of LL.B. upon those who complete the regular course of legal studies.

Another of the benefactors of the college, the Hon. S. Newton Dexter, resides at Whitesboro, and enjoys the satisfaction of seeing a centre of learning made more thrifty and efficient through his liberality. What Mr. Maynard did by testament, Mr. Dexter chose to do by an immediate donation. In 1836, when the college was severely crippled by debt, he came forward with a gift of fifteen thousand dollars for endowing the chair of Classical Literature. This department is supposed to have been chosen as the object of his munificence, not more from its acknowledged importance in a collegiate institution, than on account of his esteem for the character and scholarly attainments of its then incumbent, the Rev. Dr. North, who was afterwards promoted to the Presidency.

The department of Classical Literature is now occupied by Professor Edward North, a highly accomplished scholar and man of letters, to whom we are indebted for this spirited notice of his college. He succeeded Professor John Finley Smith in 1844. Professor Smith was a musical artist of rare gifts and attainments.

The grounds about the college have been recently enlarged and improved. They now embrace twenty acres, which have been thoroughly drained, hedged, planted with trees and flowering shrubs, and put into lawn, with winding drives and gravelled walks. These improvements have been made under the conviction that no seat of generous culture can be called complete, unless it provides facilities for the study of vegetable growths. Plato's College was a grove of platans and olives,-philosophy and trees have always been fond of each other's company. The location of the college, on the brow of a hill that slopes to the West, and commands a wide view of the Oriskany Valley, is healthful and inviting. In this valley lies the village of Clinton, with a population of twelve hundred. In the distance, to the left, the city of Utica, the valley of the Mohawk, and the Trenton hills are distinctly visible.

The rural quiet of the place, its elevation, and extended, unbroken horizon, render it most favorable for astronomical observations. An Observatory has been erected, and furnished with a telescope, the longest in this country next to the one at Cambridge. It was made by Messrs. Spencer and Eaton of Canastota, who are alumni of the institution. A large Laboratory has been built, with the new apparatus which the French and German chemists have recently invented. stone building, originally used as a boarding-hall, has been fitted up for a Cabinet, and now contains ten thousand specimens in Geology, Mineralogy, and Natural History. A Gymnasium has also been built and attractively furnished.

A

THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.* THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA is situated in the County of Albemarle, Virginia, about one mile and a half west of the village of Charlottesville,

We have pleasure in presenting this view, from the competent pen of the former chairman of the Faculty, Dr. Gessner Harrison, of an institution the peculiar organization of which bas been little understood.

and four miles in nearly the same direction from Monticello, which was the residence, and contains the tomb of Thomas Jefferson. It is built on moderately elevated ground, and forms a striking feature in a beautiful landscape. On the south-west it is shut in by little mountains, beyond which, a few miles distant, rise the broken and occasionally steep and rugged, but not elevated ridges, the characteristic feature of which is expressed by their name of Ragged Mountains. To the northwest the Blue Ridge, some twenty miles off, presents its deep-colored outline, stretching to the north-east, and looking down upon the mountainlike hills that here and there rise from the plain without its eastern base. To the east the eye rests upon the low range of mountains that bounds the view as far as the vision can extend northeastward and south-westward along its slopes, except where it is interrupted directly to the east by a hilly but fertile plain through which the Rivanna, with its discolored stream, flows by the base of Monticello. To the south the view reaches far away until the horizon meets the plain, embracing a region lying between mountains on either hand, and covered with forests interspersed with spots of cultivated land.

This University is a State institution, endowed, and built, and under the control of the state. It owes its origin, its organization, and the plan of its buildings to Mr. Jefferson, who made it the care of his last years to bring it into being, and counted it among his chief claims to the memory of posterity that he was its founder.*

The Act of Assembly establishing the University of Virginia and incorporating the Rector and Board of Visitors, is dated January 25, 1819; and the University was opened for the admission of students March 25, 1825.

It is under the government of the Rector and Board of Visitors, by whom are enacted its laws, and to whom is committed the control of its finances, the appointment and removal of its officers, and the general supervision of its interests. The Visitors, seven in number at first, but afterwards increased to nine, are appointed every fourth year by the governor of the state, and the Rector is chosen by the Visitors from among their own number. The first Rector was Mr. Jefferson, followed in succession by Mr. Madison, Chapman Johnson, Esq., and Joseph C. Cabell, Esq.

The University of Virginia comprises nine schools, viz. I. Ancient Languages, in which are taught the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, with ancient history and literature. II. Modern Languages, in which are taught the French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages, and the Anglo-Saxon form of the English language, with modern history and literature. III. Mathematics, comprising pure and mixed Mathematics. IV. Natural Philosophy, comprising, besides the usual subjects, Mineralogy and Geology. V. Chemistry and Pharmacy. VI. Medicine, comprising Medi

Among Mr. Jefferson's papers was found, after his death, the following epitaph :

HERE LIES BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON. AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

Sce Tucker's Life of Jefferson, ii. 497.

cal Jurisprudence, Obstetrics, and the Principles | and Practice of Medicine. VII. Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery. VIII. Moral Philosophy, comprising Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Ethics, Mental Philosophy, and Political Economy. IX. Law, comprising also Government and International Law.

To each school is assigned one professor, except the school of Law, which has two. In the school of Ancient Languages, the professor is aided by two assistant instructors, and in Modern Languages and Mathematics by one each. In the Medical department there is a lecturer on Anatomy and Materia Medica, and a demonstrator of Anatomy.

The administration of the laws of the University, and their interpretation, is committed to the Faculty, consisting of the professors of the several schools and the chairman of the Faculty. The professors are appointed by the Board of Visiters. The chairman, who has little power beyond the general supervision of the execution of the laws, none over the schools, is chosen annually by the Board of Visitors from among the members of the Faculty, and receives as such a salary of five hundred dollars. The professors are responsible to the Board of Visitors alone for the proper discharge of their duties, and have intrusted to them, each in his own school, the conduct of its studies, subject only to the laws prescribing the subjects to be taught, the hours of lecture, and the method of instruction generally by lectures, examinations, and exercises, according to the nature of the subject.

The income of the University is derived chiefly from an annuity from the state of fifteen thousand dollars, subject of late years to a charge of about four thousand five hundred dollars for the benefit of thirty-two state students, who receive gratuitous instruction, together with board and room rent free; from rents of dormitories and hotels; from matriculation fees; and from surplus fees of tuition in the several schools, accruing to the University after the professor shall have received a maximum of two thousand dollars.

Each professor is paid a fixed salary of one thousand dollars a year, and receives the tuition fees paid by students for attending his lectures up to the maximum of two thousand dollars. Any excess of fees above this sum is paid into the treasury of the University. The fee paid by students for tuition is ordinarily twenty-five dollars to each professor attended. This mode of compensation, making the income of the professor to depend so largely upon tuition fees, was designed to act as an incentive to activity and faithfulness on the part of the professor, his own and the prosperity of the school being identified in the matter of emolument as well as of reputation. The maximum limit of income from fees received by the professor is a thing of late adoption, introduced since the number of students attending some of the schools has become very large. It remains to be seen whether this invasion of the principle is the wisest mode of disposing of the question of excessive fees; especially when no provision is made for a minimum income, and none, for the most part, for excess of labor from large numbers frequenting a school.

The method of instruction is by lectures and examinations, with the use of text-books selected by the professor. The professor is expected, so far as the nature of the subject allows it, to deliver lectures on the subjects of instruction, setting forth and explaining the doctrines to be taught, so that by the help of the lectures and of the textbook, the student may not only have the opportunity of understanding these doctrines but of having them more vividly impressed on his attention and memory. The examination of the class at each meeting upon the preceding lecture, embraces both the text and the teaching of the professor, and is aimed at once to secure the student's attention to both, and to afford the advantage of a review, and, when needed, of a further clearing up of the subject.

For the purpose of accommodating the lectures to the wants and previous attainments of the students, and of giving a larger course of instruction,

most of the schools are divided into classes called junior and senior. In the school of Mathematics there is also an intermediate class, and a class of mixed Mathematics. In the school of Law also there is an intermediate class. The lectures to each class occupy an entire session of nine months. A student is generally allowed, except in law, to attend, without additional fee, all the classes in a school the same session, so as to receive instruction, if he choose and be able, in the whole course in one year.

Two public examinations of all the members of each school are held every session, one about its middle, the other at its close. These examinations are conducted chiefly in writing. A set of questions, with numerical values attached, is proposed to the whole class, and its members are distributed into four divisions, according to the value of their answers. To insure fairness at these examinations, every student is required to attach to his answers a declaration in writing, that he has neither given nor received aid during the examination. This same certificate is attached also to all examination papers written for degrees.

Students are admitted at and above the age of sixteen, and are free to attend the schools of their choice; but they are ordinarily required to attend three schools.

The session is of nine months' duration continuously, and without any holidays except Christmas-day. Lectures are delivered during six days of the week, and a weekly report is made to the chairman of the Faculty by each professor of the subjects of the lectures and examinations in his school, and of the time occupied in each.

Degrees are conferred in each of the schools of the University upon those students who give evidence of having a competent knowledge of the subjects taught in the school. Certificates of proficiency also are bestowed for like knowledge of certain subjects that may be attended separately, as Medical Jurisprudence, Mineralogy, Geology, &c.

Examinations are held with a view to these honors towards the end of each session, and are conducted mostly in writing. The extent and difficulty of these examinations, and the strictness used in judging of the value of the answers, secure a standard of attainment much higher than usual, and render the degrees in individual schools objects of ambition to all, and strong incentives to diligence and accuracy in study. A register of each student's answers at the daily examinations, and of his written exercises, is kept by the professor; and, in deciding on his fitness to receive a degree, regard is had to his average standing in his class. The tine of his residence as a student is not counted among his qualifications for this distinction. He may obtain a degree, whenever he shall have proved that he is worthy of it by standing satisfactorily the examinations proposed as a test equally for all.

Besides the degrees conferred in individual schools, and certificates of proficiency in certain subjects, the degree of Bachelor of Arts is bestowed on such students as have obtained degrees in any two of the literary schools (viz. Ancient Languages, Modern Languages, and Moral Philosophy), and in any two of the scientific schools (viz. Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry); besides giving evidence of a certain

| proficiency in the remaining two academical schools, and furnishing an essay or oration to be approved by the Faculty.

The degree of Master of Arts is conferred upon such students as have obtained degrees in all the six academical schools, besides furnishing an essay or oration to be approved by the Faculty, and standing a satisfactory examination in review on all the studies of the course, except those in which he has been admitted to degrees in the current session.

No honorary degrees are conferred by this University.

The University of Virginia has been in operation thirty years, and although it has had to contend with some prejudices, has had a good degree of success, as well in regard to the numbers frequenting it as to the character for scholarship accorded to its alumni. The number of matriculates entered for the session of 1854-5 was five hundred and fourteen; of these three hundred and twenty were exclusively academical, one hundred and fifty-six exclusively profesional, and thirtyeight partly academical and partly professional.

The University of Virginia has introduced into its constitution and into its practical working some marked peculiarities; and as its apparent success has called attention to these, it may be well to notice some of them briefly, and to state summarily the chief grounds upon which they are approved and justified.

1. The first and most striking peculiarity is the allowing every student to attend the schools or studies of his choice, only requiring ordinarily that he shall attend three; the conferring degrees in individual schools; the suffering candidates to stand the examinations held for degrees without regard to the time of residence; and the bestowing no degrees as honorary distinctions, but only upon adequate proof made by strict examination, that they are deserved.

This at once sets aside the usual college curriculum, with the attendant division into Freshmen, Sophomore, &c., classes, and, in the opinion of some, is followed as a necessary consequence by the loss to the student of a regular and complete course of study and of mental discipline, which they assume to be given by the usual plan of our colleges. It is taken for granted by such that the student, being free to choose, will attend such studies alone as may suit his spirit of self-indulgence, avoiding those which are difficult; and that the voluntary system does not admit of a regular course. It is said in answer, that the records of the University of Virginia show that the fact contradicts the assumption that the more difficult studies will be avoided, the schools of Ancient Languages and of Mathematics, for example, having always had a fair proportion of students. And that, although no student is compelled by law to follow a certain defined course, yet in practice, and by the influences of causes easily seen, a very large proportion do pursue a regular course; and that the University of Virginia holds out inducements to accomplish a complete course by establishing for its higher degrees a standard which makes them objects of very great desire. Further, as to the matter of a complete course of study and of mental discipline, it is said that it is too much to assume that the best way of securing

there is by the usual college curriculum and the division into freshmen, &c., classes, this being the very question in issue, and the system of independent schools and free choice of studies having been adopted with the very view of giving what the common plan does not; that the alleged evil effects of the voluntary system do not and ought not to follow; and that, on the contrary, it has decided advantages.

It is not pretended that every one entering the University of Virginia obtains a complete education. For some it is not necessary, however desirable, that they should become conversant with all the branches of a liberal education. And yet it is of great advantage to them and to society if they can be well trained in even a few departments of knowledge those most suited to their wants or to their tastes. They should not be excluded from partial benefits of education because they cannot derive the highest.

And then, if an examination be made of the names of those who, in our Colleges and Universities generally, enter the Freshman or Sophomore classes, and of those who graduate, or pass through the senior class, it will be found that but few of the former are found among the latter, not more than about a fourth. And this, though it results inevitably from the very practice of admitting to degrees by classes, that of those who obtain the degree, much too large a proportion have really very moderate attainments, and could not possibly stand a strict examination on the whole or any considerable part of the course. So in the University of Virginia, a very small proportion obtain the highest degree, or fully accomplish the regular academic course, and beyond comparison a smaller proportion than on the usually adopted plan; and this because the standard is purposely made high. Admitting that this very small number is properly educated, the question to be answered is, Whether it be true, as alleged by some, that all those who come short of this complete course fail of obtaining an amount of knowledge, and especially a mental discipline, equal to that supplied by the common course?

To reach a satisfactory answer to this question it is to be observed, say the advocates of the voluntary system, first, that for the practical purposes of life, and for a right mental discipline, a small field of knowledge, thoroughly cultivated with a hearty energy, and by methods which set the student to thinking and inquiring for himself, is of incomparably more value than a large field cultivated in a negligent and superficial way. A man may study many things and have little sound knowledge and less vigorous training of the mind. A man may so learn a few things as to be able to direct his faculties with their utinost power to the accomplishment of any task.

Secondly, That to secure this energetic, selfpropelling activity of the student, which is indispensably necessary to the best discipline of mind, and to the acquisition of habits of thorough and accurate investigation, two things mainly contribute. First, the waking up to an earnest spirit of inquiry and of thoroughness of investigation on the part of the student, by exciting and keeping erect his attention, and variously subjecting his powers to the proof by the lectures and by searching oral examinations; and, secondly,

a high standard of examinations for honors, these being bestowed only upon satisfactory evidence of good attainments and capacity. Without tho former condition the latter would be impossible; without the latter the former would be insufficient.

Thirdly, That the voluntary system offers peculiar advantages for fulfilling these conditions, which, however able the professors, the common system does not. The several schools being wholly independent, the standard of examinations for degrees may be placed as high as the means and mode of instruction, and what is fairly demanded by the true interest of the student, may allow. A person standing his examination for a degree in Latin and Greek will not be passed, though undeserving, for fear he may not secure his degree in the Mathematics, and so on. The honor being conferred upon reaching a comparatively high standard, and without the question of giving or refusing it being complicated by a regard to the regular progression of classes, it is comparatively easy to maintain the standard. It is one thing for a student to fail and be rejected upon the studies of a single school, the effect ceasing here, and quite another to be cast down in all his classes for failure on one study, with the result of postponing the period of his graduation for a whole year. But the common system allows no good alternative. No College, upon this system, can refuse to pass men who ought to be rejected; for then it consents, under multiplied difficulties, to reduce the ranks of the senior class to something like the proportion of those who obtain the Master's degree under the system adopted at the University of Virginia.

To answer, then, the question above proposed, it is alleged by its friends, that in the system adopted at the University of Virginia, the conditions for obtaining a good mental discipline and accurate knowledge are in some good degree, although imperfectly, fulfilled by the means of lectures, rigid examinations conducted chiefly in writing where degrees are concerned, and a comparatively high standard in conferring degrees. That, putting out of view the idle and those wanting capacity, and those who attend a single course of lectures, there remains a class of students, considerable in number, and respectable for talent and industry, who from lack of time and means, or for other cause, succeed in accomplishing only a partial course, obtaining degrees in some two or three schools, and attending lectures profitably in some one or two more in which they do not stand for degrees. And thus the number that go through such a course of study as, with the mode of instruction employed, involves a useful extent of knowledge and a sound discipline of mind, would seem to be in fair proportion to those who succeed in completing the usual College curriculum.

Again, there is a considerable class of students who aim at completing the entire course of literary and scientific studies, according to the scheme of the University of Virginia, but fail of entire success. But it does not follow, because they fail of obtaining the highest degree under system with a higher standard for degrees, that they do not obtain as much of knowledge and of sound mental discipline as the same persons would have done if they had succeeded under a system

with a lower standard. Under the one system they fail because the standard is high, under the other they would succeed because the standard is low. This on the supposition that the grade of instruction is the same. But it may be assumed that where the standard of examinations for degrees is higher, the grade of instruction Iso will be higher, and the training more vigorous. There must be some just relation between the teaching and the requirements for degrees. And so it may very well occur that a man shall be a better trained scholar failing under the one system than succeeding under the other.

The advocates of the system introduced at the University of Virginia not only deny that it is followed by the evil effects alleged, but urge, on the other hand, that it avoids, as it was designed to avoid, the obvious and acknowledged evils inherent in the usual course adopted of conferring degrees upon those who complete the curriculum, well nigh as a matter of course, and with but slight examination. They allege that when the standard is reasonably high, and maintained by rigid examinations, without regard to the time of residence, only a few, and those the most diligent and capable, can measure up to it. That to accommodate the standard to the measure of the whole, or nearly the whole of a class, it must be made much too low. That by admitting to the higher degrees those alone who can stand rigid examinations, and show good ability and accurate attainments, real value is given to the degrees, and the best exertions secured of those who seek them. That the use of lectures and oral examinations, in the ordinary course of instruction, affords a better means of disciplining the mind, of begetting habits of active and sustained attention, as well as of thorough investigation. That, as a result, there is obtained, under this system, a better training and a more thorough knowledge on the part of many who fail of success, than the other system ordinarily secures to those who succeed. And that the fact that only a very few obtain the Master's degree at the University of Virginia-some seven in the session of 1854-5 out of 350 exclusively academical students-only shows the extent and rigor of the examinations for this degree, there required by law and enforced in practice.

2. A second peculiarity of the University of Virginia is found in its method of instruction, more especially in the freer use of lectures, followed by oral examinations. Text-books are by no means discarded; but the professor is expected to go before and set in order the truths to be taught, marking their relations, stating their grounds, enlarging upon, explaining, confirming, correcting, and supplementing the text, as the case may require. Every lecture is preceded by an oral examination of the class on the preceding lecture and the corresponding text. And this examination is on the subject itself, whether discussed in the lecture or the text-book, and is conducted with reference to what ought to be held in regard to it, and not simply to what may have been said about it either in the lecture or in the text-book. This method, it is affirmed, is attended by two most beneficial results. First, it stimulates the professor to greater efforts to make himself wholly master of his subject, and to be

qualified to view it on every side. It can hardly do less, seeing he is conscious that it is expected of him to exhibit himself as capable of presenting the doctrines belonging to his subject with clearness and force, and not merely of propounding questions on a text-book. He must needs give himself to his work with zeal and assiduity if he would meet the responsibility which his position imposes, or gain the reputation which it places within his reach. Secondly, it excites and maintains the interest and attention of the student a hundred fold. He not only shares the interest of the lecturer, which is one advantage of oral discourse, but finds it a necessity from which he cannot escape, if he would acquit himself well at the examination to follow, as his own self-respect and a regard for the good opinion of his teacher and fellows oblige him to wish to do, that he should give earnest heed to the words of the professor. Above all he learns to enter, with the professor for his guide, upon the serious and earnest investigation of the subject in hand in all its relations, if not from the simple love of truth, yet still because he knows that he may be required to render answers not furnished by the text, nor yet perhaps directly by the lecture, but involved in the principles set forth in either. Thus he is aroused to a spirit of active and manly inquiry, is kept awake to all that he hears and reads, and is led to consider the proper knowledge of a subject to be bounded, not by the partial, perhaps false teachings of a text-book, but by the limits of the true and real. Under the strong impulse of such a spirit, and of the ambition to meet the demands of a standard of examinations for degrees which more fail than succeed in reaching, it is no wonder that he works, and works with an energy, with a sharpness of attention, and with a perseverance of industry, which bring a double reward in stores of solid knowledge and in invaluable habits of mind.

3. A third peculiarity of the University of Virginia is the system of written examinations for honors. This is claimed to have the advantage of securing greater accuracy and fairness, and is regarded as indispensable for maintaining a high standard for degrees. It was introduced by the first professor; from the practice of Cambridge University, England; and when supplemented by some oral examination, as the subject may demand, seems liable only to the objection of its great laboriousness to both student and professor.

In a word, whatever success the University of Virginia has had in giving intellectual culture, whether in the academical or professional departments, is mainly referred by its friends to the laborious industry and zeal in the immediate work of the lecture-room, displayed by professors and students alike. These, again, are very largely owing to the use of lectures, and of strict oral and written examinations, both having reference to a reasonably high standard for degrees. And for the introduction of these, the independent position of the several schools, and the free choice of studies, if not absolutely necessary, as they can hardly be said to be, are at least most favorable. 4. A fourth peculiarity is the absence of sectarian influence and control in the University. Much prejudice did arise on this point. Al