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example of a liberal appropriation to complete the proper fur- 

 nishing and endowment of the college and Institute. In the 

 mean time, let the Institute, even with the means in posses- 

 sion, take in hand the business of preparation for the dehvery 

 of courses of lectures to be begun in the coming autumn — 

 lectures which may be so conducted, I hesitate not to say, that 

 at the end of eighteen months, a diligent hearer of the course, 

 with ordinary capacity only, may have a sounder acquaintance 

 with science and useful knowledge, than can be found in one 

 out of twenty college graduates, who carry the evidence of 

 their proficiency in a classical certificate under seal. 



To complete the outline of a plan for a system of learning 

 and public instruction in this State, it remains only for me to 

 add, that it requires to be crowned with at least one great 

 State University. This should be established here at the seat 

 of government. We now have the name of a State univer- 

 sity solemnly incorporated by act of the Legislature, but no 

 university. To create one, in fact as well as in name, the 

 State should not hesitate or delay to appropriate one million of 

 dollars for its endowment. If we want a model, it may be 

 found in Germany. Perhaps the most perfect is that at Got- 

 tingen.* And as for the million or more which might be ne- 

 cessary to endow it, let it be the business of the men of learn- 

 ing, by a concerted union of all their forces, to make the pub- 

 lic authorities ashamed to refuse it. It is demonstrable, that 

 without something of the sort, science cannot be kept fully 

 alive in any country. If scientific speculation be not cherish- 

 ed and strengthened, her wing will flag whenever she attempts 

 to gain the region of a higher and rarer atmosphere. The 

 foot of ardent and noble discovery will tire and stumble, with 

 none to cheer him on, and no aid towards clearing the obstruc- 

 tions from his untrodden path. If philosophy be not allowed 



