I Am Apt To Think, If We

Man Is An Animal, Formidable Both From His Passions And His Reason; His Passions Often Urging Him To Great Evils, And His Reason Furnishing Means To Achieve Them. To Train This Animal, And Make Him Amenable To Order; To Inure Him To A Sense Of Justice And Virtue, To Withhold Him From Ill Courses By Fear, And Encourage Him In His Duty By Hopes; In Short, To Fashion And Model Him For Society, Hath Been The Aim Of Civil And Religious Institutions; And, In All Times, The Endeavour Of Good And Wise Men. The Aptest Method For Attaining This End, Hath Been Always Judged A Proper Education.

The Most Ingenious Men Are Now Agreed, That [universities] Are Only Nurseries Of Prejudice, Corruption, Barbarism, And Pedantry.

The Same Principles Which At First View Lead To Skepticism, Pursued To A Certain Point, Bring Men Back To Common Sense.

All Those Who Write Either Explicitly Or By Insinuation Against The Dignity, Freedom, And Immortality Of The Human Soul, May So Far Forth Be Justly Said To Unhinge The Principles Of Morality, And Destroy The Means Of Making Men Reasonably Virtuous.

The Real Essence, The Internal Qualities, And Constitution Of Even The Meanest Object, Is Hid From Our View; Something There Is Inevery Drop Of Water, Every Grain Of Sand, Which It Is Beyond The Power Of Human Understanding To Fathom Or Comprehend. But It Is Evidentthat We Are Influenced By False Principles To That Degree As To Mistrust Our Senses, And Think We Know Nothing Of Those Things Which We Perfectly Comprehend.