VII. Courses of Literary Instruction
We have now come to the history, during the Seventh
Period, 1865–1895, of the department which embraced
the Schools of Latin, Greek, Modern Languages, English,
Moral Philosophy, and Historical Science. The
School of Ancient Languages remained, throughout the
session of 1865–6, under the direction of Professor Gildersleeve.
At the end of this interval, the chair was
again divided, and Colonel William E. Peters was appointed
to take charge of the restored School of Latin.
Apparently, he made no change of importance in the
programme which his distinguished predecessor had
adopted. During the first years of his incumbency, only
three events occurred in the annals of the school that are
worthy of mention: (1) by the session of 1867–8, an
assistant had become necessary in consequence of the
remarkable increase in the volume of attendance; (2) a
course in Sanskrit was now provided for all who wished
to study it; (3) by the session of 1880–1, a post-graduate
class had been formed. The School of Latin was
reorganized, along with the other schools in the Academic
Department, when it was decided to be expedient
to establish a college or undergraduate course,—the
subjects of the former junior and intermediate years,—
for the degree of bachelor of arts; the university or
graduate course,—the subjects of the old senior year,—
for the degree of master of arts; and the doctorate or
post-graduate course, the course that embraced the subjects
which had hitherto occupied the attention of advanced
students.
During the session of 1866–7, a post-graduate course
was introduced in the School of Greek, and the professor
in charge also offered to give instruction in Hebrew,
should the number of students be sufficient to make up
a class. Thomas R. Price, who succeeded Gildersleeve
during the session of 1876–7, retained all the courses
which had been previously taught. Professor Wheeler,
who followed Price, in 1882, also made no change of
importance. Professor Milton W. Humphreys, who
followed Wheeler, in 1887, lectured along the new lines
brought about by the reorganization of the courses and
degrees in the academic department.
During many years, Professor Schele remained the
sole instructor in the School of Modern Languages, but,
by 1888, an assistant, in the person of Wiliam H. Perkinson,
a distinguished graduate of that school, had been
appointed. This school too was fully reorganized to
adapt it to the requirements of the new coordination of
degrees. Schele taught Anglo-Saxon and the French,
Spanish, and Italian languages, while Perkinson, now
adjunct professor, had charge of the classes studying the
German tongue.
But the most remarkable aspect of the history of the
academic schools between 1865 and 1895 was the expansion
in the English courses,—a forward step almost
as significant as the expansion in the courses in science
during the same period. We have seen how cramped
the English and historical studies were previous to the
establishment of the School of History and Literature;
and even after the creation of that school, it can hardly
be said that the English language and the English literature
received, at the University of Virginia, the attention
which they deserved. During the years that came
immediately after the war, the original School of History
and Literature underwent no alteration. There were
still two classes,—one of history; the other, of English
literature and rhetoric. There was still but one
professor; and only a single diploma was awarded. In
June, 1868, the course in political economy was transferred
to this school from the School of Moral Philosophy;
and during the session of 1870–71, instruction in
oratory or spoken composition, was also given.
But there was now a rapidly growing sentiment in
favor of introducing into the University a more thorough
and extensive examination of the English language than
had ever before been undertaken there. This attitude
soon became aggressive. Professor Price, who had won
so much reputation by his brilliant courses of instruction
in this department at Randolph-Macon College, in reply
to questions put to him, in 1878, by the Board of Visitors,
complained of the ignorance of their mother-tongue
shown by so many of his pupils in the School of Greek.
"This ignorance was so great," he asserted, "as to hamper
their Hellenic studies;" and the same defective education,
he declared, diminished the value of all the work
in philology done in the other schools of the institution.
Schele confirmed this statement by deploring the small
knowledge which so many of the young men in his classes
possessed of the English language; and Holmes reluctantly
acknowledged that the preparation of his students,
—especially in grammar, spelling, expression, biography,
and general information,—was marked by the
gravest shortcomings; and that this preparation, such as
it was, was growing to be more superficial every year that
passed. He attributed this regrettable condition to the
elective system, because it left the young men at liberty
to enter any school of the University without having first
pursued a full and searching course of study in their own
language. But it was not until 1882,—after a committee
had submitted a very thoughtful report,—that a separate
School of English Language and Literature was
established by the Visitors. The same committee, in
recommending the creation of this school, suggested that
the subject to which it should be confined should be accepted
as one of the two modern languages which were
prescribed in the curriculum for the degree of master of
arts.
When the Board again assembled (September, 1882),
they laid down the courses to be followed when instruction
should begin; and it is pertinent to mention these, as
revealing the high degree of thoroughness and comprehensiveness
which they were anxious to enforce: (1)
the nature of language and its relation to thought as exhibited
in the structure and applications of the English
tongue; (2) the correct and effective employment of that
tongue, whether in speech or composition; (3) the principles
and art of style as disclosed in the master-pieces
of the English language; and (4) the history of that
language.
The first incumbent of the chair was James M. Garnett,
a scholar of reputation in his specialty. But, by
1887, the Board had begun to show dissatisfaction with
the upshot of this professorship, on the ground that it had
signally failed to win the popularity confidently expected
of it. Definite alterations in the courses of instruction
were suggested by Garnett, and these having been
adopted, a certain interval within which to test their effectiveness
was allowed him. In January, 1893, through
the munificence of Mrs. Linden Kent, the widow of an
alumnus, the School of English Literature, as distinguished
from the School of the English Language,—
which was assigned to Garnett,—was established; and
Charles W. Kent, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Kent, and a
professor in the University of Tennessee, was appointed
to fill the new chair.[7]
By the terms of the endowment,
three thousand dollars was to be paid annually by Mrs.
Kent for the support of this professorship, which was
to be a memorial to her husband; and at her death, the
sum of sixty thousand dollars was to be set aside from
her estate for its maintenance. In 1893, courses in
rhetoric and belles-lettres were added to the courses in
English Literature.
By the time the various subjects taught in this school
had been adjusted to the undergraduate, graduate, and
post-graduate degrees,—in harmony with a simultaneous
change in the other academic schools,—the attendance
of students had come to embrace nearly one third of all
those enrolled in that general department. In the meanwhile,
the School of English Language had languished,
and Garnett suggested that it should be consolidated with
the School of Modern Languages. The Board declined
to do this then; but in July, 1896, they decided to divide
the latter school into two sections: (1) Romanic languages;
and (2) Germanic languages, including the English
tongue among the number to be taught. James A.
Harrison was placed in charge of the one, and William
H. Perkinson in charge of the other.
In the meanwhile, important alterations had taken
place in the original course in history. In consequence
of the munificence of Mr. Corcoran, there had, by the session
of 1882–3, been established what was designated as
the School of Historical Science. This school was divided
into two classes, one of which was engaged with
the study of general history; the other with the study of
the processes of historical change,—which included the
science of political economy, and also the science of society.
By the session of 1889–90, this school had been
reorganized: Professor Holmes was assigned to the
courses in sociology and political economy, and Richard
Heath Dabney, a master of arts of the University, and already
a teacher and writer of distinction, to the course in
general history. Dabney had been elected adjunct professor
at first, and began the performance of his duties in
September, 1889. A very valuable part of the ground
traversed by his lectures was English and American history,
with special reference to constitutional development.
As long as Professor McGuffey occupied the chair of
moral philosophy, no change was made in his course of
instruction beyond the transfer of the subject of political
economy to Professor Holmes's charge; but after the
election of his successor, Noah K. Davis, this topic was
returned to the School of Moral Philosophy.
