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in tjbe Academy , are to be devoted . Jt can scarcely be asked by you , what is that object ? But should it be made a question by any youth , the answer is obtained by other questions , which not only point out this object , but intimate the moment of it . Why was the
seminary into which you have , entered founded ? Why was it , with great exertions of generosity and zeal , raised to its present state ? And why are your parents and friends desirous that you should spend some years of the prime of your life within its walls ? But to en .
gage you and your fellow academics in study . Study , be it remembered , is the great design for which you enlist as a collegiate . Study is to be the leading , in a manner
the sole object of your attention . It is to fill your time , to employ your thoughts , to rouse your emulation , to call forth all your powers . With study is the day to commence ; with study is it to close .
that variety which will offer , ^ y 011 may be certain to meet what will suit and gratify it . Every science , indeed , calls for your attention > because every science has its peculiar advantages and uses . Your tutors , it may be presumed , in
their introductory lectures to tne subjects of their respective departments , will lay before you a view of the utility and application of those particular branches of knowledge , into which it is their province to initiate you . > The matter to be unged on you at present , is , that you should
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neglect none . Some may be , as Dr . Jortin expresses it , relatively dry 5 but that they are for that reason to be despised and passed over , does not follow . It may be , insome degree , an useful discipline , to constrain the mind to bestow attention on them . This may be
laid down as a certain principle , that you are not qualified lo judge of the utility of a science , unless you had experience of its application and an acquaintance with its different connections with other
branches of knowledge or the transactions of life ; which your years and your situation as a pupil , imply you have not . But the utility of a science in itself , or its application in future life , is not the sole consideration by which you
should judge of its importance and by which your attention to it should be governed . You may never , when your academical course is finished , be called on to carry it into practice or have any occasion to apply it , yet it may be
highly useful to study it in the present period of your lifej and as forming part of an academical course , it has a strong recommendation to your regard . It may give a peculiar exercise and play to
your mental powers ; strengthen , by exercise , your faculties ; add to the stock of your ideas ; and enlarge your views . The historian , poet and orator will furnish more pleasing reading and a constant source of entertainment in
succeeding years : yet the mathematics , though you should never have an opportunity to apply them to astronomy , architecture or navigation , $ re essential to your
irnprovejwient , to accustom you to cUamevs and precision in y « w * r ideas , and to # close wP 3 M > f *«»•
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 429, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/21/
