University of Virginia Library

Diffusing Knowledge

As they read his "Notes on
Virginia" they will surely nod with
approval over what he says about
the importance of diffusing knowledge
more generally: Only so, says
Jefferson, can we "make an opening
for the aristocracy of virtue and
talent . . . essential to a well-ordered
republic." The word "aristocracy"
may cause some uneasiness
among campus radicals, but the fact
is that though Jefferson refused to
consider wealth or social position as
a necessary passport to the academic
world, he was very much of a
stickler for brains and character.
The educational system that he
evolved was rigidly selective. Education
and free discussion, as he
wrote John Adams, were the antidotes
to "the disease of ignorance."
but it never occurred to him that
anybody and everybody should go
to college.