RALEIGH ACADEMY EXAMINATION, NOVEMBER, 1835
The Annual Examination of the Pupils in the Male Department of the Raleigh Academy, will take place on Monday and Tuesday, the 9th and 10th of November next.
Hours of Examination from 9 o'clock, A. M., to noon, and from 2 to 5 o'clock, P. M.
Public Speaking by the Students on Tuesday evening, commencing at 6 o'clock.
The Patrons of the Institution, and the public generally, are respectfully invited to attend.
The next Session will be opened on the first Monday in January, 1836. L. B. Johnson,
Raleigh, Oct. 28, 1835. Thos. B. Haywood.
—Raleigh Register, November 10, 1835.
RALEIGH FEMALE ACADEMY EXAMINATION, NOVEMBER, 1835.
The examination of Mrs. Hutchison's Pupils (between fifty and sixty in number), took place on Thursday and Friday last.
The profiency of the young Ladies, as exhibited on the examination, was highly creditable, both to themselves and to their Preceptress.
On Geography, Parsing, Blank Verse, Mythology, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, Botany, and the French language, the classes recited with uncommon readiness and accuracy, and were heard with interest and satisfaction.
A short time previous to her present connexion with the Raleigh Academy, Mrs. HUTCHISON visited one of the most respectable Female Seminaries in the North, where she made herself familiar with the most popular methods of conducting such Institutions; ascertained what Text Books were most in use, and most approved, and what was the course of study at present regarded as best adapted to secure all the important ends of Female Education.
Mrs. HUTCHISON'S qualifications as an Instructress, her zeal, her kindness to her pupils, her untiring diligence, her acquaintance with polite literature, and the Christian tendency and influence of her counsels and example, all conspire to mark her out as not unworthy the continuance of the respectable patronage which she has already received.
We have the pleasure to subjoin the address of Mrs. H. to her pupils, at the close of the examination, a copy of which, at our request, has been furnished for publication.
Mrs. Hutchison's Address to Her Pupils.
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,
Today closes, for this session, our connection as teacher and pupils. The opportunity for usefulness, which days, and weeks, and months have offered to our improvement, is now no longer ours. We may look back upon it, as from an eminence over a flower enamelled plain, which we have been permitted to travel together, but we may not retrace our steps, how erroneously soever they may have been taken. Our course has been marked upon the wing of time, which, in its ever onward flight, has sped past us, toward the boundlessness of eternity.
But the retrospect may be profitable to us. The sharp shrill sound of one dear-bought whistle, rang in the ear of Dr. FRANKLIN an invaluable lesson against extravagance and folly of every sort, through every after period of his long and useful life.
Recollection of time wasted in the school room, ought to make upon our hearts as permanent impression as wasted money did upon Franklin's; and the remembrance of whatever has tempted us to slight or neglect the privileges bestowed upon us, ought, like the floating mast of some noble ship, wrecked upon a sunken rock, to remind us of the danger that lurks beneath the unruffled wave.
You will all, I believe, bear me witness that I have assiduously endeavored to induce you to devote yourselves to your various studies, both at home and at school; that I have endeavored to render these studies pleasant and profitable to you, in order to lead you to set a proper value upon your opportunity for improvement; and that while I have given to the cutivation of the mind its due pre-eminence I have never ceased to impress upon you the necessity of acquiring and observing that graceful ceremonial of manners and deportment, which an intercourse with polished and refined society imperiously requires at our hands; and yet, far beyond and above all, that I have endeavored to teach, that all our thoughts, and words, and actions are open to the inspection of that holy and sovereign God who observes the slightest departure from a right motive and will soon bring us to a strict account and appoint us to a corresponding habitation within the all absorbing circle of eternity.
Have you all my dear young friends, the consciousness of having improved aright the whole time allotted you, for study, by your teacher? Have you uniformly obeyed the rules of school, whether under the eye of your teacher or absent from her? Have you done all that she has taught you to do, and left undone all that she has advised you to avoid, respecting your external conduct? Have you practiced the still higher and holier duties which she has enjoined upon you for the cultivation of your temper and your heart? Let each answer these inquiries at the bar of her own conscience, remembering how soon all its most secret whisperings will be made known before that most august tribunal, before which every human being is appointed to stand.
I rejoice to be able to say you have all improved. Some, indeed, (as must always be expected,) have improved much more rapidly than others; but I trust you all carry from school much instruction to benefit you in future life; much that will remind you, when we are separated far from each other, of the many duties devolving upon you, in all the relations of life that you may be called to sustain; much that will remind you that to do good to all, as we have opportunity, is the noblest employment, and purest happiness of a woman.
You all are dear to me. You have been in the place of children, of my own orphan children, who are far from me. Many of you have been, at all times, and on all occasions, dutiful and affectionate; and I shall not cease to cherish, while memory lasts, the pleasant recollection of the time we have spent together.
Will you not also, my dear pupils, remember me? And when, amid the cares, the perplexities, and, it may be, the sorrows of ripe years, you cast back a look of fond regret towards the peaceful scenes of this School Room, and the beautiful grove by which it is shaded, will you not kindly blend my memory in the soothing recollection, and, long after I am silent in death, be renewedly encouraged by your grateful affection, to persevere in the paths of rectitude and piety? May the rewards of the Christian, and the presence of the Redeemer, never cease, to attract you, until you enter the mansions prepared for the blessed!
Some of you will, I trust, be soon again under my care. Permit me to assure you, I shall rejoice still to guide your onward steps; and most sincerely do I wish that every succeedng day, we are appointed to spend together, may be made more profitable and more pleasant to you than the one by which it has been preceded; that you may have grace and strength, nobly and resolutely to relinquish every amusement and indulgence, which interferes with your more rational pursuits; and that you may ulitmately enjoy the highest benefits derived from personal, mental and moral improvement.
To you, my pupils, who expect no more to receive instruction from me, I offer the assurance of my kindest wishes, while I entreat you to remember, amidst all the varying scenes of this transient life, that there is no substantial good on earth but virtue; no sure foundation for happiness beyond the tomb but the favour of the glorious Redeemer.
The Examination of the students of the Male Department, under the charge of Messrs. L. B. JOHNSON and THOMAS B. HAYWOOD, took place on Monday and Tuesday last. The pressure of business deprived us the pleasure of attending; but we understand that the students passed an approved and highly satisfactory examination.
—The Star, November 12, 1835.
(Source: North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840, By Charles L. Coon 1914)
