Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/98

92 detailed, the board of trustees, in the year 1816, determined to institute a new department in the university, to be devoted more especially to the advancement of those branches of science which could not be advantageously brought within the scheme of the seminary as it then existed. It was evidently impossible, during the regular collegiate course, to acquire an intimate and thorough acquaintance with all the diversified subjects of human knowledge. All that could be aimed at with discretion, was the communication to the young student of such varied elementary instruction, as might enable him, in his subsequent career, to pursue beneficially any particular subject of study to which his interest or his genius might incline him. But there are many branches of science both ornamental and useful, which, even with the aid afforded by this elementary instruction, are still attended with so many difficulties, that the learner is apt to be discouraged at the threshold, and to turn away his steps towards some object of more easy attainment, but less honourable in the pursuit, and less advantageous in possession. These difficulties, consisting often in the want of practical and experimental illustrations of the facts and deductions of science, may be removed or greatly diminished by courses of lectures, delivered by well qualified professors, with the assistance of extensive cabinets of Specimens, and a suitable apparatus. This remark is particularly applicable to those branches of knowledge which are designated by the general title of natural science. As the means requisite for the proper illustration of these subjects are often beyond the resources of individuals, it was thought by the board, that by constituting a faculty of professors, and affording them such facilities in the prosecution of their several courses of instruction as might be within the power of the university, they would be contributing towards the public good, and at the same time elevating the character of the institution over which