INAUGURAL ADDRESS ON THE APPLICATION OF CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC AND ON THE EVIDENCES OF NATURAL AND REVEALED DELIVERED AS INTRODUCTORY TO A COURSE OF THEOLO- THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. By W. D. CONYBEARE, M.A. &c. RECTOR OF SULLY; VISITOR OF THE COLLEGE. Εμπρεπὲς γὰρ τοῖς ἐταιρίαν πρὸς Ἐπιστήμην θεμένοις Philo-Judæus, Ed. Mangeii, tom. i. p. 419. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1831. PREFACE. It seems desirable to premise to the following Address some account of the occasion on which it was delivered, and of the nature of the Establishment with which it is connected. The vast increase of that superior portion of the middle classes of society, which the general diffusion of intellectual cultivation has now brought within its full operation, and has naturally inspired with the desire to impart to their offspring all the advantages of a superior education, evidently requires in the present age a considerable extension of the means of affording such an education. Our elder Universities, indeed, admirable as they are in themselves, and justly as they must ever claim from the younger institutions, which may strive at a humble distance to follow their bright examples, a filial reverence and regard*, are yet, from the necessary limitation of their numbers, from their local circumstances, and from the conditions of expense which the general concourse of the first youth of the country can hardly fail to impose (even under any system of discipline) upon such establishments, restricted in great measure to the higher and wealthier classes exclusively; far beyond which, the actual demand for similar advantages of education now appears to be diffused, a demand which can only effectually be met by the multiplication of establishments for such an education throughout those larger cities which constitute the metropolitan centres of extensive districts, and which may thus by local circumstances, and by an organization * These younger institutions, deriving as they must from such almæ matres, their most efficient instructors, and the soundest models of discipline, must ever be ready gratefully to apply to them the language adopted as a motto by one of them, "Hinc lucem et pocula sacra.' especially directed to this object, more readily, more widely, and more cheaply, extend the advantages they offer. Bristol, the natural metropolis of our south-western counties, and long the second city of our empire, presents a local point which cannot but appear highly favourable for undertaking such an establishment: and with such views has BRISTOL COLLEGE been instituted; and its founders have been encouraged by auspices derived from many local recollections. Grocinus, the distinguished friend of Erasmus, the earnest explorer of the classical stores of Italy, at the period of the revival of learning, and himself one of the first restorers of Grecian literature in this country, was a CITIZEN OF BRISTOL. In Poetry this city claims the memory of Chatterton, and the living fame of Southey; in Painting she boasts of her Lawrence and Bird; and in Sculpture, of the surviving talents of Baily: as to Science, it may be mentioned that it was here that the then young Davy commenced his chemical career as the assistant of Beddoes. To develope such minds, and to increase their opportunities of finding appropriate cultivation, is the great object and the fond hope of such institutions as the College recently founded. This College has been established by the joint subscriptions of a proprietary body. It has been placed under the superintendence of a Principal and Vice Principal, who are Graduates of the University of Cambridge; Dr. Jerrard, late Classical Tutor of Caius College, and Mr. Butterton, Fellow of St. John's. The College was only opened on the 17th January, 1831: but it may be satisfactory to subjoin a short statement of the course of instruction intended to be pursued, and even at this early period very efficiently entered upon. In Classics, the same Authors are read, and with the same critical accuracy, as at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Sophocles and Euripides, Thucydides, Demosthenes and Xenophon, Tacitus, Cicero, Juvenal, Horace, and Virgil's Georgics, have been hitherto the subjects of regular lectures. Eschylus, Aristophanes and Plato have also been read. Much attention is given to composition in Greek, Latin and English, as also to History and General Literature. In Mathematics, the Students have hitherto been chiefly occupied with Euclid and Bourdon's Algebra. The Integral and Differential Calculus and Mechanics have however been already lectured in at the College. [This course is to be extended to the Mécanique Analytique of Lagrange, and the Mécanique Celeste of Laplace. The most important parts of Newton's Principia will also be read.] In Metaphysics, the text-book is Locke, and reference is made to all the most eminent British metaphysicians. The subject of the Grecian Logic is occasionally introduced. [In Ethics, besides Paley's Moral Philosophy, it is intended, in order to pursue the connection of this science with Theology, to adopt Butler's Analogy as a standard work.] Professors of French, German and Italian, have been appointed. In the first of these languages a large Class has already been formed. The Lectures on the Greek Testament consist chiefly of critical explanations of the text, and of such illustrations of it as are afforded by the works of Michaelis, Lardner, Schleusner, and Paley (whose Evidences and Hora Paulinæ are much used). Every morning before the commencement of Lectures the Students are all assembled to hear a portion of the Scriptures read by the Principal. Such is a sketch of what is actually done at the Bristol College within little more than four months after its opening. It is expected that arrangements will shortly be made for Lectures in the Oriental Languages, as also in Geology, Chemistry, and other branches of science. In order to complete their plan, the Council have resolved to establish a Junior department of the Bristol College. This is to open on the 1st of September next, under the direction of J. Price, M.A., of St. John's College Cambridge. |