Address in Praise of Founders

"Address in Praise of Founders by Prof. A. M. Scott, PH. D." The University Monthly, 23, 8 (June 1904): 246-250. (UA Case 71)

The annual turn of the U. N. B. wheel of fortune has laid upon the speaker the task, on behalf of the Faculty of the University, of trying to express in appropriate language our sentiments of praise for the founders of this institution.

In order that my ideas might gain definiteness by being associated with the name of some person or persons as the founders, a brief glimpse was taken into the history of the College to ascertain who this might be. More than a century ago a College known as the College of New Brunswick was founded and incorporated by Provincial Charter bearing date of Feb. 12th, 1800. It was a theological school, and for its establishment thanks are due to the early Loyalist settlers in the province, who were solicitous for the education of certain persons who might become qualified to minister to them as their clergy, and it is fitting that we should praise this manifestation of wisdom and forethought on the part of the loyal men and women who made themselves new homes in the wilderness rather than dwell under an alien flag.

But in 1823 a move was made for a new charter, to be given by His Majesty George IV who was then to be deemed the founder of the College, and in 1828 such a Royal Charter, dated Dec. 15th of that year, was granted by the Crown. This date is perpetuated in the present building by being carved on the top of the coping stone over the front porch; it is visible from above only and is, so far as I know, the only mark about the building itself to show the date of its erection.

And so the attempt to determine the personality of the founder or founders of the present institution reveals, first, the loyalist settlers of the colony, then His Majesty George IV of England, whose place is largely filled in our minds by his representative, Sir Howard Douglas, and later a Commission with which the name of Sir William Dawson is associated. In each of the latter cases the Legislature is recognized as the authority giving force to whatever suggestions for change or improvement were made, and since the Legislature represents the people, any words of praise for the founders of this University must be equivalent the word of praise for those of our far-seeing ancestors, who, looking into the future exerted themselves to lay broad and firm foundations for the education, the culture, and the intellectual growth of the people of this province. As to some of the specific things which call for comment at the present, it is worthy of note that praise is due the original founders of this College because of their fervent religious zeal, which inspired them to labor and sacrifice that suitable theological teaching might be provided for the clergy. We look back with feelings of curiosity and wonder at the serious-mindedness and the bigotry of many of the people of a hundred years ago, but it is to the strong and almost fanatical zeal which characterized the first settlers of New England and their early descendants that this College is common with many other Colleges and Universities owes its existence to-day. In many places the change has not been made as here of abolishing the Chair of Theology, but in the majority of instances the literary and scientific side of the educational work of the institutions originally established for theological training now overshadows the latter to a great extent, to such an extent that one seldom hears or thinks much of the Harvard Divinity School, for instance, although the College was established and endowed, as an old inscription on one of the gates still testifies, "that our children might continue to have the Gospel preached unto them."

Public opinion and sympathy has broadened during the century just past and developed a desire to provide a liberal education for those who desire it, as well as theological training, but traces of the old religious fervor still exist in the form of a willingness and an anxiety on the part of the various denominations to support their own educational institutions. There is still room for development in us, the present inhabitants of the province, until we shall be just as anxious and solicitous for the State or Provincial University as our ancestors were for their Theological Schools.

It may also be noted that praise is due the founders of this College, because, as Sir Howard Douglas in his inaugural address as first chancellor expressed it, they provided "a revenue adequate for all immediately purposes." What a pleasure it would be to be able to say the same as our financial condition today! And how strange it is in these days of growth and expansion to discover that the sum paid for the maintenance of the University is the same now as it was 45 years ago, when it was placed on its present basis. It is with pleasure and no little satisfaction we have read the strong expressions of sympathy for the University and its work on the part of those high in authority, coupled with most ardent desires to see it continue to prosper and expand, but it must be confessed, while there is no intention of pleading guilty of breaking the tenth commandment, that very longing, if not covetous, eyes were cast upon a portion of that increase in the annual expenditure of the Province made in the interests of good government, which was rendered necessary by the impoverished condition of the private exchequers of our lawmakers, and the hitherto inadequate remuneration given for their arduous and responsible duties.

It is curious to note that the men placed in charges of the bridges, the live stock, the lumber, the finances, the dairying and other departments of the Province's administrative work are, judging from the remuneration they receive, relatively of more importance to the development of the country than the men placed in charge of the young men and younger women seeking higher education. Why is it of more worth to build bridges than to build character, why of more value to develop horses than to develop men, why is it considered more important to cultivate the soil and increase its fertility than to cultivate the mind and extend its faculties? But these represent our assets, our natural resources, which must be developed in order to build up our country, we are told. Let it not be forgotten that the greatness of a country is determined not by the number of feet of lumber or the number of pounds of bacon or cheese sold in a year, but by the characters of the men and women inhabiting it, and the grandest national asset to which we can point to-day are the young men and women of high ideals in our halls of learning, whose characters are being developed and who are being inspired to live up to the best that is in them, for the sake of themselves, their country, and their Alma Mater. Every true son of the U. N. B., whatever his lot in life may be, should be much more valuable to his country by reason of the training and inspiration he receives here. And the man who has it in him to fire the imagination of the young and inspire their ambition and determination for the future, and who is accounted worthy to be entrusted with the work of training University students, should be entitled to a fitting recompense.

But most of all our praise is due the founders of this college because of the opportunity which has been and is still given for the working out of our ideas of what a University should be.

And what is a University? What does the word suggest? A building or a set of buildings, a federation of schools, an aggregation of faculties, an examining body with power to grant degrees? It may be any of these, and should be more than all together. Dr. Johnson, the famous lexicographer, defines it as "a school where everything may be learnt." Prof. A. R. Forsyth of Cambridge University, one of the great educationists of England, gives the following as a working conception of an ideal University, "a corporation of teachers and students, banded together for the pursuit of learning and the increase of knowledge, duly housed, and fitly endowed to meet the demands raised in the achievement of its purpose." This conception of a University as a centre for the cultivation and teaching of universal knowledge certainly offers a very stimulating ideal, one worthy of being kept in mind by Students, Faculty, Senate, Alumni, Legislators, all persons indeed, in any way responsible for the growth and development of this institution. But if, instead of a general idea, particulars be looked into, it will be found that no two universities have exactly the same objects, each is influenced by its traditions and environments, and by the needs and demands of the place and people for whom it exists. And the requirements of a liberal education have been found to vary with the time and to some slight extent with the place. Following the Renascence the philosophy which formed the chief study of the school men of the middle ages gave place to the humanities following the great  Renaissance or Revival of Learning, the study of which determined the character of many Universities, including Oxford, the model in so many respects of this University. The growth of the physical sciences during the nineteenth century produced great changes in the range of education, changes which have greatly modified the work of many Universities, and which would be noticeable to many of our own alumni on account of the increase in the ratio of the sciences to the humanities on the curriculum as compared with fifty years ago. Relatively the study of the sciences is more prominent today than ever before.

But the great cause which is at present exerting a powerful influence in changing the trend of education in many of the old Universities, and in bringing about the establishment of new institutions of learning of a type unknown a few years ago is the needs of the applied or practical sciences. How far removed from the old cloister-like-schools of the middle ages where in quiet and in solitude the learning of the past was patiently stored in the minds of the scholars is the modern well equipped engineering school, with the smoke of its engines, the rattle of machinery, and the general bustle suggestive of a contractor’s office and a machine-shop almost more than of a University. And it is this latter stirring ideal of education with its visions of machinery, bridges dynamos, and railroads, which seems to appeal to the young men to-day. The question naturally arises, in how far ought we to try to adhere to the old while striving to meet the requirements of the new? In other words, to put the question more definitely as applied to our own University, in how far shall we maintain our allegiance to the Arts course while undertaking to meet the requirements of the Engineering Department? To this my answer is, which I should like to ring out with no uncertain sound, let the Arts course by maintained so that it may continue to be true as it has been our boast to say in the past, that the University of New Brunswick gives an Arts course second to none in the Maritime Provinces. Let the students of the University and of the High Schools be encouraged to take the B. A. course as a basis for their future professional careers, whether in law, medicine, teaching, engineering, or the ministry. The great engineer of the future will not be the man who as a student hates English, scrapes through French, studies Mathematics only so far as is necessary to examinations, and somehow manages to get his engineering degree, but he will be a man of literary culture, able to speak and write well, with a working knowledge of French and German, versed in Geology and the Physical sciences, and having a love for Mathematics and its problems, the applications of which furnish the means to his hand for the designing of railways, embankments, bridges, ships, and structures of all kinds.

It is not by confining the attention to the so-called practical subjects surveying, road making, bridge design, that a skilled engineer is produced; in the man who would look upon his work as an engineer as a professional career, and not merely as a means of earning a livelihood there should be developed, first of all, a love of study for its own sake, with a willingness and determination to ferret out the truth concerning any subject in hand; the same is true of law, medicine, and indeed of all professions. Some of the benefits of a good arts course are the development of the mental powers, the formation of habits of study, the laying of the foundations of culture, and, especially, the cultivation of that sense of enjoyment in the acquiring of knowledge which marks every true student. ... Students who never get any real soul-satisfying enjoyment from their work, and to whom everything from English Composition to the Calculus, from French verbs to the geological history of their own Province, is a drag and a drudge, are living so far beneath their privilege as to be unworthy of the name of students, they should either change their occupation or seek inspiration from some outside source to enable them to study with pleasure, and hence with profit. Perhaps the very best means at our disposal under the educational system in this country for the development of a love of study is a good arts course in a small college, where the personality of the Professor has the fullest opportunity of acting as a stimulus and a guide to the growth of the mental powers of the students. And so I say the work of the Arts course must be fully maintained, indeed, it should be strengthened and extended wherever possible, so that it may not be found that the expansion of the Engineering Department is accompanied by a corresponding shrinkage and contraction in the Arts, both should grow side by side, each strengthening and building up the other, here as is the case at McGill, Queen’s and Toronto.

...

Our ideal is the best, and we count our work a success in so far as it approaches the ideal.