Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/260

256 a new departure prevailed alike with Dr. Johnson in New York and Mr. Smith in Philadelphia, though with the former there prevailed in his Advertisement of June, 1754, elsewhere referred to, some sympathy with the old course of his Alma Mater, when he said: The chief Thing that is aimed at in this College is, to teach and engage the children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve him, in all Sobriety, Godliness, and Righteousness of Life, with a perfect Heart and a willing Mind. But let us see what Yale's curriculum was at this period, and President Woolsey's words can give the story: 6 The Latin law of 1748, of which also an English original, under date of 1745, is extant in manuscript, prescribes that in the first year the students shall principally study the tongues and logic, and shall in some measure pursue the study of the tongues the next two years. In the second year they shall recite rhetoric, geometry, and geography. In the third year, natural philosophy, astronomy, and other parts of mathematics. In the fourth year metaphysics and ethics. Every Saturday shall especially be devoted to the study of divinity, and the classes, through the whole of their college life, shall recite the Westminster Confession of Faith, received and approved by the churches of this colony, Wollebius's or Ames's Medulla, or any other system of divinity by direction of the President and Fellows. And on Friday, each student in his order, about six at a time, shall declaim in the hall, in Latin, Greek or Hebrew, and in no other language without special leave; and the two Senior Classes shall dispute twice a week. In Dr. Johnson's pupilage, 7 common arithmetic and a little surveying were all the mathematics studied; but he, as a tutor, introduced more mathematics for the understanding of the Newtonian system. Geometry was studied not long afterward. In a letter of Jonathan Edwards to his father (written probably at the beginning of his Senior year, 1720), he says that the Rector advised him to get Alsted's Geometry and Gassendus's Astronomy for the purposes of study. At a later period, I know not when, except that it is likely to have been under President Clap, the mathematics of Ward (President of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Exeter) were introduced. 8 Let us advance a decade and note yet further enlargement 6 Yale College, ii. 497. 7 Ibid.,ii. 499. 8 Ibid., ii. 497.