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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
been advanced in all that constitutes the prosperity and happiness of human society , had a better education been earlier bestowed upon the population of London . The University of London starts in circumstances which afford the highest promise . It is bound by no antiquated forms and rules . It receives its formation in an age of the highest illumination , and must be adapted to the circumstances and ideas of the time . It has for one of the verv elements of its cumstances and ideas of the time . It has for one of the very elements of its
composition the most important of all elements , the principle of perpetual improvement . It will profit by its own experience , and by the lights which are shed upon the arts of instruction in every quarter of the globe : and whatever is found to be best for training the human mind to its highest state of excellence , it will hasten to make its own . An institute which is not progressive , for training the human mind , whose highest attribute it is to be progressive , is the worst and the most glaring of all absurdities .
The public possesses the highest possible security that the University of London will go on to deserve the approbation of the public ; because it is by the approbation of the public alone that it can exist . This is an advantage of unspeakable importance . The University of London possesses no independent funds on which it can subsist in luxury and splendour , whether it deserve the esteem or contempt of the community . The University of London , therefore , must act up to the hi g hest ideas * of the enli ghtened men of the age . Every individual connected with it will have the strongest interest in
acting so as to command the approbation of the public . By the important principle of paying the professors wholly or in greater part by the fees of the pupils , the motive to make the instruction of every class admirable , in order that it may be admired , is raised to its greatest height . And as the only reward which the conductors and superintendents of this organ of instruction can propose to themselves , is the approbation of the public , and the spectacle of the great good which they produce , they are happily so situated that in order to obtain their reward they must effectually deserve it .
The commencement of the London University is fortunate in another respect ; that eminent men in all the walks of instruction abound ; that the metropolis is the great mart of intellect ; that men of talent are almost always eager to make considerable sacrifices in order to enjoy a residence in the capital ; that the teachers in the London University will be placed most conspicuously in the eye of the public , and that from all these circumstances the institution will have the inestimable advantage of choosing men eminently qualified for their duty in every department of instruction .
Having dwelt with so much satisfaction on the advantages resulting to the middle class as a body from the University of London , in which middle class the Dissenters form a conspicuous portion , we must not forget the advantages which are peculiarly afforded to the Dissenters . It is a source of deep regret , that , up to this hour , no adequate means of an intellectual education have been provided for the teachers of religion among
the Dissenters . Certainly , it is a matter of the greatest importance , that as many as possible of those who teach the people religion , who shape their moral sentiments , and apply , with all the skill of which they are masters , the hopes and fears of futurity to multiply acts of one kind , restrain acts of another kind , should be enlightened men , and possessed of the virtues of enlightened men . Well do we know , and these pages , we trust , are not wanting in proofs , that there are hi g hly enlightened men among the Dissenting clergy . But this is the merit of the individuals . These are men who have educated themselves . Had the proper discipline and instruction
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and the London University . 169
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 169, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/9/
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