reputation will sink to a corresponding 

 level. After we shall have become a college in name only^ 

 and in reality nothing more than an academy ; or half col- 



