A General Idea of the College of Mirania; with a sketch of the Method of Teaching Science and Religion, in the several classes and some account of its rise, establishment and buildings. Address'd more immediately to the consideration of the trustees nominated, by the Legislature, to receive proposals etc. relating to the establishment of a college in the province of New York

1753 [Smith, William] (1727-1803). A General Idea of the College of Mirania; With A Sketch of the Method of Teaching Science and Religion, in the several Classes: And Some Account of Rise, Establishment and Buildings. Address’d more immediately to the Consideration of the Trustees nominated, by the Legislature, to receive Proposals &c. relating to the Establishment of a College in the Province of NEW-YORK. New-York: Ptd. by J. Parker and W. Weyman. Rpt. New York: Johnson Reprint, 1969 with an “Introduction” by Edward M. Griffin (v-xv); and in The Works of William Smith, D.D. Late Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia. 2 vols. (Philadelphia, PA: Hugh Maxwell and William Fry, 1803), 1: 165-229. The 2^nd ed. corrected was published as A General Idea of the College of Mirania as Appendix Second. Number I of his Additional Discourses and Essays. Being a Supplement To the First Edition of Discourses on several Public Occasions during the War in America. Published for the Use of the Purchasers of that Edition. London: Ptd. for A. Millar and R. Griffiths, 1762. The appendices are separately paged with Mirania on 37-106 with “Postscript” on 104-06. L, O, PSt

Eutopian educational system. The Miranians believe that a good education is required for a good society and that a common education is needed to bring together the varied peoples who inhabited the country. The students were divided into two groups taught by different people in separate institutions, those intended for the learned professions and those intended for “Mechanic Professions, and all the remaining People of the Country” (14). The first are taught learned languages; the rest are not and finish their education at age fifteen. Those intended for the professions are taught English and Latin to age 15 then one year each of Greek; mathematics; philosophy, meaning ethics and physics; rhetoric and poetry; and agriculture and history. Much concern with the ability to speak and write well. Includes specific details of the education of the first group. Although there is an earlier Christian allegory, this is the earliest known utopia published in what became the United States. Influenced the founders of both King’s College, now Columbia University, and the Academy and College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania. The author was born in Scotland and educated there and from 1751 lived in the U.S. He was the first Professor of Ethics of the Academy of Philadelphia and the first Provost of the College of Philadelphia. Later he founded Washington College in Chestertown, MD. He was also an ordained Church of England minister.