7° 
On the Benefits and Duties resulting from 
the Institution of Societies for the Advance- 
ment of LirERATURE and PHILOsopuy. 
By the Rev. Tuomas GisBorne, A.M. 
Communicated by Dr, Percivat, 
READ FEBRUARY 19TH, 1796, 
Every situation and circumstance of life brings 
its attendant duties. This position was recognized, 
and apparently in its full extent, by some of the mo- 
-ralists of antiquity. Cicero says expressly: Nulla 
vite pars, neque publicis, neque privatis, neque foren- 
sibus, neque domesticzs in rebus, neque si tecum agas 
quid, neque sz. cum altero contrahas, vacare officio po- 
test. Revelation teaches the same lesson: illustrat- 
ing with new light the momentous truth; and en- 
forcing it partly by motives unknown to the heathen 
world, and partly by others which, though previous- 
ly discovered and avowed in a greater or a less de- 
gree, had failed of their due effect on human con- 
duct, in consequence of neither being grounded on 
sufficient authority, mor supported by adequate 
sanctions. 
If the unceasing and universal recurrence of duty 
be a truth clear and obvious to the understanding, 
resting on immoveable foundations, and involving 
