1802. JET. 29.] PROFESSOR YOUNG. 243 



When all the advantages which may reasonably be ex- 

 pected from this Institution shall be fully understood and 

 impartially considered, it is to be hoped that few persons 

 of liberal minds will be indifferent to its success or un- 

 willing to contribute to it and to participate in it. 



To that regulation which forbids the introduction of any 

 discussions connected with the learned professions I shall 

 always most willingly submit and most punctually attend. 

 It requires the study of a considerable portion of a man's 

 life to qualify him to be of use to mankind in any of them, 

 and nothing can be more pernicious to individuals or to 

 society than the attempting to proceed practically upon an 

 imperfect conception of a few first principles only. In 

 physic the wisest can do but little, and the ignorant can 

 only do worse than nothing ; and anxiously as we are dis r 

 posed to seek whatever relief the learned and experienced 

 may be able to afford us, so cautiously ought we to avoid 

 the mischievous interference of the half-studied empiric. In 

 politics and in religion we need but to look back on the 

 history of kingdoms and republics, in order to be aware of 

 the mischiefs which ensue when fools rush, in where angels 

 fear to tread. 



With regard to his prospectus and lectures he said : 



For the sake of those who are not disposed to undertake 

 the labour of following with mathematical accuracy all the 

 steps of the demonstrations on which the doctrines of the 

 mechanical sciences are founded, I shall endeavour to avoid 

 in the whole of this course of lectures every intricacy 

 which might be perplexing to a beginner, and every 

 argument which is fitter for the closet than for a public 

 theatre. Here I propose to support the same propositions 

 by experimental proofs, not that I consider such proofs as 

 the most conclusive, or as more interesting to a truly 

 philosophic mind, than a deduction from general principles, 

 but because there is a satisfaction in discovering the co- 



