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William Smith and the College of Philadelphia

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William Smith and the College of Philadelphia 3 William Smith ".::. and the College of Philadelphia WUllam Smith (1727-1803) Among the men of the Scottish Enlightenment who left their mark on the by Benjamin West colonial College, none had a greater influence than its provost, William First provost (1755-1779) of the College of philadelphia. Born in Scotland, ed~­ Smith, whose tenure as the first academic executive lasted, with e"ted for the ministry at Ihe Unrverslly interruptions, for more than a quarter of a century. Smith had originally of Aberdeen, Smill, arrived in 1751 in come to the attention of Benjamin Franklin as a result of a utopian plan for NetD York, where he wrole A General Idea of the College of Mirania (1753), a college which he published in 1753. Ultimately, the differences in the .ending copies 10 Iwo trllstees of Ihe two men's views on education as well as their divergent political opinions Academy and Charitable SeI,ool of Phila­ contributed to Franklin's disaffection with the College in its later delphi", Benjamin Franklin and Richard Pelers. In 1779, Smilh mowd to Maryland developments. In 1754, however, after three years in the colonies as a where he founded Washington College. private tutor, William Smith was called to Philadelphia as a direct result of He served as provosl of the restored the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, to teach "Logick, Rhetoric, Ethics and College of Philadelphill until il became the University of Pe.msylvanill (1789­ Natural Philosophy." 1791). He received tl,. honorllry D.o. Born in Aberdeenshire in 1727, the year Franklin settled permanently from Aberdeen, Oxford, and Trinity in Philadelphia, Smith was the son of a landholder. He had been educated College, Dublin. at King's College, Aberdeen, and, after a year or two in London, had accompanied the family of Colonel Josiah Martin to New York. At that time there was a great deal of discussion on the subject of establishing a college in the province. Smith contributed to this debate with a pamphlet in which he stated that an institution of higher learning was needed and set forth his opinions as to how and where it should be founded, as well as describing methods for raising the necessary funds. With this tract, entitled Some Thoughts on Education, Smith entered the lists as an influential spokesman for educational change. In 1753, before returning to London for ordination to the Anglican priesthood, he composed A General Idea of the College of Mirania and saw fit to send a copy to Franklin in Philadelphia. Franklin replied, agreeing to forward his comments on the work "per next Post" and adding that he would be "extreamly glad to see and converse with you.... For an Acquaintance and Communication with Men of Learning, Virtue and Publick Spirit, is one of my greatest Enjoyments.'" In addition to his other writings, Smith also composed verses in the Augustan vein. A visit to the Academy, two months after Franklin's invitation, was the occasion for a poem dedicated to its trustees. In lofty 25 26 GLADLY LEARN AND GLADLY TEACH A metaphor, he exhorts those concerned with the college in New York to GENERAL IDEA emulate their "noble sister," Philadelphia: OFT H E Rise, nobly rise! Dispute the Prize with Those; COLLEGE As Athens, rivaling Lacedaemon rose! o F This nobler Strife, ye nobler Sisters feed MI RAN I A; Be yours the contest in each worthy Deed; WITH Hence with your Names shall Fame perfume A Sketch of the Method of teaching Scitnu and her Wing; RtJigiDn, in the feveral Clalfes: To her eternal Tromp your Glories sing. 2 AND Some Account or its Rife. Elhblilhmttlt :lud Buildingc. Franklin had the poem printed on his press and, from this time on, supported Smith's admission to the faculty of the Academy. Addrers'd more immediately to the Confidcration of [,he Truftees nominaU'd. by the LtgiOature, to In Mirania, Smith describes a province of the New World in the utopian r«ave Propofals, f!Jc. relating to the E1bblifhmmr of a COLLEGE in the Province: of NE w·ro RK. tradition of Plato and Sir Thomas More. It is inhabited by "a mighty and f10rishing [sic] people, in possession of an extensive country, capable of ~flrl U;IJ/rn, iI/min., 't'tJ1f<l' pn!tI"lf! , Hor. producing all the necessaries and many of the superfluities of life." Nulll/l1/ tflli",lI! m¢rtJiuf '.f! I lillI/lim //'IiI)"' "/,1t rr.l1,:"drun flIP'" J1lm~. N.lturafi'i'utllr ".,~J'IIJ 'UllIN JWIIIIT. Sencc:a. Reflecting on the importance of securing their present and future well­ being, the inhabitants decide to set about educating their youth in the NEW-YORK, distinction between the true and the false, "by directing their studies to Pril,/ttl .nd Sold '" J. PAU.U ,It,d W. WEYMAN, .1 rbe Nt!D Printint-Ojftu i" BC/IW1'·Strttl, 1753. such things as come more immediately home to their business and [Pri<:e One Shilling anJ Six Pence.] bosoms." He then sets forth a specific program of study in an institution erected for the purpose. At first, all students are to receive identical A General Idea of the College of Mirania instruction in a "common school." After two or three years, the curriculum by William Smith diverges: those bound for the learned professions receive five years of New York, 17S3, title page William Smith's book A General Idea of education at a Latin school, followed by a further four years of under­ the College of Mirania altracted tI,e graduate study, while those who are to follow a trade spend six years at a attention of Franklin, who brought Ilim mechanic's school. This provision for formal technical education was to PI,i/adelphia. The work describes an idealized institution with emphasis on unusual for the time. As Smith informs the reader: "Public seminaries are training for citizenship and for the almost universally calculated for the first class; while a collegiate class for "mechanic professions." Tt wns included the instruction of the latter is rarely to be met with. This class of people, in Smit','s Discourses on Public Occa­ sions in America, a collection of Smith's by far the most numerous, ... are overlooked."3 Aspects of his scheme writings published for a wider audience echo Franklin's practical proposals for an "English School" to which Smith in Great Britain. does not fail to allude. He also draws upon his own college experiences in Aberdeen and his familiarity with recent educational reforms in Scotland. In essence, however, Mirania is based on an informed appraisal of the needs of the colonies. Although the title suggests a utopian plan, Smith translated some of his suggestions into actual practice, and certain of his arguments also foreshadow ideas on educational diversity of much later date. It was at the Academy, soon to be the College of Philadelphia, and not in New York, that Smith's "general ideas" were put into effect. In an edition of his Discourses in 1762, he notes that his proposals are "a pretty exact reproduction of what the author is now endeavoring to realize in the seminary over which he has the honor to preside in another city." An THE COLONIAL COLLEGE t!df/7?~ impression of the curriculum at the College of Philadelphia may be 4'->n -;t{'f- """_ obtained from the schema which Smith published in the Pennsylvania a?e/ dA/ -Y-r//~<:- Gazette in 1756:' In keeping with the reforms of Scottish realism, the students are seen to progress in the course of their undergraduate program ~ from a study of the concrete and the particular to more abstract areas of .YJd'P.! .....I"'t?72 t .>?! consideration. In the first year, the student proceeds from Latin and English exercises and arithmetic to logic, Euclidian geometry, and k.:r/0ad';­ logarithms. There are also extensive readings from prescribed classical authors. In what constituted a new departure in the education of the time, a $_wJFf''''~'~ list of modern writers, including Isaac Watts, John Locke, and the authors '/4?n~d oof"'~ of contemporary treatises on mathematics, as well as a perusal of the Spectator, is recommended for the occupation of "Private Hours." ~//J7??~ In addition to continued readings with emphasis on the theory of ~J~~ poetry and rhetoric in writings ancient and modern, second-year students /Od:-....,,~_ begin moral philosophy and pursue their studies of logic and geometry, 7/ together with navigation, trigonometry, and "natural philosophy" (physics), "conic sections" (analytical geometry), and "fluxions" (differential calculus). During both years, a place is reserved for the oral ~diaW9!'?CM~ Z~ arts of "declamation" and "disputation." In their final year at the College, I~ c/h<~~~) students apply themselves to moral philosophy, natural law, and aspects / of government and commerce which bear a relation to the modern disciplines of political science and economics. Scientific studies are The Class of 1757 continued in the third year with courses in physics and astronomy as well From the copy of the Discourses which as in "natural history of animals" (biology), "natural history of vegetables" William Smith gave to John Morgan (botany), and chemistry. The third-year readings, prescribed as well as Hand-written list of the first graduates private, continue to reflect the subjects designated for study in the principal of the College of Philadelphia who re­ ceived the "batchelor of arts" degree in courses. During the entire period, the French language is offered as an 1757. Four of them, including 70hn optional extra, and the daily reading of the Holy Bible is compulsory. Morgan, founder of the school of medi­ The College's three-year curriculum was widely imitated by other cine, became members of the faculty; Francis Hopkinson, signer of the colleges during the half century which followed.
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