INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LORD.
Rev. Nathan Lord, D.D., of Amherst, New Hampshire, was elected the
sixth president of the college. We insert entire his inaugural
address, delivered October 29, 1828.
"The revival of learning, like that of religion, originally effected
through the instrumentality of the press, though long hindered by the
successive political convulsions and changes of the world, is now
evidently in the course of rapid advancement, and is producing a deep
and wide impression upon the mass of civilized society. It is
pervading all classes, and affecting all interests. Its influence
penetrates every public and private institution, and is exciting the
best energies of the human mind, both to the invention of new methods
of intellectual cultivation and the application of knowledge to the
practical purposes of life. Fostered by the spirit of freedom, which
goes before to disenthral the mind from that state of servitude in
which its powers had been made to minister to ignorant and wayward
ambition, or still more cramping and perverting superstition, it
promises to gain an universal ascendancy, and to render all that
influence which had been arrayed against it, henceforth subservient
only to its triumphs.
"But it is characteristic of the human mind, when set at liberty from
ancient prejudices, and permitted to range in search of expected good,
to become extreme in its calculations and projects of improvement, and
to distract itself amidst the variety of its experiments. And more
especially when its enterprises are favored by the encouragement of
wealth, and sustained by the indiscriminate approval of the multitude.
It is then, that overlooking the maxims of sound philosophy, and
disregarding the safe lessons of experience, it is beguiled into the
adoption of untried theories, and wastes its strength in the
prosecution of plans, which are found at length to accord neither with
the constitution of our nature nor with the approved usages of
society. I will not say, that this is a great evil in comparison with
that state of mental vassalage and inaction in which nothing is
attempted, nor even conceived, for the true interests of mankind. For,
the mind unfettered, will ordinarily be corrected of its mistakes and
brought back from its wanderings, when truth is the object of its
aspirations, and happiness is the prize only of successful effort. But
we may learn from this infirmity of our nature, to be cautious in our
estimates of the good before us, and to use that moderation in our
endeavors which will leave us nothing to regret, when their end shall
have been attained.
"It will scarcely be doubted that the impulse which society has
received, particularly since the commencement of the passing century,
and which has evidently been connected with the growth of freedom in
this country, has been attended with many of these excesses, and not
the least probably in the department of education. Numerous
adventurers have set forth upon this field, with different pretensions
indeed, and unequal advantages, but all large in their expectations,
and confident of success. They have seemed to themselves almost to
realize the ideal good, to annihilate the space between barbarism and
refinement, to find in relation to intellectual attainment what
experimental philosophy had sought in vain, the mysterious agent which
should transmute the baser metals into gold.
"Without denying at all the actual advance of learning, or disparaging
the improvements which are taking place in the arrangements and
administration both of public and private seminaries, we cannot be so
fond (_absit invidia verbo_) as to accredit all the inventions of this
restless age. We cannot suppose that paths so various, which have been
struck out in the heat of competition, and systems based on principles
and conducted by methods so frequently differing from each other, will
all conduce to the purposes for which they are intended, except as
they may excite more general attention to the interests of education,
and furnish materials of which wisdom and experience shall at length
avail themselves, to perfect truer and more practicable systems,
suited to the intellectual and moral nature of man, and to the various
relations and interests of life. In this view, it is evident that the
conduct of public literary institutions, at the present time, is
attended with no trivial embarrassments. That expansion of the public
mind and progress of society, which necessarily take place in a
country favored with advantages of elementary instruction and general
information, will always be creating just demands upon the higher
seats of learning, which will task all their energies, and bring into
requisition all their resources. The mass of the community, becoming
more enlightened, will call for proportionally higher qualifications
in those who are sent out to preside over the public interests, and
their progress in influence will produce a yet more powerful reaction.
But to meet these demands amidst the conflicting sectional interests
and fluctuations of public feeling, which are usually attendant upon a
state of freedom, to discriminate rightly between the diverse systems
of instruction and discipline, which are set forth with such frequency
and such earnestness of commendation; to keep so near the public
sentiment as not to lose the confidence of the community, and yet not
to follow it so implicitly as to sacrifice the more desirable good of
self-approbation; this is a labor which can be estimated by those only
who have had the trial of sustaining it. Institutions that have become
venerable by age, powerful in resources and patronage, may go forward
to introduce, not only accredited improvements but doubtful changes;
and may bring the systems, which either the wise have devised, or the
popular voice has required, to the test of actual experiment. But
feebler institutions cannot leave the ground of general principles,
which, however it may be safer and ultimately more subservient to
their true interests, cannot always be easily ascertained, and
frequently fails of being approved amidst the varying circumstances,
relations, and interests of society.
"The principle which has generally obtained in regard to the colleges
of this country, of making them merely introductory to a professional
education, is one too important in its connections and results to be
hastily relinquished. The correspondence which usually exists between
the genius of civil governments, and the arrangement of literary
institutions, has been very happily exemplified in our system of
schools, rising in regular gradation from the primary to the
professional, and wisely accommodated to the public convenience and
necessity. This system, whatever defects may have existed in some of
its practical operations, has been found, on the whole, admirably
suited to the condition of society. Its parts having kept their fair
proportions, each one performing its peculiar office, and all acting
and reacting upon each other, it is out of question that the results
of the whole, in the general diffusion of knowledge and elevation of
the public character, have been salutary to a degree unprecedented in
the history of the world; and its general adoption, with modifications
according to the different circumstances of society, may be
contemplated as one of the surest pledges of our national prosperity.
Apart from the multiplied facilities of instruction, which upon this
system are afforded at the cheapest rate to all who would enjoy the
benefits of education, that spirit of fair and honorable competition,
which is necessarily excited between so many kindred institutions,
would seem to insure improvements proportioned to the means which are
afforded them, and prove a check upon those abuses which have usually
attended establishments of more extended influence and less
responsibility.
"But it would seem important to the continued success of this system,
that its several parts should still be kept distinct and subordinate.
I will not say that they may not subsist harmoniously, and be
conducted usefully upon the same ground. I will not say that an
university, sectional or national, that shall, in its separate
colleges and halls, prepare our youth for the various departments of
life, may not consist with the spirit of our civil governments, and be
guarded against the evils which have generally attended establishments
so complicate, and of such numerous resort. However this may be
judged, it will be found, I apprehend, the wisdom of our scattered
institutions, to preserve their individuality, and remain true, as to
their general regulations, to the purpose of their foundation. With
respect, particularly, to the arrangements of a college, it would seem
not less true than in regard to the efforts of an individual mind, or
the operations of a machine, that however numerous and various these
arrangements may be in detail, the most beneficial results cannot be
expected without unity of design. Between that kind of cultivation and
discipline necessary as a foundation for professional eminence, and
that which is required for success in mercantile, mechanical, or
agricultural occupation, there is a very natural and obvious
distinction. And not only is it desirable that they who will be
successful mainly as they shall be conversant with books, who require
to be learned men, and they whose concern lies principally in the
active business of life, in skill or labor, should have in some
respects a different course of study, but be subjected to the
influence of different minds, and examples, and rules, and scenes, and
associations, corresponding to the different relations which they will
sustain. 'Non omnia possumus omnes,' is a proverb applicable both to
teachers and to pupils, and it would forbid the supposition, that
minds which act upon others for widely different purposes, should do
it always with the best effect, or that they who are so acted upon,
should not sometimes suffer injury from the inadequate or ill
appropriated influence that is exerted over them.
"But the evils of commingling within the walls of college, and
subjecting to the same general influence, persons or classes,
requiring a different preparatory training, would not, probably, be
greater than those which would result from an attempt to carry
collegial instruction above the simple groundwork of the professions,
and to accommodate the course of study and discipline to the future
intended course of life. To whatever extent improvement should be
carried in the preparatory schools, of whatever qualifications young
men should be possessed, at the usual time of admission to college,
their term of residence here cannot reasonably be thought too long,
nor their facilities too ample, for general elementary cultivation. It
were not the worst of the evil of providing for professional education
at college, that the time which should be devoted to mental
preparation would be lost, and young men would go forth into life
unfurnished; but many minds uncertain and vacillating soon wearied
with the dry elements of one department, would presently attempt
another and a third, and disgusted, at length, with all, would resign
themselves to a stupefying indolence, or a consuming licentiousness.
The examples of other times, when the learning of universities all had
respect to the future political and ecclesiastical relations of the
student, and these institutions became little better than panders to
allied despotism and superstition, may teach us to cultivate our youth
in the elements of general knowledge, and impart vigor and force and
freeness to their minds, in the course of sound fundamental study,
before they are permitted to engage in any merely professional
acquisitions; to practice them well on the broad threshold of science,
before they are exposed to be blasted or bewildered by the premature
unfolding of its mysteries. They will then go forward, prepared, not
merely to acquire the technicalities of a profession, but to
investigate its essential principles; to avoid those _ignes fatui_,
which so often, with the appearance of truth, mislead and destroy, and
draw out from the depths, the living form of truth itself; and thus
contribute to the destined emancipation of the world from ignorance,
and prejudice, and misrule, and the worse influence of false
philosophy. I would not be extreme; but when we consider the
controlling influence of mind of those who are accredited as the
teachers and guides of other men, and how important that this should
be an influence of reason, of knowledge, and of truth, and how slowly
and carefully its foundation requires to be laid in the youthful mind,
we may well dread to embarrass the process, either by any accidental
impressions and associations, or by prematurely trusting to its
completion. Nor should an exception be claimed even in favor of the
Christian ministry. However desirable that they who contemplate this
office should be early qualified for the service of God, and of their
fellow men, yet they may not safely trespass upon college hours, by
anticipating those higher studies, which await them on other grounds.
"I shall be obliged to trespass further upon the time of this
assembly, while I glance at a few particulars connected with the
attainment of the single end of a collegial education. It has been
alleged, that the preparatory schools have frequently failed in
qualifying the mind for successful application to the exercises of
college. And it has been answered, that college has sent out into the
schools inadequate instructors. The evil which is admitted is probably
on both sides, and an obvious remedy will be found, in stating and
rigidly exacting such terms of matriculation as shall at once bring
into requisition the most thorough preparatory instruction, and
provide that such instruction may always be obtained.
"It is evident that, other things being equal, those who, by reason of
superior early advantages, are prepared to enter upon the prescribed
exercises of college with more readiness and effect than others, will
ordinarily prosecute and finish their course with proportionably
higher reputation. Indeed, to the want of a thorough initiation into
the rudiments of learning may be traced much of that indolence and
fickleness and easy yielding to temptation, by which the mind,
untaught in the labor of successful occupation, and discouraged by the
failure of its imprudent efforts, is presently paralyzed, and lost to
every honorable and useful purpose. If then it may be provided that
early instruction shall be more adequate, and the mind of the student
shall be prepared to enter with readiness and effect upon the studies
of college, we shall inspire him with that confidence in his own
ability and endeavors which is one of the strongest inducements to
exertion, and shall insure a degree of improvement limited only by his
capacity and application. It may be true, that some of our colleges,
by reason of the temptations of poverty, and the zeal of competition,
accommodating themselves to the convenience of youth, have not
increased in their demands in proportion to the advances which have
been already made in elementary instruction. Such have doubtless
mistaken their true interests. It is believed, that those institutions
which shall lead in exacting the most extensive and thorough
preparation, will have a distinction and a patronage proportioned to
the benefits which they shall thus render to society.
"It is of equal importance, that our colleges should be furnished with
the materials of study. It was a significant maxim, I think of
Juvenal, that it is a great part of learning to know where learning
may be found. For, after ascertaining the place of treasure, it is
usual to feel the kindling desire of acquisition, and the mind at once
receives a corresponding impulse to exertion. The man who has wasted
his best days in mental inaction, may feel himself so humbled amidst
the productions of genius and learning, which have not instructed him,
and instruments, of which he knows not the use, and specimens and
models whose properties and beauties he cannot distinguish, that he
will wish rather to retreat and forget his poverty, in the
gratifications of inferior appetite. But, on these same scenes, the
fires of youthful unprostituted ambition glow with a new intensity,
and the mind, here waking to the consciousness of its own energies,
aspires to the elevation and dignity for which it is designed. The
well stored library and philosophical room and cabinet, create an
atmosphere, in which it acts with an unwonted freedom and force, and
strengthens itself for the high and laborious service to which it is
devoted.
"But, apart from the influence of such scenes and their associations,
there are more palpable reasons, which especially at this day, call
for a great increase of books and apparatus in our literary
institutions.
"The time has been, when a few worn out text books, descending from
one generation of students to another, were thought sufficient for the
purposes of a liberal education. But, in that wider range of
investigation, to which the mind is now directed, in all departments
of study, every source of information requires to be laid open. It is
not the lesson from a single author, that is alone sufficient to be
committed, but the _subject_, of which possibly a score have treated,
that requires to be examined and understood. And neither can the
teacher nor the student feel himself adequate to the services before
him while any valuable authority, on the broad field of his inquiries,
is not accessible, or any means of illustration are unattempted. But
these facilities are clearly beyond the resources of individuals, and
however voluntary associations of students may, to some extent,
compensate for private inability, there is a point beyond which public
sentiment declares this to be a burden; and it demands that the
institutions themselves, which proffer the benefits of education,
should supply the means by which this end is to be attained. The
question between different places of education, is coming to be
decided, more frequently, by reference to the comparative advantages
which they afford in this respect; and, however it may be necessary
that a college should hold out some show of other accommodation, yet
neither the convenience of its situation, nor the splendor of its
edifices, nor the number and variety of its departments and
instructors, will be held in estimation, without corresponding
advantages for an extended course of study.
"In regard to a course of study, it were almost adventurous for one
without the advantages of experience on this subject, to remark beyond
what is already obvious, that it should be simply accommodated to the
most perfect discipline and instruction of the mind. And yet, perhaps,
it were more presumptuous to suppose, that improvement in this respect
has already reached its limits. The changes which have taken place,
and are still occurring in the methods of instruction, at the
preparatory schools, may be hoped so far to hasten the development and
strengthening of the intellectual powers as that the student may come,
at an earlier period of his college course, to that class of studies
which call more immediately for the use of reason, and give it
direction in its inquiries after truth. The impulse which the mind
receives from an acquaintance with its own powers, and their
application to some branches of intellectual philosophy, is a matter
of general experience. Every one recollects the pleasure of his first
acquisitions in this department of study, and the ardor with which he
thenceforth aspired to higher attainments. He breathed a free air, he
went forward with a new confidence, and his application to all the
duties before him became more easy and more successful. If, then, we
might, almost on the threshold of a public education, habituate the
mind to itself, and aid it in some of the more simple essays of its
own powers, it would seem, that we should prepare it for the readier
perception of classic beauties, and for mastering more effectually the
elements of mathematical, political, and moral science. Study in
every department ceases to be a mechanical process, when the mind is
thus accustomed, and then we have assurance that study will be a
pleasure, and that what becomes a pleasure will be gain and glory.
"If it were asked, whether any branch of college study might be
spared, few, probably, would be ready to affirm. However, in the zeal
of innovation, the utility of classical learning has been decried, it
is not probable that the name of scholar will ever be awarded to one
who has not loved to spend his days and nights upon the pages of
antiquity, nor drunk deep from these original sources of taste, and
genius, and philosophy. We believe it has rarely, if ever happened,
that one has attained to a symmetry and finished excellency of
character, in the varieties of any one department of learning, who has
not, at least in the early stages of education, received inspiration
from the oratory and poetry of other times, when language was an index
to the passions and emotions of the soul, and conveyed, not the names
only, but the properties of things, the qualities of mind. The very
vigor of thought and power of eloquence with which many, with a
parricidal spirit, have assailed the literature of antiquity, were
borrowed from its stores; and should their schemes of reform prevail
we might fear that other generations, inheriting only their
prejudices, without their refinement, would degenerate into
comparative barbarism, and with that of learning, that the light also
of religion would be extinguished. It is the _worst_ of this spirit
that it would seal up the treasures of heavenly wisdom, and take away
the armor in which we trust for assailing the enemies of God. And
however it may be with other interests, we will hope that in this
respect, as well as ordinarily in all others, the pulpit will prove a
defence of the true interests of man. But, it may be questioned
whether, if the field of labor were narrowed, and instead of gleaning
as is usually done, from many writers, the student should be more
thorough in his application to a few of the most approved, the end of
this branch of study would not be as fully answered, and opportunity
be afforded for greater acquisitions in the literature of modern
times. It has been said, particularly in regard to our own language
and country, that the style of writing, of conversation, and of
public speaking, among educated men, generally fails of that accuracy,
propriety, and refinement which might reasonably be expected from
their course of preparatory and professional study. The college is
undoubtedly the place where the evil, if it be admitted to exist,
should be corrected. And its correction would be found in the greater
progress of the student, beyond the task of composition, to the
examination of the most approved vernacular writings. It is not so
much by his own imperfect attempts as by familiarity with the nature
and finished productions of other minds, that he may expect to
facilitate his conceptions, to extend the circle of his thoughts, to
correct his judgment and his taste, and thus increase the readiness,
propriety, and effect of his future efforts. A course of thorough
reading and comparison of accredited authors, in connection with
occasional researches into the history of English literature and
essays at higher criticism, will probably do more towards the
accomplishment of polite scholarship than all the principles of
grammar and rhetoric, however perfectly understood, without
opportunity for such an application.
"The actual instruction of college, and its general economy and
administration, are subjects, doubtless, of yet higher consideration.
But, in view of the recent measures of the Trustees of this
institution, to advance its interests in these particulars, remarks in
this place, and on this occasion, might be judged unseasonable. I
shall be permitted, however, just to allude to these measures, as an
evidence of the deep solicitude with which the institution is
cherished by its constituted guardians, and as a pledge, that in all
things which relate to its modes of government, discipline, and
instruction, they will not be backward to provide that it shall answer
the great purposes of its foundation. And in view of the success which
already appears to have attended the application of these measures,
through the zeal of the Faculty of the college, and the commendable
spirit of the students, the hope may well be encouraged, that this
venerable seat of learning, which has been the care of Almighty God,
will not fail of His blessing, nor want the confidence, affection, and
patronage of an intelligent community.
"But, what is more necessary than any other means and advantages, and
without which the growth of any literary institution were to be
deprecated as one of the greatest of evils, is the pervading influence
of moral and religious principle. The moral dangers of a college life
have probably been sometimes enhanced in the representation. When the
arrangement of duties is such as to require of the student as much use
of time, and a habit of application as constant and persevering, as
are ordinarily expected in the employments of active life, he would
seem, so far, in respect to his principles and his habits, to have an
advantage over others, inasmuch as intellectual labor is, in itself,
better suited to refine and elevate the affections, and removes one
farther from the scenes and objects of temptation. If we add to this,
that the student is usually under a more uniform superintendence, and
comes more frequently and habitually under the influence of moral
precept and religious observances, and that the fact of his supposed
dangers makes him more a subject of parental solicitude and counsel
and prayer, his advantage is still proportionably increased. And in
respect to those institutions where these benefits are in the highest
degree enjoined, it is believed that the amount of injury to the youth
who frequent them is less than that which is suffered by any equal
number, in any other sphere of occupation.
"It must, nevertheless, be admitted, that there are dangers to the
student in some respects peculiar, affecting deeply the principles of
action, and which require a greater care to be prevented, because of
the influence which he is destined to exert in future life. The very
cultivation of mind has frequently a tendency to impair the moral
sensibilities, to induce that pride of conscious ability and variety
of attainments, which, as they are most of all affections offensive to
God, so they become, surely, though insensibly, most pernicious in
their influence upon the individuals themselves who cherish them, and
contribute to poison those streams which ought only to carry abroad
health and blessing to the world. That spirit of emulation, also,
which is naturally excited among so many aspirants for an honorable
distinction, too often leads, on the one hand, in those who excel, to
an overweening selfishness and an insatiable ambition, which, in the
course of life, sacrifice all principle and the highest interests of
society to private gratification; and, on the other, in those whose
hopes are disappointed, to a destroying negligence and sensuality. Nor
is it to be denied, that the unsanctified literature of antiquity, and
many of the productions of our own times, which have the greatest
power of attraction over the minds of youth, cannot be assiduously
cultivated without danger of corrupting the moral sentiments, and
ministering strength to the wrong affections of the mind. Against
these evils, and others, more immediately pernicious, which are
incident to numerous associations of youth, a moral influence, pure,
constraining and habitual, requires to be exerted. It is now more than
ever demanded, and the fact is most creditable to the spirit of the
times, that a literary institution should be a safe resort, and no
other advantages will, in the common estimation, compensate for defect
and failure in this particular. The relations which every individual
student sustains to God and to eternity, call imperiously and aloud,
that the great principles of moral obligation, the everlasting
distinctions between right and wrong, the methods of the Divine
administration, and the solemnities of eternal retribution, should be
kept before him, in all their significancy, and enforced by the
constraining motives of the gospel of Jesus Christ, without which all
secondary authority and influence will be comparatively vain. The
relations also of the whole body of students to their country and the
world demand, and the admonition is sounded out from every corner of
our land, from the city, and the field, and even from the desert, that
here should be laid the foundation of those virtuous habits, of that
reverence for God, and practical regard for His ordinances, without
which the influence of our educated men will gradually undermine the
fair fabric of our national freedom, and the ruins of our country will
be heaped up for an everlasting memorial, that neither liberty, nor
learning, nor wealth, nor arts, nor arms, can stay the decline of that
people among whom the redeeming spirit of Christianity has no
permanent abode. I know, indeed, that college is no place for infusing
or fostering sectarian prejudices, nor for preferring the weapons of
sectarian warfare. No spirit of party should walk abroad on this
common ground. No distinctive privileges of a denomination should here
be ever claimed or allowed. But, as none are exempted from their
obligations to God, and none are safe without His blessing, it is most
evident that this should be the first and last of our labor with those
who are themselves immortal, and whose influence is so connected with
the highest interests of their fellow men, to encourage a spirit of
inwrought piety, and instill the lessons of practical obedience. That
is the noblest of all efforts which has respect to the preparation of
mind for the service of its Creator among its kindred intelligences,
and for the joys of an immortal life. And that will be a glorious
consummation (may it be ours to hasten it) when the destined alliance
between religion and learning shall be perfected, and their united
influence shall be employed, and shall prevail, to raise a world from
ignorance and sin and wretchedness, to the dignity and the privilege
of the sons of God. And let us hope, both in regard to this college,
whose interests we now cherish, and all other kindred institutions,
that amidst the changes of society by which they are occasionally
affected, and the adversities by which they are depressed, we shall
see the vindication of that rule of Providence by which good is always
educed from evil. Let us believe that those prejudices and mistakes
and errors and abuses, which are wont, in undisturbed prosperity, to
become inveterate, shall be done away; that those improvements which
may be expected to flow from the influence of free governments and a
free Christianity shall prevail, and shall contribute to make the
reign of liberty and knowledge and truth not only universal in extent,
but perpetual in duration."