Letter from
Charles
Phillips to
David L.
Swain, January 15, 1853
University of N.C.
January 15th 1853
My Dear Sir,
Your almost proverbial urbanity, and your invariable courtesy
towards me, make me hope that I may not now be intrusive. The welfare of our
beloved Alma Mater, to which you have devoted so many years of anxious
solicitude, lies also very near my own heart, and impels me to seek from you
information on several points that I must shortly decide. And first of all, I
would most sincerely return thanks to the Honorable
Board of Trustees for several unsought favours,
unexpectedly conferred on me, especially for this latest and highest proof of
their regard and confidence. My appointment to fill a chair in their new school
of Science as applied to the Arts was entirely unlooked for. The limited amount
of means at my disposal, and the unsuitableness, and inadequacy of my present
attainments forbade me to seek for the Professorship of Civil Engineering. The
liberal offer of
the
Trustees partly removes the first difficulty and the time allowed me for
specific acquisitions almost entirely removes the other. Still, if you please,
I would like to know what are the intentions and expectations of
the
Trustees, as to the results of their plans? —some of the lex non
scripta on the point. In their Resolution they established here "A School
for the application of Science to the Arts." Is it to be supplementary to
(or independent of) the College course, where professional instruction is to be
given, and having its own separate course of instruction, like
Judge
Battle's Law school and the kindred schools at
Dartmouth,
Harvard,
Yale &c, one to which a pupil may resort of rapid
and specific instruction in Engineering &c, & at the same time affording
to the students of the Academic corps an
opportunity of electing certain studies which may be considered as equivalents
for what is ordinarily required for a diploma? Or is the course of Studies in
the School to be so interwoven in the general College system as to afford
facilities of its own to every candidate for A.B.? You will perceive that these
are vital questions on which the comprehensiveness and success of the whole
plan depend. Again what grade of Engineers are expected as the reward of the
outlay and labour to be bestowed. Do
the
Trustees intend to afford opportunities of making those acquisitions
which will stimulate and enable an Engineer to aspire to the highest ranks of
his profession, and secure the attainment of them? Or will they be content with
less brilliant results? The simpler applications of Mathematics to Civil
Engineering have always been taught here, and for several years I have been
steadily engaged in increasing their numbers. But I must say that the
experience of ten years makes me despair of doing anything worth mentioning
with a class of young men whose efforts are stimulated mainly by the hopes of a
diploma. The demonstration of a theorem is often short, and easily understood
while its application is as prolix and tedious. I have often been out with
surveying and levelling and triangulating parties. At first while I was
explaining the parts of the instrument, and they could make the needle
"wabble" with a key, or be tickled with seeing how bright distant
things were in the telescope, all were attentive. But the tedium of an hour's
practice certainly diminished my attendants to half a dozen, sometimes to two
or three. I have never dared to demand of a class the reduction of their
observations, or the subsequent calculations. (I have been sometimes pleased
that a curious soul would ask for some further instruction, and his request was
most cheerfully granted.) But these repulsive employments form the staple of
effective instruction in Engineering. Do
the
Trustees wish that they shall enter into the usual course of instruction for educating the young gentlemen here? If
so, do they wish some of our present studies thrown out to give it place? It is
idle to think of condensing or curtailing the present course of Mathematics. On
the contrary it must be both expanded and enlarged, that is, what is now taught
must be taught with greater particularity, and other things must be added.
Teaching for education and teaching for information and practice are two quite
different things. Fent's Commentaries as studied for use before the Supreme
Court of the U.S. is a very different book from that which is studied for
mental gymnastics and a Diploma. Light on all the minutiae of the plan of
the
Trustees, I cannot hope for. I ask only for some general indications of
their wishes and expectations. So that if I conclude that I can effectively
second your efforts, I may know at once to what my energies will be directed
and the prospect of their being beneficial to
the University or to myself. If I cannot secure the
expectations of
the
Trustees I will at once give way to one who can. I understand that it is
the wish of
the
Trustees to change my present position into the Professorship of Civil
Engineering. I am not afraid, nor am I ashamed of hard work, but 1800 years ago
it was decided that "beating the air" was a useless employment, and
experience has shown that different men will have different success in the same
engagements. I may be useful to the Institution as an Algebraist &
Geometer, but be entirely incapable of being such an Engineer as it needs &
may procure elsewhere. My conscience will not permit me to enter into
obligations which it is not possible or probable that I can fulfill. Gratitude
for favours already conferred will prevent me from standing for one moment in
the way of the guardians of my much loved Alma Mater. My capital is almost
entirely vested in my brains and arms, and so is easily removed. So little
have I besides, that some more definite
information, as to the probable amount and kind of acquisitions which I must
make abroad, than I can get here, is absolutely necessary, that I may determine
whether the liberal offer of the Trustees will enable me to attain them.
$500.00 for instruction, traveling, & books — $300.00
for a substitute, besides R.R. instalments, and butter & eggs for my wife
and the baby can hardly all come out of $1000.00.
I hope that you will excuse my prolixity, and accept my thanks for
patiently reading thus far. With prayer for your continued life, health, and
zealous interest in the welfare of our young men, I am with very high esteem,
Your obedient servant,
Charles
Phillips