Note 260 — MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF DAVID RITTENHOUSE; CONTINUED, FROM THE TIME OF HIS SETTLEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA.
Reading edition
The following is an extract from the Salutatory Oration delivered by Mr. Paul Jackson,[260a] at the first Commencement held in the College of Philadelphia; when a Master’s degree was conferred on that gentleman, and on him only.
After making his salutations of respect to the professors generally, the orator thus addressed the Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Smith, the Provost:
“Præcipué, Te, collegii et academiæ hujus Præefecte venerande! summâ benevolentiâ a nobis observari par est. Tu gressus nostros, dum subtilioris sapientiæ recessus curiosé indagamus, direxisti. Tu nobis, mansuetioribus musis operam impendentibus, orationis simplicis ac perspicuæ regulas, venusta ornamenta ac veneres accuraté eleganterque explicuisti. Tu, quid sit magnificum tum in verbis, tum in sententiis, tum in figuris, edocuisti, omnesque sublimitatis fontes, ipsius Longini majestatem et acumen feliciter æmulatus, auditoribus tuis admirantibus retexisti. Qui vult fieri disertus, scripta tua, tanquam præceptorum exempla luculenta, sæpius versato; animum intendat ad argumenta multifaria, quæ tam varié, tam numerosé, tam abundanter, tam illuminaté, tum rebus tum verbis tractasti.”