“Blest Institution! Nurse of Liberty! My heart, my grateful heart shall burn for thee. No common pride I boast, no common joy, That thy instructions did my youth employ: Tho’ not the first, among thy sons, I prove; Yet well I feel, I’m not the last in love. O may’st thou still in wealth and pow’r encrease, And may thy sacred influence never cease!” Footnote 255a: The late Francis Hopkinson, Esq. See his Poem entitled, _Science_; inscribed to the Trustees, Provost, Vice-Provost, and Professors of the College of Philadelphia, A. D. 1762. ----- It has been already noticed, that the first academic honour conferred on Dr. Rittenhouse, was obtained from the College of Philadelphia: he might therefore consider it as being his _Alma Mater_; and his attachment to that seminary must have been strengthened, by the circumstance of one of his (only two) Orreries having been acquired by it, and its being deposited in the college-edifice. But, besides these considerations, he officiated, for some time, as Vice-provost and a professor in the institution, after it became an University. To the first of these stations, he was elected on the 8th of February, 1780; having been unanimously appointed professer of astronomy, the 16th of December preceding: a salary of one hundred pounds per annum was annexed to the vice-provostship, and three hundred pounds per annum to the professor’s chair. These places Dr. Rittenhouse resigned, the 18th of April 1782. Thus attached to, and connected with, this very respectable seminary of learning, as Dr. Rittenhouse was, the following occurrences in the history of its origin and advancement, will not be deemed uninteresting, by the reader. The Academy and Charitable School, of Philadelphia, originated in the year 1749. This institution, which was opened in that year, was projected by a few private gentlemen; and many others, of the first respectability, gave their countenance to it, as soon as it became known: some of them were, on its first establishment, appointed trustees of the infant seminary.