FACULTY ADDRESS. 

JUNE 17, 1890. 
GOVERNOR 0. M. ROBERTS. 
THE RELATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION TO THE GOVERN­MENT OF THE STATE OF TEXAS. 
Well regulated liberty in a Republican government consists in freedom of action, with checks provided to prevent abuse. This applies to individuals, families, communities, institutions, departments, and to the government itself. This rule of action in a republic stands in direct opposition to absolutism,­absolutism, or unbridled independence, in any of the operations of the gov­ernment. The State of Texas, having assumed control of the education of its people, the schools, instituted by it for that purpose, must be regulated by the rule mentioned, the same as any other part of the administration of the government. 
The Constitution of 1876 makes it the duty of the government to promote education, in the modes and by the means therein specified. It names the schools of different kinds and grades, and makes provision for their support. They are therefore included within the ordinary operations of the government. 
Although the public schools have been given a fixed position as part of the government, they are not vested with the same independent control ~n their management, as if the school system had been made a department of the government. 
The Constitution divides the powers of the government between three dis­tinct departments, each of which shall be confined to a separate body of magistracy, to· wit: Those that are legislative to one, those which are execu­tive to another, and those which are judicial to another. One department can not exercise the power of another, and thereby the independence of each one is secured, in its allotted sphere of action as prescribed by the Constitu­tion. 
The qualifications of the persons, who are to fill those three departments are specified, and certain powers and duties applicable to each of them are defined. The legislative department is the controlling power in the govern­ment. J:<'irst, because by impeachment, it may remove the officers of the ex­ecutive and judicial departments, and second, under its general legislative powers, as well as under those expressly conferred on it, it may pass laws prescribing other duties and powers for other departments, not inconsistent with those given them in the Constitution. 
There are other subjects of government referred to in the Constitution, which are connected with, or are incidental to the departments, for which the Legislature prescribes rules of action, as the Adjutant-General's office and the militi::t in connection with the Governor's office; the county surveyor's office, in connection with the office of the Commissioner of the Genera; Land Office; the tax assessor's and collector's offices in connection with the Comptroller's 
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office; the county commissioner's courts and municipal corporations, as legis­lative agencies :for local government; and the Commission of Appeals, and the penitentiaries, in connection with the judicial department. 
There are other subjects of government referred to in the Constitution, that are not given a place in either department, as an active factor therein, but which are made subject in their operations to stich laws of the legislative de­partment, as are not in contravention to the terms of the Constitution relat­ing thereto. Of tbis class may be mentioned railroad corporations, the office of Insurance, Statistics, and History, the quarantine, the asylums, and the public schools. 
Though the funds designed for the support of the different schools are designated, and secured from diversion to other objects, their management and disposition are confided to the Legislature. And, though the general objects of the different schools are indicated, their organization and mode of operation are left to the direction of the Legislature. The school system does not constitute a department of the goverment, is not a corporation with cor­porate controlling powers, and is merely an agency to accomplish an object under the direction of the Legislature. That object is the education of the rising generation of the people of Texas. The important responsibility rests upon the Legislature to determine what subjects they shall be taught, and how they shall be taught, in the different schools. This leads to a consider­ation of the uses of a general system of public education in this country. For it should be directed and controlled according to its usefnlness, in main­taining and improving the civilization of the people. The idea here expressed, however correct, is too general to be practical. Society as it now exiSts, and will continue to exist, is divided into different classes of pursuits. As the State has undertaken the business of education, it should furnish that sort, which is adapted to fit each class of usefulness in its appropriate sphere. The great body of the people must work for a livelihood, as common laborers, farmers, stockmen, herdsmen, mechanics, and employes in works of different kinds. For this large class is demanded a good, practical common school education, that will fit them for intelligent efficiency in their business. They constitute the substratum force, that promotes the material prosperity of the country. They are a perpetually continuing body, although exceptional cases will occur, m which individuals of this class will be rising up into higher employment, requiring skill, or the management of capita.I in trade, or in other avocations wherein extra energy, enterprise and intelligence are em· ployed. In this way, our rich merchants, bankers, large farmers; mast-er mechanics, big stockmen, grocers, hotel keepers, editors, teachers, insurance officers, and traders are generally produced. 
A :few of this class, having received a common school education, are in­spired by a laudable ambition to struggle up to the acquisition of a higher education, in the academies, colleges, or universities to fit them for more in­tellectual pursuits. 
For such persons, as well as for those whose means enable them to avail themselves of such advantages, higher schools should be furnished by the State to fit them for the learned professions, for statesmen and jurists, for college professors, for civil engineers, and for scientists generally. This kind is necessary in aiding, and giving direction, and improvement to the material development, general well being, and 11ocial advancement of the whole com­munity. This too, must exist as a permanent class in the country, and if they are not fostered and produced within the State, they will be imported into it. There should be a proper proportion of the different classes according to the needs of the country. They are mutually dependent upon each other. Their harmonious co-operation is requisite to produce the best results, in the effort 
FACULTY ADDRESS. 
to elevat.e the whole people in the sea.le of civilization. A large surplus of highly educated persons, as it is said exists now in German~-, is an evil, as they would be unfitt.ed for other employments. A college graduate would not make a good plowman, cotton picker, or blacksmith. Indeed, if we will look around, we will find few good business men in the higher employments of labor and ent.erprise with col1ege diplomas. On the other hand, if the whole people in the country had a good common school education, and there was a marked deficiency of learned people, they would be like an army with­out leaders; and worse still, if a large pa.rt of the people had no education at all. 
It is the law of progress, that the whole people must rise together or not at all; the broad el' and stronger the base the higher the pyramid may rise or as­cend. Various speculative reasons have been assigned by the friends of ed­ucation, why the government should establish and support an efficient system of public free schools. The reason p;iven in the Constitution is, that a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people. It will be well if such a diffusion of knowledge can be ac­quired, by the support given to all of the schools of the State, including the highest, as well as the lowest in grade. They ean at least lay the foundation for acquiring such a diffusion of knowledge, and that of itself is reason enough. In the present struggle for power, and material advantages through­out all civilized countries, a useful education of all sorts is a necessity, in or­der to keep a people in harmony with the progress of the age; without which, no orglrnized association of people can preserve their equality, and maintain their prosperity. 
Experience, in the absence of interference by the government, shows that 
the primary, or preparatory, part of the education of the people is divided 
into three classes of schools, to-wit: common schools for the millions, a.cad. 
emies for the thousands, and colleges or universities for the hundreds. To 
these are added the perfecting schools, to·wit: the law and medical schools, 
and the normal schools, and the agricultural and mechanical schools. When 
the government takes charge of the subject it is reasonable and proper th~t 
it should observe and provide for all such schools, in their natural order, ac­
cording to the demands of each to secure proficiency as far as practicable. 
For the support of the public free schools, there is ample provision made 
in the Constitution, by lands and bonds for the permanent fund, the proceeds 
of which, supplemented by taxes levied by the Legislature, constituting the 
available funa, is annually apportioned by the Board of Education (the Gov­
ernor, Comptroller, and Secretary of State,) to the counties, according to 
their respective numbers of scholastic population. Flexible arrangements 
are also provided for the institution of those schools to suit the condition of 
the different localities, both in the country and in the cities and towns, so 
that in the country, either the community or district system may be adopted, 
to suit the convenience or wishes of the inhabitant.a, and cities and towns may 
be made separat.e districts and an additional tax may be voted to increase 
the duration of their schools. For the supervision of those schools there has 
been a provision for a State superintendent, county, city, and town superin­
tendents, and local trustees. By an examination of this organization of the 
public free schools, it will be observed that while the immediate management, 
including the selection of teachers and books, is confided to trustees selected 
in the locality of the schools, by those most interest.ad in them, means have 
been provided, through the different grades of supervision, to produce uni­
formity of management, as far as practicable; and by reports comi:qg up 
through the superint.endents, the Legislature may be informed, as it should 
be, of the condition and progress of e.very part of the whole system of public free schools in the State. 
All such public schools are required by law to have taught in them orthog­raphy, reading in English, penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, m~d ­ern geograpli.y, and composition, and other branches, as may be agreed upon by the trustees or directed by the superintendent. No such discretion should be left to the superintendent and trustees. A student that is ma.de really proficient in the branches that are named, has a.n education, that is fully suf­ficient for usefulneBB in all of the ordinary occupations, in which the mass of the people are engaged. It is the very best foundation for a. higher educa­tion. Indeed most persons, who have graduated in colleges, when they en­gage in the practical busineBB of life, are apt to find, that their learning in these elementary branches is deficient, because they had not been properly impressed at school with their importance. These branches will be neglected, just in proportion as other higher branches a.re attempted to be taught in the common schools. It would be a positive evil, by misleading the minds of the pupils, as to what constitutes a. good practical education, and would cause them to waste their time upon branches of study, that they could not acquire any proficiency in. Furthermore, the Legislature has imposed upon it the duty of providing for an efficient system. of public free schools. How can it be known, that the schools a.re efficient in the branches named, if the authority is deputed to the trustees, and superintendent, to introduce in the schools any other branches, that they may choose under the promptings of the thou­sands of different teachers in the State. The fact, that it is to be a. system throughout the State, implies that it should have a. uniform, orderly arrange· ment, and have that arrangement strictly enforced, as prescribed by the authority, that is responsible for it. If by advice with good practical teach­ers, other branches of education should be added to the list, the Legislature could do it, and still preserve the equality and uniformity in the whole sys­tem. It may be argued, that this discretion, to introduce other and higher branches in the common schools, is to accommodate scholars over the scho­lastic age, that have finished the prescribed course. That is the verf thing that should be avoided; for it is well known that teachers who are capable of teaching higher branches, take more pride, and often devote more atten­tion to teaching them, than the prescribed branches, and to that extent the pupils of the scholastic age are in danger of being neglected ; whereas, they are the intended beneficiaries of the public free schools. Common schools can not be made colleges, but should be restricted to their proper province in the general system of education, and when that is done, and done strictly, they will be a general blessing to the country, that will meet with the ap· proval of a united people in favor of public education by the State. 
The normal schools are the creatures of the Legislature, and are not men­tioned in the Constitution. They were instituted to train the teachers at a time, that there was no uniformity in the mode of teaching in the common schools throughout the State. They were not intended to be schools for teaching pu­pils, further than to perfect them in the best modes of teaching, and in learning the common school branches. For that purpose, provision was made to collect them from all parts of the State, and give them such training at the public ex­pense, and send them back obligated to teach in the public schools. They are emphatically an adjunct, and part of the public free school system of the State, and should be kept so. Would it not have been a strange and unheard of thing, to establish a school in this State to teach a. select body of young men and young women with free tuition, free boa.rd and lodging, with books and stationery furnished free at the public expense? II the object had been merely to educate them, that is, to make them better scholars, such partiality to them would have been an outrage upon common sense and common justice. There was no such design. They were established to train teachers to teach in the public schools, and inaugurate the best mode of teaching uniformly throughout the State. That was and still is the true consideration for the liberal outlay of mQney by the State for their support. 
In this view of their object, they should be under the same control and supervision as are the public free schools, and the branches taught in them should be prescribed by the Legislature in the same way, with a direct per­tinency to the fitting of teachers for efficient work, in the public free schools. If the Legislature should fail to keep them in their proper sphere, the ambi­tion of teachers, laudable in the general cause of education as it may be, will aspire to make them colleges of high education, and they will be perverted from their original purpose; and when that is accomplished, the State would be under no obligation to bestow such an exceptional bounty upon them. It is but just to say, that those normal schools have already been of an incalcu­lable benefit to the education of the State, and have largely helped to engender a general spirit of education all over the State, that never existed before their establishment. Their scholars have gone to all parts of the State, and have dos.e good work in the schools. It should be noted, however, that the public free schools are increasing in numbers every year far beyond the present ca­pacity of those schools to supply them. To remedy that, to some extent, no pupil should be allowed in the normal schools, without standing a reasonably fair exa.mina.tfrm upon the branches taught in the public free schools. No pupil, whether a free or paying scholar, should remain in the school longer than one session, that being sufficient to give the necessary training, if that is ma.de the leading object of the schools, as it should be. And all of them alike, who receive the benefit of the schools, should be placed under obligation to teach in the schools of the State. By such means those schools would be placed in their true distinctive position, and kept so. Any other course will cause them to be filled by persons, who are seeking a general education, who will not be found teaching in the common schools as a business, but will make it the means of qualifying themselves for other professions, as some of them have already done. What has been said is prompted by the belief, that these nor­mal schools, inspired with the importance of, and singly devoted to their true mission, would elevate the standard of practical education of the mass of the people more effectively, than it can be done in any other way, and that no other schools in the S.taie would deserve a more anxious consideration and fostering care by the Legislature. He who would lead in the grand work of planting firmly in the public free schools throughout the State the senti­ment, that their first and highest duty is to perfect their pupils in the com­mon branches of a primary education, would deserve as much honor as the highest professor of any college or university in the land. 
Academies are necessary in a complete system of education. Strange to say, the Convention of 1875, in mapping out and making provision for a system, made no provision for any intermediate schools, between the U niver­sity with its branches, and the public free schools. It is stranger still, in view of the fact, that as early as 1839, four leagues of land had been given to each county to establish an academy in it. The counties had incurred the expense of locating and taking care of the lands, and many, if not most of them still have their lands, or the proceeds of the sale of them securely in­vested. As new counties were formed, laws were passed from time to time giving them their lands, as hd been given to the original counties. The omission is unaccountable, except iipon the supposition, that it was thought to be practicable then to provide for the public free schools, and for none other of a higher grade. Still it is submitted, that could have been done, 
F.A.CULTY .A.DDREBB. 
without diverting the donation from the object originally designed. The Constitution recognizes the (sec. 6, art. 7,) right of the counties to hold and dispose of their lands, and provides that, "Said lands and the proceeds thereof, when sold, shall be held by said counties, as a trust for the benefit of public free schools therein." 
By the school law (Act of 1884) the county judge, in apportioning money to the several school districts or communities, is required to add the county fund, if any, to that which is received by his county from the State. This is a legislative construction, that, by the Constitution, the fund, originally given to the counties to establish academies, has been apportioned to the support of the public free schools. That construction is favored by the terms used, "for the benefit of the public schools therein," and by the entire omission of the word "academy" in the Constitution. There should be an amendment of the Constitution, which would permit the counties to use the fund, derived from said lands, in the establishment of academies. Such an intermediate school is necessary to prepare students for the University and its branches. Such schools would enable many persons to get a higher education, than it is practicable to have them fllrnished with, in the public free schools, and who can not attend the University. Without such an intermediate school, there may be an effort, in the public free schools to raise their standard to supply the defect, and in the University to lower its standard to receive students, and thereby both ends of the system would be prejudiced. 
A county being authorized to establish an academy of its own, its citizens in all parts would be induced to take a lively interest in it, as their own in­stitution of learning, to which they could send their children, after they had attended the public free schools, and there prepare them for entering the University, or some of its branches, or at least give them a higher education, if not able to send them to the University. 
To supply the place of such a school, to some extent, in the cities and towns, that have assumed control of their schools as separate districts, city high schools have been established in connection with their public free schools. These have largely increased, just before, and since the establishment of the ma.in University at Austin. The Faculty of the University, when requested, have sent one of their number to inspect those schools, and when their teaching has been reported and a:pproved, their graduates are received into the Uni­versity without an examination. Up to the present time, there are reported in the catalogue only twenty.one such auxiliary schools in the whole State. There may be more that are competent, that have not applied to be examined. 
These city schools were established under a laudable effort to supply a public necessity, still they a.re not full substitutes for county academies. They are cou.fined to the cities or towns mainly in their benefits. Compara­tively few of all the pupils of the cities or towns attend them, yet the taxes levied to support them are collected equally from the large body of citizens who receive no direct benefit from :them. They might be dispensed with, if the county academy was established, in which the people of the county, as well as those in the city, would be equally interested and benefited. 
The la.st in the ascending grade of the system of public schools is the Uni­
versity of Texas. The Constitution of 1876 provides that "the Legislature 
shall, as soon as practicable, establish, organize, and provide for the main­
tenance, support, and direction of a University of the first class, to be located 
by a vote of the people of the State, and styled •The University of Texas,' 
for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences, including an agri­
cultural and mecha.mcal department." 
It provided further that the Agricultural College, previously established in 
Brazos County, should "be ma.de and constituted a branch of the University of Texas for instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts and the natural sciences connected therewith," and also that the Legialature shall, when deemed practicable, establish and provide for a college or branch University for the instruction of the colored youths of the State, to be located by a vote of the people." 
By acts of the Legislature, elections were held, and the main University was located at Austin, and the medical department at Galveston, and the college or branch University for the colored youths, was located at Austin. In the establishment of the main University in September 1883, the law depart­ment was established in connection with it, by the action of the Board of Regents, and has been carried on contemporaneously with it. '!'here has been some provision for the establishment of the medical department, but none whatever for the branch for the colored youths. The agricultural and me­chanical branch has been in operation since 1876, under a board of directors. Preparatory to the establishment of the University, a Board of Regents was created in 1881. As all of these branches constitute "The University of Texas," that is, one University, they should be under one board, for their direction and government. The two boards united would make a board of thirteen members, which would not be too numerous, and still it could be composed of persons well qualified to give the proper direction and encour­agement to each of the branches, according to their relative positions in uni­versity education. It would tend also to prevent any contention and rivalry, by the effort to advance one branch to the detriment of the others, and to confine each branch to its appropriate sphere in the system. There is as much propriety in having separate boards of directors for the law department, and the medical department, as for the agricultural and mechanical department. Such a state of things would result in a struggle in the Legislature, each branch enlisting its advocates for peculiar advantages, resulting in general confusion. The country has witnessed enough of this alreaqy with only two boards. There is no need of conflict or rivalry between the branches, but all being under the same board, each branch should be promoted in its peculiar province, according tQ its relative importance, consistently with the means furnished by the State to support all of them. 
The Constitution requires the Legislature to provide for the direction of a University. As the Legislature is thus held responsible for what is taught, and for the manner of teaching and controlling it in all of its branches, meas­ures should be adopted, that would be adequate to that requirement. The one board could be composed of lawyers, doctors, mechanics, farmers, and of highly learned and scientific gentlemen, who would be able to inspect the operations of each branch personally during the session of the schools, as well as at the close of them. 
For the services thus rendered by them they should be amply compensated. Their reports to the Legislature would then represent information acquired by themselves. Good teachers would gladly welcome such a visit to their school roGms for the inspection of their work. The meeting of the board at the commencement is valuable mainly in giving countenance, and their per­sonal influence to the occasion, and to the institution generally. The two boards as now organized, composed of gentlemen, who are engrossed in their private business, and serving without compensation, can be expected to do but little more than sanction the reports, presented to them by the respective faculties. The law requiring the Legislature to appoint a board of visitors to attend the annual examinations has never been complied with, and if it had been, it would not have been a practical inspection of their efficiency in teach­ing, or of the government of the schools. A thorough inspection of the teach­ing and government of all the schools, in each branch of the University, properly reported to the Legisl&ture by a single board, based upon their own information and knowledge, would inspire increased confidence, and enlist a lively interest in the cause of higher education, that would greatly tend to insure a liberal support of the University in aJ.l of its branches. 
The Constitution required the Legislature, as soon as practicable, to estab­lish a University of the first class. What was meant by the expression "of the first class?" Certainly not first class in the number of professors em­ployed. That would have required the employment of fifty or more pro­fessors, which would have postponed its establishment indefinitely. There had been two attempts by the Legislature before 1881, which had failed. Surely the condition of the country, and the increased necessity for home ed­ucation of a higher standard demanded. its establishment, and that there should be an effort to inaugurate it, with the means that had been, or might be furnished. It could not have been expected. however long it might have been deferred, to be started into existence as a first class university in every respect, but only to be first class in all respects, when it was practical to make it so in the progress of its development, as many other first class universities have been made. 
There was only one way, that was then practicable to start it upon a high standard, looking to its ultimately reaching the first class. That was to es­tablish only such a number of professorships as could be paid competent sal­aries, by which able professors could be employed, whose teachings would be of a first class order. That plan was adopted in the origin of the main Uni­versity. From the desire to increase the courses of study and number of teachers, and from the want of adequate means of support for those objects, that policy has not been sLrictly adhered to. Its importance will be appre­ciated, when it is considered, that competent teachers generally make teach­ing the business of their lives. They are valuable according to the ability and reputation which they acquire in the business, and as their services will be in demand. Unless they have a reasonable surety of permanent and ade­quate compensation, according to their merits, they will be forced to be in the market for the highest bidder. Thus the University may, from time to time, lose its best teachers. Deserving teachers ought not to be subjected to such a precarious position, but should be placed in a position to feel them­selves permanently identified with the University, and to have a personal pride in its prosperity and high standing. A university should not be ile­pendent for its reputation upon any one professor, but such a body of teach­ers should be kept permanently i:n its different branches, as would establish and maintain its high character, irrespective of the public estimate placed upon any one of its professors, so that the loss of any one of them would not detract from the institution itself. 
While each branch and department of the University is essential in a sys· tem of public education, the academic department of the main University at Austin should be regarded as the most important, and as deserving the most liberal support to secure its prosperity. 
It, above all other schools, must be looked to as fixing the standard of ex­cellence in education, whose influence should permeate the whole State, and set the example of thorough and accurate teaching in all the schools. It, in its nature, is capable of great extension in the objects to which it may be de­voted, when their enlargement mll.y become practicable. The efforts of the State of Texas to promote educ&tion will be judged of at home and abroad largely by the character it may be made to acquire and maintain. Unlike other schools, its sphere of operation is unlimited. It may be made to em­brace the lea.ring of the world in literature, art, and science. The departments of law, of medicine, and of agriculture and mechanics are special schools to prepare persons for their life-work in Texas. It is proper that they should be instituted and carried on for the promotion of their specific object.a. The government and laws of Texas are in many re&pects peculiar, which can be learned here better by a law student, than in any other institution outside of the State. The law department, as well as the academic department, has suffered some disadvantages from the want of a proper number of academies, or intermediate high schools, to prepare students with the proper degree of education to profitably enter the University. Still it is helieved that enough of them have been prepared to receive the full benefit of the teaching here, that will reflect credit on the institution. 
In favor of a medical department it may be said that Texas, like every other country, has phases of disP,ases and curative principles, to some extent peculiar to itself, which will make that department advantageous to our med­ical students, as well as beneficial to those upon whom they may practice afterward. 
The agriculture of Texas has a diversity of productions, depending upon its various conditions of climate, topography, meteorology, rainfall, and fer­tility of soils of different kinds, that would make the study of it in all parts of the State a comprehensive science in itself. There is no branch of educa­tion that would be more useful to our people in a material point of view than it could be made. To-day we need skilled farmers, gardeners, orchardists, and stockmen, as much as we need lawyers, doctors, and professors. Who are our mechanics, architects, bridge builders, engineers, and machimsts? l!'or the most part they are imported from other States and countries, and are reaping the benefits of remunerative employments, that, in the future, native born citizens should be fitted to fill. We have a right to look to this school toeducate and train all these skilled laborers of both the classes here referred to. The means, for the support of this institution was given to the State by the government of the United States, as an experiment, in the effort to edu­cate and train skilled laborers. The State has contributed to it liberally and should continue to do so when necessary. 
The law of Congress, in making the donation, did not exclude other branches of learning, but left that to the convenience and discretion of the State, in organizing and directing the operations of the school. The State has exercised that discretion, by providing in the Constitution of 1876, that it shall be "a branch of the University for the instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, and the natural sciences connected therewith." Here is a specific direction, as to what should be taught in that institution, and, that it was so intended is manifest from the fact, that the Constitution made it only a branch of the University of Texas, whose general objects were declared to be " for the promotion of literature, and the arts, and sciences, including an agricultural and mechanical department," and then expressly indicated what learning should be taught in that branch or department of the University. If some learned member of the Legislature would take the trouble to examine closely the curriculum, or course of study of the agricultural and mechanical branch, and that also of the Normal School, and compare them with that of the academic department of the University, he might well conclude, judging from them, that the Legislature had put up, or rather had allowed to be put up, three universities instead of one, for the general collegiate education of the youths of this State. This is not referred to in opposition to those schools, but rather in favor of them. For the best results are to be attained in those schools, as well as in all others, by their being confined to the special objects of their creation. It is the business, as well as the duty of the Legislature to look to that matter, in regard to all of the schools of the State made so by the Constitution. 
In the Constitution of 1876 we find the following provisions: 11 The Legie· lature shall, as soon as practicable, establish, organize, and provide for the maintenance, support, and direction of a university of the first class,'' etc. "In order to enable the Legislature to perform the duties set forth in the foregoing section, it is hereby declared, that all lands and other property heretofore set apart and appropriated for the establishment of the University of Texas, togRther with all the proceeds of sales of the same heretofore made, or hereafter to be made, and all grants, donations, and appropriations that may herea,fter be made by the State of Texas, or from any other source, shall constitute and become a permanent university fund. And the same as real­ized and received into the Treasury of the State, together with such sum be­longing to the fund as may now be in the treasury, shall be invested in bonds of the State of Texas, if the same can be obtained, if not, then in United States bonds, and the interest accruing thereon shall be subject to appropria­tion by the Legislature to accomplish the purpose declared in the foregoing section." 
It is to be observed that there is no express provision requiring the Legis­lature to appropriate money collected as revenue to the available fund to be used annually, as it was provided for the support of the public free schools. From which, as well as from other considerations, it may be presumed, that the University was intended to be supported mainly if not entirely from the accruing proceeds of its permanent fund. Upon that, there has been some difference of opinion. There is no question, however, that the Legislature may appropriate any amount of money or bonds to the permanent fund. The Legislature has heretofore both loaned and appropriated money from the rev· enue for the support of the University as it has been needed, and unless some important action is taken to increase largely its permanent fund, that course must be continued for the annual maintenance of the University, as now or· ganized, for an indefinite time in the future. A very general view of the present situation will illustrate this. As shown in the Regents' Biennial Re­port of December, 1888 (which is probably not very different from the report that would be made now), the annual expenditure for the academic depart­ment was $44,525, and for the law professors in connection with that depart­ment, $7000, making a total of $51,525. To l"ay nothing now of additional professorships needed, it is estimated that it will take $75,000 to erect the east wing of the main building at Austin. The agricultural and mechanical department will require an occasional appropriation for its enlargement, as it has received heretofore. The medical department, it is estimated, will re­quire an additional amount of $75,000 for building and outfit, and after it is put in operation, it will require annually $25,000 for running expenses to maintain it. It was evidently contemplated, that at some time it would be deemed practicable to establish a branch for the instruction of the colored youths, which would have to be done out of the available fund of the Uni­versity entirely, as required by the Constitution. Leaving out of view for the present the fund devoted to the agricultural and mechanical branch, and the money paid by the students of the academic and law departments of the main Univeniity, the annual income from bonds, land notes, and leases was re­ported to be only $41,589.39, which is not enough to maintain the academic department of the University alone, as now organized. This shows that we have arrived at a crisis, presenting practically three alternatives, which are, first, to go on asking favors from the Legislature from year to year to main­tain a precarious existence; second, to unload, by suspending tor the present every department, except the academic department of the main University, and the agricultural and mechanical branch, and by reducing their expendi­ture to the regular income, and await the accumulation of sufficient funds to establish the other necessary departments; third, to devise the means of in­creasing the permanent fund sufficiently to place a.11 of the departments in good wo.rking order upon the annual income. 
The last alternative is that which the best interest of the country demands. But the question is, how shall that be accomplished? The lands belonging to the. fund is the source from which an increase of it must be realized. It is believed, that it is better to depend upon the liberality and justice of the Legislature in regard to the lands still owned, than to claim as debts due the fund the amount of property heretofore appropriated to it, that has been di­verted from it to other purposes. 
The remaining unsold portion of the original fifty leagues of land are situ­ated in counties that are settled up, and can be readily utilized by lease or by sale. Of the 2,000,000 acres, up to this date 7360 acres have been sold, 141,557 acres have been leased, leaving undisposed of 1,858,083 acres of land. They have been classified as dry grazing lands, and valued at $2 per acre. If these lands could lie sold at an average of even one dollar per acre, or leased at three cents per acre, it would increase th{l available fund to be annually expended to $100,000 or more, which would place the University upon a. more solid foundation for its future prosperity. The Commissioner of the General Land Office reports, as a reason for their not having been dis­posed of, or leased, that they "a.re devoid of permanent water, and too distant from water to be utilized," and that "they a.re also for the most part remote from population and unoccupied." He might well have added, that they are devoid of water and unoccupied, because th~y are located in a dry country, that has been a dry country ever since the Spaniards first traversed it, two hundred years ago or more, and will continue to be a dry country until the 
water is brought to the surface by diggiag or boring wells. Irrigation at 
best only makes gardens, and patches, and small fields, and not great farms, 
such as are produced by abundant rainfall; and therefore, it must be utilized 
mainly as a stock country. If a disinterested practical stockman was con­
sulted as to the means of utilizing those lands, he would say, that there must 
be sufficient quantity of la.pd leased, for such a length of time, at such a rate, 
or sold on such terms as wouid justify the employment of enough capital to 
fence it, get water, and make other improvements, necessary for a permanent 
stock ranch. If those lands are to be used singly for the benefit of the Uni­
niversity, to whose fund they belong, it must be done in that way. 
There is an impression a.broad that the rain belt is moving westward, and 
that after a while crops can be raised there, as they can be in the settled 
portions of Texas. Presumably on that theory, the policy has been adopted, 
11-pparently, of reserving those lands for farmers, with small, very small stocks. 
The limit fixed for the disposition of those lands by sale to permanent settlers 
on the lands only, four sections, and by lease to one person for six, and for 
ten years. (Act of April, 1889.) This policy of holding up the lands is 
doubtless prompted by the idea, that they will be more profitable to the Uni­
versity in the future. Still they are used to have the lands settled, which is 
postponing perhaps indefinitely any considerable interest in them to the Uni­
versity, for which they were set apart. There is a clause in the Constitution 
(Art. 8, sec. 7) providing that "the Legislature shall not have the power to 
borrow or in any manner to divert from its purposes any special fund, that 
may or ought to come in the treasury." 
This provision, whether applicable directly or not, would indicate the prin­
ciple as a. rule, that these lands should be disposed of in the way that would 
best promote the interest of the University, irrespective of any other use that 
they might be made to subserve. If, however, the Legislature should prefer 
to hold the lands up to get fa.rm settlers on them it would be equitable to ad­
12 FACULTY .ADDRESS. 
vance to the University permanent fund two millions or more in 4 or 5 per cent bonds, and refund the amount by the sale or by the lease of the lands, as they might be in demand under its policy. That would enable the Uni­versity to be carried on without a continual application to the Legislature to meet the annual expenditur·~s. Whatever course may be pursued, it is to be hoped that it will give a surety for the permanent maintenance of the institu­tion in all of its branches and departments. 
There.are some subjects applicable to all of the schools of the State, of a general nature, that are worthy of consideration. There is a growing ten­dency to separate the schools from the public influence, and to set them apart as self-controlling institutions in the country. This may have its advantages, but it is having disadvantages. It is inducing the people to feel that the State is solely responsible for the education of their. children, and that they are thereby relieved from active concern in regard to it. If there were pub­lic oral examinations in every school in the St~te, to which the patrons and others were invited, and expected to attend, it would tend to iderttify the people with them as their schools, and excite a deeper interest in them, much to their improvement, And the more the members of the Legislature can be induced to feel their responsibility in the proper inspection and govern­ment of all of the schools, the greater will be the encouragement extended to them by the government of the State. 
There is another subject of public interest, that will sooner or later present itself for the serious consideration of the government of Texas, and that is the furnishing the people with school books for all the schools, or at least for most of them. Already we are informed that combinations have been made by book publishers. The consequence will be, that they will get their own prices for them without competition. Intelligent printers affirm, that such books as those that are now used in the schools, can be furnished by the State at less than half the price that is paid for them. When it is considered, that there are at least 10,000 country and city schools in the State, and a schol­astic population (in December, 1888) of over 500,000, the saving to the people would certainly be an important objeut. The State has already tried the experiment of having the laws and the decisions of our high courts of last resort published, and they are now furnished to those who want them at half the price formerly paid for them. Surely, we have educators competent to make school books, if they were properly paid for it. There are other considerations, beside that of expense, too obvious to require express men­tion, why Texas parents would, and should prefer for their children to be taught in Texas made school books. 
In conclusion, whatever views have been here presented in regard to the support, management, and teaching in any and all of the schools of the State, should be taken as suggestive only, in order to add my mite of counsel for their improvement, if they or any of them should meet with the approbation of those who have influence and control upon the subject. They are not offered in the spirit of underrating what has been done for the schools,-far from it_ For the grand progress of the cause of education, during the ten or twelve years past in Texas, marks a new era in its history, and gives promise in the future of placing it on an equality with the most favored States, in the educational advantages of its people. 

UNIVERSITY ADDRESS. 

JUNE 17, 1890. 
HON. J. H. McLEARY. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen or the Board of Regents, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Faculty, Students of the University, Ladies and Gentlemen: In response to the flattering invitation so kindly extended to me to address you on this occasion but one answer could possibly be made. However much I may regret that the choice did not fall on some one more capable of inter. esting or instructing ycu, the deep solicitude which I feel for the welfare of this institution, my zeal in the cause of public education, and my sense of duty to the Sta.te would not permit me to decline. So I have cast aside all matters of business, and forsaken for the time the dull round of professional engagements, and "like the working bee in blossom dust, blanched with the mill" of the workday world, I turn aside to visit these academic groves, where learning finds her chosen seat, and wisdom walks abroad to bless her votaries. And coming from the surging throng of the most populous city in Texas, surrounded day after day by the crush of crowds intent on seeking for gold or plea.sure, it may be in some degree excusable in me to have selected for my subject on this occasion an exceedingly practical theme. But for all that, my dear young ladies and gentlemen, who have been in attendance here in these classic halls as students, you have doubtless, each and every one, thought much upon the subject on which I propose very briefly to address you. When you have trimmed the famous and well worn midnight lamp, or wearily watched the flickering gas jet struggling for supremacy with the dawning day, meanwhile immersed in the mysteries of mathematics, or en­gaged in digging Greek roots from the battlefields of the Peloponnesil.tn war, or in construing the melodious measures of Horace into homely prose, how often have you asked yourself or your chum, "What is the use of all this ?" It is precisely this question which I shali try to answer, while disqussing, in my homely style, the subject chosen for my remarks to.day, which may be called 
THE UTILITY OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 
In treating this question it is but proper that we should give to the term education its widest and deepest signification, such as is indicated by its ety­mology, and regard it as almost synonymous with discipline rather than in. instruction. Nor need we confine the meaning of the word education to leading forth the mind alone, but apply it as well to that moral and physical discipline which is absolutely necessary to oonstitnte a perfect man or woman. Our triple human nature requires this three-f-old training; and the youth of either sex who lacks this diverse discipline can never approximate that high standard of excellence, which should be the exalted aim of every one worthy to be enrolled as a student of this University. 
Instruction may store the memory with the most recondite facts, and may fill the soul with the sublimest truths, but it is discipline alone which can call forth the highest faculties of the mind and heart, and improve and perfect them by exercise, until they are capable of sustaining the greatest and most prolonged activity. It is such training that produces that grand creation of whom the Bard of Avon spoke, when he describes the King of Denmark as having 
"A combination and a form indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
To give the world assurance of a man." 
And such an image was in the eye of the Boston poet when he wrote of 
"Earth's noblest thing, a woman perfected." 
Knowledge is chiefly useful as a means of culture, and facts fill their noblest office when used as implements wherewith to develop, exercise, and perfect the intellectual faculties 
The purpose of education is not tt> store the mind like a vault with the golden treasures of truth or the sparkling gems or wisdom, but to perfect and brighten by culture, exercise, and discipline that ray of the supreme in­telligence, that atom of the divine essence, which we presume to call the intel­lect or soul of man. When the wings of our immortality are stretched forth towards heaven how can we fetter them with the sordid cares of earth and chain down the eagle which fain would seek the sun? Such of us as have a proper sense of the position which God has assigned to the human race in the marvelous scheme of the universe, cannot fail to appreciate the supreme importance of thoro1tgh intellectual culture and discipline. The mind is not a trap to catch facts and figures found running at large in books or escaping from the lips of learned men in lectures, but it is a bow, a rifle, a needle gun, or a gigantic cannon with which to accomplish the greatest miracles which hunters or warriors ever yet have dreamed of; or rather it is a harp or an organ, from which, when fully brought to perfection by use and training, the fingers of Diety shall draw forth music worthy to echo and reverberate throughout the universe, and to accompany the song which the morning stars sang together at creation's dawn. 
Let us then keep clearly m view the distinction between wisdom and phil­osophy, information and culture, knowledge and education, and the relative importance of each to the other. A great French meta.physician, Malebranche, has illustrated the superior value of mental exercise to mere learning by say­ing: "lf I held truth captive in my hand, I should open my hand and let it fly, in order that I might again pursue and capture it." 
With some such ideas as these of what education is or should be, we can pass on to consider the function of the university in the great plan of a gen· eral system of public education. 
Although the word university, in its derivation, is synonomous, or nearly so, with the words college and corporation, yet, in drifting down the tide of time, it has seemed to catch a meaning from its kindred word universe; and there has been included within the scope of the university the most varied discipline, with every means and source of liberal knowledge and the deepest and broadest mines of learning. For more than seven centuries it has been the policy of civilized governments to encourage universities and thereby to consolidate in a compact and aggressive form all human knowledge. For many generations, and indeed until the present century, an institution of learning was deemed a university which included the four. faculties of law, medicine, theology, and the arts and sciences. At the present day, however, a first class university, besides all these, includes schools for teaching the several modern languages, chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and his­tory, and is often enlarged to embrace also instruction in agriculture and mechanism, 88 well 88 mining, atchitecture, and the various branches of en­gineering, and even to include stenography and bookkeeping within its com­prehensive grasp. Such is the enlarged view of university education at the present day. While in its origin the university was little more than an or­dinary college with an enlarged curriculum, as now organized the several colleges, schools, halls, or departments are united in one confeuerated body for educational purposes, retaining their separate jurisdiction for local man­agement, but surrendering for the general welfare all the powers necessary for the more perfect and harmonious government of the whole; in this re­spect bearing a striking similarity to our complex political system of the sev­eral States in the Federal Union. A succession of careful experiments, reaching over several centuries and many generations of profound scholars, bas confirmed the wisdom of the federal plan for the union of many educa­tional forces under one directory; and the results have proven that such organized effort has produced, as a rule, a higher order of mental discipline and development than when the same forces have worked without concert or co-operation. When all the forces of intellectual expansion are operating under the same influence and are concentrated towards a common point, when all the lights of scientific research are directed to the same focus, more spfendid results have been achieved than when the same powers are acting in widely separated fields of labor with each lens pointed in a different direc­tion. In education, as in politics and other human enterprises, "in union there is strength." And right here, gentlemen of the Faculty, pardon me if I pause to declare my approval of what is known as the elective system, and to hail with delight the dawning of the day which has released our boys and girls from the ancient tread-mill of the college curriculum. Human knowl­edge bas reached too wide a range, anc the methods of mental discipline have 
become far too various to permit even the elements of a liberal education to be compressed into the four years caurfje of an old time college. 
The day is at hand w~n a university of th!:l first class, ·such as is demanded by the Constitution and laws of Texas, must be a federation of colleges or schools, each devoted to some peculiar method of mental discipline, some special department of learning, or some technical or professional art or science. Something like this seems to me to be the true idea of a great university. Let the union be strong enough to bind the several parts together in one common purpose anll under a single management, but let the schools or col­leges each pursue its own methods and strive in its own way to accomplish its special purpose. Thus might they be 
"Distinct as the billows, Yet one as the sea. 
The course of study might be left entirely elective, and yet, for the pur­pose of conferring degrees and other honors, the several schools could be so grouped as to encourage the student in pursuing such studies as would be homogeneous, and at the same time fit him or her for the walk of life marked out for each of them. Prior to the invention of the printing press the uni­versities of Europe were the great store houses of learning, the grand treas­ure vaults of wisdom, where every people garnered up its wealth of literature and science, and disseminated it to a favored few who werA fortunate enough to be admitted into the charmed circle of the scholastic guild. Since the genius of Gutenberg has rev?lu~ioni~ed the republic of !et~rs, su?h an o~ce is confided to our great pubhc libraries, and to the periodical prmts which flood the reading world with monthly, weekly, and daily supplies of miscel­laneous information. In this iron age the university should be the great intellectual gymnasium where the best and brightest minds in every country are congregated and trained and disciplined in every faculty, until each has at­tained its highest capacity of intellectual vigor. The university is no longer a fountain from which to quaff the Pierian draught of learning, but an arena in which the athlete wrestles, hurls the discus or the javelin, leaps or runs the race, or contends in the grand pentathlon, where success gives to the strongest and most active mind the olive crown of victory. 
But while all this attention should be bestowed by the University on the mental powers, the moral nature should, by no means, be neglected. Lucifer was the peer of any other archangel in mere force of intellect. The great ideas of truth, honor, right, and justice should be thoroughly inculcated into the youthful human breast. The fundamental principles or moral philosophy taught by ISocrates. Seneca, Solomon, Mosee, and Confucius, and by the greatest of all the prophets who ever enlightened the world with their wis­dom, the humble Nazerene, should be studied on the lines of the most liberal and searching investigation. Students should be taught what is right, honest, and just, and to pursue and to practice virtue for its own sake, and without the fear of punishment or the hope of reward. 
And moreover it seems to me indispensable that a large gymnasium, de­voted to athletic sports and physical exercise, and including a course for boat racing on the beautiful waters of the Colorado, should be carried on under the direction of the officers of the University; and that the physical powers of the young men and women who seek these halls as students should be developed and trained, to keep pace with the improvement of their mental and moral faculties. 
"Sana mens in corpora sano," is an old maxim worthy to be written in letters of gold on the gateway of every institution of learning throughout the world, reminding us constantly of the tribute which mind must ever in this world pay to matter. 
Then defining university education as the highest discipline, development, and culture of the moral, mental, and physical powers of the human creature, we are prepared to discuss, with a proper sense of its importance, the practi­cal benefits to be derived from such education, both to the student himself and to the State of which he is a citizen. 
Perhaps it would be best to take up these branches of the subject in their inverse order, and consider the last named first. 
The benefits which the student himself derives from education may be 
classed as absolute, while those which the State receives may be considered 
as relative. It is not the purpose of the present discussion to draw any dis­
tinction as to the comparative importance of the absolute and the relative 
utility of higher education; yet as long as man is a selfish being; so consti­
tuted by nature for the preservation and improvement of the species, we can 
not fail to regard the former as of far more immediate concern to the students 
of any university, no matter how magnanimous or patriotic they may be. 
In this age of steel and electricity, this peculiarly practical age, there seems 
to be an idea abroad that the State has no need of highly educated men, much 
less of educated women. Even among the trustees and regents of colleges 
and universities we find men agreeing with the sentiment of J:i.,ouquier-Tin­
ville, the notorious purveyor of the guillotine, "La Republique n'a pas besoin 
de savants." Sometimes men like this get into the Texas Legislature and 
immediately begin to court popularity among the ignorant by an attack upon 
the University. To such we might point out the source of England's great­
ness, in the culture which finds its home in Oxford and Cambridge, and to the glorious history of France, which has ever fostered its universities since the days of Philip Augustus, who forever freed the University of Paris from political control, and patronized the University of :Montpelier, which has re­cently celebrated its seven hundredth anniversary. And if this higher culture is of such incalculable benefit in the old countries of Europe, how much more important is it here on this new continent, where liberty has its permanent a.biding place. In every free state it is the highly educated who a.re the most watchful guardians of the people's rights. From the watch towers of the universities are sounded the alarm bells to warn the people of the encroach­ments of despotic power. John Hampden, the intrepid defender of English liberty, was an Oxford scholar, and doubtless there imbibed the patriotic principles for which he, too soon for England's greatness, offered up his life on the battlefield. And even now in Spain, the most celebrated scholar and orator of that country, the great Castelar, is the most unflinching patriot, and publicly in the Cortes, under the very shadow of the throne, avows himself 
a. republican. Every student in every land should wish him success in found­ing a Spanish republic. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both founded and fostered, in their nativ'e State of Virginia, institutions of learn­ing intended to promote the highest education; and at tbis day Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia are among the grandest monuments ever erected to their genius and their patriotism. 
Just as long as professional men, physicians, lawyers, architects, civil en­gineers, teachers, and the like are needed in a State, it is certainly for the public good that we should have the very best. Is not the public health of the first importance, and who would be so bold as to contend that the State should abolish all quarantine laws, and leave us a prey to every form of epi­demic disease. It is surely a matter of grave public concern that the laws should be wisely made, and promptly and justly administered. Railroad bridges should not be permitted to be so constructed as to fall into the rivers, and to deal out death alike to the trusting trainmen and the unfortunate traveler. In building houses, that oldest of arts, the public should be pro­tected alike against the dishonesty of the shoddy contractor and the parsi­mony of the grasping landlord, and all our people are concerned in having for themselves the most healthful, comfortable, and tasteful dwellings. And what would be the grade and condition of the public common schools, where the great masses of the children of Texas are educated, without teachers qualified to impart instruction and "form the common mind." In regard to the vocation of a teacher it was said by the great teacher himself: "If the blind lead the blind both sh&Jl fall into the ditch." 
Scarcely a mall of any intelligence can be found at the present day who would oppose the general system of public education provided for by our Constitution. It is a recognized principle in political economy, which has taken the deepest root in the public mind in all free countries, that it is the bounden duty of the State to educate the children who are to become its citizens, the sovereigns who are to control its destinies. Such being the case, university education is a necessity. For common public education can not exist without it. This University forms the chief foundation stODe in the great educational edifice founded by our fathers and builded by their sons in this the greatest of the United States. I can not say that I am in favor of giving eYery young man and woman in the State a university education­it would not be practicable even if it were beneficial; but I am in favor of encouraging every one who has a mind sufficiently brighi and active to appre­ciate the advantages for culture which a.re a.:fforded here, to enter these ha.lls 
a.s students and improve their faculties to the fullest extent. After awhile, when the general system of public education in Texas is better organized and perfected, I would open: the doors of the University to those pupils, and those only, who had completed with distinction a prescribed course in the public schools and in some one of the high schools or colleges of the State, and thus select the very best material for students, in order that the labors of our learned professors, chosen from all parts of the world, might be productive of the very best results. 
If this University is to be what the fathers of the Republic designed it to be, no expense should be spared to secure for every chair the ablest instructor who can anywhere be found, eminent for his special merit in the department over which he is called to preside. The inadequate salaries fixed by time­serving politicians for the highest offices of the State should not be regarded as a limit beyond which the Regents could not pass in fixing the compensa­tion of the learned men who now do and are hereafter to adorn this institu­tion with their wisdom. The past history, the present greatness, and the future grandeur of Texas all demand that this University shall be made the equal of the very best institutions on either continent. Without disparagement to Yale or Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge, Leipsic or Montpelier, Texas should make our own University, in the present generation, "facile princeps." 
Hoping that no one who reflects upon the matter can very long have a doubt remaining in regard to the benefit which the State at large derives from the presence among her citizens of a body of men of superior culture, of the highest mental attainments, such as can be found only among the alumni of a university of the first class, let us see what are the absolute advantages, the practical benefits, to accrue to the student himself, who gives his days to unremitting toil and his nights to ceaseless vigils in striving for the highest discipline and the deepest culture. But let me premise that in my view the true object of life and labor is not the piling up of dollars like the stones in the pyramid of Cheops, but it is the attainment of happiness for ourselves and those by whom we are surrounded. And we would do well to learn, or to remember, that happiness comes from within to a much greater degree than from without. Man has within himself the roots of virtue and philosophy, which, when properly cultivated and developed, must yield the fruits and flowers of happiness. 
The reason, and in my opinion the only reason, we can never hope to attain complete happiness in this world, is because in the constitution of human na· ture we can never reach but only approximate perfection. If the mental, moral, and physical nature of any person could be cultivated and developed up to the standard of absolute perfection, that person would be perfectly happy. 
"Man never is, but always to be blest." 
But why should we not by higher education, by severer discipline, by deeper culture, approximate the standard which our Creator has implanted in our consciousness, and thus approach as nearly as possible the unattainable? This is the proper and legitimate aim of all education, and especially of uni­versity education. If we should seek for a practical example of the great truth which I have been attempting to demonstrate, who can doubt that Emerson was happier than Vanderbilt, or Socrates than Alexander. But should we cast aside the subjective benefits of higher education, and only consider the objective results, what do we find them to be? If mere money getting should be regarded as the great aim of life, and the accumulation rather than the distribution of wealth the true purpose of all studies in po­litical economy, we can still find many advantages in higher education. To succeed, with the competition to be met with in every field of labor, in every contest of life, we must be provided with implements of the latest pat­
tern, with the best of arms and ammunition. The soldier armed with the long range gun (as some of us, Mr. Governor, learned to our cost in 1863), can begin to pick off his adversaries for a quarter of a mile before he comes within shooting distance of his enemy's guns. The repeating rifle multiplied the troops in whose hands they were held, during our late civil war, by at least seventeen. 
Stubborn courage, -exalted patriotism, heroic endurance, could resist for a long time, but not overcome such tremendous odds. So in the great bivouac of life. The hero armed cap-a-pie, with all the advantages of a thorough university education, takes his self-made antagonist at long range, with a re­peating rifle of the latest improved pattern, and victory is only a question of distance and bullets. This is true of every occupation, the law as well as surgery, architecture as well as agriculture, commerce as well as manufactur­ing. The man or woman with the best disciplined mind, with the best filled magazine of facts and figures, must prevail whenever two or more are brought into active competition. And in this, the last decade of the nine­teenth century, when our great State has her three millions of people, and her half dozen cities of more than 25,000 population each, competition .is closer, more rigorous, and exacting than it has ever been before, in every branch of human effort and industry. Then it behooves every young man, and every young woman, too, to arm for the conflict. If mere bread winning is your lowly aim, even in that you will realize a great advantage by having the highest education possible to attain. A difference in natural talents will of course do much to equalize in some cases the disadvantages to be suffered from want of discipline and culture; but suppose that the superior talents are -0n the same side with the better education, where will the unfortunate self­made, half-educated contestant appear on such a battlefield? Whether or 
not it is true, in the language of the old aphorism, that "knowledge is power,'' no one can doubt that knowledge is a means of power. If we but properly use the means the end can be attained, and success will surely follow; and with success comes happiness; so that "Finis coronat opus." 
And now young ladies and gentlemen of the graduating classes, although what has already been said was intended to engage your attention in common with all this audience, I wish to say a few words especially to you. I speak to the young women as well as to the young men, because the time has passed when woman was regarded as an inferior being, fit only to be the slave or the plaything of her lord and master, man. Her equality, if not her inde­pendence, is now recognized. Her mental powers are admitted to be more a.cute, if not BO strong and vigorous as those of her brothers. This university makes no distinction between its students on account of sex; and the girls have a clear track and an even start with the boys in running the race for every prize within the gift of this faculty. And when, as is usual in this University, and as we have seen exemplified to-day, with smiling eyes and laughing lips they stretch forth their rosy fingers to claim the laurel crown, which of you young men can envy them a victory so sweetly won? Although not equal to man in physical strength, in her moral nature woman is admitted to be his superior; and she is now, in this age of progress, beginnillg to dem­onstrate that she is his intellectual equal. Then let me say to all the students, young ladies and young men alike, especially to those who soon go forth from these halls to return no more, that you owe a grave and onerous duty to yourselves and to your country. Your more rigorous mental discipline, your more careful culture, your more bountiful store of knowledge has given you the right and imposed upon you the duty of leadership in the intellectual world. Of course I would not have you believe that you are to ue admitted at once into the rank of savants, but you are started on that road, and if you 
do not turn back, but persevere, you will in time reach that proud pre·emi­nence. 
It may be as well for one who has undergone the twenty years lucubra­tions to say a few words to those budding, if not blooming, branches of Blackstonian stock who are preparing at an early day to ornament our court rooms with their oratory. You are doubtless well grounded in the princi­ples of the common law, and have tasted of that fountain of recondite learn­ing which flourished and found its source in the wise and pacific sway of the great Emperor Justinian; but do not imagine, my dear young friends, that you know it quite all. Our chosen science has no limits to the field it opens for exploration; and the gray haired sage who has spent fifty years in trac­ing legal principles to their fountain head, and in finding precedents for ex­isting cases, still finds himself a student, and, as the years roll on, he is still willing to remain one, so long as courts and reporters continue to illuminate the by-paths of legal learning--with their hundred annual volumes of judicial sunlight. In the legal profession, more perhaps than in any other, it may be truly said: 
"The heights by great men reached and kept, 
Were not attained by sudden flight; 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upwards in the night." 
Then, young lawyers, let me press upon you the importance of showing to your fellow citizens of Texas that you appreciate the advantages offered you by your native State in a great University. Rebuke those parsimonious patriots who begrudge to our youth the benefits of free professional educa­tion. Show them in your lives and in your patriotic achievements that Texas has lost nothing in the expense and care bestowed upon your education. 
"Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's and truth; then if thou fall'st, 0 ! Cromwell, 
Thou fall'et a blessed martyr." 
I well satisfied that no wiser use has ever been made of a dollar of the pub­lic money or an acre of the public lands than has been done in the endow­ment of this University. 
Whatever may be the result to individuals pursuing particular callings, there can be no doubt that the education of thousands of her sons and daugh­ters at this University will be of great and lasting benefit to Texas. With the brightest of her intellects educated to the highest degree, with all her people well informed on all current topics of general knowledge, with her boundless material resources and her devotion to the cause of free govern­ment, our great empire State must achieve a career unequaled in the past by anything known in the history of states or nations. 
Then with one University, with one general system of public education, with one purpose, to serve with fidelity our St8.te and country, let the whole people of Texas resolve forever to preserve her greatness unimpaired and her territory undivided.