General Grammar explains the construction of Language
Here we see the importance placed on rhetoric and the creation of communication. The authors likely included this field of study to ensure that the students would be capable of recognizing persuasive or dangerous language and to use their own to conduct business professionally as well as effectively.
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Apostrophe usage must not have been formally clarified at this point in the Americas.
At the same time no greater obstruction to industrious study could be proposed than the presence, the intrusions, and the noisy turbulence of a Multitude of small boys: and if they are to be placed here for the rudiments of the Languages, they may be so numerous, that its character & Value as an university, will be mixed in those of a Grammar school. It is therefore greatly to be wished, that preliminary schools, either on private or public establishment, would be distributed in districts thro the state, as preparatory to the entrance of Students into the University.
This passage makes it clear that the University is on a different academic level than that of Grammar schools or preliminary schools. Once a student arrives at the University, it is crucial that their intellectual backgrounds (here, in ancient languages) be up to par. In doing so, the University is passively petitioning the state for the creation of a preparatory school to ensure that the students who attend the University are qualified, maximizing the advancement of the arts.