Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: II1. Jefferson’s Ideal University. THE amount of thought and the self-sacrificing labor which Jefferson gave to the great work of breathing a / noble spirit into the university which was to add new honors to the name of Virginia, was an eloquent proof of his conviction of the priceless worth of useful knowledge to citizens of a republic. What studies will be most useful in laying the foundation of the acquirements and habits of mind which will be most valuable to American citizens is a question worthy of far greater consideration by thoughtful parents and statesmen than, it is to be feared, it in many cases receives The question becomes all the more perplexing when one bears in mind how limited is the time that youth can attend educational institutions. When colleges and universities were first established in Europe they were adapted, as a rule, to a condition of society very different from that of the people of the United States in the nineteenth century. Jefferson lived in anagevhen great revolutions and changes convulsed the civilized world.‘ He had seen empires and kingdoms rise and fall. He had seen States in the old world dismembered, overrun with armies and revolutionized in some degree, by various political causes. He had breathed an air which emboldened thoughtful men of learning to fearlessly review the errors and virtues of past generations. He felt that educational establishments in America might he modelled on, a broader, a better, a mucK noblejbasis thari werespme of the so-called seminaries of learning of the old world. He recognized ?the great truth that on some parts of the globe it may be wise to pursue various branches of learning unneeded in others. A time had been in Europe when if the universities rendered the world invaluable service, they d…
