Report on a Course of Liberal Education, 339 



for Mathematics, we studied and recited little more than the 

 rudiments, some of the plainest things in them ; — our advan- 

 tages in that day, were too low, for any to rise high in any 

 branch of hterature," &c. Surely it will not be maintained 

 by any one, who has the least knowledge of the subject, and 

 who has no sinister object in view, that from 1714 to 1828, 

 only " slight alterations " have been made in the system of 

 education in this college. So far is this from being true, 

 that new departments have been added, and the course 

 of languages, mathematics, physics, and indeed every branch, 

 has been greatly enlarged. It is now impossible to trace 

 the successive changes with exactness. It is obviously im- 

 plied in the language of Dr. Chandler, who was himself a 

 graduate of the college, that great improvements had been 

 m-ride even in his time. It is well known, that the study 

 of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, was greatly ad- 

 vanced during the Presidency of President Clap. Atten- 

 tion to English composition and oratory was much increas- 

 ed about the year 1770, and in subsequent years. With- 

 in the last thirty years, the changes which have been intro- 

 duced, both into the course of study, and the mode of in- 

 struction, are within the recollection of members of the fac- 

 ulty and of the corporation. By vv'hat appears to be a wise 

 provision in our lavi^s, the selection of textbooks, the mode of 

 instruction, the course of the examinations, and ip.any of the 

 most important details in the practical concerns of the col- 

 lege, are left to the judgment and discretion of the faculty ; 

 the corporation having at all times the right of revision. No 

 question has engaged the attention of the faculty more con- 

 stantly, than how the course of education in the college 

 might be improved, and rendered more practically useful. 

 Free communications have at ail times been held between the 

 faculty and the corporation, on subjects connected Vv'ith the 

 instruction of the college. When the aid of the corporation 

 has been thought necessary, it has been asked ; and by this 

 course of proceeding, the interests of the institution have been 

 regularly advanced. No remark is more frequently made by 

 those, who visit the college after the absence of some years, 

 than that changes have been made for the better ; and those 

 who make the fullest investigation, are the most ready to 

 approve what they find. The charge, therefore, that the 

 college is stationary, that no efforts are made to accommo- 

 date it to the wants of the age, that all exertions are for the 



