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1866 President Parrish's address President Edward Parrish's address upon the laying of the cornerstone in 1866 for College Hall, the building that would later bear his name: "This occasion marks another step toward the organization of Swarthmore College, with a full corps of professors and teachers, and complete facilities for imparting sound and liberal learning, and it may be though appropriate that a concise statement should be given of the educational views which have influenced its originators.
"Yet I trust none of us will be disposed to undervalue those abstract studies which are so remarkable adapted to train the reasoning powers, nor language, the study of which, as a means of mental discipline, has been so long esteemed, and the importance of which, as an aid to the appreciation and expression of great truths, none will dispute. "It is a false idea of education which limits it to any one class of studies or degrades it to a mere utilitarian basis. Nothing is deserving the name which does not enlarge man's nature and fit him for the enjoyment of elevating thoughts and ideas out of the range of business. And yet there is no honorable pursuit in life for which a man is not better fitted by that accumulation of knowledge, that power of classifying facts and ideas and of deducing principles from them, which it is the object of a liberal education to impart. We claim a higher mission for Swarthmore College than that of fitting men and women for business - it should fit them for life, with all its possibilities." > Return to 1865 |