| Share page |
|
INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 349
encouragement and stimulus. Aid the district school, therefore, and do not divert either public money or public sympathy from this true point of effort and philanthropy.
T know the arguments in favor of colleges, and admit their force. We doubtless need institutions where youth may be fitted for the learned professions. We need institutions where a love of science and scholarship may be cherished, and where a spirit may be engendered that will ever keep alive the efforts to disseminate learning over society at large. But are richly endowed seminaries, in our country, the best device for accomplishing these desirable objects I
If a college has ample funds to sustain its professors, will they not, according to the common course of human events, become indolent. indifferent, or inefficient? Their salaries are secure, the institution is safe, whether they toil or not. Here and there an individual may be found who will triumph over the seductive influence of such circumstances, but in general, these will prove fatal to that activity, vigor and vigilance necessary to render a seminary of this kind useful. The whole establishment will fall into a lazy routine, the officers will be negligent and the pupils indifferent. The funds of 30 |
||