College and the Poor Boy
ON the revival of letters, learning became the universal favorite, and with reason; because there was not enough of it existing to manage the affairs of a nation to the best advantage, nor to advance its individuals to the happiness of which they were susceptible. . . , All of the efforts of the society therefore were directed to the increase of learning. . . . These circumstances have long since produced an overcharge in the class of competitors for learned occupations and great distress among the supernumerary candidates; and the more, as their habits of life have disqualified them for reëntering the laborious class. The evil cannot be suddenly, nor perhaps ever, entirely cured. &emdash; THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1803