Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/234

The whole concluded with an Occasional Epilogue spoken by Master Billy Hamilton. As he is a child under Nine years of age, and spoke it with a great deal of Humour and Propriety, it gave inexpressible Satisfaction to the Audience. The Prologue and Epilogue are subjoined; and the Exercises will be published in our future Papers, by particular desire, as they form a regular Treatise on the Sciences. In the Prologue which was spoken by young Duche, occur his lines, addressing the Trustees: You who in polish' d Arts and Merits Shine The Kind protectors of the Sacred Nine, Whose Patriot Toils, your country' s Pride and Grace, Build up her Fame on Virtue' s lasting Base; To you our first Essays in Prose belong, Be you the Patrons of our early Song. J Master Billy Hamilton, who spoke the Epilogue " with a great deal of Humor and Propriety," became the graduate of 1762, and is principally known to us as the builder of Woodlands Mansion, but his political attitude in the Revolution did not afford his fellow citizens any inexpressible satisfaction. We have seen that at the meeting of 30 June, 1755, the Trustees proposed to " visit Mr. Smith's school and inform themselves particularly " in the Branches he taught and the proficiency of his pupils, the result being full satisfaction to them and bringing to a conclusion at their meeting following the question of his salary. And to afford a more public exhibit of his work and display the success of his pupils, he planned a programme for the 22 July, in which many of them could show to their parents and friends the high mark they had reached in learning and composition. A notice of this can best be told in the words of the Pennsylvania Gazette of 3 1 July, which doubtless were contributed in the language of the Provost, whose " Hand digested the whole," as in the Exercises of the previous November, and whose communications for the public eye were the composition of a master in this art. We hear that Philosophical Discourses, on the following Subjects, 1 A MS copy of this performance in Mr. Smith's handwriting is among the Penn Papers on file with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.