An Address, Delivered at Ipswich, Before the Essex County Lyceum, at Their First Annual Meeting, May 5, 1830

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Foote & Brown, printers--Court Street, 1830 - 60 pages

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Page 56 - The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by donations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people, having no...
Page 56 - I propos'd that we should all of us bring our books to that room, where they would not only be ready to consult in our conferences, but become a common benefit, each of us being at liberty to borrow such as he wish'd to read at home.
Page 27 - I think I may say, that of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education.
Page 43 - But the truth is, that the knowledge of external nature, and the sciences which that knowledge requires or includes, are not the great or the frequent business of the human mind.
Page 56 - So few were the readers at that time in Philadelphia and the majority of us so poor that I was not able with great industry to find more than fifty persons, mostly young tradesmen, willing to pay down for this purpose forty shillings each and ten shillings per annum.
Page 55 - Quadrant. But he knew little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion; as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal precision in everything said, or was for ever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation.
Page 58 - ... buying with it Franklin's Life, and reading the first page. I am quite sure he will read the rest; I am almost quite sure he will resolve to spend his spare time and money, in gaining those kinds of knowledge which from a printer's boy made that great man the first philosopher, and one of the first statesmen of his age. Few are fitted by nature to go as far as he did, and it is not necessary to lead so perfectly abstemious a life, and to be so rigidly saving of every instant of time.
Page 57 - How may smoky chimneys be best cured ? " Why does the flame of a candle tend upwards in a spire ? " Which is least criminal — a bad action joined with a good intention, or a good action with a bad intention ? " Is it consistent with the principles of liberty in a free government to punish a man as a libeller when he speaks the truth ?
Page 55 - ... the best school of philosophy, morality, and politics that then existed in the province; for our queries, which were read the week preceding their discussion, put us...
Page 55 - Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.

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