Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/267

Provost Smith's Biographer tells us that Rev Mr Madison introduced the curriculum of the Philadelphia Academy and College of I756, 22 and adopted it on his accession to the Presidency, in the College of William and Mary, from which we may learn that the course previously pursued was a less liberal one and savored more of the courses which we have found to have prevailed in the New England Colleges prior to the Revolution. Franklin may not after his visit of 1756 have again been in Virginia, but his interest was awakened in this then venerable institution of learning on the banks of the James River, and was sealed by his acceptance of a degree of honor it conferred upon him. On his return from that visit he found that the Trustees had approved of Mr Smith's " Scheme of liberal education," and may have sent a copy of it to his friends at Williamsburg as its eminent faculty contained, "Persons of Learning and Experience, in order to obtain their sentiments upon it." The seeds were sown, and when young Madison became the head of the College, at about the same age Smith had become Provost, he was ready and able to carry into practice a new departure in the College form of studies, which otherwise might have remained unchanged in the main since good Commissary Blair had established them four score of years before. The vigor of youth found its way to the front then when possessed by men of courage and cultivation as it does to day, though we are apt to assume that only in these times does the opportunity present itself to the young man to become a leader. Well may it be if the young man of the present will always find himself as well fitted for his opportunity as did Smith and Madison. 23 Of the curriculum in the English Universities we gather the best account, not from English sources, but from a German authority, V. A. Huber, whose studies of the subject in The 22 Smith, i. 124. 23 Mr. Sydney G. Fisher, in his recent interesting publication, entitled Church Colleges; their History, Position and Importance, Philadelphia, 1895, says: " Before the Revolution, William and Mary and the College of Philadelphia were the leading seats of learning in the colonies. The fame of Harvard and Yale is of a later date. The Philadelphia College was a little larger than William and Mary, and had a wider curriculum embracing more topics; but was inferior to William and Mary in the quality of its training and in producing remarkable men." p. 25.