What are we aiming at?
An enduring foundation; a slow development; first local, then regional,
then national influence; the most liberal promotion of all useful
knowledge; the special provision of such departments as are elsewhere
neglected in the country; a generous affiliation with all other
institutions, avoiding interferences, and engaging in no rivalry; the
encouragement of research; the promotion of young men; and the
advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance
the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell.
No words could indicate our aim more fitly than those by which John
Henry Newman expresses his "Idea of the University," in a page glowing
with enthusiasm, to which I delight to revert.
What will be our agencies?
A large staff of teachers; abundance of instruments, apparatus,
diagrams, books, and other means of research and instruction; good
laboratories, with all the requisite facilities; accessory influences,
coming both from Baltimore and Washington; funds so unrestricted,
charter so free, schemes so elastic, that as the world goes forward, our
plans will be adjusted to its new requirements.
What will be our methods?
Liberal advanced instruction for those who want it; distinctive honors
for those who win them; appointed courses for those who need them;
special courses for those who can take no other; a combination of
lectures, recitations, laboratory practice, field work and private
instruction; the largest discretion allowed to the Faculty consistent
with the purposes in view; and, finally, an appeal to the community to
increase our means, to strengthen our hands, to supplement our
deficiencies, and especially to surround our scholars with those social,
domestic and religious influences which a corporation can at best
imperfectly provide, but which may be abundantly enjoyed in the homes,
the churches and the private associations of an enlightened Christian
city.
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