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THE

BIBLICAL REPOSITORY

AND

CLASSICAL REVIEW.

THIRD SERIES, NO. XV.—WHOLE NUMBER, LXXI.
JULY, 1848.

THE

BIBLICAL REPOSITORY

AND

CLASSICAL REVIEW.

THIRD SERIES, NO. XV.—WHOLE NUMBER, LXXI.

JULY, 1848.

ARTICLE I.

INFLUENCE OF COLLEGES, ESPECIALLY ON WESTERN EDUCATION AND CIVILIZATION.

By Rev. CHARLES WHITE, D.D., President of Wabash College, Indiana.

ALL who have become acquainted with American society, have observed that its most marked feature, is restless activity. Enterprise is more characteristic of us than a high civilization; a passion for the glitter and parade of wealth, more than a tendency to substantial, unostentatious investments and solid comforts. It has now become a universal statement and opinion, that a spirit of adventure and advancement, as also an actual forward and ascending movement, are no where in the country more apparent than in the Valley of the Mississippi. This ardor and progress, as is always the fact in new countries, respect the physical more than the intellectual; fortunes and honors more than facilities of knowledge and achievements of mind. All education is in a depressed condition. A large proportion of the population remains far below the highest and best forms of civilization. There is, however, at the present time, a very general and a very determined purpose on the part of the West to emerge, intellectually and morally, and place itself, at least on a level with the best educated and best ordered communities.

It will be the object of this discussion, to exhibit the capable influence of Western Colleges in assisting the existing auspicious movement in behalf of education and a superior civilization.

I. These Literary Institutions are peculiarly fitted and responsible for the introduction into the country, of a sound and thorough scholarship.

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