al chairs, and the
treatment of them is to be simply left as a matter of private judgment,
which each individual may carry out as he will. I can just fancy such a
prohibition abstractedly possible; but one thing I cannot fancy possible,
viz., that the parties in question, after this sweeping act of exclusion,
should forthwith send out proposals on the basis of such exclusion for
publishing an Encyclopaedia, or erecting a National University.

It is necessary, however, Gentlemen, for the sake of the illustration
which I am setting before you, to imagine what cannot be. I say, let us
imagine a project for organizing a system of scientific teaching, in which
the agency of man in the material world cannot allowably be recognized,
and may allowably be denied. Physical and mechanical causes are
exclusively to be treated of; volition is a forbidden subject. A
prospectus is put out, with a list of sciences, we will say, Astronomy,
Optics, Hydrostatics, Galvanism, Pneumatics, Statics, Dynamics, Pure
Mathematics, Geology, Botany, Physiology, Anatomy, and so forth; but not a
word about the mind and its powers, except what is said in explanation of
the omission. That explanation is to the effect that the parties concerned
in the undertaking have given long and anxious thought to the subject, and
have been reluctantly driven to the conclusion that it is simply
impracticable to include in the list of University Lectures the Philosophy
of Mind. What relieves, however, their regret is the reflection, that
domestic feelings and polished manners are best cultivated in the family
circle and in good society, in the observance of the sacred ties which
unite father, mother, and child, in the correlative claims and duties of
citizenship, in the exercise of disinterested loyalty and enlightened
patriotism. With this apology, such as it is, they pass over the
consideration of the human mind and its powers and works, "in solemn
silence," in their scheme of University Education.

Let a charter be obtained for it; let professors be appointed, lectures
given, examinations passed, degrees awarded:--what sort of exactness or
trustworthiness, what philosophical largeness, will attach to views formed
in an intellectual atmosphere thus deprived of some of the constituent
elements of daylight? What judgment will foreign countries and future
times pass on the labours of the most acute and accomplished of the
philosophers who have been parties to so porten