The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1822-09-24

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this period for acquiri1c knowledge by study be
neglected, it will be difficult to find any other
for obtaining it.-Ata College also we are en-.
abled to pass over this very dangerous season Of
life, with some degree of security; since young
men are then under the joint safeguard Of Col
lege and family discipline.
;. Such science as is not connected with the
learned professions is chiefly kept up by means
of Colleges or ofmen bred there; for the in
stances of persons really Self-tGugit are by no
means numerous especially five except from
this class OF persons those vho seem TO be born
discoue sers thai is, TO be specially gifted by
nature with something like supernatural talents
for advancing kno,F.cIgc.- There who obtain
self-ins5ructon in the ordinary manner have
commonly been ai1ei by examples, books or
the hints Of Others who have themselves enjoy
ed instruction and yet after all, such persons
USUALLY lament. that they cannot acquire their
Information on easier terrls and IN more ample
manner.-Egcn our great dictionaries OF knowl-
eice called CyclopHiras, (Which may be thought
to answerin some respects The purposes OF
College and which ali mEst confess had they
been possessed in their present form By the an
clients, would have made total change IN their
society J even these publications. can neither be
composed nor re ad to fol- advantage, except by
those who have had collegiate education, or
something corresponding TO it.
a. Colleges or their equivalents belong 20 all
prosperous nations and are not merely TO DO
held as the effects but rank among the causes,
of their prosperity; and accordingly have been
much favored IN such States Of our Union,
have been in situation to give them encour-
agement.
5. The studies at a College various -
but many OF them must necessarily aid each
other in world where every thing has one
common AUTHOR and is formed upon one great
of corresponding principles. Many of these
studies ere useful for planning, examining, or
experimenting different objects presenting them
selves 10 us in society. Ideas also are obtained
at a College in general manner, which can
Afterwards be pursued in detail at a rsore con-
yenient season. A College education Likewise
frequently enables those VINO have enjoyed it,
% poilt ant to Others, where they may obtain
information of which they are in search. 1t
keeps mp always supply of men ready to OK
plain extraordinary occurrences and TO pre-
vent or remedy many unforeseen evils, or i'm
prove many favorable opportunities, arising
from this and other sources. 1t furnishes also
the means of detecting many false claims Of pre-
tenders to science. And as TO being
duccl into dangerous speculations by knowing
too much, ii is ever day seea, that even the
most profound ignorance is no protection against
such delusions.
6. From our Colleges we directly or indi-
rectly, obtain some OF the best of our school in
structcrs, as also many oithe most skiilul of our
medical practitioners as well as a great nusl-
Der ofour respectable divines, lawyers, public
men, and authors of different descriptions.
Z. The advantages Of science are more ex-
tensiye than they appear to be.-Uscful ideas
of,en pass from men of education into the bands
of others; and after losing their scientific shape
become matters of blind practice in the hands
OF the pnblic.--And as there lie no end to the
secret benefits which science renders TO the
community; SO there is no chanHel through
which these benefits are more freqaantly intro
duced or improred, than that Of persons educat-
ed in Colleges, or pursuing the same objects Of
inquiry by means ofother inferior helps.-lt be-
ing difficult however to render those who have
not cultivated the sciences sensible to all tho
signs of their good effects the increduOus on
this head must be left to inquire of intelligent
sea-captains, whether our navigation IN distant
seas is not founded on astronomy and mathe-
mates and of military engineers, whether
mathematics joined TO chemistry have not pro-
duccd the science of national defence. We
may carry the same sort OF examination into
the origin of other monuments of human tai
ents AMI demand for instance, whether we
ore either the FIRST hint on tie improvement OF
The stcam-engine 10 working biacksmiths; or
OF tune-lseeper in its modern perfection, to
a common mechanic. Even those who read
common newspapers with attention, know that
ayear docs not pass without their containing
records of yarons discoveries possessing practi-
ca! uses which have been derived from scieuce.
Science indeed NAV take a circuit to reach us,
but reach Us IL will in some form or other as
the sun even when its figure is vei.ed by clouds,
still furnishes the light Of our natural dsy.-The
Roman Consul, Menenus Agrippa, in his cele-
brated tablet of the belly and the members Of
the human body, a fable by which lie l,;eased
dangerous sedition Of the people against the
higher orders j represented the members as
accusing the belly OF idleness and guttony and
on that account denying to il lis usual supply
of food but though the belly replied that it
was olways occupied in ncurisling its accusers,
the members persisted in their plan, and all per-
ished together This fable we may convert in
to a fable OF the brain and the meTsbers and
SAY, that some unearned men Of sound natural
sense seem to set too !ow value on the uses
of education, though il is every day producing TO
them new benehls.-If these persons will but
admit that certain portion of well instructed
men ought ALWAYS TO be al hand in society TO be
employed las limited above in case of need, they
viii grant the principal point in dispute; since
better or cheaper eXpedient cannot be found
for securing this syantage, than colleges prop