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"ness for them all. His affection for his children was "such that, even in his moments of severest study, he "received them with smiles, and laid aside his books "to partake of their infantile sports.

"Dr. Ewing was tall in his person, and, while in younger life, was handsome and graceful. His consti"tution was remarkably sound and strong. He was "settled with his congregation forty years without be

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ing prevented more than once or twice by sickness "from discharging the duty of his pastoral charge. The 66 only serious disorder which he had, was the one which proved fatal, and which first seized him (in 1796) six years before his death. After his first attack he frequently preached, but never regained his strength of body, or vigour of mind. In his sickness he discover"ed patience, fortitude and resignation to the will of "his heavenly Father. No murmur escaped his lips, "and his last moments were closed apparently without

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a pang and without a struggle. In a good old age, in "his seventy-first year, he fell to the ground like as a "shock of corn cometh in his season. A short time be"fore his death he buried the last of those members "of his congregation who signed his call."

November 1, 1809.

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INTRODUCTION.

GENTLEMEN,

HISTORY informs us, that the Egyptian priests, the Persian magi, and Chaldeans, had acquired great knowledge in astronomy and natural philosophy long before the commencement of the christian era. They certainly carried geometry and mathematics to very great perfection. The Greeks were only scholars of the Egyptians; and possibly never understood the first principles of the Egyptian philosophy. Pythagoras seems to have been the best instructed among them; and from the small remains of his doctrine, that have reached our time, it is probable that the Egyptians were well acquainted with what is now called the Newtonian system of the universe; so that we are only regaining the principles of physics which were formerly known, and lost many ages ago.

When learning began to flourish in Europe, it received a severe and long check from the desolations of war, and the irruptions of barbarous nations.

But nothing so much prevented the propagation of knowledge, as the envious and illiberal craft of the heathen and popish priesthood. To secure their influence over the common people, they confined all learning to their own order; communicating their knowledge only to the initiated, i. e. such only, as had given sufficient proofs of their fidelity and taciturnity,

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after a long and severe trial. They proscribed all books, that might propagate real and useful knowledge, which were accordingly ordered to be brought in and burnt; as it was deemed an unpardonable sin to read them. Whoever attempted to put mankind upon a free and impartial inquiry into the truth of popular opinions was sure to undergo a cruel and unmerciful persecution. Socrates, justly accounted the wisest and best man that ever appeared in the heathen world, was persecuted and condemned to death, as an enemy to the established religion of his country, and a corrupter of the morals of the youth. Copernicus, who revived the ancient system of Pythagoras, which was afterwards demonstrated by sir Isaac Newton, dared not to publish his opinions, till near his death, when he thought himself nearly beyond the reach of their persecution. Galileo, who first applied the telescope to astronomical purposes, thereby confirmed this system. The nobility and gentry of Italy flocked to his house to view the planets; and they saw with their own eyes, that the planets were round globular bodies, similar to our earth, and the satellites of Jupiter, revolving round him in the same manner as the moon revolves round our earth, while both these primary planets regarded the sun as the center of their annual motions. The priests, who had engrossed all the schools of Europe into their hands, and could not bear to be convicted of teaching errors in philosophy, were soon alarmed and clapped this heretical astronomer into the inquisition; where, to free himself from the rack, he was obliged to recant and deny the truth of what he and many thousands had seen with their own eyes.

Knowing the importance of instilling strong prejudices into tender minds, and the force of these early

prejudices, during the whole course of life, they engrossed the education of youth, solely into their own hands, in all the schools of Europe. And to divert the inquisitive mind from the search after real knowledge, which would soon overthrow a dominion, which was only supported by the ignorance of the people, they introduced into their schools a kind of learning of things, which existed nowhere but in their own imagination: abstracted notions, a multiplicity of terms and hard words which have no meaning but to cover ignorance, perplexed definitions, distinctions without a real difference, and endless disputes about mysterious trifles, of no real use either to the promotion of knowledge, or the advancement of human happiness.

Thus the schoolmen continued dictators in the republic of literature for many ages. The master, with an air of confidence, asserted the unintelligible doctrine; and the unenlightened pupil received it with all the submission that was due to an irresistible demonstration; until the reformation in religion took place, and many countries shook off the authority of the pope; which unfettered the human mind, and introduced a more free and rational method of investigation. In the year 1640 Rene Descartes published his philosophy, and asserted boldly, that we must receive nothing in philosophy, upon mere authority; but on the contrary must doubt of every proposition, until we have sufficient evidence of its truth. He has the honour of introducing a more safe and liberal method of philosophizing, and thereby of paving the way for all the discoveries, that have since been made in physics. He indeed carried the humour of doubting a little too far. The only self-evident proposition, which he admitted, was, "I think, therefore I am." But, certainly I can

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