Addresses and papers bearing chiefly on education

Preface

The leading motive in issuing this volume is to put its contents in permanent shape, easily obtainable by readers who care to become acquainted with them. Eight of its twelve components are already in print but in such form as to be inaccessible to most persons.

The other four numbers (VII-X), connected closely with Public School work, are believed to be of equal value and in the present state of educational progress throughout Virginia and the South to be distinctly in accord with it.

The papers about Hampden-Sidney College give some account of the oldest institution for higher education in the South, the College of William and Mary alone excepted. It still stands after a century and a quarter of active collegiate w^ork, and deserves the regard of all lovers of sound learning coupled with high ideals of personal character. Several of her younger sisters in Virginia have outstripped her in equipment and number of matriculates but none in fitting men for high and noble usefulness in life. The whole volume, especially the biographical sketches and the two concluding addresses, will be found to contain much adapted to awaken the aspirations of ingenuous youth, along with the desire to lead pure and honorable lives : "to make the most of themselves" as citizens of a free government and immortal beings, destined to a never-ending existence.

The Author.

Contents

Page

Inaugural Address. (Hanipdcn-Sidney, Virginia, June 13,

1883)., 8