AFTER despairing even of life, and renounc­ing all hopes of being useful to this semi­nary, it has pleased God to restore me to my former health and office. I hope it will be unne­cessary for me to say any thing to convince you of my good will to this country, and to this College in particular. If abandoning an honourable and independent station, and renouncing the society of many valuable and long tried friends; if my crossing the vast Atlantic, and exposing my life to the perils of a new climate, are not sufficient to persuade you of my good wishes, it will be needless to use any words to that purpose.

The troubles and distresses of my family, and the pains I have endured, both in body and mind since my arrival in this country, I shall chearfully forget, if I shall be enabled to be subservient to the con­ducting of your studies, and forming your taste and morals, so that you may fulfil the hopes of your parents, and prove useful citizens to your country.

You are here assembled from various parts, and must have different views and expectations in life, [Page 3] but I hope you are all agreed in the desire of learning, and resolve to cultivate the powers of your mind, from a conviction that the knowledge you may acquire here, will enable you to fill with dignity and propriety the several stations to which you may be called; and to contribute your parts to promote the happiness, and to raise the reputation of this new and rising empire.

It is of the utmost consequence to your progress in learning, that you form just notions of its digni­ty, and importance to the public as well as to your­selves as individuals. It is not to spend your years in idleness and dissipation, or to acquire a superfici­al tincture of letters, that you have been sent hither with so much trouble and expence by your parents. They expect something more solid and useful in re­turn for their pains and charge on your account.— They hope that you will aspire to excellence and distinction in your studies, and that the honest emu­lation which a public education produces, will en­gage you to an useful and diligent employment of your time here. You are now in the most pleasant and the most important time of life: your powers are fresh, and easily susceptible of improvement, and the impressions that you receive at this time must be of the utmost importance in determining your future sates and characters. Your present rank as students is honourable. As candidates for science, fame and consequence, you ought to despise every thing that is mean and dishonourable, and think your time too precious to be spent in trifles or vi­cious pursuits.

A superficial application to learning is so far from being useful, that it is greatly prejudicial. It [Page 4] fills the mind with confused notions, and sometimes with unsufferable vanity; it tends to bring learning into disgrace, and leads the world to form false no­tions of its tendency and importance. It creates a contempt and aversion to study, and is apt to com­municate its baleful influence to future generations. It places the student on a level with the forward smatterer, whose learning is extracted from maga­zines and reviews, and whose pertness arises only from his ignorance.

It is true that all are not endowed with equal pow­ers for making progress in letters, and that different studies are suited to different tempers and characters: yet diligence, application and constant desire of suc­cess, will carry every man as far as nature intended he should go; and the various branches of study in which youth are exercised, will point out to every student what he is best qualified for, and develope the natural bent of his genius, so as to direct him how to employ himself in future. But without applicati­on we can make no discovery of our talents, and the indolent student must continue a child for life.

To encourage you to diligence, you ought to con­sider that you have our reputation, as well as your own fame and interest, in your hands; and that much of the happiness and satisfaction of your parents de­pends on your present behaviour, and the manner in which you employ your time and talents. After a pretty long life spent in the pursuit of learning, and undergoing so many dangers and troubles for pro­moting its increase in this country, I flatter myself that I have a name to lose; and you would do me a sensible and grievous injury, if it should be lost by your negligence. With regard to my colleagues, [Page 5] I need say nothing, as you know their capacity and characters by actual experience. We all have an equal interest in your progress, as the world will not believe us to be good for any thing, unless you ap­pear to be profited by our pains and instructions. Your parents expect that you should return instruct­ed and improved in the knowledge of men and things, and that you should be qualified for useful and distin­guished stations in life; and you cannot do justice to them or to us, except by a diligent application to your studies, and a constant attention to moral duties.

You must be sensible that the greatest pains and diligence on our part will be quite abortive without your hearty consent and concurrence. To talk to the deaf, or, which is the same thing, to the thoughtless and inattentive, is labouring without pleasure and without profit, and must be extremely afflicting to every sensible and benevolent mind.— You have it in your power to render all our labours unsuccessful, and to baffle all our hopes of reputa­tion and usefulness; but we hope you will not be so ill-natured as to employ your power for so vile a purpose, especially as it must at the same time in­volve yourselves in ignorance, insignificance, guilt and misery.

We would therefore beg, as the greatest favour to ourselves, as well as the best service you can do to your own character, to the interest of your parents and the public, that your consent may conspire with our wishes to promote your best interests: you must see the necessity of such concurrence, and the mis­chievous consequences of refusing it. Let us al­ways find in you a readiness to be instructed, and a desire of excelling in those branches of knowledge [Page 6] in which you are to be exercised. The habit of at­tention, and a constant endeavour to understand and retain the instructions of your teachers, will make your studies easy and pleasant, as well as profitable to you; and unless you make your studies your pleasure, your situation as students will be ex­ceedingly painful and uncomfortable, your atten­dance will be a burden: you will live the life of prisoners, constantly displeased with your present situation, constantly longing for a change, with the dismal consciousness that you are losing your time, and that your sufferings are entirely without profit to yourselves or others.

With regard to your behaviour to us and to one another, we hope your parents have taught you the rudiments of good manners, and that you will not disgrace their instructions and example, by pe­tulance, impertinence or rudeness of any kind.— The child who behaves rudely and improperly to others, dishonours his father's house, and gives o­thers an occasion to believe that he has been ill-edu­cated, or that his parents have set him a bad exam­ple. A haughty and quarrelsome temper, a prone­ness to revenge and mischief, are most fatal to the character and happiness of youth, and afford the most unfavourable prognostic of their riper years. "Men are but children of a larger growth." Those habits that are formed, & those propensities that are discovered in youth, ordinarily prevail through the whole of life. Such students as you are here, such citizens you will prove to the republic. If you now acquire a love of order, justice, decency and obliging behaviour, you will be the delight of your parents, and the ornaments and supports of the state; but if you indulge pride and revenge, if [Page 7] you are prone to quarrel, despise and fight with one another, what else can be expected from the growth of such habits, but that you should become the grief of your parents, a disgrace to your masters, and friends, and the pests and firebrands of every so­ciety? Make your choice between these extremes.

We do not indeed expect from your early years, the coolness, the prudence & the gravity of advanced age. Such errors as arise from the natural warmth, the innocent gaiety, and even the levity of youth, may be naturally expected and easily pardoned: but we hope you will consider that you are no longer children, that by your admission into this society, and being engaged in the studies and employments of men, you are considered as subjects of moral govern­ment, and susceptible of the principles of law and order. You have already in a good measure the command of yourselves, and are capable of discern­ing and being conscious when you are in the wrong. With these capacities you may avoid the follies of childhood, and contract those habits of attention and application that are proper for your age, and favourable to your progress in your studies.

Idleness and trifling are the bane of youth, both with respect to learning and morals; these habits prevent progress, excite quarrels, and encourage the grossest corruption of manners. They are the beginning of vices and of sorrows, and can not be too much checked and discouraged. Trifling is a perverted activity which in every event leads to evil, and tends either to meanness or malice. Let me warn you especially against one vice which is often prevalent among youth, and indicates or pro­motes the worst dispositions: we mean the practice [Page 8] of exciting or tempting one another to evil, and prompting them to deeds of malice or revenge.— To sow discord among brethren, to irritate the cor­ruptions and evil passions of men, is the employ­ment of the devil, and ought to be held in the ut­most abhorrence by all who would be wise or hap­py.

Magnanimity and dignity of behaviour are vir­tues that ought to be in high esteem with youth, as they lay the foundations of a good character, and prevent our age from blushing for the meanness of our early years. But it is of the greatest conse­quence to form just notions of these virtues, and to be well informed wherein real magnanimity con­sists. It is not in contempt of others, or prone­ness to revenge, or being the plague or terror of society. On the contrary a person of true magna­nimity will always be just to the merits of others, and will reckon nothing so disgraceful as what is unjust, and injurious to the rights of others; and will be ashamed of every thing that is unworthy of human nature, or hurtful to the order of society: he will be mild and gentle to others, and will ab­stain from injuring them, for his own sake as well as for theirs. He will not leave it in the power of every one to tempt him to indecent and passionate behaviour, nor disgrace himself because another is injurious; but despising the ignoble passion of re­venge, he will avoid the society of the wicked, and associate with those who are capable of instruct­ing and pleasing him by their example, and incapa­ble of tempting him to indecency by injury.

The most effectual antidote against quarrelling and mean behaviour, is diligence and application to [Page 9] your studies: all the vices and miseries of youth arise uniformly from ignorance and trifling. If you are idle, your lives will be at once unprofitable and unpleasant. As an additional incitement to dili­gence, we would suggest to you the advantages you enjoy as students of this seminary, and the disadvan­tages you must labour under from its yet infant state. Both these ought to incite you to diligence, that you may improve the one, and surmount or compen­sate for the other. At present you have leisure, and opportunity of profiting by books and instructors. But as these can not yet be afforded you in such number and variety as is to be wished, on this ac­count you ought to use more diligence to profit by the opportunities you have; and the fewer these are at present, the more honour will your diligence and success reflect on yourselves, and on this new socie­ty.

If you ever hope to prosper in learning, you will not content yourselves with reading those parts only of classic authors that are prelected to you by your masters, and of which you are to give an account to them. By confining yourselves to these, you effectually disappoint their intentions, and render their pains useless to yourselves. By making you acquainted with a part, they intended to make you capable of reading the whole. There is no understanding the merit, nor profiting by the talents of an author, by consulting extracts or de­tached parts; you can not have time to read all that is excellent in them at school; and I know from ex­perience and observation, that a diligent boy will go through the whole of any author in a shorter time than the unequal abilities of a class will get thro' that part that is taught in public.

[Page 10]Altho' the rules of grammar and construction are necessary in order to understand foreign languages, you must not think you have done when you have made yourselves masters of these. It remains to at­tend to the sense, the history, the sentiment, and the beauties of thought and language; to enter in­to the scope and spirit of the writer, to discern his excellencies and to detect his weakness, or that of the times in which he lived. The classics are useful, not from their being writ in dead languages, or be­cause it costs a great deal of pains to read them: but they are valuable as models of just thinking, exam­ples of true taste, and monuments of the wisdom and capacity of ancient nations, and have been the delight and wonder of many successive generations.

You ought always to remember that real learn­ing does not consist in acquiring a great many con­fused and indigested ideas, nor in performing pub­lic exercises with such apparent propriety as to per­suade others that you are learned: far less does it consist in the use of harsh and uncouth terms, which are not familiar to ordinary understandings, but that it consists in the exercise and application of the powers of the mind, the improvement of our in­tuitive as well as our active faculties, in the know­ledge and discerning of truth, and such an acquain­tance with human nature and its excellencies and defects, its acquisitions and history, as may fit us for the right conduct of life, and for promoting the happiness of ourselves and others.

In order to profit by reading, meditation and at­tention must be joined with it, we must not pass by any thing that we do not understand, or content ourselves with a single reading of what is useful, [Page 11] excellent or necessary; and we ought to labour to retain what we have read, because it is only that which we retain that can be profitable to us in fu­ture. Inattentive and desultory reading is only a more active idleness, and a more decent mode of trifling. It is better to shut the book as soon as at­tention fails, than to accustom ourselves to read without it.

A foolish trusting to public exercises has been the ruin of many students. To confine ourselves to our prescribed lessons, and our studies to the public hours, argues a narrow mind, destitute of ambiti­on, and insensible of the excellence and charms of true learning. Poor and scanty must be the attain­ments of the pretended student, who seigns atten­tion in public, and is idle and negligent in private! This is rendering public exercises entirely uselell, and thwarting the intention of your instructors. As that can be done in public is to prescribe general rules, to remove difficulties, to caution against er­rors, and suggest useful hints and directions; but the main business of learning is to be compassed on­ly by private study and meditation; and the student who does not apply his diligence in private, misun­derstands the true nature and design of public in­structions. Those parents likewise are greatly mis­taken who insist that their children should be kept to long confinement and attendance, so as to leave them neither time, spirits or inclination for private study. It is impossible that any should be made scholars in this manner. Such injunctions discover a deep ignorance of human nature, as if it were pos­sible to teach boys against their will, or force them into learning by whipping and imprisonment. These methods may readily produce a rooted aversion for [Page 12] learning, as it is certain that they render progress in it utterly unattainable and impracticable; but they will never make boys in love with study, or ambitious to excel in knowledge. Even in the lowest classes, the student must prepare his lesson at home, if he expects to be able to please his mas­ter, or keep up with his class; but such regulations as leave no time for this, deprive the student of opportunities of profiting, and oblige the master to labour in vain.

As our public library is as yet but indifferently furnished, and could never supply the necessities of all, and as the procuring a variety of books in a new country is utterly impossible, you ought to be more diligent in the use of all the books you can command, especially of such as lead to the know­ledge of others. Without a tolerable acquaintance with literary history, a student can not prosecute his studies, whatever opportunities and helps he may enjoy. He must be at a loss where to apply for help, unless he knows what authors have treat­ed of the subject in which he desires information.

In order to discover the genius and capacity of students, and to suggest useful hints for conducting their studies and regulating their conduct, I am con­vinced that private acquaintance and conversation are of great use. It will therefore be agreeable to me to receive visits from all of the students, as of­ten as their studies and mine will permit, and to suggest to them what may be useful, as well as to resolve their doubts and difficulties, being deter­mined to act as the private preceptor, as well as the public instructor of every student, without excepti­on or respect of persons, who comes to this se­minary in quest of useful knowledge.

[Page 13]As concord and order are the soul and strength of every society, and peculiarly necessary in a semina­ry for the study of letters, we hope that every stu­dent will reckon it his honour to study these with the greatest care; and to attain these you ought to reflect how disgraceful it is to disturb society, and to appear impatient of order and equal society. It will be our part to render all of you equal justice and encouragement, but it will depend on your conduct to render our labours pleasant and profita­ble. Beware of pride, from which contention cometh; abhor injustice and insulting manners, and avoid all indecent and provoking expressions. Re­member that your character as well as your success in learning, depends on your present behaviour, and that if you do not shew yourselves regular, well-bred and peaceable students, there can be lit­tle hope of your becoming useful or estimable citi­zens of the state.

As your time is your greatest treasure, and may be employed to the best account, we would earnest­ly recommend a prudent and thrifty improvement of it. For this purpose you ought to rise early, and beware of spending too much of it in unneces­sary exercises or childish recreations. You have much to do, and unless you apply to yout studies betimes, you must be great losers. Besides, saun­tering and idleness are inimical to habits of appli­cation; and by neglecting to study, you may soon become incapable of it. If you would practise the lesson of Pythagoras, and examine every evening what you have been doing all day, you will disco­ver the value of time, and the folly of idleness, by observing how little you have done, in compari­son [Page 14] of what you might have done, which may lead to a better improvement of time for the future.

You ought never to forget that all true learning is subordinate and conducive to morals and useful­ness. It is not in order that you may be admired for your talents that your parents have bestowed on you benefits of a liberal education. They expect that you should become virtuous, orderly and useful members of society, that you should know how to esteem true excellence, to revere truth and honour, to form yourselves upon the best models, to despise every thing that is mean and vicious, to delight in promoting the happiness of others, to be lovers of peace, to form friendship with the virtuous and worthy, to avoid the society of the wicked, and to merit and command the esteem of the wiser part of your fellow citizens.

Young people are apt to imagine that they have little to do with religion, and that it is time enough to think of that in mature life; but this is a griev­ous mistake. "Train up a child," says Solomon, "in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Even a child is known by his way, whether it be pure and whether it be right. Young as you are, you have a conscience; you are subjects of moral discipline, and susceptible of good or bad moral characters. You know not whether you may live to mature age, and what shall become of your souls if you die in an igno­rant, thoughtless and irreligious state? We pre­sume that your parents have taught you to know and honour the God who made you, to revere his name, and to pray to him daily, for the pardon of your sins, the purifying of your natures, and final [Page 15] happiness and salvation through Jesus Christ. We hope you are instructed in the necessity of holiness and virtue as the only means to fit you for eternal life. It shall be our endeavour to second the les­sons and intentions, as well as to fulfil the wishes of your parents, so far as is in our power, by sug­gesting to you as occasion offers, suitable advices for your moral and religious conduct in life; and in so doing we are sure of pleasing them by endeavouring to promote your real happiness. Even wicked and thoughtless parents would be sorry to see their chil­dren growing up in vicious habits; and nothing can exceed the sorrow of virtuous and christian parents when their children walk not in the ways of God. Give joy to your parents, and to your masters and friends, by an early application to religious know­ledge and practice; read the word of God with care, reverence and attention: pray to God for wisdom and spiritual understanding, and ye shall not ask in vain. Be assured that it is your highest honour to honour God, to thank him for his benefits, and keep his commandments; you will be more worthy of the esteem of your neighbours, if you pray to God morning and evening, if you study to please him, and to keep the sabbath day holy, to abstain from all mean and vicious conduct. You may as­sure yourselves that such a conduct will contribute no less to your progress in learning than your im­provement in virtue. God is the father of our spi­rits and ought to be acknowledged and worshipped in that character. He made our souls, with all their wonderful powers; and their improvement and exercise must depend on his bounty. The know­ledge of the plowman and the mechanic is attribut­ed in scripture to the teaching of God, and that [Page 16] large and comprehensive knowledge which distin­guished king Solomon, is expressly said to have been the gift of God. And who else can give it? As in religion, so likewise in learning, though Paul may plant, and Apollos water, it belongs to God only to give the increase. You are grossly mistaken if you imagine that a religious life is melancholy or disa­greeable; on the contrary it is the only road to true pleasure and satisfaction. To have God for your friend, your father and defender, is true dignity as well as solid peace and confidence. Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days, that he may see good? keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speak­ing guile, depart from evil and do good: seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. The face of God is against them that do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth. Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.