J135 



It is impossible in this place that I should attempt to pur- 

 sue the plan I have suggested into its details. There are ad- 

 vantages connected with it, which have not even been hinted 

 at, and which must be left to be considered, when the merits 

 and defects of the plan shall come to be discussed more at 

 large, if, indeed, it shall be deemed worthy of any future 

 thought or action Avhatever. I will only add now, my sin- 

 ceie and honest conviction, a conviction to which I have been 

 brought after considerable reflection, and which has been con- 

 firmed by consulting the opinions of persons more intelligent 

 on such a subject than I can pretend to be, that a plan of this 

 sort is not only practicable, but commends itself in an espe- 

 cial manner to the judgment of all, because it is the only one 

 that is practicable, on account of its superior efficiency and 

 economy, to compass the great object in view — which is, the 

 universal instruction of the people after an advanced and ele- 

 vated standard of education.* 



I have spoken in general terms of our educational and lite- 

 rary system, in connection with the subject of endowment and 

 support. The time which I have found it necessary to con- 

 sume in treating of a single branch of that system, leaves me 

 no choice but to content myself with the most cursory and 

 hasty glance at the remaining parts of it. 



No great reforms are ever made without great changes. 

 Where a business is begun wrong, it will generally continue 

 to go wrong, and the attempt to mend it b)^ patching, is like 

 adding new cloth to an old garment. We can never be sure 

 that we are prepared to remedy an evil till we have struck the 

 foundation of it. Happily, in most cases, the bottom is much 

 sooner reached than is commonly imagined by those who are 

 used to see nothing but what appears above the surface. 



As I regard the body of learning in any country or State 

 as an entire thing, I could not contemplate the remodelling of 

 one limb, without proposing to bring the other parts of the 

 frame into proportion and harmony with it. The portions of 

 our general educational plan above that of primary instruc- 



" Note C. 



