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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    of antiquity were the Academy, the Lyceum and the Portico at Athens, the Athenicum at Rome, and the Museum at Alexandria. The Aca- demy was the institution where Plato taught, and where the doctrines of the Academic sect were long maintained. It was situated in a pub- lic garden or grove in the suburbs of Athens, laid in beautiful walks., planted with olive, and palm trees, and watered by a delightful stream; with scenery, rendered more grave and ornamental by the proximity of a highly adorned cemetery, in which were the sta'ues, and temples, and sepulchres of the illustrious dead. The Lyceum was upon the banks of the Ilissus, which watered the opposite skirt of the city, in an enclosure dedicated to Apollo and decorated with fountains and groves and buildings, known as the favorite walk of Aristotle and his disciples, and frequented by learned inenr given to retirement and study. The Portico was the resort of Zeno and his disciples of the stoic sect. These schools continued to be the resort of the Greek and Roman youth and men of learning for many centuries, and were in- fluential in stamping an impress upon the affairs of men for many generations. In the later ages of Rome, the emperor Adrian built the Athenaeum, a large amphitheatre, after the plan of the Grecian institutions, and it continued to be the most distinguished school at Rome till the time of the christian emperors. But the most celebrated school of antiquity, and that which most resembled a modern univer- sity, was the Museum at Alexandria. Alexander, in laying the foun- dations of the city, called by his name, determined to make it distin- guished as the scat of empire, the centre of commerce, and the resort of learned men. Most of the city was built in a single year. And during the reign of the Ptolemies, by whom he was succeeded, it gained all the grandeur and magnificence, which his fond vision had antici- In the most beautiful part of the city, and near the great har- bor, and in connection with the royal palaces and gardens, stood the Museum, a large and splendid edifice, where many scholars lived and ate together, supported by the royal bounty, pursued their studies, and instructed the hundreds of youth and men in pursuit of knowledge, who resorted thither from all parts of the civilized world. The libra- ry collected here, with great industry and at great expense, was the largest in the world ; containing, at one-time, about 700,000 volumes. The observatory was furnished with the best instruments of the a<*e. This institution continued to enjoy uninterrupted prosperity, to con-