academic and learned associations. As connected with en- 

 dowment, I desire to be understood as regarding learning un- 

 der the notion of an entire system, closely related in all ita 

 parts, bringing its utmost extremities together, and uniting the 

 very alphabet of knowledge with the subUraest speculations of 

 philosophy. 



Looking then at the whole subject in this view, it remains 

 to inquire, whether we are to have a rational and systematic 

 plan of endowment for the support of learning in this coun- 

 try—for there is only one general mode by which such sup- 

 port can be rendered permanent and effective— or whether we 

 are to go on in the old way, conmiitting the whole cause to 

 the hazard of uncertain supplies, from unsteady and precarious 

 sources; gleaning a little in this quarter and a httle in that; 

 resorting to financial schemes, always inadequate, sometimes 

 founded in cheatery and trick, and sometimes in flagrant im- 

 morahty; and appealing not seldom to motives and passions 

 which all parties are, or ought to be, ashamed to avow? 



With us, I mean in the United States, our educational and 

 hterary system may be described in general terms, as consist- 

 ing of primary schools, of academies or grammar schools, of 

 colleges or classical and scientific schools, of schools for pro- 

 fessional education, and of associations designed for the pro- 

 motion of learning generally or for the cultivation of particu- 

 lar branches. Such, in brief, is our system; and we shall 

 soon see whether this system, in all its parts, is what it ought 

 to be— and whether learning is receiving with us that encou- 

 ragement and support which its importance demands? 



To begin with our common schools. These are endowed, 

 as they should be, in several of the States, by the State go- 

 vernment. The plan in our own State is justly regarded with 

 admiration. In many respects it is admirably devised, and so 

 long as nothing better can be accomplished, it ought to be 

 strenuously supported. But we have only to compare what 

 is actuaUy done in the work of primary instruction with what 

 should be done, and must be done, if we would elevate the 



chEuracter of our i 



3 country, to discover that 



present endowment is wholly inadequate to the object. 



