Alexandria Gazette, Commercial And Political

LEARNING.

Learning is the life of reason and the light of nature, where time, orders and measure, square out the true course of knowledge ; where discretion in the temper of passion, brings experience to the best fruit of affection; while both the theory and the practice labour in the life of judgment, till the perfection of art show the honor of understanding. She is the key of knowledge that unlocketh the cabinet of conceit, wherein are laid up the labors of virtue, for the use of the scholars of wisdom : where every gracious spirit may find matter enough worthy of the record of the best memory.

She is the school mistress of wit, and the gentle governor of will, when the delight of understanding gives the comfort of study, She is unpleasing to none that know her, and unprofitable to none that love her. She opens her treasures to the travellers in virtue. but keeps them close from the eyes of idleness. She gives honor to virtue, grace to honor, reward to labor. and love to truth. She is the messenger of wisdom to the minds of the virtuous, and the way to honor in the spirits of the gracious. She is the store house of the understanding in the practice of memory. the makes age honorable and youth admirable. In all ages she hath been and ever will be, the darling of wisdom, the delight of wit. the study of virtue, and the stay of knowledge,

Knowledge is a collection of understanding gathered in the grounds of learning, by the instruction of wisdom, She is the exercise of memory in the actions of the mind, and the employer of the senses in the will of the spirit. She is the notary of time and the trier of truth. She is the pleasure of wit, and the paradise of reason. She is the enemy of Idleness and the maintainer of labor. She declares errors and can not be deceived; corrects impurity and will not be corrected; she converseth with the best capacities, and communicates with the soundest judgment ; dwells with divinest natures. and loves the most patient dispositions: Her hope is a kind of assurance, her faith a continual expectation, her love an apprehension of joy, and her life the light of eternity.