?ECT. III.] United Slates of Amei'ica. 24^5 



ened, and active as his, and placed in a conspi- 

 cuous station, could fail of contributing to the 

 literary advancement of any community in which 

 he resided. Invited to undertake the office of 

 president of the college of New Jersey, this great 

 man arrived at Princeton in the year 1768, and 

 immediately entered on the duties of his new sta- 

 tion. He produced an important revolution in 

 the system of education adopted in this seminary. 

 He extended the study of mathematical science, 

 and introduced into the course of instruction in 

 natural philosophy many improvements, which 

 had been little known in most of the Am,erican 

 colleges, and particularly in that institution. He 

 placed the plan of instruction in moral philosophy 

 on a new and improved basis ; and was, it is be- 

 lieved, the first man who taught in America the 

 substance of those doctrines of the philosophy of 

 the human mind, which Dr.Reid afterward deve- 

 loped with so much success. And, fmally, under 

 -his presidency more attention began to be paid 

 than before to the principles of taste and compo- 

 sition, and to the study of elegant literature. 



About the same time the study of the physical 

 sciences received, new encouragement in Virginia. 

 Hitherto comparatively small attention had been 

 paid to nati^ral philosophy in the college of Wil- 

 liam and Mary; or not more than reading some 

 common treatise on this subject, with a very in- 

 adequate degree of attention or understanding. 

 In 1768 a valuable, though not very extensive 

 philosophical apparatus was imported from Lon- 

 don, for the use of that institution; and in 177-i the 

 first regular course of lectures on the subject was 



