( 59 ) 
bly acquire, are not of themfelves fufficient 
to lift a young gentleman to that degree of 
notice, to which, a truly liberal mind will 
naturally afpire, His parts, his learning, 
without prudence are of little value. Like 
a (hip without balaft, he becomes the fport 
of every wind, and is in perpetual danger 
of deftruclion. 
Remember what I am now going to fay. 
I mean to fpeak very emphatically, becaufe 
it is the hinge on which your future for- 
tunes will turn. I mean your choice of com- 
panions. It is a matter of infinite import- 
ance. Young men, on their firft arrival at 
the Univerfity, naturally look up to thofe 
who have been fome time matriculated; they 
liften to their information with compla- 
cency, and too implicitly imbibe their opi- 
nions of men and things. " Such a Profeflbr 
is a ftupid fellow fuch a tutor is a tedious 
blockhead -fuch a duty is a bore" This is 
a language which you will frequently hear. 
But you will very foon difcover, that thefe 
orators are generally indolent, illiterate, 
weak young men ; totally infenfible to that 
thirft of knowledge, that noble enthufiafrn, 
that glorious ambition with which the great 
luminaries of fcience were infpired, and with- 
out 
