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    218 Sketch ofthe Life of Dr. Caleb Rothe...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    To The Editor Of The Monthly Repository ...

    Editor , it is plain , from the letter kself , that it could not have been written by ayou th of fifteen without his having received , at Kendal or elsewhere , some very important "

    mathematical" benefit : " and , from the account previously given of his former studies , it appears that he had before this time , entirely devoted his time to the classics , painting , and poetry and that

    he did not even enter the writingschool till 1748 , ( p . xii . ) In the second place , it appears by no mean ^ certai n , ( as neither the name of his correspondent nor the date are given , ) that this letter was ! written while Mr . W . was at

    Kendal , or intended to refe r to the academy there . And , thirdly , if it did , may vye not be permitted to make borne allowances

    tor the flippancy of a youthful writer , under the influence , perhaps , of some temporary pique , rather than suffer it to have any effect in detracting from the wellearned reputation of so approved

    a teacher , both of theoretical and practical mathematics , as Dr . Ifcotherham was universally acknowledged to be ? His eminence in this particular department of science caused the

    academy at Kendal to be eagerly resorted to , not only by students for the ministry , but by many who were afterwards to fill various departments of civil and active life . Arid the writer of this could

    easily show the ingenious author of the ci Memoir / ' from a perusal of papers in the Dr / s own hand-writing , in his possession ,

    that he not only instructed his pupils in the theory of the mathematics and natural philosophy , but also-pdssessed the happy talent of illustrating them with great

    To The Editor Of The Monthly Repository ...

    success , by means of experiments performed with an extensive , and , for that time , welUconstructed apparatus .

    It is impossible , at this distance of time , when there now remains , I believe , not a single pupil alive , who is capable of giving his re . port , to have recourse to any liv ^ ing testimony on the subject : but if the Dr . at the time when Mr .

    Walker was at Kendal , was really less active in the practical applu cation of the principles which he taught his pupils , it would be only fair to attribute this to the ill state of health under

    vyhich be then laboured . It yriW appear from the following biographical sketch , that his health began to decline early in 1751 ; that he was obliged to

    dismiss his pupils and break up his academy in the course of that year , and that he died the year following at Hexham , to which place he had retired for the benefit of hav .

    ing the advice of his son , then a p hysician in that town , and after . wards many years at Newcastle . These reiharks I do not offer

    in the way of censure upon the in . genious author of the * - * Memoir /' who , I dare say , reported accord * ing to the best judgment he could form from the materials before

    him : but only to guard your readers against an inference from a passage in a , private letter from one youth to another , unfavourable to the reputation of a man who

    stood deservedly hieh in his day among the friends of liberty , truth , and science ; and to whom the Dissenters of the last age were indebted for a great number of their most eminent ministers . Oi this the annexed list of ministers , educated at Kendal , interspersed

    218 Sketch Ofthe Life Of Dr. Caleb Rothe...

    218 Sketch ofthe Life of Dr . Caleb Rotherham .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1810, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02051810/page/2/