Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

It was with deep feeling that the aged Jefferson wrote, under date of Jan. 31st, 1821, to Cabell, who had written to him that he thought of retiring from the Assembly of Virginia: "But the gloomiest of all prospects is the desertion of the best friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not the necessities which

may force this upon you. Gen. Coke, you say, will explain them to me; but I cannot conceive them, nor persuade myself they are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped that yourself, Gen. Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson would stand at your posts in the Legislature until everything was effected, and the institution opened. If it is so difficult to get along with all the energy and influence of our present colleagues in the legislature, how can we expect to proceed at all, reducing our moving power? I know well your devotion to your country and your foresight of the awful scenes coming, on her, sooner or later. With this foresight, what service can we ever render her equal to this? What object of our lives can we propose so important? What interest of our own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health, time, (labor,) on what in the single life which nature has given us, can these be better bestowed than on this immortal boon to our country? The exertions and the mortifications are temporary; the benefit eternal. If any member of our college visitors could justifiably withdraw from this sacred duty, it would be myself, who quadragenis stipendiis jamdudum peractis, have neither vigor of body nor mind left to keep the field; but I will die in the last ditch, and so I hope you will, my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers and colleagues, Mr. Johnson and Gen. Breckenridge. Nature will not give you a second life wherein to atone for the omissions of this. Pray then, dear, and very dear Sir, do not think of deserting us, but view the

sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as the lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the greatest of all. Continue with us in these holy labors until, having seen their accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon, nunc dimittas, Domine."

This pathetic exhortation of the aged statesman of Monticello to Cabell was not without effect. Gen. Dade,* in the Senate of Virginia in 1828, speaking of Joseph C. Cabell's connection with the University of Virginia, said: "In promoting that monument of wisdom and taste [he] was second only to the immortal Jefferson."

*See "Life of Thomas Jefferson," by Henry S. Randall, LL.D., p. 464.

III.

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 an age when 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 gener

ations. He felt that educational establishments in America might be modelled on a broader, a better, a much nobler basis than were some 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 did so in spite of a certain spiritual and temporal despotism to which they were in many instances subjected—a despotism which dreaded the results which impartial historical and scientific investigation would lead to and looked with displeasure and with threats of persecution upon professors such as Galileo and some of his most learned associates, and which even insisted that if the Bible was studied at all it should be interpreted by many and often contradictory and unreliable writers-some of whom were styled "the Fathers," rather than that the student should with a fearless and honest spirit seek untrammelled and unvexed with despotic rules, for truth. As a man of independent character Jefferson realized that the mischievous relics of the dark ages should not be allowed a place needed by the proper demands and improvements of a progressive age. He realized that new and vast regions of knowledge were being explored, and that discoveries were being made which were worthy of the regard of statesmen who were interested in the founding of good educational establishments, and that American citizens should be encouraged to attain higher and yet higher degrees of useful culture. He wished the great Republic of the new world to be enriched with every blessing which the noblest gifts of useful learning could bestow upon her.

William E. Gladstone-whose name may with all the more freedom be mentioned as he is justly held in singu

larly high esteem in America as well as in England and Europe-has declared that "The proper work of universities, could they perform it, while they guard and cultivate all ancient truth, is to keep themselves in the foremost ranks of modern discovery, to harmonize cc tinually the inherited with the acquired wealth of ma kind, and to give a charter to freedom of discussion, while they maintain the reasonable limits of the domain of tradition and of authority."* Jefferson could not but have agreed with much that the learned and eloquent Gladstone has said about great educational establishments. If he was as bold, or bolder, than the great English statesman in introducing improvements and in cherishing noble views respecting the grandeur of the mission of universities, he was yet very cautious and careful in the work of grouping together liberal and judicious courses of instruction in the new university which he was taking a prominent part in securing to his native State.

Among the many questions which the Virginian statesman had to consider was, "How much time should be devoted by students to the study of Greek and Latin?" It is a question upon which to this day distinguished statesmen and men of letters have expressed different opinions. Jefferson planned that students should have much liberty in choosing for themselves the courses of study which they should be led to believe would be most useful to them in after life. He would have a young man

have, to at least a certain extent, an aim in life. He wished him to be helped by wisely arranged courses of instruction provided by the university, to form broad and intelligent views respecting useful learning and to a certain extent to anticipate right ambitions of a mature manhood.

*“The Might and Mirth of Literature," by W. E. Gladstone, John De Roy, collector, p. 25.

« AnteriorContinuar »