It is interesting that, in the early 1800s, the founders of UVA already understood that corporal punishment was not an effective means of producing proper behavior. It took over 100 years from this point for corporal punishment to be banned in all schools in the country, while UVA had banned it in the founding document.

Recently, my engagements class visited the special collections library to look at early manuscripts of the Bible and other religious texts. We learned that the Bible was traditionally written in Hebrew and Greek, and then translated into Latin during the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the sacred texts of other religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism were written in various other languages. While the founders of UVA are not explicitly promoting the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is clear that they see morality stemming from this tradition due to their emphasis on these three languages for the professor of ethics.

I looked this word up on google, and the two uses of the word seem to refer to a classification of fish and a mythological Greek monster composed of more than one animal, typically with the head of a goat, head of a lion, and head of a snake (pictured below). Did this word have a different meaning in the 1800s? If not, why did the writers use it here?

Jean Jaques Rousseau, one of the more popular philosophers at the time, had argued in his first major essay that knowledge of the arts and sciences did not improve the virtues of mankind. Here, it seems that the writers of this document have acknowledged this idea, but have instead taken the position that knowledge is a fundamental driver of progress.