DISPUTATIO HABITA IN SCHOLIS PUBLICIS, ANNO 1756. Ecclesiastici regiminis, in Anglia et Scotia constituti, neutra CONTENTS OF FAWCETT'S DISCOURSES. other gods, which thou hast not known, and serve them: Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. II.—The Jewish dispensation preparatory to the Christian. III.—The evidence in favor of Christianity, which is derived from the prophecies delivered by Jesus Christ. LUKE, XXIV. 19.-Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which LUKE, XVI. 31.-If they hear not Moses and the pro- MATTHEW, X. 34.-Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. VI.-The power of God over the human heart. 1 CORINTHIANS, 11. 16.-For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the VII.-The redemption of man universal. 1 CORINTHIANS, XV. 22.-As in Adam all die, even so 2 TIMOTHY, III. 15.-And that from a child thou hast PAGE ROMANS, III. 8.—And not rather, as we be slanderously . 119 . 131 143 167 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF WILLIAM SAMUEL POWELL, D.D. THE fame of Dr. Powell still florishes on the spot where it first took root and grew. The alterations lately made in our system of public examination, have revived much discussion respecting his principles and conduct; nor have all those persons yet departed from amongst us, who remember the man himself, and the sentiments which he excited in the minds of his contemporaries. As however the character of one who has placed himself at the head of a party, aspiring to direct the opinions of some, and to restrain the influence of others, is generally viewed under the delusive lights of prejudice, so we still hear Dr. Powell spoken of with the different feelings of respect and aversion: sometimes he is styled an unsullied guardian of our most valuable institutions; at other times, he is designated as a tyrannical bigot, who opposed all innovation upon principles the most selfish and ungenerous. Hence, a task of no inconsiderable weight and difficulty falls on his biographer, who is required strenuously to POW. resist the intrusion of all such feelings as may tend to bias and pervert his judgment. Under a due sense at least of this responsibility, the following sketch is undertaken. William Samuel Powell was born at Colchester, September 27, 1717. Concerning his infancy and early youth I can find nothing recorded, until he was admitted, in 1734, at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he came to reside in the year following. He is stated to have been very sedulous in improving the talents which Providence had entrusted to him; rarely wasting his time in light amusements, but intent on mathematical as well as classical studies; cultivating the society of a few friends of similar habits and congenial disposition; and yielding, when a youth, as ready a submission to discipline, as he was strict to enforce it after he became possessed of power and authority. At that period slight were the encouragements to study; few and distant the rewards of literary excellence in our collegiate establishments: not even an annual examination existed, which might correct sloth and promote industry, by exhibiting the retrogression or advance of the student to the censure or the approbation of his superiors. Even that which was in fact the first and final examination for the degree of A.B., though it had received some considerable improvements, was yet very defective in those methods of investigation, and that spirit of impartiality, which now render it so satisfactory a test both of positive and comparative merit, as far as its jurisdiction extends. Thus, though the collision of superior talents, the hope of ultimate success in the university, or the workings of ambition as it regarded the world at large, could not fail to operate on a part of the academic youth; still that part would be ول |