"The principle which has generally obtained in regard to the colleges of this country, of making them merely introductory to a professional education, is one too important in its connections and results to be hastily relinquished. The correspondence which usually exists between the genius of civil governments, and the arrangement of literary institutions, has been very happily exemplified in our system of schools, rising in regular gradation from the primary to the professional, and wisely accommodated to the public convenience and necessity. This system, whatever defects may have existed in some of its practical operations, has been found, on the whole, admirably suited to the condition of society. Its parts having kept their fair proportions, each one performing its peculiar office, and all acting and reacting upon each other, it is out of question that the results of the whole, in the general diffusion of knowledge and elevation of the public character, have been salutary to a degree unprecedented in the history of the world; and its general adoption, with modifications according to the different circumstances of society, may be contemplated as one of the surest pledges of our national prosperity. Apart from the multiplied facilities of instruction, which upon this system are afforded at the cheapest rate to all who would enjoy the benefits of education, that spirit of fair and honorable competition, which is necessarily excited between so many kindred institutions, would seem to insure improvements proportioned to the means which are afforded them, and prove a check upon those abuses which have usually attended establishments of more extended influence and less responsibility.
"But it would seem important to the continued success of this system, that its several parts should still be kept distinct and subordinate. I will not say that they may not subsist harmoniously, and be conducted usefully upon the same ground. I will not say that an university, sectional or national, that shall, in its separate colleges and halls, prepare our youth for the various departments of life, may not consist with the spirit of our civil governments, and be guarded against the evils which have generally attended establishments so complicate, and of such numerous resort. However this may be judged, it will be found, I apprehend, the wisdom of our scattered institutions, to preserve their individuality, and remain true, as to their general regulations, to the purpose of their foundation. With respect, particularly, to the arrangements of a college, it would seem not less true than in regard to the efforts of an individual mind, or the operations of a machine, that however numerous and various these arrangements may be in detail, the most beneficial results cannot be expected without unity of design. Between that kind of cultivation and discipline necessary as a foundation for professional eminence, and that which is required for success in mercantile, mechanical, or agricultural occupation, there is a very natural and obvious distinction. And not only is it desirable that they who will be successful mainly as they shall be conversant with books, who require to be learned men, and they whose concern lies principally in the active business of life, in skill or labor, should have in some respects a different course of study, but be subjected to the influence of different minds, and examples, and rules, and scenes, and associations, corresponding to the different relations which they will sustain. 'Non omnia possumus omnes,' is a proverb applicable both to teachers and to pupils, and it would forbid the supposition, that minds which act upon others for widely different purposes, should do it always with the best effect, or that they who are so acted upon, should not sometimes suffer injury from the inadequate or ill appropriated influence that is exerted over them.