A plea for stability and permanence in institutions of learning : delivered before the trustees, officers and students of the Cleveland Medical College, February 26, 1845 / by Rev. George E. Pierce.

  • Pierce, George E. (George Edmund), 1794-1871.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plea for stability and permanence in institutions of learning : delivered before the trustees, officers and students of the Cleveland Medical College, February 26, 1845 / by Rev. George E. Pierce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    the cool and refreshing groves and fountains and rivulets, scenery so> well adapted to literary companionship, had their influence. And the princely halls of the Museum, and the Alexandrian library, and other attractions of a city renowned as the royal residence, and the literary and commercial centre of the civilized world, had their influ- ence in perpetuating its fame as a place of resort for the learned, as well as the lectures of the learned men by whom instruction was im- parted. I am aware that the objection will arise, that the accommodations and conveniences cf an institution of learning are expensive, and that, in a new country, there are not resources at control, to erect edifices, purchase libraries and provide apparatus, and that hence they must be dispensed with. It is just and right that the amount of resources should regulate expenditure, and that limited means should have a lim- ited application, providing first, those things that are indispensable, and making such arrangements that additions and improvements may be made as future resources shall justify. But it is possible, if not certain, that we have not yet reached the measure of our ability, and that we are using an economy that is short-sighted, and that will sac- rifice our best interests. It has been supposed that funds could be. in a great measure, dispensed with, and that institutions might become self-supporting. The worthy Dr. Nelson, founder of the Mission In- stitute at Quincy, Illinois, conceived the idea, that young men might be prepared for the ministry in the wilderness,—that they could cut down the trees with their own hands, build log cabins, as places of abode and study, and upon the cleared soil raise their own provisions, and, under his supervision and instruction, hear each other's recita- tions, and acquire a bodily and mental preparation for the ministry that could be secured in no other way. A little before his death, the wor- thy Doctor was enquired of in regard to the success of his enterprise. He found no fault with his system, but said he had made one mistake. And he had now made the discovery that, contrary to his former opin- ions, the pious young men of this country did not desire to preach the gospel, and this he assigned as the cause of his failure. Perhaps he would claim that he was not the author of the system, and that he had examples of high authority. It is said that Elijah, and the prophets whom he taught, had their lodgment in the caves of Carmel, and that Elisha, who succeeded him as a teacher, had a school, in which he