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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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422 The Nonconformist . No . XXV .
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were written . Before readin g any Epistle , if any thing be said in the Acts relating to the church to which it i * addressed , or to any subject of controversy or doubt , in which it was particularly interested , it should be read . For example , the fifteenth chapter of the Acts should be read
previously to the Epistle to the Galatians , and the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Acts previously to the Epistle to the Romans . To what extent this plan is capable of communicating the most interesting and important knowledge , is apparent from the following calculation . If
one teacher complete the education of four pupils in three years , and these four pupils shall each of them have begun the education of four other pupils at the end of three years , the education of these pupils will be finished at the end of six years , and
they will have had in train sixty-four pupils , whose education will be completed at the end of nine years ; and so on till the whole world might speedily be instructed in the knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures in the languages in which they were originally written . Thus : * y
Superinteudant Teacher 1 Teaching Students .... 4 . . Years 3 Students \ 6 6 64 9 256 .. 12 1 , 024 15 4 , 096 18 16 , 384 21 65 , 536 24 262 , 144 27 1 , 048 , 576 30 4 , 194 , 304 .. 33 16 , 777 , 216 . 36 67 , 108 , 864 39 268 , 435 , 456 42 1 . 073 , 741 , 824 45
In regard to this calculation there will , of course , be found in it in practice the same , deficiency and failure which there always is , and always must be , in regularly increasing series when applied to human affairs . That
which , without experience , we might have been sure could not take place , experience has shewn , must not be looked for . The regular increase of students in the above seric 3 , no one can for a moment expect : but as far as experience can establish any thing
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respecting so novel tt plan , 4 t shews that that increase may advanee vritka steadiness and rapidity sufficient » to entitle it to most serious ^ attention . The plan has now been in operation some years , and its success has been
as ample as could have been reasona bly expected . It was first projected by Dr . Spencer , a physician residing at Bristol . * It had long occupied the thoughts of this intelligent and benevolent man . He saw in it . nr f - ^» - - ^^ f-
- ~^^ r - ~^_~ — _> —m- ~ v ^ — - ^ - ~^ v -- - _ ^^ ^_ ^ J ^ m thought he saw in it , a means hj which knowledge of the most important kind might be easily and rapidly diffused over the face of the whole earth . As soon as be had matured it , he determined to put it to the test of
experience . Accordingly , on the 11 th of July , 1814 , he commenced with four pupils . Of these , one left at the end of the first year on account of ill health : another left at the end of two years on account of some embarrassment in business : soon after , a third
was obliged to decline on account of i ll health , and is since dead : the fourth continued steadily to pursue his studies till 1820 . At the beginning of the year IS 18 , this gentleman took four pupils , who have continued steadily with him up to the present time .
At the beginning of 1820 one of his pupils commenced with four pupils , who have continued steadily with him up to the present time .
On tl * e first of August , 1820 , a second pupil commenced with four . And soon after , a third pupil began with two pupils , of whom no account ha 3 yet been received , but they appear to be going on well . The fourth has not yet taken pupils . The best means by which it is possible to convey to the reader an idea
* See the account which Dr . Spencer himself published of his Institution , entitled ' * The Plan of Dr . hpencer ' a Institution in Bristol , for acquiring and communicating an accurate and critical Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures without Expense . London : sold by R .
Hunter , ( successor to J . Johnson , ; 71 , r >« - Paul ' s Churchyiud ; arid by Barry atid Son , Bristol . 1817 . ' * [ The substance of tWs " account" waft published ki The < ChrMinn Bitfortner , VoL III -. pp . 366—372 .. feo . J
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1822, page 422, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2514/page/30/
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