eir
morals; and the governing part would be easier, and better contented
with a small stipend, and a retired academical life, in a corner from
whence avarice and luxury are excluded, than they can be supposed to be
in the midst of a full trade and great riches, attended with all that
high living and parade which our planters affect, and which, as well as
all fashionable vices, should be far removed from the eyes of the young
American missionaries, who are to lead a life of poverty and
self-denial among their countrymen.

After all, it must be acknowledged, that though every thing else should
concur with our wishes, yet if a set of good governors and teachers be
wanting, who are acquainted with the methods of education, and have the
zeal and ability requisite for carrying on a design of this nature, it
would certainly come to nothing.

An institution of this kind should be set on foot by men of prudence,
spirit, and zeal, as well as competent learning, who should be led to
it by other motives than the necessity of picking up a maintenance. For
upon this view, what man of merit can be supposed to quit his native
country, and take up with a poor college-subsistence in another part of
the world, where there are so many considerable parishes actually void,
and so many others ill supplied for want of fitting incumbents? Is it
likely, that fellowships of fifty or sixty pounds a year should tempt
abler or worthier men, than benefices of many times their value?

And except able and worthy men do first engage in this affair, with a
resolution to exert themselves in forming the manners of the youth, and
giving them a proper education, it is evident the mission and the
college will be but in a very bad way. This inconvenience seems the
most difficult to provide against, and, if not provided against, it
will be the most likely to obstruct any design of this nature. So true
it is, that where ignorance or ill manners once take place in a
seminary, they are sure to be handed down in a succession of illiterate
or worthless men.

But this apprehension, which seems so well grounded, that a college in
any part of America would either lie unprovided, or be worse provided
than their churches are, hath no place in Bermuda; there being at this
time several gentlemen in all respects very well qualified, and in
possession of good preferments, and fair prospects at home, who having
seriously considered the great benefit that may arise to the