of this age be it ſpoken, a more open and generous way of thinking begins now univerſally to prevail. The attainment of liberal and genteel accompliſhments, though not of the intellectual ſort, has been thought by our wiſeſt and moſt affectionate patrons[1], and very lately by the whole univerſity[2], no ſmall improvement of our antient plan of education; and therefore I may ſafely affirm that nothing (how unuſual ſoever) is, under due regulations, improper to be taught in this place, which is proper for a gentleman to learn. But that a ſcience, which diſtinguiſhes the criterions of right and wrong; which teaches to eſtabliſh the one, and prevent, puniſh, or redreſs the other; which employs in it’s theory the nobleſt faculties of the ſoul, and exerts in it’s practice the cardinal virtues of the heart; a ſcience, which is univerſal in it’s uſe and extent, accommodated to each individual, yet comprehending the whole community; that a ſcience like this ſhould have ever been deemed unneceſſary to be ſtudied in an univerſity, is matter of aſtoniſhment and concern. Surely, if it were not before an object of academical knowlege, it was high time to make it one; and to thoſe who can doubt the propriety of it’s reception among us (if any ſuch there be) we may return an anſwer in their own way; that ethics are confeſſedly a branch of academical learning, and Ariſtotle himſelf has ſaid, ſpeaking of the laws of his own country, that juriſprudence or the knowlege of thoſe laws is the principal and moſt perfect branch of ethics[3].
From a thorough conviction of this truth, our munificent benefactor Mr Viner, having employed above half a century in amaſſing materials for new-modelling and rendering more commodious the rude ſtudy of the laws of the land, conſigned both
- ↑ Lord chancellor Clarendon, in his dialogue of education, among his tracts, p. 325, appears to have been very ſolicitous, that it might be made “a part of the ornament of our learned academies to teach the qualities of riding, dancing, and fencing, at thoſe hours when more ſerious exerciſes should be intermitted.”
- ↑ By accepting in full convocation the remainder of lord Clarendon’s hiſtory from his noble deſcendants, on condition to apply the profits ariſing from it’s publication to the eſtablishment of a manage in the univerſity.
- ↑ Τελεια μαλιστα αζειη, οτι της τελειας αρειης χζησις εσι. Ethic. ad Nichomach. l. 5. c. 3.
