INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE. 9 



did world, with respect to this country, as now prevails here in relation 

 to Botany Bay : and what respectable man coukl be induced to remove 

 to that place? what encouragement would it afford to the cultivation 

 of literature? the pierian spring and the parnassian mount are not 

 to be expected in the den of Cacus. The idea of a country appro- 

 priated as the residence of men whose lives have been polluted with 

 crimes, is associated with all that is shocking and appalling ; and we con- 

 sider it in the same light as the poet represents the entrance into the ie- 

 fernal regions : 



'* Luctu?, ct altrices posuere cubilia cura ; 

 Pallentesque habitant morbi, tritisqiie senectus. 

 Et ir.etus, et malesuada fames, et turpis egcstas ; 

 Terribiles visu formal ! Lethumque, laborque ; 

 Turn consanguineus Lethi sopor, et mala mentis 

 Gaudia ; mortiferunique adverse in liaiine bellum, 

 Ferreique Eumenidiim thalami, et discordia demons, 

 Vipereurn orinem vittis innexn rrueutis." 



\ VI 



The combined and pernicious effects of this complication of causes 

 were to be traced in the general want of education in the debased con- 

 dition of the learned profession, iii the neglect of seminaries of learn- 

 ing and in an universal apathy with regard to the interests ot science. 



The influence of printing, upon knowledge, is well understood. Du- 

 ring the dutch government no press was established. Governor Dongaii 

 was instructed, in 1685, to allow no printing press in the province. The 

 first established was 1693, and the first newspaper published was on the 

 iGth of October, 172.7. 



Whatever may be thought of the following remarks of sir William 

 Temple in other respects their justice, in relation to the medical pro- 

 fession, must be universally acknowledged. " It is certain, however," 

 says that distinguished writer, "that the study of physic is not 

 achieved in any eminent degree without very great advancements in the 

 sciences ; so that whatever the profession is, the professors have been 

 generally very much esteemed on that account as well as of their own art ; 

 as the most learned men of their ages and thereby shared, with the 

 two other great professions, in those advantages most commonly valued 

 and mot eagerly pursued ; whereof the divines seem to have had the 

 most honour the lawyer? the most money ansJ the physicians the most 



