I believe that the Rockfish Gap writers put an importance on medicine because in most countries, part of progress is increasing the health of the population. UVA was at the forefront of education at the time and it seems the founders wanted their med school to be efficient, as they write, "That the finishing course of practice at the bedsides of the sick, and at the operations of surgery in a hospital, can neither be long nor expensive." It seems like they wanted to give students a good foundation in medicine so that they could forge forward on their own paths after schooling. This is clear when the founders refer to the degree of medical information the students will be receiving as "enabling them."

When I saw these two ideas of nature and nations put together in this document I was unsure about what the founders meant. The laws that I immediately associate with nature are laws of physics, biology, or even philosophy; whereas, the laws I associate with nations are more related to international relations and political thought and philosophy. My best speculation of the meaning of this branch of learning is that the founders wanted people to investigate the natural reasons for why the U.S. became a nation. The country was so newly created when UVA was being founded that I think that understanding the justifications for why the U.S. became a nation would be important for students who were going to be future leaders to understand. Understanding how other nations work and develop may also be useful for the future leaders of America to know considering how much the U.S. interacted with other countries back then.

I think this line speaks to the goals of education in general that have stayed constant from when this was written all the way to now. Education has always been about gaining perspective through "habits of reflection." I think that because this was an attempt to build the first public university though, this line is pointing out the importance of the students of this university in particular being examples for all students of the future. Knowledge about the world around us gives us a better understanding of ourselves. With greater understanding of the world we can move towards questioning the parts of our society we wish to change, and we can make progress. Especially in this time of so much change and uncertainty in America I think that it seems important for a school to put a great emphasis on students engagement in introspection. When students can explain and discuss their own values, they can move towards thinking about how to implement those values into society to make it better.