ii> CLLXTON'S 



polemic war, which was conducted with great talents. Our dutch an- 

 cestors were agitated about a question relative to their own church : 

 whether their clergy might be ordained in this country without the sanc- 

 tion of the elassis of Arnstcidara : and the trench and presbyterian chur- 

 ches were also torn asunder by internal leuds. 



Some of tlifse jealousies and controversies affected literary objects 

 *nd procrastinated, for a considerable time, the establishment of a col- 

 lege. Pamphlets were written not only as to the government, but the 

 scite of the institution ; whether it should be under the control of a par- 

 ticular sect, whether it should be in the city or county were questions 

 debated with great earnestness. Although these agitations had a bene- 

 ficial effect in exciting the mind to action, yet it is to be regretted that 

 such talents and powers were expended in a way so little calculated to 

 subserve the solid interests of science. From this barren soil no sub- 

 stantial harvest of improvement could be reaped ; and if the same quan- 

 tity of intellect, which has been appropriated to unproductive and inter- 

 minable controversies, had been applied to the promotion, of genuine 

 science, the boundaries of knowledge would have been greatly enlarged 

 and the honour and happiness of the human race would have been essen- 

 tially promoted. 



Mental, in many cases, acts directly the reverse of corporeal vision ; 

 and magnifies objects, not in proportion to their propinquity but in the 

 ratio of their distance. This obliquity of the human mind springs from a 

 variety of causes, and operates in a variety of directions. It idcessantly 

 magnifies the talents and morals of the past, at the expense of the pre- 

 sent times ; and its wanderings never appear in a more striking view 

 than in its judgments of men. By its magic influence the dwarf of an- 

 tiquity starts up into a giant ; and, like the phenomenon called the Mi- 

 rage, it translates the men and the things of this earth to the skies. These 

 remarks are made, not to depreciate those who have gone before us, but 

 to wain us not to depreciate ourselves. The panegyrics which have 

 been pronounced upon the works of some of our predecessors appear 

 strange, when we consider their writings with an unprejudiced mind ; 

 and, perhaps, the same observation may, without arrogance, be applied 

 lo many of the divines, the physicians, the jurists, and the statesmen 

 whose praises have reached us through the organ of tradition, and whose 

 memories have descended to us adorned with the laurels of genius : but 

 let not this discourage exertion : what they are to us ! many of you will 

 deservedly be to future generations ; and the pious feelings of posterity 

 may cherish your worth with equal ardour and 'embalm you in their 

 hearts with equal affection. 



The spring which was given to the human mind ; the improvement 

 which seminaries of education produced ; and the general, extensive, 

 and augmentqd popularity of intellectual illumination, paved the way for 

 * hose political discussions which ushered in the american revolution, and 



