it is habitual and eafy: in all fubjefts of 
difficulty therefore, a mathematician has an 
evident advantage; his conceptions will be 
more diftincl; his deductions more accurate^ 
and his conclufions confequently more juft. 
There is yet another very ftrong recom- 
mendation to mathematical ftudies. I mean 
amufement. Exclufive of their univerfal 
utility, you will find them infinitely enter- 
taining. Few pleafures are equal to that of 
folving a difficult problem. Comply there- 
fore with the habits of the univerfity ; apply 
yourfelf ardently to the rudiments of ma- 
thematical knowledge, and look forward 
with confidence to the reward of your la- 
bour. But, before you proceed, I muft cau- 
tion you againft that fatal cm bono? which 
being a queftion not always eafily anfwered, 
is often confidered as an argumentum crucis 
againft the application to a fcience the uti- 
lity of which is not immediately obvious. 
In this turbulent fea of human life, we fee 
but a very few leagues before us. Sagacity 
and experience, our two heft telefcopes, dif- 
cover no land a-head; but that is no proof 
.that we may not, before the next glafs, fall 
iin with an ifland or continent. Univerfal 
knowledge is far beyond the reach of hu- 
man 
