Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/524

520 together, as Trustees for carrying on the work, and agreed never to exceed that number, which was composed without any regard to difference in religious persuasions, of creditable gentlemen of various professions and callings.

The scheme being made public, with the names of the gentlemen undertakers, all was so well approved of, that in a very short time the subscription for carrying it on amounted to Eight Hundred Pounds per annum, for five years, a very strong proof of the public spirit and generosity of the inhabitants of this place! In the beginning si January, 1750, three of the schools were opened, namely the Latin School, the Mathematical School and the English School, the two former under men who had long been known in the country as sufficiently qualified for the business; and the latter under a person who, being accidentally in the place, offered his service and was accepted for a time upon trial. For it had always been considered as a very leading part of the design, to have a good school in the mother tongue, and to be well satisfied of the abilities and assiduity of the person entrusted with the care of it, before any final agreement, which had likewise been made, a rule in providing masters for the other schools. Oratory, correct Speaking and Writing the Mother Tongue, is a branch of education too much neglected in all our English Seminaries, as is often visible in the public performances of some of our most learned men. But in the circumstances of this province, such a neglect would have been still more inexcusable, than in any other part of the British dominions. For as we are so great a mixture of people, from almost all corners of the world, necessarily speaking a variety of languages and dialects, the true pronunciation and writing of our own language might soon be lost among us, without such a previous care to preserve it in the rising generation.

Thus this Seminary opened with three masters in the branches of education most immediately necessary to prepare the youth for public life, and the higher parts of learning. All the trustees, and a great concourse of the inhabitants were present at the Opening when the service of the Church of England was read, and a suitable sermon preached by the reverend Mr. Peters, Provincial Secretary, from St. John viii. 32, And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you Free.

This worthy gentleman (who amid all the labours of his public station, as well as the many private labours in which his benevolence continually engages him, has still made it his care to devote some part of his time to Classical Learning and the Study of Divinity, to which he was originally bred) took occasion, from these words of our blessed Saviour, to shew the intimate connexion between Truth and Freedom, between Knowledge of every kind, and the preservation of civil and religious Liberty. For it has ever been found that where the Former is not, the latter cannot subsist. The institution, thus begun, continued daily to flourish, in so much that all the schools soon stood in need of ushers and assistants to the chief