ORATION

ON

77637

AMERICAN EDUCATION,

DELIVERD BEFORE

THE WESTERN LITERARY INSTITUTE

AND

COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS,

AT THEIR FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING, OCTOBER, 1834.

BY THOMAS SMITH GRIMKÉ,

OF CHARLESTON, S. C.

CINCINNATI:

PUBLISHED BY JOSIAH DRAKE.

1835.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1835, by ALBERT PICKET, Sen. in behalf of the WESTERN LITERARY INSTITUTE, AND COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Ohio.

Cincinnati:

PRINTED BY JAMES AND GAZLAY,

No.I, Baker Street.

De-classed 4-2 6-3 z dom

MEMORANDUM.

Having been long satisfy'd, that the orthography of the English language not only admitted but requir'd a reform; and believing it my duty to act on this conviction, I hav publishd sevral pamphlets accordingly. I felt that speculation on the propriety of the change was of little avail, without practice. I therefore resolved to set the example, at the hazard of ridicule and censure: and the charge of caprice or singularity. The changes in this piece consist chiefly, if not wholly of the following. (1) The silent e is omitted in such classes of words as disciplin, respit, believ, creativ, publishd, remaind, evry, sevral, volly. (2) The e is suppressd and an apostrophe substituted, after the manner of the poets, where the simple omission of the e might change the sound of the preceding vowel from long to short, as in requir'd, refin'd, deriv'd. (3) In nouns ending in y, I hav simply added an s to make the plural, instead of changing y into ie and then adding an s, as in pluralitys, enmitys, harmonys, aristocracys. (4) In verbs ending in the letter y, instead of changing it into ie, and then adding an s, or d, I retain the y, and add s, or d: as in burys, buryd, varys, varyd, hurrys, hurryd. (5.) In similar verbs, where the y is long, I retain the y, omit the e, and substitute an apostrophe, as in multiply's, multiply'd, satisfy's, satisfy'd. (6) In such words as sceptre, battle, centre, I transpose the e, and write scepter, battel, center. (7) I suppress one of two and the same consonants, where the accent is not on them as in necessary, excelent, ilustrious, recomend, efectual, iresistible, worshipers. (8) In such words as honor, favor, savior, neighbor, savor, the u is omitted. (9) In adjectivs ending in y, instead of forming the comparativ and superlativ by changing y into ie and adding er, and est, I hav retaind the y, and simply added the er and est, as in easyer, easyest, holyer, holyest, prettyer, prettyest.

In quotations and proper names, I hav not felt calld upon to change the orthography.

IV. AMERICAN EDUCATION.

ORATION, ON THE SUBJECT "THAT NEITHER THE CLASSICS NOR
THE MATHEMATICS SHOULD FORM A PART OF A SCHEME
OF GENERAL EDUCATION IN OUR COUNTRY,"

BY THOMAS SMITH GRIMKÉ.

"The schoolmaster is abroad." This was the language of Mr. Brougham, in reference to the progress of popular improvment in England. If the schoolmaster be abroad there, as he certainly is, it would be strange indeed, if he were not also abroad in our land of popular institutions. Here, the people are all, and evry thing is the people's. All exists thro' them and for them. Government, the various institutions of society, religious, literary, and benevolent; all that belongs to arts and arms; whatever blesses our country at home, and sustains her reputation abroad; all proceeds from, and is administerd for the people.

The schoolmaster, then, is abroad in our land. We rejoice at it, as one of the signs of the times. It is, as it were, the lifting up of one corner of the curtain of futurity, that a glimps may be caught, of the glorious prospect which I believ to be now conceald from our view. The schoolmaster is one of the chief workmen, I may almost say the principal, in preparing for the genius of America, in the bright years of that futurity, the most magnificent edifice, that the mind of a nation ever inhabited. We pause not to make good by arguments or proofs, an assertion so grateful to our national pride. It would not be eifficult to establish it on the foundation of facts, and by the most convincing moral reasonings, drawn from the experience of the past in all ages and countrys, and from the actual development of society thus far, in the United States. But we hav other objects now in view; and we therefore trust, for the present, at least, to the national feelings of the audience, and to their aspiration for such a glorious destination hereafter, to bear me out in the sentiment I hav advanced.