Address in Praise of Founders

"Oration by Professor D’Avray, At the Encenia of the University of New Brunswick, June, 1871" (UA Case 71)

May it Please your Honor:—Gentlemen :—Five years have elapsed since it was last my privilege and my duty to address you in this place, and to deliver that Annual Oration in praise of the Founders and Benefactors of this University, which the Statutes require from each Professor in his turn as a perpetual acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude which this Province owes to their patriotic desire to elevate the intellectual, and consequently the moral, status of its sons. On that occasion I lamented that the even tenor of Collegiate life afforded so few salient points upon which to dilate in an address of this nature—that each recurring anniversary of our Encaenial Festival (now that our great battles have been fought and won) brought with it the inevitable task to be performed, but supplied no fresh material to facilitate its performances, and enable the Orator to say anything new on so thoroughly well ventilated a subject as Education—anything indeed which might prove interesting to such an audience as annually honors these Halls by its presence.

But to-day, Alas! a tedious task has become a painful one, and were it true that "out of the full heart the mouth speaketh," I should lack no flow of words in which to express the deep sorrow which I experience in thus publicly referring to the death of our dear Colleague, Professor Campbell. In him this University, this Province, has suffered an almost irreparable loss, for, to the deep, accurate and extensive acquirements of the scholar, he united the experience of nearly ten years in the lecture room, and whatever may be the talents of his successor, I do not hesitate to say that it will be impossible for him to discharge the duties of the Classical Chair in this University as admirably as they were discharged by Professor Campbell, until to acquirements such as he possessed, he can add the experience which he had acquired. This is our estimate of him as a Professor. As a Colleague we all loved him—as a man, a friend, a companion, we all lament his too early death. Most of those now present knew him in his private capacity, and will pleasurably recall the genial bright-heartedness which made him always welcome in all circles, and society at large will miss the frank, honest, English gentleman who contributed so amply to its enjoyments. I cannot therefore doubt that the feelings of those I am addressing will induce them to think that I have not improperly availed myself of this occasion to record a loving tribute of respect to the memory of one who so well deserved it. Requiscat in Pace. " Pallida mers aquo pulsat pede Pauperum tabernas Regumque Turres. Vitae summa brevis, spem, nos vetat unchoare longam."

But to my task. It will not, I think, be amiss to premise the remarks I am about to make, by a general view of the subject of Education and of Collegiate education in particular, from which we may more readily glean what are the duties of a Colonial University, how far our own has satisfied these requirements, and finally, what have been the fruits of its labor.

There was a time, and that a period not so far remote as to be out of the reach of the memory of the oldest inhabitant of every town, village and home, read of in the Mother Country, when the value of education was strongly contested and even denied. We have lived to see the day when it is no longer necessary to preface a discourse on Education by a proof of its value. This is happily no longer challenged, for the only differences of opinion that now exist, are concerning the means of spreading its beneficent influences more agreeably and over a larger area, and of the comparative value of at first sight conflicting educational schemes. Much attention has of late years been directed in England to the Public School and University systems, and although the working of each managed about the first quarter of this century, to attain its culminating points of mismanagement, and of reciprocal perfection in the art of imparting the least amount of knowledge in the longest time, and at the greatest possible expense, nevertheless public opinion in that country has unanimously and emphatically endorsed Talleyrand's dictum, that "the English Public School system is the best, in the world, and that it is detestable."

Much light was thrown upon the subject by the labors of the Public School Commission appointed by Parliament to investigate the true state of the matter, the publication of whose evidence immediately effected in anticipation a large instalment of reform in the leading schools of Harrow and Eton. Already fagging is becoming a legend of the past; flogging is less fashionable, and the appropriation by the authorities of sundry "perquisites" from the boys, is beginning to excite popular attention. The idea that Greek and Latin verification are the only ends of any system of education, and many other opinions hitherto held by inheritance and tradition, are gradually being exploded as fallacious, unsuited to the requirements of the age we live in. In the Universities great improvements have also been introduced, putting on one side great advances in the better administration of the courts of discipline, and of domestic arrangements for the greater comfort of the students. Studies have been introduced more compatible with the exigencies, not only of the every day life of such students, (the great majority,) who are destined for actual employment in the liberal professions, but a knowledge which the tone of educated society now demands of every gentleman claiming to rank among the intellectual classes of his compeers.

The area of the field of intellectual labor is thus greatly extended, and yet the soil is expected to be as fertile, to be dug as deep, to be as prolific in its crops as heretofore. The modem student must therefore gird his loins to the work, or he will be left in the rear of his age, for of him is expected at least treble as much as of his forefathers. The educational chain is in process of completion; missing links are gradually being supplied and fitted into their right places, and the perfect harmony, mutual dependence, correlative value, and exact relationship of each link, to all and every of its fellows, is rapidly but no less surely being established. And there is one point worthy of remark as illustrating the uniformity and quality of the nature of all human knowledge of things created, whether they be mental or material, namely, that as the light of our knowledge shines purer and steadier, we perceive by it more and more the approximation to equality in the relative importance of the several constituent links. Of this truth the observation of all present will confirm me. Do we not all remember the time when natural science was held as comparatively unimportant and unworthy the attention of the old Classical scholar? Do we not remember the time when the study of Logic was ridiculed, when "Coxcombs vanquished Berkeley with a grin; "when controversial theology was considered akin to the study of Payne and Hobbes; when modern languages were ranked by the "good old Greeks" as accomplishments, the imparting of which might worthily be delegated to the music or dancing master? True, this was in the good old days of coaching,—I use the word in its collegiate sense—-when modern Gauls were popularly supposed to use frogs as the staple of their daily food, and when the lower classes, generally, believed all foreigners to be Frenchmen. As for natural sciences which have already averted to, they were in the old educational system literally nowhere. There might or might not be, at any particular University, one or two chairs set apart for them, but no one cared either for Botany, Zoology or any other section of them. In our days on the other hand, a fresh and determined impetus has been given to the study of every branch of science, and as before remarked, the result has been, not only the more accurate perception of the dependence of every branch of study upon every other, and the intrinsic value of the development of each branch of study in itself; but the conviction that the time is not far distant when it will be incontestibly established that each study is co-equal, co-extensive, and of just the same degree of importance as any of its fellow. This is a very important consequence and one agreeable to our conceptions of divine wisdom. There is an analogous opinion in theology. It is this—that all men are equal in the eyes of God, in this sense, namely, that although all men have not the same number of talents committed to their charge to be strictly accounted for hereafter, yet, that fruits will be expected of us only in exact proportion to the number of talents we have received. Secondly, that we are so much the creatures of circumstances, that no one can with safety assert that born, educated, and naturally endowed equally with any given man, and placed in precisely the same circumstances, he would act and think precisely in the same way, whether for good or evil, (an argument, by the way, skillfully handled by Lord Byron.) And thirdly, that whereas we can judge only by actions, being finite ourselves and having no mutual penetration of each other's thoughts and motives, we are distinctly told that the Creator judges by the heart alone. These three considerations might be urged in evidence for the belief in the real moral equality of all men in the eyes of the Almighty.

To return to the comparative value of different studies, if there be in fact any, it is at once patent to every student of English History, why the Classics hold such high ground in the University Curriculum. Although the Romans left no appreciable impress upon our language, and the Normans introduced only a bastard Latin into legal proceedings, yet the Monks, to whom England owes more than she likes nowadays to acknowledge in full, throughout the dark and middle ages, throughout the whole period of chivalry, were the sole repositories at learning, and both in their private studies and in their public worship, and in all sacraments, used exclusively the Latin tongue. This they taught in their schools, and great men, compelled by political motives or by any of the thousand and one causes which arose in the stormy days of the middle ages to seek seclusion in the Monasteries, then the only "Cities of Refuge" in England, eagerly imbibed the taste for Classical scholarship evinced by their learned hosts, only to disseminate it broad-cast when circumstances permitted their return to the arena of actual life.

We all remember the hard battle mathmatics, regarded as a modern intruder, had to fight to hold its own with the classics, but they won their position, and it is curious to observe in these our days, how completely the two older Universities have lost their prestige for what was accounted the specialité of each. Every year does Oxford turn out remarkable Mathematicians only to be rivalled by the soundness of the Classical scholarship displayed by the Cambridge men.

And now how shall we apply the foregoing to our own case? We are met here to-day to listen to, and to celebrate the praises of the founders of our Alma Mater. What is the meetest offering with which we may propitiate their manes ? Surely the simple record of the progress of the University, of the good she has already effected, and of the bright promise of the future that shall be commenstruate with the good fortune of the Province, is the fairest sacrificial offering that we can make. The importance of an University of a young Colony cannot be over estimated. It is the living, loving tie which connects its intellect with that of the Mother Country and with the rest of the educated world. It is the source from which we must derive our future statesmen, Generals, Politicians, Lawyers, Divines, Doctors, Engineers, in fact all and every great man that shall henceforth make this our cherished land of adoption, famous and respected in the rank of nations. To us the Mother Country looks for moulding and adaptation of the whole intellect of the Province for the instilling and nourishing of a healthy spirit alike of loyalty and independence, to us is entrusted, practically, the prosperity of the land, for we have the forming of the men on whose virtues depend both good local and general government, and progress of every kind and degree.

It is the peculiarity of our Alma Mater that we really unite all the advantages of the older Universities while discarding their many drawbacks, and at the same time have fairly and liberally met all the requirements of the advanced opinions on education of the age we live in. Here are offered the excellencies of the College lecture system combined with a more didactic style which admits of greater personal interest being taken by the Professors in the progress and difficulties of individual students. At older Universities lectures are rarely frequented, and the whole of the material progress is more with private tutors or "coaches." Again, our curriculum is far more ample and calculated to meet the exigencies of our students in their future career. Studies hardly contemplated by some Universities, or at most relegated to a very humble position in the list, in our scheme find their proper rank and level, and are not slighted for the fact that they are of convenient use in the business of life, for which, our fundamental principle is, the College should give the all in all sufficient training. Thirdly, our Board of Discipline claims the consideration of parents, for we thereby show that, we recognize that discipline as well as the inculcation of sound morality, and as much our special province as the imparting of book knowledge, being indispensable adjuncts to a right training of the mind and of the thinking power.

I shall now say a few words upon the competitive uses and advantages of the several studies presented to the choice of the Academical Tyro. By a diligent study of the ancient classics we first of all learn two of the finest languages that have been spoken since the confusion of tongues, one of which, the Greek, is the perfect language par excellence - the model language, and both of which form the basis of no inconsiderable portion of our own. By the acquisition of the languages themselves and by their facile and elegant manipulation whether in prose or verse we gain a perfect insight into, and a knowledge of, the history, theology, manners, arts, government and thoughts of two of the greatest nations that have ever existed. Who can rightly read and understand the story of the rise and fall of Rome, so long "the Mistress of the World" as told by her own historians, without seeing in it the key to all modern history and politics, without having his imagination stirred, and his best feelings aroused, by the wondrous tale, without feeling that the long historic past is a living reality, pregnant with meaning and deepest signification to ourselves? Again, by the study of Greek models we find wherein consist the excellencies of the noble arts of the Orator, the Sculptor, the Painter, the Historian, the Dramatist, the Actor, the Philosopher and the Poet, and cannot withhold our need of admiration from a nation to whom the world owes all that is refining and elevated, all that distinguished man from the brutes, with the one exception of religion.

Now turn we to mathematics. What does the World owe to them and what does mental education owe to them? Without mathematics all science would be impossible. Astronomy as anything more than a zetetic enquiry could not have existed, we should know nought of the shape and constitution of this our earth, or of its place in the solar system; the Copernican theories would never have been brought to light, the sublime discoveries of Newton would not have been engendered, or if engendered could not have been systematized. The grand works of engineering, mining, fortification, manufactures, navigation, and last though not least, the applications and economy of steam power, magnetism and electricity, all owe their adaptations to the uses of human life, to the science of mathematics. Its influence on the training of the human mind is still greater, though not so palpable. Mathematics supply food for the great craving of the intelligent being, pure reasoning, and it is in the study of pure mathematics that we not only obtain material for, and methods of, reasoning strictly pure, but that we gain our first and absolutely uncontradictory arguments on the nature of Infinity, which suggests itself on the threshold of every branch of the Science whether it be Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra or Trigonometry. The mind of the student is refined, he is introduced to the fascinatingly attractive process of theorizing, he becomes synthetical and analytical, is able to distinguish differences, to seize hold of leading points, to eliminate matter foreign loathe subject of discussion. So that, rightly have all authorities agreed, that the combination of Classical and Mathematical studies complement each other and effect the resultant of the Roman "OEquus Animus"-the well balanced mind. But this is not enough for our Collegian. This is indeed the solid basis whereon he may build, but in itself it is nought without a handsome superstructure. Foremost amongst others come the studies of Metaphysics and Ethics. Surely the most interesting subject that the mind can devote itself to the consideration of, is its own nature and workings, its mysterious connection with the body, the nature and essence of matter and the reciprocal action of mind on matter and of matter on mind. The constitution and laws of mind and matter form together the study of man himself, which as Pope declares, is the noblest study of mankind. The field alike for the imagination and the reason is boundless, for the subject itself is infinite. The Science of Ethics is complimentary to christianity, morality is a branch, the practical branch, of revealed religion. It may, and it has and it does now, exist without the Religion of Christ, as theory may or may not be applied. Morality is incumbent on every citizen, on every mortal, and on grounds which it is the peculiar province of Ethics to point out, wholly distinct from any religious belief whatever, though he who breathes into his practical morality vivifying spirit of Christian Faith, renders a duty divine, and blesses its performance to himself.

The literature and history of our own country naturally claims some attention at the hands of every student, and when we remember that the history of no country has been so important or so intensely interesting, and that English Literature as a whole, can defy comparison, we cannot gracefully withold a portion of the valuable time devoted to graver pursuits, from their study, especially as this study had a further practical recommendation in the tact that it is utterly impossible for a gentleman to hold his own in any society, who is ignorant of the noble deeds of his ancestors, and of the mighty struggles both in the field and in Parliament, before that noble fabric by which he lives and moves and has his civic being—"the British Constitution"- was perfected and firmly
established.

If he can afford time for the acquisition of but one modern language he will naturally select the French language, one which will open up to him the resources of another world. A knowledge of living languages, says Rollin, serves as an introduction to all the sciences. By its means we arrive almost without difficulty, at the perception of an infinite number of beautiful things which have cost their inventors long and tedious labours. By its means all ages and all countries are open to us. It renders us, to a certain extent, contemporaries of all times, and citizens of all nations, and enables us to converse even at the present day, with all the wisest men that antiquity has produced, who seem to have lived and to have labored for us. Of all modern languages the French ought to be most generally studied, as it is the one most generally spoken, and the best fitted for consideration. It is in fact distinguished by the clearness, the order, the precision, of its phraseology. It proceeds as thought and observation proceed; it can express and describe everything; it has all the gratifications necessary to satisfy the wants of reason, genius and feeling, therefore men do it the honour of cherishing and of speaking it. It is the language of Princes, of their Ambassadors, of the great of all men throughout Europe whose education has been cultivated with care.

I must necessarily omit many other studies such as Logic,—Rhetoric and Natural Science —the last of itself being so important, that it would be impossible even to enumerate the advantages which its study affords to the student in a paper of this nature. I have, however, said enough to show that through the liberality of the Founders, we are enabled to offer to the youth of to-day, a vast choice in their Academical pursuits. Of our Founders and Benefactors we may say that the dictum has been reversed and that "the good they did lives after them."

In conclusion, I wish to say a few words to those students who having completed their educational course within these walls, are this day to receive the reward of their labors, together with their "Exeat," to commence the battle of life. One thing I believe all of them have learned and will be disposed to remember, namely—that they are not such very talented fellows as they imagined themselves to be when three years ago they presented themselves for matriculation; that three years pretty hard work has after all only enabled them to make up for past deficiencies, and that now that they are coming up to take their Degrees with all the honor due to deserving students, they still are students as they then were, but students professing better tools and a better knowledge how to use them. I know them well, and I esteem them too much not to feel satisfied that they are convinced of no one thing more than of this : That the more knowledge a man acquires the more certain he feels of his ignorance. In this Province, unhappily, the early education of youth is neglected. Teachers assure parents of the wonderful talents of their sons, and are readily believed by them, and no less readily by the boys. No foundation is laid; the groundwork is utterly neglected, and a lad who does not know his declensions or his verbs, and who is utterly ignorant of every grammatical rule, crams just enough Homer, Horace and Virgil to enable him to matriculate. In a fortnight he has digested all he knows, and to the disgust of the Professor, and to his own mortification, he finds that he is more like a plucked crow than a full Hedged phoenix and both have to begin de novo; the Professor to teach the elements, the student to learn them. Many a student has felt that had he his time to go over again, he would pursue a very different course, he would not enter College so utterly unprepared, and he would hope to leave it better qualified than under present circumstances he can possibly be, to do honor to the University. Of the extreme value and imperative necessity of good grounding, no better proof can be adduced than is afforded by what has been done in the University since the decease of Professor Campbell. It was at that time found to be impossible to supply his place even temporarily, outside of its walls. Our respected President had, luckily for the students, in early life received that requisite amount of grounding in Classical knowledge which now stood him in such stead. Although he has for very many years devoted himself to abstruser studies; although his time was fully occupied by the duties which devolved upon him as President and as Professor, he gallantly came to the rescue at the 11th hour, and he has now for some months made time to read up his somewhat neglected but never forgotten Greek and Latin, and to conduct the Senior Class through the intricacies of Sophocles and Thucydides, of Cicero and Juvenal. Could he have done this had he not been thoroughly grounded?

As it is, the University does its best, and in spite of difficulties such as I have mentioned, and of the briefness of the period during which the students are under its care, it has reason to be proud of the success which has hitherto attended its efforts. I mean of the success which has attended so many of its Alumni in their various pursuits in life, and which probably would not have attended them, had they not been educated here. As I said before, we provide the tools and teach the students how to use them, but we do not profess to turn out perfect scholars; men qualified at once to step into the Professor's chair and discharge the onerous duties appertaining to it. We do not, I say, profess to do this, simply because it is impossible, and this is a fact the truth of which every sanely judging man, every one competent to judge, will at once acknowledge.

To you who are about to take your Degrees I say : Let the seed which has been sown bear forth good fruit in due season, so as to show to the world that having received much, you are ready to repay all that can be expected of you, and in future days wherever you may be, however prosperous you may become, ever bear in mind with gratitude and affection the Alma Mater whence you drew your first inspirations from the pure springs of knowledge. To all I say, "work." Work for the present and for the future, work for a name, work for a competence, work for others, work for the common weal and for the good of the Province. So shall the fruits of your labor bless the land, and reflect credit on the University.