that they are less laborious, the false idea that they are stations of great dignity and honor, a tribute to a man's talents and acquisitions, or the notion that they afford spheres of wider usefulness, we suspect, may prevail with some, to leave their Master's work of training souls for heaven, that they may train mere intellects for sickrooms, and courts, and commerce, for literature, litigation, and the necessities of this little life. What a spectacle it would be, could we collect together these five hundred ministers of Christ, men of exalted abilities and finished education, called of God, themselves being witnesses, to the work of the ministry, many of them in the vigor of manhood and in the extreme energy of their powers,the Holy Ghost cries to them, in reference to the thousand destitute but whitened fields of labor,-" Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?" They respond, with united voice, "Not one." The call comes from shepherdless churches, in important and expanding positions, "Who will break to us the bread of iife?" They answer, "Not one." Destitute but thriving towns, growing up on every side, ask them, "Who will rear in our domains the standard of the cross?" They reply, "Not one." The summons is wafted from heathen shores, "Where are the six men for Arracan,' the recruits for Burmah, China, Persia, and the islands of the sea?" That mass of ministers of Christ, though not one is bound to the service of a church that holds him at home, send back the answer, "We have none to help you; not one, not one." Is it so important that ministers of Christ should devote their lives to Aristophanes and Xenophon, to Sophocles, Demosthenes and Homer, to Horace and Juvenal, Terence and Cicero, to mechanics, fluxions and chemistry, to Say and Rawle, which men of the other professions, or of no profession but that of literature and science, could teach as well as they,-that they can be fully justified in thus leaving their Master's peculiar work, to engage in such employments? And is it not deeply to be regretted, that while so few incumbents of the other learned professions are willing to be attracted away from their callings,-though often not lucrative,the ministers of Christ are so ready to leave the service to which the Holy Ghost has appointed them,-that they

may give themselves to the office of mere literary instructers?

Is it objected that the colleges must be supplied with officers? We answer, if the selection were made on broader principles, if, when such places are vacant, the college boards were to leave out from the list of candidates men who had been called of the Holy Ghost to another and a higher trust, as those who are, on that account, preoccupied and cannot be had,-professors, of equal ability, we presume, might be secured. Or if this is doubted, then, we affirm, there has been an undue multiplication of colleges. And this is our sober opinion. The colleges are too numerous, if men must be called from the sacred profession, or from any profession, where their talents and their energies are imperiously needed, in order to officer them. The territory of the country is too large, if, to defend the forts on the frontier, men must be drawn in excess from the useful pursuits of agriculture, so that the scattered inhabitants die of famine. It would be far better to graduate the size of the territory to the number and capabilities of the inhabitants. There is too much commerce, and it will prove disastrous, if meņ whose talents are needed in the interests of manufactures, desert their mills, their water power and their steam power, to embark in it. There is too much literature, and the country will be impoverished by it, if men whose calling is in the field or the workshop, forsake their calling to pursue it. The principle is the same. We do seriously believe that the number of colleges in the United States is too great, far too great, for our present wants. And it is an injury, a great injury and wrong to the moral interests of the country and of the world, that so many ministers of the gospel have been absorbed into them. Regarding the call to the ministry in a religious," and, we believe, a proper light, we believe that, like Jonah, when he fled from the presence of the Lord, and took passage to Tarshish, many of the servants of God have abandoned their appropriate calling, and assumed another, to which the Providence of God has not truly summoned them.

The misfortune of this extravagance in the multiplication of colleges can be shown by an appeal to the principles of political economy. There is, under this arrange

ment, a very great expenditure of resources, without necessity, and which might be avoided. Hundreds and thousands of dollars are lavished, where a great many might be saved, and yet the literary and professional interests of the country would not suffer. In the one hundred libraries and upwards, there must be many books which are mere duplicates. Were there only five or six universities in the United States, or even less,—or were there only one for each of the principal religious denominations, the money expended in lexicons, commentaries, archæologies, histories, biographies and books of reference, which are now purchased for more than a hundred colleges, might be reserved for the purchase of higher and more valuable works, for the extension of the circle of available literature, science and arts, in each existing university. The thousands of dollars now spent in the procuring of apparatus for some colleges, and for the want of which others languish, might be spared; and, with the money now expended, articles might be secured for all the universities, of great importance to the lasting interests of science. Of the thousands of dollars devoted to the salaries of such a vast corps of officers, more than three quarters might be reserved for the industrial occupations, for commerce, manufactures and the arts, for the cause of Christian benevolence, for the better support of an able, learned and efficient ministry, or for the extension of the cause of religion in the newly settled regions. of our country. And the hundreds of thousands of dollars devoted to the erection of buildings, the care of them, and to keeping them in repair, might be set free for more important uses.

It is true that, if the number of colleges were reduced to half a dozen universities of the most elevated character, some benefits now enjoyed by important portions of the community might be abbreviated. A few grocers, tailors, and farmers, in certain districts, might find a less easy and less profitable market for their wares. Some landowners might find the value of their real estate a little diminished. A hundred towns might lose the privilege of the gala-days which now annually, or oftener, shed their genial influences over the regions in which the colleges are situated. A more serious evil is, that the social and intellectual character of the neighborhoods which are

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favorably affected, in this respect, by the proximity of literary institutions, would suffer; and a smaller number of persons would enjoy the benefits of a liberal course of education.

But on the other hand would be the items of economy before exhibited: the immense saving of ministerial capacity, which might be reserved for other spheres of usefulness, more strictly within the compass of the sacred calling of those who have been set apart by the Holy Ghost to the work of the ministry; the immense saving of funds now employed in brick and mortar, in salaries, in agencies, in duplicate libraries and philosophical machinery; and besides this, many persons, who now, because a college is at their doors, pass through its routine of studies, instead of becoming fourth-rate scholars, would be skilful merchants, farmers or artizans.

We have no serious expectations, nor, indeed, any desire to secure the abolition of any existing college, or to prevent the erection of any new college, which seems absolutely required by the necessities of the community or the age. If, in an economical point of view, a college is needed in any district,-if greater literary benefits would not accrue to the students and to the country by patronizing an institution already large, wealthy and thriving, having a corps of learned and experienced instructers, a rich library, and a profuse apparatus,—if it is better to withdraw several ministers of the gospel from their high calling to officer a new university, than to leave them to pursue the work to which the Holy Ghost has called them,-if it is better to invest thousands of dollars in buildings, duplicate books and salaries, than to improve those already provided for, and devote the money to the ministerial, professional, intellectual, social, physical or moral benefit of the country and the world,then let a new college be reared, even at such an expense. But, tested by almost any rule, of economy or utility, we believe that it will be several years before any further multiplication of higher literary institutions will be required. Very few rules of judgment, beyond those of the small shop-keepers and farmers, and the honest tradesmen of a narrow district, whose business might be enlarged by that increase of population and of wants which is created by the adjacency of a college, will require,

for a long time to come, any addition to our literary conveniences. We earnestly wish that these matters were more fully under the control of ripe scholars and conscientious men;-of men who would look to them more with the eye of the scholar, and less with the eye of the merchant; who would pay more attention to the real demands of literature and the real necessities of the world, and less to the external growth and prosperity of insignificant portions of geographical territory. We believe that a change in the policy of the country, in this respect, would be greatly promotive of the interests both of literature and religion.

We have ventured to suggest above that the number of colleges might be so far reduced, as to give only one to each of the principal religious denominations. This rule, we conceive, might be advantageously applied to the theological seminaries of our land. It is true, the instructers in them, though they are clergymen, are engaged in a work which has a visible and direct bearing on the work of the ministry. Those who teach in colleges, educate more young men for the professions of law and medicine than they do for the sacred office. But in the schools of theology, every teacher is conscious that he is training candidates for the ministry; that though he has ceased to officiate statedly in the work of preaching the gospel, yet he is preparing others to preach in his stead, perhaps, more efficiently and successfully. But in the case of these institutions, it could be wished that one of each denomination were deemed sufficient. In respect to the peculiarities of each denomination, certainly this plan would give to each, what is perhaps desirable, the training and moulding of its own leaders. But how obvious is the question, "To what purpose is this waste?"-when we are told that in these United States there are five institutions belonging to the Congregationalists, all in New England, with eighteen professors; eleven belonging to the Presbyterians, with nearly forty professors; eight belonging to the Baptists, and two or more belonging to each of several other denominations ;together with the usual provisions of buildings, libraries, etc. While so much capital, both pecuniary and intellectual, is absorbed in these institutions, we are interested in observing that there are only eleven Law Schools, most