5eCT. hi.] United States ofATnerka. 239 



year 1769, gave occasion to the exertion and 

 developement of a considerable portion of that 

 mathematical and astronomical skill Avhich existed 

 in America, but had hitherto been little dis-. 

 played. This phenomenon attracted much at- 

 tention in the American colonies; great prepara- 

 tions were made for observing it; and the observa- 

 tions published by several philosophers on that 

 side the Atlantic were considered in Europe as 

 highly honourable to themselves and useful to the 

 cause of science. The talents displayed on this 

 occasion by the rev. Dr. John Ewing*, Dr. David 



■* The rev. John Ewing, D.D., was born at East Nottingham, 

 in Maryland, June 22, 1732. His classical studies were begun 

 under Dr. Allison, at New London. He afterward went to th& 

 ■college of New Jersey, where he graduated in 1755. In 1759 he 

 received a call to take the pastoral charge of the 4irst presbyteriau 

 church in the city of Philadelphia, which he accepted, and conti- 

 fiued in this station during the remainder of his life. In 1773 he 

 went to Great Britain and Ireland, on a mission to solicit benefac- 

 tions for the academy at New Ark, in Delaware, which wasbefora 

 mentioned. During this visit, he formed an acquaintance with 

 some of the most distinguished characters in those countries, and 

 maintained a correspondence with them long afterward. In 

 1779 he was chosen provost of the university of Pennsylvania, 

 which office, as well as his pastoral charge, he retained till his 

 death- In all the branches of science usually taught in semiiva- 

 ries of learning, more particularly in mathematics, astronomy, and 

 every branch of natural philosophy ; in the Latin, Greek, and 

 Hebrew languages; and in logic, metaphysics, and moral philoso- 

 phy, he was probably one of the most accurate and profound 

 scholars which his country can boast of having reared. He died 

 in 1802, in the seventy-first -year of his age, after having held for 

 near half a century a distinguished place among the literati of 

 America, Those who wish to receive more particular inf6rm£^- 

 tion concerning the life, acctomplishments, and publications of 

 this great man, will be gratified with the perusal of a Discourse 

 delivered on Occasion of his Death, by the rev. John Blair I iuu. 



