This passage stood out to me because of the discussion as to why these modern languages such as French and Spanish are important. While it is stated the at the time French was the most common language to be used between nations the statement about Spanish is what intrigues me the most. The forethought that went into deeming Spanish a necessary language to be taught is rather astounding to me. I myself took Spanish in high school at my mom's insistence because I would get the most use and be able to communicate with the most people by taking Spanish. It seems that the writers of this report foresaw this "explosion" of the Spanish language and recognized it's importance for future international communications. I am slightly astounded/impressed by this very accurate and intelligent prediction. This quote resonates with me greatly since it explains exactly why I decided to take Spanish except it was written almost 200 years earlier.

While it has never occurred to me before, reading this report emphasizes just how "new" of an idea this university was at the time that it was being proposed. This quote demonstrates one of the larger and more difficult tasks that the creators of the university had to face, deciding what "higher education" entailed. Not only was this a matter of what subjects and disciplines to teach but on an even more basic level it was a question of where to start the learning process. Questions like 'how much education will students be coming in with?' were important to the creation of the university and it's faculties. It is also clear in this report that academic education as well as social education was very important to the men involved in creating the university. I think this quote is able to highlight how large a task is before them as they work to make UVA a reality.