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These are not the times in which

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it is safe for a nation to repose on the lap of ignoIf there ever were a season, when public tranquillity was ensured by the absence of knowledge, that season is past. The convulsed state of the world will not permit unthinking stupidity to sleep, without being appalled by phantoms, and shaken by terrors, to which reason, which defines her objects, and limits her apprehensions, by the reality of things, is a stranger. Every thing in the condition of mankind announces the approach of some great crisis, for which nothing can prepare us but the diffusion of knowledge, probity, and the fear of the Lord. While the world is impelled, with such violence, in opposite directions; while a spirit of giddiness and revolt is shed upon the nations, and the seeds of mutation are so thickly sown, the improvement of the mass of the people will be our grand security; in the neglect of which, the politeness, the refinement, and the knowledge accumulated in the higher orders, weak and unprotected, will be exposed to imminent danger, and perish like a garland in the grasp of popular fury. Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

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WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE HIGHEST ESTEEM,

THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED AT HIS REQUEST,

IS INSCRIBED TO

THE REV. JAMES ROBERTSON,

BY HIS

AFFECTIONATE FRIEND

AND BROTHER,

THE AUTHOR.

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