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

LETTERS, TRACTS, ^C. 395Metciphyfics I Tver believed to be ufelefs ^ and I amalarmed at the pernicious confequences of that fciencewhich you have now mentioned : For my part, Vv^henI confider ah' this, I think it lucky that the ftudentexprelTed himfelf as he did. His fpeech may very probablyflir up this opulent eity immediately to fet onfoot fuch an academy as Vi-as propofed a few yearsago ; by which means a Hop wilr be put to fcepti^cifm and infidelity j tafte will^be im.proved ;prailicalmorality and true religion, in their natural timplicityand beaufy, taught and recommended to ouryouth ; and then we may leave the profefTors in thefecure and unenvied pofleffion of their logic, theirontological fyftems, and m.etaphyfical fpecuiations.Chap. 23. The reader v/iil perhaps imagine, that Ihave made an improper digreiTion, and aimoil loilfight of the trial, the hiftory of v/hich I had propofedto write. But, in order to give as jufl an idea of itas poffible, I judged itdone, with great 'faithfuinefs,material to fet down, as I havefome of the fentim.entsof people without doors : And I now refume the•thread of my ftory. As the faculty- room could con-'tain but a few people, the court, at the panneFs deiire,adjourned to a large hall, w^here his friends mighthave ronm to be prefent and countenance him. Atthe fecond federunt, fix rounds of fpceches were deliveredfrom the bench, which I intend not to infertin this hitlory. Thefe fpeeches of the judges, togetherwith thofe delivered by them afterwaids in thecourfe of this trial, being all faithfully preferved, will,we hear, be offered to the public in a volume by theirffelves: Only I cannot but relate here, that one of thejudges, in arguing for the competency of the court,exprefTed himfelf thus : I knew a gentleman of twenty,who, at one of the Englifli colleges, was floggedand fcourged till his Ikin was torn \ and another, w ho,within fix weeks of his being a member of the Houfe-of Commons, was ftripped naked, and lafhed in the