The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

Ci66 3LETTSRS, TRAt;TS, blV.little value,that there arc not enow of ufeful ftudiesto fill it up with ? Muft recourfc be had to thingswhich any well-bred man would be afliamed to haveit fufpe6led that he had ever employed his thoughtsabout ?We are very forry to fay, that if the time fome ofus attended tlie univerfity, and fpent fo abfurdly inhearing crabbed quellions and metaphyfical jargon,had been employed in teaching us ancient and modernhiilorvj and efpecially that of our own country,WT fliould have been much more obliged to the learnedprofefibrs *, we fliould have been much better accompiiflied,and have appeared to be fo in the judgmentof thofe with whom we converfe.^But logic and metaphyfics, though they appear tous to be the rnoil abfurd, and confumed the greateftpart of our time to no purpofe, yet they were not theonly tilings th::t wafted it at the univerfity : The difquifitionswe heard about the origin of moral virtue•are little better remem/bered by us, and feem to be oflittle more ufe.We are not ignorant, that the lectures on m.oralphilofophy have for many years paft been dehveredin this univerfity by very able mailers, and in a veryingenious manner; and we are informed, that thiswas never more the cafe than it is at prefent : Butwe apprehend, thefe ingenious gentlemen have ratherindulged their bias to fome fingular opinions of theirown, than communicated much knowledge to eventhe mofh intelligent of their fcholars. We fuppofealfo, that as their difputes are fo abftrufe, and theirtheories about the foundation of morality fo different,neither can be of much nccefhty or ufe.One contends, that morality is founded in the w^iHof God j another, in conformity to truth •, a third,in the fitnefs and uiifitnefs, or in the eternal and unalterablerelations or differences of things •,a fourth,in a moral fenfe or difcernment, fuppofed to be na^