The name is absent

American Colonial Colleges 265
the finer arts and sciences, was necessarily postpon’d to times
of more wealth and leisure.” Those times are now come;
“and since a proportion of men of learning is useful in every
country . . . it is thought a proposal for establishing an
Academy in this province, will not now be deemed unreason-
able.” Specifically, he proposes a residential college in or
near Philadelphia where “those things that are likely to be
most useful and most ornamental” shall be taught, “regard
being had to the several Professions for which they are
intended.” Only those “intended for Divinity” and Medicine
should study Latin and Greek; for the majority Franklin
proposes an essentially modern course in English, Mathe-
matics, History, Geography, Ethics, Natural History, Mod-
ern Languages, and even the History of Commerce. The
practical appeal of these proposals struck a new note ; Frank-
lin’s friend George Whitefield wrote to him sadly, “I think
there wants aliquid Christi in it, to make it as useful as I
would desire it might be.” And the Philadelphia Common
Council responded in the same utilitarian spirit : among the
benefits they “expected from this Institution,” were, saving
the expense of sending boys “abroad” for an education; qual-
ifying “our Natives” for public office, and “a Number of
the Poorer Sort . . . to act as Schoolmasters . . . the
Country suffering at present very much for want of good
Schoolmasters, and oblig’d frequently to employ in their
Schools, vicious imported Servants, or concealed Papists.”
And finally these “benefits” are driven home by the lively
hope “that a good Academy erected in Philadelphia . . .
may draw numbers of Students from the neighboring Prov-
inces, who must spend considerable Sums yearly among us.”

Franklin’s proposals elicited a subscription of £4,000,
which enabled the Philadelphia Academy to open in 1751.
It began like William and Mary as a secondary school, yet

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