15 Class met a new committee, I not one of them. 16 began 2d book of Euclid Left of reciting Fridays. 17 Foster preach'd forenoon Appleton after. 18 Juniors disputed forensically, we did not dispute. 19 made arguments, news of Du Quesne. 21 had a dance at Bradfords Chamber, my Chum at Boston all night. 22 Freshman began to Declaim. 23 Cato brought me some wood, very cold. 26 began 3d book of Euclid. 27 Corporation met President sick. 31 Club at my Chamber, Saturday night. The Dedham Historical Register, 1890 (Dedham, 1890), I, No. 1, pp. 10–16. 96. A Skit on College Examinations (1784) BY FRANCIS HOPKINSON Hopkinson, member of the Continental Congress, and later a judge in Pennsylvania, was one of the earliest humorous writers in America, as well as a famous contributor to the polemic literature of the Revolution. - Bibliography: Tyler, Literary History of the Revolution, II, 131-157.—On colleges, see Nos. 90, 95 above. PROF. METAPHYSICS. WHAT is a SALT-BOX? STU. It is a box made to contain salt. WHA PROF. How is it divided? STU. Into a salt-box, and a box of salt. PROF. Very well!- shew the distinction. STU. A salt-box may be where there is no salt; but salt is absolutely necessary to the existence of of a box of salt. PROF. Are not salt-boxes otherwise divided? : PROF. What is the use of this partition? PROF. HOW?-think a little. STU. To separate the fine salt from the coarse. PROF. To be sure it is to separate the fine from the coarse: but are not salt-boxes yet otherwise distinguished? STU. Yes into possible, probable and positive. STU. A possible salt-box is a salt-box yet unsold in the hands of the joiner. PROF. Why so? STU. Because it hath never yet become a salt-box in fact, having never had any salt in it; and it may possibly be applied to some other use. PROF. Very true : for a salt-box which never had, hath not now, and perhaps never may have, any salt in it, can only be termed a possible salt-box. What is a probable salt-box? STU. It is a salt-box in the hand of one going to a shop to buy salt, and who hath six-pence in his pocket to pay the grocer: and a positive salt-box is one which hath actually and bona fide got salt in it. PROF. Very good :— but is there no instance of a positive salt-box which hath no salt in it? STU. I know of none. PROF. Yes there is one mentioned by some authors: it is where a box hath by long use been so impregnated with salt, that although all the salt hath been long since emptied out, it may yet be called a saltbox, with the same propriety that we say a salt herring, salt beef, &c. And in this sense any box that may have accidentally, or otherwise, been long steeped in brine, may be termed positively a salt-box, although never designed for the purpose of keeping salt. But tell me, what other division of salt-boxes do you recollect? STU. They are further divided into substantive and pendant: a substantive salt-box is that which stands by itself on the table or dresser; and a pendant is that which hangs upon a nail against the wall. PROF. What is the idea of a salt-box? STU. It is that image which the mind conceives of a salt-box, when no salt-box is present. PROF. What is the abstract idea of a salt-box? STU. It is the idea of a salt-box, abstracted from the idea of a box, or of salt, or of a salt-box, or of a box of salt. PROF. Very right:—and by these means you acquire a most perfect knowledge of a salt-box: but tell me, is the idea of a salt-box a salt idea? STU. Not unless the ideal box hath ideal salt in it. PROF. True: - and therefore an abstract idea cannot be either salt T or fresh; round or square; long or short: for a true abstract idea must be entirely free of all adjuncts. And this shews the difference between a salt idea, and an idea of salt. Is an aptitude to hold salt an essential or an accidental property of a salt-box? STU. It is essential; but if there should be a crack in the bottom of the box, the aptitude to spill salt would be termed an accidental property of that salt-box. PROF. Very well! very well indeed! What is the salt called with respect to the box? STU. It is called its contents. PROF. And why so? STU. Because the cook is content quoad hoc to to find plenty of salt in the box. PROF. You are very right-I see you have not mispent your time: but let us now proceed to LOGIC. PROF. How many parts are there in a salt-box? STU. Three. Bottom, top, and sides. PROF. How many modes are there in salt-boxes? STU. Four. The formal, the substantial, the accidental, and the topsey-turvey. PRO. Define these several modes, STU. The formal respects the figure or shape of the box, such as round, square, oblong, and so forth; the substantial respects the work of the joiner; and the accidental depends upon the string by which the box is hung against the wall. PROF. Very well — And what are the consequences of the accidental mode? STU. If the string should break the box would fall, the salt be spilt, the salt-box broken, and the cook in a bitter passion: and this is the accidental mode with its consequences. PROF. How do you distinguish between the top and bottom of a salt-box? STU. The top of a box is that part which is uppermost, and the bottom that part which is lowest in all positions. PROF. You should rather say the lowest part is the bottom, and the uppermost part is the top. How is it then if the bottom should be the uppermost? STU. The top would then be the lowermost; and the bottom would become the top, and the top would become the bottom: and this is called the topsey-turvey mode, which is nearly allied to the accidental, and frequently arises from it. PROF. Very good — But are not salt-boxes sometimes single and sometimes double? STU. Yes. PROF. Well, then mention the several combinations of salt-boxes with respect to their having salt or not. STU. They are divided into single salt-boxes having salt; single saltboxes having no salt; double salt-boxes having salt; double salt-boxes having no salt; and single double salt-boxes having salt and no salt. PROF. Hold! hold!—you are going too far. Gov. We cannot allow further time for logic, proceed if you please to NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. PROF. Pray Sir, what is a salt-box? STU. It is a combination of matter, fitted, framed, and joined by the hands of a workman in the form of a box, and adapted to the purpose of receiving, containing, and retaining salt. PROF. Very good What are the mechanical powers concerned in the construction of a salt-box? STU. The ax, the saw, the plane, and the hammer. PROF.... Have not some philosophers considered glue as one of the mechanical powers? STU. Yes; and it is still so considered, but it is called an inverse mechanical power: because, whereas it is the property of the direct mechanical powers to generate motion, and separate parts; glue, on the contrary, prevents motion, and keeps the parts to which it is applied fixed to each other. . . . ... PROF. Is the saw only used in slitting timber into boards? STU. Yes, it is also employed in cutting boards into lengths. PROF. Not lengths: a thing cannot properly be said to have been cut into lengths. STU. Into shortnesses. PROF. Certainly into shortnesses. Well, what are the mechanical laws of the hammer? Gov. The time wastes fast; pass on to another science. Francis Hopkinson, Miscellaneous Essays (Philadelphia, 1792), I, 340-349 passim. 97. CHAPTER XV-RELIGIOUS LIFE "The State of Religion in the Jerseys" (1700) BY LEWIS MORRIS For Morris, see No. 65 above. Bibliography of religious affairs: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 243-245; Tyler, American Literature, II, 210-212; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 106.- For previous history of the Jerseys, see Contemporaries, I, ch. xxv. THE HE Province of East Jersey has in it Ten Towns, (viz.) Middletown, Freehold, Amboy, Piscataway and Woodbridge, Elizabeth Town, Newark, Aqueckenonck, and Bergen, and I Judge in the whole Province there may be about Eight thousand souls. These Towns are not like the towns in England, the houses built close together on a small spot of ground, but they include large portions of the Country of 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 miles in length, and as much in breadth, and all the Settlements within such State and bounds is said to be within such a Township, but in most of those townships there is some place where a part of the Inhabitants sat down nearer together than the rest, and confined themselves to smaller portions of ground, and the town is more peculiarly designed by that Settlement. Those towns and the whole province was peopl❜d mostly from the adjacent colonies of New York and New England, and generally by Those of very narrow fortunes, and such as could not well subsist in the places they left. And if such people could bring any religion with them, it was that of the Country they came from, and the State of them is as follows: : BERGEN, and the out Plantations are most Dutch, and were settled from New York and the United Provinces they are pretty equally divided into Calvinist and Lutheran, they have one pretty little Church, and are a sober people, there are a few English Dissenters mixt among them. AQUECKENONCK was peopl'd from New York also, they are Dutch mostly and generally Calvinist. EEIZABETH TOWN & NEWARK, were peopled from New England, are generally Independents, they have a meeting house in each town for |