5

Can an Assembly of Virginians, having sons & bro-
thers & kinsmen to educate induce to think of suspending,
and thereby of permanently disabling, and probably destroy-
ing an Institution, the greatest in all the South, which then dif-
fuses amongst the Youth of the land an aroma of truth, integri-
ty and manly piety, as well as a national, well digested, &
most extended basis of sound learning? And to [earn?]-what?
Why about 1 1/2 cents for each individual of the population!

It is sometimes objected to the University that it
admits students who have been denied entrance, for want of
preparation in the languages, into the Freshman Class of the
colleges. But this is a necessary consequence of the district
organization of schools, the absence of a prescribed curriculum,
and the system of [Slective?] Studies, to all which is as ascribable
much of the fame and usefulness of the University. It under-
takes to bestow, (and it appeals to the world if it does not bestow),
the very highest admissible attainments in each separate de-
partment of knowledge, which the student may wish to pursue, but it does not, and cannot exact any at-
tainments at all, in subjects which the student has no wish to learn.
When one proposes to study nothing but Ancient & Modern languages,
and Moral Philosophy, to hold him obliged, before he can begin
with these subjects, to know something of Mathematics, would be ab-
surd and incongruous. And so if he wishes only to learn Ma-
thematics, Chemistry & Nat Philosophy, it would be ridiculous to ex-
act from him a preliminary acquaintance with the langua-
ges.

Insert from opposite page.
The small number of graduates is also reckoned
against the University. The number of those who attain to the su-
preme and comprehensive degress of Bachelor of Arts, and
Master of Arts, is indeed small, and yet if the world were made
acquainted with the examinations to which candidates for
these degrees were subjected, the surprise would rather be
that the number is so great. But there is no lack of graduates
in the second schools. for second years before the war, the ap-