Ann Arbor And The Michigan University

A correspoudent of the Congregationaliêt writes: Ia 1824, forty years ago, two men - one froia Maesachusetts and the other from New Jersey - traveling wcstwai'd to the borders of civilization, chanced to meet about thirty seven miles of Detroit The meeting place was all a wildernesa tl:eu- an unbroken foreat of oaks and hickory, with Indiana and wolvcs around them Both men were married, and eacb ivife was named Ann. The forest, the nill sides, the river, gurgling over rooks, and winding through the valley, were all pleasant. It wás as beautiful as a garden, a place for reposa and rest. ïhey made it s home and ealled it Ann Arbor. The tide of civilization bas rolled on for forty yeurê", workiug marvelrus changes. The Michigan Central Railroad winds through the valley; the river ia b;!rnes9cd to water wheels; the forest has been broken up; thcre are wide fields, busy thoroughfares, farm houses, cburches, schools, a city of seveu thousand, and a State University. Afler a nine hundred mile railroad jolting, I giadiy loft the orowded car for a night's rest io this quiet inland city. - I received a cordial welcome from the President of the University, who has but recently euttred upon bis duties. - Irr. Haven is kuown in the east as the late editor of Zioiis Herald, member of the Massachusetts Board of fiducation, and State Senator from the Middlesex district. He was for four years a prosessor in this University. I had heard that tliere was a University at Ann Arhor ; I kaew that it had an excellent observatory, and one of the finest transit instrumenta in the world, but suppesed that the University rnight be Hk( ither iosiitatioua, a oue bórse affair. (That may not be elegant diction, but I have Siduey Smith for authority. Ile speaks of a forty parson power.) I was surpiised instead to find a real Uhiveraily - not a skeleton, not a sham, uoi a Uuiversity in prospective, but an iustitution with its hterary, law and medica! dcpurtnients well established, with a faculty of twenty-six professors and instructora, giving instruction to eirht hundredund sixty students I Alargar logue, I think, than this cannot bo shown by atiy other institutioo The students are frora nearly every Stato, New Eogland being well represented, The course of study ia thorough, tho grade is as high as at Harvard or Yale. Tho University Library has about tpelve thousand volumes, and is rapidly inereasing. There ü a fine cabiiet, a picture aod statuary gallery. Rogera' gtatue of the Blind Girl of Pompeii, the character ñora Bulwer's Last Days of Pompea, ia an exquisite pieoe of sculpture, and is hig'aly prized as the work of a native of Michigan. The University buiidings are large, well arranged, and beautifully situated. The grounds are spacious aud well lad out The eudowment of the institution is uve hundred thousaud dollars, with an investment whioh yielda forty thousand per annum. The observatory, ereeted and fuHííshed by the eitizens of Detroit, lis. i already writteu its ñama on tho roll of honcr. - The telescope by Fritz, is of American workmanship, and although not so large as Cambridge instrument compares favorably with foreign instrumenta of the same focaí stvcngth. The transit, as nasjjlieady been stated, is one of the finest in tho world. It is larger than any otUer in America, and is mounted in the most thorough manuer. Such is a glaoce at the University of Michigan. A young institution but already having a powertul inñueuoe. And its fu'ure prospect i as fair as that of any of' the institutions of tbe country and tho world.