OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES. ADDRESS DELIVERED. ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE LAND, ON THE 3D OF JANUARY, 1831. THE `HE citizens of Baltimore have been lately invited to the consideration of a plan, submitted to them by the trustees of the university, for carrying into effect the design of the Legislature in reference to that institution. It is more a matter of surprise that this undertaking should not before have been brought into the public view, than that it should, at this time, begin to excite an interest among our citizens. The inducements which might be expected to urge and promote such an establishment have, for some years past, been sufficiently apparent to render it a natural inquiry, why this scheme has been delayed so long. The present age is characterized by a powerful impulse towards a reform of the institutions of society. Men have been made more conversant with the principles of free government; they have been taught to discard ancient prejudices; and to investigate those subjects, upon a knowledge of which depends the capacity to multiply and diffuse the conveniences of life. A wholesome spirit of inquiry has travelled through all the departments of society, with a purpose to ascertain their defects, and where it should be found necessary, to remodel their struc ture. The result of this review has been to pull down, with an unscrupulous hand, the heavy lumber of antiquity, and, in the place of the cumbersome machinery by which man had heretofore wrought out his allotted task, to introduce the swift, powerful, and easy-working mechanism of our own times. Upon the progress and success of this improvement, education has had a significant influence. It is quite manifest, that the only efficient means of assailing ancient habits, and of conquering the deep-rooted errors that belong to generations, must be found in the early inculcation of opposite opinions, and in the careful infusion into the mind, through the channel of the schools, of a sounder philosophy. This consideration has attracted an earnest attention to the purposes and process of education, and has latterly brought an authoritative combination of intellect to the investigation of this question. The consequence has been, in many parts of Europe and America, important changes, in the ends proposed, and in the means pursued, in the discipline of the mind. Under these changes the uses of education have been enlarged; its fruits have grown to be more various, and its applicability to the direct purpose of human happiness has been demonstrated by the extension of the circle of our comforts, under circumstances plainly referrible to the immediate influence of science. This new view in which the subject has been considered, has already given a more profitable direction to the occupations of the young; and the present generation are quietly adopting and circulating improvements in the system of teaching, of which the general aim is to employ the faculties of the student in pursuits that will set him upon a level with the advanced state of philosophy. The study of the schools has been shaped more immediately to the end of preparing the student to step upon the arena with the weapons in his hand which his future employments may require him to use. The multiplication of the paths of knowledge has induced the necessity of economizing the time and strength of the young pilgrim, to fit him for the varied and honorable toils of his journey, without wasting his vigor upon pursuits that contribute neither to the service nor to the embellishment of life. The jargon of the academy, with all its ingenious trifling, is hushed into the sleep of death, and rests, in irretrievable oblivion, in the nooks of the antiquarian's library, in reverend and quaint fellowship with its forgotten patrons-Duns Scotus,-the most subtle doctor, and Thomas Aquinas,-the angel of the schools,as their followers have styled them. This reform is especially interesting to our own country. It belongs to the position of the United States to foster this spirit with a conspicuous zeal. We are affined by no tie to the abuses which Europe has always found it so difficult to conquer: we have no ancient worn track to guide our march: the high road, upon which we have set out, is neither hemmed in by the barricades of custom, nor bounded by fields over which it is forbidden to range. Our object is the diffusive happiness of our people; our means, freedom of thought and action. No country stands upon a more enviable vantage ground for the successful expansion of intellect. That we have not marched forward as rapidly in science, as we have advanced in the substantial enjoyments of life, must, therefore, be attributed to causes entirely independent of our capacity to cultivate it with success. These causes have been supposed to exist in the keen appetite of our population for what is immediately profitable, in preference to that which would reflect glory upon the country; and they have also been imputed to the fact that our intercourse with the continent of Europe, has furnished us the science and philosophy of older nations in an abundance that forestals all our wants, and allows us to enjoy, in indolent repose, the fruits of foreign toil. Whether this imputation be just or not, I think it certain that the favorable development of our national strength, up to the present period, is to be attributed less to an extraordinary share of intellect in our population, than to the singularly felicitous auspices under which we have addressed ourselves to the task. It is a fact, which we cannot conceal from ourselves if we would, that our nation al fame derives but little of its lustre from our monuments of science and letters. A vain-glorious estimate of ourselves is charged upon us as a national fault. It may be true. I listen with becoming deference to the judgment of impartial strangers upon this point, and profit by the motive which it furnishes to a careful survey of our own pretensions. Within moderate limits the propensity is harmless. I can make allowance for the self-gratulation of a people, taken by surprise, in each successive step of their advancement, by the marvels of an empire rushing onwards, with all the philosophy, wisdom and learning of mankind thrown into its cradle: an empire whose career has begun at the point of civilization where older nations end. I can make allowance for a people placed in such a predicament, and am not unprepared to expect that they should fall into the mistake of ascribing to personal merit the praise that belongs to fortune. It is wise, however, not to mistake too largely that good fortune, nor to rely too confidently upon it. A presumptuous confidence will scarcely fail to be visited with a condign overthrow. If it be an object of our ambition to strengthen and beautify the inheritance we have received from our forefathers, and to give a permanent renown to our country, we cannot devote ourselves to that purpose in any manner so surely as by rearing up, in the bosom of our society, institutions for the advancement of learning, not merely in the elemental stages, but in its widest and most comprehensive range. Our people, in general, are as well, perhaps better, supplied with the rudiments of education than those of any other land; but, as yet, we stand in need of establishments where the arts and sciences may be made familiar to that portion of our citizens whose means are too straitened to seek them in remote places, and where they may be cultivated in connection with the general business of life. We are not, however, without illustrious examples to encourage us in the hope that this deficiency is to be felt but for a short time. Boston has long been conspicuous for her liberal concern in this question: her atmosphere is redolent of science; her public halls are thronged with a population, who delight to grace the cares of business with the flowers of intellectual culture ;-her chief honor reposes on the hoary summit of her ancient university. Virginia has built up, with a profuse munificence, a temple in the bosom of her land, where her sons shall long be invited to drink of the pure waters of wisdom, and where future generations shall contemplate in this structure the noblest monument that our age has erected to its most exalted citizen. Philadelphia, enlightened by the same spirit, has lately given honorable testimony of her devotion to this cause in the establihsment of a university which is cherished by her best citizens with a liberal and intelligent estimate of its value. The city of New York is awakened to the importance of the same question; and the frequent pile, dedicated to these purposes, springing up over the wide face of our country, attests the growing interest which this cause excites in every quarter of the United States. These enterprises speak a pervading sentiment: they address to the intelligent patriot a solemn exhortation to foster and corroborate that ambition whose end is the happiness of society, and the perpetuation of the principles upon which that happiness depends. It is long since it became an object in the policy of Maryland to plant a University within her confines. In 1784 provision was made for that purpose by the incorporation of St. John's and Washington Colleges, under the comprehensive title of the University of Maryland. The two constituents of that establishment were liberally endowed, and went into operation under circumstances that promised permanent and extensive usefulness. The latter of the two colleges was situated at Annapolis, and for a time held a high rank among the institutions of this State. The men of that day anticipated, with a fond interest, the growth of the metropolis into a large and flourishing city. At that period, it enjoyed a brilliant notoriety throughout this continent, for its refined and cultivated society, and there was every reason to believe that the wealth of commerce and the tide of population would be poured into |