THE UNIVERSAL PRECEPTOR; BEING A GENERAL GRAMMAR OF ARTS, SCIENCES, AND USEFUL KNOWLEDGE. fur Fir Richard Preli BY THE REV. DAVID BLAIR; FOURTH AMERICAN EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY EDWARD PARKER, No. 178, MARKET STREET. District of Pennsylvania, to wit: St 43 BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the 5th day of November, in the forty-second year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1817, Edward & Richard Parker, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "The Universal Preceptor; being a General Grammar of Arts, Sciences, and Useful Knowledge. By the Rev. David Blair; author of the Class-Book, English Grammar, Models of Juvenile Letters, Reading Exercises, and Grammar of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Second American edition, with additions and improvements." In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;" and also an act entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.' D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. TO THE SECOND AMERICAN EDITION. THE Publishers of the second American editio.. of this valuable work of the Rev. D. Blair, ano which is taken from the eighth British edition, feel gratified in believing that they are rendering to the American public a service of no inconsiderable value. From the prosperous state of science in the United States, its growing energies and the increasing number of seminaries for the education of youth, both of a private and public nature, it is obvious, that nothing can be more important and useful than an able and well-digested system, embracing in a clear, correct, and comprehensive form the first rudiments of the various sciences. This desirable object appears to be at length fully effected in the work now offered to the public. The number of editions through which it has passed in England, is a proof of the estimation in which it is there held: and the Publishers must be allowed to state, that in this edition, not only the errors incident to all works of so comprehensive a nature have been diligently corrected, but that several gentlemen of science, impressed with the utility of the work, have bestowed much pains not only in the corrections, but in contributing additional matter and entirely newmodelling many of the heads and sections, and thus rendering the whole work decidedly superior to all the foreign editions. PREFACE. THE author of this work has been many years anxious to achieve his present undertaking. His experience, reason, and feelings, prove to him, that, in the progress of education, young persons ought to be enabled to acquire correct general views on all subjects, which may serve as food for the mind in afterlife, and as the bases of further studies in such branches of knowledge, as, at a future period, may gratify their tastes, or accord with their interests. Early education cannot make adepts in any branch of science; at least, without sacrificing every other subject to one: it ought, therefore, to embrace the elements of general knowledge, as the true means of enlarging and exercising the understanding, and qualifying it to engage with advantage in any peculiar pursuit. To fill the storehouse of the memory, is the rational business of education; and, at a season of life, when the powers of reason have not acquired a useful degree of action. Nor will such general instruction interfere with particular studies, if the tutor be provided with a |