ings of the Rev. Dr. Mandeville, who filled the chair of Rhetoric and Oratory eight years, commencing in 1841. His class book entitled "The Elements of Reading and Oratory," first published in 1845, is now widely used in colleges, academies, and high-schools. Dr. Mandeville's system of speaking was taught at Ilamilton, with some decided improvements by Professor A. J. Upson, D. D.

Hamilton College has not been forgotten by men of liberality and large means. The Hon. Wm. Hale Maynard, a graduate of Williams College, and a gifted lawyer, who died of the cholera in 1832, bequeathed to the college the bulk of his estate, amounting to twenty thousand dollars, for the founding of a Law Department.

Prof. John H. Lathrop, lately Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, was the first occupant of this chair. It was long worthily filled by Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, whose able instructions in legal science attracted students from remote sections of the country. The college confers the degree of LL. B. upon those who complete the regular course of legal studies.

Another benefactor of the college, the Hon. S. Newton Dexter, resided at Whitesboro, and enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing a centre of learning made more thrifty and efficient through his liberality. What Mr. Maynard did by testament, Mr. Dexter chose to do by an immediate donation. In 1836, when the college was severely crippled by debt, he came forward with a gift of fifteen thousand dollars for endowing the chair of Classical Literature. This department is supposed to have been chosen as the object of his mmunificence, not more from its acknowledged importance in a collegiate institution, than on account of his esteem for the character and scholarly attainments of its then incumbent, the Rev. Dr. North, who was afterwards promoted to the Presidency.

The department of Classical Literature is now occupied by Professor Edward North, L H. D., a highly accomplished scholar and man of letters, to whom we are indebted for the material of this sketch. He succeeded Professor John Finley Smith in 1844. Professor Smith was a musical artist of rare gifts and attainments.

The grounds about the college have been recently enlarged and improved. They now embrace twenty acres, which have been thoroughly drained, hedged, planted with trees and flowering shrubs, and put into lawn, with winding drives and gravelled walks. These improvements have been made under the conviction that no seat of generous culture can be called complete, unless it provides facilities for the study of vegetable growths. Plato's College was a grove of platans and olives,-philosophy and trees have always been fond of each other's company. The location of the college, on the brow of a hill that slopes to the East, and commands a wide view of the Oriskany Valley, is healthful and inviting. In this valley lies the village of Clinton, with a population of twelve hundred. In the distance, to the left, the city of Utica, the valley of the Mohawk, and the Trenton hills are distinctly visible.

The rural quiet of the place, its elevation, and extended, unbroken horizon, render it most favorable for astronomical observations. An Observa

tory has been erected, and furnished with a telescope, the largest in this country next to the one at Cambridge. It was made by Messrs. Spencer and Eaton of Canastota, who are alumni of the institution. A large Laboratory has been built, with the new apparatus which the French and German chemists have recently invented. A stone building, originally used as a boarding-hall, has been fitted up for a Cabinet, and now contains ten thousand specimens in Geology, Mineralogy, and Natural History. A Gymnasium has also been built and attractively furnished.

The last twenty years in the history of Hamilton College have been fruitful in evidences of growth, of achieved usefulness, and a vigorous purpose on the part of its officers to make it, in all respects, worthy of its central location and its religious origin.

In 1858, Dr. C. H. F. Peters, a graduate of the University of Berlin, entered upon his duties as director of the observatory. One of his undertakings has been to determine the exact longitude of various places in the State of New York, under the direction of the Regents of the University of which Dr. S. B. Woolworth is secretary. These determinations have been made with great care and accuracy by means of a telegraphic communication with the observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The places whose longitude has been thus far determined are Buffalo, Syracuse, Elmira, and Ogdensburgh. Dr. Peters has discovered eighteen asteroids during his connection with the Litchfield Observatory. He also fills the chair of Astronomy, endowed by Edwin C. Litchfield, LL. D., of Brooklyn.

In July, 1858, Rev. Samuel Ware Fisher, D. D., a graduate of Yale College, in the class of 1835, was called to the presidency, as the successor of Dr. Simeon North, who had previously resigned. Dr. Fisher was called from the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, where he had won a national reputation as a vigorous and versatile writer, an eloquent preacher, and a most successful pastor. His "Three Great Temptations," a volume of lectures to young men, and other occasional addresses, had indicated a special aptitude for the intellectual and religious duties of a college president. In his Inaugural Discourse, delivered November 4th, 1858, President Fisher foreshadowed a new system of biblical study, that was soon after introduced at Hamilton College, and was followed by the founding of the Walcott professorship of This fund of the Evidences of Christianity. $30,000 was given partly by Benjamin S. Walcott, a great-hearted manufacturer, who died in New York Mills, January 12th, 1862, and partly by William D. Walcott, his son and worthy successor in the largest business interest in Oneida County.

In January, 1859, Dr. N. W. Goertner entered upon his duties as the college commissioner, to which he has since devoted himself, with results equally honorable to himself and the patrons of liberal and Christian culture, who have so freely responded to his appeals in behalf of the college. Among the benefactions recently received, in addition to the Walcott endowment,

are $20,000 for the Robinson professorship of Greek, subscribed in New York and Brooklyn, and so named in honor of Dr. Edward Robinson, a distinguished alumnus, who died in December, 1863; also $23,000 for the Albert Barnes professorship of intellectual and moral philosophy, subscribed in Philadelphia, and so named in honor of another distinguished alumnus; and $20,000 for the Kingsley professorship of logic, rhetoric, and elocution, subscribed in Utica, and so named in honor of the largest donor, Mr. Charles C. Kingsley, a graduate in the class of 1852. Large bequests have also been received from John C. Baldwin, of Orange, N. J.; Samuel F. Pratt, of Buffalo and Peter B. Porter, of Niagara Falls; as well as donations from Hon. William E. Dodge, of New York, and Samuel A. Muson, Esq., of Utica. Ten thousand dollars were also given by John N. Hungerford, Esq., of Corning, for the improvement of South College.

In other respects, the college has received handsome additions to its material resources and facilities for instruction. The collections in natural history have largely increased under the direction of Professor Oren Root. The most attractive addition in this department, is the Sartwell Herbarium, presented by Hamilton White, Esq., of Syracuse, and well known in scientific circles as a very extensive and valuable exhibition of our North American Flora. It contains eight thousand samples of plants, carefully cured, classified, and labelled by Dr. H. P. Sartwell, of Penn Yan, during fifty years of botanical study, research, and correspondence.

Twelve prize competitions have been endowed by as many individuals, mostly alumni of the college, and have proved highly useful as incentives to industry and thoroughness of intellectual attainment. These prize funds were given by the late Hon. Aaron Clark, of New York; Hon. John V. L. Pruyn, LL. D., of Albany; Horace D. Kellogg, Esq., of Bridgewater; the late Hon. George Underwood, of Auburn; Frank H. Head, Esq., of Kenosha, Wis. ; and Martin Hawley, Esq., of Baltimore, Md.

The library of the college has been generously remembered. After the death of Dr. Edward Robinson, the disposition of his private library became a matter of inquiry and interest to many of his friends, who were aware of its great value and richness in apparatus for biblical study. They thought it becoming that the library should go where Dr. Robinson had graduated, where he had served as a tutor, and where he had laid the foundation of his eminence as a biblical scholar. This good thought was quickly translated into generous action, and the Robinson library was purchased, presented to the college, and removed to its permanent home in Clinton. It embraces twelve hundred rare books and maps, such as the biblical scholar delights | to be surrounded with. Apart from practical uses, the associations of this unique collection give it an almost sacred character.

After the death of William Curtis Noyes, LL. D., in December, 1864, it was found that he had bequeathed to Hamilton College his large law library, valued at $60,000, and containing nearly every work which a lawyer can appeal'

to in the history or practice of his profession. In making this bequest, Mr. Noyes was influenced by a natural and commendable desire that his name should be honorably associated with a prominent institution in the county where he had spent his boyhood and won his first laurels. The possession of the Noyes library rounds out the plan for a course of legal study in Hamilton College, as it lay in the mind of William H. Maynard, when he endowed the chair of law, history, and political economy, to the end that the "graduates of Hamilton College might become more useful as citizens of this republic." In this connection it may be added that in the year 1860, Ellicott Evans, LL. D., a graduate of Harvard College, was elected to the Maynard professorship, as the successor of Professor T. W. Dwight, LL. D., who had resigned to accept a similar position in the Columbia College Law School.

The Fiftieth Commencement of Hamilton College was celebrated on the 16th of July, 1862, with an address of welcome by Hon. William J. Bacon, an historical discourse by President Fisher, and a Jubilee Poem by Professor A. C. Kendrick, which were preceded and followed by other literary and social festivities.

** In July, 1866, Dr. Fisher resigned the presidency of Hamilton College, and accepted a call to the pastorate of the Westminster Church in Utica. A year later, a worthy successor was installed in the person of Dr. Samuel Gilman Brown, July 17, 1867. His inaugural address was a powerful exposition of the "Real Aim and Purpose of the American College."

Dr. Brown was born in North Yarmouth, Me., in January, 1813. His father, the Rev. Dr. Francis Brown, was president of Dartmouth College, N. H., from 1815 to 1820. The son entered that college in 1827, and graduated in 1831. He studied theology where he completed his course in 1837. He then passed nearly two years in travelling in Europe, extending his tour to Greece, Egypt, and Palestine. While abroad, he was elected professor of oratory and belleslettres in Dartmouth College, which office he held from 1840 to 1863, when he was transferred to the chair, which he occupied till 1867, of intellectual philosophy and political economy.

Dr. Brown is the author of numerous orations and addresses, review articles, lectures, &c., characterized by their philosophical tone and genuine literary spirit. In the notice of Dartmouth College, we have spoken of his commemorative discourses on Professors Haddock and Putnam. He has also published an interesting address, reviewing the history of the college, delivered before the society of the alumni, in 1855, and several other college addresses, including The Studies of an Orator; A Eulogy on Henry Clay; The Spirit of a Scholar The Functions and Privileges of a Scholar in the Crisis of the State, before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Bowdoin College, in 1863. His review articles, contributed to the Biblical Repository, are: “Dr. Chalmers as a Preacher" (1837); "Ancient and Modern Greece" (1842); "John Wesley" (1843); and in the Bibliotheca Sacra, "The Ottoman Empire" (1859). He has written for the North

President Brown is also the author of a volume of Biography of Self-Taught Men, published in Boston, in 1847; and of an elaborate Memoir of the Life of Rufus Choate, prefixed to the standard edition of his works, also edited by him, published by Messrs. Little & Brown, in 1862.

In addition to these publications, President Brown has written several Courses of Lectures, which are unpublished. One of these embraces "The Earlier English Literature;" another, on "British Orators, was delivered before the Lowell Institute, in Boston, in 1859, and has been repeated in New York and elsewhere.

He was called to be the orator on the occasion of the Dartmouth Centennial, and his able discourse was published in 1870, entitled: An Historical Discourse delivered before the Alumni of Dartmouth College, July 21, 1869, One Hundred Years after the Founding of that Insti

tution.

The style of these various productions is full and equable. They are marked by a close analysis, an air of literary refinement, are candid and comprehensive, and are illustrated by the reading of a scholar and gentleman.

Since the accession of President Brown, various changes have occurred in the board of instruction. Rev. William N. McHarg resigned the Latin professorship in 1869. His successor was Prof. Abel G. Hopkins, on the Benjaminand-Bates foundation. In the same year, Prof. Charles Avery tendered his resignation, after serving the college thirty-five years in the chair of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. He was released from active duty, but was retained as an honorary member of the Faculty, with the title of Professor Emeritus. In 1868 Prof. Edward W. Root was elected to the chair of Agricultural Chemistry, on the Childs' foundation. His lamented death, two years later, was followed by the election of Prof. Albert H. Chester.

Dr. A. J. Upson in 1870, after a service of twenty-one years, resigned the Kingsley professorship of Logic, Rhetoric, and Elocution. His successor, Prof. Samuel D. Wilcox, retired at the end of two years, owing to ill health. The present incumbent, Prof. Henry A. Frink, was elected in June, 1872.

After the resignation of Dr. Avery, his department was divided, and Prof. Chester Huntington was elected to the chair of Natural Philosophy. In 1871 Dr. John W. Mears of Philadelphia, the late efficient editor of The American Presbyterian, was elected Albert Barnes Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. In October, 1872, James Knox, LL. D., while a sojourner in Berlin, Germany, presented Hamilton College with $10,000, for the improvement and permanent endowment of its Hall of Nat

THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.* THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA is situated in the County of Albemarle, Virginia, about one mile and a half west of the village of Charlottesville, and four miles in nearly the same direction from Monticello, which was the residence, and contains the tomb of Thomas Jefferson. It is built on moderately elevated ground, and forms a striking feature in a beautiful landscape. On the south-west it is shut in by little mountains, beyond which, a few miles distant, rise the broken and occasionally steep and rugged, but not elevated ridges, the characteristic feature of which is expres-ed by their name of Ragged Mountains. To the northwest the Blue Ridge, some twenty miles off, presents its deep-colored outline, stretching to the north-east, and looking down upon the mountainlike hills that here and there rise from the plain without its eastern base. To the east the eye rests upon the low range of mountains that bounds the view as far as the vision can extend northeastward and south-westward along its slopes, except where it is interrupted directly to the east by a hilly but fertile plain through which the Rivanna, with its discolored stream, flows by the base of Monticello. To the south the view reaches far away until the horizon meets the plain, embracing a region lying between mountains on either hand, and covered with forests interspersed with spots of cultivated land.

This University is a State institution, endowed, and built, and under the control of the state. It owes its origin, its organization, and the plan of its buildings to Mr. Jefferson, who made it the care of his last years to bring it into being, and counted it among his chief claims to the memory of posterity that he was its founder.*

The Act of Assembly establishing the University of Virginia and incorporating the Rector and Board of Visitors, is dated January 25, 1819; and the University was opened for the admission of students March 25, 1825.

It is under the government of the Rector and Board of Visitors, by whom are enacted its laws, and to whom is committed the control of its finances, the appointment and removal of its officers, and the general supervision of its interests. The Visitors, seven in number at first, but afterwards increased to nine, are appointed every fourth year by the governor of the state, and the Rector is chosen by the Visitors from among their own number. The first Rector was Mr. Jefferson, followed in succession by Mr. Madison, Chapman Johnson, Esq., and Joseph C. Cabell, Esq.

* We have pleasure in presenting this view, from the compėtent pen of the former chairman of the Faculty, Dr. Gessner Harrison, of an institution the peculiar organization of which bas been little understood.

Among Mr. Jefferson's papers was found, after his death, the following epitaph :

HERE LIES BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON. AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA,

See Tucker's Life of Jefferson, ii. 497.

The University of Virginia comprises nine schools, viz. I. Ancient Languages, in which are taught the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, with ancient history and literature. II. Modern Languages, in which are taught the French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages, and the Anglo-Saxon form of the English language, with modern history and literature. III. Mathematics, comprising pure and mixed Mathematics. IV. Natural Philosophy, comprising, besides the usual subjects, Mineralogy and Geology. V. Chemistry and Pharmacy. VI. Medicine, comprising Medical Jurisprudence, Obstetrics, and the Principles and Practice of Medicine. VII. Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery. VIII. Moral Philosophy, comprising Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Ethics, Mental Philosophy, and Political Economy. IX. Law, comprising also Government and International Law.

To each school is assigned one professor, except the school of Law, which has two. In the school In the school of Ancient Languages, the professor is aided by two assistant instructers, and in Modern Languages and Mathematics by one each. In the Medical department there is a lecturer on Anatomy and Materia Medica, and a demonstrator of Anatomy.

The administration of the laws of the University, and their interpretation, is committed to the Faculty, consisting of the professors of the several schools and the chairman of the Faculty. The professors are appointed by the Board of Visitors. The chairman, who has little power beyond the general supervision of the execution of the laws, none over the schools, is chosen annually by the Board of Visitors from among the members of the Faculty, and receives as such a salary of five hundred dollars. The professors are responsible to the Board of Visitors alone for the proper discharge of their duties, and have intrusted to them, each in his own school, the conduct of its studies, subject only to the laws prescribing the subjects to be taught, the hours of lecture, and the method of instruction generally by lectures, examinations, and exercises, according to the nature of the subject.

The income of the University is derived chiefly from an annuity from the state of fifteen thousand dollars, subject of late years to a charge of about four thousand five hundred dollars for the benefit of thirty-two state students, who receive gratuitous instruction, together with board and room rent free; from rents of dormitories and hotels from matriculation fees; and from surplus fees of tuition in the several schools, accruing to the University after the professor shall have received a maximum of two thousand dollars.

Each professor is paid a fixed salary of one thousand dollars a year, and receives the tuition fees paid by students for attending his lectures up to the maximum of two thousand dollars. Any excess of fees above this sum is paid into the treasury of the University. The fee paid by students for tuition is ordinarily twenty-five dollars to each professor attended. This mode of compensation, making the income of the professor to depend so largely uron tuition fees, was designed to act as an incentive to activity and faithfulness on the part of the professor, his own and the prosperity of the school being identified in the matter of emolument as well as of reputation. The maximum limit of income from fees received by the professor is a thing of late adoption, introduced since the number of students attending some of the schools has become very large. It remains to be seen whether this invasion of the principle is the wisest mode of disposing of the question of excessive fees; especially when no provision is made for a minimum income, and none, for the most part, for excess of labor from large numbers frequenting a school.

The method of instruction is by lectures and examinations, with the use of text-books selected by the professor. The professor is expected, so far as the nature of the subject allows it, to deliver lectures on the subjects of instruction, setting forth and explaining the doctrines to be taught, so that by the help of the lectures and of the textbook, the student may not only have the opportunity of understanding these doctrines but of having them more vividly impressed on his attention

and memory. The examination of the class at each meeting upon the preceding lecture, embraces both the text and the teaching of the professor, and is aimed at once to secure the student's attention to both, and to afford the advantage of a review, and, when needed, of a further clearing up of the subject.

For the purpose of accommodating the lectures to the wants and previous attainments of the students, and of giving a larger course of instruction, most of the schools are divided into classes called junior and senior. In the school of Mathematics there is also an intermediate class, and a class of mixed Mathematics. In the school of Law also there is an intermediate class. The lectures to each class occupy an entire session of nine months. A student is generally allowed, except in law, to attend, without additional fee, all the classes in a school the same session, so as to receive instruction, if he choose and be able, in the whole course in one year.

Two public examinations of all the members of each school are held every session, one about its middle, the other at its close. These examinations are conducted chiefly in writing. A set of questions, with numerical values attached, is proposed to the whole class, and its members are distributed into four divisions, according to the value of their answers. To insure fairness at these examinations, every student is required to attach to his answers a declaration in writing, that he has neither given nor received aid during the examination. This same certificate is attached also to all examination papers written for degrees.

Students are admitted at and above the age of sixteen, and are free to attend the schools of their choice; but they are ordinarily required to attend three schools.

Besides the degrees conferred in individual schools, and certificates of proficiency in certain subjects, the degree of Bachelor of Arts is bestowed on such students as have obtained degrees in any two of the literary schools (viz. Ancient. Languages, Modern Languages, and Moral Philo ophy), and in any two of the scientific schools (viz. Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry); besides giving evidence of a certain proficiency in the remaining two academical schools, and furnishing an essay or oration to be approved by the Faculty.

The degree of Master of Arts is conferred upon such students as have obtained degrees in all the six academical schools, besides furnishing an essay or oration to be approved by the Faculty, and standing a satisfactory examination in review on all the studies of the course, except those in which he has been admitted to degrees in the current session.

No honorary degrees are conferred by this University.

The University of Virginia has been in operation thirty years, and although it has had to contend with some prejudices, has had a good degree of success, as well in regard to the numbers frequenting it as to the character for scholarship accorded to its alumni. The number of matriculates entered for the session of 1854-5 was five hundred and fourteen; of these three hundred and twenty were exclusively academical, one hundred and fifty-six exclusively profes ional, and thirtyeight partly academical and partly professional.

The University of Virginia has introduced into its constitution and into its practical working some marked peculiarities; and as its apparent success has called attention to these, it may be well to notice some of them briefly, and to state summa

Degrees are conferred in each of the schools of the University upon those students who give evidence of having a competent knowledge of the subjects taught in the school. Certificates of proficiency also are bestowed for like knowledge of certain subjects that may be attended separately, as Medical Jurisprudence, Mineralogy, Geology, &c. Examinations are held with a view to these honors towards the end of each session, and are conducted mostly in writing. The extent and difficulty of these examinations, and the strictness used in judging of the value of the answers, secure a standard of attainment much higher than usual, and render the degrees in individual schools objects of ambition to all, and strong incentives to diligence and accuracy in study. A register of each student's answers at the daily examinations, and of his written exercises, is kept by the professor; and, in deciding on his fitness to receive a degree, regard is had to his average standing in his class. The time of his residence as a student is not counted among his qualifications for this distinction. He may obtain a degree, whenever he shall have proved that he is worthy of it by standing satisfactorily the examinations proposed as a test equally for all.

1. The first and most striking peculiarity is the allowing every student to attend the schools or studies of his choice, only requiring ordinarily that he shall attend three; the conferring degrees in individual schools; the suffering candidates to stand the examinations held for degrees without regard to the time of residence; and the bestowing no degrees as honorary distinctions, but only upon adequate proof made by strict examination, that they are deserved.

This at once sets aside the usual college curriculum, with the attendant division into Freshmen, Sophomore, &c., classes, and, in the opinion of some, is followed as a necessary consequence by the loss to the student of a regular and complete course of study and of mental discipline, which they assume to be given by the usual plan of our colleges. It is taken for granted by such that the student, being free to choose, will attend such studies alone as may suit his spirit of self-indulgence, avoiding those which are difficult; and that the voluntary system does not admit of a regular course. It is said in answer, that the records of the University of Virginia show that the fact contradicts the assumption that the more difficult studies will be avoided, the schools of Ancient Languages and of Mathematics, for example, having always had a fair proportion of students. And that, although no student is compelled by law to follow a certain defined course, yet in practice, and by the influences of causes easily seen, a very