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CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
CLASSICAL STUDY: 
 
 ITS 
 
 YALUE ILLXJSTRATED 
 
 BY EXTRACTS FROM THE 
 
 WRITINGS OF EMINENT SCHOLARS. 
 
 EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL H. TAYLOR, LL.D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF PHILLIPS ACADKMT. 
 
 '^? THE ^ 
 
 ANDOVER: 
 WARREN P. DRAPER, 
 
 MAIN STREET. 
 
 1870. 
 
LC100 3 
 T'6 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 WARREN F. DRAPER, 
 
 In the C3erit*5 0£Bce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 t^CJJ 
 
 AN DOVER : 
 FRINTSD BY WARREN F. DRAPER. 
 
(TJiriVBESITTl 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 Opposition to the Study of the Classics is not new. 
 It has existed in every country where they have 
 formed a part of the educational course. In Germany 
 and Prussia the conflict was at one period long and 
 spirited between the supporters and opposers of class- 
 ical learning. Temporarily the latter triumphed ; but 
 at length the influence of the government, and of the 
 people generally, advocated the study. Since that time, 
 however, the subject has been agitated anew there ; and 
 the dispute is not yet settled, nor may we expect it 
 soon to be, though the study is very generally and suc- 
 cessfully prosecuted. Of late in England the war has 
 been bitter ; and more recently the strife has revived 
 in Scotland. In our own country the discussion began 
 early. More than eighty years ago. Dr. Benjamin 
 Rush published " Observations on the Study of the 
 Latin and Greek Languages," in which he says : " The 
 expulsion of Latin and Greek from our schools would 
 produce a revolution in society and in human affairs. 
 That nation which shall first shake off* the fetters of 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 those ancient languages will advance further in knowl- 
 edge and happiness in twenty years than any nation 
 in Europe has done in a hundred." 
 
 Forty years later, a series of spirited papers, bearing 
 the signature " Rumford," appeared in the Boston 
 Centinel, which were collected and published in 1824, 
 making a pamphlet of one hundred and forty pages. 
 The author of these Essays maintains ' that the dead 
 languages are no guide to the signification of English 
 words ' ; ' no guide to English grammar ' ; ' no benefit 
 to style ' ; ' that classical literature is of little value as 
 a source of knowledge ' ; ' that classical studies are not 
 the best means of strengthening the understanding ' ; 
 * and of not much value as a facility to foreign living 
 languages.' 
 
 Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, of Charleston, South Car- 
 olina, an accomplished scholar, long a faithful and 
 successful student of the Classics, says, in a note to 
 an address on the Character and Objects of Science, 
 delivered in 1827 : " The reflections and experience of 
 twenty years have led me gradually and irresistibly to 
 the conclusion that the best interests of education 
 require a total revolution on this subject " — the study 
 of the Classics. " I would rather have a young man 
 deeply imbued with the spirit, thoroughly instructed in 
 the principles, and enriched with the knowledge to be 
 gathered from the eminent authors of the British 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 school, than that he should be the most accomplished 
 classical scholar in the Union, nay in the world." " I 
 desire to record here emphatically my opinion, founded 
 on the history of my own mind, and the experience of 
 twenty years, that I have derived no substantial im- 
 provement from the Classics." And in an address 
 delivered seven years later, he says : " The whole sys- 
 tem of education is destined to undergo an American 
 Revolution, in a higher and holier sense of the term 
 than that of '76, by the substitution of a complete 
 Christian American education for the strange and 
 anomalous compound of the spirit of ancient, foreign, 
 heathen states of society, with the genius of modern, 
 American Christian institutions." 
 
 In view of the high position and scholarship of the 
 author, sentiments like these, earnestly uttered in dif- 
 ferent parts of the country, had considerable influence, 
 and shook the faith of some in the old curriculum. 
 These views mainly were the occasion of the able 
 Article, in defence of the Classics, in the Southern 
 Review, by Hon. Hugh S. Legar^, a part of which 
 forms the third chapter of this volume. Other chap- 
 ters owe their origin to similar causes. 
 
 In 1827, a resolution was passed at a meeting of the 
 President and Fellows of Yale College, appointing a 
 committee to consider the expediency of dispensing 
 with the study of the dead languages. Though this 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 committee reported against any change in the course, 
 the appointment itself is evidence of a diflference in the 
 public mind in relation to classical learning. At nearly 
 the same time Amherst College proposed two parallel 
 courses for graduation — one to include, the other to 
 omit, the Classics, but substituting other studies for 
 them. The parallel course, however, was soon aban- 
 doned and the Classics required as a part of the curri- 
 culum. 
 
 The general agitation of the subject of classical 
 study at this time, forced upon the conductors of the 
 American Educational Society the consideration of the 
 question of requiring candidates for the ministry under 
 its patronage to study the Classics. Professor Stuart, 
 of the Theological Seminary, Andover, was requested 
 by the officers of the Society to publish his views on 
 the subject. This he did in an able Essay on the value 
 of Classical Study, which was published in the Quar- 
 terly Journal of the American Education Society for 
 July, 1828. 
 
 The discussions elicited by the objections raised 
 against the study of the Classics settled the question in 
 their favor for many years. A considerable number 
 of addresses in their defence were published ; and able 
 articles of the same tenor appeared in the journals of 
 the day. 
 
 Within a few years past the discussion has been 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 revived. The English Schools Commission in prosecut- 
 ing their investigations found great defects and abuses 
 in the study ; and the inference was too readily and too 
 illogically drawn here that there was a similar perver- 
 sion and waste of time in the acquisition of classical 
 learning among us. The developments in England 
 called forth " Classical and Scientific Studies," by Pro- 
 fessor W. P. Atkinson. Soon after, " Kemarks on 
 Classical and Utilitarian Studies," by Dr. Jacob Bige- 
 low, appeared ; and at nearly the same time the collec- 
 tion of Essays on " The Culture demanded by Modern 
 Life," edited by Dr. Youmans ; and still later, from 
 the other side of the Atlantic, " Essays on Liberal 
 Education," edited by Eev. P. W. Farrar. The tone 
 and tendency of all these is to depreciate the value of 
 Classical Study, and to dissuade rather than to incline 
 the young to enter upon it, though the writers re- 
 ferred to concede, to some extent, the advantages to 
 be derived from the study. Besides, the popular jour- 
 nals often question and disparage the usefulness of 
 such studies, and create in the public mind a distrust 
 in courses of study which, in the judgment of the most 
 competent teachers, are deemed necessary for the best 
 discipline of the mind. Within the last year three 
 journals, within the space of three weeks said : " Scien- 
 tific education will steadily supplant classical education 
 during the next half century. Step by step the cham- 
 
xu mXROPUCTION. 
 
 pions of classical training are retreating from their 
 oldest, if not their strongest, positions." " Our educa- 
 tional institutions, as far as classical education is con- 
 cerned, have no apologists, but are assailed equally by 
 men of science and by scholars." " The sciences are 
 of infinitely more consequence to young men of the 
 country than Greek roots." A teacher at the annual 
 meeting of the Massachusetts Teachers, one year ago, 
 said that the study of the Classics was conducting us 
 back to barbarism ; and a member of the School Com- 
 mittee in one of the towns in the State, and occupying 
 one of the highest positions as a teacher, has aflfirmed 
 that six months was sufficient for the study of Latin, 
 and three months was better. And from abroad we 
 hear the bold position taken by a gentleman^ of dis- 
 tinguished ability and culture : " Our education does 
 not communicate to us knowledge, does not commu- 
 nicate to us the means of obtaining knowledge, does 
 not communicate to us the means of communicating 
 knowledge." 
 
 The views thus strongly and confidently expressed 
 against the utility of classical studies, need to be met 
 by counter statements and opinions, or many of the 
 young will be misled and prejudiced against a course 
 of study which is adapted to give the best training 
 and the broadest culture. It is fitting, therefore, to 
 
 1 Hon. Robert Lowe, on Primary and Classical Education. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XlU 
 
 present here in brief the expressed opinions of eminent 
 scholars who look at the subject from a point of view 
 wholly different from that given above. In the fair 
 balancing of the evidence, it will not be difficult to 
 determine on which side the weight of authority rests : 
 
 " Classical studies are, in truth, beyond comparison, 
 the most essential of all ; conducting, as they do, to 
 the knowledge of human nature, which they bring us 
 to consider under all its variety of aspects and rela- 
 tions ; at one time in the language and literature of 
 nations who have left behind them traces of their 
 existence and glory; at another, in the frequent 
 vicissitudes of history which continually renovate and 
 improve society ; and finally, in the philosophy which 
 reveals to us the simple elements and the uniform 
 organization of that wondrous being whom history, 
 literature, and language successfully clothe in forms 
 the most diversified, and yet always bearing on some 
 more or less important part of his internal constitution. 
 Classical studies maintain the sacred tradition of the 
 intellectual and moral life of our species. To cripple, 
 far more to destroy them, would in my eyes be an 
 act of barbarism, an audacious attempt to arrest true 
 civilization, a sort of high treason against humanity." ^ 
 
 " The study of ancient literature, if properly 
 directed, is absolutely the best means towards a liar- 
 
 1 Victor Cousin, as quoted by Professor Pillans, Lectures, p. 38. 
 b 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 monious development of the faculties — the one end 
 of all liberal education ; yet this means is not always 
 relatively the best, when circumstances do not allow 
 of its full and adequate application." ^ 
 
 " There are other advantages besides the intrinsic 
 merit of the ancient Classics, amply sufficient to repay 
 us for devoting a few years to the study of Greek and 
 Latin." " We know no kind of labor so well adapted 
 to the general improvement of the faculties in early 
 youth." 2 
 
 " Familiarity with the Greek and Roman writers is 
 / especially adapted to form the taste, and to discipline 
 the mind, both in thought and diction, to the relish of 
 what is elevated, chaste, and simple. The compositions 
 which these writers have left us, both in prose and 
 verse, whether considered in reference to structure, 
 style, modes of illustration, or general execution, 
 approach nearer than any others to what the human 
 mind, when thoroughly informed and disciplined, of 
 course approves ; and constitute what it is most desir- 
 able to possess, a standard of determining literary 
 merit." " Classical discipline forms the best prepara- 
 tion for professional study." " The study forms the 
 most effectual discipline of the mental faculties."^ 
 
 " Is the pursuit of classical literature worth the time 
 
 1 Sir William Hamilton, Discussions on Philosophy, p. 329, Eng. ed. 
 
 2 Edward Everett, North American Review, Vol. xi. pp. 415, 416. 
 8 Professor Kingsley, Silliman's Journal, Vol. xv. pp. 829, 830. 
 
L 
 
 INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 expended on it? From the deepest and fullest con- 
 victions of my heart, I answer, Yes. I would I could 
 answer so loud as to be heard in every part of my 
 country." " I have never yet engaged in any exercise . 
 which afforded more salutary discipline of this sort" — 
 the ability to command words to express exactly the 
 shades of ideas — '' than that of translating difficult 
 passages from a foreign language. I have sometimes 
 spent whole hours on even a preposition or an adverb ; 
 but I am very certain that few of my hours have been 
 spent to better purpose, in their influence over the 
 habits of the mind." ^ -\ 
 
 " It is our glorious privilege to- follow the track of 
 those who have adorned the history of mankind, to 
 feel as they have felt, to think as they have thought, 
 and to draw from the living fountain of their genius. 
 Wonderful and mysterious is the intellectual com- 
 munion we hold with them." ^ 
 
 "Destroy the ancient Greek and Latin authors, if 
 you aim at absolute dominion ; because, if those are 
 read, principles of liberty and just sentiments of the 
 dignity and rights of mankind must be imbibed." ^ 
 
 " With one voice we should respond to every ruth- j 
 less attempt to tear from our college course the study 1 
 
 1 Professor Stuart, Journal of American Education Society, July, 1828, 
 pp. 89,91. 
 
 2 Professor Adam Sedgwick. A Discourse on the Studies of the Uni- 
 versity. 8 Hobbs. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Greek and Latin languages : Procul, procul 
 eate profani." ^ 
 
 " I [have] labored to remove unfounded prejudices 
 that exist against such [classical] studies, and to place 
 them in their true light, as a fruitful source of pleasure 
 and instruction; as laying the most solid foundation 
 of every other part of learning ; as calculated to refine 
 our taste, strengthen our mental faculties, humanize 
 our manners and conversation, grace and adorn all our 
 other acquirements." 2 
 
 "I hope the day is far distant when the study of 
 classical literature will cease to be essential to the 
 education of the English gentleman ; and that whatever 
 changes, in this reforming age, may be made in our 
 universities and public schools, classical literature will 
 stand as the foundation on which everything else is 
 based. For, whether we regard the language as a 
 means of sharpening the intellectual faculties, or the 
 literature as a means of elevating and purifying the 
 taste, it would be easy to show that no subject could take 
 their place, or accomplish the objects which they effect." ^ 
 
 " Let not the University, however, be understood as 
 placing a slight value on the ancient Classics, and as 
 implying that the study of them may be dispensed with 
 
 1 Professor R. B. Patton, Biblical Repository, January, 1837. 
 
 2 Professor N. F. Moore, Columbia College, Lectures, p. 35. 
 
 8 Dr. William Smith, in Davidson's Classical Scholarship, p. 241. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xvii 
 
 as generally unprofitable. By no means. We have a 
 veneration for them, deep and abiding. We esteem 
 classical learning as one of the most pure and elevating 
 pursuits in which the mind of man can be engaged.^ 
 !He who would imbibe a lofty spirit of generous and 
 heroic virtue, a true and ardent love of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty, a refined taste, a well-ordered intellect, 
 and a free exercise of the combined graces and strength 
 of oratorical language, let him drink deep and long 
 at the full fountain of Greek and Roman literature." ^ 
 
 " I know of no mental operation more widely and 
 generally wholesome than the rendering of a compact 
 Latin paragraph into nervous, idiomatic English; 
 unless it be that of rendering a passage from a good 
 native author into terse, pointed, accurate Latin." ^ 
 
 ''For my part, believing that the greatest achieve- 
 ments of philology are yet to be won, and her most 
 powerful instruments yet to be forged, I liold, with 
 Max Miiller, that educationally and socially the study of 
 antiquity is more important than ever it was, and with 
 Rothe, that no substitute can ever be found for it." ^ 
 
 " I am fully conscious of the great value of classical 
 education, if it can be carried far enough. If a man 
 can continue his general education to the age of two 
 
 1 Hon. James Talmadge, at the Dedication of the Chapel of the Uni- 
 versity of New York. 
 
 2 Professor D 'Arcy W. Thompson, Wayside Thoughts, p. 249. 
 
 3 John E. B. Mayor, in Preface to Greek Reader, pp. 1, li. 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 or three and twenty, it is well worth his while to be a 
 classical scholar. Those who wish a superior edu- 
 cation cannot neglect the Classics." ^ 
 
 "The study of science cultivates only one faculty, 
 or set of faculties, but cultivates it more effectually 
 than the study of language, — gives it, so to speak, 
 a finer edge. The study of language, if properly 
 conducted, besides its peculiar uses, cultivates all the 
 faculties ; though it cannot cultivate any one of them 
 so effectually as .the science appropriate to that faculty 
 would do. Hence the study of languages, properly 
 conducted, will do more for intellectual culture than 
 any other single study ; nevertheless, the culture at- 
 tainable by the study of languages alone is very 
 defective." ^ 
 
 Question. " Why do you attach importance to 
 Latin ? " 
 
 Answer. " A boy can scarcely learn any science 
 without the aid of Latin ; in fact, in every turn he 
 takes there is a difficulty. He cannot even pick up a 
 botanical book but he is at sea, if he does not know 
 Latin ; and it is the same with chemistry. In fact, a 
 third of our own language is more or less connected 
 with it. If he wants to learn French, and has learned 
 Latin, he has half learned his French. Unless a boy 
 
 1 D. R. Fearon's Report, English Schools Commission, Vol. vii. p. 292. 
 
 2 Rev. R. I. Bryce, LL.D., Principal of Belfast Academy — Schools Com- 
 mission Reports, Vol. v. p. 869. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 learns a dead language, I have come to the conclusion 
 that if you give him ever so much mathematics, he 
 never gets the faculty of expressing himself as if he 
 had learned one of the dead languages ; and, of the 
 
 two, I should prefer Latin If you take a book 
 
 like Caesar, and take one of those long sentences, aiid 
 make a boy carry on his mind the connection from the 
 beginning to the end of it, you have done a great deal ; 
 you have brought the boy to think more than you 
 could in any other way." ^ 
 
 '' You would, then, like to teach Greek and Latin 
 to those who are destined to become small tradesmen, 
 and so on?" "I would teach those languages to 
 peasants, if I had the means and the staff." ^ 
 
 " I could not put any subject that I am accustomed 
 to teach before Latin in point of utility to the mind."^ 
 
 " The Classics give by far the best mental train- 
 ing." ^ 
 
 " I should not be at all inclined to impair the teach- 
 ing of Latin in any way ; because I consider that 
 Latin is a md§t valuable thing to teach. It is the 
 most precise language. Therefore I should not give 
 
 1 Mr. EdmoncI Edmunds, a resident of Rugby — Schools Commission 
 Reports, Vol. v. p. 487. 
 
 2 Fred. W. Wallver, M.A., Head Master of Grammar School at Manches- 
 ter— Ibid. Vol. v. p. 216. 
 
 3 Rev. Wm. Charles Williams, B.D., Xorth London Collegiate School — 
 Schools Commission Reports, Vol. iv. p. 500. 
 
 * Rev. Joshua Jones — Ibid. Vol. iv. p. 591. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 English as much time as Latin, for the simple reason 
 that I think it might be taught more easily." ^ 
 
 " Schoolmasters were almost unanimous in regarding 
 Latin as their chief educational instrument."^ So, too, 
 " lawyers, medical men, farmers, engineers, agreed in 
 wishing that a certain amount of Latin should form 
 a part of the preliminary education for their several 
 occupations." 3 Indeed, the great bulk of the witnesses 
 before the Committee of the Schools Commission gave 
 a preference to the study of language as a means of 
 mental discipline. 
 
 The value of classical study is illustrated still fur- 
 ther by statements which go to show more directly its 
 adaptation to discipline the mind, and prepare it for 
 the practical duties of life. 
 
 Dr. Jager, director of the Frederic William Gym- 
 nasium, at Cologne, a mixed school, with both the 
 classical course and classes in real or practical studies, 
 and, from being at the head of the two different de- 
 partments, well qualified to judge, " assured me it was 
 the universal opinion that the Bealschulen were not at 
 present successful institutions. He declared that the 
 boys in the corresponding forms of the classical school 
 beat the Bealschule boys in matters which both do 
 alike, such as history, geography, the mother tongue, 
 
 1 G. W. Dasent, D.C.L., Ibid. Vol. v. p. 528. 
 
 2 Ibid. Vol. i. p. 24. « Ibid. Vol. i. p. 25. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 and even French, though to French the Bealschide 
 boys devote so far more time than their comrades of 
 the classical school. The reason for this, Dr. Jager 
 afHrms, is that the classical training strengthens a 
 boy's mind so much more. This is what, as I have 
 already said, the chief school authorities everywhere 
 in France and Germany testify. I quote Dr. Jager's 
 testimony in particular, because of his ability, and 
 because of his double experience." ^ 
 
 " Even mathematicians find that students from a 
 good gymnasium make better progress than those who 
 come from practical high schools where the Classics are 
 excluded." 2 
 
 "I have known cases where the leading prizes in 
 French and German have been monopolized by leading 
 prize-holders in Latin and Greek, although among 
 their competitors have been lads whose linguistic 
 studies have been confined almost entirely to the 
 modern tongues." ^ 
 
 " Not a few [schoolmasters] declared that boys who * 
 had learned Latin beat boys who did not know Latin, 
 even in other subjects in which Latin had no direct 
 connection." ^ 
 
 "^ I have heard tradesmen express their gratitude 
 
 1 Matthew Arnold's Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 221. 
 
 2 Professor Frederic Thiersch. 
 
 8 Professor D 'Arcy W. Thompson, Wayside Thought^ p^j3.46. 
 * Schools Commission Reports, Vol. 1. p. 24. ^=. :"; . - , , " "*^ 
 
 /f"^^ OF THK ' sfi^ 
 
 (fUiriVERSITT^ 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for the training of a classical school ; they had found 
 it of practical benefit in after life."^ 
 
 ** Do you think that, looking to the position of those 
 who go behind the counter at the age of fourteen or 
 fifteen, you would still make Latin generally one ele- 
 ment in theu* education ? Yes, I would." ^ 
 
 It has also been said by a writer of high authority, 
 that business men in Germany prefer those who have 
 been educated in the regular gymnasia to those edu- 
 cated in the Realschulen. 
 
 The following statements, made at the Philological 
 Association at Poughkeepsie, in July last, by Professor 
 Boise of Chicago University, but for many years of the 
 University of Michigan, are valuable here ; the more 
 valuable from the fact that the two parallel courses of 
 study have not had so fair a trial elsewhere in our 
 country. Two such courses were organized at Ann 
 'Arbor about seventeen years since. "The so-called 
 scientific course embraces the modern languages, 
 sciences, history, etc. — all those studies which are 
 claimed to be specially practical, but excluding the 
 ancient languages. All the Professors have given a 
 fair share of their time and strength to that course, 
 except the two Professors of the ancient languages. 
 
 1 John E. B. Mayor, Preface to Greek Reader, p. xliv. 
 
 2 Rev. J. Collingwood Bruce, LL.D.— Schools Commission Reports, Vol. 
 v.p. 761. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxiii 
 
 The results, after a long and fair trial, have been some- 
 what as follows : 
 
 " 1. The number of the students in the scientific 
 course has generally, I think always, remained con- 
 siderably less than in the classical. 
 
 "2. Nearly every year several students have left the 
 scientific course, have gone back and begun the study 
 of Latin and Greek, and prepared themselves for the 
 classical course. 
 
 " 3. The classical graduates have been much more 
 fortunate in obtaining responsible and lucrative posi- 
 tions than the scientij&c. 
 
 "A member of the last class with which I was 
 connected at Ann Arbor, that of '68, has given me 
 the names of ten men — nearly a third of the classical 
 section — who obtained at once on their graduation 
 salaries ranging from one thousand to seventeen hun- 
 dred dollars a year. Not one of the scientific men, 
 so far as he has been able to ascertain, obtained so 
 large a salary. Thus in financial value a classical 
 education is superior, not to speak of its superiority in 
 other and far more important respects." 
 
 The recent opposition to classical study, both in 
 England and this country, is due in part to the prac- 
 tical character of the age, which attaches special 
 value to studies that meet its immediate demand; 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 partly to the rapid progress of physical science, which 
 has given unwonted interest to that always attractive 
 department of study; but chiefly to the fact that, 
 generally, the study has not been conducted in such a 
 manner as to give the best results of classical training. 
 Rich as the mine is, it does not yield its treasures 
 without the right kind of working. The highest bene- 
 fits of classical study fail to be attained on several 
 grounds : 
 
 1. The end to be aimed at is often overlooked. The 
 study is in many cases undertaken and prosecuted 
 with a view of gaining admission to college, and of 
 completing the course there required. This end may 
 be gained with very little critical scholarship, and very 
 little mental discipline. Our system of education 
 looks too much to the more immediate results, and 
 too little to the more permanent and more valuable. 
 Education is not so much knowledge as the preparation 
 for knowledge. The course of study referred to, 
 therefore, should have no such narrow end in view. 
 It should be so conducted as to lay the broadest foun- 
 dation for subsequent studies, and for the best results 
 of life : to secure the most critical scholarship, the best 
 discipline, and the finest culture at every step in the 
 course. 
 
 2. There is often a misapprehension and neglect of 
 the kind of work to be done. The feeling is widely 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 prevalent that the mere reading is the chief thing to 
 he attained, while all that gives the most critical 
 training, and cultivates the taste — peculiarities in 
 construction, or modes of expression — are looked 
 upon as of minor importance. This sacrifices some 
 of the most valuable elements of the study ; it over- 
 looks the roots= of the language, which photograph 
 indelibly the habits, views, and conceptions of the 
 people of the past. It overlooks the nicer distinctions 
 in the meaning of words, the difference of thought as 
 indicated by different cases, moods, tenses, as well as 
 by all the other more delicate machinery of language, 
 which are designed to mark with precision the picture 
 or view just as it lay in the mind of the author. 
 
 Most of those who study in this defective way are 
 disappointed in the results of their labors, and are 
 pretty likely to increase the number who think that 
 the time devoted to classical study might more wisely 
 have been given to other subjects. 
 
 3. Another obstacle to the successful study of the 
 Classics is the habit, in the early part of the course, of 
 going over too much groimd in a given time. As the 
 preparatory course is the first effort of the pupil in 
 the critical study of language, and is to lay the foun- 
 dation on which the succeeding superstructure is to be 
 erected, anything which prevents the formation of 
 right habits of study, gives a wrong bias, or interferes 
 
xxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with the thoroughness of the work, may prove fatal to 
 the whole. A Professor in one of our colleges says : 
 " If there must be defect in any part, let it be in the 
 superstructure. I do not hesitate to utter my delib- 
 erate and matured conviction that more importance 
 should be attached to the preparatory than to the col- 
 legiate course of study. I mean that the destiny of 
 the student, and of the world through him, is more 
 affected by the preparatory course. A failure in this 
 is wont to be so fatal, so irretrievable, that no pains 
 should be spared to avoid it."^ Now, when it is 
 borne in mind how much is implied in the proper 
 preparation for the college course, how many subjects 
 for study are embraced, it will at once be evident that 
 more work is involved than can properly be done in 
 the time usually allotted to it. Hence the temptation 
 to do it superficially. But it is not the mere going 
 over the ground that secures the end sought. Haste 
 here emphatically makes waste. It is the last place 
 to try a system of cramming. There must be time to 
 investigate and make the way luminous at every step ; 
 to reason and compare, to adjust delicate questions, 
 to discriminate between apparently similar words, 
 modes of expression and construction, and to get clear 
 and well-defined ideas, or there is little progress or 
 profit. Many a student, driven over ground hurriedly 
 1 Professor Stanton, Union College. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxvii 
 
 because so much must be done in a given period, with 
 no time to take in the spirit and beauties of what he 
 is studying, without strengthening his memory, quick- 
 ening his perceptions, refining his taste, or invigorating 
 his reasoning powers, loses all interest in the study, 
 charges his failure to the Classics, while it belongs only 
 to the hurried, confused, and ill-directed manner of 
 studying them. There can be little doubt that, if the 
 pupil attempted only what he could thoroughly master 
 in this part of his course, the benefit to him in his 
 future studies, and its influence on his future success, 
 would be much greater than it is as the study is usu- 
 ally pursued. It is clear, also, that this slow and 
 thorough method at the outset, mastering all forms, 
 the laws which determine them, as well as what they 
 express, reviewing, re-reviewing, and reviewing again, 
 making the portions studied as familiar as if in our 
 own language, that such a method will keep up an un- 
 abated interest, and in the end enable the student to go 
 over vastly more ground, and with greater pleasure and 
 profit, than according to the usual methods of study. 
 
 4. Another reason why classical education does not 
 yield its best fruits is the want of properly qualified 
 teachers. Many of these are just from college without 
 experience and without a critical knowledge of what 
 they are to teach. Much of the elementary instruction 
 therefore is necessarily defective, and fails to awaken 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 interest in the student, or to lay the foundation for 
 subsequent success. The highest benefits of classical 
 study are generally not attained without a right start ; 
 and such a start is not to be expected unless there are 
 persons competent to give the proper direction. There 
 are honorable exceptions to such defective teaching ; but 
 it must be admitted that to a great extent the early 
 part of the classical course is by no means what it 
 might be under more favorable circumstances. 
 
 Then, too, in the higher institutions there is not 
 always the experience and thoroughness necessary to 
 give the highest value to the instruction. If greater 
 experience and thoroughness should take the place of 
 any such defects, and the style of teaching be made 
 broader and more critical, and the demand upon the 
 student's efforts so increased as to require new earnest- 
 ness and to awaken new interest in the study, the 
 estimate placed upon the worth of classical study would 
 be greatly enhanced. This would soon correct the 
 excuse sometimes given for not investigating thoroughly 
 all the topics involved in the lessons, that the critical 
 points and the broader relations of the subjects are not 
 called up at the recitations ; it would also silence the 
 plea not unfrequently made against a thorough prep- 
 aration for College, that it leaves the scholar too little 
 to do there. 
 
 If the pupil is to reap the choicest fruits of classical 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 study, he must first learn the symbols of the language — 
 the words and their roots, their forms and modifications ; 
 the force of cases, moods, and tenses ; the arrangement 
 of words and sentences — the reason for one position 
 rather than another, and the 'general laws of agreement 
 and construction. Then he should be carried forward 
 to higher topics — to the finished rendering of his 
 author, the study of synonyms, antiquities, the manners 
 and customs of the times ; the prominent subjects of 
 thought at the period studied, and the circumstances 
 which gave them their peculiar coloring ; the influences 
 under which his author wrote ; the logic, rhetoric, ora- 
 tory, and poetry of the writers ; the history and civil- 
 ization, the science, philosophy, and religion of the 
 time ; the connection between the past and the present ; 
 in a word, everything which will serve to photograph 
 to his mind the busy and strange scenes of the past, the 
 thinkers and actors with their surroundings, and to 
 make him a conscious sharer in the movements of a 
 world so different from his own. The student who is 
 carried forward, from term to term, in the investigation 
 of subjects like these, treading with a firmer and surer 
 step as he advances, will be constantly introduced into 
 new fields of thought and investigation, will find new 
 beauties and attractions in the compositions of the great 
 masters of antiquity ; will never be listless in the study 
 so conducted, nor complain that he learns little that 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is new year after year, or that the same questions are 
 propounded in the later as in the earlier years of his 
 course, or that he hears nothing beyond the common 
 rules of syntax. 
 
 It has already been stated that one of the chief diffi- 
 culties in realizing the best results of classical training 
 in our country is the want of well-qualified teachers. 
 The course of collegiate education embraces such a 
 variety of studies, that the best preparation for so diffi- 
 cult a department of instruction as that of the Classics, 
 could not reasonably be expected from it. The Ger- 
 mans owe their high distinction in classical learning, in 
 a great degree, to their philological seminaries, where 
 the masters of the higher, schools acquire a -thorough 
 knowledge of classical antiquity. Wolf long conducted 
 such a seminary at Halle, in which he was assisted by 
 Immanuel Bekker. The philological seminary at Ber- 
 lin has been under the direction of such men as Boeckh, 
 Buttmann, Bernhardy, Lachmann, Haupt ; that at 
 Bonn under Professors Nake, Welcker, Ritschl, and Otto 
 Jahn. Every Prussian university has a philological 
 seminary.^ The advantage of this provision to those 
 who are to enter upon the work of classical instruction 
 is very great. They have a more critical and compre- 
 hensive acquaintance with the subjects they are to 
 
 1 See Arnold's Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 192. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxi 
 
 teach ; the ancient world is opened to them in its 
 genius and spirit, in all the elements that made it what 
 it was, more fully than the usual university course 
 would have secured to them. Of course the fruits 
 of a classical training under such instruction are 
 vastly greater than they could have been without these 
 advantages. 
 
 The want of similar facihties for the preparation 
 of classical teachers, particularly for our preparatory 
 schools, is a serious hinderance to the highest success 
 in classical culture. The mere grammatical knowledge 
 of the ancient languages, or a verbal acquaintance with 
 their literature, or the ability to render them into idio- 
 matic English are not suflBcient qualifications for a 
 teacher of Latin and Greek ; he needs all the varied 
 knowledge which goes to make these living languages 
 and himself a conscious actor in the scenes which he 
 interprets to his pupils. If some provision could be 
 made, either for the establishment of independent train- 
 ing schools for classical teachers, or in connection with 
 institutions already existing, by which those who are 
 to give direction and tone to the earlier classical 
 studies, can be properly educated for their work, the 
 benefits of the training would be more manifest, and 
 the popular clamor against the ancient languages, or the 
 demand that they should no longer form a part of the 
 curriculum of a liberal education, would cease. Our 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 country can boast of many rich fruits of classical cul- 
 ture, but we need to show still more and better. And 
 with the proper facilities, it can be done. It is not 
 "reasonable, therefore, to reject from our course of in- 
 struction a study, which, wisely conducted, has great 
 and varied educational power. 
 
 The present collection of Essays has been made with 
 a view of correcting the popular misapprehension in 
 regard to the value of classical study ; to check, if may 
 be, the prejudices against it; to show to the student 
 who enters upon it, what it can do for him, and to 
 stimulate him to prosecute it with such thoroughness 
 and earnestness as to gather from it the rich treasures 
 it contains. The Essays, as will be seen, are the pro- 
 ductions of distinguished scholars of England, Scotland, 
 Germany, and different parts of our own country. 
 They were written at times considerably remote from 
 each other, by men in different pursuits of life, yet they 
 all have one general tone, setting forth with emphasis, 
 and sometimes with rhetorical beauty, the value of the 
 study which they recommend. We need to be re- 
 called by their arguments from our doubts, and to take 
 counsel of them rather than of the popular sentiment. 
 We need to give a broader interpretation to what are 
 called useful studies. It is not the practical sciences 
 only that are to be regarded as useful, such as aid us 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii 
 
 in guiding the ship across the ocean, or in running the 
 steam-car, or flashing information along the wires, or 
 in disarming the lightning of its power ; nor such only 
 as minister to our daily wants, to the conveniences- 
 and comforts of life ; we must learn to regard every 
 study as useful which imparts increased vigor to the 
 mind, forms the character more perfectly, gives a more 
 cultivated taste, or makes us know ourselves better. 
 " It will be a bad day. for moral and political ameliora- 
 tion when the faculties of the soul are balanced against 
 a certain value in counters, and when the stores of 
 moral knowledge are rated only at their auction prices. 
 "We can conceive of no train of habitual thought and 
 conversation more hostile to individual elevation of 
 mind, and more paralyzing to everything generous and 
 noble in national character, than the perpetual refer- 
 ence of everything to its equivalent in common or 
 ordinary estimation. The principle carried out would 
 reduce the earth to a hive, and every fragrant and 
 beautiful flower upon its surface to the mere aliment of 
 its inhabitants. It is a coarse and selfish doctrine, 
 worthy of man only in an early stage of his progress, 
 and always indicative, when found in more advanced 
 communities, of a sordid and grasping spirit. Reduc- 
 ing every pursuit and enterprise to a single aim, and 
 trying it by a single test, it strikes all that is disinter- 
 ested from motive, all that is lofty from society, all that 
 
xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is courteous from manners. It asks a certificate of 
 character from every undertaking, pausing upon it, 
 with its chilling and sneering philosophy, till it can lay 
 •its hand upon the evidence of its practicability and 
 profit. All high studies, all purely literary culture, all 
 that warms the imagination and clusters round the 
 heart, it neglects or despises. Nay, it would almost 
 teach its disciples to tear away those gentle aflFections 
 which unite them to their kind, and those sublime 
 emotions which lead them to their Creator — a new 
 Iconoclast, trampling upon the shattered symbols of 
 ancient hope." ^ 
 
 In selecting these extracts, only such parts of the 
 original Essays have been taken as related more 
 especially to the subject. Sentences, paragraphs, or 
 whole pages have been omitted, as the object in view 
 seemed to require. But in no case, so far as is known, 
 have the sentiments and arguments of the authors 
 been changed or modified by the form in which they 
 are here presented. The usual marks, indicating the 
 omission of sentences or paragraphs, etc., have been 
 purposely dispensed with. 
 
 In the Essays selected there will be found somo 
 repetition of thought and illustration. But the di- 
 versity in the treatment of the common subject, the 
 richness and variety of the illustrations, will more 
 1 American Quarterly Reriew, Vol. xvii. p. 4. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxxv 
 
 than compensate for the occasional instances of repe- 
 tition. There is no one of the papers which does not 
 present the subject with new force and freshness. 
 
 It is in no way intended, either by the remarks 
 made in this Introduction, or in presenting the Essays 
 themselves to the public, to cry up classical study to 
 the detriment of any other; but only to give it its 
 true place and importance, which it is in danger of 
 losing in an age that looks so largely at immediate 
 practical results. A full and symmetrical education is 
 what is needed. Any diminished interest in scientific 
 or kindred subjects, or in the study and literature of 
 our own rich language, is greatly to be deprecated; 
 we need more, rather than less, devotion to these. 
 But, while we assiduously cultivate such departments 
 of study, and devise the best means of teaching them 
 with still greater success, let us not fail to drink 
 more largely than ever at the refreshing and inex- 
 haustible fountains which the great minds of antiquity 
 have opened for us. 
 
 Ai^DOYEB, December 1, 1869. 
 
{TJiri7EESIT7) 
 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 I. 
 
 No educational question has been more keenly 
 debated than that of the position which the Classics 
 ought to occupy in our scholastic curriculum. By 
 some it has been held that they should be the exclu- 
 sive, or almost the exclusive, instruments of intellectual 
 education ; while others have entertained the opinion 
 that they should have no place among the ordinary 
 subjects of study. Between these two extreme opinions 
 lie others, modified in various degrees according to the 
 points of view, intellectual tastes, and varying circum- 
 stances of the condition of life, or state of mind and 
 feeling, of those who have held them. From the time 
 of Locke until the present day this question has formed 
 a battle-ground upon which rival educational factions 
 have fought, both eager for the strife, and, as is gener- 
 ally the case in all controversies, too often heedless of 
 the cause of truth, and caring for little else except 
 victory over their opponents. 
 
 This Essay, entitled " Classical Studies : their true position and value in 
 Education," was originally read before the Literary and Philosophical 
 Society of Liverpool by Rev. Joshua Jones, M.A., Principal of King 
 William's College, Isle of Man. It was first published in the Transactions 
 of the Society, and afterwards in a pamphlet by itself. 
 
 1 
 
2 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 It may seem to some a superfluous task to attempt 
 to say anything further upon a subject about which so 
 much has already been said, and consequently to ad- 
 vance anything new is so difficult. It appears to us, 
 however, that it has been too generally treated in the 
 one-sided spirit of the advocate or the partisan, and 
 that writers have hitherto for the most part written 
 upon it exclusively from the one point of view which 
 they may have happened to adopt. It is the purpose 
 of this paper rather to take a review of the whole 
 question in all its aspects, to consider the arguments, 
 and compare what hap been said on both sides, to 
 modify objections and qualify assertions ; and, though 
 we cannot hope to bring forward, in a matter which 
 has been so often and keenly discussed, much that is 
 altogether novel, yet we do hope to be able to present 
 the whole subject in a new form, and to shed a some- 
 what clearer light upon it. We may add that the sub- 
 ject is particularly pressed upon our attention at the 
 present time by the circumstance that Her Majesty's 
 Public School Commissioners have, in their report 
 recently published, recommended that the Classics 
 should still be retained as the leading subject of in- 
 struction and the educational basis in the Public 
 Schools of England ; and it is therefore just now an 
 interesting and useful matter for inquiry whether this 
 recommendation, after a due consideration of the facts 
 of the case, and of the arguments pro and con,^ be a 
 wise and judicious one or not. 
 
 It is not difficult to account for the high position 
 which the Classics have so long occupied in our system 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 3 
 
 of education. At the revival of learning in the six- 
 teenth century there was no literature worthy of the 
 name, except that of Greece and Rome. The middle 
 ages had produced a few great intellects ; but they had 
 expended their energies for the most part on theolo- 
 gical or philosophical subtleties, calculated indeed to 
 exercise and develop the logical powers of the mind, 
 but of little value, either in themselves or for the pur- 
 pose of general intellectual discipline. There had been 
 a conflict between human reason and ecclesiastical 
 authority ; the latter had fixed certain limits beyond 
 which intellectual inquiry might not go ; and the for- 
 mer, active and struggling, but yet constrained by out- 
 ward force to obey, had expended its energies on every 
 minute point within the narrow sphere assigned to it. 
 The mind of man has perhaps but rarely manifested 
 such intense power and acuteness as it exhibited in the 
 works of some of the great schoolmen, e.g. Anselm 
 and Thomas Aquinas ; and but rarely, perhaps, has it 
 ever produced results of so little value to the intel- 
 lectual progress of mankind. Scholasticism, then, hav- 
 ing supplied no general literature, the classical writers 
 of Greece and Rome were the only authors suitable for 
 general study, when the human mind began to emanci- 
 pate itself from the fetters in which it had been so long 
 bound. Again, Latin was at the time, and had been 
 for centuries, the language of the Church, and of the 
 schools of law and physic ; so far from being a dead 
 language, it was the vernacular of the churchman and 
 of the learned ; and it had thus established a sway 
 from which it could not easily be displaced. It must 
 
4 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 also be remembered that at the period spoken of, 
 and for some time after, classical subjects would have 
 formed natural and interesting materials of thought 
 and conversation to the educated, from the entire 
 absence of those numerous and absorbing topics which 
 the vast increase of knowledge, and the wide-spread 
 diffusion of information, scientific, literary, political, 
 and general, and the brilliant and extensive literature 
 of modern times, supply to us in our age. Then further, 
 it must be borne in mind that contemporaneous with 
 the revival of learning was the foundation in our own 
 country of many of the great seminaries of learning, 
 which naturally adopted the classical languages and 
 literatures as the then only general subjects of study 
 worthy of pursuit. Thus it happened that the Classics 
 got exclusive possession of the educational field ; they 
 formed the only unprofessional studies of the great 
 seats of learning ; they became the sole media through 
 which professional instruction was conveyed ; they were 
 fostered by scholastic endowments devoted to, and often 
 founded for, their exclusive pursuit, in virtue of the 
 principle inherent in all endowments of perpetuating 
 that for the support of which they were originally 
 bestowed or have been subsequently applied ; they were 
 the only studies with which the majority of the learned 
 were acquainted, and consequently they were the only 
 ones which they were disposed, or indeed able, to teach. 
 And so they were propagated from generation to gen- 
 eration of students ; they had the advantage of possession, 
 and in time, too, the prestige which the tradition of 
 long- continued pursuit, and all the associations and 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 5 
 
 prejudices connected therewith, never fail to give — a 
 prestige which inclines people to acquiesce even in that 
 of which they do not quite approve ; they had enlisted 
 on their side the best minds of each age, and the ardent 
 feelings of able and zealous votaries ; and it is not a 
 matter of wonder that what had thus been the great 
 study of the men of any one generation, and of their 
 fathers and forefathers for many previous ones, should 
 not at any time be dethroned from its position but after 
 a hard and desperate struggle. 
 
 But while it is easy to account for the commanding 
 position which classical studies have so long held in 
 our educational system, the real question for us to 
 decide is, how far that position is at the present time 
 tenable. For it must be remembered that the circum- 
 stances of our age are very different from those of the 
 sixteenth century. Then the Classics contained the 
 only philosophy, history, poetry, and oratory worthy of 
 the name ; but now that philosophy is in many respects 
 superseded by the deeper and truer philosophy which 
 the enlarged speculations and wider experience of 
 modern times have produced ; that history is, if not 
 altogether supplanted, yet rendered less valuable by 
 reason of the far wider range of facts differing often in 
 kind from those of the classical records which modern 
 history unfolds; and that poetry and oratory if un- 
 surpassed, can still be equalled, or nearly so, by the 
 productions of modern authors. The point for our 
 decision then is, whether in the present condition of 
 society, and the existing state of knowledge, classical 
 studies ought to fill the exclusive and exalted position 
 1* 
 
6 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 in education which they have hitherto done ; and if 
 not, what place, if any, they ought to be permitted to 
 occupy. This is the question which has been so long 
 and keenly debated, and to the solution of which we 
 hope in the present paper to contribute something. 
 
 Before proceeding to discuss the proposed subject, 
 we shall find it convenient for our purpose to fix our 
 ideas upon two preliminary points. 
 ^^ First, then, it will be useful for us to determine the 
 proper object of education, because this is a point 
 which lies at the foundation of our present inquiry, and 
 will subsequently help us in the investigation of one of 
 the most common objections to classical studies. This 
 matter has formed the subject of an earnest controversy 
 between those, on the one hand, who advocate the 
 training and development of the faculties as the aim 
 and end of education, and those, on the other hand, 
 who maintain that education should rather have as its 
 object professional training, or the imparting of knowl- 
 edge which can be directly turned to account in the 
 business of after life. Now we may take it as a funda- 
 mental principle, that the object of general education 
 is not so much to impart information, as to call into 
 exercise, and develop and discipline faculties; not so 
 much to store with knowledge, as to awaken the desire, 
 and supply the power, of acquiring knowledge ; not to 
 afibrd special training for particular pursuits in life, 
 but to furnish general culture ; not to train a man for 
 his future calling, but to make him fit for any calling, 
 by giving him the power of taking up any subject 
 that presents itself, comprehending its principles, and 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 7 
 
 mastering its details, — by making his intellect broad, 
 clear, vigorous, and active, — by imparting to him a 
 sound and accurate judgment, able to decide aright 
 the various questions which occur in business or ordi- 
 nary life ; — in short, by educing and training those 
 powers and habits of mind which enable a man in his 
 social and business capacity to deal successfully with 
 his fellow-men, and to exert a wholesome and useful 
 influence on all within his sphere of action. To con- 
 fine education, then, within the limits afforded by the 
 imparting of the preparatory knowledge, or training, 
 necessary for a profession or business, is grievously to 
 narrow its limits and to impair the prospect of its 
 ultimately bringing forth the desired fruit. For, we 
 must remember, a man has other duties to perform 
 besides those of his profession, trade, or calling ; he 
 has to be the ruler and counsellor of a home circle, to 
 whom wife and children and domestics will look for 
 advice and direction ; he has to meet his fellow-creatures 
 in social intercourse ; he has perhaps to take some part 
 in political or civic affairs ; and for all these duties, 
 domestic, social, and political, his education ought to 
 fit him, as well as for his profession or trade. Now it 
 is obvious that so wide a culture as that of which we 
 have been speaking, which has to influence the whole 
 man in all his capacities, faculties, and feelings, cannot 
 be eflected by the mere acquisition of knowledge as 
 knowledge ; no attainable amount of knowledge can 
 enable him to grasp all the subjects, and grapple suc- 
 cessfully with all the difficulties, which meet him in 
 his ordinary life; nothing short of the vigorous and 
 
8 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 healthy action of all his faculties, as far as may be, will 
 stand him in good stead in the great world-battlo in 
 which every true man has to engage. General culture, 
 then, is the best preparation for a man's special work 
 in life, whatever that work may be, and should therefore 
 be the primary object aimed at in his education. 
 
 We must be careful, however, to guard against any 
 misapprehension in this matter ; though it be true that 
 the imparting of knowledge for its own sake is not the 
 primary object of education, yet it must be remembered 
 that education must be based on knowledge, and 
 cannot be carried on without it ; intellectual grasp 
 and acuteness can only be attained by exercising the 
 faculties in the acquisition, the contemplation, and the 
 comparison of the various branches of human learning. 
 Education is not instruction indeed, but without in- 
 struction education is impossible. 
 
 Tiie second preliminary point upon which it seems 
 desirable to say something is the distinction between 
 the different kinds of education. Now there are 
 three kinds of education — Primary, Secondary, and 
 Higher : 
 
 Primary Education consists in the imparting of the 
 mere elements of learning, or rather of those branches 
 of knowledge which are indispensable for every one in 
 civilized life, or which are necessary for the subsequent 
 acquisition of all knowledge — I mean reading, writing, 
 and arithmetic. Under proper methods of teaching 
 these elements, some amount of intellectual discipline 
 may be imparted ; but that discipline is not very con- 
 siderable in amount, nor is it of a very high quality. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. , 9 
 
 This, however, is all the mental culture attainable by 
 the great mass of our population, who are forced at 
 an early age to forego all systematic education, and 
 engage in hard manual toil for the sustenance of life. 
 Secondary Education is that of the vast majority of 
 our middle classes, who are enabled to stay longer at 
 school than our working population, say until their 
 fourteenth, fifteenth, or sixteenth year, and have there- 
 fore the opportunity of receiving a more thorough 
 mental discipline, and acquiring a higher intellectual 
 culture. They have time and opportunity for the 
 pursuit of many of the higher branches of study, and 
 of those which are the most efficacious for the training 
 and cultivation of the mind ; and the great object in 
 educating them, after first of all securing their acqui- 
 sition of those elements of knowledge which are .neces- 
 sary, or eminently useful, for the successful carrying 
 on of the ordinary business of men in their position of 
 life, should be to educe and discipline the various 
 powers of their minds. The Higher Education is that 
 of those who have the means, opportunity, and desire 
 of prolonging their studies up to the period of early 
 manhood. Its object is the complete and harmonious 
 development, and the calling forth into healthful, vig- 
 orous action, of all the mental faculties ; in short, the 
 general cultivation of the whole intelligence ; and this 
 is to be effected by the study of the higher, more 
 refining, and more recondite branches of knowledge. 
 
 Leaving out of sight Primary Education, as not 
 connected with our present subject of discussion, we 
 have to consider only the Secondary and the Higher. 
 
10 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 We assume, then, as essential conditions, first, that in 
 both, the branches of study which appertain specially 
 to Primary Education have been secured ; next, that 
 in both so much extra information has been imparted 
 as is necessary or useful for a man who has to occupy 
 a position above that of the mechanic or day-laborer, 
 and earn his living in any other way than by the work 
 of his hands ; and we assert that afterwards, in both 
 alike, the object in view should be mental discipline 
 and culture, — the only difference between the two 
 being, that in Secondary Education -this discipline and 
 culture can only be carried on to a certain point, and 
 must stop at a much lower level than the one attainable 
 in the Higher Education. The difiFerence then between 
 the Secondary and Higher Education is one rather of 
 degree than of kind ; the instruments used in the one 
 must be, with certain modifications and with some 
 exceptions, pretty much the same as those used in the 
 other ; the main distinction being that in the one they 
 may be somewhat inferior in quality, as they have to 
 do less accurate work, and cannot be used long enough 
 to bring their work to that degree of perfection which 
 they are able to attain in the other. The conclusion 
 at which we have arrived, and which concerns im- 
 mediately our present purpose, is, that in the educa- 
 tion of both the middle and upper classes of society 
 the same subjects of study and the same course of 
 instruction should, with certain modifications and under 
 certain limitations, be adopted ; the leading exception 
 being, that in the case of those who have the oppor- 
 tunity of pursuing their studies to a more advanced 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 11 
 
 age, some subjects which are unsuitable for immature 
 minds, or less developed faculties, may be added, while 
 those which are being pursued in common by all, 
 can by them be studied more deeply, widely, and 
 thoroughly. 
 
 So then, taking into account intellectual education 
 only — for it is with this alone we are at present con- 
 cerned — we shall have to consider what subject, or 
 subjects, of study are best calculated to educe and 
 supply healthful exercise to the various mental faculties, 
 and to secure the harmonious development and perfect 
 culture of the mind of man. No doubt that, if the 
 human intellect were sufficiently vigorous and capacious 
 to comprehend and retain it, this would be best effected 
 by the study of the whole cycle of human knowledge ; 
 but as the acquisition of all that can be known by man 
 is plainly impossible, even to the highest and most 
 vigorous intellect, and we have to form an educational 
 system which will suit minds of average grasp and 
 power, it is quite plain that we must make a selection 
 from among the various branches of human learning ; 
 and while we take into our course as many of these as 
 can be fairly acquired by the student^ not as a mere 
 possession of the memory, but as part of his mental 
 furniture, and in such a way as to expand and invigo- 
 rate his mental powers, we must lay chief stress upon 
 those which are most likely to promote the object 
 which in education we have in view. 
 
 Now, the subject which first presses its claims 
 for selection upon our attention is that of Language. 
 Language is the expression of thought, and if not 
 
12 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 actually coextensive with it, yet it is the only medium 
 by which thought can be embodied in a definite form 
 in our own minds, and by which it can be conveyed to 
 others. In studying language, then, we are to a con- 
 siderable extent contemplating those mental processes 
 of which it is the expression ; in investigating its laws, 
 we are investigating at the same time in no small 
 degree the laws of thought ; and therefore it is that 
 Grammar may be regarded as, to use the words of Her 
 Majesty's Public School Commissioners,^ " the logic of 
 common speech." There must be a mutual action 
 and reaction always going on between the inward 
 process and its outward exponent ; what calls forth 
 and disciplines our faculty of language must also 
 develop and train in no small degree our faculties of 
 thought ; vigor and clearness of verbal expression must 
 be the counterpart of a certain force and lucidity of 
 mind, corresponding in kind, if not co-extensive in 
 degree. Thus it is clear, from a priori considerations, 
 that the study of language, in some form or other, is 
 of essential importance as an intellectual discipline ; 
 and it follows, as a natural corollary, that the more 
 perfect the language studied, the more perfect will be 
 the discipline resulting therefrom. 
 
 When we speak of Language as a subject of study, 
 we cannot exclude from our idea the subject-matter 
 which it conveys ; the thought conveyed, as well as 
 the mode of conveying it, the " matter," as well as 
 the "form," must come under consideration. With 
 language, then, literature must ever be closely allied ; 
 
 1 Report, p. 28. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. - 13 
 
 for, though we may in idea dwell more sometimes on 
 the one, and sometimes on the other, yet in fact they 
 are indissolubly connected. And the study of literature 
 commends itself to our notice independently, on its 
 own merits, as '' the study of the intellectual and moral 
 world we live in,"^ and therefore suitable for the 
 culture of the intellectual and moral beings who inhabit 
 that world. 
 
 We have arrived, then, at this point in our inquiry — 
 language and literature seem to have a primary claim 
 for a leading position among our subjects of study. 
 We shall have hereafter to examine more fully how 
 far this claim is tenable, by a comparison between the 
 classical languages and literatures and other leading 
 branches of learning, in respect of their educational 
 value. We say the classical languages and literatures, 
 because we shall show that — whereas we cannot pos- 
 sibly study all, or even any considerable number of 
 languages, and their accompanying literatures, but 
 must make a selection from among them of those most 
 suitable for the discipline and culture of the mind — 
 these are plainly entitled to this pre-eminence. 
 
 Now in whatever we may say in favor of the Classics 
 occupying a prominent place in our educational course, 
 we must carefully guard against being supposed to 
 suggest that they ought to hold that exclusive position 
 therein which they for so many generations have main- 
 tained. We shall not attempt for one moment to 
 defend the untenable opinion, which has been fostered 
 by the system so long, and even still to a considerable 
 
 1 Report of Public School Commissioners, p. 28. 
 2 
 
14 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 extent pursued in our public schools, that they are the 
 only subjects suitable for mental discipline. On the 
 contrary, it will be at once acknowledged that the 
 languages and literatures of Greece and Rome form 
 collectively but one among many subjects suitable for 
 the development and training of the mind of man. 
 The only point proposed for discussion is, — whether 
 they are the best adapted instruments for this purpose ; 
 whether they ought to occupy in our educational system 
 the central position around which all other subjects 
 should be arranged ; whether, in other words, the place 
 which these other subjects ought to take be one of 
 equality with, or one (as Her Majesty's Public School 
 Commissioners recommend) of subordination to, the 
 Classics, as the foundation of the educational super- 
 structure. Mr. Gladstone puts the matter at once on 
 a right issue, when, in his letter to one of the Commis- 
 sioners, he requires that the question whether '' the 
 classical training is the proper basis of a liberal educa- 
 tion " should receive " a distinct affirmative, or a 
 substantial negative," and expresses a wish that " the 
 relation of pure science, natural science, modern lan- 
 guages, modern history, and the rest to the old classical 
 training ought to be founded on a principle" ; denying, 
 at the same time, on his part, " their right to a parallel 
 or equal position," and maintaining that " their true 
 position is ancillary, and, as ancillary, it ought to be 
 limited and restrained without scruple, as much as a 
 regard to the paramount matter of education may 
 dictate."! 
 
 1 Keport of Public School Commissioners, Vol. ii. pp. 42, 43. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES- 15 
 
 Whether it may be desirable, indeed, to have a 
 principal subject of study at all is a matter which may 
 at first sight admit of considerable doubt. It cannot 
 be denied that true niental culture is the result of the 
 blending together of many studies, each filling its own 
 proper position, and each harmonizing with every other. 
 But it must be remembered that, for the purpose of 
 effecting this harmonious blending, there should be 
 some central study around which all should be gathered, 
 and with reference to which each one should be placed, 
 instead of all being left to pursue, as it were, their 
 own ways, and follow erratic orbits — a course likely 
 to lead to intellectual chaos and confusion, rather than 
 to a harmonious composition and action of the intel- 
 lectual elements. And further, it would appear that, 
 in order to bring out the mental powers in their full 
 vigor and development, they ought, in consequence of 
 their limited nature and capacity, to be exercised in a 
 limited sphere — a sphere not so narrow indeed as to 
 impede their full expansion and free action, and yet 
 not so wide as to render their energies aimless and- 
 discursive. And this seems to indicate the desirable- 
 ness of selecting some one leading branch of study to 
 which all others should be subordinated. 
 
 This point, then, having been ascertained, the ques- 
 tion immediately arises : Ought the Classics to be this 
 principal subject, which is to form the centre of our 
 educational course ? It must be at once admitted that 
 classical studies cannot discipline and expand ail our 
 mental faculties, and therefore that they can only effect 
 a part of our mental culture ; yet, if it can be shown 
 
16 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 that they train a larger number of faculties in a more 
 effective way, and that they are, in short, more potent 
 instruments of culture than any other class of studies ; 
 if it can be ascertained that they form a real centre, 
 about which a large number of branches of learniug 
 can naturally be arranged, their right to fill the leading, 
 central position spoken of will have been satisfactorily 
 established. 
 
 The course of our inquiry, then, has brought us now 
 to the consideration of the influence of the study of 
 the Classics in the exercise, expansion, and cultivation 
 of the faculties of the intellect. 
 
 1. The study of the Classics exercises and strengthens 
 the memory. The learning of grammatical paradigms 
 and rules ; the act of remembering words and phrases ; 
 the learning by rote passages of authors ; the constant 
 necessity of bearing in mind a large mass of historical, 
 antiquarian, mythological, and philological information, 
 with a view to the right understanding and appreciation 
 of the meaning of the classical writers (all of which 
 .are essential elements of good classical training), afford 
 constant practice to this important faculty, and thereby 
 invigorate and develop it. 
 
 2. It cultivates the judgment^ by constantly exer- 
 cising that faculty in the investigation of the appropriate 
 meaning of words ; in the selection of the most exact 
 methods of rendering sentences, by giving each word 
 and phrase and particle its full force and interpretation, 
 in the examination of difficulties; in the comparison 
 of rules with their exemplifications, and of passages 
 with their parallel passages from the same or other 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 17 
 
 authors ; for all this requires discrimination and deci- 
 sion, which are essentially acts of the judgment. 
 
 3. It educates the analytical faculty, by necessitat- 
 ing on the part of the student the tracing up of words 
 to their root^ — the division of compound words into 
 their component elements, — and the analysis of sen- 
 tences, and those, too, sentences unusualy compli- 
 cated and involved, with many clauses, whose connection 
 with, and dependence on, one another are not at once 
 obvious, and in which the words, which in sense are 
 consecutive, are often widely distant from one another 
 in position. 
 
 4. It develops the reason, " Correct syntax fs," as 
 it has been well said, '' nothing but a correct process 
 of reasoning." Syntax consists in the arrangement of 
 words and their inflections in such a way as to be cor- 
 respondent with the operation of the reasoning faculty 
 within, and therefore ^the study of syntax must be a 
 discipline of that faculty. Then, again, the student of 
 a language has constantly to be tracing out the con- 
 necting links of sentences and paragraphs, all of which 
 are counterparts of a ratiocinative process in the mind 
 of the author whose work he is studying ; and he has 
 to resolve philological principles into the conclusions, 
 which from time to time he needs, deducible therefrom. 
 Add to this, that the classical authors supply us in 
 history, oralory, and philosophy, with some of the most 
 perfect specimens of reasoning which any literature 
 can {)roduce ; and it will be seen in how great a degree 
 classical studies tend to call out and expand the reason. 
 
 5. It educates the to^te, through the instrumentality 
 
18 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 of translation and composition, which involve the con- 
 stant necessity of carefully considering how the idiom of 
 the classical languages may be best expressed by that 
 of our own, and, conversely, how idiomatic English may 
 be best turned into idiomatic Greek or Latin ; the task 
 of determining how to represent all the nice distinctions 
 which exist in the words and inflections of one language, 
 without loss of force or meaning in the words and in- 
 flections of another — a task of especial difficulty, and 
 therefore calling for the exercise of nicer discrimination 
 and more refined taste, where the classical languages 
 have to be turned into our own, or vice versa, because 
 of their great difierence from our own language in point 
 of structure and mode of expression ; and lastly, in the 
 case of verse composition, the necessity of deciding how 
 to clothe the ideas and language of modern poetry in 
 the most appropriate forms which the poetry of Greece 
 or Rome can suggest or supply. 
 
 6. It exercises and cultivates the imagination, be- 
 cause classical literature contains some of the most 
 perfect works of imagination which the world can pro- 
 duce 'J and the length of the time which, in consequence 
 of thfe difficulty of the languages, must necessarily be 
 spent over each passage of these works for the under- 
 standing of its construction and meaning, afibrds the 
 student a better opportunity of entering into and appre- 
 ciating its imagery or sentiment, than if it were hurried 
 over in a mere cursory reading. 
 
 7. It gives precision to, and cultivates the faculty 
 of, language. The careful study of the complex and 
 yet perfectly constructed sentences of the best Greek 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 19 
 
 and Latin authors, and the habit of turning those sen- 
 tences into good idiomatic English, which shall fully 
 express as far as possible the most minute shade of 
 difference in the meaning of the original, are perhaps 
 the best possible exercises which the student can any- 
 where find, in the art of discerning the exact force of 
 words and phrases, and of clothing ideas in appropriate 
 symbols, wherein consists the perfection of the operation 
 of the faculty of language. 
 
 Such is the efScacy of classical studies regarded as a 
 discipline of the mental faculties. 
 
 Let us now view the Classics as a central subject, 
 and examine whether they can fairly be regarded as a 
 natural centre, around, which a considerable number 
 of other branches of learning can be easily and without 
 undue force aggregated. What are the subjects, then, 
 which an efficient classical teacher can connect, and 
 to some extent teach, together with his own special 
 subject ? 
 
 1. First, in teaching the grammar of the classical 
 languages to beginners, if he endeavor to impart, not 
 a mere rote-acquaintance with declensions and conju- 
 gations, but a sound and accurate knowledge of the 
 accidence — a knowledge based indeed upon the para- 
 digms contained in the text-book, and acquired by the 
 memory, but illustrated by his own oral teaching ; if he 
 be careful to mark all the leading inflections, contrast- 
 ing them with the. corf esponding grammatical forms of 
 their own or any other language, or languages, known 
 to his pupils, and illustrating by appropriate examples 
 the points to which he is calling their attention ; he will 
 
20 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 be teaching principles and facts common to the etymol- 
 ogy of all languages, imparting much valuable instruc- 
 tion about the grammar of those particular languages to 
 the analogies of which he is directing notice, and thus be 
 clearing away many diflSculties which impede the stu- 
 dent in the direct study of them, and help him in the 
 acquisition of them, or indeed of any others which at 
 any time he may have occasion to learn. Similarly, in 
 explaining and illustrating the rules of syntax to more 
 advanced pupils, by pursuing the same method of com- 
 parison between the syntactical rules of Greek and 
 Latin, and the corresponding ones in English, or in any 
 other modern language they may be learning, while he 
 is imparting an accurate knowledge of the construction 
 of Latin and Greek sentences, be is also supplying a con- 
 siderable amount of information upon the principles of 
 construction of language in general, and upon their prac- 
 tical exemplifications in his own, or some other language 
 with which his pupils are concerned. And when, in 
 the reading of a Greek or Latin author, he calls attention 
 to those inflections and syntactical rules as they are 
 practically exhibited, and by parsing and analysis im- 
 presses them upon the minds of the students, he has a 
 further and an ever-recurring opportunity of doing 
 much in the same direction. Thus with the teaching 
 of Latin and Greek grammar (whether from the text- 
 book, or practically in the reading of an author), the 
 teaching of English, or any other grammar, acquaint- 
 ance with which is desirable for the learner, and the 
 imparting of the leading principles of universal gram- 
 mar, may be readily associated. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 21 
 
 2. Again, in the translation of Greek and Latin 
 authors into English, by avoiding the absurd and injuri- 
 ous practice, so common in schools, of what is technically 
 called " construing " (a practice which by accustoming 
 the student to a distorted caricature of his own tongue, 
 with an utter neglect of its own proper idioms, impairs 
 his power of using it aright), and by requiring his 
 pupils to render each sentence in good readable English, 
 while at the same time he insists upon an exact inter- 
 pretation of every inflection, word, and clause, he is 
 supplying the best possible exercise in English compo- 
 sition. Add to this that the Classics afford abundant 
 suitable topics, upon which the student may be required 
 to reproduce in his own words, what he has learned from 
 his teacher, together with such additional ideas as his 
 own reflection or reading may furnish ; and it will be 
 seen that classical instruction naturally fosters that most 
 important branch of education, composition in our own 
 mother tongue. Classical studies tend also in another 
 way to help the student in the acquisition of a thorough 
 mastery of his own language ; because, in the practice 
 of Latin and Greek composition, he learns many of its 
 characteristic peculiarities, has his attention especially 
 directed to its idioms, and is constantly occupied iir the 
 discovery, and the accurate reproduction in different 
 language, of the exact force and meaning of its words 
 and modes of expression. Thus, necessarily, is the art 
 of composition in the vernacular imparted with the 
 teaching of the classical languages. 
 
 3. But, besides the influence which classical studies 
 thus have in promoting the more exact knowledge of 
 
22 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 our own and other tongues, thej can also be used as 
 the occasion for arousing an interest in many other 
 branches of learning, and be made, as it were, the basis 
 upon which the superstructure of knowledge in those 
 branches may be easily and surely built. Thus, any 
 geographical allusion in the text of an author may be 
 used by the teacher as the starting-point from which he 
 may convey, and by the student as a centre around which 
 he may gather, much information about the past and 
 present political or local divisions, physical or general 
 features, trade and productions, of the country or local- 
 ity referred to ; and in this way the student may acquire 
 a considerable knowledge of commercial, political, and 
 physical geography, both ancient and modern. By 
 seizing in a similar manner upon the occasion afforded 
 by any biographical or historical allusion, explaining 
 its meaning and reference, adding information where it 
 may be necessary, and comparing, where comparison 
 may be possible and appropriate, events of national or 
 personal history recorded or referred to, in the text, 
 the classical teacher may not only awaken a taste for, 
 and inculcate the principles of, historical and biograpi- 
 cal research, but also teach a great deal about the 
 history of other countries, and the biography of other 
 men. Then, again, any reference to manners and laws, 
 customs and usages, civil, military, or religious, would 
 afiFord a natural ground for drawing a comparison be- 
 tween them and those of other countries and times in 
 general, and of our own country and age in particular; 
 and thus give an occasion for supplying much interest- 
 ing antiquarian knowledge, and much valuable informa- 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 23 
 
 tion about the condition of society, laws, customs, and 
 modes of government which prevail among ourselves or 
 other nations, in our own times. 
 
 4. Further, by referring, wherever opportunity oflfers 
 itself to parallel passages in other authors — comparing 
 them with those in the classical writers which he wishes 
 to illustrate, and occasionally criticising, pointing out 
 their respective merits and defects — the classical teacher 
 is calling attention to, awakening an interest in, and 
 conveying some knowledge about general literature, 
 both ancient and modern, and inculcating the first prin- 
 ciples of literary criticism. 
 
 Thus, independently of the knowledge of the facts, 
 arguments, and ideas conveyed in the classical writings 
 themselves, in the course of classical instruction much 
 knowledge about languages generally, our own lan- 
 guage in particular, history, geography, antiquities, and 
 indeed almost every subject which comes within the 
 scope of a literary education, may incidentally be in- 
 troduced as naturally suggested by the main subject. 
 And therefore it follows that, in any educational system 
 in which the Classics occupy a place, these subjects would, 
 in virtue of a natural connection, be associated with 
 them as direct branches of instruction. Add to this, 
 that in Logic, Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy, the 
 Classics furnish models perhaps unsurpassed by modern 
 writers, certainly better suited than any other to form 
 the basis of a philosophical culture. The conclusion, 
 then, to which we are forced by these considerations 
 is, that classical studies form a natural centre around 
 which a considerable number of the branches of instruc- 
 
24 CLASSICAL STUDY 
 
 tion, necessary or desirable in a liberal education, are 
 readily congregated. 
 
 So, then, it would appear that classical studies are 
 extensively efficacious in the discipline of the mental 
 faculties, and are fitted to occupy a central position in 
 our educational system. 
 
 But it may be urged, as it has been frequently, that 
 the same advantages appertain in an equal or in a 
 greater degree to tlie study of our own, or at all events 
 some other modern language, e.g. French or German ; 
 and that other branches of study, e.g. Mathematics, 
 Natural Science, or even, as it has been gravely sug- 
 gested. History, are to be regarded as equally or more 
 efficacious, and as having a similar or greater claim 
 to the position of pre-eminence. We shall now, there- 
 fore, proceed to compare the Classics with the above- 
 mentioned subjects in respect to their relative educa- 
 tional value. 
 
 i. First, we shall institute a comparison between the 
 study of our own and the classical languages. 
 
 Now, in doing so, we grant, at the very outset, that 
 it is an indispensable part of a youth's education that 
 he be thoroughly instructed in the theory, and made 
 expert in the practical use, of his own mother tongue. 
 That a boy, who has gone through a sufficiently pro- 
 longed educational course, should be ignorant of the 
 grammar of his own language, deficient in its orthog- 
 raphy, and destitute of the power of writing pure 
 grammatical English, is altogether inexcusable. In- 
 struction, then, in the English language forms a neces- 
 sary adjunt of any system of training ; time must be 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 25 
 
 — as doubtless with proper arrangements it may be — 
 found for the acquisition of this essential branch of 
 knowledge ; and any higher culture would be dearly 
 purchased at the expense of ignorance in this respect. 
 Further, we are ready also to admit that the study of 
 the English language may be made a useful instrument 
 of mental discipline ; and, indeed, that in those cases, 
 so common and almost universal among the lower 
 grades of the middle and the lower classes of our popu- 
 lation, where, in consequence of their too early removal 
 from school, no other language can be mastered with 
 sufficient accuracy and to a sufficient extent to exercise 
 any appreciable disciplinary effect, it is perhaps the 
 only medium through which that training, which the 
 study of languages alone can give, can be effected. 
 
 But when we have granted thus much, we must, to 
 enable us to decide the point at issue, take into account 
 the following considerations : 
 
 1. To confine our language-studies to the vernacular 
 is to narrow our range of thought and expression. 
 " In learning Greek and Latin as boys," says Dr. Max 
 Miiller,^ " we are learning more than a new language ; 
 we are acquiring an entirely novel system of thought. 
 The mind has to receive a grammatical training, and to 
 be broken, so to say, to modes of thought and speech 
 unknown to us from our own language." 
 
 2. Again, it is very difficult to arrive at a correct 
 insight into the nature of language, its laws, forms, and 
 analogies, and in a general way to attain to any great 
 power or exactness in the use even of our own lan- 
 
 1 Survey of Languages, p. 2. 
 8 
 
26 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 giiage, without acquiring some other one as well. For 
 our mother tongue is so identified with our current 
 modes of thought and expression, we use it with such 
 facility, and with the exertion of so small an amount 
 of reflection upon the meaning and force of the words 
 and the structure of the sentences which we utter, that 
 we fail to obtain from its study that knowledge of the 
 principles of language and grammatical forms gener- 
 ally, and that force and accuracy in its own use, which 
 we get from the acquisition of a language learned only 
 by prolonged and laborious efibrt. And this absence of 
 effort in the use of the vernacular seriously impairs, in 
 other respects as well as in this, the value of its study 
 regarded as a mental discipline. 
 
 3. Our own language would further appear to be 
 inferior to the classical languages for the purposes of 
 education for the following reason : it is singularly 
 simple in the structure of its sentences, and in the 
 arrangement of its words, while they are most varied in 
 the collocation of their words, and most involved in the 
 formation of their sentences ; and hence, to arrive at 
 the meaning of a passage in a classical author requires 
 a much greater exertion of the reflective and analytical 
 faculties, and consequently involves a proportionately 
 higher and more vigorous intellectual training. 
 
 4. Again, the English language, beautiful and ex- 
 pressive as it is, is not as perfect in its grammatical 
 structure and forms as the languages of Greece and 
 Rome, and accordingly cannot afford so good a speci- 
 men for the language studies of the student as they do. 
 For example, it conveys by a cumbersome array of little 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 27 
 
 words what they convey by a change of injflection ; and 
 the abundant use of inflections in a language not only 
 makes it more terse and forcible in itself, but also ren- 
 ders it possible to arrange words in sentences in such a 
 way as to express ideas in the clearest and most strik- 
 ing manner ; while a deficiency of inflections often 
 renders it necessary, for the sake of making the mean- 
 ing intelligible, to place the words so as to represent 
 the ideas much less appropriately and forcibly. The 
 inflection at once shows the proper position of a word 
 as regards the sense, wherever it may happen to be 
 placed in a sentence ; and thus, in Greek and Latin, 
 each idea can be arranged according to its relative im- 
 portance, and where its expression will be most striking 
 to the mind, and we may add most euphonious to the 
 ear ; whereas in English a certain fixed order of 
 words and clauses must be for the most part observed, 
 or the sentence would become mere unintelligible 
 jargon. 
 
 5. Nor must it be forgotten that the classical lan- 
 guages lie at the foundation, and enter largely into the 
 structure, of our own language. Many of our words 
 are derived directly from them, and their meaning can- 
 not be rightly appreciated without some classical attain- 
 ments. " If," says the Edinburgh Reviewer,^ " the 
 knowledge of Greek and Latin among our upper classes 
 were lost, it [our language] would become (as it un-' 
 fortunately is to women, and to the mass of people 
 already) a strange collection of inexpressive symbols." 
 It is not, then, perhaps too much to say that an acquaint- 
 
 1 July, 1864. 
 
28 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 ance with Latin and Greek is almost indispensable for 
 a precise and correct knowledge of our own language ; 
 at all events we may say, with Her Majesty's Public 
 School Commissioners, that " the study of the classical 
 languages is, or rather may be made, an instrument of 
 the highest value for the purpose " of acquiring " a 
 command of pure grammatical English." ^ 
 
 For all these reasons, we conclude that English is 
 not fitted to take the place of Latin and Greek in our 
 education. 
 
 II. But the question arises : If our own language 
 will not answer the required purpose, and it be neces- 
 sary to learn another one as well, why not choose, in 
 preference to Latin and Greek, one or more of the 
 modern languages, e.g. French or German, or both? 
 for these are the ones whose claims have been especially 
 urged. 
 
 The advocates of this view allege in defence of it 
 the following assertions and arguments : Modern lan- 
 guages are as suitable for mental cultivation as the 
 classical languages. Instruction in the principles, and 
 training in the use, of language generally can be as 
 well imparted through them as through Latin and 
 Greek, to which they are not in themselves inferior. 
 They, too, under the teaching of able men, can be 
 made the vehicles of aesthetic culture and high philo- 
 sophic discipline. They can be taught orally, as well as 
 by the more laborious process of dictionary and gram- 
 mar ; and therefore, as well as through their being in- 
 trinsically less difiicult, can be acquired mord easily, 
 
 1 Report, p. 83. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 29 
 
 thoroughly, and in a shorter time. They are more 
 useful when acquired, because of their being actually 
 used by persons with whom, in the course of commerce, 
 or in social intercourse, we frequently come into con- 
 tact ; and because they convey much valuable informa- 
 tion on physical science, political economy, and other 
 branches of knowledge, but imperfectly or erroneously 
 understood by the writers of Greece and Rome. Thus, 
 while they are indispensable to men in the higher 
 walks of commercial life, to enable them to hold inter- 
 course with foreign traders, they are equally so to 
 men engaged in intellectual callings, because only 
 through an acquaintance with these languages much 
 knowledge connected with their respective pursuits is 
 accessible. They are the key to the ideas of contem- 
 porary nations, and are — at least French and German 
 are — the vehicles of literatures purer and more sub- 
 lime than the classical ; and these literatures contain 
 much that is well fitted for the study, and calculated 
 to rouse the sympathies, enlist the interests, and ele- 
 vate the moral tone of youth, which the authors of 
 Greece and Rome do not. They are, for these reasons, 
 more attractive studies than the classical languages ; 
 and this is especially in their favor, because it is impor- 
 tant that their studies should be attractive, not repul- 
 sive, to the young. Finally, as regards French and 
 German, they are most valuable for the better under- 
 standing of our own language, because a large portion 
 of it is derived from French and Teutonic sources. 
 And on these grounds, it is maintained, the modern 
 languages, and more particularly French and German, 
 
 3* 
 
30 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 are preferable subjects of study to the - classical, — at 
 all events for those boys who are not intended for pro- 
 fessions, and therefore not likely to require any knowl- 
 edge of the Classics in their future life. 
 
 Such are some of the leading arguments advanced 
 by those who advocate the use of the modern, versus 
 the classical, languages. To all of them perhaps we 
 must allow a certain, and to some of them very consid- 
 erable, weight ; at all events they prove indubitably 
 that modern languages ought to occupy an important 
 position in a liberal education. But, on the other side 
 of the question, the following arguments must be taken 
 into consideration : 
 
 1. The very fact that the modern languages can be 
 so easily acquired, the very circumstance of their being 
 living languages, and therefore capable of being learned 
 orally by a mere exercise of memory, without the labo- 
 rious process by which alone a dead ^ nguage can be 
 mastered, makes them less suitable and efficient instru- 
 ments of intellectual discipline ; for intellectual devel- 
 opment and culture are the results of intellectual effort, 
 and, if you diminish the effort, you proportionately im- 
 pede that development, and impair that culture. 
 
 2. On the other hand, the fact that the classical are 
 " dead " languages, at the present time unused, and 
 therefore unprogressive ; that, consequently, we are 
 able to study them in every stage of their progress, 
 from a comparatively imperfect state to their highest 
 point of perfection, and through their subsequent 
 decline ; and therefore there can be no difficulty in 
 selecting from them the finest specimens of style, where 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 31 
 
 the language is found in the greatest perfection (a mat- 
 ter most difficult of decision in the case of any living 
 language, which is ever changing, whether improving 
 or deteriorating not being at any given time ascertain- 
 able) — renders them more serviceable models for the 
 study of language. 
 
 3. Then, again, it must be borne in mind that Greek 
 and Latin are in" themselves more perfect languages, 
 more logically accurate in the expression of ideas, with 
 a more regular grammatical structure, and with gram- 
 matical details more easily traceable to general laws ; 
 and that, consequently, to adopt the conclusion of the 
 Quarterly Review,^ " Latin,'^ to which we may add 
 Greek in perhaps a greater degree, '' though not well 
 taught and less well remembered, leaves behind it more 
 knowledge of general grammar and etymology than 
 the study of any modern language can convey." 
 
 4. To this WrO may add that they afford a standard 
 of the principles of language and of grammar common 
 to the whole civilized world. Now it is manifest that, 
 in the study of philology, it is important that there 
 should be some common basis of proceeding, and some 
 standard of reference agreed upon by all. It would 
 be plainly inconvenient that each nation should take 
 for its standard its own or some other modern tongue 
 — e.g. that England should take French, Germany 
 English, France German, or Italy any one of the three, 
 or some other language ; scholars could not thus com- 
 pare their labors, and the variation in the point of view 
 would probably produce hopeless discord as to the prin- 
 
 1 July, 1864, p. 21. 
 
32 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 ciples which are the ultimate object of research. Nor 
 could it be expected that all modern nations would 
 combine to elevate any one of their languages into the 
 position of the one standard for them all. But Latin 
 and Greek, being remote from national jealousies and 
 the rivalries of modern life, standing out in the distant 
 past, the common heritage of all, to which all are equally 
 entitled, and all are equally, or nearly so, indebted, 
 form a ground of study open to every civilized man, 
 from which the fundamental principles of all language 
 can be educed, and upon which the philologists of 
 every nation can work together and compare the 
 results of their labors. 
 
 5. And as they afford the most perfect specimens of 
 language^ so also they supply the finest literary models 
 in poetry, history, and philosophy — models which have 
 served as examples of thought and composition to all 
 subsequent ages, and after the fashion of which all 
 modern literature has taken its form. And, in addition 
 to this fact, observing also that classical, as compared 
 with modern literature, which is practically speaking 
 boundless in extent, affords a limited area for study, 
 containing a few recognized models, upon which all 
 can agree, whereas, to make a selection from modern 
 authors for the same purpose is almost impossible, — 
 we conclude that the literatures of Greece and Rome, 
 no less than their languages, are more suitable for edu- 
 cational purposes than those of modern nations. 
 
 6. Nor must this fact be forgotten. Modern liter- 
 ary productions abound in classical allusions, and in 
 thoughts and sentiments either directly copied from the 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 33 
 
 Greek and Latin Classics, or framed on the model of 
 similar passages in them. In evidence of this we may 
 refer to the constant classical allusions in the speeches 
 of our great statesmen — allusions which convey no 
 meaning except to the classical scholar. And even in 
 cases where this direct reference is not discernible, the 
 Classics have exercised so vast an influence on modern 
 thought, and so many of our current ideas are trace- 
 able to that influence, that much of our modern litera- 
 ture cannot be thoroughly understood and appreciated 
 without some classical knowledge. 
 
 7. Another argument of considerable weight may be 
 based on the circumstance that, in consequence of their 
 remoteness from our own times, the classical authors 
 are free from any reference to the controversies, reli- 
 gious, political, and social, which agitate ourselves, 
 and with which it is exceedingly undesirable to disturb 
 the minds of the young before they are thoroughly 
 competent to think for themselves, to discriminate 
 between what is true and what is false, and to settle 
 their own principles on the conviction of disciplined 
 reason, and under the influence of sound and well- 
 trained judgment. 
 
 8. Further, it must be noted that the classical lan- 
 guages are, or at least Latin is, as it were, the key to 
 many of the most important modern languages, and 
 that the acquisition of the former makes the acquisition, 
 whenever necessary or desirable, of the latter a com- 
 paratively easy task — a fact the converse of which is 
 by no means true. Upon this point we quote the opin- 
 
34 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 ion of Dr. Max Miiller, who says : ^ "In Latin we have 
 the key to Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian. Any 
 one who desires to learn the modern Romance lan- 
 guages — Italian, Spanish, and French — will find that 
 he actually has to spend less time if he learns Latin 
 first, than if he had studied each of these modern dia- 
 lects separately, and without this foreknowledge of their 
 common parent." 
 
 For all these reasons, we conclude that the modern 
 languages, important as is the place which they ought 
 to occupy in education, cannot be regarded as having 
 the same educational value as those of Greece and 
 Rome. 
 
 But if no other language and literature can rival 
 those of Greece and Rome in educational value, it may 
 be urged that they are surpassed, or at all events 
 equalled, in this respect by some other subject ; e.g. 
 Mathematics, Natural Science, or history, for these are 
 the branches of study whose claims have beeii especially, 
 and with most force, insisted upon. 
 
 III. Are we, then, to regard Mathematics as better 
 entitled than the Classics to occupy the central position 
 spoken of? 
 
 Now, in attempting to give an answer to this question, 
 we admit at once the very great importance of Mathe- 
 matics ; for without a knowledge of it some of the most 
 important laws of the universe cannot be imderstood 
 and explained ; it forms one of the most potent instru- 
 ments in promoting the progress of the natural sciences ; 
 and it is most valuable in the pursuit of some callings 
 
 1 Survey of Languages, p. 16. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 35 
 
 — e.g. that of engineering in all its branches — which 
 conduce to the material comforts and advantages of 
 life. Thus the practical utility of mathematical studies 
 is imdoubted. 
 
 But it must .be borne in mind that we have now to 
 regard the matter in an educational aspect ; and that 
 in the beginning of this inquiry, we enunciated it as a 
 preliminary principle that the main object of education 
 was not to impart knowledge which could be turned to 
 direct account in the pursuits of after life, so much as 
 to develop and invigorate the mental faculties, and 
 generally to humanize and expand the intellect. 
 
 From this point of view, however, it must be allowed 
 that the study of Mathematics exercises a most salutary 
 and important influence on the cultivation of the mind ; 
 for it tends to fix the attention, and therefore cures the 
 fault of mental distraction ; it imparts the power of 
 dwelling upon abstract ideas ; it cultivates the habits 
 of giving a definite form to vague notions, of collecting 
 scattered details into fixed formulae, and afterwards 
 applying those formulae to the production of new 
 results ; and while it sharpens the faculties generally, 
 it trains the mind in the practice of close and consecu- 
 tive reasoning, and thereby, in a special way, cultivates 
 the faculty of reason. ^^>v. 
 
 We cannot, however, forget that this discipline has 
 been denied to accrue from mathematical studies by so 
 great a thinker as the late Sir W. Hamilton, and has 
 been considered by that eminent philosopher and math- 
 ematician. Dr. Whewell, to result from the study of 
 Geometry only, that of Analy^i^-beiiffi^riiliost useless, 
 
 V OF 
 
 
36 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 if not actually injurious, for the proper development of 
 the mind.i 
 
 Nor must we suppose that the mental discipline 
 which Mathematics effects can be acomplished through 
 its instrumentality alone. Indeed, many have doubted 
 whether Mathematics is the best subject for training 
 and developing the reason, and whether it is not in- 
 ferior to Classics in this respect. For it has been 
 urged against it, and with a great amount of force, 
 that it is concerned only with number, quantity, and 
 form, or the intuitions of time and space, and is thus 
 limited to one sphere of existence, and therefore in no 
 way applicable to the diversified phenomena of our intel- 
 lectual life ; and that, inasmuch as .it is concerned with 
 necessary matter, it incapacitates, rather than trains, the 
 reason for dealing correctly with contingejit matter, 
 and so for forming accurate and sound conclusions in 
 questions of common life, and of moral, political, phi- 
 losophical, or religious truth, where absolute certainty 
 is unattainable, and probability, of greater or less 
 degree of certainty, alone can be arrived at. But 
 classical studies, they argue, while they are free from 
 these defects as being engaged with contingent matter, 
 and concerned with most of the problems which occupy 
 the attention of the intellect, are yet a most effective 
 means of cultivating the reason ; for the accurate syn- 
 tax and complex structure of the classical languages 
 require on the part of the student a great exercise of 
 the logical powers, to enable him to comprehend the 
 purport of the language used, to determine which he 
 
 1 Whewell on Liberal Education, p. 56. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 37 
 
 has to trace out; the connection between clause and 
 clause, and sentence and sentence, to weigh conflicting 
 probabilities as to the exact meaning of words and 
 phrases, to apply rules, and to form conclusions ; and 
 all this involves direct processes of syllogistic reasoning, 
 rapidly and almost intuitively gone through, but no less 
 real and valid on that account. 
 
 The fact upon which the foregoing argument is based 
 seems to be by itself alone decisive of the question 
 before us. Mathematics is concerned with a class of 
 truths which have no relation to human affairs ; it leads 
 away the mind to a region of its own, quite remote 
 from the sphere in which we live and think, and from 
 our human interests and sympathies ; whereas the 
 study of the poets and orators, the historians and 
 philosophers of classical antiquity, brings us into direct 
 communion with human feelings and concerns, and the 
 ordinary affairs of individual and political life. For 
 this reason it would appear that education should have 
 rather a literary, than a mathematical, or purely scien- 
 tific, basis. 
 
 The conclusion at which we arrive is, that while 
 Mathematics is an essential supplement of a classical, 
 or indeed of any kind of liberal, education, yet that its 
 proper position is an ancillary, and by no means that 
 leading or central one which the Classics demand as 
 their own. 
 
 lY. We next proceed to consider the claim which 
 has been advanced on behalf of Natural Science, to fill 
 the place from which, it is thought, the Classics ought 
 to be dethroned. 
 
38 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 The advocates of this claim urge in support of it, 
 that the study of Natural Science must be preferable 
 to that of language, on the broad principle that it is the 
 study of things, rather than of words ; that to study 
 the latter before the former is indeed a reversal of 
 Nature's order, according to which the observation of 
 external nature precedes the use of language, and still 
 more any intelligent comprehension of its forms and 
 laws ; that the acquisition in youth of a knowledge of 
 external objects is of real use in the business of life, or 
 at all events lays the foundation for profitable and 
 interesting pastime in years to come ; that many boys, 
 who have not the slightest aptitude or taste for lan- 
 guage and literature, may have great capability and 
 inclination for the study of the facts of external nature ; 
 that information of this kind is conveyed more easily 
 and readily, and therefore more efficiently to an indo- 
 lent student, than any other can be; and that any 
 education is narrow, defective, and incomplete, which 
 does not include within its course instruction in some 
 portion at least of that vast store of facts and principles 
 which modern science unfolds to its votaries. Then, 
 again, it is maintained that the study of Natural 
 Science exercises the mental faculties, and affords a 
 real mental discipline. Thus Her Majesty's Public 
 School Commissioners say : ^ "It quickens and cul- 
 tivates directly the faculty of observation, which in 
 very many persons lies almost dormant through life, 
 the power of accurate and rapid generalization, and 
 the mental habit of method and arrangement; it 
 
 1 Report, p. 82. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 39 
 
 accustoms young persons to trace the sequence of 
 cause and effect ; it familiarizes them with a kind of 
 reasoning which interests them, and which they can 
 promptly comprehend ; and it is perhaps the best cor- 
 rective for that indolence which is the vice of half- 
 awakened minds, and which shrinks from any exertion 
 that is not, like an effort of memory, merely mechan- 
 ical." And Mr. H. H. Vaughan, late Professor of 
 Modern History in the University of Oxford, asserts 
 that "the vital appropriation and application of" 
 knowledge of the physical sciences " involve acts of 
 memory, comprehension, comparison, imagination, de- 
 duction — the use of many and admirable faculties, 
 the exercise of which is a discipline truly noble." ^ 
 
 Now there is sufficient truth in all this, as we think, 
 to show, beyond the possibility of a reasonable doubt, 
 that the study of Natural Science, so fal* from being, as 
 one of the most distinguished of the Head Masters of 
 our Public Schools maintains it to be, " worthless " for 
 boys, is really valuable, not only for the sake of the in- 
 formation acquired, but also on account of its efficacy 
 in cultivating and developing certain powers of the 
 mind ; and it makes out a strong case for the right of 
 this subject to occupy a recognized position in our edu- 
 cation, establishing the dictum of the Report on the 
 Public Schools, that its exclusion from our education 
 "is a plain defect and a great practical evil."^ It 
 must therefore be admitted that the too exclusive 
 possession of the educational field by the Classics, — a 
 
 1 Oxford Reform and Oxford Professors, p. 26. 
 
 2 Public Schools Commission Report, p. 32. 
 
40 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 possession the commencement of which dates from a 
 time when the natural sciences were almost unknown, 
 and which was held by prescriptive right afterwards, 
 notwithstanding their vast expansion in modern times 
 — has kept those sciences too generally from occupying 
 that position as branches of instruction which is right- 
 fully due to them. 
 
 But here again we must call attention to the fact, 
 that the question before us is, not whether they deserve 
 a place, but whether they ought to occupy the principal, 
 central place, in our system of education ; and this 
 question we must answer most decisively in the nega- 
 tive, both for the reasons already advanced in favor of 
 the right of language and literature in general, and 
 of those of Greece and Rome in particular, to this pre- 
 eminence ; and because we hold, that the study of 
 language and literature, as the study of the intellectual 
 and moral world, must be much higher than that of 
 the physical world, a truth expressed in the hackneyed 
 quotation — distorted indeed from its meaning as used 
 by its author, but none the less appropriate on that 
 account in its new application — " the proper study of 
 mankind is man." 
 
 Nor, again, must we forget that there is considerable 
 force in the arguments of those who maintain that the 
 mental discipline derivable from the study of Natural 
 Science arises chiefly from the investigation and con- 
 templation of its more advanced, and not from the 
 study of its elementary, branches, with which alone for 
 the most part education is concerned. The advocates 
 of this view argue thus : the youthful mind is incapa- 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 41 
 
 ble of grasping the theories which are most disciplinary, 
 and cannot get beyond the sensible facts of the subject, 
 which exercise the observation and memory, and noth- 
 ing more ; the elementary knowledge, then, which can 
 be conveyed to the young, is for the most part made 
 up of individual facts, and therefore only trains the 
 minds to observe and remember, and affords but little 
 scope for the exercise of those reflective faculties, which 
 may, no doubt, be called into play in the generalizing 
 of those facts into laws and principles. 
 
 The study of Natural Science, as concerned exclu- 
 sively with the objects of the external world, would 
 appear, indeed* in every case, to have a tendency to 
 induce the neglect of the contemplation of the world 
 within, and, therefore, of the cultivation of the reflec- 
 tive faculties ; and at the same time, from the nature 
 of the subject-matter with which it is engaged, it afibrds 
 little, if any, scope for the exercise of the imagination, 
 and none at all for that of the moral judgment, which 
 is perhaps of all our faculties the most valuable for the 
 business of life ; in short, as occupied with the visible 
 and tangible, it allows no opportunity for the devel- 
 opment of those higher mental powers, which are 
 employed upon the immaterial and unseen. 
 
 V. The claim of another subject, viz. History, or 
 rather the history of the Middle Ages, to occupy the 
 central position of our educational system, has been 
 seriously urged, in a recent number of one of onr lead- 
 ing Eeviews,^ and now demands our attention, not so 
 
 1 Westminster Review, July, 1864. 
 4* 
 
42 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 much from its intrinsic importance, as because of the 
 gravity with which it is urged. 
 
 The writer of the article in question asserts that 
 from the history of the Middle Ages we can " learn best 
 our relation to the past and to one another;" that 
 " it has a claim upon our principal attention which is 
 superior to any other ; " that it will be " admitted 
 without hesitation," that History " can form a real 
 centre, about which can be arranged all else that will 
 have to be taught besides it ; " and that to " early 
 modern history " all other history, language, and litera- 
 ture, and even the physical sciences (which on this 
 plan are to be '' treated historically," and to " gain in 
 importance" by being so handled), can naturally be 
 subordinated. He further assumes that our present, 
 i.e^ the classical system of education does not attempt 
 " the higher object of qualifying a man for citizenship 
 in a state which is itself an integral part of the com- 
 monwealth of Western Europe," and " leaves the judg- 
 ment untrained on the highest social and political 
 questions, and does not fit a man, but rather unfits 
 him, to feel his position, and to discharge his duty, as 
 an Englishman and a European ; " while by the proposed 
 system, on the other hand, the mind would be trained 
 to " the habit of viewing everything in strict relation 
 to the one subject of highest human interest — the 
 progress of the human race." 
 
 Now, in reply to this twofold assumption, we 
 observe, in the first place, that even if it were true, we 
 cannot regard the " qualifying a man for citizenship in 
 a state of Western Europe," or the formation of " the 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 43 
 
 habit of viewing everything in strict relation to the 
 progress, of the human race," as the primary object of 
 intellectual education, which is, as we have before seen, 
 to draw out, strengthen, and develop the mental facul- 
 ties ; and whatever best effects this is the most fitted 
 to be the principal educational instrument, whether it 
 " qualifies for citizenship," either in " Western Europe," , 
 or any other quarter of the globe — Asia, Africa, or 
 America, — or not ; whether it has any direct bearing 
 upon " the progress of the human race," or not. The 
 education of the individual is the primary object, that 
 of the citizen a secondary and subordinate one ; the 
 latter cannot be well effected until the former has been 
 well secured. And it may indeed be questioned, whether 
 " the progress of the human race " be a matter of any, 
 much less the " highest," interest to the young, or 
 whether they can at all appreciate it ; and even if they 
 could, whether they would be best educated by " view- 
 ing everything in relation to " it : the idea itself is a 
 somewhat abstract and shadowy one, ill calculated for 
 the comprehension of youthful minds, and by no means 
 such an important point of reference to the student as 
 many others : for example, his future work in life, or 
 his relation to his Creator, or his social relations to his 
 fellow-men. 
 
 Then, again, with reference to the general question, 
 we observe that history is but a part — an important 
 one indeed, but still only a part — of a language and 
 literature training ; from no course of literary educa- 
 tion indeed could it be excluded ; but to exalt it to 
 a primary position is to exalt the part, which is neces- 
 
44 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 sarily subordinate, to a place of superiority over the 
 other. 
 
 And further, we may ask : If the history of the 
 Middle Ages is to be the great central subject of study, 
 what authors are to be studied ? What Mediaeval his- 
 torians are to fill the places of the great classical ones, 
 Thucydides, Herodotus, and Xenophon, Tacitus, Livy, 
 and Caesar, — not to mention such other authors as 
 Homer and Virgil, Sophocles and Horace, Cicero and 
 Demosthenes ? It would be difl&cult to find any suitable 
 to educe the mental faculties of youth, or indeed at all 
 comparable, in point of matter or style, to the great 
 historians, and the other great writers, of Greece and 
 Eome. 
 
 It must also be remembered that to the immature 
 minds of the young, who have not yet the mental 
 power, or the knowledge of life, to grasp its principles, 
 history presents very little else than an assemblage of 
 facts, the mastering of which is a mere exercise of 
 memory, and nothing mor^; and the cultivation of the 
 power of acquiring historical facts, or even of classify- 
 ing them as well, can hardly be regarded as tlie princi- 
 pal object of education. 
 
 Nor, again, can we allow the claim of a subject to 
 pre-eminence, which for its maintenance requires that 
 physical science should be treated " historically ; " 
 physical science handled in such a way would soon 
 cease to progress, and become a matter of history and 
 nothing more ; so far from " gaining in importance ' 
 thereby, it would soon cease to have any importance at 
 all ; thus studied, it could hardly be turned to any 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 45 
 
 practical account in promoting the comfort, happiness, 
 or advancement of man ; and those who are taught the 
 subject on such principles may acquire some knowledge 
 of the history of physical science indeed, but of the 
 science itself, little, or rather no knowledge at all. 
 
 Lastly, as to the assertion that our present system 
 does not qualify for forming a judgment on the highest 
 social and political questions of the day, we should — 
 with the example before us of men trained on that 
 system, who as politicians, statesmen, and social phi- 
 losophers have by their labors made the social and 
 political condition of our country superior on the whole 
 to that of any other country in the world — be dis- 
 posed emphatically to deny. But whether this fact be 
 recognized or not, so the classical system be in other 
 respects the best mental discipline, its claim to superi- 
 ority is fairly established. 
 
 For, after all, this is the question : Which is the best 
 educational instrument ? We have heard, no doubt, 
 from the Eeviewer all that can be said on behalf of the 
 history of the Middle Ages : we have already advanced 
 in this essay arguments in favor of the right of lan- 
 guage and literature, particularly of the languages and 
 literatures of Greece and Rome, to fill the leading place 
 in education ; which line of argument is the most 
 weighty and conclusive can, we conceive, readily be 
 decided. 
 
 We have thus at considerable length investigated the 
 
 arguments which have been brought forward by their 
 
 respective advocates, in support of the right of other 
 
 leading branches of learning to occupy a high, or even 
 
46 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 a pre-eminent, position in our education ; we have con- 
 sidered in each case what may be said on the other 
 side ; and we have thus been brought to the conclusion, 
 on a survey of the whole matter, that while most, if 
 not all, of the above-mentioned subjects should be 
 included in any course of liberal instruction, yet that 
 no one of them is as efficient an instrument of intel- 
 lectual training, or as well fitted to occupy the centr^ 
 of our educational system, as the Classics. 
 
 Besides the arguments which have been already" 
 brought forward in the preceding pages, there are 
 others of considerable weight which next claim our 
 attention. 
 
 1. The first of these is one, ably worked out by Dr. 
 Whewell, in his work on " Liberal Education." The 
 Classics are an indispensable part of our education 
 course, because they connect us with the intellectual 
 efforts of past ages ; they are stamped, as it were, upon 
 the history of the civilized world, and their study pre- 
 serves the traditions of moral and intellectual life ; and 
 true nobility of intellect consists in the ability to trace 
 the descent of ideas. To omit the study of the Classics, 
 then, is to cut us off from the experience of the intel- 
 lectual world, to make it impossible for us to investigate 
 the progress of the thought of civilized man, and to 
 destroy what may not inaptly be called the aristocratic 
 element of human knowledge. 
 
 2. A second argument is based upon the great influ- 
 ence which the Greek and Roman mind has exercised 
 in moulding our modern civilization. Mr. Gladstone^ 
 
 1 Report of Public School Commissioners, Vol. ii. p. d8. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 47 
 
 says : " The modern European ciyilization from the 
 Middle Ages downwards is the compound of two great 
 factors, the Christian religion for the spirit of man, the 
 Greek (and in a secondary degree the Roman) discipline 
 for his mind and intellect " ; and he even goes so far 
 as to maintain, that " the materials of what we call 
 classical training were prepared, and we have a right to 
 say were advisedly and providentially prepared, in order 
 that it might become not a mere adjunct, but in mathe- 
 matical phrase the complement of Christianity, in its 
 application to the culture of the human being, as a 
 being formed both for this world and the world to 
 come." And to the same effect Mr. J. S. Mill observes : ^ 
 " The Jews jointly with them [the Greeks] have been 
 the starting-point and main propelling agency of modern 
 cultivation " — an observation endorsed by M. Guizot:^ 
 " Modern civilization is in effect derived from the Jews 
 and from the Greeks. To the latter it is indebted for 
 its human and intellectual, to the former for its Divine 
 and moral, element." The civilized life of modern 
 Europe generally is so impregnated by classical influ- 
 ences, — its human as apart from its Divine element is 
 so entirely derived from classical sources, — that its 
 nature and tendency cannot be rightly understood and 
 duly estimated without an acquaintance with the men- 
 tal productions, the civilization, and the national life 
 of Greece and Rome. 
 
 3. Closely allied with the preceding is a third argu- 
 ment. The classical system has so long prevailed ; the 
 
 ^ Considerations on Representative Government, p. 43. 
 2 Meditations on Christianity, p. 209. 
 
48 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 intellectual life of our upper classes lias been so com- 
 pletely, and that of our middle classes to so great an 
 extent, formed by it ; it is so intertwined with the ideas 
 of the educated, with our modes of thinking, and the 
 whole course of cultivated life among us, — that it 
 could not be departed from without giving a great 
 shock to our system of thought, and to our social cul- 
 ture. And though this consideration ought not to be 
 allowed to outweigh other and graver ones, which may 
 be urged against the pursuit of classical studies, yet it 
 is enough to render it imperative, on the part of an 
 opponent of them, to show very good reason why they 
 should be abandoned, and to advance very cogent argu- 
 ments in favor of those studies which he proposes to 
 substitute in their stead. 
 
 4. Another argument is one, the force of which will 
 be generally recognized. For those preparing for the 
 learned professions, the work of legislation or of states- 
 manship, or indeed any high intellectual calling, the 
 knowledge of the classical languages is almost indis- 
 pensable. In the profession of the Law, a knowledge 
 of Latin is necessary for the perusal of old legal docu- 
 ments, and the study of some of the greatest works on 
 Jurisprudence. In the Medical profession, without 
 some classical attainments the student cannot avail 
 himself of the ancient medical writers, e.g. Hippocrates, 
 Celsus, Galen ; nor can he fully understand the mean- 
 ing of the technical terms used in his art. In the pro- 
 fession of Theology, no man who has not received a 
 thorough classical training, can attain to any except 
 the lowest standard of professional acquirements. For, 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 49 
 
 first of all, without a knowledge of Greek, it is impos- 
 sible to acquire an exact and competent knowledge of 
 the writings of the New Testament. Again, all the 
 works of the great Fathers of the Church, nearly all 
 the early Christian writings, all the productions of 
 Mediaeval theologians, and many of the greatest works 
 of comparatively modern divines, are written in the 
 languages of Greece or Rome, and are therefore as 
 sealed books to all who are not classical scholars. Add 
 to this, that an accurate acquaintance with the manners, 
 customs, institutions, and literatures of Greece and 
 Rome is indispensable for the understanding and 
 explaining of many allusions in the New Testament, 
 and other ancient theological writings ; and for trac- 
 ing out the influence of Christianity upon the civil- 
 ized races with which it first came into contact, and 
 investigating the effect which through that influence it 
 has exercised in modifying the elements of human 
 society — reforming and renewing it. Nor is the utility 
 of classical studies confined to the three learned pro- 
 fessions. To the legislator and the statesman, a knowl- 
 edge of the history, laws, and political institutions of 
 Greece and Rome is almost essential, as a preparation 
 for the discharge of their respective functions. For in 
 the history of the States of Greece, and of the Republic 
 and Empire of Rome, are to be discovered the elements 
 of every national institution, the principles of national 
 life, examples of the origin and progress of every poli- 
 tical change, and illustrations of almost every possible 
 form of government. And as a practical illustration 
 of the value of this learning to the statesman, we may 
 
50 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 refer to the well-known fact, that many of the most 
 distinguished statesmen of our time have been men 
 deeply versed in classical lore. The historian, the phi- 
 losopher, and even the poet, cannot carry on their 
 respective pursuits without frequently finding an 
 acquaintance with the Classics most desirable for them; 
 while the scientific man can hardly fail in many cases 
 to recognize the value of some classical attainments, to 
 enable him to understand the nomenclature, and in 
 some instances to investigate the history and progress, 
 of his science. This argument goes far to prove the 
 absolute necessity of retaining the Classics in any sys- 
 tem of liberal education. 
 
 5. A fifth argument is based on the intrinsic value 
 of the literature of Greece and Rome. It has been 
 truly said that that literature contains " some of the 
 noblest poetry, the finest eloquence, the deepest philos- 
 ophy, the wisest historical writing." ^ And indeed, 
 without attempting to draw a comparison between the 
 respective excellences of classical and modern litera- 
 ture, no unprejudiced person can refuse to allow that 
 the languages in which the New Testament is written, 
 in which Homer and Virgil composed their poetry, 
 Demosthenes and Cicero gave utterance to their ora- 
 tions, and Thucydides and Tacitus wrote their histories, 
 are worthy of diligent study, for the sake of the literary 
 treasures to which they are the key. To Greek this argu- 
 ment applies with special force. In it were composed 
 the earliest specimens of epic and dramatic poetry, and 
 perhaps the most perfect and elaborate productions of 
 
 1 Report of Public School Commissioners, p. 28. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 51 
 
 the drama, which we possess ; in it were written his- 
 tories, not only the oldest in point of antiquity, if we 
 except the sacred ones, which have been handed down 
 to us, but also unsurpassed, perhaps unrivalled, by any 
 of the histories of modern times ; it was the language 
 of the greatest orator which the world ever produced ; 
 in it wrote the masters of Logic, Metaphysics, Moral 
 and Political Philosophy, to all succeeding generations ; 
 men unexcelled by their pupils, with all the extra ex- 
 perience of two thousand years ; in it were composed 
 the inspired records of Christianity — records which 
 are the basis of the Christian faith, and the guide of 
 the individual Christian in all that concerns his spiritual 
 and eternal welfare. 
 
 Such is the train of reasoning by which the supremacy 
 of the Classics in our educational course may be de- 
 fended. Some of the arguments adduced may be applied, 
 perhaps, on behalf of some other subject almost as 
 appropriately, while others of them can be urged only 
 in support of the Classics ; some may be of greater, 
 others of less weight ; but their accumulative force is 
 irresistable ; at all events, until an equally strong case 
 can be made out for some ^ other branch of knowledge, 
 which, as it appears to us, has not yet been, nor is very 
 likely ever to be, done. 
 
 We now proceed to examine the objections which have 
 been made against the use of the Classics in education. 
 These are many. Some have been already in the course 
 of our argument cursorily referred to ; of the remaining 
 ones we can only select a few, which are most common, 
 or most important. 
 
52 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 1. A first objection is based upon moral considera- 
 tions. Classical literature is, as it is alleged, at once 
 pagan and impure ; much of it is of a demoralizing ten- 
 dency, and calculated to delmse rather than refine the 
 mind and character of the student. 
 
 Now, that this charge can be to some extent sustained, 
 as regards a portion of the surviving literature of Greece 
 and Rome, may without hesitation be admitted, just as 
 a similar accusation brought against some of our modern 
 literature could not be controverted. And indeed wo 
 cannot but bo conscious, that the fact of the works of 
 Greek and Roman authors having been composed before 
 the light of the Christian revelation enlightened the 
 darkness of the human mind, and before the leaven of 
 Christian principles interpenetrated and changed human 
 society, must to some extent impair their educational 
 value from a moral point of view. 
 
 Wo reply, however, first, that the objection is beside 
 the question l)efore us, which is, the value of the 
 Classics as a means of educating the mind, and not as 
 an instrument of moral culture. Still, we cannot for a 
 moment deny that an immoral tendency, if it can be 
 proved against any subject of study, is a fatal bar to its 
 use in education ; and therefore we rely rather upon 
 the answer that the objection is only true in a very 
 qualified sense, in fact, that it is substantially untrue ; 
 because the truth of the case is, that the classical writ- 
 ings contain much that is morally beautiful, indeed all 
 that is best and noblest in thought and sentiment in 
 the natural mind of man ; that far more frequently than 
 otherwise, vice is in them denounced as vice, and satir- 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 58 
 
 ized, or condemned, accordingly ; and, that even in those 
 mythological fables to which perhaps the objection 
 chiefly applies, that which is vicious lies only on the 
 surface, while on a deeper investigation they are seen 
 to embody ideas, often beautiful and profound in char- 
 acter, which an intelligent teacher may readily discern, 
 and impress upon the students attention ; and that, in 
 short, their general tendency, so far from being demor- 
 alizing and debasing, is rather elevating and refining. 
 And then, again, it must be remembered, that tho fact 
 of classical literature belonging to a bygone age, remote 
 from our own, makes anything of an immoral tendency 
 in it far less injurious than what is of a similar charac- 
 ter in the literature of our own times ; because it does 
 not wear to our senses the same aspect of reality, and 
 is not invested with the same personal interest to us. 
 
 2. Another objection, and perhaps the most common 
 and frequently repeated of all, is, that classical studies 
 are of no, or at all events of but little, practical utility — 
 at least for the great majority of schoolboys, who are 
 not destined for the learned professions, but intend to 
 engage in commercial pursuits. And when it is objected 
 that certain subjects of study are " not useful," what is 
 meant is, that they have no direct bearing upon the 
 student's future business, or calling ; and an invidious 
 contrast is drawn between them, and such subjects as 
 arithmetic, writing, or our own and modern languages, 
 which are of direct utility in the occupations of after ^ 
 life. 
 
 Now in meeting this objection we, in the first place, 
 protest against the assumption therein involved, that 
 
 6* 
 
54 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 everything in education is to be regulated by the dic- 
 tates of a vulgar utilitarianism. Surely there are other 
 objects besides mere utility, such as the attainment of 
 truth, the elevation of the moral nature, the culture of 
 the intellect, which ought also to be kept in view. Thus 
 intellectual cultivation is valuable as its own end, and 
 has its own use quite independently of any subsequent 
 results it may have upon our calling in life ; in the 
 words of a great thinker and writer, " health is a good in 
 itself, though nothing came of it " ; and so " the culture 
 of the intellect is a good in itself, and its own end." ^ 
 And further, it may be remarked, that this objection is 
 based upon a narrow and false idea of what is " the 
 useful " in education. Knowledge has a twofold value, 
 its value as knowledge, and its value as intellectual 
 discipline ; and viewed as a preparation for life, it is 
 often more important in the latter respect than it is in 
 the former. So then a subject of study may be emi- 
 nently " useful " in the highest, widest sense, without 
 being of any direct use in the avocations of after life. 
 If it has served to enlarge, sharpen, invigorate, or polish 
 any one of the mental powers ; if it has imparted vigor 
 and accuracy of reasoning ; if it has served to form a 
 sound and correct judgment ; if it has trained the mind 
 to a habit of close attention ; if it has enabled a man to 
 to take larger, clearer, more accurate views of any 
 * subject which may be presented to him in tlie ordinary 
 business of his every-day life ; if it has enabled him to 
 express his thoughts with more clearness and power ; 
 if, in short, it has in any way made him wiser, better, 
 
 1 Newman's Discourses on University Education, p. 236. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 55 
 
 more able, or more refined, — then has that branch of 
 knowledge been of the greatest " use" to him, though 
 he has never had occasion to use the smallest iota 
 thereof in the transaction of his business, or in the 
 pursuits of his life. That knowledge, then, which may- 
 seem to a man profitless as regards its direct use, may, 
 if he could only discern and estimate truly its results, 
 have been to liim indirectly of the greatest possible 
 utility. 
 
 3. Thirdly, it is urged as an objection against classical 
 studies, that they are appreciated only by a few ; that 
 boys generally do not see the use or the meaning of 
 them ; that most leave school knowing little or nothing 
 of Greek and Latin, and that of the rest the larger 
 number quickly give up the study of these languages 
 altogether ; and the conclusion drawn is, that studies 
 so little appreciated, so distasteful, and so barren in 
 results, are unfitted to occupy the attention of the 
 young. And in support of this conclusion it is argued, 
 with much plausibility, that it is absurd to suppose a 
 disagreeable study to be more invigorating than one 
 which is pleasant; that, on the contrary, the greater 
 the interest taken in a subject, the more inclination 
 must the student have to exercise his faculties upon it, 
 and the more the faculties are exercised, the more are 
 they expanded and invigorated ; and that, indeed, a cer- 
 tain degree of interest in a subject is the motive power 
 indicated by nature to support the will in the efifort of 
 sustained attention. 
 
 This objection may fairly be met by the following 
 observations : First, the fact of classical studies not 
 
56 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 being appreciated by the young is no proof of their un- 
 suitability for them ; on the contrary, the circumstance 
 of their absolutely requiring exertion of mind and close 
 attention, which renders them unpopular, is just what 
 makes them most valuable. Every one practically 
 versed in education knows that boys and young men, 
 for the most part, like best what gives them mentally 
 least trouble, and requires the least exercise of their 
 intellectual faculties. And it is for the opponents of 
 classical studies to show that there are studies, equally 
 invigorating, which would be generally more accept- 
 able ; and indeed that any studies, requiring laborious 
 effort, are likely to be agreeable to the majority of 
 young people. And then, as regards boys not seeing 
 the use of classical studies, it is not to be expected that 
 they should do so ; boys have to learn, sujffer, and do 
 much, the meaning and utility of which they cannot 
 possibly at the time comprehend ; this is a necessary 
 condition of a state of pupilage. And lastly we reply, 
 that if but little has been learned, the learning of that 
 little may have been of the greatest value in training 
 the mind for its future work ; and that even if these 
 studies have been quickly and altogether abandoned, 
 yet valuable results remain in the mental culture which 
 they have left behind. 
 
 4. A fourth objection assumes that since the classical 
 system of education was introduced before modern sci- 
 ence and literature took their rise, therefore it cannot 
 possibly be the best; because, first, it cannot corres- 
 pond with the spirit or meet the wants of the age ; and 
 secondly, it takes no cognizance of the vast mass of new 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 57 
 
 facts, principles, and ideas which have been added to 
 our stores of knowledge in modern times. And in par- 
 ticular it is said that, even if the poetry and eloquence 
 of the ancients preserve their pre-eminence, yet their 
 philosophy was neither the deepest nor the most true ; 
 and their history lacks the enlarged views and enlight- 
 ened wisdom with which centuries of additional experi- 
 ence have furnished mankind. 
 
 Now if this be urged merely to prove that the Classics 
 ought not to have exclusive possession of our educa- 
 tional field, we have nothing to say in reply ; that the 
 great discoveries of modern science, the great facts of 
 modern history, and the great truths and ideas of mod- 
 ern literature ought not to be ignored in the education 
 of our youth, is a matter upon which no one in our day 
 can entertain a reasonable doubt. 
 
 But if more than this be meant, we reply, first, by 
 calling attention to what we have already said with 
 reference to the claim which the Classics rightfully 
 make to occupy the central position in our education ; 
 and, secondly, by referring to the fact before alluded 
 to, that the very multiplicity of the objects presented 
 to our attention by modern literature and science, and 
 the vast extent of the field of study thus opened to 
 us, seriously diminish their educational value, because 
 there is the greatest difficulty in making a selection of 
 what is most valuable and appropriate for the purpose 
 of education, and there is no probability of education- 
 ists arriving at an agreement upon this point ; whereas 
 the Classics present a limited number of authors, many 
 of them in their kind models of thought and style ; and 
 
58 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 it is most desirable that we should have a common 
 system, or at all events a common basis of our system, 
 of education ; while it is equally desirable, considering 
 the limited nature of our faculties, and the shortness 
 of the time into which the work of education must be 
 compressed, that that basis should not be of too wide 
 an extent. 
 
 5. A fifth objection is based upon the union in the 
 classical system of the Greek and Latin languages. 
 Why, it is asked, study Greek and Latin together? 
 They are different in themselves, and are not necessarily 
 connected. Why not make one of them the basis of 
 our higher education, and not the two ? 
 
 Now the validity of this objection must be conceded 
 so far as this, that where education is cut short at the 
 age at which boys intended for business usually leave 
 school, one only of these languages should be studied. 
 And as to which of the two has the first claim upon the 
 student's attention is a question easily decided. For, 
 notwithstanding the great superiority of the language 
 and literature of Greece to those of Rome, when we 
 consider that the Latin tongue enters so largely into 
 the composition of our own and other modern lan- 
 guages; that it has done so much to mould our modern 
 civilization, not only directly through its literature, but 
 also indirectly through the influence which Latin modes 
 of thought and expression had upon the ecclesiastical 
 system and dogmas, and upon the social and political 
 life of the Middle Ages ; that its history is the basis 
 of our modern history, and its jurisprudence, of our 
 modern systems of law ; that for so many ages it formed 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 59 
 
 the common idiom of the professions and of the learned, 
 and that, therefore, without it the thoughts of many 
 generations are inaccessible, — when we consider all 
 this we can hardly doubt that Latin should have the 
 preference. In the case, then, of a large number of 
 boys, those for example who are the objects of sec- 
 ondary or middle-class education, we allow that Latin 
 only ought to be studied. 
 
 But in the case of those whose education is extended 
 through a longer period, we maintain that it is desir- 
 able to learn another language as well, both for the 
 sake of imparting to the mind a broader and more 
 comprehensive view of things in general, and of the 
 principles of language in particular. And Greek has, 
 undoubtedly, after Latin, the next claim upon our 
 attention, because in clearness and power, in philosoph- 
 ical precision of expression and grammatical structure, 
 it is the most perfect of all languages ; because it is 
 from Greece that Rome borrowed her literature ; be- 
 cause the productions of the Greek mind are the pri- 
 mary source of the literature, and a fundamental 
 element in the civilization, of modern Europe ; because, 
 in short, Greece, by its language and literature, is 
 the parent of intellectual efforts in poetry, eloquence, 
 history, and philosophy, and thus possesses, as it were, 
 the empire of the intellectual world, in all generations 
 and throughout all time. 
 
 It would be tedious to go through and answer in 
 detail all the various objections which have been raised 
 against classical studies. Thus it has been said, that 
 the early study of the Classics destroys the taste ; that 
 
60^ CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 classical literature has exercised a baneful influence on 
 art and on philosophy ; and that the best poets and 
 other writers of the present day owe nothing to the 
 Classics. Now we may observe, in passing, with refer- 
 ence to the last mentioned assertion, that our higher 
 education hitherto has been so thoroughly and almost 
 exclusively classical, and that the intellectual atmos- 
 phere in which we live, and therefore every educated 
 mind, is impregnated to such an extent with classical 
 ideas and principles, as to render it quite impossible 
 to estimate how much our writers owe to the old Class- 
 ics of Greece and Rome. For the rest, we must content 
 ourselves with observing that such charges are easily 
 made against any studies ; but that, before they can 
 carry with them any weight, they must be established 
 by a wide and searching induction of particulars — a 
 task in this case most difficult of accomplishment, as we 
 venture to believe ; and that* until they have been in 
 this way satisfactorily proved, any attempt to deal with 
 them would be futile. 
 
 With the question of the value of a classical educa- 
 tion generally, there has often been mixed up another 
 question quite distinct from it, viz. the value of the 
 particular system of classical instruction pursued in 
 this country ; and arguments and objections which 
 properly belong only to the latter, have often been 
 imported into the former. 
 
 Sydney Smith, who was one of the earliest writers in 
 the present century to call attention to this subject, 
 drew a clear distinction between these inquiries, pro- 
 nouncing an opinion as unfavorable in the latter case 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. .61 
 
 as it was favorable in the former, to the study of the 
 Classics. In his essay on " Professional Education," 
 he observes : " That vast advantages may be derived 
 from classical learning, there can be no doubt. The 
 advantages which are derived from classical learning 
 by the English mode of teaching, involve another and 
 a very diiferent question ; and we will venture to say 
 that there never was a more complete instance in any 
 country of such extravagant and overacted attachment 
 to any branch of knowledge, as that which obtains in 
 this country with regard to classical knowledge." He 
 then goes on to complain of the exclusive position the 
 Classics occupied in our course of instruction ; of the 
 exaggerated estimate in which they were held, as proved 
 by the conceit which attached the title of scholar to 
 one versed in classical learning alone ; of the misfor- 
 tune of scholars in England having come to regard the 
 instrument rather than the end, e.g. not what may be 
 read in Greek, but Greek itself; of the extraordinary 
 perfection aimed at; in short, that the then existing 
 system of classical instruction " cultivated the imagina- 
 tion a great deal too much, and other habits of mind a 
 great deal too little " ; and that it was *' not making 
 the most of life" to " constitute such an extensive and 
 such a minute classical erudition an indispensable 
 article in education." 
 
 To these objections it has been added by other writers, 
 that the Classics are taught too early and too indis- 
 criminately ; that boys would learn them better if they 
 commenced them at a later period of their school 
 course ; that other subjects, particularly those which, 
 
 6 
 
62 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 like the natural sciences, appeal to the outward senses, 
 are the best for the earlier stages of education ; that 
 the custom of learning by rote certain forms of words, 
 without any insight into their meaning, and without 
 going through any process of intellectual digestion, is 
 damaging even to the industrious student, while the 
 parrot-repetition and sing-song knowledge of the idle 
 and careless is destructive of the intellectual powers ; 
 and, to sum up all in one general statement, that our 
 existing system of classical instruction is unsound in 
 itself, and injurious in its results. 
 
 Now, while we trust that many of these objections 
 apply to a state of things which has to some extent 
 passed away, or at all events is passing away, yet we 
 cannot deny that they carry with them considerable 
 truth and force, although we do not admit them in 
 their entirety. Making this general admission at the 
 outset, let us proceed to state how far our own opinion 
 coincides with the expressions of condemnation just 
 referred to. 
 
 We have already granted that the Classics have no 
 right to the exclusive position in education which they 
 have so long held ; that, however great may be their 
 educational value, there are other subjects of study 
 very eifficacious for the exercise and development of the 
 mind ; that, though classical studies can do much, yet 
 they cannot afford a complete mental discipline and 
 culture. We are ready to allow, also, that in our coun- 
 try, in consequence of the exaggerated estimate formed 
 of the Classics, other important branches of knowledge 
 have been proportionately undervalued ; and we are 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 63 
 
 disposed to join in the protest of Sydney Smith against 
 the unfairness of applying the title of " scholar " to 
 those only who are acquainted with Greek and Latin. 
 
 Nor can it be denied that the subject-matter of the 
 classical authors has been too often neglected in the 
 great attention paid to their language, and that thus 
 much of the advantage to be derived from their study 
 has been lost. Still, after what we have said of the 
 importance of the study of language as language, we 
 cannot regard this as an evil unmixed with good. 
 Indeed, the evil would probably have been greater, 
 though of an oppossite character, if, in paying more 
 attention to 'the subject-matter, the critical and exact 
 investigation of the language had been less cared for. 
 
 The question whether the Classics would be better 
 learned if their study were commenced by the student 
 at a later age than is at present usual, is one which 
 probably admits of debate, and certainly cannot be 
 satisfactorily decided except by a careful and extensive 
 induction from experience ; and no experiments on a 
 sufficiently large scale have yet been made to enable 
 us to form a positive opinion upon the matter. It is 
 asserted, indeed, in a recent number of the West- 
 minster Review,^ that, "if composition were wholly 
 cut out of the curriculum, and boys were allowed to 
 begin their Classics at a later age than they do now, 
 and after a proper training, which they do not now 
 receive, in English and French, or German, they might 
 acquire in two years, or, in cases of exceptional stupid- 
 ity, in three years, as much knowledge of Greek and 
 
 1 July, 1864. 
 
64 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 Latin as they do now after ten or twelve " ; and, in 
 support of this statement, it is urged that in the 
 London Ladies' Colleges "young ladies, who leave 
 school at sixteen or seventeen, do learn Latin fairly " 
 in that time, studying simultaneously '' a variety of 
 other subjects." Now. that they do learn something 
 of the subject is no doubt true, but how much, one 
 would be glad to know. Although, however, we 
 have no sufficient experience to guide us, we may 
 suggest a few points of much use in directing us 
 towards a tolerably accurate decision on the proposed 
 question. It is, we believe, a recognized fact that 
 students who take to classical studies after they have 
 passed the ordinary school-boy age rarely attain to 
 much proficiency in them, while, if they apply them- 
 selves to Mathematics, or many other branches of 
 learning, they often reach a high, or even the highest, 
 level of attainments. To this rule the exceptions are 
 very few ; and it would seem to indicate that classical 
 studies, if any useful amount of progress is to be made 
 in them, must be introduced at an early stage of the 
 educational course. It is not, however, decisive as to 
 the point whether the Classics are best mastered when 
 commenced by school-boys in their tenth or their 
 fourteenth year. It is undoubtedly true that studies 
 which involve external observation are most attractive 
 to the mind of a child, and that, therefore, in them 
 children at an early age are most likely to make rapid 
 progress. Still, it is highly probable that the mind 
 ought early to be directed to some extent, though not 
 excessively, to the study of language, with a view, not 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 65 
 
 SO much to the acquiring a knowledge of the subject, 
 as to the bending the faculties in the right direction, 
 by way of preparation for the subsequent earnest and 
 thorough pursuit of it. Thus young boys should 
 spend a small, but only a small, portion of their time 
 on their Latin, their attention being chiefly devoted to 
 other more suitable, or practically useful, subjects. 
 This time may gradually be extended as they progress 
 in age and attainments. Nothing can be more inde- 
 fensible than to devote in the case of young boys any 
 considerable portion of their time to the Classics, when 
 there are so many other branches of knowledge abso- 
 lutely necessary for them to learn, in which they ought 
 first to be well grounded, or which, at all events, they 
 ought to be put in a fair way of acquiring in due 
 course. To what has been already said upon this 
 point, we may add, from our own experience, that we 
 have known in one or two instances boys who, com- 
 mencing classical studies at a late period of their 
 school-boy career, have yet made considerable progress 
 in them; but they have been boys of remarkable 
 ability, and did not reach more than a respectable level 
 of proficiency ; and, after all, it is questionable whether 
 from these studies, entered upon thus late, they have 
 derived any very valuable discipline of the mind. 
 And, again, it must be remembered that these instances 
 are exceptional, and that in far the greater number of 
 cases, when classics have been commenced late in the 
 school course, our experience has proved that but a 
 very small amount of knowledge of them has been 
 acquired. Still, to those disposed to venture on the 
 
 6* 
 
66 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 experiment on a large scale, it is a matter at least 
 worth a trial, whether the same or even a greater 
 amount of classical proficiency may not be attained by 
 commencing classical studies at a more advanced age. 
 We can only say that in our judgment the result 
 would not be found to justify the practice. 
 
 Lastly, with reference to what has been said in 
 condemnation of rote-teaching, we are disposed to 
 acquiesce in the opinion of the Edinburgh Reviewer,^ 
 that " to repeat with unfailing accuracy the old Eton 
 and Westminster Grammars was an accomplishment, 
 or rather a virtue, of which the value, intellectually 
 speaking, was absolutely null." It cannot, indeed, be 
 denied that in the method of teaching the Classics 
 formerly, and perhaps to a great extent still, prevalent 
 among us, too great importance has been attached to 
 this mere memoriter acquisition of paradigms and 
 rules ; and thus the memory has been too much culti- 
 vated, while other faculties have been neglected, and 
 the general intelligence has been unawakened. It is, 
 however, to be hoped that a more intelligent system of 
 instruction is at all events beginning to prevail. 
 
 If we proceed to inquire into the remedies for the 
 deficiencies of our system of classical instruction, by 
 far the most important one at once presents itself. 
 The truth is, that classical teachers, like all others, 
 ought to be specially trained for their work. A young 
 man may be an admirable classical scholar, and yet 
 quite unfitted to impart classical instruction ; and we 
 believe that no really efiicient method of teaching is 
 
 1 July, 1864, p. 170. 
 
PEOFESSOR JONES. 67 
 
 likely to prevail, until the teacher has been first taught 
 to teach, and so sent out thoroughly equipped and pre- 
 pared for the work before him. The scholastic calling 
 ought to be elevated into the rank of a profession, like 
 that of the law or medicine, requiring a definite course 
 of preparatory professional training. We do not intrust 
 matters which concern our bodily health or the secur- 
 ity of our property to unskilled, untrained men. As 
 little should we intrust the equally or even more im- 
 portant task of disciplining the minds and forming 
 the characters of our children to men who have never 
 undergone any special preparation for so difficult and 
 momentous an employment. Our doctors and our 
 lawyers receive professional training, so should also 
 our schoolmasters ; and not only our elementary ones, 
 but still more those who undertake the education of 
 the upper and middle classes of the country ; for upon 
 their fitness for their work, much more than upon that 
 of the teachers of the lower orders, the well-being of 
 the nation depends, inasmuch as it is the upper and 
 middle classes who give the tone to, and impress their 
 form upon, the national character and life. 
 
 The whole question is one of pressing importance. For 
 the classical system cannot hold exclusive sway in our 
 schools ; with it the modern system must be Combined ; 
 and the number of subjects thus required to be taught 
 make far too great a demand upon the limited time and 
 undeveloped faculties of the young; the mind is 
 oppressed by the multiplicity of ideas presented to it, 
 none of which are sufficiently mastered ; and the result 
 is that it becomes enfeebled and stunted, instead of 
 
68 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 being invigorated and developed. Thoroughness of 
 knowledge, no matter in how limited a sphere, is an 
 essential of true mental training ; with it there is in- 
 tellectual development, small it may be, but still develop- 
 ment ; without it there is none. The attempt to teach 
 too many things is the great evil which educationists 
 have at present to contend against, — an evil, which is 
 marring the beneficial effects of our education, and will, 
 unless countervailed, we fear, manifest itself fatally 
 in the lowered tone and diminished vigor of the minds 
 of the next generation. One way of averting this fatal 
 defect alone presents itself, and that is, the introduc- 
 tion of some more speedy and effectual mode than that 
 at present in vogue of teaching classics ; for until this 
 is done, " there is very little room," as the Quarterly 
 Heview^ well says, " for any fresh studies " ; to which 
 it adds, " if the fresh studies are pursued with no better 
 method than the old, it matters little whether they are 
 introduced or not." Unless this can be done, one thing 
 seems certain, viz. that the days of the classical system 
 are numbered ; it must wane and finally perish beneath 
 the pressing exigencies of business and common life, 
 which will always give to the opposing modern system 
 great and ever increasing weight. 
 
 In conclusion we will briefly state a few of the prac- 
 tical results to which we have been led by the foregoing 
 considerations. 
 
 For the purpose of thorough mental training, and the 
 culture of the higher intellectual faculties, the study of 
 the Classics is indispensable ; or at all events no substi- 
 
 1 July, 1864, p. 204. 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. G9 
 
 txite for it, equally efficacious, has been, or, so far as we 
 can see, is ever likely to be, found. In any system of 
 education which aims at anything more than elementary 
 instruction, or imparting the mechanical information 
 necessary for engaging in ordinary commercial pur- 
 suits, — i.e. in any system of education above the 
 lowest, — the Classics have a right to occupy the central 
 position, as the principal subject of study. 
 
 Yet classical studies manifestly cannot be forced upon 
 all. For instance, they are, of course, out of the ques- 
 tion in Primary education, for those who remain at 
 school only long enough to acquire the bare elements 
 of knowledge — Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Nor 
 can they with any great advantage find a place in the 
 lower kind of Secondary education, viz. that intended 
 for those who from the exigencies of their position are 
 obliged to go out at an early age (say about thirteen 
 years old) to their trade, or business ; for they have 
 not time to acquire, together with such information as 
 is absolutely necessary to fit them for the mere routine 
 performance of their future duties, a sufficient amount 
 of classical knowledge to be of any practical value, as 
 a discipline, or otherwise, to them ; for them such an 
 exact and critical knowledge, as is within their power 
 to attain, of the English language must be made to 
 supply partially — for it can only do so partially — what 
 the Classics effect for more fortunate students, who can 
 prolong the period of their education. For the latter, 
 who are or ought to be the recipients of the upper 
 kind of Secondary, or of the Higher education, i.e. for 
 those who are being educated in the true sense of the 
 
70 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 term, the study of Latin, and then, if time and the state 
 of progress of the student permit, that of Greek super- 
 added, cannot without injury be dispensed with. 
 
 As regards the period of school-life at which classical 
 studies should be commenced, we believe that those 
 who are designed to pursue them at all should enter 
 upon them at an early age, devoting, however, a smaller 
 portion of their time and attention to them at first than 
 subsequently ; the object in view being, as we have 
 before observed, to habituate them early to the frame 
 of mind required for carrying on effectually such studies, 
 and so prepare them for their earnest pursuit at a later 
 period. 
 
 Lastly, while we have no sympathy with the vulgar 
 outcry against the Classics on the score of their in- 
 utility — an outcry which we have shewn to arise from 
 a complete misunderstanding of what " the useful " in 
 education really is, — we are constrained to admit, that 
 in our English educational system too much time has 
 been hitherto devoted to them; that in consequence 
 many important branches of study have been neglected; 
 and that the result has been, that large numbers in 
 successive generations of students have been, and are 
 still turned out of our leading seminaries of learning, 
 ignorant of what every educated man ought to know, 
 and in fact not educated, in any true and sufficient 
 sense of the term. For we must recall to recollection 
 what has been before urged in this paper, that high in- 
 tellectual culture, which is at once the aim and the 
 result of all true education, consists in the harmonious 
 development and action of all the intellectual faculties ; 
 
PROFESSOR JONES. 71 
 
 and that this can be secured, not by an exclusive atten- 
 tion to any one subject, not by the study of language 
 alone ; or of mathematics alone, or of physical science 
 alone, but by acquiring a knowledge of all these sub- 
 jects, — more perhaps of one, and less of another, but 
 a competent knowledge of them all, — the knowledge 
 of one not existing independently of that of another, 
 but all arranged and consolidated around a common 
 centre of attainments, forming a fixed and certain pos- 
 session of the mind. We must remember, in short, 
 that the perfect education of man can only be obtained 
 by an accurate and complete study of all the objects 
 which fall within the sphere of the cognizance of man's 
 intelligence. This universality of knowledge, then, 
 should be the ultimate point of our educational aim 
 and aspiration ; though we may never forget that, in 
 consequence of the finite nature of our faculties, and 
 the limited extent of our existing opportunities, we 
 cannot do more in the present stage of our being than 
 approximate to this goal of perfection, which can be 
 reached by us only in that state of existence, where we 
 shall " know," not " in part " as now, but with a knowl- 
 edge, universal in its range, and perfectly' accurate in 
 its grasp, " even as we are known." 
 
II. 
 
 Were the nations of classical antiquity entirely dis- 
 connected with us, had they no influence over us, or 
 were their influence prejudicial to our interests, then it 
 would be unwise to put their literary productions into 
 the hands of the young. In that case, we should come 
 to the same result, though in a different way, as the 
 emperor Juliaa did, who excluded the classic writers 
 from Christian schools, in order to exclude learning 
 and influence from Christian society. But this whole 
 view springs from an arbitrary distinction, and rests 
 upon no better foundation than a plausible error. To 
 what extent the works of the ancients are intelligible to 
 us, and fitted to act upon our minds, may be learned 
 from the fact that the productions of the oldest Greek 
 bard, the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, notwith- 
 standing their foreign air, are more popular, even 
 among those who do not understand Greek, than any 
 modern, or even German epic. 
 
 If a man of a vigorous and sound mind cannot attain 
 to a true knowledge and just appreciation of the great- 
 ness and excellence of the immortal productions of the 
 ancients, whence comes the honest admiration which 
 
 This Essay is from the "Learned Schools" of Professor Frederic 
 
 Thiersch, translated from the German by Rev. Barnas Sears, D.D., and 
 
 published by him in the fifth volume of the Christian Review, of which he 
 
 was Editor. 
 
 7 78 
 
74 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 has always beea cherished for them, even in times less 
 enlightened than ours, by the noblest spirits of our race ? 
 True, indeed, these relics of ancient genius have to us 
 a foreign air ; but this peculiarity relates to the form 
 more than to the spirit, and it is as necessary to rise 
 above that in the study of Cervantes as of Sophocles, 
 of Dante as of Homer. Beneath this form, there is, in 
 the best writers of antiquity, an almost divine simplicity, 
 springing directly from the justness of their views and 
 the truth of their pictures of real life. 
 
 The foreign air of classical literature, and the conse- 
 quent difficulty of mastering its forms and imbibing its 
 spirit, are sometimes urged as objections to making it 
 the basis of education. But these very difficulties — the 
 mental activity and labor which it costs to overcome 
 them — furnish to learned schools the best means of 
 intellectual discipline and culture. It is with the mind 
 of the youth as it is with his body. " This," says an 
 ancient writer, " cannot be trained in the palaestra by 
 merely promenading its groves, and witnessing the ex- 
 ercises, the strength, the skill, the perseverance of 
 others, nor by a mere study of the rules. The youth 
 himself must struggle and contend, as well as others ; 
 must exercise himself in running, in leaping, and throw- 
 ing the discus and the spear ; must oppose power to 
 power, and skill to skill ; must call forth and exert to 
 the utmost every energy, and by an unyielding deter- 
 mination to conquer, sustain his exhausted and sinking 
 powers, that, by protracted struggles and hardships, he 
 may develop his full strength, and thereby secure the 
 victory which shall one day crown his efforts at Olym- 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 75 
 
 pia." It is equally true that the mind cannot be 
 strengthened and disciplined by being conducted through 
 the field of literature, and entertained with its flowery 
 attractions, as on an excursion of pleasure. Let a 
 teacher try the experiment. Let a young man be 
 taught, if he can be. to find pleasure in studying the 
 Adventures of Telemachus, or in Tasso, in the Andro- 
 mache and Phoedra of the French, or the Clytemnestra 
 and Merope of the Italian theatre ; let him entertain 
 himself with the liistory of Rollin or the tales of Florian, 
 or satiate his desires with the most elegant productions 
 of our own literature. It will be but a passive process 
 of education, an excitement of the fancy, an inactive 
 surrender to a charm, perhaps an ecstasy, a mere admi- 
 ration of the glowing images that have been presented. 
 But, for the solid material of a scientific education, the 
 discipline and gymiiastic exercise of the mind, and 
 consequent intellectual power, nothing will have been 
 gained. On the contrary, there is in such a procedure 
 great danger of quenching the natural pleasure of 
 mental activity, and of destroying all intellectual en- 
 ergy. The inevitable result of such a training will be 
 the raising up of a class of young men unaccustomed 
 to hardship, impatient of earnest application, flippant 
 in counsel, incapable of the serious responsibilities of 
 life, unable to meet the demands of science, or to dis- 
 charge the duties of oSicial stations, competent, perhaps, 
 to increase the amount of our sunken literature, and to 
 sit in judgment on its shadowy images. 
 
 All instruction for the education of a young man 
 must aim at the discipline of his entire spiritual nature ; 
 
76 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 and the gymnasium must be for the gymnastic exercise 
 of the mind, as it was anciently for that of the body. 
 This demand is met in no way so effectually as by the 
 earnest, thorough, well-directed and well-sustained study 
 of the classic productions of ancient Greece and Rome. 
 The very difficulties which the young mind has to over- 
 come in mastering the wonderful inflections and con- 
 structions of the ancient languages call into action its 
 undeveloped energies more than any other study. The 
 intellectual struggles, which cannot be so great nor so 
 protracted in the study of modern languages where, in 
 order to an introduction to their entire literature, noth- 
 ing but grammatical difficulties are to be contended 
 with, must, in the ancient languages, be repeated in 
 each new department of literature, as in passing from 
 the poets to the historians, to the philosophers, and to 
 the orators. 
 
 To the difficulties already mentioned must be added 
 those of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the mythol- 
 ogy, the antiquities, the history, laws, and customs of 
 the Greeks and Romans. All this compels the student 
 to muster every power of his mind in seizing, combin- 
 ing, and comprehending his materials, so that by extend- 
 ing his knowledge in every direction, by associating and 
 properly adjusting what belongs together, by deducing 
 from the known the unknown, he may be able to pene- 
 trate the sanctuary of genius, and become master of ite 
 perfection, as though it were his own. 
 
 As such an exercise puts all the intellectual powers 
 of the student in motion and gives them greater expan- 
 sion, it tends directly to improve the judgment and to 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 77 
 
 form the taste. In a perfect model, ever fresh and 
 glowing before him in spite of its antiquity, be it a 
 strain of Homer or of Virgil, an oration of Demosthenes 
 or of Cicero, a book of Thucydides or of Sallust, he 
 sees, if all its parts have with careful study been duly 
 inspected, the whole art of just arrangement and skilful 
 execution distinctly exemplilied. He will, under the 
 guidance of a competent teacher, learn from one such 
 great example how a subject ought to be treated, how 
 arranged and divided, to what place each part should 
 be assigned, with what it should be interwoven, what 
 is to be adopted and what rejected, and how the inferior 
 parts should be' subordinated to the rest, and the more 
 important held up conspicuously to observation. Thus 
 he learns to comprehend in the work of a master the 
 difficult art of invention, division, arrangement, and 
 combination, and is in a fair way to be able himself to 
 practise the art. Besides this internal economy, which 
 is the soul and spirit of a production, the student will 
 learn to appreciate and ultimately acquire the exterior 
 excellences of representation, itself the token of a good 
 training. He will discover the secret of a right distri- 
 bution of the members of a sentence, the mutual relation 
 of its parts, the harmonious play of its rising and falling 
 undulations, its variety of detail and general equipoise, 
 all of which is thrown around the idea like graceful 
 drapery. In poetical works the incomparable perfec- 
 tion of the rythmical and musical form awakens first a 
 sensibility to its charm, and then creates a taste for 
 harmonious and just representation. The mind thus 
 disciplined feels, at length, spontaneously a similar in- 
 
 7* 
 
78 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 spiration, and gradually acquires a command of har- 
 monious proportions. From such a power the beauties 
 of style naturally put forth like buds and blossoms from 
 a tree ; for the style is but the blossom of the mind, or, 
 as a celebrated writer has observed, " the style is the 
 man." It can be fresh and vigorous and fair only 
 where the mind possesses internal elasticity and power. 
 So the bud opens into a flower, the rains swell it, the 
 vernal breezes fan it, and the sunbeam brings forth its 
 beautiful form to the eye. 
 
 But there are those who maintain the direct contrary 
 of all this. "You torment the youth," say they, "with 
 difficulties beyond their powers, and thereby weaken 
 their courage and fill them with disgust, and, in the 
 end, destroy all disposition and all ability to study." 
 It is possible that instruction in classical literature may 
 have all these ill effects ; it is probable and even unde- 
 niable w^liere the teacher is injudicious and his method 
 confused, dry, and spiritless. But such a man would 
 ruin any cause that should be committed to him. If 
 he should not seriously injure the mind of the youth, it 
 would be only because the study itself, by its own good 
 tendencies, would have power to repair the damage. 
 
 The complaint that there is necessarily too great 
 difficulty in the study of the classics, comes either from 
 those who have no knowledge on these subjects, or 
 from unfortunate individuals who have suffered the 
 evils of bad training, and who ought to find fault with 
 their teachers rather than with the study. 
 
 If the teacher is worthy of his trust, he will, as may 
 be observed in every good school, soon show his pupils 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 79 
 
 how to overcome the difficulties, which do indeed exist, 
 but which readily yield to enterprise and skill. He will 
 teach them the shortest way (and the most thorough is 
 invariably the shortest) through these difficulties to 
 their object ; he will raise their hopes, he will call into 
 exercise their courage, so that as the result of their toil 
 they shall feel conscious of the reward of increased 
 power and knowledge, the best fruit of instruction, the 
 surest pledge of ultimate success, and the rejoicing of 
 every well-disciplined youthful mind. Nothing but the 
 consciousness of misspent time and consequent mental 
 imbecility, can create that disgust frequently witnessed 
 in a poor school, the grave of all scientific culture, and 
 the hot-bed of unrestrained insolence and vulgarity. 
 
 The school where the classics are successfully studied 
 is pre-eminently a place of youthful enterprise and joy, 
 the natural consequence of well-directed study and 
 conscious advancement in knowledge. 
 
 It is absurd to suppose that straining the powers of 
 the mind will injure it, just as if it were a mechanical 
 instrument. Overstraining the mind is, indeed, at- 
 tended with great evil ; and we have a right to expect 
 of every teacher that he acquaint himself with the 
 measure of his pupil's ability, and never overcharge it. 
 Vigorous effort, if kept within the limits of one's capac- 
 ities, is always the parent of strength. The mind that 
 is kept in continual exercise, like the arm accustomed 
 to wielding the sword, will thereby accumulate strength 
 and greatly increase its power of rapid execution. 
 
 We come now to speak of the influence which class- 
 ical study has upon practical education, both in relation 
 
80 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 to subsequent study in the university, and to the active 
 duties of life. The young man whose mind has been 
 well disciplined by classical study has greatly increased 
 his intellectual power, and his ability to apprehend and 
 manage scientific subjects in general. Already accus- 
 tomed to the same kind of difficulties which, in a new 
 form only, will meet him in his university course, 
 practised in forming now mental combinations and in 
 exercising the judgment, and inured to strenuous effort 
 in grasping and mastering a wide range of thought, he 
 finds in the scientific method of his advanced course of 
 study nothing but the application and extension of those 
 principles which, in their elementary character, occu- 
 pied his youth. Thus qualified to enter upon the higher 
 pursuits of learning, he will soon be able to acquire a 
 mastery over the new materials presented to liim, and, 
 by an independent exercise of his own expanding mind, 
 to make a right disposal of them, and to move directly 
 onward without embarrassment to still higher attain- 
 ments. He only who comes to the university with such 
 a preparation is on the way to distinction. Without 
 that preparation the student, notwithstanding his swell- 
 ing manuscripts of copied lectures, and the wisdom 
 which he carries about with him in black and white, 
 however much he may hurry from lecture-room to lec- 
 ture-room, will, after all, always continue to be in his 
 minority. Should he sooner or later discover his error, 
 he will find that the object of his education and perhaps 
 of his whole life, is irreparably lost. Inquire of the 
 professor of law, of medicine, or of theology, and he 
 will point you to the student who has been well-trained 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 81 
 
 in the classics as the one who bears with most strength 
 and ease the weight of his new labors. Even mathema- 
 ticians find that students from a good gymnasium make 
 better progress than those who come from practical 
 high schools where the classics are excluded. 
 
 Not less directly does such an education prepare one 
 for the business of life. I mean not that petty business 
 which barely administers to our immediate necessities, 
 but that comprehensive business, to the prompt and 
 energetic performance of which, enlarged views, great 
 principles, wisdom in deliberation, power in execution, 
 and an indomitable and enterprising spirit, trained to 
 severities and hardships, and stimulated by the recol- 
 lection of noble examples, are indispensable. No nation 
 is destitute of lofty sentiment or of noble examples, 
 which, if sufficiently known might serve to stimulate 
 other nations. Many are as rich in these as were the 
 Greeks and Romans. But with none are greatness, 
 magnanimity, heroism, practical wisdom, and all the 
 public virtues, so fully exhibited and so perpetuated in 
 immortal works of poetry, history, eloquence, politics, 
 and philosophy, as with these two ancient nations. 
 Many a hero, not only before Agamemnon, as Horace 
 says, but after him, has fallen into oblivion unwept, for 
 having no sacred bard or gifted chronicler to immortal- 
 ize his deeds. Only that representation of greatness in 
 which the deed itself, the sentiment, and the virtue 
 exercised, shine forth in their full splendor, acts with 
 effect upon the youthful mind, and moulds it with a 
 plastic power. Such rich repositories of counsels and 
 examples, of sound views and just principles, of confi- 
 
82 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 dence in action and fortitude in suffering, have a mighty 
 power in forming the character of the young. What 
 Cicero says of Caesar, viz. that he acted and wrote in 
 the same spirit, is true to a greater or less extent of 
 other ancient writers. They were mostly men, formed 
 in active life, in the very midst of its events, practised 
 in managing great interests ; and their wisdom and 
 experience passed directly over from their actions to 
 their writings. 
 
 By abandoning Greek literature, as some propose, 
 and in limiting the schools to the study of the Roman 
 authors, we exclude our youth from the fairer portion 
 of ancient learmng. We limit them not only to what 
 is derived from the Greek and is far inferior to it in 
 originality and freshness, but to that which cannot even 
 be comprehended without the other. The Latin writers 
 are continually referring us back to the Greek foun- 
 tains, — to the sentiments and forms of expression from 
 which their own were borrowed, and, for the most part, 
 in such a way that the copy cannot be understood 
 without a comparison of the original. 
 
 Furthermore, the happy effects of a classical educa- 
 tion, as above described, depend on the joint study of 
 both languages. Far be it from us to affirm, that a 
 long and close intimacy with the noblest productions 
 of the Roman authors, with the works of Cicero, Sallust, 
 Tacitus, Virgil, and others, will not secure discipline. 
 But what we would say is, that a study of classical 
 literature which shall embrace all antiquity, presents a 
 much wider scope of mental culture, and crowns the 
 labors of the student with more than a twofold harvest. 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 83 
 
 Here, at least, the half is not better than the whole. 
 Hence Horace, in training the young Piso, does not 
 refer him to his own writings nor to those of the older 
 Roman authors, but to those of the Greeks : 
 
 " Vos exemplaria Graeca 
 Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna." 
 
 If it be said that the study of the Greek consumes 
 the time that ought to be devoted to more useful 
 studies, and that it infringes upon the Latin, we reply, 
 that there are schools enough where the study of both 
 languages has been prosecuted with success to refute 
 the charge. But the assertion that the study of the 
 Latin is injured by that of the Greek, is contradicted 
 by all experience. For a period of nearly twenty years, 
 during which I have been a teacher in public schools, 
 not a single case has occurred where the pupil who 
 distinguished himself in Greek was not a good master 
 of the Latin, and vice versa ; but where one has failed 
 in Greek, it has been no better with him in Latin. All 
 the teachers whom I have questioned ' on this point 
 have confirmed my own observation. This sure test of 
 manifold experience, all leading to the same result, is 
 an incontestible proof that when the pupil fails in the 
 Latin the cause does not lie in the study of the Greek, 
 but in his own incapacity or want of application. And 
 yet no opinion is more prevalent than the one just 
 noticed. 
 
 But, on the other hand, a regard for the Greek, for 
 the beauty of the la^nguage, for the rich variety and 
 perfection of its works, must not be allowed to mislead 
 
84 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 US as it has many schools, to make the study of that 
 language the basis of education, and to give the Latin 
 a subordinate rank. The whole fabric of our education 
 and learning has a Latin foundation. Besides, the 
 Latin language, notwithstanding the extent to which 
 modern languages have taken its place, is still the 
 common language of the learned. It is suitable, there- 
 fore, that the student be trained to write in it according 
 to the best models. But the Greek is remoter from 
 daily use, and therefore the same kind of mastery in it 
 is not indispensable. It is not so important to be able 
 to express one's thoughts in Attic Greek as it is to write 
 pure Latin. The object of education is not to be able 
 to write Greek poetry, but to understand accurately 
 the productions of the Greek poets, to perceive all their 
 excellences and feel their power. Nor does this imply 
 that translations into Greek are to be banished from 
 our schools ; on the contrary, these are the very best 
 means of arriving at a nice acquaintance with the lan- 
 guage, and the only sure proof of having made the 
 attainment. If the Latin be made the basis of educa- 
 tion, it will facilitate instruction in the Greek, for it 
 will accustom the student to the same kind of study 
 that is requisite in the latter. To this may be added 
 another facility in the acquisition of the Greek, origina- 
 ting in the greater regularity, and if properly treated, 
 greater simplicity, of the Greek grammar. The Latin, 
 therefore, sliould be commenced earlier than the Greek, 
 and, through the whole course, have the larger portion 
 of time allotted to it. 
 
 The study of the two ancient languages, their litera- 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 85 
 
 ture and the circle of knowledge necessary to a com- 
 prehension of them, as well as the other studies of the 
 gymnasium, furnish the only sure foundation of 
 the continued existence and progress of literature and 
 science in general. 
 
 In naming the three learned professions,^ we have 
 made no direct allusion to other branches of a liberal 
 education, such as intellectual philosophy, history, elo- 
 quence, and poetry. The first of these as well as the 
 rest has its foundation in the writings of antiquity. 
 Greek literature contains not only the beginnings but 
 the fairer portion, nay the most essential part, of mental 
 philosophy. Whatever changes and modifications par- 
 ticular doctrines have, in the processes of modern 
 criticism, undergone, the great problems of philosophy 
 were there comprehended, and solved, and laid down 
 in works, not only with the freshness of new discovery 
 and originality, but with a method of treatment which 
 excites the admiration of later ages, and still serves as a 
 model for imitation. Here a wide field has been laid 
 open for observation by recent investigation respecting 
 the doctrines of the Ionic, the Eleatic, the Pythagorean 
 and the Platonic schools ; and the new results which 
 are hereby gained shed a clearer and broader light over 
 the whole range of philosophic inquiry. Without going 
 back to those original fountains of philosophy, it will 
 be impossible for us to take a wide survey of its entire 
 history, and learn our own true position. As no one 
 can pretend to be a scientific theologian who is not 
 
 1 The author's illustrations of thie aid which these professions derive from 
 the study of the Classics are omitted here. 
 8 
 
86 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 master of the original scriptures, so can no one be re- 
 garded as a learned philosopher who must inquire of 
 others, be they translators or commentators, in order 
 to know what Plato or Aristotle taught. 
 
 The historian finds himself sustaining a similar rela- 
 tion to classical literature. Whether it be his object to 
 trace out the history of the nations of antiquity and 
 unfold their peculiarities, or to familiarize himself with 
 models of historical composition, his first study must 
 be the classics. So also is it with the geographer, the 
 chronologist, the mythologist, and the antiquary. No 
 one of them can dispense with a knowledge of the an- 
 cient languages. He who is preparing for any one of 
 these departments without such knowledge, will find 
 his education a failure. 
 
 Not less inseparably connected with the study of 
 antiquity is elegant literature. Our poetry made a 
 noble beginning in narrative verse and in the songs 
 of tlie Minne^ but soon declined. Again the Silesian 
 poetry, partly in modern style, flourished for a time, 
 but passed away without effect. After several suc- 
 cessful attempts in the first half of the last century^ 
 Klopstock raised our poetry to a manly character, aha 
 his strong mind, imbued with the spirit of Zion's sacred 
 bard, and with Pindar's lofty strain, shows, especially 
 in his odes, how the study of the ancient classics can 
 mould a noble genius without destroying its peculiari- 
 ties, and elevate it to a style of poetry which will remind 
 one of those ancient masters, and at the same time 
 breathe a truly national spirit, elsewhere scarcely to be 
 found. With what success Goethe, and after him Schil- 
 
PROFESSOR THIERSCH. 87 
 
 ler, drank in the Greek tragedy, and thereby refined 
 and elevated their own powers, the former has shown 
 in his Iphigenia, the latter in his Wallen stein and still 
 more in the Bride of Messina. No sooner was our lite- 
 rature brought by exalted genius into contact with the 
 best classical productions, as by Herder in the anthol- 
 ogy, and Voss in the Homeric epos and the idyll, than 
 works of a kindred spirit, and still peculiarly national, 
 appeared as the fruit, and we had an abundance of the 
 most touching elegies and epigrams and epic songs, as 
 the Louise of Voss and the Hermann and Dorothea of 
 Goethe. 
 
 We have^ imitated our neighbors, at one time the 
 French, then the Italians or Spanish, and finally our- 
 selves ; and what is the consequence ? Miserable flowers 
 without fragrance or beauty, which have withered like 
 the mown grass, whereas the works mentioned above 
 are still in full bloom, having an indigenous growth 
 and constituting the true ornaments of our literature, 
 and such they will remain as long as the language shall 
 endure. Is this difference accidental ? Impossible. 
 
 Cease, then, ye graceless, spiritless poets ; ye shadows 
 of those lofty German geniuses who drank deeply at the 
 Castalian fountains ; ye admirers of our gray antiquity, 
 who discern not its productive elements ; ye historians, 
 with ponderous tomes of chaotic learning, and words 
 upon words without soul or spirit, cease to malign the 
 mother which has nourished the greatest and best of 
 our native poets, and which proffers the same nutriment 
 and fostering influence to the intellect and heart of 
 every gifted youth who will subject himself to her dis- 
 
88 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 cipline. He will, if lie follow in the tracks of his great 
 predecessors, find himself on the true road to distinc- 
 tion, and will be able to sustain the honor and the fresh 
 vigor of our national literature. 
 
 To sum up these remarks in a few words, modern 
 civilized nations have not become what they are through 
 themselves. Our religion, laws, science, and refinement 
 have descended to us from antiquity, and are insepara- 
 bly connected with it. Classical literature is not only 
 the necessary medium through which this connection 
 is to be kept, but is in itself the direct instrument for 
 upholding and perfecting all the sciences and all the 
 culture that grows out of them. As the direct object 
 of education, the formation of the intellectual character, 
 is best attained by this means, so also the foundations 
 and pillars of the whole fabric of our culture are thus 
 most securely fixed, and those who would remove this 
 study from its present prominent position in our learned 
 schools, would, so far as in them lies, obscure the light 
 which has blessed the world. The consequence of such 
 an outrage against the highest interests of humanity 
 would be the relapse of science, and the loss of that 
 vigor which the revival of letters gave to Europe. 
 
III. 
 
 L' AVARICE, says La Rochefoiicaultj.est plus oppos^e a 
 r^conomie que la lib^ralit^. We have the same answer 
 to make to those, who, in the matter of education, 
 would sacrifice what is really useful to their own nar- 
 row or perverse theory of utility, and, out of sheer ab- 
 horrence of the luxuries and prodigality of learning, 
 would indulge the neophyte in a very scanty allowance 
 of its bare necessaries. They who apply to literature 
 this radical levelHng, degrading mii bono test, who 
 estimate genius and taste by their value in exchange, 
 and weigh the results of science in the scales of the 
 money-changer, may be wiser in their generation than 
 the disinterested votaries of knowledge ; but they have, 
 assuredly, made no provision in their system for the 
 noblest purposes of our being. The same thing may 
 be said of those who are for sacrificing what are rather 
 ambiguously called the ornamental to what are just as 
 absurdly considered as par excellence the useful parts 
 of education. According to this theory, a boy should 
 be taught mathematics, chemistry, mineralogy, meta- 
 physics, and the metaphysical part of moral philosophy, 
 and be allowed, from his most tender years, we suppose. 
 
 This Chapter is from the Collected Works of Hon. Hugh S. Legare, of 
 Charleston, South Carolma, and is a part of the first Article in the 
 Southern Review, to which Mr. Legare was the chief contributor. 
 8* 89 
 
90 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 to dabble ad libitum in politics, speculative and practical 
 — in other words, he is to be brought up in studies, 
 which, although they lead to far more important results, 
 are, as a mere discipline for youth with a view to future 
 usefulness in life, we really think, not a great deal better 
 than the dry thorny dialectics of the schoolmen, — while 
 no object should be suffered to approach him that may 
 speak to his taste, his imagination, or his heart. Our 
 youth are to be trained up as if they were all destined 
 to l)e druggists and apothecaries, or navigators and 
 mechanists, or, if it sounds better, they are to be deeply 
 versed in the economy of the universe, and the most 
 recondite and shadowy subtleties of transcendental 
 geometry, or transcendent psychology — but what, after 
 all, ought to be the capital object of education, to form 
 the moral character, not by teaching what to think but 
 persuading to act well ; not by loading the memory 
 with cold and barren precepts, but forming the sensi- 
 bility by the habitual, fervid, and rapturous contempla- 
 tion of high and heroical models of excellence ; not by 
 definitions of virtue and speculations about the principle 
 of obligation, but by making us love the one and feel 
 the sacredness of the other — would, in such a system 
 of discipline, be sadly neglected. This is a radical and 
 an incurable defect in the cui bono theory. If we com- 
 pare different aeras of history with each other, and 
 inquire what it is that distinguishes the flourishing and 
 pure from the degenerate and declining state of com- 
 monwealths, we shall seldom find that it is any falling 
 oflF in mere speculative knowledge, or even in the mass 
 of talent and ability displayed at any one time. 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGAR6. 91 
 
 We really cannot, with a clear conscience, undertake 
 to promise that Greek and Latin will make better arti- 
 sans and manufacturers, or more thrifty economists; 
 or, in short, more useful and skilful men in the ordi- 
 nary routine of life, or its mere mechanical offices and 
 avocations. We should still refer a young student of 
 law, aspiring to an insight into the mere craft and 
 mystery of special pleading, to Saunders's Reports rather 
 than to Cicero's Topics; the itinerant field-preacher 
 would, doubtless, find abundantly greater edification, 
 and for his purposes, more profitable doctrine, in honest 
 John Bunyan, than in all the speculations of the lyceum 
 and the academies ; and we do conscientiously believe, 
 that not a single case, more or less, of yellow fever, 
 would be cured by the faculty in this city, for all that 
 Hippocrates and Celsus have said, or that has been 
 ever said or sung of Chiron and Aesculapius. It is 
 true, their peculiar studies would not be hurt, and 
 might occasionally even be very much helped and 
 facilitated, by a familiar acquaintance with these lan- 
 guages ; and what would they not gain as enlightened 
 and accomplished men ! But it is not fair to consider 
 the subject in that light only. It is from this false state 
 of the controversy that the argument of Mr. Grimkd 
 derives all its plausibility. We on the contrary, take 
 it for granted in our reasonings, that the American 
 people are to aim at doing something more than " to 
 draw existence, propagate, and rot." We suppose it to 
 be our common ambition to become a cultivated and a 
 literary nation. Upon this assumption, what we con- 
 tend for, is, that the study of the classics is and ought 
 
92 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 to be, an essential part of a liberal education — that 
 education of which the object is to make accomplished, 
 elegant, and learned men : to chasten and to discipline 
 genius, to refine the taste, to quicken the perceptions 
 of decorum and propriety, to purify and exalt the moral 
 sentiments, to fill the soul with a deep love of the beau- 
 tiful both in moral and material nature, to lift up the 
 aspirations of man to objects that are worthy of his 
 noble faculties and his immortal destiny; in a word, 
 to raise him as far as possible above those selfish and 
 sensual propensities, and those grovelling pursuits, and 
 that mental blindness and coarseness and apathy, which 
 degrade the savage and the boor to a condition but a 
 little higher than that of the brutes that perish. We 
 refer to that education and to those improvements which 
 draw the broad line between civilized and barbarous 
 nations, which have crowned some chosen spots with 
 glory and immortality, and covered them all over with 
 a magnificence, that, even in its mutilated and mould- 
 ering remains, draws together pilgrims of every tongue 
 and of every clime, and which have caused their names 
 to fall like a " breathed spell " upon the ear of the gen- 
 erations that come into existence, long after the tides 
 of conquest and violence have swept over them, and 
 left them desolate and fallen. It is such studies we 
 mean, as make that vast difference in the eyes of a 
 scholar between Athens, their seat and shrine, and even 
 Sparta with all her civil wisdom and military renown, 
 and have (hitherto at least) fixed the gaze and the 
 thoughts of all men with curiosity and wonder, upon 
 the barren little peninsula between Mount Cithaeron 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGARlfe. 93 
 
 and Cape Sunium, and the islands and the shores 
 around it, as thej stand out in lonely brightness and 
 dazzling relief, amidst the barbarism of the West on the 
 one hand, and the dark and silent and lifeless wastes 
 of Oriental despotism on the other. Certainly we do 
 not mean to say that in any system of intellectual dis- 
 cipline, poetry ought to be preferred to the severe sci- 
 ences. On the contrary, we consider every scheme of 
 merely elementary education as defective, unless it 
 develop and bring out all the faculties of the mind as 
 far as possible into equal and harmonious action. But, 
 surely, we may be allowed to argue from the analogy 
 of things, and the goodness that has clothed all nature 
 in beauty, and j&lled it with music and with fragrance, 
 and that has at the same time bestowed upon us such 
 vast and refined capacities of enjoyment, that nothing 
 can be more extravagant than this notion of a day of 
 philosophical illumination and didactic soberness being 
 at hand, when men shall be thoroughly disabused of 
 their silly love for poetry and the arts. For what is 
 poetry ? It is but an abridged name for the sublime 
 and beautiful, and for high wrought pathos. It is, as 
 Coleridge quaintly, yet, we think, felicitously, expresses 
 it, "the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowl- 
 edge." It appears not only in those combinations of 
 creative genius of which the heau ideal is the professed 
 object, but in others that might seem at first sight but 
 little allied to it. It is spread over the whole face of 
 nature : it is in the glories of the heavens and in the 
 wonders of the great deep, in the voice of the cataract 
 and of the coming storm, in Alpine precipices and soli- 
 
94 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 tudes, in the balmy gales and sweet bloom and freshness 
 of spring. It is in every heroic achievement, in every 
 lofty sentiment, in every deep passion, in every bright 
 vision of fancy, in every vehement affection of gladness 
 or of grief, of pleasure or of pain. It is, in short, the 
 feeling — the deep, the strictly moral feeling, which, 
 when it is affected by chance or change in human life, 
 as at a tragedy, we call sympathy ; but as it appears 
 in the still more mysterious connection between the 
 heart of man and the forms and beauties of inani- 
 mate nature, as if they were instinct with a soul and a 
 sensibility like our own, has no appropriate appellation 
 in our language, but is not the less real or the less 
 familiar to our experience on that account. It is these 
 feelings, whether utterance be given to them, or they 
 be only nursed in the smitten bosom ; whether they 
 be couched in metre, or poured out with wild disorder 
 and irrepressible rapture, that constitute the true spirit 
 and essence of poetry, which is, therefore, necessarily 
 connected with the grandest conceptions and the most 
 touching and intense emotions, with the fondest aspira- 
 tions and the most awful concerns of mankind. 
 
 We have enlarged the more upon this head because 
 we have uniformly observed that those who question 
 the utility of classical learning, are at bottom, equally 
 unfavorable to all elegant studies. They set out, it is 
 true, in a high-flown strain, and talk largely about the 
 superiority of modern genius. But the secret is sure 
 to be out at last. When they have been dislodged, one 
 by one, from all their literary positions, they never fail 
 to take refuge in this cold and desolate region of utility. 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGAR^. 95 
 
 They begin by discoursing magnificently of orators, 
 poets, arid philosophers, and the best discipline for 
 forming them ; and end by citing the examples of A 
 the broker, or B the attorney, or C and D members of 
 Congress, and what not, who have all got along in the 
 world without the least assistance from Latin and Greek. 
 Just as if our supposed great men had troubled their 
 heads any more about the exact sciences and modern 
 literature, than about the Classics, or were not quite 
 as little indebted to Newton, to Milton, or to Tasso, as 
 Virgil and Tully ; and just as if an argument which 
 proves so much were good for anything at all. 
 
 We now approach the second question : How far it is 
 worth our while to study the writings of the ancients 
 as models, and to make them a regular part of an 
 academic course. 
 
 And first, it is, independently of all regard to their 
 excellence, a most important consideration, that our 
 whole literature, in every part and parcel of it, has 
 immediate and constant reference to these writings. 
 This is so true, that no one who is not a scholar can 
 even understand, without the aid of labored scholia, 
 which, after all, can never afford a just, much less a 
 lively, idea of the beauties of the text, thousands of 
 the finest passages, both in prose and poetry. Let any 
 one who doubts this, open Milton where he pleases, and 
 read ten pages together, and we think he will confess 
 that our opinion is well founded. Indeed, a knowledge 
 of Latin and Greek is almost as much presupposed in 
 our literature as that of the alphabet, and the facts or 
 the fictions of ancient history and mythology are as 
 
96 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 familiarly alluded to in the learned circles of England, 
 as any of the laws or phenomena in nature. They 
 form a sort of conventional world, with which it is as 
 necessary for an educated man to be familiar as with 
 the real. Now, if there is no sort of knowledge which 
 is not desirable, and scarcely any that is not useful ; 
 if it is worth the while of a man of leisure to become 
 versed in the Chinese characters or the Sanscrit, or to 
 be able to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics, what 
 shall we say of that branch of learning which was the 
 great fountain of all European literature — which has 
 left its impress upon every part of it, of which we are 
 every moment reminded by its beauties, and without 
 which much that is most interesting in it is altogether 
 enigmatical ? It is vain to say that good translations 
 are at hand which supersede the necessity of studying 
 the originals. Works of taste it is impossible to trans- 
 late ; and we do not believe there is any such thing in 
 the world as a faithful version that approaches to the 
 excellence of the original work. They are casts in 
 plaster of Paris, of the Apollo or the Venus, and, 
 indeed, not near so good, inasmuch as eloquence and 
 poetry are far less simple and more difficult of imita- 
 tion than the forms of sculpture and statuary. There 
 remains nothing but the body — and even that not 
 unfrequently so altered in its very lineaments, that its 
 author would scarcely recognize it — while all " the 
 vital grace is wanting, the native sweetness is gone, the 
 color of primeval beauty is faded and decayed." It 
 will not be so easily admitted that the same objection 
 holds in works of which utility, merely, is considered 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGAR^. 97 
 
 as the object, such as histories, etc. Yet it certainly 
 does. The wonderful, the magical power of certain ex- 
 pressions cannot by any art of composition be transfused 
 from one language into another. The associations con- 
 nected with particular words and phrases must be 
 acquired by long acquaintance with the language as it 
 came warm from the hearts of those who spoke it, or 
 tliey are frigid and even unmeaning. What translation 
 can give any idea to the English reader of the bitter 
 and contemptuous emphasis, and the powerful effect 
 with which Demosthenes pronounces his Ma/ceSoov avrjp^ 
 or of the force of that eloquent horror and astonishment 
 with which Cicero exclaims against the crucifixion of a 
 Roman citizen? 
 
 In this conneci-ion we would insist upon the stores of 
 knowledge which are sealed up to all who are not con- 
 versant with the learned languages. This is a trite 
 topic, but not the less important on that account. By 
 far the most serious and engrossing concern of man — 
 revealed religion, is built upon this foundation. The 
 meaning of the scriptures, which it is so important to 
 understand, can be explained only by scholars, and the 
 controversies of the present day turn almost exclusively 
 upon points of biblical criticism, etc. How can a divine 
 whose circumstances allow him any leisure, sit down 
 in ignorance of such things? How can he consent to 
 take the awful information which he imparts to the 
 multitudes committed to his care, at second hand ? 
 Surely here, if anywhere, it may emphatically be said : 
 tardi ingenii est consectari rivulos, fontes rerum non 
 videre. Indeed, this single consideration is weighty 
 
 9 
 
98 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 enough to maintain the learned languages in their 
 places in all the universities of Christendom. 
 
 But it is not to theologians only that this branch of 
 study is of great importance. How is the jurist to have 
 access to the corpus juris civilis^ of which Mr. Grimk(3 
 expresses so exalted an opinion ? We agree with 
 him in this opinion ; and while we have a mysterious 
 reverence for our old and excellent common law, 
 uncodified as it is, still we would have our lawyers to 
 be deeply versed in the juridical wisdom of antiquity. 
 Why ? For the very same reason that we think it de- 
 sirable that a literary man should be master of various 
 languages, viz. to make him distinguish what is essen- 
 tially, universally, and eternally good and true from 
 what is the result of accident, of local circumstances, 
 or the fleeting opinions of a day. That most invaluable 
 of intellectual qualities — which ought to be the object 
 of all discipline, as it is the perfection of all reason — a 
 sound judgment, can be acquired only by such diversi- 
 fied and comprehensive comparisons. All other sys- 
 tems rear up bigots and pedants, instead of liberal and 
 enlightened philosophers. Besides, every school has its 
 mannerism and its mania, for which there is no cure 
 but intercourse with those who are free from them, and 
 constant access to the models of perfect and immutable 
 excellence which other ages have produced, and all 
 ages have acknowledged. To point the previous obser- 
 vations, which are of very general application, more 
 particularly to a topic touched upon before ; even ad- 
 mitting that modern literature were as widely different 
 from the ancient as the enemies of the latter contend, 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGARE. 99 
 
 yet that would be no reason for neglecting the study 
 of the Classics, but just the contrary. Human nature 
 being the same in all ages, we may be sure that men 
 agree in more points than they disagree in, and the 
 best corrective of the extravagances into which their 
 peculiarities betray them, is to contrast them with the 
 opposite peculiarities of others. If the tendency, there- 
 fore, of the modern or romantic style is to mysticism, 
 irregularity, and exaggeration, and that of the classi- 
 cal, to an excess of precision and severity, he would be 
 least liable to fall into the excesses of either who was 
 equally versed in the excellences of both. Certainly a 
 critic who has studied both Shakspeare and Sophocles 
 must have a juster notion of the true excellence of 
 dramatic composition, than he who has only studied 
 one of them. Where they agreed he would be sure 
 they were both right; where they happened, as they 
 frequently do, to differ, he would at once be led to 
 reflect much before he awarded the preference to either, 
 and to have a care lest in indulging that preference, he 
 should overstep the bounds of propriety and " the mod- 
 esty of nature." It is thus, we repeat it, and only thus, 
 that sound critics, sound philosophers, sound legislators, 
 and lawyers worthy of their noble profession can be 
 formed. 
 
 There are other kinds of knowledge besides what is 
 interesting to divines and jurists locked up in the learned 
 languages. Whole branches of history and miscella- 
 neous literature, of themselves extensive enough to 
 occupy the study of a life. Look into Du Cange, Mu- 
 ratori, Fabricius, etc. In short we pronounce, without 
 
100 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 fear of contradiction, that no man can make any pre- 
 tentions to erudition who is not versed in Greek and 
 Latin. He must be forever at a loss, and unable to 
 help himself to what he wants in many departments of 
 knowledge, even supposing him to have the curiosity to 
 cultivate them, which is hardly to be expected of one 
 who will not be at the pains of acquiring the proper 
 means to do so with success. For we have always 
 thought, and still think, that those who refuse to study 
 a branch of learning so fundamental and so universally 
 held in veneration as the Classics, have forgotten " the 
 know thyself," when they prattle about profound eru- 
 dition. In addition to all this, we venture to affirm 
 that the shortest way to the knowledge of the history, 
 antiquities, philosophy, etc., of all those ages, whose 
 opinions and doings have been recorded in Greek and 
 Latin, even supposing English writers to have gone 
 over the same ground, is through the originals. Com- 
 pare the knowledge which a scholar acquires, not only 
 of the policy and the res gestae of the Roman emperors, 
 but of the minutest shades and inmost recesses of their 
 character, and that of the times in which they reigned, 
 from the living pictures of Tacitus and Suetonius, with 
 the cold, general, feeble, and what is worse, far from 
 just and precise idea of the same thing, communicated 
 by modern authors. The difference is incalculable. It 
 is that between the true Homeric Achilles, and the 
 Monsieur or Monseigneur Achille of the Theatre Fran- 
 ^ais, at the beginning of the last century, with his bob 
 wig and small sword. When we read of those times in 
 English, we attach modern meanings to ancient words, 
 
k 
 
 HON. HUGH S. LEGAR^. 101 
 
 and associate the ideas of our own age and country 
 with objects altogether foreign from them. In this 
 point of view, as in every other, the cause of the Classics 
 is that of all sound learning. 
 
 We mention as another important consideration, that 
 the knowledge of these languages brings us acquainted, 
 familiarly, minutely, and impressively, with a state of 
 society altogether unlike anything that we see in mod- 
 ern times. When we read a foreign author of our own 
 day, we occasionally, indeed, remark differences in 
 taste, in character, and customs ; but in general we find 
 ourselves en pays de connaissance. Modern civilization, 
 of which one most important element is a common 
 religion, is pretty uniform. But the moment we open 
 a Greek book we are struck with the change. We are 
 in quite a new world, combining all that is wonderful 
 
 m 
 
 in fiction with all that is instructive in truth. Manners 
 and customs, education, religion, national character, 
 everything is original and peculiar. Consider the priest 
 and the temple, the altar and the sacrifice, the chorus 
 and the festal pomp, the gymnastic exercises, and those 
 Olympic games, whither universal Greece repaired with 
 all her wealth, her strength, her genius and taste; 
 where the greatest cities and kings, and the other first 
 men of their day, partook with an enthusiastic rivalry 
 scarcely conceivable to us, in the interest of the occa- 
 sion, whether it was a race, a boxing-match, a contest 
 of musicians, or an oration, or a noble history to be 
 read to the mingled throng ; and where the horse and 
 the rider, the chariot and the charioteer, were conse- 
 crated by the honors of the crown and the renown of 
 
 9* 
 
102 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 the triumphal ode. Look into the theatres where "the 
 lofty grave tragedians " contend, in their turn, for the 
 favor of the same cultivated people, and where Aris- 
 tophanes, in verses which by the confession of all critics 
 were never surpassed in energy and spirit, in Attic 
 purity and the most exquisite modulations of harmony, 
 is holding up Socrates, the wisest of mankind, to the 
 contempt and ridicule of the mob, if that Athenian 
 Demus that could only be successfully courted with 
 such verses does not disdain the appellation. Next go 
 to the schools, or rather " the shady spaces" of philos- 
 ophy ; single one object out of the interesting group — 
 let it be the most prominent, he, in short, who for the 
 same reason was made to play so conspicuous a part in 
 the ^' Clouds." Consider the habits of this hero of 
 Greek philosophy, according to Xenophon's account 
 of them ; now unlike anything we have heard among 
 the moderns, passing his whole life abroad and in 
 public, early in the morning visited the gymnasia and 
 the most frequented walks, and about the time that the 
 market-place was getting full resorting thither, and all 
 the rest of the day presenting himself wheresoever the 
 greatest concourse of people was to be found, offering 
 to answer any question in philosophy which might be 
 propounded to him by the inquisitive. Above all, con- 
 template the fierce democracy in the popular assembly, 
 listening to the harangues of orators, at once, with the 
 jealousy of a tyrant and the fastidiousness of the most 
 sensitive critics, and sometimes with the levity, the 
 simplicity, and the wayward passions of childhood. 
 Read their orations — above all, his, whose incredible 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGARfi. 103 
 
 pains to prepare himself for the perilous post of a 
 demagogue, and whose triumphant success in it every- 
 body has heard of — how dramatic, how mighty, how 
 sublime ! Think of the face of the country itself, its 
 monumental art, its cities adorned with whatever is 
 most perfect and most magnificent in architecture ; its 
 public places peopled with the forms of ideal beauty ; 
 the pure air, the warm and cloudless sky, the whole 
 earth covered with the trophies of genius, and the very 
 atmosphere seeming to shed over all the selectest influ- 
 ences, and to breathe, if we may hazard the expression, 
 of that native Ionian elegance which was in every object 
 it enveloped. 
 
 It is impossible to contemplate the annals of Greek 
 literature and art, without being struck with them as 
 by far the most extraordinary and brilliant phenomenon 
 in the history of the human mind. The very language, 
 even in its primitive simplicity, as it came down from 
 the rhapsodists who celebrated the exploits of Hercules 
 and Theseus, was as great a wonder as any it records. 
 All the other tongues that civilized man have spoken 
 are poor and feeble and barbarous in comparison of it. 
 Its compass and flexibility, its riches and its powers, 
 are altogether unlimited. It not only expresses with 
 precision all that is thought or known at any given 
 period, but it enlarges itself naturally with the progress 
 of science, and aflbrds, as if without an effort, a new 
 phrase or a systematic nomenclature whenever one is 
 called for. It is equally adapted to every variety of 
 style and subject, to the most shadowy subtlety of dis- 
 tinction, and the utmost exactneg^ofd^^i^tmix*^ well 
 
 /V^ OF THR^^^^^ 
 
 fUffI7ERSITTl 
 
 \/y. 
 
 03P 
 
104 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 as to the energy and pathos of popular eloquence, to 
 the majesty, the elevation, the variety of the epic, and 
 the boldest license of the dithyrambic, no less than to 
 the sweetness of the elegy, the simplicity of the pastoral, 
 or the heedless gaiety and delicate characterization of 
 comedy. Above all, what is an imspeakable charm, a 
 sort of naivete is peculiar to it, which appears in all 
 those various styles, and is quite as becoming and 
 agreeable in a historian or a philosopher — Xenophon 
 for instance — as in the light and jocund numbers of 
 Anacreon. Indeed, were there no other object in learn- 
 ing Greek but to see to what perfection language is 
 capable of being carried, not only as a medium of com- 
 munication, but as an instrument of thought, we see 
 not why the time of a young man would not be just as 
 well bestowed in acquiring a knowledge of it — for all 
 the purposes, at least, of a liberal or elementary educa- 
 tion — as in learning algebra, another specimen of a 
 language or arrangement of signs perfect in its kind. 
 But this wonderful idiom happens to have been spoken, 
 as was hinted in the preceding paragraph, by a race as 
 wonderful. The very first monument of their genius, 
 the most ancient relic of letters in the Western world, 
 stands to this day altogether unrivalled in the exalted 
 class to which it belongs. What was the history of this 
 immortal poem and of its great fellow ? Was it a single 
 individual, and who was he, that composed them ? Had 
 he any master or model ? What had been his educa- 
 tion ; and what was the state of society in which he 
 lived ? These questions are full of interest to a philo- 
 sophical inquirer into the intellectual history of the 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGARlfi. 105 
 
 species, but they are especially important with a view 
 to the subject of the present discussion. Whatever 
 causes account for the matchless excellence of these 
 primitive poems, and for that of the language in which 
 they are written, will go far to explain the extraordi- 
 nary circumstance, that the same favored people left 
 nothing unattempted in philosophy, in letters and in 
 arts, and attempted nothing without signal, and in some 
 cases unrivalled, success. Winkelman undertakes to 
 assign some reasons for this astonishing superiority of 
 the Greeks, and talks very learnedly about a fine cli- 
 mate, delicate organs, exquisite susceptibility, the full 
 development of the human form by gymnastic exercises, 
 etc. For our own part, we are content to explain the 
 phenomentjn after the manner of the Scottish school of 
 metaphysicians, in which we learned the little that we 
 profess to know of that department of philosophy, by 
 resolving it at once in an original law of nature ; in 
 other words, by substantially but decently confessing it 
 to be inexplicable. But whether it was idiosyncrasy oi 
 discipline, or whatever was the cause, it is enough for 
 the purposes of the present discussion, that the fact is 
 unquestionable. 
 
 We shall now add the last consideration which our 
 limits will permit us to suggest on this part of the 
 subject. 
 
 In discussing the very important question whether 
 boys ought to be made to study the Classics, as a regu- 
 lar part of education, the innovators put the case in 
 the strongest possible manner against the present sys- 
 tem, by arguing as if the young pupil under this disci- 
 
106 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 pline was to learn nothing else but language itself. 
 We admit that this notion has received some sort of 
 countenance from the excessive attention paid in the 
 English schools to prosody, and the fact that their great 
 scholars have been, perhaps (with many exceptions to 
 be sure) more distinguished by the refinement of their 
 scholarship than the extent and profoundness of 
 their erudition. But the grand advantage of a classical 
 education consists far less in acquiring a language or 
 two, which, as languages, are to serve for use or for 
 ornament in future life, than in the things that are 
 learned in making that acquisition, and yet more in the 
 manner of learning those things. It is a wild conceit 
 to suppose that the branches of knowledge which are 
 most rich and extensive, and most deserve to engage 
 the researches of a mature mind, are, therefore, the 
 best for training a young one. Metaphysics, for in- 
 stance, as we have already intimated, though in the 
 last degree unprofitable as a science, is a suitable and 
 excellent, perhaps a necessary part of the intellectual 
 discipline of youth. On the contrary, international law 
 is extremely important to be known by publicists and 
 statesmen, but it would be absurd to put Vattel into 
 the hands of a lad of fifteen or sixteen. We will admit, 
 therefore, what has been roundly asserted at hazard, 
 and without rhyme or reason, that classical scholars 
 discontinue these studies after they are grown wise 
 enough to know their futility, and only read as much 
 Greek and Latin as is necessary to keep up their knowl- 
 edge of them, or rather to save appearances and gull 
 credulous people ; yet we maintain that the concession 
 
HON. HUGH S. LEGAR^. 107 
 
 does not atlect the result of this controversy in the 
 least. We regard the whole period of childhood and 
 of youth, up to the a^e of sixteen or seventeen, and 
 perhaps longer, as one allotted by nature to growth 
 and improvement in the strictest sense of those words. 
 The flexible powers are to be trained rather than tasked, 
 to be carefully and continually practised in the prepar- 
 atory exercises, but not to be loaded with burdens that 
 may crush them, or be broken down by overstrained 
 efforts of the race. It is in youth that Montaigne's 
 maxim, always excellent, is especially applicable — that 
 the important question is, not who is most learned, but 
 who has learned the best. Now, we confess we have 
 no faith at all in young prodigies, in your philosophers 
 in teens. ^We have generally found these precocious 
 imatterers sink in a few years into barrenness and im- 
 becility, and that as they begin by being men when 
 they ought to be boys, so they end in being boys when 
 they ought to be men. If we would have good fruit 
 we must wait until it is in season. Nature herself has 
 pointed out, too clearly to be misunderstood, the proper 
 studies of childhood and youth. The senses are first 
 developed, observation and memory follow, then im- 
 agination begins to dream and to create, afterwards 
 ratiocination, or the dialectical propensity and faculty 
 shoots up with great rankness, and last of alF, the 
 crowning perfection of intellect, sound judgment and 
 solid reason, which, by much experience in life, at 
 length ripen into wisdom. The vicissitudes of the sea- 
 sons, and the consequent changes in the face of nature, 
 aud the cares and occupations of the husbandman, are 
 
108 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 not more clearly distinguished or more unalterably 
 ordained. To break in upon this harmonious order, 
 to attempt to anticipate these pre-established periods, 
 what is it, as Cicero had it, but after the manner of 
 the Giants, to war against the laws of the universe and 
 the wisdom that created it ? And why do so ? Is not 
 the space in human life, between the eighth and twen- 
 tieth year, quite large enough for acquiring every 
 branch of liberal knowledge, as well as is needed, or 
 indeed can be acquired in youth? For instance, we 
 cite the opinion of Condorcet, repeatedly quoted with 
 approbation by Dugald Stewart, and if we mistake not 
 by Professor Playfair too (each of them the highest 
 authority on such a subject), that any one may, under 
 competent teachers, acquire all that Newton or La Place 
 knew in two years. The same observation, of course, 
 applies a fortiori to any other branch of science. As 
 for the modern languages, the study of French ought 
 to be begun early for the sake of the pronunciation, 
 and continued through the whole course, as it may be, 
 without the smallest inconvenience. Of German we 
 say nothing, because we cannot speak of our own knowl- 
 edge ; but for Italian and Spanish, however difficult 
 they may be, especially their poetry, to a mere English 
 scholar, they are so easy of acquisition to any one who 
 understands Latin, that it is not worth while even to 
 notice them in our scheme. All that we ask then, is, 
 that a boy should be tlioroughly taught the ancient 
 languages from his eighth to his sixteenth year or there- 
 abouts, in which time he will have his taste formed, 
 his love of letters completely, perhaps enthusiastically 
 
b 
 
 HON. HUGH. S. LEGARlS. 109 
 
 awakened, his knowledge of the principles of universal 
 grammar perfected, his memory stored with the history, 
 the geography, and the chronology of all antiquity, and 
 with a vast fund of miscellaneous literature besides, 
 and his imagination kindled with the most beautiful and 
 glowing passages of Greek and Roman poetry and elo- 
 quence : all the rules of criticism familiar to him, the 
 sayings of sages and the achievements of heroes indeli- 
 bly impressed upon his heart. He will have his curi- 
 osity fired for further acquisition, and find himself in 
 possession of the golden keys which open all the recesses 
 where the stores of knowledge have ever been laid up 
 by civilized man. The consciousness of strength will 
 give him confidence, and he will go to the rich treasures 
 themselves^ and take what he wants, instead of picking 
 up eleemosynary scraps from those whom, in spite of 
 himself, he will regard as his betters in literature. He 
 will be let into that great communion of scholars 
 throughout all ages and all nations — like that more 
 awful communion of saints in the holy church univer- 
 sal — and feel a sympathy with departed genius and 
 with the enlightened and the gifted minds of other 
 countries, as they appear before him in the transports 
 of a sort of Vision Beatific, bowing down at the same 
 shrines and glowing with the same holy love of what- 
 ever is most pure and fair and exalted and divine in 
 human nature. Above all, our American youth will 
 learn that liberty, which is sweet to all men, but which 
 is the passion of proud minds that cannot stoop to less, 
 has been the nurse of all that is sublime in character 
 and genius. They will see her form and feel her 
 
 10 
 
110 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 influence in everything that antiquity has left for our 
 admiration, that bards consecrated their harps to her, 
 that she spoke from the lips of the mighty orators, that 
 she fought and conquered acted and suffered with the 
 heroes whom she had formed and inspired. Our young 
 student will find his devotion to his country — his free 
 country — become at once more fervid and more en- 
 lightened, and think scorn of the wretched creatures 
 who have scoffed at the sublime simplicity of her insti- 
 tutions, and " esteem it," as one expresses i-t, who 
 learned to be a republican in the schools of antiquity, 
 much better to imitate the old and elegant humanity 
 of Greece than the barbaric pride of a Norwegian or 
 Hunnish stateliness ; and, let us add, will come much 
 more to despise that slavish and nauseating subservi- 
 ency to rank and title with which all European litera- 
 ture is steeped through and through. If Americans 
 are to study any foreign literature at all, it ought, 
 undoubtedly, to be the classical, and especially the 
 Greek 
 
IV. 
 
 It is one of the cliaracteristics of the present time, 
 alarming to many persons, but, if we use the occasion 
 well, a blessing rather than an evil, that doctrines which 
 have liitherto passed unquestioned, and on which the 
 frame of the institutions of European states is founded, 
 are unscrupulously and rudely assailed. The propriety 
 of the use of what are called the learned languages 
 (Greek and Latin), among the main instruments of edu- 
 cation, is aT doctrine of this kind. And the question 
 whether in modern education these languages are to 
 retain their ancient supremacy, or whether, on the 
 contrary, the languages and literature of modern 
 Europe are to be placed by their side or before them, 
 has been recently discussed with reference to educa- 
 tional institutions, both in this and other countries. In 
 France, for example, this has been the subject of ani- 
 mated debates in the Chamber of Deputies ; and that 
 distinguished man of science, M. Arago, is reported on 
 such an occasion to have expressed himself to the fol- 
 lowing effect : 
 
 " I ask for classical studies ; I require them ; I con- 
 sider them as indispensable ; but I do not think that 
 they must necessarily be Greek and Latin. I wish that 
 
 This Chapter is from " The Principles of English University Education," 
 by Rev. Dr. William Whewell, of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 Ill 
 
112 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 in certain schools these studies should be replaced, at 
 the pleasure of the municipal councils, by a thorough 
 study of our own tongue. I wish that in each college 
 it should be permitted to put, in the place of Greek and 
 of Latin, the study of a living language." 
 
 In opposition to the opinion thus expressed, I main- 
 tain that Greek and Latin are peculiar and indispen- 
 sable elements of a liberal education ; and it is my 
 business to show that the study of the modern authors 
 just enumerated, and of others, however admirable 
 their works may be, does not produce that kind of cul- 
 ture of the mind which is the true object of a liberal 
 education. 
 
 This culture of the mind consists in sharing in the 
 best influences of the progressive intellectual refinement 
 of man. The present age is not independent of those 
 which have preceded it. On the contrary, it is the heir 
 of all the past. Its wealth, intellectual and material, 
 may have been improved in the hands of the present 
 holders, but the value of what we have added is small, 
 compared with the amount of what we found already 
 accumulated. In thought and language, as well as in 
 arts and the products of art, we inherit an inestimable 
 fortune from a long line of ancestors. In literature we 
 are the children of the early Greeks : 
 
 Ka8/x.oi> Tov TToXai via rpotfuq. 
 
 But thoughts can be inherited, and words, in all their 
 force, transmitted, only by those who are connected 
 with their ancestors in the line of tliought and under- 
 standing, as well as in the mere succession of time. 
 
DR. WHEWELL. 113 
 
 And how is this connection of generations, thus requi- 
 site to the transmission and augmentation of mental 
 wealth to be kept up ? 
 
 The cultivated world, up to the present day, has 
 been bound together, and each generation bound to the 
 preceding, by Hving upon a common intellectual estate. 
 They have shared in a common development of thought 
 because they have understood each other. Their stand- 
 ard examples of poetry, eloquence, history, criticism, 
 grammar, etymology, have been a universal bond of 
 sympathy, however diverse might be the opinions which 
 prevailed respecting any of these examples. All the 
 civilized world has been one intellectual nation ; and 
 it is this which has made it so great and prosperous a 
 nation. All the countries of lettered Europe have been 
 one body, because the same nutriment, the literature 
 of the ancient world, was conveyed to all, by the organ- 
 ization of their institutions of education. The authors 
 of Greece and Rome, familiar to the child, admired and 
 dwelt on by the aged, were the common language, by 
 the possession of which each man felt himself a denizen 
 of the community of general civilization, free of all tlie 
 privileges with which it had been gifted from the dawn 
 of Greek literature up to the present time. 
 
 What can the best authors of modern days do in the 
 way of filling such an office ? Even if their language 
 were universally familiar in cultured Europe, how do 
 they connect us with the past ? How do they enable 
 us to read the impress which was stamped upon thought 
 and language in the days of Plato and Aristotle, in 
 virtue of which it is still current ? How do they 
 
 10* 
 
114 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 enable us to understand the process by which the lan- 
 guage of Rome conveyed the culture, the philosophy, 
 the legislation of the ancient civilized world into the 
 modern ? How do they enable us to understand the 
 thoughts and feelings to which they themselves appeal ? 
 If the Greek and Latin languages were to lose their 
 familiar place among us, Montesquieu and Bossuet, 
 Corneille and Racine, would lose their force and their 
 charm. Those who read and admire these authors 
 constantly make a reference in their minds to the 
 works of the ancients, which they know immediately or 
 through a few steps of derivation. If this knowledge 
 were taken away, many of the strings would be broken 
 in the instrument on which those artists played. And 
 though, so long as a liberal education continues what 
 it has been, the well-educated diffuse to others a general 
 admiration of the " classical authors " of their own lan- 
 guage ; if Greek and Latin were to cease to be parts of 
 general culture, the admiration of the classical authors 
 of England and France would become faint and unin- 
 telligible, and, in a few generations, would vanish. 
 
 The same may be said of language. The languages 
 of ancient Greece and Rome have, through the whole 
 history of civilization, been the means of giving dis- 
 tinctness to men's ideas of the analogy of language, 
 which distinctness, as we have seen, is one main element 
 of intellectual cultivation. The forms and processes 
 of general grammar have been conveyed to all men's 
 minds by the use of common models and common 
 examples. To all the nations of modern Europe, 
 whether speaking a Romance language or not, the 
 
DR. WHEWELL. 115 
 
 Latin grammar is a standard of comparison, by refer- 
 ence to which speculative views of grammar become 
 plain and familiar. 
 
 And then, as to the derivation of the modern Euro- 
 pean languages : Those who are familiar with Greek 
 and Latin cannot but feel, in every sentence they read 
 and write, that the whole history of the civilized world 
 is stamjDed upon the expressions they use. The prog- 
 ress of thought and of institutions, the most successful 
 labors of the poet, the philosopher, the legislator, have, 
 in thousands of cases, operated to give a meaning to 
 one little word. Those who feel this, have a view of 
 the language which they speak, far more intelligent, 
 far more refined, than those who gather the force of 
 words from blind usage, without seeing any connection 
 or any reason. What does intellectual culture mean, 
 if it does not mean something more than this ? What 
 does it mean but that insight, that distinctness of 
 thought with regard to the terms we employ, which 
 saves us from solecisms, not by habit, but by principle, 
 which shows us analogy where others see only accident, 
 and which makes language itself a chain connecting us 
 with the intellectual progress of all ages. 
 
 In what a condition should we be if our connection 
 with the past were snapped ; if Greek and Latin were 
 forgotten ? What should we then think of our own 
 languages ? They would appear a mere mass of inco- 
 herent caprice and wanton lawlessness. The several 
 nations of Europe would be, in this respect at least, 
 like those tribes of savages who occupy a vast continent, 
 speaking a set of jargons, in which scarcely any resem- 
 
116 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 blance can be traced between any two, or any consis- 
 tency in any one. The various European languages 
 appear to us obviously connected, mainly because we 
 hold the Latin thread which runs through them ; if 
 that were broken the pearls would soon roll asunder. 
 And the mental connection of the present nations with 
 each other, as well as with the past, would thus be de- 
 stroyed. What would this be but a retrograde move- 
 ment in civilization ? 
 
 In nations as in men, in intellect as in social condi- 
 tion, true nobility consists in inheriting what is best in 
 the possessions and character of a line of ancestry. 
 Those who can trace the descent of their own ideas 
 and their own language through the race of cultivated 
 nations ; who can show that those whom they represent 
 or reverence as their parents have everywhere been 
 foremost in the fields of thought and intellectual pro- 
 gress — those are the true nobility of the world of 
 mind ; the persons who have received true culture ; 
 and such it should be the business of a liberal education 
 to make men. 
 
 With these views I cannot conceive it possible that 
 any well-constituted system of University teaching, in 
 any European nation, can do otherwise than make the 
 study of the best classical authors of Greece and Rome 
 one of its indispensable and cardinal elements. 
 
V. 
 
 To comment upon the course of education at the 
 Scottish Universities is to pass in review every essential 
 department of general culture. The best use, then, 
 which I am able to make of the present occasion, is to 
 offer a few remarks on each of those departments, con- 
 sidered in its relation to human cultivation at large ; 
 adverting to the nature of the claims which each ha^ 
 to a place in liberal education ; in what special manner 
 they each-conduce to the improvement of the individual 
 mind and the benefit of the race ; and how they all 
 conspire to the common end, the strengthening, exalt- 
 ing, purifying, and beautifying of our common nature, 
 and the fitting out of mankind with the necessary 
 mental implements for the work they have to perform 
 through life. 
 
 Let me first say a few words on the great controversy 
 of the present day with regard to the higher education, 
 the difference which most broadly divides educational 
 reformers and conservatives; the vexed question be- 
 tween the ancient languages and the modern sciences 
 and arts ; wliether general education should be classical 
 — let me use a wider expression and say literary — or 
 scientific. A dispute as endlessly and often as fruit- 
 
 This Chapter is from the Inaugural Address delivered to the University 
 of St. Andrews, by John Stuart Mill, Rector of the University. 
 
 117 
 
118 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 lessly agitated as that old controversy which it resem- 
 bles, made memorable by the names of Swift and Sir 
 William Temple in England and Fontenelle in France 
 — the contest for superiority between the ancients and 
 the moderns. This question, whether we should be 
 taught the classics or the sciences, seems to me, I con- 
 fess, very like a dispute whether painters should culti- 
 vate drawing or coloring, or, to use a more homely 
 illustration, whether a tailor should make coats or 
 trousers. I can only reply by the question : Why not 
 both ? Can anything deserve the name of a good edu- 
 cation which does not include literature and science 
 too ? If there were no more to be said than that scien- 
 tific education teaches us to think, and literary educa- 
 tion to express our thoughts, do we not require both ? 
 and is not any one a poor, maimed, lopsided fragment 
 of humanity who is deficient in either ? We are not 
 obliged to ask ourselves whether it is more important 
 to know the languages or the sciences. Short as life 
 is, and shorter still as we make it by the time we waste 
 on things which are neither business nor meditation 
 nor pleasure, we are not so badly off that our scholars 
 need be ignorant of the laws and properties of the world 
 they live in, or our scientific men destitute of poetic 
 feeling and artistic cultivation. I am amazed at the 
 limited conception which many educational reformers 
 have formed to themselves of a human being's power 
 of acquisition. The study of science, they truly say, is 
 indispensable ; our present education neglects it ; there 
 is truth in this too, though it is not all truth ; and they 
 think it impossible to find room for the studies which 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 119 
 
 they desire to encourage, but by turning out, at least 
 from general education, those wliich are now chiefly 
 cultivated. How absurd, they say, that the whole of 
 boyhood should be taken up in acquiring an imperfect 
 knowledge of two dead languages ! Absurd indeed ; 
 but is the human mind's capacity to learn measured 
 by that of Eton and Westminster to teach ? I should 
 prefer to see these reformers pointing their attacks 
 against the shameful inefficiency of the schools, public 
 and private, which pretend to teach these two languages 
 and do not. I should like to hear them denounce the 
 wretched methods of teaching, and the criminal idleness 
 and supineness which waste the entire boyhood of the 
 pupils without really giving to most of them more than 
 a smattering, if even that, of the only kind of knowledge 
 which is even pretended to be cared for. Let us try 
 what conscientious and intelligent teaching can do, 
 before we presume to decide what cannot be done. 
 
 Scotland has on the whole, in this respect, been con- 
 siderably more fortunate than England. Scotch youths 
 have never found it impossible to leave school or the 
 university having learned somewhat of other things 
 besides Greek and Latin ; and why ? Because Greek 
 and Latin have been better taught. A beginning of 
 classical instruction has all along been made in the 
 common schools ; and the common schools of Scotland, 
 like her universities, have never been the mere shams 
 that the English universities were during the last cen- 
 tury, and the greater part of the English classical 
 schools still are. The only tolerable Latin grammars 
 for school purposes that I know of, which had been pro- 
 
120 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 diiced in these islands until very lately, were written 
 by Scotchmen. Reason, indeed, is beginning to find 
 its way by gradual infiltration even into English schools, 
 and to maintain a contest, though as yet a very unequal 
 one, against routine. A few practical reformers of 
 school tuition, of whom Arnold was the most eminent, 
 have made a beginning of amendment in many things ; 
 but reforms, worthy of the name, are always slow, and 
 reform even of governments and churches is not so 
 slow as that of schools, for there is the great prelimi- 
 nary difiQculty of fashioning the instruments, of teach- 
 ing the teachers. If all the improvements in the mode 
 of teaching languages which are already sanctioned by 
 experience, were adopted into our classical schools, we 
 should soon cease to hear of Latin and Greek as studies 
 which must engross the school years, and render im- 
 possible any other acquirements. If a boy learned 
 Greek and Latin on the same principle on which a 
 mere child learns with such ease and rapidity any 
 modern language, namely by acquiring some familiarity 
 with the vocabulary by practice and repetition, before 
 being troubled with grammatical rules — those rules 
 being acquired with tenfold greater facility when the 
 cases to which they apply are already familiar to the 
 mind ; an average schoolboy, long before the age at 
 wliich schooling terminates, would be able to read flu- 
 ently and with intelligent interest any ordinary Latin 
 or Greek author in prose or verse^, would have a com- 
 petent knowledge of the grammatical structure of both 
 languages, and have had time besides for an ample 
 amount of scientific instruction. I might go much 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 121 
 
 further, but I am as -unwilling to speak out all that I 
 think practicable in this matter, as George Stephenson 
 was about railways, when he calculated the average 
 speed of a train at ten miles an hour, because if he 
 had estimated it higher, the practical men would have 
 turned a deaf ear to him, as that most unsafe character 
 in their estimation, an enthusiast and a visionary. The 
 results have shown in that case who was the real prac- 
 tical man. What the results would show in the other 
 case, I will not attempt to anticipate. But I will say 
 confidently, that if the two classical languages were 
 properly taught, there would be no need whatever for 
 ejecting them from the school course, in order to have 
 sufiicient time for everything else that need be included 
 therein.' 
 
 Let me say a few words more on this strangely lim- 
 ited estimate of what it is possible for human beings 
 to learn, resting on a tacit assumption that they are 
 already as efficiently taught as they ever can be. So 
 narrow a conception not only vitiates our idea of educa- 
 tion, but actually, if we receive it, darkens our antici- 
 pations as to the future progress of mankind. For if 
 the inexorable conditions of human life make it useless 
 for one man to attempt to know more than one thing, 
 what is to become of the human intellect as facts accu- 
 mulate ? In every generation, and now more rapidly 
 than ever, the things which it is necessary that somebody 
 should know are more and more multiplied. Every 
 department of knowledge becomes so loaded with de- 
 tails, that one who endeavors to know it with minute 
 accuracy must confine himself to a smaller and smaller 
 11 
 
122 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 portion of the whole extent ; every science and art 
 must be cut up into subdivisions, until each man's 
 portion, the district which he thoroughly knows, bears 
 about the same ratio to the whole range of useful 
 knowledge that the art of putting on a pin's head does 
 to the field of human industry. Now, if in order to 
 know that little completely, it is necessary to remain 
 wholly ignorant of all the rest, what will soon be the 
 worth of a man for any human purpose except his own 
 infinitesimal fraction of human wants and requirements? 
 His state will be even worse than that of simple igno* 
 ranee. Experience proves that there is no one study 
 or pursuit, which, practised to the exclusion of all 
 others, does not narrow and pervert the mind ; breed- 
 ing in it a class of prejudices special to that pursuit, 
 besides a general prejudice, common to all narrow 
 specialities against large views, from an incapacity to 
 take in and appreciate the grounds of them. We 
 should have to expect that human nature would be 
 more and more dwarfed and unfitted for great things 
 by its very proficiency in small ones. But matters are 
 not so bad with us ; there is no ground for so dreary 
 an anticipation. It is not the utmost limit of human 
 acquirement to know only one thing, but to combine a 
 minute knowledge of one or a few things with a general 
 knowledge of many things. By a general knowledge 
 I do not mean a few vague impressions. An eminent 
 man, one of whose writings is part of the course of this 
 university. Archbishop Whately, has well discriminated 
 between a general knowledge and a superficial knowl- 
 edge. To have a general knowledge of a subject is to 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 123 
 
 know only its leading truths, but to know these not 
 superficially but thoroughly, so as to have a true con- 
 ception of the subject in its great features ; leaving the 
 minor details to those who require them for the purposes 
 of their special pursuit. There is no incompatibility 
 between knowing a wide range of subjects up to this 
 point, and some one subject with the completeness 
 required by those who make it their principal occupa- 
 tion. It is this combination which gives an enlightened 
 public ; a body of cultivated intellects, each taught by 
 its attainments in its own province what real knowledge 
 is, and knowing enough of other subjects to be able to 
 discern who are those that know them better. The 
 aniount of knowledge is not to be lightly estimated, 
 which qualifies us for judging to whom we may have 
 recourse for more. The elements of the more impor- 
 tant studies being widely diffused, those who have 
 reached the higher summits find a public capable of 
 appreciating their superiority, and prepared to follow 
 their lead. It is thus too that minds are formed capa- 
 ble of guiding and improving public opinion on the 
 greater concerns of practical life. Government and 
 civil society are the most complicated of all subjects 
 accessible to the human mind ; and he who would deal 
 competently with them as a thinker, and not as a blind 
 follower of party, requires not only a general knowledge 
 of the leading facts of life both moral and material, but 
 an understanding exercised and disciplined in the prin- 
 ciples and rules of sound thinking, up to a point which 
 neither the experience of life nor any one science or 
 branch of knowledge affords. Let us understand, then, 
 
124 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 that it should be our aim in learning, not merely to 
 know the one thing which is to be our principal occu- 
 pation, as well as it can be known, but to do this and 
 also to know something of the great subjects of human 
 interest, taking care to know that something accurately, 
 marking well the dividing line between what we know 
 accurately and what we do not, and remembering that 
 our object should be to obtain a true view of nature 
 and life in their broad outline, and that it is idle to 
 throw away time upon the details of anything which 
 is to form no part of the occupation of our practical 
 energies. 
 
 It by no means follows, however, that every useful 
 branch of general, as distinct from professional, knowl- 
 edge should be included in the curriculum of school 
 or university studies. There are things which are 
 better learned out of school, or when the school years, 
 and even those usually passed in a Scottish university, 
 are over. I do not agree with those reformers who 
 would give a regular and prominent place in the school 
 or university course to modern languages. This is not 
 because I attach small importance to the knowledge 
 of them. No one can in our age be esteemed a well- 
 instructed person who is not familiar with at least the 
 French language so as to read French books with ease ; 
 and there is great use in cultivating a familiarity with 
 German. But living languages are so much more 
 easily acquired by intercourse with those who use them 
 in daily life ; a few months in the country itself, if 
 properly employed, go so much further than as many 
 years of school lessons, that it is really waste of time 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 125 
 
 for those to whom that easier mode is attainable, to 
 labor at them with no help but that of books and mas- 
 ters ; and it will in time be made attainable through 
 international schools and colleges to many more than 
 at present. Universities do enough to facilitate the 
 study of modern languages, if they give a mastery over 
 that ancient language which is the foundation of most 
 of them, and the possession of which makes it easier to 
 learn four or five of the continental languages than it 
 is to learn one of them without it. Again, it has al- 
 ways seemed to me a great absurdity that history and 
 geography should be taught in schools, except in ele- 
 mentary schools for the children of the laboring classes, 
 "whose subsequent access to books is limited. Who 
 ever really learned history and geography except by 
 private reading ? and what an utter failure a system of 
 education must be if it has not given the pupil a suffi- 
 cient taste for reading to seek for himself those most 
 attractive and easily intelligible of all kinds of knowl- 
 edge ? Besides, such history and geography as can be 
 taught in schools exercise none of the faculties of the 
 intelligence except the memory. A university is indeed 
 the place where the student should be introduced to 
 the philosophy of history, where Professors who not 
 merely know the facts but have exercised their minds 
 on them, should initiate him into the causes and expla- 
 nation, so far as within our reach, of the past life of 
 mankind in its principal features. Historical criticism 
 also — the tests of historical truth — are a subject to 
 which his attention may well be drawn in this stage of 
 his education. But of the mere facts of history, as 
 11* 
 
126 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 commonly accepted, what educated youth of any mental 
 activity does not learn as much as is necessary if he is 
 simply turned loose into an historical library ? What 
 he needs on this and on most other matters of common 
 information, is, not that he should be taught it in boy- 
 hood, but that abundance of books should be accessible 
 to him. 
 
 The only languages, then, and the only literature, to 
 which I would allow a place in the ordinary curriculum 
 are those of the Greeks and Romans ; and to these I 
 would preserve the position in it which they at present 
 occupy. That position is justified by the great value 
 in education of knowing well some other cultivated 
 language and literature than one's own, and by the 
 peculiar value of those particular languages and litera- 
 tures. 
 
 There is one purely intellectual benefit from a knowl- 
 edge of languages which I am specially desirous to 
 dwell on. Those who have seriously reflected on the 
 causes of human error, have been deeply impressed with 
 the tendency of mankind to mistake words for things. 
 Without entering into the metaphysics of the subject, 
 we know how common it is to use words glibly and 
 with apparent propriety, and to accept them confidently 
 when used by others, without ever having any distinct 
 conception of the things denoted by them. To quote 
 again from Archbishop Whately, it is the habit of 
 mankind to mistake familiarity for accurate knowledge. 
 As we seldom think of asking the meaning of what we 
 see every day, so when our ears are used to the sound 
 of a word or a phrase, we do not suspect that it con- 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 127 
 
 veys no clear idea to our minds, and that we should 
 have the utmost difficulty in defining it, or expressing 
 in any other words what we think we understand by it. 
 Now it is obvious in what manner this bad habit tends 
 to be corrected by the practice of translating with accu- 
 racy from one language to another, and hunting out 
 the meanings expressed in a vocabulary with which we 
 have not grown familiar by early and constant use. I 
 hardly know any greater proof of the extraordinary 
 genius of the Greeks^than that they were able to make 
 such brilliant achievements in abstract thought, know- 
 ing, as they generally did, no language but their own. 
 But the Greeks did not escape the effects of this defi- 
 ciency. Their greatest intellects, those who laid the 
 foundation of philosophy and of all our intellectual 
 culture, Plato and Aristotle, are continually led away 
 by words ; mistaking the accidents of language for real 
 relations in nature, and supposing that things which 
 have the same name in the Greek tongue must be the 
 same in their own essence. There is a well-known 
 saying of Hobbes, the far-reaching significance of which 
 you will more and more appreciate in proportion to 
 the growth of your own intellect : " Words are the 
 counters of wise men, but the money of fools." With 
 the wise man a word stands for the fact which it repre- 
 sents ; to the fool it is itself the fact. To carry on 
 Hobbes's metaphor, the counter is far more likely to be 
 taken for merely what it is by those who are in the 
 habit of using many different kinds of counters. But 
 besides the advantage of possessing another cultivated 
 language, there is a further consideration equally im- 
 
128 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 portant. Without knowing the language of a people, 
 we never really know their thoughts, their feelings, and 
 their type of character ; and unless we do possess this 
 knowledge of some other people than ourselves, we 
 remain, to the hour of our death, with our intellects 
 only half expanded. Look at a youth who has never 
 been out of his family circle ; he never dreams of any 
 other opinions or ways of thinking than those he has 
 been bred up in ; or, if he has heard of any such, at- 
 tributes them to some moral defect, or inferiority of 
 nature or education. If his family are Tory, he cannot 
 conceive the possibility of being a Liberal ; if Liberal, 
 of being a Tory. What the notions and habits of a 
 single family are to a boy who has had no intercourse 
 beyond it, the notions and habits of his own country 
 are to him who is ignorant of every other. Those 
 notions and habits are to him human nature itself; 
 whatever varies from them is an unaccountable aberra- 
 tion which he cannot mentally realize ; the idea that 
 any other ways can be right, or as near an approach to 
 right as some of his own, is inconceivable to him. This 
 does not merely close his eyes to the many things which 
 every country still has to learn from others ; it hinders 
 every country from reaching the improvement which it 
 could otherwise attain by itself. We are not likely to 
 correct any of our opinions or mend any of our ways, 
 unless we begin by conceiving that they are capable of 
 amendment ; but merely to know that foreigners think 
 differently from ourselves, without understanding why 
 they do so, or what they really do think, does but con- 
 firm us in our self-conceit, and connect our national 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 129 
 
 vanity with the preservation of our own peculiarities. 
 Improvement consists in bringing our opinions into 
 nearer agreement with facts; and we shall not be likely 
 to do this while we look at facts only through glasses 
 colored by those very opinions. But since we cannot 
 divest ourselves of preconceived notions, there is no 
 known means of eliminating their influence but by 
 frequently using the difierently colored glasses of other 
 people ; and those of other nations, as the most differ- 
 ent, are the best. 
 
 But if it is so useful on this account to know the 
 language and literature of any other cultivated and 
 civilized people, the most valuable of all to us in this 
 respect are the languages and literature of the ancients. 
 No nations of modern and civilized Europe are so un- 
 like one another as the Greeks and Romans are unlike 
 all of us ; yet without being, as some remote Orientals 
 are, so totally dissimilar that the labor of a life is re- 
 quired to enable us to understand them. Were this 
 the only gain to be derived from the knowledge of the 
 ancients, it would already place the study of them in a 
 high rank among enlightening and liberalizing pursuits. 
 It is of no use saying that we may know them through 
 modern writings. We may know something of them 
 in that way, which is much better than knowing noth- 
 ing. But modern books do not teach us ancient thought; 
 they teach us some modern writer's notion of ancient 
 thought. Modern books do not show us the Greeks 
 and Romans, they tell us some modern writer's opin- 
 ions about the Greeks and Romans. Translations are 
 scarcely better. When we want really to know what a 
 
130 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 person thinks or says, we seek it at first hand from 
 himself. We do not trust to another person's impres- 
 sion of his meaning, given in another person's words ; 
 we refer to his own. Much more is it necessary to do 
 so when his words are in one language, and those of 
 his reporter in another. Modern phraseology never 
 conveys the exact meaning of a Greek writer ; it cannot 
 do so, except by a diffuse explanatory circumlocution 
 which no translator dares use. We must be able, in a 
 certain degree, to think in Greek, if we would represent 
 to ourselves how a Greek thought ; and this not only 
 in the abstruse region of metaphysics, but about the 
 political, religious, and even domestic concerns of life. 
 I will mention a further aspect of this question, which, 
 though I have not the merit of originating it, I do not 
 remember to have seen noticed in any book. There is 
 no part of our knowledge which it is more useful to 
 obtain at first hand — to go to the fountain head for — 
 than our knowledge of history. Yet this, in most cases, 
 we hardly ever do. Our conception of the past is not 
 drawn from its own records, but fropci books written 
 about it, containing not the facts, but a view of the 
 facts which has shaped itself in the mind of somebody 
 of our own or a very recent time. Such books are very 
 instructive and valuable ; they help ns to understand 
 history, to interpret history, to draw just conclusions 
 from it ; at the worst, they set ns the example of trying 
 to do all this ; but they are not themselves history. 
 The knowledge they give is upon trust, and even when 
 they have done their best, it is not only incomplete but 
 partial, because confined to what a few modern writers 
 
JOHN STUAKT MILL. 131 
 
 have seen in the materials, and have thought worth 
 picking out from among them. How little we learn of 
 our own ancestors from Hume or Hallam or Macaulay, 
 compared with what we know if we add to what these 
 tell us even a little reading of contemporary authors 
 and documents ! The most recent historians are so 
 well aware of this, that they fill their pages with ex- 
 tracts from the original materials, feeling that these 
 extracts are the real history, and their comments and 
 thread of narrative are only helps towards under- 
 standing it. Now it is part of the great worth to us of 
 our Greek and Latin studies, that in them we do read 
 history in the original sources. We are in actual con- 
 tact with contemporary minds ; we are not dependent 
 on hearsay : we have something by which we can test 
 and check the representations and theories of modern 
 historians. It may be asked : Why then not study the 
 original materials of modern history? I answer, it is 
 highly desirable to do so ; and let me remark by the 
 way, that even this requires a dead language ; nearly 
 all the documents prior to the Reformation, and many 
 subsequent to it being written in Latin. But the ex- 
 ploration of these documents, though a most useful 
 pursuit, cannot be a branch of education. Not to speak 
 of their vast extent, and the fragmentary nature of 
 each, the strongest reason is, that in learning the spirit 
 of our own past ages, until a comparatively recent 
 period, from contemporary writers, we learn hardly any- 
 thing else. Those authors, with a few exceptions, are 
 little worth reading on their own account. While, in 
 studying the great writers of antiquity, we are not only 
 
132 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 learning to understand the ancient mind, but laying in 
 a stock of wise thought and observation still valuable 
 to ourselves, and at the same time making ourselves 
 familiar with a number of the most perfect and finished 
 literary compositions which the human mind has pro- 
 duced — compositions which, from the altered conditions 
 of human life, are likely to be seldom paralleled in their 
 s^ustained excellence by the times to come. 
 
 Even as mere languages, no modern European lan- 
 guage is so valuable a discipline to the intellect as those 
 of Greece and Rome, on account of their regular and 
 complicated structure. Consider for a moment what 
 grammar is. It is the most elementary part of logic. 
 It is the beginning of the analysis of the thinking pro- 
 cess. The principles and rules of grammar are the 
 means by which the forms of language are made to 
 correspond with the universal forms of thought. The 
 distinctions between the various parts of speech, be- 
 tween the cases of nouns, the moods and tenses of verbs, 
 the functions of particles, are distinctions in thought, 
 not merely in words. Single nouns and verbs express 
 objects and events, many of which can be cognized by 
 the senses ; but the modes of putting nouns and verbs 
 together, express the relations of objects and events, 
 which can be cognized only by the intellect, and each 
 different mode corresponds to a different relation. 
 The structure of every sentence is a lesson in logic. 
 The various rules of syntax oblige us to distinguish 
 between the subject and predicate of a proposition, be- 
 tween the agent, the action, and the thing acted upon ; 
 to mark when an idea is intended to modify or qualify, 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 133 
 
 or merely to nnite with, some other idea ; what asser- 
 tions are categorical, what only conditional; whether 
 the intention is to express similarity or contrast, to 
 make a plurality of assertions conjunctively or disjunc- 
 tively ; what portions of a sentence, though grammati- 
 cally complete within themselves, are mere members or 
 subordinate parts of the assertion made by the entire 
 sentence. Such things form the subject-matter of 
 universal grammar ; and the languages which teach it 
 best are those which have the most definite rules, and 
 which provide distinct forms for the greatest number 
 of distinctions in thought, so that if we fail to attend 
 precisely and accurately to any of these, we cannot 
 avoid committing a solecism in language. In these 
 qualities the classical languages have an incomparable 
 superiority over every modern language, and over all 
 languages, dead or living, which have a literature worth 
 being generally studied. 
 
 But the superiority of the literature itself, for pur- 
 poses of education, is still more marked and decisive. 
 Even in the substantial value of the matter of which it 
 is the vehicle, it is very far from having been super- 
 seded. The discoveries of the ancients in science have 
 been greatly surpassed, and as much of them as is still 
 valuable loses nothing by being incorporated in modern 
 treatises ; but what does not so well admit of being 
 transferred bodily, and has been very imperfectly car- 
 ried off even piecemeal, is the treasure which they 
 accumulated of what may be called the wisdom of life ; 
 the rich store of experience of human nature and con- 
 duct, which the acute and observing minds of those 
 
 12 
 
134 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 ages, aided in their observations by the greater simplic- 
 ity of manners and life, consigned to their writings, 
 and most of which retains all its value. The speeches 
 in Thucydides, the Rhetoric, Ethics, and Politics of 
 Aristotle, the Dialogues of Plato, the Orations of De- 
 mosthenes, the Satires, and especially the Epistles of 
 Horace, all the writings of Tacitus, the great work 
 of Quintilian, a repertory of the best thoughts of the 
 ancient world on all subjects connected with education ; 
 and, in a less formal manner, all that is left to us of 
 the ancient historians, orators, philosophers, and even 
 dramatists, are replete with remarks and maxims of 
 singular good sense and penetration, applicable both to 
 political and to private life ; and the actiial truths we 
 find in them are even surpassed in value by the encour- 
 agement and help they give us in the pursuit of truth. 
 Human invention has never produced anything so val- 
 uable in the way both of stimulation and of discipline 
 to the inquiring intellect, as the dialectics of the an- 
 cients, of which many of the works of Aristotle illus- 
 trate the theory, and those of Plato exhibit the practice. 
 No modern writings come near to these in teaching, 
 both by precept and example, the way to investigate 
 truth on those subjects, so vastly important to us, which 
 remain matters of controversy from the difficulty or 
 impossibility of bringing them to a directly experimental 
 test. To question all things ; never to turn away from 
 any difficulty ; to accept no doctrine cither from our- 
 selves or from other people without a rigid scrutiny by 
 negative criticism, letting no fallacy or incoherence or 
 confusion of thought slip by unperceived ; above all, 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 135 
 
 to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly 
 understood before using it, and the meaning of a propo- 
 sition before assenting to it ; these are the lessons we 
 learn from the ancient dialecticians. With all this 
 vigorous management of the negative element, they 
 inspire no scepticism about the reality of truth, or 
 indifference to its pursuit. The noblest enthusiasm, 
 both for the search after truth and for applying it to its 
 highest uses, pervades these writers, Aristotle no less 
 than Plato, though Plato has incomparably the greater 
 power of imparting those feelings to others. In culti- 
 vating, therefore, the ancient languages as our best 
 literary education, we are all the while laying an admir- 
 able foundation for ethical and philosophical culture. 
 In purely literary excellence — in perfection of form — 
 the pre-eminence of the ancients is not disputed. In 
 every department which they attempted, and they 
 attempted almost all, their composition, like their 
 sculpture, has been to the greatest modern artists an 
 example to be looked up to with hopeless admiration, 
 but of inappreciable value as a light on high guiding 
 their own endeavors. In prose and in poetry, in epic, 
 lyric, or dramatic, as in historical, philosophical, and 
 oratorical art, the pinnacle on which they stand is 
 equally eminent. I am now speaking of the form, the 
 artistic perfection of treatment ; for, as regards sub- 
 stance, I consider modern poetry to be superior to 
 ancient, in the same manner, though in a less degree, 
 as modern science ; it enters deeper into nature. The 
 feelings of the modern mind are more various, more 
 complex and manifold, than those of the ancients ever 
 
136 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 were. The modern mind is, what the ancient mind 
 was not, brooding and self-conscious; and its meditative 
 self-consciousness has discovered depths in the human 
 soul which the Greeks and Romans did not dream of 
 and would not have understoodr-/ But what they had 
 got to express they expressed in a manner which few 
 even of the greatest moderns have seriously attempted 
 to rival. It must be remembered that they had more 
 time, and that they wrote chiefly for a select class 
 possessed of leisure. To us who write in a hurry for 
 people who read in a hurry, the attempt to give an 
 equal degree of finish would be loss of time. But to 
 be familiar with perfect models is not the less important 
 to us because the element in which we work precludes 
 even the effort to equal them. They show us at least 
 what excellence is, and make us desire it an3~stfiTe to 
 get as^^near to it^s~ is wiihiii our reach. And this is 
 the value to iis of the ancient writers, all the more 
 emphatically because their excellence does not admit 
 of being copied or directly imitated. It does not con- 
 sist in a trick which can be learned, but in the perfect 
 adaptation of means to ends. The secret of the style 
 of the great Greek and Roman authors, is that it is the 
 perfection of good sense. In the first place, they never 
 use a word without a meaning, or a word which adds 
 nothing to the meaning. They always (to begin with) 
 had a meaning ; they knew what they wanted to say, 
 and their whole purpose was to say it with the highest 
 degree of exactness and completeness, and bring it 
 home to the mind with the greatest possible clearness 
 and vividness. It never entered into their thoughts to 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 137 
 
 conceive of a piece of writing as beautiful in itself, 
 abstractedly from what it had to express ; its beauty 
 must all be subservient to the most perfect expression 
 of the sense. The curiosa felicitas which their critics 
 ascribed in a pre-eminent degree to Horace, expresses 
 the standard at which they all aimed. Their style is 
 exactly described by Swift's definition, "the right words 
 in the right places." Look at an oration of Demosthe- 
 nes ; there is nothing in it which calls attention to itself 
 as style at all ; it is only after a close examination we 
 perceive that every word is what it should be, and where 
 it should be, to lead the hearer smoothly and impercep- 
 tibly into the state of mind which the orator wishes to 
 produce. The perfection of the workmanship is only 
 visible in the total absence of any blemish or fault, and 
 of anything which checks the flow of thought and feel- 
 ing, anything which even momentarily distracts the 
 mind from the main purpose. But then (as has been 
 well said) it was not the object of Demosthenes to make 
 the Athenians cry out, " What a splendid speaker ! " 
 but to make them say, '' Let us march against Philip! " 
 It was only in the decline of ancient literature that 
 ornament began to be cultivated merely as ornament. 
 In the time of its maturity not the merest epithet was 
 put in because it was thought beautiful in itself, nor 
 even for a merely descriptive purpose ; for epithets 
 purely descriptive were one of the corruptions of stylo 
 which abound in Lucan, for example ; the. word had no 
 business there unless it brought out some feature which 
 was wanted, and helped to place the object in the light 
 which the purpose of the composition required. These 
 
 12* 
 
138 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 conditions being complied with, then indeed the intrin- 
 sic beauty of the means used was a source of additional 
 effect, of which it behooved them to avail themselves, 
 like rhythm and melody of versification. But these 
 great writers knew that ornament for the sake of orna- 
 ment, ornament which attracts attention to itself and 
 shines by its own beauties, only does so by calling off 
 the mind from the main object, and thus not only in- 
 terferes with the higher purpose of human discourse, 
 which ought, and generally professes, to have some 
 matter to communicate apart from the mere excitement 
 of the moment, but also spoils the perfection of the 
 composition as a piece of fine art, by destroying the 
 unity of effect. This, then, is the first great lesson in 
 composition to be learned from the classical authors. 
 The second is, not to be prolix. In a single paragraph 
 Thucydides can give a clear and vivid representation 
 of a battle, such as a reader who has once taken it into 
 his mind can seldom forget. The most powerful and 
 affecting piece of narrative, perhaps, in all historical 
 literature, is the account of the Sicilian catastrophe, in 
 his seventh book ; yet how few pages does it fill ! The 
 ancients were concise because of the extreme pains they 
 took with their compositions; almost all moderns are 
 prolix because they do not. The great ancients could 
 express a thought so perfectly in a few words or sen- 
 tences, that they did not need to add any more ; the 
 moderns, because they cannot bring it out clearly and 
 completely at once, return agaih and again, heaping 
 sentence upon sentence, each adding a little more 
 elucidation, in hopes that though no single sentence 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 139 
 
 expresses the full meaning, the whole together may give 
 a sufScient notion of it. In this respect I am afraid 
 we are growing worse, instead of better, for want of time 
 and patience, and from the necessity we are in of ad- 
 dressing almost all writings to a busy and imperfectly 
 prepared public. The demands of modern life are 
 such, the work to be done, the mass to be worked upon, 
 are so vast, that those who have anything particular 
 to say, who have, as the phrase goes, any message to 
 deliver, cannot afford to devote their time to the pro- 
 duction of masterpieces. But they would do far worse 
 than they do if there had never been masterpieces, or 
 if they had never known them. Early familiarity with 
 the perfect makes our most imperfect production far 
 less bad than it otherwise would be. To have a high 
 standard of excellence often makes the whole difference 
 of rendering our work good when it would otherwise 
 be mediocre. 
 
 For all these reasons I think it important to retain 
 these two languages and literatures in the place they 
 occupy as a part of liberal education, that is, of the 
 education of all who are not obliged by their circum- 
 stances to discontinue their scholastic studies at a very 
 early age. But the same reasons which vindicate the 
 place of classical studies in general education, show 
 also the proper limitation of them. They should be 
 carried as far as is sufficient to enable the pupil, in 
 after life, to read the great works of ancient literature 
 with ease. Those who have leisure and inclination to 
 make scholarship or ancient history or general philology 
 their pursuit, of course require much more ; but there 
 
140 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 is no room for more in general education. The labori- 
 ous idleness in which the school-time is wasted away 
 in the English classical schools, deserves the severest 
 reprehension. To what purpose should the most pre- 
 cious years of early life be irreparably squandered in 
 learning to write bad Latin and Greek verses ? I do 
 not see that we are much the better even for those who 
 end by writing good ones. I am often tempted to ask 
 the favorites of nature and fortune whether all the 
 serious and important work of the world is done, that 
 their time and energy can be spared for these nugae 
 difficiles ? I am not blind to the utility of composing 
 in a language as a means of learning it accurately. I 
 hardly know any other means equally effectual. But 
 why should not prose composition suffice ? What need 
 .is there of original composition at all ? if tliat can be 
 called original which unfortunate schoolboys, without 
 any thoughts to express, hammer out on compulsion 
 from mere memory, acquiring the pernicious habit 
 which a teacher should consider it one of his first duties 
 to repress, that of merely stringing together borrowed 
 phrases ? The exercise in composition most suitable 
 to the requirements of learners, is that most valuable 
 one of retranslating from translated passages of a good 
 author ; and to this might be added what still exists in 
 many continental places of education, occasional prac- 
 tice in talking Latin. There would be something to be 
 said for the time spent in the manufacture of verses if 
 such practice were necessary for the enjoyment of 
 ancient poetry ; though it would be better to lose that 
 enjoyment than to purchase it at so extravagant a price. 
 
JOHN STUART MILL. 141 
 
 But the beauties of a great poet would be a far poorer 
 thing than they are, if they only impressed us through 
 a knowledge of the technicalities of his art. The poet 
 needed those technicalities ; they are not necessary to 
 us. They are essential' for criticizing a poem, but not 
 for enjoying it. All that is wanted is sufficient famil- 
 iarity with the language for its meaning to reach us 
 without any sense of effort, and clothed with the asso- 
 ciations on which the poet counted for producing his 
 effect. Whoever has this familiarity and a practised 
 ear, can have as keen a relish of the music of Virgil 
 and Horace, as of Gray or Burns or Shelley, though he 
 know not the metrical rules of a common Sapphic or 
 Alcaic. I do not say that these rules ought not to be 
 taught, but I would have a class apart for them, and 
 would make the appropriate exercises an optional, not 
 a compulsory, part of the school teaching. 
 
VI. 
 
 The American colleges from the first and uniformly, 
 have been schools of classical study and learning. A 
 knowledge of the elements of the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages has been required for admission, and the study 
 of the two has been enforced upon all as the condition 
 of receiving the Bachelor's degree. This has been 
 universally true, the few exceptions being too inconsid- 
 erable to deserve attention. The enforced study of 
 these languages upon all the students, and for the most 
 of the undergraduate course, is a ground of complaint, 
 and its advocates are required to give anew the reasons 
 for adhering to it. The trustees of the Cornell. Univer- 
 sity, while they shrink from the charge of abandoning 
 or depreciating the study of the classics, have distinctly 
 taken the position, that for the purposes of discipline 
 and culture the study of the French and German class- 
 ics is as efficient as the study of the Greek and Latin, 
 and that an equivalent knowledge of either two should 
 entitle the student to the same college honors. The 
 doctrine is also very extensively taught that it is ques- 
 tionable whether the study of language is better fitted 
 to train and discipline the mind in early life than the 
 study of physics or history ; and, granting that it is, 
 
 This Chapter is an Extract from an Article in the New Englander, 
 — " The American Colleges and the American Public," — for January, 
 1869, by Professor Noah Porter, of Yale College. 
 
 143 
 
144 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 that it does not follow that the study of Greek or Latin 
 is essentially to be preferred to that of German or 
 French. In short, the mind of our tribunal, " the 
 American public," is at present undecided and dis- 
 turbed by the question whether the colleges do not 
 commit a grievous wrong in enforcing classical studies 
 upon all their students, and in giving to these studies 
 especial honor. 
 
 We contend not only that the colleges have judged 
 rightly in giving to the study of language the promi- 
 nence which it receives, and that the Greek and Latin 
 deserve the special pre-eminence which has been as- 
 signed them, but that there are peculiar reasons why 
 they should be even more thoroughly and earnestly 
 cultivated than they have been. 
 
 Our first position is, that for the years appropriated 
 to school and college training, there is no study which 
 is so well adapted to mental discipline as the study of 
 language. We argue this from the fact that language 
 is the chief instrument of intelligence. It is thought 
 made visible and clear, not merely to the person to 
 whom thoughts are to be conveyed, but to the person 
 who thinks for and by himself. The earliest discrimi- 
 nations and memories to which we are tasked by nature 
 are those which are involved in the mastery of our 
 mother tongue. It is true the observation of nature, 
 in the education of the eye and the ear, and in the con- 
 trol and discipline of the body, involves a multitude of 
 " object lessons," and imposes much " object teaching," 
 but it can scarcely be contended that the discipline 
 of the senses requires either the culture or the disci- 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 145 
 
 pline of the intellect, in the same sense as does that 
 attention to language which is required in learning to 
 speak and write the language that is first acquired. We 
 assume, because it is not necessary to prove, that the 
 most conspicuously intellectual of the various intellec- 
 tual acts of infancy and childhood are exercised with 
 language. The slowness and difficulty with which some 
 children learn to use language is taken as an infallible 
 sign of some defect or late development of intellectual 
 power. The most important part of the knowledge 
 which we acquire is gained through words spoken or 
 written, and the study of nature itself must mainly be 
 prosecuted through books. Natural history, with its 
 curious facts and nice discriminations ; geography with 
 its descriptions of distant and unseen lands, of moun- 
 tains and rivers ; and romance with its fairy tales, so 
 exciting and so dear to the child, all presuppose and 
 exercise this same knowledge. The world of words is, 
 in its way, as important and as real to the cliild as the 
 world of things ; and most of the intellectual relations 
 of either things or thoughts can only be discerned 
 by an attention to and apprehension of the relations of 
 words. 
 
 As school life advances the intellect is tasked and 
 disciplined by special classes of studies, the object of 
 which is to train the rational powers, and to furnish 
 them with facts and truths. The mind is constrained 
 to reflection and analysis. From acquisition, observa- 
 tion, and memory it proceeds to be trained to the 
 independent judgments of science. What shall be the 
 subject-matter upon which its essays are employed ? 
 
 13 
 
1^6 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 Nature directs, and the experience of many generations 
 has confirmed the wisdom of her intimations, that 
 language is the appropriate sphere of these essays. 
 The mind is not sufficiently matured to study nature 
 in a scientific way. Of natural history the mind at 
 this period is capable, but not of the sciences of nature. 
 The facts of natural history, the experiments of physics 
 and chemistry, do not discipline the mind enough ; the 
 science of these facts involves a training and position 
 which the intellect has not yet attained. The mathe- 
 matics present a most important field, but the field is 
 peculiar and unique. For the sphere and materials of 
 what we call intellectual training we are shut up to the 
 study of language ; not exclusively, indeed, for, as we 
 shall show in its place, facts and imaginations should 
 both instruct and relieve the excessive and one-sided 
 strain which the discipline of language involves ; but if 
 there is to be discipline in the eminent sense, it must be 
 effected by means of the study of language. Whatever 
 substitute be devised, it will fail of imparting that pecu- 
 liar intellectual facility and power which this study 
 secures. 
 
 Assuming that the study of language is the most 
 efficient instrument of discipline, we assert that the 
 study of the classical languages should be universally 
 preferred to any other as a means of discipline in every 
 course of liberal education, and should continue to be 
 made prominent and necessary in the American col- 
 leges. When we assert this, we do not assert it as a 
 self-evident or as an unquestioned proposition. It is 
 a fair question to ask, and a reasonable one to be an- 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 147 
 
 swered: " Why is not French as efficient an instrument 
 of discipline and culture as the Latin, and why may 
 not German be substitued for the Greek, provided 
 each be thoroughly and scientifically studied ? " This 
 question is fair and reasonable to answer and discuss, 
 because the prima facie evidence is that the one is as 
 good as the other. But this prima facie probability is, 
 in our opinion, far from being the self-evident certainty 
 which it seems to be in the judgment of our accom- 
 plished and admirable friend President White, when 
 he says : " It is impossible to find a reason why a man 
 should be made Bachelor of Arts for good studies in 
 Cicero and Tacitus and Thucydides and Sophocles, 
 which does not equally prove that he ought to have 
 the same distinction for good studies in Montesquieu 
 and Corneille, and Goethe and Schiller, and Dante and 
 Shakspeare." ^ With all due respect to the President, 
 we think that it is not only easy to find one such rea- 
 son, but that many very readily suggest themselves. 
 First of all, it is obvious, we think, that the student 
 who makes " good studies " in Cicero and Thucydides 
 will be likely, in the present state of society in this 
 country, also to make " good studies " in Montesquieu, 
 Goethe, etc., etc. We cannot take so narrow a view 
 of the nature and operation of a literary education as 
 for a moment to think of it as limited to a four years' 
 course. The classical student who is zealous enough 
 to do well, will not, in the present state of knowledge, 
 and with the facilities which he enjoys, be likely to fail 
 to learn one or two of the modern languages also. If 
 
 1 Letter to the New York Tribune. 
 
148 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 he does not do this in college, should he have special 
 occasion to use them for the purposes of study, travel, 
 or business, he will have acquired the power to learn 
 them with comparative ease and rapidity. If he is to 
 acquire several Romanic languages, the thorough study 
 of Latin will even be a positive gain in their acquisition, 
 so far as time is concerned. Mr. John Stuart Mill goes 
 so far as to assert that the mastery of Latin " makes it 
 easier to learn four or five of the continental languages 
 than it is to learn one of them without it." Mr. Mill 
 would make little or no provision for the study of the 
 modern languages in the university, for the reason that 
 it is to be supposed that a man who is bred a scholar 
 will study some things after he leaves college, and 
 especially such of the modern tongues as he has occa- 
 sion to use. 
 
 They are trite sayings that all modern literature goes 
 back to these languages for its germs and beginnings, 
 and cannot be thoroughly understood without a knowl- 
 edge of the languages and the life which they reveal ; 
 that not only the roots of the languages of modern 
 Europe are to be found in them, but the roots and 
 germs of modern literature are in their literature as 
 well ; that much of what we call learning is written in 
 Latin and Greek ; that Greek is the original language 
 of the New Testament which records the beginning of 
 the history of the Christian Church, and the great truths 
 which the church has received ; that modern science 
 has constructed its most refined and complicated ter- 
 minology out of materials derived freshly from both 
 languages, and the Greek in particular. But to all 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 149 
 
 these considerations we shall be met with the reply, 
 that the majority of the men who are educated at 
 college will never become scholars at all, and do not 
 require the education which is fundamental to a 
 scholar's knowledge. We answer that, if this is so, the 
 majority of such persons have even the greater need, 
 and will be likely to make a more efficient use of the 
 power and discipline and scholarship which classical 
 study will give them than of the more or less of German 
 and French which they may study in its place. The 
 manifold relations by which a knowledge of the ancient 
 languages and of ancient life are connected with the 
 history they read^ the literature which they enjoy, and 
 the institutions under which they live, makes even a 
 scanty knowledge of both to be of constant use and 
 application. 
 
 The student of Corneille and Goethe is also mainly 
 conversant with modern ideas and modern civilization. 
 However exquisite the diction or masterly the genius 
 of his writer, the sentiments and passions are all mod- 
 ern. But the student of Virgil and of Homer cannot 
 painfully translate a few books of the Aeneid or the 
 Odyssey, without entering into the thoughts and sym- 
 pathizing with the feelings, and living somewhat of the 
 life of human beings greatly unlike those whom he has ^ 
 ever known or imagined. Their thoughts and feelings 
 do not repel him by their strangeness so much as they 
 attract him by their dignity and truth, and open to him 
 a new world of sentiment and emotion. The people, 
 into whose life he very imperfectly learns to enter, 
 though in many respects so unlike the men of present 
 
 13* 
 
150 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 times, are yet closely connected with them by the civil- 
 ization, the arts, the literature, the institutions, the 
 manners, and the laws which the ancients perfected 
 and transmitted. We do not say that to receive such 
 impressions as an imperfect scholarship may impart, is 
 worth all the painstaking which the study of Greek and 
 Latin involves, but we do assert that if these impres- 
 sions can be superadded to the advantages which come 
 from the discipline which the grammatical study of two 
 languages requires, then this is a sufficient reason why 
 Greek and Latin should be preferred to French and 
 German. 
 
 We contend, moreover, and it is generally conceded, 
 that in disciplinary influence the study of the classics 
 is far superior to that of the modern tongues, not ex- 
 cepting the German, which is most nearly akin to the 
 Greek. The regularity and fixedness of the structure, 
 the variety of the inflections, the distinctness of the 
 articulations, the refinement of the combinations, the 
 objective utterances to the mental ear, and the graphic 
 painting to the imagination when coupled with the 
 wealth of thought and feeling, which verb and adjec- 
 tive, which noun and particle, enshrine in words and 
 sentences, all combine to give the classic tongues a 
 supremacy over the languages of modern civilization, 
 which all candid and competent judges have confessed. 
 It is not pertinent to claim that one complicated and 
 artistic language is of itself equally efficient with an- 
 other for discipline, especially in the beginning of one's 
 school studies. It cannot be soberly urged that oi 
 dialect, if it be African or Semitic, is as good as anoth 
 
 f 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 151 
 
 provided it leads the mind to analyze and reflect. The 
 discipline which is required for higher education is not 
 a simple gymnastic to the intellect, it is not the train- 
 ing of the curious philologist, or the sharp logician, but 
 it is a discipline which prepares for culture and thought, 
 and which gradually lifts the mind from the hard and 
 dry paradigms of the pedagogue and the enforced 
 syntax of the class-room to the comparative judgment 
 and the aesthetic culture of the critic and philosopher. 
 
 We find, then, the following reasons why what are 
 called "- good studies " in French and German should 
 not entitle a person to the Bachelor's degree ; and why 
 these studies, however " good " they may be for certain 
 purposes, cannot be as good for the commanding objects 
 for which language and the languages are studied in a 
 course of education. 
 
 They are not as good to teach attention to the struc- 
 ture of language and all which such attention involves, 
 and thus to train the student to the intelligent and 
 facile use of English, or to the criticism of the same. 
 They are not as good to prepare the mind to learn other 
 languages than themselves with rapidity, intelligence, 
 sild retention. They are not as good to prepare for 
 the comparative judgment of the languages which one 
 may learn. The exercise of such a judgment, whether 
 it is employed for the remoter ends of the philologist, 
 or the more general aims of the reflective thinker, is 
 one of the most instructive employments of the educa- 
 ted man. No man can be a linguist in the best and 
 most intellectual sense of the word, who is not a 
 classical scholar, because these languages are the best 
 
152 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 material with or upon which to study language. The 
 student, who has mastered the elements of Greek and 
 Latin, has gone much further in the way to the intelli- 
 gent knowledge of language generally, than one who has 
 made greater advances in the elements of French and 
 German. This is explained by the fact already adverted 
 to, that the structure of the classical tongues is so com- 
 plicated yet clear, ramified yet regular, artificial yet 
 symmetrical, objective yet artistic, and that in all these 
 features these languages are pre-eminent above the 
 modern tongues. Some philologists do not confess this, 
 we know. They persuade themselves that an English- 
 man can be trained as successfully to the reflective 
 study of language by the use of liis own and one or two 
 modern languages, as by the aid of the classic tongues. 
 But we think such persons, being always themselves 
 classicists, mistake their own insight and science of 
 such relations for the insight and science which they 
 imagine their pupils might or do attain. In short, they 
 imagine their pupils see with an eye and reflect with a 
 mind that have been enriched and disciplined by classi- 
 cal study. 
 
 Again, such studies cannot be as good for the dis- 
 cipline of the intellect. (The study of languages so 
 characterized must be a better training for the intellect 
 than the study of the languages which task the intel- 
 lect less, from the greater simplicity of their structure 
 and their greater similarity to the mother tongueA We 
 of course assume that the two kinds of languages are 
 taught equally well, and are pursued with equal zeal 
 and spirit. This, we think, is possible. 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 153 
 
 Studies in the modern languages are not as good as 
 studies in the ancient, for the knowledge of man which 
 they directly and indirectly impart. The man of the 
 ancient world is a different being from the man of 
 modern life. Stately, artificial, decided, clear in liis 
 opinions, positive and outspoken in his aims, objective 
 in his life, positive and sharp in his diction, impetuous 
 in his impulses, grand in his connection with the state, 
 heroic in his virtues and almost in his vices, he stands 
 out in a striking contrast with the man of modern times 
 — the self-cultured Pagan against the self-denying 
 Christian, the self-cultured against the self-sacrij&cing, 
 the idolater of country and the state against the wor- 
 shipper of the Father and Redeemer of man. He is 
 always intellectual, impressive, and intelligible, because 
 he is the pei-fection of the natural and earthly in its 
 purest and noblest manifestations. The man of modern 
 life is weakened and divided, it may be, by the strife 
 of the natural with the spiritual, of passion with duty, 
 of selfishness with love. And yet the classic humanity 
 is not so strange that it repels or overawes us. It 
 moves our common sympathies, while it enlarges our 
 conceptions of what man may become. All that is good 
 in it is the more impressive from its very exaggerated 
 and one-sided character. It also conveys what it has 
 learned or experienced by means of the clear, beautiful, 
 and positive diction which it always employs. It cor- 
 rects pour special defects of thought, of sentiment, and 
 of action, by the clear rationalism, the simple emotion, 
 the manly behavior which it always sets forth. It even 
 preserves us against its own peculiar errors by the very 
 
154 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 distinctness with which it avows them, and the consist- 
 ent energy with which it acts them out. The student 
 of modern literature is always conversant with men, 
 thinking, feeling, and acting like himself. The student 
 of ancient literature is confronted with human beings 
 and a human life, which are in some most important 
 particulars unlike what he has experienced or even 
 conjectured ; and yet they were a positive and potent 
 reality. 
 
 The modern languages are not as good as the ancient 
 to prepare for the intelligent study of modern history. 
 Modern history and modern literature have their roots 
 in ancient institutions and in ancient life. Modern 
 poetry, philosophy, and art were, at the first, inspired 
 by the poetry, philosophy, and art of Greece. Modern 
 polity and law were derived from Rome. Modern reli- 
 gion came from Judea through Grecian and Roman 
 society. To understand the beginning and trace the 
 progress of the new developments which these prime 
 elements of modern history have undergone, we must 
 go back to the beginning and understand the society 
 and life in which they were first rooted and germinated. 
 We cannot successfully penetrate into the spirit of 
 ancient life without mastering the languages and ap- 
 preciating the literature in which the ancients have 
 enshrined and perpetuated this life. Our modern edu- 
 cational reformers make much of the study of history 
 and of the philosophy of history. But what can the 
 teacher of history accomplish with classes who are 
 practically incapable of appreciating the spirit and life 
 of antiquity ? How can they judge of his assertions or 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 155 
 
 follow his analyses, to whom the most important ele- 
 ments with which he deals are substantially unknown, 
 and must remain forever unappreciated ? 
 
 The last reason which we give why studies in the 
 modern are not as good as studies in the ancient lan- 
 guages is, that they do not as efficiently further the 
 intellectual and aesthetic culture of the student. The 
 evidence for this has been furnished in the considera- 
 tions already adduced. If modern history is rooted in 
 the ancient, much more obviously are modern thought 
 and modern culture rooted in ancient thought and 
 ancient culture. Its speculation was born of ancient 
 speculation, and still recognizes its parentage, as it 
 agrees with or dissents from the doctrines of Plato and 
 Aristotle. The modern materialists scarcely more than 
 illustrate and enforce from modern physics the ancient 
 metaphysics of the Atomists and Epicureans. The 
 modern spiritualists give greater definiteness and au- 
 thority to the mythical constructions of Plato and the 
 masterly analyses of Aristotle.. The images of the Iliad 
 and the Odyssey are as fresh and as quickening as 
 ever, and their rhythm as musical and inspiring as they 
 have been in all the generations since the birth of mod- 
 ern poetry. They have not been superseded by the 
 subjective tendencies of the modern muse. The Greek 
 tragedies are still pregnant with mystery to the most 
 subjective and questioning of the moderns, who brood 
 over the seeming perplexities of fate and Providence. 
 Allusions to classical images, scenes, events, and per- 
 sonages, are woven into the tissue of all modern writing. 
 Classical art, with its outlines as sharply cut as the 
 
156 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 faces of a crystal, and yet as graceful as the undulations 
 of the moving waters, has not ceased to be the model 
 of beauty and grace to modern art, because its products 
 have been animated by the living spirit, of Christian 
 love, or warmed and elevated by the spiritual graces 
 of Christian faith and hope. 
 
 The student who makes " good studies " in modern 
 thought and literature, cannot fail, indeed, of a quick- 
 ening influence and guidance ; but the student who has 
 made good studies in ancient thought, has made him- 
 self ready to occupy his life with a far more intelligent 
 and refined appreciation of modern thought and culture. 
 As in the order of the culture of the race, the severe 
 discipline of ancient institutions first prepared the way 
 for the more genial influences of Christian and modern 
 thought and feeling, so in the training of the individual 
 on the most generous scale, the pedagogical period is 
 most profitably spent in the ancient schools, before the 
 pupil enters upon the second stage of thought and 
 conception in which he is to live and act, but which is 
 none the less truly educating, because the process goes 
 on in the wider school of life. 
 
 The modern educators, who claim to themselves the 
 merit and name of being especially broad and enlight- 
 ened, take, in fact, the narrowest and most limited 
 views of education and of living. They forget that as 
 soon as the student steps forth into life, modern think- 
 ing, modern literature, and modern culture will take 
 him almost exclusively into their possession, and will 
 assert supreme control over his education. Under the 
 fair pretence of preparing him for the fields of thought 
 
PROFESSOR PORTER. 157 
 
 and action on which he is to enter, they confine him 
 from the first to the same round in which he is to walk 
 through life, forgetting that the most efiicient prepara- 
 tion for a sphere of action is not always made in that 
 sphere, but that to be prepared most efficiently for the 
 intellectual and aesthetical activity in which we are to 
 be employed, we must be conversant with their germi- 
 nant forces and their controlhng principles. 
 
 Against these views it will be urged, that though 
 they are plausible in the ideal, they are impracticable 
 in the real — that it is impossible to bring all the mem- 
 bers of a college class to study the classics with sufficient 
 interest and zeal to make them eminently profitable ; 
 that while a third of the earnest men will study them 
 with zeal, the remaining two-thirds will study them 
 with reluctance. Or, as President White says : "When 
 I was a student in one of the largest New England col- 
 leges, there were over a hundred in my class. Of these 
 twenty or thirty loved classical studies, and could have 
 made them a noble means of culture ; but these were 
 held back by perhaps seventy, who dreamed or lounged 
 or ' ponied ' or ' smouged ' through, sadly to the detri- 
 ment of their minds and morals. Consequently the 
 classical professors — as good as ever blessed any college 
 — were obliged to give their main labor to stirring up 
 the dullards, to whipping in the laggards, in short, not 
 to the thirty who loved their particular studies, but to 
 the seventy who loathed them." The Cornell Univer- 
 sity will not have things so ordered ; it will '' indulge 
 in no tirades against the classics." " It will have the 
 best classical professors it can secure, it will equip 
 
 14 
 
158 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 their departments thoroughly, it will not thwart them 
 by forcing into their lecture-rooms a mass of students 
 who, while reciting Greek, are thinking of German, 
 etc., etc." That is. President White would have us to 
 infer that in his opinion, and we believe there are many 
 who agree with him, that " the dullards " and " the 
 laggards," the men who " ponied " and " smouged" in 
 the classics, would have neither been nor done either 
 if they had been allowed to study German instead of 
 Greek, and that the majority of every college class 
 would study the languages with alacrity and zeal, if 
 only they were allowed to study German or French. 
 We do not believe this opinion to be correct, and we 
 think it effectually disproved by the indisputable fact 
 that the men who are dull and who lag in Greek and 
 Latin, are almost invariably " dullards " and " lag- 
 gards " in German and French, in these very same 
 college classes and class-rooms. The few exceptions 
 are explained by the greater maturity of mind and of 
 character with which the study of the modern languages 
 is begun, and pre-eminently by the better elementary 
 instruction with which it is introduced to the mind, to 
 say nothing of the advantage which has been gained by 
 even an imperfect study of the classics. 
 
 Moreover, what was true of the class of President 
 White in respect to the classics was true eminentiori 
 sensu in respect to the mathematics; and yet we do not 
 observe that in the scheme of the Cornell University it 
 is proposed to dispense with a thorough study of the 
 mathematics in the several courses, which are different 
 ways to the same degree. Nor is the principle to be 
 
PEOFESSOR PORTER. 159 
 
 admitted that those who are dull in the mathematics 
 are to be excused from studying them because they 
 long for the classics or long for history, or it may be, 
 long for the lecture courses to the exclusion of recita- 
 tions. We do not deny that the evils complained of 
 by President White in fact exist. But they are not 
 peculiar to any course of study. We do not despair 
 of a partial remedy of these evils, but are confident that 
 the remedy is not to be found in the substitution of the 
 modern for the ancient languages. 
 
 It should always be remembered that the question 
 with which we are concerned relates to the best theo- 
 retical selection of studies, and cannot always be decided 
 by the practical results in particular cases. What is 
 best in theory will be best in practice only when it 
 is thoroughly and wisely administered, provided the 
 circumstances are equally favorable. Among these 
 circumstances are to be enumerated — adequate prepa- 
 ration, by previous study and training, the best methods 
 of teaching and discipline, sufiicient time to bring the 
 prescribed course to its completion, and a warm faith 
 in, and enthusiasm for, the value of a study in pupils 
 and students. In some of these respects there is room 
 for great improvement, and this improvement, as we 
 shall show, is to be desired and hoped for in the Amer- 
 ican colleges. At present we are concerned with the 
 theory of the selection and distribution of the studies. 
 
 It may be contended, again, that if the modern cannot 
 altogether take the place of the ancient languages they 
 may share an equal portion of time and of honor with 
 them. It being conceded that a knowledge of two or 
 
160 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 three modern languages is indispensable to the scholar 
 who is truly educated, it is urged that the college ought 
 to provide instruction in these languages as a part of 
 its curriculum. In accordance with this view the 
 modern languages have been provided for, more or less 
 definitely and completely, in many of the colleges, and 
 instruction in them is given either in the regular or 
 the optional courses. The advantages are obvious. 
 The student passes from a dead to a living language, 
 as from a Pompeiian to a modern dwelling. The first 
 is artistic and ornate, but its associations are with the 
 past ; the second is fresh and fragrant with modern 
 elegances and comforts. The sense of a certain or 
 possible utility in the language learned awakens a 
 peculiar interest, especially if the student has advanced 
 several stages from school life and school-boy associa- 
 tions and if the interests and responsibilities of manhood 
 have begun to awaken and sober him. The mingling 
 of the ancient and modern in grammatical analysis and 
 in etymological research and literary criticism, is in 
 every respect happy in its injfluence. 
 
 On the other hand, it is to be feared that the time 
 for classical study will in this way be seriously dimin- 
 ished, that the interest in, and estimate of, classical 
 culture will be so far weakened, that the high academical 
 tone will be injuriously lowered, and the most important 
 ends of academical discipline will be in a measure 
 thwarted. 
 
VII. 
 
 The writer has attempted to show that science teaches 
 better, that is, more directly and soundly, than any 
 other study, how to observe, how to arrange and class- 
 ify, how to connect causes with effects, how to compre- 
 hend details under general laws, how to estimate the 
 practical value of facts. Having, however, dealt out 
 this measure of justice to science, he maintains that the 
 difficulties which lie in the way of the attainment of 
 these valuable results, by means of school education, 
 have not yet been overcome ; and that even if they 
 were and science were fully admitted into the curricu- 
 lum — which ought to be the case — that the classical 
 and literary training is better adapted to the develop- 
 ment of the whole man tlian the scientific, and should 
 therefore take the lead. In pursuing this argument 
 he has been led specially to deal with two fallacies, 
 which, under a variety of forms, are extensively preva- 
 lent at present, and, by their evil influence, tend very 
 much to hinder the cause which they are apparently 
 designed to promote. The first is, that because there 
 is so much to know in the world, we are bound to try 
 
 This Chapter is from a Pamphlet containin": the substance of two Lec- 
 tures,— " The Curriculum of Modem Education, and the respective Claims 
 of Classics and Science "— delivered at the monthly meetings of the College 
 of Preceptors, London, 1866, by Joseph Payne, late of Leatherhead; Fellow, 
 and one of the Vice Presidents, of the College of Preceptors, etc. 
 14* 161 
 
162 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 to make our children learn it all. The second is, that 
 because there is so much to do in the world, we ought 
 to force all kinds of business upon children's attention 
 beforehand, by way of preparation for it. — Preface, 
 
 The object we have in view is to discuss the curricu- 
 lum of modern education as far as the middle classes 
 of society are concerned — excluding, on the one hand, 
 those whose instruction must, from circumstances, be 
 limited to the barest elements of learning ; and those, 
 on the other hand, whose course is intended to termi- 
 nate in a university career. The question then is — 
 considering the age in which we live, with its immense 
 accumulation and wonderful applications of knowledge ; 
 considering too that the longest life is too short for 
 securing for the individual man any large portion of 
 this, which constitutes the treasury of the race ; and 
 that the immature faculties of the child can grasp only 
 a very limited portion of that which is ultimately at- 
 tained by the man — whether we do wisely in giving 
 up any considerable portion of the small space of time 
 available for acquisition, to the attainment of a kind of 
 knowledge which appears, in comparison with scientific 
 and general information, to be only slightly demanded 
 by the wants and the wishes of the age. If it is neces- 
 sary, or even important and desirable, that we should 
 all attempt to know all things, this question is at once 
 settled by the exigencies of the case. Every moment 
 of the time devoted to instruction must, on that as- 
 sumption, be given up to the earnest and unremitting 
 pursuit of the " things that lie about in daily life " ; 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 163 
 
 and everything which impedes or interferes with that 
 pursuit must be regarded as impertinent. It is, how- 
 ever, perfectly clear that the attempt to force the indi- 
 vidual man to keep up with the intellectual march of 
 the human race, must end in utter disappointment, 
 and, moreover, involves a fatal misconception of the 
 object which all true education should have in view. 
 It cannot be too frequently repeated, that development 
 and training, and not the acquisition of knowledge, 
 however valuable in itself, is the true and proper end 
 of elementary education, nor too strongly insisted on 
 that he who grasps too much holds feebly, or as the 
 French pithily express it, qui trop embrasse mal etreint. 
 The fact that there is a vast store of knowledge in the 
 world is no more a reason why I should acquire it all, 
 than the fact that there is an immense store of food is 
 a reason why I should eat it all. We may mourn over 
 the limitation of our powers, but as our fate in this re- 
 spect is quite inevitable, it is our duty, as rational crea- 
 tures, to submit to it, and to be satisfied with doing, if 
 not all that we fondly wish, yet all that we can, and, 
 what is more important, as well as we can. 
 
 I have already suggested that development and train- 
 ing, not the acquisition of knowledge, however valuable 
 in itself, is the true and proper end of elementary edu- 
 cation. In a general way it may be asserted that the 
 former is the main tenet of the old or conservative, the 
 latter of the new or reforming, school. We shall have 
 to dwell at some length on this point, that we may be 
 prepared to recognize the respective claims of various 
 subjects to be admitted into the curriculum. It is 
 
164 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 perfectly true that neither view, of necessity, excludes 
 the other. Any subject, however suitable in itself for 
 the discipline of the pupil, may be so taught as to in- 
 volve no good training; and a subject presumptively 
 unsuitable may, by the skill of the teacher, be made to 
 yield the happiest fruits. Still the prominence given 
 to these respective features in theory must materially 
 affect the practice founded on them. I need not refer 
 to the very etymology of the word " education " to 
 support the more old-fashioned view of the case. All 
 will allow that it means training or development ; but 
 I would dwell for a moment on the meaning of the 
 cognate term " instruction," in support of the same 
 argument, and also to show that a real and judicious 
 teaching of science, not a random gathering together 
 of scraps of " useful knowledge," does indeed involve 
 a genuine discipline of the mind. The original mean- 
 ing of instruere is to heap up, or pile up, or put together 
 in a heap generally, and seems somewhat to counte- 
 nance the chrestomathic notion ; but the secondary 
 meaning, and that with which we are more concerned, 
 is "to put together in order, to build or construct " ; 
 so that instruction is the orderly arrangement and dis- 
 position of knowledge, a branch of mental discipline 
 which all must acknowledge to be of great importance 
 and value. But heaping bricks together, and building 
 a house with them are two very different things. The 
 orderly arrangement of facts in the mind implies a 
 knowledge of their relation to each other ; and, if car- 
 ried out to a certain extent, furnishes the groundwork 
 for the establishment of those general laws which con- 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 165 
 
 stitute what is properly called science. The knowledge, 
 however, of these mutual relations is gained by quiet, 
 earnest brooding over facts, viewing them in every kind 
 of light, comparing them carefully together for the 
 detection of resemblances and differences, classifying 
 them, experimenting upon them and so on. Allowing, 
 then, to science, properly so called, all that can be 
 claimed for it as a constituent of the curriculum — and 
 of its immense value in education I shall have to speak 
 presently — we must explode, definitely and finally, 
 the notion that these valuable results can be elicited 
 by frittering away the powers of the mind on a great 
 variety of subjects. Nor must we be led away by the 
 frequently meaningless clamor for " useful knowledge." 
 Knowledge which may be unquestionably useful to some 
 persons may not be useful at all to others ; therefore, 
 although education is to be a preparation for after life, 
 yet it is to be a general, not a professional preparation, 
 and cannot provide for minute and special contingen- 
 cies. The object of education is to form the man, not 
 the baker — the man, not the lawyer — the man, not 
 the civil engineer. 
 
 What then, we may now inquire, should be the main 
 features of a training, as distinguished from an accu- 
 mulating, system of instruction ? It should, I conceive, 
 aim at quickening and strengthening the powers of 
 observation and memory, and forming habits of careful 
 and persevering attention ; it should habituate the pupil 
 to distinguish points of difference and recognize those 
 of resemblance, to analyse and investigate, to arrange 
 and classify. It should awaken and invigorate the 
 
166 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 understanding, mature the reason, chasten while it 
 kindles the imagination, exercise the judgment and 
 refine the taste. It should cultivate habits of order 
 and precision, and of spontaneous, independent, and 
 long-continued application. It should, in short, be a 
 species of mental gymnastics, fitted to draw forth, exer- 
 cise, invigorate, and mature all the faculties, so as to 
 exhibit them in that harmonious combination which is 
 at once the index and the result of manly growth. In 
 order to gain the ends I have specified, or indeed any 
 considerable number of them, it is essential that the 
 studies embraced in the training course should be few. 
 We cannot hope to have, in the early stage of life, both 
 quantity and quality. In giving a preference to the 
 latter we do but consult the exigencies of the case. At 
 the same time it may be hoped that, because the aim is 
 to enrich and prepare the soil, the ultimate harvest will 
 be proportionately bountiful. 
 
 I have said that the subjects to be studied in the 
 training course should be few. But I proceed further 
 and maintain that for the purpose of real discipline it 
 is advisable, nay, even necessary, to concentrate the 
 energies for a long period together on some one general 
 subject, and make that for a time the leading feature, 
 the central study, of the course — keeping others in 
 subordination to it. By giving this degree of promi- 
 nence to some particular branch of instruction, we may 
 hope to have it studied to such an extent, so closely, so 
 accurately, so soundly, so completely, that it may be- 
 come a real possession to the pupil — a source of vital 
 power which the mind " will not willingly let die." 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 167 
 
 The concentration of mind and range of research nec- 
 essary for this purpose obviously involve many of the 
 advantages I have recently enumerated. In this way, 
 too, the pupil will become fully conscious of the differ- 
 ence between knowing a thing and knowing something 
 about it, and will be forcibly impressed with the supe- 
 riority of the former kind of knowledge. This convic- 
 tion is of no small importance ; for it gives him a clear, 
 experimental appreciation of the agency — the measure 
 and kind of intellectual effort — by which the complete 
 and accurate knowledge was gained, and thus can 
 hardly fail to exercise a valuable influence upon his 
 character. He who has learned by experience the 
 difficulty of obtaining a thorough mastery of a subject 
 has made no trifling advance in the knowledge of him- 
 self. He has tested his power of struggling with difficul- 
 ties, and acquired in the contest that command over his 
 faculties, and that habit of sustained and vigorous ap- 
 plication which will ensure success in any undertaking. 
 He who has only begun a study, or advanced but little 
 in it, is a stranger to that consciousness of strength and 
 range of mental vision which are involved in the culti- 
 vation of it to a high point. The knowledge, thus 
 thoroughly acquired and possessed as a familiar instru- 
 ment by the pupil, becomes not only a powerful auxil- 
 iary to his further attainments, but a high standard to 
 which he may continually refer them. 
 
 One of the chief reasons why the study of one thing, 
 one subject, or one book, is so valuable a discipline, is 
 that the matter thus submitted to the mind's action 
 forms a whole, and by degrees reacts on the mind itself, 
 
168 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 and creates within it the idea of unity and harmony. 
 Suppose, for instance, that we read a book with the 
 view of thoroughly studying and mastering it. We 
 find, as a consequence of the unity of thought and 
 expression pervading it, that one part explains another, 
 that what is hinted at in one page is amplified in the 
 next, that the matter of the first few sentences is the 
 nucleus (the oak in the acorn, as it were) of the entii 
 work. Thus the beginning of the book throws ligh. 
 upon the end, which the end in its turn reflects upon 
 the beginning. He who studies in this way must care- 
 fully weigh each word and estimate its value in the 
 sentence of which it is a part, and its bearing on those 
 which have preceded it; he must also keep it in r 't , 
 lection, that he may observe its connection with wl i : 
 follows. When he encounters difficulties which 
 cannot at the moment solve, he must retain ther ..i - 
 
 ■A 
 
 mind until the clue to their solution is gained, ju?.* 
 must often retrace his steps with the experience he I vl 
 acquired in advancing, and then advance again witu 
 the added knowledge gained in his retrogression. It 
 is only by thus wrestling — agonizing, as it were — with 
 a subject, that we eventually subdue it, and make it 
 ours and a part of us. By such or analogous processes 
 constantly and patiently pursued, we rise at last to 
 the highest generalizations ; so that a knowledge of tl 
 phenomena of the material world is digested into sci- 
 ence, a knowledge of the facts and matter of language 
 is elaborated into learning, and a knowledge and inti- 
 mate appreciation of the facts of human life ripens into 
 wisdom. Every one will bear me out in the remark, 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 169 
 
 that it is from those few books that we read most care- 
 fully ; that we " chew and digest," to use Bacon's 
 words ; that we peruse again and again with still 
 increasing interest ; that we take to our bosom as 
 friends and counsellors, — it is from these that we are 
 conscious of deriving real nourishment for the mind. 
 Nor is it perhaps rash to assert that the general ten- 
 ancy, in our day, to dissipate the attention on all sorts 
 X books, on all sorts of subjects, which just flash before 
 the mind, excite it for a moment, leave a vague impres- 
 sion, and are gone^ is stamping a character upon the 
 age which will render nugatory the well-meant efforts 
 ^hich have of late been made for the enlightenment of 
 n ^jopular mind, and the extension of useful knowl- 
 ^e. It is, I say, characteristic of the age, that we 
 ^isculate and enfeeble our powers by the vain attempt 
 , 'OW everything which everybody else knows; and 
 .tnin conformity to the fashion of the times, even to 
 \ it as a reproach that we have not " dipped into," 
 yjx.-'' skimmed over," or " glanced at " (very significant 
 phrases) all the articles in all the newspapers, maga- 
 zines, and reviews of the day. We indolently allow 
 ourselves to be carried on in spite of our silent protest, 
 against our real convictions, with the shallow tide 
 which is sweeping over the land ; and, inasmuch as we 
 so, are neutralizing the real interests of the cause 
 we profess to be advocating, and preventing the forma- 
 tion of valuable and useful judgments on any subject 
 whatever. 
 
 It is not, perhaps, too much to assert, that concentra- 
 ion of mind on a few subjects is, and ever has been, 
 
 15 
 
170 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 the only passport to excellence. All the great literary 
 and scientific men of all ages, whose opinions we value, 
 whose judgments are received as the dictates of wisdom 
 and authority, have acted on the conviction that the 
 powers of the mind are strengthened by concentration, 
 and weakened by dissipation. 
 
 The practical inference from the foregoing remarks 
 is, that in order to train the mind usefully, concen- 
 tration, and not accumulation, must be our guiding 
 principle ; in other words, we must direct the most 
 strenuous efiforts of our pupils to the complete and full 
 comprehension of some one subject as an instrument of 
 intellectual discipline. 
 
 The next consideration then, is, what the subject sub- 
 mitted to this accurate and complete study ought to be. 
 
 K science is to constitute a real discipline for the 
 mind, much, nay everything, will depend on the manner 
 in which it is studied. In the first place, it is to be re- 
 membered that the pupil is about to study things, not 
 words ; and therefore treatises on science are not to 
 be in the first instance placed before him. He must 
 commence with the accurate examination of the objects 
 and phenomena themselves, not of descriptions of them 
 prepared by others. By this means not only will his 
 attention be excited, the power of observation previously 
 awakened, much strengthened, and the senses exercised 
 and disciplined, but the very important habit of doing 
 homage to the authority of facts rather than to the au- 
 thority of men be initiated. These different objects 
 and phenomena may be placed and viewed together, and 
 thus the mental faculties of comparison and discrimi- 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 171 
 
 nation usefully practised. They may, in the next place, 
 be methodically arranged and classified, and thus the 
 mind may become accustomed to an orderly arrange- 
 ment of its knowledge. Then the accidental may be 
 distinguished from the essential, the common from the 
 special, and so the habit of generalization may be ac- 
 quired ; and lastly, advancing from effects to causes, 
 or conversely from principles to their necessary conclu- 
 sions, the pupil becomes acquainted with induction 
 and deduction — processes of the highest value and 
 importance. Every one will allow that such a course 
 as this, faithfully carried out, must prove to be a very 
 valuable training. It would not, indeed, discipline the 
 mind so closely as pure mathematics, yet its range is 
 wider, and it is more closely connected with human in- 
 terests and feelings. It is no small advantage, too, that 
 it affords, both in its pursuit and in its results — both 
 in the chase and the capture — a very large amount of 
 legitimate and generous mental pleasure, and of a kind 
 which the pupil will probably be desirous of renewing 
 for himself after he has left school. After all, however, 
 it will be observed that, while the study of the physical 
 sciences tends to give power over the material forces of 
 the universe, it leaves untouched the greater forces 
 of the human heart ; it makes a botanist, a geologist, 
 an electrician, an architect, an engineer, but it does not 
 make a man. The hopes, the fears, the hatreds and 
 the loves, the emotions which stir us to heroic action, 
 the reverence which bows in the presence of the inex- 
 pressibly good and great ; the sensitive moral taste 
 which shrinks from vice and approves virtue ; the sen- 
 
172 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 sitive mental taste, which appreciates the sublime and 
 beautiful in art, and sheds delicious tears over the im- 
 mortal works of genius — all this wonderful world of 
 sensation and emotion lies outside that world which is 
 especially cultivated by the physical sciences. This is 
 no argument, of course, against their forming a proper, 
 nay an essential, part of the curriculum, but it is an 
 argument against their taking the first place. They 
 are intimately connected, of course, with our daily 
 wants and conveniences. The study of them cultivates 
 in the best way the faculties of observation, and leads 
 naturally to the formation, in the mind, of the idea of 
 natural law, and so ultimately to investigations and 
 suggestions of a very high order, in the pursuit of which 
 it is sought to define the shadowy boundary between 
 mind and matter, or to reveal to present time the long 
 buried secrets of the past. But in order to attain at 
 last these eminent heights of science, the preliminary 
 training must be rigorous and exact. It must embrace 
 the difficult as well as the pleasing and amusing — that 
 which requires close and long-continued attention as 
 well as that which only ministers to a transient curi- 
 osity. It must be based on the " firm ground of exper- 
 iment," and be independent of mere book study, which 
 it has been well observed is in relation to science, only 
 as valuable, in the absence of the facts, as a commen- 
 tary on the Hiad would be to him who had never read 
 the poem. 
 
 We may assent, then, on the whole, without hesita- 
 tion, to the wise and careful judgment passed on the 
 study of physical science as a part of the curriculum by 
 
 i 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 173 
 
 the Public School Comniissioners in their Eeport. " It 
 quickens," they say, ''and cultivates directly the faculty 
 of observation, which in very many persons lies almost 
 dormant through life, the power of accurate and rapid 
 generalization, and the mental habit of method and 
 arrangement ; it accustoms young persons to trace the 
 sequence of cause and effect ; it familiarizes them with 
 a kind of reasoning which interests them, and which 
 they can promptly comprehend ; and it is perhaps the 
 best corrective for that indolence which is the vice of 
 half-awakened minds, and which shrinks from any ex- 
 ertion that is not, like an effort of memory, merely 
 mechanical." In spite, then, of Dr. Moberly's denun- 
 ciation of such studies as " worthless," and as " giving 
 no power " in education, I maintain that it is utterly 
 impossible to exclude a subject with pretensions like 
 these from our curriculum. They must and will occupy 
 a considerable space in it — they deserve to do so. For 
 reasons however, already stated, I would not give them 
 the post of the highest distinction, which ought to be 
 reserved for the studies which exercise, not special fac- 
 ulties, but the whole man ; not the man as a professional 
 and with a utilitarian end in view, but as a citizen of 
 the world, as one who is to meet his fellow-men and to 
 influence their decisions upon the difl&cult and compli- 
 cated problems of society. 
 
 Some think that pure mathematics should occupy 
 this central post of honor, A moment's consideration, 
 however, will show that the study of algebra, geometry, 
 the calculus, etc., not only does not embrace those 
 topics of common interest which are essential for our 
 
 15* 
 
174 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 purpose ; but has a special and limited office to perform 
 — I mean, of course, independently of their practical 
 applications. Lord Bacon has judiciously summed up 
 their special functions. " They do," he says, " remedy 
 and cure many defects in the wit and faculties intellec- 
 tual ; for if the wit be too dull they sharpen it ; if too 
 wandering, they fix it ; if too inherent in the sense 
 they abstract it. So that as tennis is a game of no use 
 of itself, but of great use in respect it maketh a quick 
 eye, and a body ready to put itself into all postures ; 
 so with mathematics, that use which is collateral and 
 intervenient is no less worthy than that which is prin- 
 cipal and intended." These words aptly characterize 
 the advantages of the study of mathematics, and point 
 out their proper office in education. They cannot, 
 from their very nature, exercise a formative power over 
 the whole mind ; but they are very profitably employed 
 in correcting certain defects, and in teaching, as scarcely 
 anything else can teach, habits of accuracy. They call 
 into play but few of the faculties ; but these they exer- 
 cise rigorously, and therefore usefully. It has been 
 objected to them that when pursued to any considerable 
 extent, without the counterpoise of more general studies, 
 they become particularly exclusive and mechanical in 
 their influence ; but this perhaps can hardly be consid- 
 ered as an essential characteristic. On the whole, how- 
 ever, it can scarcely be maintained that mathematics 
 will serve as the basis we require for our educational 
 operations, though no education can be considered as 
 complete which excludes them. 
 Having, then, shown that, notwithstanding the great 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 175 
 
 value both of physics and of mathematics in education, 
 they are .too special in their application to serve as the 
 central subject in our curriculum, we turn once more 
 to language, and especially to the Latin language, which 
 I should propose as the exercising ground best adapted 
 for the intellectual drilling of our young soldier. Greek, 
 in the case of those whose school education is to termi- 
 nate at sixteen years of age, must, I think, be displaced 
 in favor of the practical claims of German. And it is 
 the less necessary to contest this point, as nearly all 
 the disciplinary advantages which so eminently charac- 
 terize the study of the classical languages may be gained 
 from the study of Latin alone. It may, then, I conceive, 
 be fairly maintained that the place which classical in- 
 struction holds in the curriculum of English education 
 is not due to prejudice, as some believe ; nor to igno- 
 rance of what is going on in society around us, as others 
 pretend ; but to a well-judged estimate of its importance 
 and value as a discipline for the youtliful mind, and as 
 an element of the highest rank among the civilizing 
 influences of the world. 
 
 This study may be considered under two aspects, the 
 language itself and its literature. ^ 
 
 My first proposition is that the study of the Latin 
 language itself does eminently discipline the faculties, 
 and secure, to a greater degree than that of the other 
 subjects we have discussed, the formation and growth 
 of those mental qualities which are the best prepara- 
 tives for the business of life, whether that business is 
 to consist in making fresh mental acquisitions or in 
 directing the powers thus strengthened and matured to 
 professional or other pursuits. 
 
176 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 Written language consists of sentences, and sentences 
 of words. In commencing the study of a language we 
 may consider these words as things which we have to 
 investigate and analyze. They possess many qualities 
 in common with natural objects, and may be therefore 
 treated in a somewhat similar way. They have mate- 
 rial qualities ; they can be seen, they can be named 
 (their sound is their name), they can be compared to- 
 gether ; their resemblances and differences discrimina- 
 ted, and arrangements or classifications of them made 
 in accordance with observed similarity or difference in 
 form. The memory, too, is practically and systemati- 
 cally exercised. The paradigms of inflections must be 
 accurately learned by heart, and so familiarly known 
 that the constant comparison between them as stand- 
 ards, and the varying forms which arise for interpreta- 
 tion, may be spontaneous and easy. And these acts 
 of comparison are themselves of great value, and tend 
 to cultivate accuracy of judgment ; the very blunders 
 made are instructive ; the half-perception induced by 
 indolence must be corrected by increased labor. The 
 attempt at evasion ends in a more complete reception ; 
 hence a moral as well as a mental lesson. Thus, acts 
 of attention, observation, memory, and judgment are 
 called forth ; and these acts, by being performed num- 
 berless times, grow into habits. Again, these words 
 can be analyzed, separated into their component parts, 
 and these parts severally examined and their functions 
 ascertained. Conversely, we may employ the synthetic 
 process. We may fashion these elements in conformity 
 with some given model, and thus adapt them to some 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 177 
 
 given end. By closer investigation and comparison, 
 affinities before nnperceived are traced and appreciated, 
 the transformation of letters detected, and the founda- 
 tion laid for the science of philology. It should be 
 observed that all these operations or experiments (for 
 so they may be called) are performed on facts, on 
 objects (a word is as much an object as a flower) directly 
 exposed to observation ; that they are at the same time 
 simple in their nature, and though requiring minute 
 attention, and so forming the habit of accuracy, are 
 evidently within the comprehension of a child. It is no 
 small advantage that the means of training the mind to 
 such habits are always within reach, and available to an 
 unlimited extent; and not, as is often the case with 
 respect to physical objects, adapted to elicit somewhat 
 similar exertions obtained with difficulty, and therefore, 
 perhaps, only heard of, and not seen. 
 
 But the attention of the pupil, at times necessarily 
 occupied with the accidents or inflections — the char- 
 acteristic point of difierence between his own and the 
 Latin language — is at others directed especially to 
 what we may call the being of each word, the idea 
 which it is intended to convey or suggest. And now 
 these words, lately treated as simply material, inani- 
 mate, and dead — anatomical " subjects," are to be con- 
 sidered as invested with a kind of physiological interest, 
 and as exhibiting phenomena of life, whose nature it 
 becomes important to study. Our pupil's interest in 
 them, viewed under this aspect, cannot but be much 
 augmented. Words are now no longer things merely, 
 but significant symbols of ideas. These little organ- 
 
178 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 isms, in one sense mere torpid aggregations of matter, 
 are in another, when placed in juxtaposition with words 
 of our language, or when viewed in connection with 
 cognates of their own, capable of affording vivid illus- 
 trations of the methods and artifices by which languages 
 are formed. Hence arise exercises in derivation, or 
 tracing of words up to their roots, and in analysis, 
 or breaking up the compounds into their several com- 
 ponents. These exercises in derivation cultivate more- 
 over, when properly carried out, the habit of deducing 
 the secondary and figurative senses of words from the 
 primary and literal. Such an exercise leads the pupil 
 beyond the boundaries of mere language. In pursuing 
 it he learns to study the mode in which the early stages 
 of society formed their conceptions, and to notice how. 
 as civilization advanced, the language too bore evidence 
 of the change. Thus the word gubernare primarily 
 means to pilot a vessel ; secondarily, to direct the vessel 
 of the state, to govern. 
 
 But words, in themselves vital organisms, though 
 frequently the life is rather latent than visible, are alsc 
 to be considered in their combination in sentences 
 Their vitality now becomes intensified. The origina' 
 author, speaking to men of his own nation, and aptl} 
 employing the resources of his craft, had by a kind of 
 intellectual magnetism converted the neutral and indif ! 
 ferent into the active and significant, and constrainec i 
 all to co-operate in effecting his great purpose of speak 
 ing out to other minds. And there before the eyes of • 
 our pupil is the result. But it does not speak out t( 
 him. That sentence, beginning with a capital an( 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 179 
 
 ending with a full stop, is a body with a soul in it, with 
 which he has to communicate. But how to do this ? 
 His eye passes over it. It looks unattractive, dark, and 
 cold. Soon, however, something is seen in the words 
 or their inflections which he recognizes, by a kind of 
 momentary flash as significant. The soul within begins 
 to speak to him, and he catches some faint conception 
 of what it would reveal. As he still gives heed, other 
 points show symptoms of life, and the lately brute and 
 torpid mass becomes vocal and articulate. One after 
 another the words kindle into expression ; clause after 
 clause is disentangled from its connection with the 
 main body of the sentence, and appreciated both sepa- 
 rately and in combination, until at length a thrill of 
 intelligence pervades the whole, and the passage, before 
 dark, inanimate, and unmeaning, becomes instinct with 
 light and life. 
 
 By these and similar processes, which it is needless 
 to specify, the pupil learns to apprehend his author's 
 meaning, though perhaps at first only obscurely. The 
 next stage in his training is to find words and phrases 
 in his native tongue suited to express it. To do this 
 adequately, he must not only ascertain the meaning of 
 each term, but conceive fully and correctly all the 
 propositions that constitute a complete sentence, in 
 their natural connection and interdependence ; he must 
 observe the bearing of the previous sentences on the 
 one under consideration, and the ultimate point to 
 which all are tending. Now, in order to convey per- 
 fectly to others the meaning which he has himself 
 laboriously acquired, he must not only have made an 
 
180 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 exact logical analysis of the sentence, so as to see what 
 he has to say, but must exercise his judgment and taste 
 (not to say knowledge) on the choice of words and 
 phrases which will best answer the purpose, and truly 
 represent the clearness, energy, or eloquence of the au- 
 thor. To do this faultlessly requires of course the 
 matured judgment and refined taste of the accomplished 
 scholar ; but the very effort involved in the attempt to 
 grasp the spirit of the author, to rise to the elevation 
 of his thoughts, and to gain the sympathy of others for 
 them by an adequate and worthy representation of 
 them in his native language, cannot but elevate his own 
 mental stature. " We strive to ascend, and we ascend 
 in our striving." 
 
 The advantages of such a course as I have now 
 sketched must be acknowledged to be very great, al- 
 though only the language is as yet under consideration. 
 But there are two or three other points that must not 
 be omitted. The first of these is the value of the strict 
 grammatical analysis required. The process of eliciting 
 light out of darkness, before described, can only be 
 accomplished by one who is armed with grammatical 
 power. Without this, the efforts made to communicate 
 with the soul of the author must be feeble and ineffect- 
 ual. It is one of the special objects of the coiirse I am 
 advocating, to cultivate this faculty, because in doing 
 so we are in fact cultivating to a high degree the rea- 
 soning powers of the pupil. The construction of words 
 in a sentence does not depend upon arbitrary laws, but 
 upon right reason, upon the exact correspondence be- 
 tween expression and tliought, and therefore " good 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 181 
 
 grammar j" as has been well observed, "is neither more 
 nor less than good sense." 
 
 A wise teacher, one who wishes to quicken, and is 
 anxious not to deaden, his pupil's mind, will not, of 
 course, force upon him those indigestible boluses, the 
 technical rules and definitions of syntax, before train- 
 ing him to observe the facts on which the rules are 
 founded ; but will accustom him to the habit of reason- 
 ing only in the presence of facts, which is so valuable 
 at all times. The habit of reasoning on the construc- 
 tion, the syntax, of one language is, of course, generally 
 applicable to others ; and its practice in connection 
 with Latin tends by an amount of experience which 
 countervails all theory, to prepare the pupil for learning 
 his own language thoroughly. 
 
 In addition to the grammatical advantage just named, 
 there are two others I would mention, which prove 
 that learning Latin is a good preparation for the better 
 knowledge of the mother tongue. The one is, that as 
 so large a part of the vocabulary of the English lan- 
 guage is derived from the Latin, either directly or indi- 
 rectly through the French, no accurate study of the 
 former can be accomplished without a fundamental 
 knowledge of Latin. According to Archbishop Trench, 
 thirty per cent of the vocabulary actually used by our 
 authors is derived from the Latin ; and the proportion 
 is still greater if we analyze the columns of our English 
 dictionary, where the words are, what is called, " at rest." 
 Indeed, to so great a degree have we admitted these 
 aliens into our language, that -we have learned to at- 
 tach Latin prefixes and suffixes to pure Enghsh roots, 
 
 16 
 
182 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 SO as to form new and hybrid compounds. But further 
 
 — and this point is less obvious than that just adduced 
 
 — as ahnost all our greatest authors were trained in 
 the classical school, both their vocabulary and phrase- 
 ology, their language and their thoughts, bear a char- 
 acteristic stamp upon them which can only be fully 
 appreciated by those who have undergone a similar 
 training. It is not too much to say that many exqui- 
 site graces, both of thought and expression, in the 
 works of Bacon, Milton, Sir T. Brown, Jeremy Taylor, 
 Sir W. Temple, Gray, Young, Cowper, and others, must 
 elude the notice — and so far fail in their object — of a 
 reader not qualified to meet the authors as it were on 
 their own ground. And may I add that as far as my 
 own observation goes, by far the most enthusiastic 
 lovers of our own language and literature are the vota- 
 ries of classical learning. They love more because 
 they can appreciate better. 
 
 But it will be thought that I have sufficiently pleaded 
 the cause of Latin, as far as the language is concerned. 
 I must therefore devote a few words to its literature. 
 In a course such as I have proposed, and which I would 
 commence at twelve, with the idea of carrying it on up 
 to the age of sixteen, and employing in it half the hour" 
 of every school-day, and which would comprehend, be- 
 sides the study of the language, such cultivation of 
 geography, history, archaeology, etc., as would be re- 
 quired for the elucidation of the text, and also the 
 parallel study of English literature, we could not hope 
 to read many authors. Indeed, faithful to the princi- 
 ple, multum non multa^ I would not even attempt it. 
 
JOSEPH PAYNE. 183 
 
 A selection of the best might be made, to be studied on 
 the principle that they were to be actually known, not 
 merely '• gone through," by means of which not only 
 would the pupil profit by the invigorating discipline I 
 have described, biit be subjected to the enlarging and 
 refining influence which would place him in commun- 
 ion with some of the master spirits of antiquity, and 
 therefore give him an introduction to those great au- 
 thors of all modern times whose labors have tended to 
 form the civilization of Europe. In no other way can 
 he so well be introduced to the commonwealth of let- 
 ters, and be made free to avail himself of its privileges. 
 The fact that these finished works of literary art still 
 survive amongst us, as real substantial powers whose 
 influence cannot be gainsaid, is a wondrous proof of 
 their merit as models of composition. They present us 
 with histories which still enlighten and instruct men in 
 the art of government, with oratory which still speaks 
 in trumpet tones to the human heart, with poetry still 
 " musical as is Apollo's lute " : in short, with matter 
 which however now disparaged, has served in successive 
 ^es both to furnish men with thoughts, and to teach 
 them how to think ; so that in truth, though styled dead, 
 .hey are, in the highest sense, ever living ; having (to 
 use Hobbe's eloquent expression) " put ofi" flesh and 
 blood, and put on immortality." 
 
VIII. 
 
 A THREE years' course of study in the preparatory 
 school ought to be insisted on in all ordinary cases. 
 Every moment of this period may be filled up to the 
 best advantage. The parent or guardian who abridges 
 it, in order to save expense, or because his son or ward 
 is somewhat advanced in life, may commit an irrepar- 
 able injury. Imperfect preparation for college often 
 operates as a serious discouragement throughout the 
 course, and occasions embarrassment and mortification 
 in all subsequent life. The number of studies which 
 are required for admission to college cannot be well 
 mastered in less than three years. The principles and 
 details of the two classical languages are to be fixed 
 in the memory for life. The thorough study of the 
 elements of these languages is necessarily a slow process. 
 Eepetition is the only road to success. Frequent and 
 searching reviews are indispensable. Many points in 
 topography and geography are to be ascertained. Maps 
 and drawings are to be freely canvassed, and all the 
 appliances of modern classical erudition are to be 
 brought into requisition. The details of prosody and 
 versification must now be investigated. In short, the 
 forms, the syntactical laws, the outward history and 
 
 This Chapter is from the January Number of the Bibliotheca Sacra, 
 1851, — " Collegiate Education : Mathematical and Classical Study," — by 
 Professor B. B. Edwards, one of the Editors. 
 
 16* 185 
 
186 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 the inward structure of these noble languages are to 
 become familiar to the ingenuous youth as household 
 words, so that when he enters upon his college course, 
 he may enjoy the beauty of the landscape. The'urudgery 
 of the ascent should be ended. He should- xiow be 
 ready to take in the wide horizon, and grasp those 
 forms of everlasting beauty which shine around him. 
 In other words, he may now enjoy Tacitus and Demos- 
 thenes. He can feel something of the strengthening 
 influence which comes from their immortal pages. He 
 pierces beneath the forms to the principles. Through 
 the language he imbibes the spirit. His mind enlarges ; 
 the chains of ignorance fall from around him ; gradually 
 he attains to a comprehensive knowledge of the grea: 
 themes which he studies. He learns accurately f 
 estimate the merits and defects of the systems of go 
 ernment, law, and polity with which his mind is coia 
 versant. All the while his eye is trained to appreciate 
 the graceful forms of Plato, and his ear to drink in the 
 subtiler melody which comes from the pages of that 
 " old man eloquent." His taste is quickened and 
 purified, till he attains the highest style of the scholar, 
 a susceptibility for all truth and beauty, a power of 
 kindly appreciation for all science and literature. 
 
 In the preparatory course, too, the elements of the 
 mathematics should be studied. The youth between 
 the ages of fourteen and seventeen or eighteen is com- 
 petent to master portions of algebra and geometry. 
 Sufficient time for this purpose ought to be spared from 
 the classics. The latter should be, indeed, the prominent 
 and leading study in the preparatory school, as they 
 
PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 187 
 
 are fitted beyond almost any other branch of knowledge 
 to the lively susceptibilities of youth. Still, a good 
 beginning may be made in the other great department 
 of collegiate learning. The mental powers which are 
 addres^^JJ by mathematics begin to be developed in the 
 later stage of the preparatory school. This study, like- 
 wise, will furnish an agreeable relaxation from the 
 classical routine. 
 
 The young scholar, having thus laid the foundation 
 in the classical school, by mastering the elements of 
 abstract science, and by becoming familiar with the 
 forms and principles of the two great languages of 
 antiquity, will be prepared for the wider fields which 
 .wait him. Exact knowledge in the earlier course has 
 tted him to climb loftier heights, has given him a keen 
 lish for the profounder truths and more beautiful 
 orms to which his attention will be called. If the 
 classical school has done its work well, if the three 
 years have been wisely occupied, the education is in 
 one sense complete. Just habits are formed : the great 
 aims of a student's life are appreciated ; real, and per- 
 haps the greatest, difiiculties are surmounted, and that 
 course is begun which will lead to the loftiest attainment. 
 In short, the preparatory school occupies in some re- 
 spect the most important place in our system. It holds 
 the keys of knowledge. It has in its hands almost 
 unlimited means of good. It may easily shape the 
 destiny, both as scholars and moral beings, of most who 
 are committed to its keeping. It should be fostered 
 with the most benevolent care. It should be elevated 
 to its high and true rank. The few who are now toiling 
 
188 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 for its improvement should be cheered with all good 
 omens, and with all substantial aid. It is said that the 
 endowed classical schools of England exert a greater 
 influence upon the higher education, than the univer- 
 sities themselves. 
 
 One of the most obvious and important results of 
 classical study is the habit of discriminating thought 
 which it insures. It involves from beginning to end a 
 nice analysis, a delicate perception, a constant colloca- 
 tion of words, a sharp definition of synonymous terms, 
 a patient process of comparison till the words which 
 hit the case are determined, a weighing of evidence, a 
 balancing of shades of thought almost imperceptible. 
 In these processes, the mind acquires the power of 
 recognizing the slightest varieties in thought and speech, 
 something like a quick and unerring instinct ; the 
 judgment becomes, like the scale, capable of weighing 
 the smallest particles, of detecting the slightest varia- 
 tions. Language is no longer an uncertain instrument. 
 Many apparent synonymes are shown not to be such in 
 reality. Forms of speech long acquiesced in as of a 
 general or indefinite character, are divested of the haze 
 which has settled around them. The ancient writers 
 stand forth vindicated as masters of the subtilest ele- 
 ments of thought, as possessing weapons of the most . 
 perfect temper and of the keenest edge — a system of / 
 symbols for communicating the finest mental conception- • . 
 such as the world has never seen. This power of dis- 
 crimination has respect, be it remembered, both to words 
 and thoughts. One trained under this discipline has 
 acquired, at the same time, the elements of the most 
 
PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 189 
 
 effective style, and the ability to form the most careful 
 moral judgments. He can detect the plausible sophism, 
 disentangle the web of error, and exhibit truth in its 
 just proportions. He will not be so likely as other 
 men to adopt an erroneous theory, to defend a system 
 whose plausibility consists in the ambiguity of its terms, 
 or to make war, in the temper of a bigot, upon his 
 brethren, who differ from him only or mainly in the 
 language which they employ. 
 
 Again, the study of the classics ensures a copious 
 vocabulary. The careful student of Cicero and Plato 
 has enriched himself with many spoils. He has laid in 
 a large stock of invaluable materials, gathered from 
 the choicest fields of literature. In all the exigencies 
 of life, in the thousand calls of duty, at moments when 
 no preparation can be made, he can draw upon resources 
 which are admirably classified and whose value has 
 often been tested. The copious stores of the English 
 tongue have been necessarily digested, compared, ar- 
 ranged, as the emergencies required. Successive terms, 
 one phrase after another, have been carefully weighed, 
 and while one has been chosen, the entire series have 
 been sedulously deposited in the records of the memory, 
 ready to trip as " nimble servitors " at the bidding of 
 him who needs them. That the acquisition of a copious 
 stock of select language is one of the effects of classical 
 f . udy might be proved from the experience of dis- 
 tinguished men in all the learned professions. We 
 have in our eye an eminent American senator, now 
 deceased, who could clothe his beautiful and effective 
 thoughts in the most varied as well as pertinent forms, 
 
190 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 who was listened to with delight by all his auditors, 
 and who was an earnest classical scholar when he was 
 an octogenarian. 
 
 We may advert, in the third place, to the eflfects of 
 the study on the taste, imagination, and general culture. 
 The sculptor, who is aspiring to the highest excellence, 
 repairs to Rome to study the Belvidere Apollo and the 
 wondrous group of the Laocoon, or to Florence to gaze 
 upon the Venus or the Dancing Faun. The young 
 painter idealizes his conceptions before the great masters 
 of his art at Dresden,Venice, and Rome. The landscape 
 painter plunges into the recesses of the Alps, or lingers 
 under the " purple " light and amid the eternal spring 
 of Southern Italy, that he may copy his model in her 
 most awful or fairest attitudes. The forms of mediaeval 
 architecture, which shoot up so gracefully and in such 
 inimitable proportions in the Netherlands, are patiently 
 studied by him who would produce works worthy to 
 live. So he, who would be drawn to the beauty of 
 written symbols, who would gaze at the " winged 
 words " of the masters of language, who would worthily 
 educate his own instinctive love for beautiful sounds 
 and forms, who would place himself under the full 
 influences of compositions which combine the freshness 
 and simplicity of nature with the last polish of an art 
 that conceals itself, will repair to the pages of the 
 classics. He will carefully study their finished sen^ t 
 tences. He will mark the perfect truth of expressions 
 which can never grow old. He will dwell upon some 
 word or phrase exquisitely chosen which is a picture in 
 itself. To these cherished passages, he will revert so 
 
PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 191 
 
 fondly, that they will be forever singing in his ears, 
 or be vitalized as it were, and incorporated into his 
 own being. We need not refer any true scholar to the 
 passages which can be excelled by no specimens of 
 sculptured or pictured beauty. The Odes of Horace, 
 the Georgics of Virgil, the Poems of Homer, the Dia- 
 logues of Plato, will at once recur to the mind. They 
 furnish models which combine all the excellences of 
 which the subject is capable — perfect truth to nature, 
 sweet simplicity, most felicitous selection of epithets, 
 a collocation of words which is music itself, the repose 
 of conscious power. It may be said, indeed, that this 
 is in part a deception. The antiquity of the poems 
 casts a deceitful halo around them. The rich clustering 
 associations of two thousand years are with them. So 
 much the better, we reply. If to their unapproached 
 intrinsic excellences, we add the mellowing and exalting 
 influences of time, then they will be only the more 
 worthy of study. 
 
 The distinct benefits which the classics confer on the 
 taste and imagination are such as these : The mind 
 learns to delight in order, proportion, fitness, congruity. 
 It instinctively shuns extravagance, finical terms, un- 
 seemly plays of words, all straining after effect, all 
 ostentatious parade, all dainty expressions, all cant 
 phrases, all tautology and wearisome diffuseness. II 
 would be an unpardonable offence against his old 
 teachers, if the scholar sliould deck out his compositions 
 with tawdry ornament, or deform them with unseemly 
 adjuncts. He feels as the student of Raphael or Michael 
 Angelo does, that they will frown on aught which 
 
192 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 interferes with the severe simplicity or the heavenly 
 beauty which speaks in every lineament of their works. 
 
 These excellences are strikingly contrasted with the 
 defects of many of those writers who do not make the 
 classics their model. They may possess great force of 
 thought and language, and in certain directions great 
 power of execution. But in an unexpected moment, 
 a sad prejudice will be revealed, an extravagant opinion 
 will be broached ; the mind will be developed in a one- 
 sided and disjointed manner. The charm and useful- 
 ness of symmetrical culture never meets our eyes. 
 They are able but not finished thinkers and writers. 
 We never repose upon them with entire affection and 
 confidence. We always suspect some lurking weakness, 
 or dread some unlicensed outbreak. We do not look 
 to this class of men for finished writers, for men of the 
 purest taste or comprehensive views, or perfectly sound 
 opinions. 
 
 There is another class of these influences, to which 
 we have already alluded, and which must be felt rather 
 than described. We refer to those reminiscences which 
 forever linger in the memory, which people the fancy, 
 which excite the imagination, which attract the affec- 
 tions, like strains of the sweetest music. There are 
 passages in Cicero's works which seem like the dear 
 faces of departed friends yet remembered. They are 
 full of an elevating, genial influence. They crowd 
 the mind with solemn and affecting impressions. They 
 suggest thoughts which, for the time being, expel every 
 low desire and frivolous fancy. They have not indeed 
 a religious efficacy, yet they are powerfully auxiliary 
 
PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 193 
 
 to all virtuous tendencies. The music of their words 
 does not sound harshly along with the holier strains 
 that come from the hill of Zion. Passages in nearly 
 all the greatest writers of Greece and Rome embody 
 the beautiful yet fragmentary notes which natural 
 theology utters through all her domains. It is this 
 melancholy association in part, in company with words 
 of the most exquisite fitness and grace, which gives to 
 the passages in question their deathless power. Some 
 of them are the words of men who saw the ancient 
 glories of their country fading away, never to return. 
 Hosts of barbarians, or the sands of the deserts, were 
 mutilating or burying works which their authors fondly 
 thought they were fashioning for eternity. But, what- 
 ever may be the causes of this peculiar influence, it 
 certainly exists, and is like a perennial spring in the 
 hearts of all genuine scholars, and it is an influence 
 which no literature but the classical supplies, except 
 in a very limited measure. We look in vain for it to 
 the student of Johnson or Burke or Addison. We 
 find it in a degree in the pages of great poets like 
 Milton and Wordsworth, for they were imbued with 
 the spirit of classic song. 
 
 We may refer to a recent but eminent benefit which 
 results from classical study. It introduces us to a vast 
 body of varied and profound criticism. It unlocks 
 treasures of inestimable value. Some of the greatest 
 minds of the present day have traversed the fields of 
 classical literature, and have illuminated with the light 
 of a happy erudition, the most secret nooks, and the 
 remotest corners. Great classical scholars, like Niebuhr, 
 
 17 
 
194 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 Miiller, Savigny, Hermann, have brought stores of 
 learning to bear upon the illustration of the classics, 
 no more admirable in amount than in selection, perti- 
 nence, and sterling value. Multitudes of very able men 
 have labored, not in verbal criticism merely, not in the 
 lighter matters of metre and prosody, but on the great 
 questions of law and government and revenue, and on 
 the still greater questions of moral philosophy and 
 theology. The profound problems relating to man's 
 eternal destiny as stated by the Greek and Roman 
 moralists, the degenerating process of heathenism as it 
 wandered further and further from a primeval revelation, 
 the true significance of pagan mythology, etc., have 
 been handled with a depth and fulness of learning, 
 with a clearness of method, and with a satisfactoriness 
 of results, which should seem to leave little for the 
 future inquirer. The laws of the two classical lan- 
 guages, the principles of syntax, the relations of these 
 languages to others, opening the rich fields of compar- 
 ative philology, have been investigated with eminent 
 success. These investigations impart to the subject a 
 truly scientific worth, and command the attention of 
 all who feel any interest in the origin and fortunes of 
 our race. Now this vast body of classical criticism, 
 and historical literature, for which we are indebted to 
 hundreds of able scholars in Germany and elsewhere, 
 can be adequately appreciated only by the classical 
 scholar. In illustration, we may refer to works on the 
 philosophy of Plato and Aristotle ; to those comparing 
 at large the origin, structure and relations of the Latin 
 and Greek languages ; to the profound, acute, and, in 
 
PROFESSOR EDWARDS. 195 
 
 one sense, creative labors of Niebuhr, and of the very 
 able scholars who have followed in his steps, in inves- 
 tigating the ante-Latin languages of Italy, and the 
 general antiquities of that country ; to profound treatises 
 on Eoman law ; to acute researches in ancient and 
 modern history; and to studies of a more general 
 nature, sweeping over the vast regions from India to 
 the Atlantic, and deducing by a rigorous inquiry the 
 mutual laws of the most important languages of past 
 and present times, and showing the identity, in origin 
 and locality, of the races that spoke them. In short, 
 a vast field has been traversed, and is now thoroughly 
 exploring, by hundreds of eminent scholars in Germany, 
 France, England, and other countries. The rich fruits 
 of these explorations can be enjoyed only by those that 
 have mastered the two classical languages. These, in 
 sbme respects, constitute the central points — embrace 
 the germinating principles of the inquiry. They possess 
 a literature perfect in form and adequate in amount. 
 Being understood by large numbers of scholars, they 
 can be appealed to as common umpires in a dispute. 
 Through them, as a mirror, we can see the culture and 
 development to which all the sister dialects might have 
 attained, or did actually reach. 
 
 Classical studies, too, are eminently humane. Well 
 were they styled the " humanities," from theh^ enlarging, 
 unselfish influences. They have no special afiinities 
 with what are called " the material interests." They 
 lead to the cultivation of tastes, which throw a charm 
 over the dealings of trade, lighten the heart of the 
 banker, and lead the mechanic and the land-owner to 
 
196 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 cherish enlightened views and perform philanthropic 
 deeds. " It is delightful,'' says Mr. Talfourd, " to see 
 the influences of classical learning not fading upwards, 
 but penetrating downwards, and masses of people re- 
 joicing to recognize even from afar the skirts of its 
 glory." 
 
IX. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be conceded that the language 
 of Rome is not inferior in educational value to that of 
 Greece. An inflected language with a highly elaborate 
 syntax, Latin may challenge comparison with any, as 
 a means of mental discipline. On historical grounds, 
 no tongue can possess stronger interests for civilized 
 humanity than the speech of that victorious city, which, 
 beginning with almost daily struggles for life with the 
 petty tribes of its own narrow peninsula, succeeded in 
 breaking to pieces the power of one nation after another, 
 and finally in its imperial decline gave laws to the 
 world. Language is always more truly national than 
 literature : they act and re-act on each other ; but the 
 broad distinction remains, that one is the spontaneous 
 product of the nameless many, the other the artificial 
 creation of the illustrious few ; and though the rem- 
 nants of early Latin are scanty and imperfect, its formal 
 part — that which makes it what it is — was in being 
 long before the days when, as Horace expresses it, the 
 Roman sat down to rest after the Punic wars, and 
 speculated what might be made out of Sophocles and 
 Thespis and Aeschylus. But it is too late to expect 
 
 This Chapter is from an Inaugural Lecture on the " Academical Study 
 of Latin," delivered at Oxford, December 2, 1854, by John Conington, 
 M.A., Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, and Fellow of 
 University College. 
 
 17 * 197 
 
198 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 that any single language, except it be the vernacular, 
 will continue to be studied for educational purposes 
 apart from its literature, at a time when comparative 
 philology is exhibiting to us the structure of articulate 
 human speech in all its world-wide extent, and a more 
 profound psychological analysis is searching for the 
 principles of universal grammar in the unfathomed 
 depths of the individual mind. What, then, are the 
 grounds for recommending the minute study of Koman 
 literature to one who has been taught truly to estimate 
 the literature of Greece ? 
 
 The answer, I believe, lies on the surface : it is to be 
 found in the historical position actually occupied by 
 Roman literature, in relation both to that which went 
 before and to that which has followed it. 
 
 We are entitled to claim, as belonging to Rome, not 
 only what it did for itself, but what it has wrought in 
 the nations which succeeded it. What Greece was to 
 Rome, Rome has been to modern times — the great 
 educator, the humanizer of its barbarous conqueror, 
 the mother of intellect, art, and civilization. That part 
 of our culture which we have not worked out for our- 
 selves, or received from contemporary nations, we owe 
 almost wholly to Rome, and to Greece only through 
 Rome, just as our language, saturated throughout with 
 Latin, has assimilated but few particles of Greek. If 
 the Romans viewed the great works of Greece through 
 the medium of Alexandrian criticism, our fathers viewed 
 them through the medium of Roman imitation. Par- 
 odise Lost may ascribe its form, and much of its detail, 
 to the conception of Homer framed by the educated 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTOK. 199 
 
 men of later Greece, accepted by Virgil and the epic 
 writers of Augustan Rome, and finally sanctioned by 
 the heroic muse of modern Italy. The foreign element 
 of the Shakspearian drama is traceable, ultimately, not 
 to Aeschylus and Aristophanes, but to Plautus and 
 Seneca. The tragedy of the Restoration period is 
 formed on the model of the French, which itself copies 
 the declamatory dialogues of the Roman sophist. In 
 the eighteenth century, the influence of Rome is yet 
 more direct and exclusive : in fact, we may say that 
 an acquaintance with the principal Latin writers is the 
 only way to a literary appreciation of that phase — the 
 most brilliant, as some may still esteem it — of English 
 authorship. The position of the Augustan era is re- 
 versed : it had openly rivalled Greece, and it is now 
 itself openly rivalled by England. There is the same 
 consummate dexterity which is characteristic of all high 
 imitation, the same universal ambition to be eminent, 
 not only in one department of imaginative composition, 
 but in several. The great Augustan artist would be 
 Theocritus, Hesiod, and Homer in one : the poet of the 
 reigns of Anne and George I. aspires to unite the 
 features of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. The two forpas 
 of composition which have been mentioned as the 
 peculiar property of Rome are precisely those which 
 are most congenial to this Roman period of the English 
 mind. Pope and Swift recall Cicero and Atticus : nearly 
 every wit, whatever his intellectual temperament, 
 writes a satire or an epistle ; and two of the greatest 
 not only follow Horace and Juvenal, but expressly and 
 directly copy them. This may now be, to many of us, 
 
200 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 merely a tiling of a bygone time : the deliberate imita- 
 tion of Latin models was impossible after men became 
 alive to the power and beauty of earlier and later 
 literature. 
 
 It is on these grounds that I would venture to recom- 
 mend the study of Latin literature, as such, to any one 
 inclined to question its value, as I believe that to 
 neglect it would be to neglect a whole epoch in the 
 history of letters, most important intrinsically, and 
 most unequivocal in its influence on ourselves. As the 
 first to feel and obey the impulse given by Greece, 
 Rome might well excite our attention ; as the com- 
 municator of that impulse to modern Europe, it subli- 
 mates attention into sympathy and earnest regard. 
 That which has actually had so much to do with the 
 formation and discipline of a culture which the lapse 
 of many generations of men has proved to have been 
 no weakling, but a vigorous birth, can never cease to 
 be studied wherever that culture is made an object of 
 paramount interest. To allow it to pass into the shade 
 because we have come to appreciate its relation to Greek 
 literature more truly than heretofore, is as idle a 
 thought as it confessedly would be to speculate on the 
 larger results, as we may deem them, which would 
 have accrued to humanity if Greece had been permitted 
 to influence later ages without any interposing medium. 
 Lideed, the historical position of Roman literature 
 enables it to vindicate itself. We are not left to our 
 own choice whether or no we should study that which, 
 being as we are, we cannot afford to forget. The scholar 
 may feel that Latin, as compared with Greek, is but 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTON. 201 
 
 " as moonlight unto sunlight " ; but if the time should 
 come when those who wish to preserve a classical 
 education for the generality of instructed Englishmen 
 find it necessary to abandon one of the classical lan- 
 guages in order to save the other, it is not difficult to 
 foresee that practical convenience will overturn other 
 considerations, and plead for the language which for so 
 many centuries has been held in England to be the 
 symbol of cultivation, against one of whose existence 
 there is scarcely anything in our daily speech to remind 
 us, and whose very alphabet has to be made a matter 
 of learning. Happily, to us in this place the alternative 
 does not present itself: we have not to choose between 
 a distant and a proximate benefactor — between origi- 
 nality and utility. Homer and Virgil, Pindar and 
 Horace, Thucydides and Tacitus, Demosthenes and 
 Cicero, may be studied side by side : we may acknowl- 
 edge the commanding pre-eminence of the master, at 
 the same time that we admire the skill and discrimina- 
 tion which the pupil has shown, not only in following, 
 but in deviating from, his model. The same method 
 of study will enable us to acquire both : the specific 
 differences of the knowledge to be realized will occa- 
 sionally involve a difference in the manner of knowing ; 
 but the powers of mind called forth are the same, and 
 the discipline administered to them partakes of the 
 same character, though it may be not always in the 
 same degree. Of this part of the subject I have now 
 to speak. 
 
 The object which the study of literature proposes 
 may be described as the entering into the mind of men 
 
202 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 eminent in thought and in power of expression. It 
 may seem hardly worth while to note that it is requisite 
 not only that the student should gain certain concep- 
 tions of power, beauty, and the like, but that they 
 should be such as the writer intended to convey. In 
 the case of other things of a similar nature, the dis- 
 tinction is one which scarcely occurs to us. When we 
 look at a painting, we seldom set ourselves deliberately 
 to discover the intention of the artist ; we know that 
 though we may fail to understand all that was meant, 
 we are not liable to substitute a wrong meaning for the 
 right, much less to perceive graces which really result 
 from accident or exist only in our own lively fancy. 
 Words are acknowledged to be a more palpable and 
 less transparent medium than forms or colors : still, 
 in the average course of a vernacular literature, the 
 instances are comparatively rare where a man has to 
 ask himself whether he comprehends what he is reading ; 
 and even then the knot is generally solved, not by 
 investigation and study, but by reflection and an appeal 
 to common sense. Truth, as such, seldom or never 
 has to be made a distinct object of pursuit : it seems to 
 come unasked, and so rarely obtains even a passing 
 glance of recognition. But when we approach the 
 literature of another country, our view is at once 
 changed, if not reversed. Then the difficulty of the 
 medium is seen to be such that the thoughts which lie 
 beyond are apt to appear easy in comparison. If the 
 language is a modern one, the labor will be more 
 or less mechanical. The method of discovering truth 
 consists chiefly in looking out words in the dictionary ; 
 
PEOFESSOR CONESrGTON. 203 
 
 that done, a little experience of idiom and style supplies 
 the rest. The trouble may be considerable for the time, 
 but it is short, and the student soon comes to read a 
 foreign work as he would read one written in English, 
 and finds the process of interpretation go on intuitively. 
 It is precisely here that the real difiiculty of studying 
 an ancient language begins. To the schoolboy, reading 
 Latin and Greek is virtually the same as reading French 
 or German ; to the scholar, there is all the difference 
 in the world. The books of reference which he uses, 
 the lexicons and the grammars, are far more elaborate 
 and more helpful than anything which he could obtain 
 for studying a modern language ; but they remind him 
 that the need of assistance is far greater. They furnish 
 him not solely or principally with patent and unques- 
 tioned facts, such as a few days' travel might verify, 
 and the slightest authority may consequently guarantee : 
 the certainties in which they deal are frequently such 
 as it requires the toil of months or years to discover, 
 and perhaps the reputation of a life to accredit. He 
 finds that others have thought and investigated, not 
 that he may be spared the trouble of thought or inves- 
 tigation, but that he may think and investigate for 
 himself. The sense of many of the words before him 
 is to be made out, not on direct evidence, but by a 
 long induction of instances : the full appreciation of an 
 idiom or construction has often to be gained by the 
 inward exertion of sympathetic thought, as well as by 
 wide reading : nay, the very text of the author is often 
 itself a matter of doubt, so that the critic has, as it were, 
 to tell both the dream and the interpretation. History 
 
204 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 has to be ransacked in the hope of finding the key to 
 an indirect allusion in a single line ; the windings of a 
 writer's mind have to be tracked not only in his own 
 works, but in those of the contemporaries with whom 
 he lived familiarly, or the predecessors whom he re- 
 garded with filial reverence : the arrow, like that in the 
 fable, has to be aimed at a mark which the archer's 
 eye is allowed to see only as reflected in some other 
 substance. In a word, he is constantly brought to feel 
 that the language with which he has to do is a dead 
 language, buried under the weight of interposed cen- 
 turies, and only to be reached by one who has skill and 
 resolution to penetrate through their manifold incrus- 
 tations. 
 
 There are, I know, persons to whom flie enumeration 
 of the obstacles to the understanding of the classics 
 suggests regretful, if not contemptuous feelings. They 
 lament the waste of labor spent, not in the discovery 
 of the unknown, but in the recovery of the lost, and 
 make light of divinations of truth which the unrolling 
 of a single new manuscript may supersede or disprove. 
 The complaint is the same which is put so epigrammat- 
 ically by the author of HudibraSy where he says of 
 Time and his daughter Truth, 
 
 'Twas he that put her in the pit 
 Before he pulled her out of it. 
 
 I need hardly say, that if valid at all, it is valid, as 
 Butler doubtless intended it, against all historical re- 
 search. There, as here, we have the spectacle of 
 human thought toiling painfully to repair the losses 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTON. 205 
 
 caused by human thoughtlessness, as well as by the un- 
 advoidable chances of time : there, as here, the utmost 
 that can be done may disappear before the contradiction 
 or the fuller affirmation of an accidental discovery. 
 But is the case so different as regards other parts of 
 knowledge ? Is not the attainment of all intellectual 
 truth a labor which might have conceivably been spared 
 to us ; nay, which doubtless would have been spared, had 
 the mere possession and enjoyment of truth been the 
 end which we were meant to compass ? Even the very 
 word '- enjoyment," so used, implies a misconception. 
 The intellect enjoys truth, not by simply contemplating 
 it, but by feeding on it, by assimilating it, and thus 
 making it instrumental to the perception of further 
 truth, which in its turn ministers to other and higher 
 realizations. The toil of getting and the joy of using 
 are not, as in other things, separate, but identical ; if 
 distinguishable in common speech, it is only as we may 
 choose to distinguish parts of a process which is really 
 uniform and indivisible. In this sense, no one need 
 hesitate to join in Lessing's celebrated profession, that 
 if called upon to choose between truth and the search 
 after truth, he should prefer the latter. It is not hard 
 to see that, the constitution of our minds remaining 
 as it is, the immediate communication of all knowledge 
 would not be a blessing, but an incalculable curse. 
 " There is," indeed, " nothing better for a man than that 
 he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor"; 
 that he should accept the knowledge and discipline 
 which each day brings, instead of deferring his satisfac- 
 tion till the end of a pursuit which, rightly understood, 
 
 18 
 
206 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 never can be ended on earth, and which, if followed 
 only in the hope of some ulterior reward, even though 
 that reward be truth itself, will but yield " vanity and 
 vexation of spirit." Thus the question is, not whether 
 we must seek for truth, but whether we may; not 
 whether the child can be excused his task, but whether 
 he is to be allowed the gratij&cation of guessing the 
 riddle. Whoever may complain of the difficulties which 
 beset the pursuit of classical scholarship, assuredly it 
 will not be the scholar himself. He knows it is pre- 
 cisely by means of these difficulties that he is made 
 perfect in his woxk. If he is led to repine at times that 
 knowledge should be hidden, it is not as wishing to 
 evade the pains of searching, but because he is already 
 longing to bestow his labor on some other part of the 
 j&eld. It is nothing to him that his time has often to 
 be spent on minute and seemingly trivial points, for he 
 feels that the smaller is to be estimated by the standard 
 of the greater, and that in accepting his calling he has 
 accepted a duty, more or less defined, to everything 
 that appertains to it. The task of recovering a lost 
 word or allusion is not resented as a gratuitous hardship, 
 but embraced as a welcome boon, which compels the 
 student, as it were, to enter the author's laboratory, 
 not as a spectator, but as a foUow-worker, and rewards 
 the restoration with something of the same delight 
 which must have attended the original invention. It 
 is his labor that he has to go down among those who 
 have long been dead ; but there is conscious pleasure 
 in every step of the way, and it is his glory that he can 
 break their sleep and revive them, that he can make 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTON. 207 
 
 them drink the blood of life and speak living words, 
 that he can endow them, if not with the gift of prophecy, 
 at least with the human 'power of memory. 
 
 I have anticipated much of what I had to say about 
 the manner of studying Latin literature ; but I feel 
 that if my conception of it be a true one, its worth is 
 to be appreciated, not by generalities, but by a more 
 detailed account. There is something ambitious in the 
 term " method," as applied to so simple and obvious a 
 process ; and yet, when we think of its capabilities as 
 an intellectual discipline, we shall hardly be able to 
 find a more appropriate name for it. I cannot hope to 
 explain it so that the statement shall not appear the 
 merest truism ; indeed, I hardly wish to do so. The 
 way to study Latin literature is to study the authors 
 who give it its characters: the way to study those 
 authors is to study them individually in their individual 
 works, and to study each work, as far as may be, in 
 its minutest details. For other purposes, we may be 
 satisfied with a general view of an author's mind, or 
 with a cursory perusal of some one or more of his 
 writings ; but the peculiar training which is sought 
 from the study of literature is only to be obtained, in 
 anything like its true fulness, by attending, not merely 
 to each paragraph or each sentence, but to each word, 
 not merely to the general force of an expression, but 
 to the various constituents which make up the effect 
 produced by it on a thoroughly intelligent reader. 
 Nothing but practical experience can give any notion 
 of the number and variety of the subjects of knowledge 
 and thought presented by the careful study even of a 
 
208 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 small portion of a work, without travelling beyond those 
 considerations which properly belong to the particular 
 passage, as having been present, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, to the mind of the author. Perhaps it will 
 Jiot be thought tedious or inappropriate if I venture, 
 for the sake of clearness, as well as of variety, to analyse, 
 in this spirit, a very short passage, which must be 
 familiar to us all — the first seven lines of the first Book 
 of the Aeneid of Virgil. I am not sorry to choose one 
 upon which I have myself scarcely anything to offer 
 beyond what may be found in the ordinary commenta- 
 tors, such as Wagner or Porbiger, because my object 
 is to show the improvement which may be derived from 
 this study at any time, as an every-day exercise, not 
 the discoveries to which it may occasionally conduct us, 
 interesting and encouraging as these undoubtedly are. 
 The first inquiry respects the four lines which in 
 many copies are prefixed to the Aeneid. We examine 
 the external evidence, and are struck by one fact, among 
 others, that the testimony which would exclude them 
 tells still more forcibly for excluding the passage about 
 Helen in the second Book of the Aeneid ; nor can we well 
 escape without gaining some rough notion about the 
 authorities for the text of Virgil. We examine them 
 internally, noting not only their own peculiarities of 
 expression, but their relevancy to the passage which 
 they are intended to introduce. We discuss the prob- 
 ability whether Virgil in particular, or any poet of the 
 Augustan age, would begin by a reference to himself, 
 or rush at once upon his subject and his hero. We 
 estimate the collateral testimony of those contemporary 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTON. 209 
 
 or subsequent writers who mention the words Arma 
 virum, as if they were the key-note to the whole Aeneid. 
 After thus pausing on the threshold, we proceed to the 
 work itself. We ask whether the word Arma, bursting 
 thus suddenly on the ear, may not be meant to imply 
 the contrast between this and Virgil's other poems, 
 which the interpolated lines so clumsily endeavored to 
 express. We compare Virgil's opening with Homer's, 
 and with the apparently parallel passage in one of the 
 Cyclic writers, noting that he begins in the first person, 
 like the poet ridiculed by Horace, and defers his invo- 
 cation of the muse till afterwards. We observe that 
 Virgil himself uses the words Arma virum together 
 elsewhere in the Aeneid, as if he intended them to be 
 linked by a real connection. We remark on the sense 
 of primus, not as excluding an earlier journey, but as 
 pointing to the beginning of Roman history, and thus 
 reminding us of the purpose of the Augustan epic. 
 The word Italiam opens another question, having ac- 
 tually given rise to a treatise by a German scholar, 
 which is highly spoken of, on the anomalies of quantity 
 introduced by the Roman epic writers. Fato leads us 
 to inquire into Virgil's conception of destiny, and of its 
 relation to the power of the gods, in short, into his 
 theological belief. We then come to a question of 
 reading between Lavina and Lavinia, when we have 
 to consider the imitation of the passage by Propertius, 
 and to observe the circumstances under which Virgil 
 elsewhere employs a synizesis. In the third line, we 
 note the rhetorical pleonasm of ille, established by other 
 passages of Virgil, remarking on the use of pronouns, 
 
 18* 
 
210 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 both in Greek and Latin, to express other than pronom- 
 inal relations, and on the grammatical considerations 
 involved therein. The fourth line presents a difficulty 
 of interpretation in the words Vi superum, the common 
 rendering of which has recently been disputed as im- 
 plying that Juno acted in concert with the gods, whereas 
 the whole tenor of the Aenied represents her as Aeneas's 
 sole enemy. Thus we have to examine Virgil's theology 
 again, as well as to decide on the possible meaning of 
 the words, considered grammatically. Memorem iram 
 recals us to Homer, and reminds us also of the fivdfKov 
 fi7]vi<; of Aeschylus. In the next line, the construction 
 of dum with the imperfect conjunctive opens a subtil 
 grammatical question, the answer to which is to be 
 sought in a consideration of the nature and force of 
 the conjunctive mood. The two remaining lines in- 
 troduce us to questions of mythology and antiquities : 
 what the Penates were, how they differed from the 
 Di Magni, why the Albani patres are so called, and, 
 generally, what was Virgil's view of the beginnings of 
 Rome, — all to be settled by a careful reference to other 
 passages of the Aeneid^ which in their turn frequently 
 . start fresh questions, even when discussed only so far 
 as is necessary for purposes of illustration. Lastly, we 
 are led to regard the exordium as a whole, admirably 
 adapted as it is throughout to express the poet's full 
 sense of the greatness of his subject — a broad and 
 striking contrast to the unconsciousness of Homer, who 
 presents himself as the teller of a wonderful story, not 
 as the author of a grand national poem. 
 
 Those who are accustomed to a careful study of the 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTON. 211 
 
 classics, will see that I have by no means exhausted all 
 that could fairly be said on these lines, in other words, 
 all that is required for a complete appreciation of them, 
 at the same time that I have been careful not to make 
 them mere pegs on which to hang irrelevant questions 
 in philology or aesthetics. Yet, surely the amount of ■ 
 education which such a study presupposes or imparts 
 is very considerable. In considering his author's gen- 
 eral character in itself, or in contrast with that of 
 another, the student is led to take broad views of rhe- 
 torical or poetical art : in analyzing particular expres- 
 sions, and disclosing the images which they involve, 
 he is made to trace that art in its details. He has to 
 skirt the undefined bounds which separate rhetoric 
 from grammar, and ascertain the conditions under 
 which words grammatically appropriated to one con- 
 ception can be put for those denoting another. He is 
 frequently called to investigate grammar itself, by the 
 occurrence of constructions which have to be explained 
 by some general law, or left unexplained under the 
 shelter of some unquestionable idiom. At other times 
 he will have recourse to comparative philology, to illus- 
 trate a word or usage, of the true nature of which the 
 writer himself, learned as he may have been in the 
 antiquities of his country's language, had but a dim 
 confused consciousness. The casual allusions scattered 
 through the work will familiarize him with much his- 
 torical knowledge ; the subject of the work, even though 
 it may have no direct bearing on history, with much 
 also. This enumeration is a very imperfect one, even 
 as compared with my own conception and experience ; 
 
212 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 yet it will be seen that it includes many of the elements 
 which are usually held to constitute a general cultiva- 
 tion, thus insuring a discipline of the various parts of 
 the mind, more comprehensive, probably, than can be 
 afforded by any other single subject of knowledge. 
 But this is not all. These several lines of thought and 
 research are not followed for themselves, but as means 
 to something further: they make up the method by 
 which the truth of the writer's meaning is to be attained. 
 However great their heterogeneity in relation to each 
 other, in this point they all converge. It is difficult to 
 secure anything like completeness in the method, as no 
 man can hope to realize all the aspects in which a word 
 or conception has appeared to the mind of another, 
 especially when separated from him by a gulf of cen- 
 turies ; it is seldom that we can expect to make the 
 best even of our incompleteness, as in any single track 
 of investigation we are liable to meet with failure, or 
 at any rate, with only partial success. Such defects, 
 however, do not destroy the value of the results which 
 can be obtained ; and it only requires a careful use of 
 the various means in our power to convince us that the 
 method of interpretation is one that really deserves the 
 name, leading not to specious plausibilities, but to sub- 
 stantial truths. I know not how it may be in the case 
 of other sciences, but I can testify to the genuine 
 intellectual satisfaction which the mind receives when 
 some discovery, in itself, perhaps, of quite minor im- 
 portance, a latent metaphor, a concealed imitation, the 
 substitution of one insignificant word or inflection of a 
 word for another, or even the mere position of a word, 
 
PROFESSOR CONINGTON. 213 
 
 hitherto overlooked, and now noticed accidentally, has 
 flashed light on an entire passage, and a vague sense 
 of disproportion has given place to a clear perception 
 of harmonious symmetry. Or again, where the lighting 
 up has been not sudden, but gradual, it is not the less 
 reassuring to recall the first aspect of a sentence, seem- 
 ingly complete in itself, and sufficient to the eye of the 
 ordinary reader, and compare it with the full apprecia- 
 tion which is gained at last, when every point has been 
 accurately scrutinized, and the student once more comes 
 to survey it as a whole. Thus the exegetical study of 
 the classics, as it appears to me, fulfils the two great 
 conditions of an educational instriiment ; it gives at 
 once a general and a special discipline ; it encourages 
 exuberant variety of interest along with severe pre- 
 cision of aim. I do not say that it has always had this 
 effect on the mind of the student ; but T believe that 
 where it has failed to do so, the fault has not been in 
 the method, and that if even really great scholars have 
 sometimes been narrow and one-sided, they have been 
 so far less complete, not only as men, but as scholars. 
 I believe also that, like all methods, it has a salutary 
 tendency to equalize human capacities, so that though 
 the greatest reward will always fall to his lot who, 
 having the greatest natural powers, economises them 
 most prudently and disposes them to the best advantage, 
 there will yet be an abundant harvest which inferior 
 minds are certain to reap, by the mere fact of their 
 honest compliance with prescribed rules ; while those 
 who go out in their own strength, disdaining all labor 
 that appears uncongenial, find for the most part barren- 
 ness and comparative scarcity. 
 
214 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 Such a mode of reading, I need hardly say, cannot 
 but be a work of time ; even a professed teacher can 
 scarcely expect to attain so close a familiarity with 
 more than a very few authors ; for a learner, who does 
 not intend to pursue the study, a thorough mastery of 
 one or two books, or parts of books, is perhaps the 
 utmost that can be proposed. But I am sure that a 
 single work, studied in this manner, may be of indefinite 
 use to the mind ; and though of course he who has 
 read much will have an advantage, in explaining a text, 
 over him who has read little, yet, on the other hand, 
 under the treatment of a diligent student, an author 
 becomes, to a great extent, his own interpreter, and 
 the various books of reference which come into requi- 
 sition will indicate collateral sources of information, 
 which may obviate, if they cannot supply, the want of 
 strictly independent research. It need not, it ought 
 not, to exclude the more rapid and cursory reading of 
 the principal classics. What I have said of the peculiar 
 value of Roman literature as a regularly developed whole, 
 will show that I would have the student's acquain- 
 tance with it general, as well as particular ; extended, 
 as well as intimate ; but no diffusive reading, however 
 it may expand the views, can be accepted as a substitute 
 for that scrupulous training in the minutiae of thought 
 and feeling, of grammar and rhetoric, of historical 
 allusion and textual criticism, all rigorously directed 
 to one end, which it is my present object to set forth. 
 
X. 
 
 Probably it will be conceded on all hands, that the 
 chief object of primary education is not knowledge, but 
 discipline, and facilities for acquiring knowledge. The 
 absolute knowledge of things which the boy learns out 
 of his school books is next to nothing, — scarcely more 
 in a course of years than the man of full-grown and 
 well-trained faculties might acquire in as many months. 
 The object, then, is rather to create habits of application ; 
 to call into action that greatest principle of all human 
 greatness, attention ; to give a command of the facul- 
 ties, to such degree of investigation as their tender 
 expansion will permit ; to enlarge and strengthen them 
 by judicious exercise ; and for this purpose language 
 is selected, as being by God's own appointment more 
 easily learned in youth than in maturer years, and a 
 foreign language, because it is of necessity learned in 
 a more exact manner, and with greater intension of the 
 mind than our vernacular tongue. But surely accu- 
 racy in this learning is the whole evidence that the end 
 for which it was learned at all has been attained. The 
 attention has been roused, the faculties have been 
 stretched ; and therefore the knowledge of those things 
 
 This Extract is from an Address delivered t)efore the Phi Beta Kappa 
 Society of Harvard University, August 28, 1834, on Classical Learning 
 and Eloquence. By William Howard Gardiner, Counsellor at Law. 
 
 215 
 
216 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 towards which the mind was directed is accurate. The 
 more accurate the stronger is this evidence. 
 
 And since the object is not so much knowledge as 
 the means of knowledge, the command of powers and 
 use of tools, the Greek and Latin languages are selected, 
 by common consent, not only for the immortal treas- 
 ures they contain, but because they incorporate them- 
 selves into all the living languages of civilized man ; 
 so that he who has once mastered these ancient vehicles 
 of thought, descends, as from an eminence, how famil- 
 iarly, compared with the mere vernacular scholar, into 
 all or any of the dialects of modern Europe, and, which 
 is of more importance, better understands his own. 
 For we cannot read a single page nor utter a solitary 
 sentence in our native language (the very words I am 
 compelled to use, the single page, the solitary/ sentence, 
 the native language, speak to the fact) without recurring 
 to Rome or Greece, or both, for most of the nice shades 
 of thought which mingle and coalesce in the full 
 meaning of every phrase that is uttered. Thence is it 
 that " even as a hawk fleeth not high with one wing, 
 even so a man reacheth not unto excellency with one 
 tongue." The ancient instructor of royalty whom I 
 quote would have had for its fellow a learned tongue 
 at least, doubtless little better than heathen Greek. 
 But are not the ends for which these languages are 
 selected in preference to all others answered precisely 
 in proportion to the accuracy with which they are 
 learned? And shall we, above all things, stop short 
 of that point of accuracy which alone gives the power 
 to perceive with clearness the beauties of the thought 
 
WILLIAM H. GARDINER. 217 
 
 and the delicacies of expression they contain ? Shall 
 we learn a little of language, and stop short of its lite- 
 rature ? 
 
 So far from doubting the advantage of the critical 
 accuracy of Europe, and especially of England, in this 
 branch of education, the more rational doubt is that of 
 some of the sweeping reformers, whether there be any 
 benefit, or at least a benefit proportioned to the time 
 and labor consumed, in learning these languages so 
 superficially and inaccurately as we for the most part 
 do. For of what avail is it to talk of the simple majesty 
 of Homer, or the deep pathos of Sophocles, to him who 
 scarce reads with any tolerable fluency the mere char- 
 acter in which their works are written, and knows no 
 more of the genius of their language than he does of 
 the genius of the Cherokee ? Yet of how many who 
 have received the advantages of what is termed a lib- 
 eral education is this literally true ? 
 
 Accurate knowledge of the ancient languages use- 
 less ! A waste of life to spend its best years on syllables 
 and sounds — mere names of things, and those dead and 
 forgotten ! Rather let us say, that it is a waste of life 
 to stop short of accuracy ; that language is thought, 
 and the memory of words the memory of things. For 
 God and nature have so mysteriously mingled body and 
 soul, thought and expression, that man cannot set them 
 asunder. They are one and indivisible. The principle 
 of intellectual life hangs upon their union. We cannot 
 think but in words. We cannot reason but in propo- 
 sitions. Or if the excited intellect should sometimes 
 leap to an intuitive result and flash upon truth, it is 
 
 19 
 
218 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 yet a useless result, an unutterable, incommunicable, 
 voiceless truth, a waste flower in the wilderness, a gem 
 buried in the ocean, until it has been embodied in lan- 
 guage, and made visible by signs or audible by sounds. 
 And however it may be rarely true that the man of 
 accurate thought is incapable, because he has not stud- 
 ied language, of accurate expression, it is universally 
 true that he who has greatly studied accuracy of ex- 
 pression, words, their arrangement, force, and harmony 
 in any language, dead or living, has also greatly at- 
 tained towards accuracy of thought, as well as propriety 
 and energy of speech. " For divers philosophers hold," 
 says Shakspeare, clothing philosophy in the mantle of 
 the muse, '' that the lip is parcel of the mind." 
 
 A waste of life ! Why, what is man, his pursuits, 
 his works, his monuments, that these niceties of lan- 
 guage, the weight of words, and the value of sounds 
 should be deemed unworthy of his immortal nature ? 
 He is fled like a shadow. The wealth which he toiled 
 for is squandered by other hands. The lands which 
 he cultivated are waste. That hearthstone on which he 
 garnered up the affections of his own home is sunk into 
 the elements. The very marble which his children 
 raised over his ashes for a memorial unto eternity is 
 scattered to the winds of heaven. His sons, his kin- 
 dred, his name, his race, his nation, all their mighty 
 works, their magnificent monuments, their imperial 
 cities, are vanished like a mist, and swept out of the 
 memory of man. Yet the very word that he spoke — 
 that little winged word — a breath, a vapor, gone as it 
 was uttered, clothing a new and noble thought, em- 
 
WILLIAM H. GARDINER. 219 
 
 bodying one spark of heaven's own fire, formed into 
 letters, traced in hairy lines upon a leaf, enrolled, cop- 
 ied, printed, multiplied and multiplied, spreads over 
 the whole earth, is heard among all tongues and na- 
 tions, descends through all posterity, and lives forever, 
 immortal as his own soul. Homer, and ye sacred proph- 
 ets, attest this truth ! 
 
 There is one view of this subject so peculiar for us, 
 so national, so practical, that it conveys to my mind an 
 irresistible feeling, that in this country, more than all 
 others, the learning of the ancient languages should be 
 deeply cultivated. It is for its elBfect upon eloquence. 
 It has not been my purpose to go into a considera- 
 tion of the general scheme of education which would 
 best conduce to this end. My whole object is to im- 
 press upon all who lieaT me, so far as my feeble 
 ability may permit, the vast practical importance of 
 bringing up our classical learning here in New England 
 to the mark of true scholarship ; and especially for its 
 eflFect upon the writing and speaking of the country. 
 For I hold it to be the dictate of reason, confirmed by 
 all experience, that the early education best adapted to 
 produce accomplished writers and accomplished speak- 
 ers, is that, which, while it sharpens and invigorates 
 the faculties, while it settles habits of attention and 
 investigation, gives the most accurate knowledge of the 
 construction, power, and harmony of language, with 
 the gi'eatest command of it in choice and arrangement 
 of words, fills the memory most copiously with noble 
 sentiments, agreeable images, and striking turns of ex- 
 pression, and most kindles in the youthful soul that 
 
220 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 enthusiasm for liberal pursuits, and generous ardor in 
 the cause of regulated liberty, which so distinguished 
 those admirable ancients. What has yet been discov- 
 ered or invented by men which *so well answers all 
 these ends at once, as accurate study of the ancient lan- 
 guages, and familiar acquaintance with their glorious 
 literature ? 
 
 Is this all theory ? Do you want practical proofs ? 
 Shall I point to examples then ? 
 
 " Hence to the famous orators repair, 
 Those ancients whose resistless eloquence 
 Wielded at will the fierce democracies " ; 
 
 and those modern, too, whose names are names of elo- 
 quence itself. Time would fail me were I barely to 
 run through the illustrious catalogue, and point out 
 the distinguishing'fact in the life and education of each, 
 which bears upon the illustration of this truth. 
 
 Look for yourselves at those departed orators of Eng- 
 land, who stood pre-eminent, longo intervaUo^ in the 
 ranks of eloquence, parliamentary or forensic, and 
 you will find not one out of the host who was not 
 deeply imbued with classical literature ; scarce one who 
 was not so accurately instructed in the ancient langua- 
 ges as to be a scholar among scholars; not one who did 
 not extensively study language and eloquence. I se- 
 lect Charles Fox and William Pitt, because, while they 
 illustrate equally with others the main point of this 
 remark, they are at the same time peculiar and strik- 
 ing examples of the effect of a general system of educa- 
 tion directed to the purpose of creating orators and 
 
WILLIAM H. GARDINER. 221 
 
 statesmen. For, in the persons of Lord Holland and 
 Lord Chatham, the world beheld the singular spectacle 
 of two rival political leaders educating their children 
 expressly to be what both became — tlic first parliamen- 
 tary orators of their age, and premiers of England. 
 
 And, to accomplish this purpose, both these distin- 
 guished parents, themselves practical orators, — Lord 
 Chatham certainly one of the greatest that ever lived, — 
 concurrently judged that the strength of youth should 
 be expended in acquiring accurate knowledge of the 
 ancient languages and extensive learning in Greek and 
 Roman literature. 
 
 Fox was one of the best Grecians in England ; accu- 
 rate enough after he had reached the full height of his 
 parliamentary fame, at an age when most men have 
 forgotten this half-learned knowledge of their youth, to 
 cope with Wakefield, that famous and professed philol- 
 ogist, in criticism on the merest niceties of Greek pros- 
 ody and dialect. From the correspondence between 
 them it appears that Fox was amusing his leisure in 
 the country with reading the Greek tragedians without 
 commentary or translation, while he was constantly 
 citing memoriter^ because he had not his Homer with 
 him, verses from all parts of the Iliad and Odyssey to 
 illustrate his critical remarks. The learned tutor of 
 Pitt has recorded that, when his pupil first came to him 
 at the age of fourteen, his proficiency in the learned 
 languages was probably greater than ever had been ac- 
 quired by any other person in such early youth. " In 
 Latin authors he seldom met with any difficulty ; and it 
 was no uncommon thing for him to read into English 
 
 19* 
 
222 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 six or seven pages of Thucydides which he had not pre- 
 viously seen, without more than two or three mistakes, 
 and sometimes without one. "And after that," says Dr. 
 Prettyman, " he became deeply versed in the niceties 
 of construction and peculiarities of idiom, both in the 
 Latin and Greek languages." He adds : " There was 
 scarcely a Latin or a Greek classic of any eminence, 
 the whole of whose works Mr. Pitt and I did not read 
 together." 
 
 Look at those who have been most distinguished 
 among the orators of our own country, and you will be 
 struck with the same fact ; not to the same extent 
 indeed (though James Otis was so exact a scholar as to 
 have written treatises on Greek and Latin prosody), still 
 in general not to the same extent, because our means 
 of early education have been inferior; but you will 
 find all who have attained great eminence with the 
 single exception of that phenomenon of orators, Patrick 
 Henry, good classical scholars for their age and country. 
 You will find all of them, at some periods, students in 
 these niceties of language ; some, late in life, laboring 
 in classical literature to repair the imperfect education 
 of their youth. And since Patrick Henry stands a sol- 
 itary exception to the whole current of examples, one 
 singular fact should be noted, which is among the best 
 authenticated of the imperfect traditions of his early 
 history. It is this : when at last he began to read, 
 somewhat late for the commencement of an education, 
 and then reading in the spirit of idleness and for mere 
 amusement, as it seemed, one of the books which hap- 
 pened to fall into his hands, and upon which he imme- 
 
WILLIAM H. GARDINER. 223 
 
 diately fastened with delight, was a translation, for he 
 could not read the original, of the oratorical Livy. 
 This history became his standing favorite. He was in 
 the habit of reading it over and over, again and again. 
 And thus, as his classical biographer with reason con- 
 jectures, he derived, at second hand, from Rome his 
 first notions of that peculiar oratory for which he was 
 afterwards distinguished, and much of that Roman 
 magnanimity, enthusiastic love of country, and ardor 
 of liberty which gave soul to his eloquence. 
 
 But why this to us ? Have we yet an education 
 to perfect ? Are we so ignorant or insensible of the 
 value of classical literature, or of its necessary pre- 
 cursor, accurate instruction in the learned languages ? 
 Or are we an association of tutors and pedagogues to 
 be held responsible for the default of the age ? 
 
 Little indeed would it become one of the least in- 
 formed among you in that learning of which I have 
 ventured to speak, not certainly from any present famil- 
 iarity, or even past accuracy in the studies, but rather 
 from an old and hereditary regard for them, coupled 
 with a deep conviction of their substantial value and 
 neglected merit, to address these remarks to you, other- 
 wise than as claiming your interest in a great public 
 cause. If there be anything in the argument to which 
 you have thus patiently listened ; if it be true that 
 science and those departments of learning, the utility of 
 which is most directly and superficially apparent, will 
 be cultivated of course among us, falling in as .they 
 do with the immediate and pressing demand of the 
 time and of the people in all times, but that letters 
 
224 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 and the fine arts need to be fostered and chei'ished 
 in this republican soil with peculiar and extraordinary 
 care, lest they should fall into utter neglect and obliv- 
 ion ; if it be true that these liberal pursuits do indeed 
 elevate, dignify, and adorn the character of men and 
 nations ; if it be true that our government is built 
 upon public opinion, and that opinion is controlled by 
 the tongue and the press: that effective writing and 
 ejBective speaking are, or should be, leading objects of 
 republican pursuit and youthful instruction ; and that 
 classical learning and literature are the best foundations 
 of an education conducted with these views and for 
 these ends ; if there be anything in this argument, if it 
 be not all error, all fallacy, I appeal to you, gentlemen, 
 whether there is not need of great and substantial re- 
 form. There is no end to the invention of new and 
 visionary schemes for the infusion of learning without 
 labor, of knowledge without discipline, into the young 
 and growing mind. There is no end to the diversity 
 and multiplicity of objects proposed for youthful pur- 
 suit, in the yain attempt to make absolute infants over- 
 take the modern steamy flight of full-grown intellect. 
 But if these schemes are, in truth, visionary and base- 
 less, our course is partly to retrace our steps ; to begin 
 again with the slow toil of laying broad and deep foun- 
 dations, stone by stone, for the Athenian structure we 
 would raise, firm in its fair proportions, graceful in its 
 strength. Make our youths accurate in the first rudi- 
 ments of classical learning. Lead them far into the 
 niceties of those languages which are chosen to enrich 
 their souls. Overcome for them, at least, that strange- 
 
WILLIAM H. GARDINER. 225 
 
 ness and confusion which obscure a half-learned tongue. 
 Give them to see the beauty and magnificence which 
 lie beyond these clouds. Wake them to some sense of 
 the harmony and grandeur of the Grecian muse. Let 
 the eloquence of Eome and of Athens speak to them in 
 a voice which they will feel as well as hear. Induce 
 them to drink largely at those classic fountains of 
 which our fathers deeply drank, while we do but taste 
 the scanty rills which ooze over the common path. 
 Thus, chiefly, may we hope to raise up in the body of 
 this great republic, men who by their knowledge, and 
 their power to use that knowledge, shall guide the pub- 
 lic weal ; men fitted to adorn the councils they direct ; 
 to scatter light among the people with whom they mix ; 
 to purify and exalt the national taste, as well as to ex- 
 pand its intellect ; to build up for us a literature which 
 shall immortalize the people which brings it into being ; 
 and to conduct the prosperous queen of modern repub- 
 lics to the head of the refined and intellectual nations 
 of the earth. 
 
XL 
 
 The question as to the utility of instruction in the 
 Classics is by no means a new one ; but it has been 
 agitated of late by the adverse party with more than 
 ordinary earnestness and pertinacity. " Why," it is 
 asked, " should so much time and care be expended in 
 learning to call the same things by two or three names 
 instead of one ? and, even admitting such attainment to 
 be desirable, why insist that these names (if they must 
 be learned over and above the vernacular terms) shall 
 belong to two languages which have not been spoken, 
 as we wish them to be acquired, for nearly two thou- 
 sand years ? Do we add much to our stock of useful 
 ideas by learning that that which the word apple tells 
 us in our mother tongue is a fruit of certain properties, 
 was called pomum by one people and fjurjXov by another, 
 both of whom, with all their institutions, have long 
 since passed away from the earth ? Is there any knowl- 
 edge in these classics so very much worth having, or so 
 unattainable in our own tongue, that we must devote 
 the best hours of the most precious years of our boy- 
 hood to acquire the power of gathering it with difficulty 
 
 This Chapter embraces the greater part of the last of " three Lectures on 
 the proper Objects and Methods of Education, in reference to the different 
 Orders of Society; and on the relative Utility of Classical Instruction, deliv- 
 ered in the University of Edinburgh, November, 1835." By James Pillans, 
 M.A., F.R.S.E., Professor of Humanity in that University. 
 
228 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 in the original language, rather than with ease in oui 
 own ? " These are questions which every one has a 
 right to put, and a right to have answered. It is in 
 vain that we try to avoid a direct reply, by affecting an 
 air of mystery — by quoting the fable of the fox and 
 the sour grapes — or by talking of some indescribable 
 charm, some nescio quid of excellence and perfection 
 in the language and literature of antiquity, which the 
 initiated alone can apprehend and appreciate ; and by 
 refusing on these grounds to reason at all with the 
 opponents of classical education, just as one would de- 
 cline to discuss colors with a blind man. If we mean 
 to defend either the principle or the practice that has 
 hitherto prevailed, we must descend into the arena 
 and grapple with our antagonists ; some firmer ground 
 of defence must be taken than custom or usage can 
 furnish. 
 
 Proceeding, then, upon this view of the matter, and 
 abjuring all right of appeal to anything but argument 
 and fair reasoning, I am ready, for my own part, to ad- 
 mit, in the fullest extent, that whensoever the teaching 
 of Greek and Latin is directed to no other object, and 
 goes, in point of fact, no further than to give the power 
 of substituting one word or set of words in the place of 
 another ; when it is limited to the simple act of trans- 
 ferring the sense of an ancient author into something 
 equivalent in English, or even to the more difficult task, 
 and requiring higher powers, of converting portions of 
 our own language into something resembling the com- 
 position of an ancient, — in all such cases I admit that 
 the true aim of education has been lost sight of; that 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 229 
 
 the memory has been cultivated far too exclusively, 
 and that faculty itself not in the best direction, nor in 
 the most wholesome exercise ; and that, instead of at- 
 tempting to justify such practice, we cannot too soon 
 alter or amend it. I will admit, also, that for the two 
 or three centuries during which classical acquirement 
 has been made a prime object in the education of the 
 middle and higher ranks over Europe, it has been very 
 generally taught in such a way as to give a colorable 
 pretext to the statements of the objectors. 
 
 But while I make these concessions, while I freely 
 admit that a mere multiplication and heaping up in 
 the memory of words and phrases is little better than 
 unprofitable waste of time and labor, I am prepared at 
 the same time to contend that no instrument for train- 
 ing the youth of what may be called the educated classes 
 has yet been invented, which is so well adapted for that 
 purpose, as a course of classical instruction conducted 
 on enlightened and philosophical principles. I have 
 not stated the proposition as one of universal applica- 
 tion. If a youth is destined to be a ship's carpenter, 
 an optician, a practical engineer, or to pass his days in 
 the details of some mechanical employment, without 
 any higher aim than excellence in his particular de- 
 partment, however scientific that may be ; in all such 
 cases a course of classical education might fairly be 
 considered as misplaced. But with a view to that gen- 
 eral cultivation of the mental powers and capacities 
 which is to give a man the use of his faculties in their 
 most serviceable state, to bring him up to the level of 
 other men's thoughts, and make him an acute, observ- 
 
 20 
 
230 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 ant, and intelligent member of the community he be- 
 longs to, I am not aware that any method has yet been 
 devised which either has produced, or in the dispas- 
 sionate judgment of philosophy, is so likely to produce, 
 a succession of citizens at once useful and ornamental 
 to the commonwealth, as a course of intellectual disci- 
 pline wliich takes classical instruction for the ground- 
 work. 
 
 In proof of this position, it will be necessary to enter 
 a little more into detail, and attend to the successive 
 steps and processes which such a course of instruction 
 consists of. 
 
 In the first place, then, of all the faculties of the 
 mind, memory is that which admits of being earliest 
 exercised, and trained to habits of susceptibility and 
 retentiveness. Now, the initiatory processes of classical 
 discipline are of a kind particularly well fitted to call 
 forth and to strengthen that faculty ; for, next to the 
 immediate perceptions of the external senses, language 
 is doubtless the subject in which a young mind feels 
 itself most at home. 
 
 I have said, next to the perceptions of the senses; 
 for, far be it from the advocate of the classics to con- 
 sider the study of the languages as opposed to, or ex- 
 clusive of, a knowledge of external nature. This is the 
 error into which many of our adversaries fall, when 
 they insist on our abandoning ancient literature, and 
 devoting all the attention of our youth to the powers, 
 properties, and appearances of the material world. But 
 why not have both ? A desire to become acquainted 
 with the objects and phenomena of nature, and a very 
 
. PROFESSOR PILLANS. 231 
 
 considerable actual amount of such knowledge, it is 
 quite possible, by a judicious system of infant tuition, 
 to impart in a still earlier stage of education than that 
 we are now referring to ; at a time when the senses, 
 and particularly those of seeing and hearing, being fresh 
 and young, and full of curiosity, should be directed to 
 their appropriate objects, and inured to habits of accu- 
 rate and discriminating observation. This is all that 
 is desirable, all indeed that is practicable, at a very 
 early age. The demonstrations and deductions of phy- 
 sical science, and the minute classifications of natural 
 history, must come at a much later period. The at- 
 tempt to anticipate them before the natural develop- 
 ment of the faculties at the approach of manhood might 
 produce a few prodigies of precocity ; but, if applied 
 generally, would stunt the mind's growth, which cannot 
 be healthy, unless, like that of the body, it be gradual. 
 In the meanwhile, so nearly instinctive is the faculty 
 of speech in man, that the study of language affords 
 the finest instrument for evolving the powers of the 
 youthful intellect, and particularly that which it is then 
 most important to cultivate — the memory. There is 
 ample room, at the same time, in the initiatory steps, 
 for cherishing the first feeble efforts of the reasoning 
 faculty and of the judgment, and above all, for bring- 
 ing out and exercising that reflex power of attending 
 to what is passing in the mind itself, which is the dis- 
 tinctive characteristic of intellectual existence. 
 
 It is in this preliminary stage, I admit, that the help- 
 ing hand of philosophy is eminently required, to remove 
 difficulties, to smooth asperities, and to seize and take 
 
232 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 advantage in teaching, of those analogies and generali- 
 zations in language, which, when dexterously presented 
 to a boy's mind, are apprehended with the rapidity of 
 lightning. There is no doubt that much of the oblo- 
 quy that has been cast on the study of the ancient 
 languages, and most of the failures that occur in the 
 teaching of them, arise from the want of philosophical 
 views in the construction of the grammars generally 
 employed. Instead of following nature by presenting 
 in strong relief to the young mind the great outlines 
 to the language ; instead of illustrating these by com- 
 paring or contrasting them with the corresponding 
 parts of the vernacular tongue, and thus fixing indelibly 
 the leading rules by appeals to the testimony of con- 
 sciousness, it is but too common to confound and appall 
 the pupil at the very outset with an undigested mass 
 of rules without reasons, where the facts of the lan- 
 guage, whether they be of the broad and general kind 
 which belong to universal grammar, or whether they 
 be mere peculiarities and idioms which are reducible 
 to no principle, are all, rule and exception, huddled to- 
 gether, taught at one and the same time, and con- 
 founded in the boy's memory as if they were of the 
 same description and of equal importance. If gram- 
 mars for the use of schools were what they ought to be, 
 they would serve as text-books to guide the teacher in 
 eliciting and exercising the finest capacities of youth, 
 and in giving a right direction to what I scarcely hesi- 
 tate to call the noble instinct of speech. 
 
 The leading facts and general rules in the structure 
 of any language result from the laws of human thought. 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 233 
 
 and when put into words, are the expression of princi- 
 ples and mental operations common to all mankind, 
 which develop themselves spontaneously, and which be- 
 gin to be unconsciously acted upon at a very early age. 
 When simply expressed and judiciously explained, they 
 find an echo in every breast, and scarcely ever fail to 
 interest the attention and command the assent of the 
 young. If too little advantage is taken of this appeal 
 to the principles of our nature in the actual business 
 of teaching, the fault lies in our grammars, and fur- 
 nishes an argument, not against the study itself, but 
 for improving the method of pursuing it. 
 
 But without dwelling longer on the initiatory steps, 
 let us suppose the boy advanced beyond the threshold, 
 and engaged, after due preparation, and under the 
 guidance of an able and judicious teacher, in perusing 
 the works of the ancient writers. If, indeed, the sys- 
 tem pursued in this stage be one of hard, dry constru- 
 ing, involving all the intricacies of parsing, syntax, and 
 prosody, and concluding with a literal version . of the 
 passage, and nothing more, the process, it must be 
 confessed, tends rather to sharpen than to expand the 
 youthful faculties, and, if carried no further, will fall 
 lamentably short of the great ends of education. 
 
 I would not, however, be understood to imdervalue 
 such analysis of sentences and minute examination and 
 decomposition of words, or to represent it as a part of 
 classical training that can or ought to be dispensed 
 with. On the contrary, it is not less useful and neces- 
 sary to the young scholar towards becoming familiar 
 with the structure and idiom of a language, than dis- 
 
 20* 
 
234 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 section is to the young anatomist ; and, when skilfully 
 conducted, is one of the finest exercises of the youthful 
 understanding, admirably adapted for rendering more 
 acute its powers of memory and analysis, for throwing 
 it back on its own resources, and for teaching it to sift, 
 to discriminate, and to decide. Its efficacy in these 
 respects may indeed be justly regarded as one of the 
 most important benefits of a well-ordered education, 
 and one which I know not where else to look for the 
 means of conferring so certainly and so completely. 
 Those of my hearers who are at all conversant with the 
 great prose writers of antiquity, and particularly with 
 Cicero and Livy, will understand what I refer to when 
 I speak of the long and intricate sentences with which 
 those authors abound. Now, let any one select such a 
 sentence, and observe the great variety of parts or 
 clauses of which it consists ; the manner in which they 
 are dovetailed into, and made dependent upon, one 
 another ; the distance words are placed at, which their 
 use in .the sentence and their concord or government 
 prove to be connected ; the involution of the sense, one 
 assertion circumscribing and being qualified by another, 
 and that again by a third, and the whole wrapt up and 
 infolded, clause within clause, in mutual dependency, 
 like wheel within wheel in a piece of complicated ma- 
 chinery ; and then let him say whether the analytical 
 process by which these relations and reciprocal bearings 
 of the long period are detected and explained, and the 
 form and pressure of the main ajB&rmation with its 
 whole retinue of subordinate parts are exposed in lucid 
 order, be not an exercise of mind which is not merely 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 235 
 
 useful for the particular passage under discussion, or 
 the particular language the pupil is engaged in ac- 
 quiring, but one which can scarcely fail to excite and 
 quicken his faculties, in a way most conducive to the 
 general improvement of his intellectual character. I 
 have no wish to utter a word in disparagement of accu- 
 rate observation and attentive study of external nature, 
 and of the powers and productions that are known to 
 us by the senses — an employment of the faculties not 
 to be neglected in any stage of education, and which 
 can scarcely, as I observed before, be commenced too 
 soon ; but it does appear to me that no gathering, 
 naming, and ticketing of plants and minerals, no system 
 of pullies and combination of mechanical forces, no 
 watching of retorts and crucibles, can supply the place 
 of the keen and searching exercise of mind which I 
 have just described, or ought to supersede and sup- 
 plant it. 
 
 Great, however, as I conceive the benefits to be of a 
 minute anatomy of sentences, followed up by a version 
 so literal as to vouch for a perfect comprehension on 
 the part of the pupil of all the minutiae of grammar 
 and syntax, I regard this preliminary process, after all, 
 as but a subordinate branch of classical instruction, — 
 indispensable, no doubt, as a basis on which to rear 
 what is to follow, on account both of the actual knowl- 
 edge it conveys and the habits of mind it induces ; but 
 no more to be considered as the whole, than a building 
 is thought to be complete when the foundations are 
 laid and the scaffolding erected. It is common enough, 
 I admit, to stop short with this process, and to think 
 
236 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 that everything is done when the pupil has acquired 
 dexterity in this grammatical analysis. But it is to 
 degrade and desecrate the writings of the ancients, thus 
 to make their noblest passages no more than a vehicle 
 for exercising on flexion, conjugation, syntax, and 
 idiom. And to the frequency of such practice we may 
 fairly ascribe the clamor which has been raised, and 
 so far not without reason, against classical education. 
 But we must not argue from the abuse of a thing 
 against the use of it ; we are not in search of what is 
 wrong in practice, but of what is right in principle. 
 
 Let us, then, in the next place, survey the wide field 
 that opens before us, as soon as the preliminary work 
 we have spoken of is completed. 
 
 The pupil is now to be considered as engaged in the 
 perusal of those works of ancient genius to wliose very 
 excellence we owe it, that they did not perish in the 
 flood of barbarism that swept inferior productions into 
 oblivion — works therefore, which, having been the 
 admiration of every age since they were written, are in- 
 vested with a glory and an authority which time only can 
 bestow upon excellence. And of these works, contain- 
 ing the most matured thoughts of the noblest minds, 
 clothed in a language of peculiar pomp, expressiveness, 
 and melody, it is the teacher's fault if the pupil shall 
 not read the fittest and choicest portions. 
 
 How are the " thoughts that breathe," " the words 
 that burn," to be unveiled to the apprehension of the 
 youthful scholar, and so brought home to his under- 
 standing, his fancy, and his feelings, as to produce 
 those sensations of wonder and delight which they never 
 fail to excite in the mind of the adept. 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS 237 
 
 The same care, I answer, that presided over the 
 selection, must be exercised also in the illustration, of 
 the passages read. In the first place, obscurities must 
 be cleared up which may arise from allusions to the 
 peculiar manners, customs, and laws, and to the institu- 
 tions, civil, military, and religious, of antiquity. Under 
 this head it is evident that frequent opportunities are 
 afforded, not only of throwing light on the most inter- 
 esting topics of Roman and Grecian antiquities and 
 history, but of comparing or contrasting them with the 
 corresponding parts of our own constitutional system, 
 of awakening curiosity to become better acquainted 
 with both, and of introducing the pupil to ever-varying, 
 and to him no less attractive than improving, views of 
 human character and human affairs. Secondly^ scarcely 
 a page of the classics can be read without some river, 
 mountain, city, or remarkable site being mentioned or 
 alluded to, — thus presenting occasions, from time to 
 time, of dwelling on the condition, physical and politi- 
 cal, of the ancient world, — of comparing it in both 
 respects with the present, and of thus inspiring a taste 
 for geography and topography, by investing the stxidy 
 of them with a deeper interest. In the third place, 
 after all kinds of illustration, direct and collateral, have 
 been thus brought to bear on the individual passage, 
 and its sense has been fully made out, it remains to 
 trace its connection with what goes before and follows, 
 to fit it into its place as an integral part of the whole, 
 and in this way to accustom the youthful mind to con- 
 nect the several links in a chain of ideas. Accordingly, 
 whether it be history he is engaged in perusing, he is 
 
238 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 led to mark the series of events as they evolve them- 
 selves in the narrative, the skill of the historian in dis- 
 posing and grouping them, and the bearing they all 
 have on the main points of the story ; or, whether an 
 oration of Cicero or of Demosthenes be in hand, he is 
 led to follow the train of the reasoning, and mark 
 the dexterity with which the pleader marshals his ar- 
 guments, giving prominence and full display to the 
 weighty, and using them to mask the weaker points 
 and to cripple and break down the array of his adver- 
 sary ; or whether it be a poem that forms the subject 
 of prelection, he is led to admire the beauty of the 
 descriptions and allusions, and the richness of the im- 
 agery ; and amidst the ornaments and graces with 
 which the poet's fancy embellishes his work, to trace 
 his unity of purpose, and the consecutive train of his 
 ideas. And in all these different kinds of composition, 
 and particularly in the last, we shall fail to extract all 
 the good they are capable of yielding, if we do not, in 
 WiQ fourth place, embrace every opportunity of placing 
 alongside of the most striking passages read, parallel 
 ones, either from the same author or from other classics, 
 or from the distinguished writers of our own country. 
 This is an engaging, no less than an improving, exercise 
 for young minds ; they require only to be put on the 
 track, and they will hunt out many resemblances of 
 thought and expression ; and in the very pursuit they 
 become acquainted with, and acquire a relish for, the 
 standard poets of their own language. To be thus in- 
 vited to observe whence and how modern poets have 
 borrowed from or imitated the ancients, and how, with- 
 
PROFESSOR PELLANS. 289 
 
 out borrowing or imitation, different writers handle the 
 same subject, is one of the best modes of inoculating 
 with the love of literature, and forming the taste. 
 
 And all the various information and mental exercise 
 under the different heads I have described, it is impor- 
 tant to observe, are thus presented and conveyed, not 
 in formal lectures and continued discourses addressed 
 to minds indifferently prepared and therefore but little 
 disposed to profit by them, but in short, familiar, and 
 almost conversational notices, listened to with avidity, 
 because they spring out of a passage on which atten- 
 tion has been recently bestowed, and which serves as 
 the text to impress and recall the information commu- 
 nicated. The instruction, too, is exactly of the kind 
 and to the amount which excites curiosity without sat- 
 isfying it, which promotes rather than stifles further 
 inquiry. It opens up glimpses and vistas of knowledge 
 as diversified as the minds to which they are presented, 
 and thus exposes all to receive an impetus in the direc- 
 tion in which the tendencies of each are most apt to 
 carry him, giving to the pupils an additional interest 
 in whatever they either read or see passing around 
 them, nay, occupying and coloring even their solitary 
 thoughts. 
 
 Such is the nature and tendency of the oral instruc- 
 tion that flows naturally from a judicious method of 
 teaching the classics. But we are yet far from having 
 exhausted the benefits to be derived from such a course 
 of discipline. For, let us consider what endless variety 
 of themes for written exercises, adapted to every diver- 
 sity of talent and capacity, must be furnished by the 
 
240 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 discussions and illustrations mentioned above. Of this 
 kind are translations, English and Latin, in prose 
 and in verse, which themselves furnish a theme for val- 
 uable information in the remarks made and judgments 
 passed on them by the teacher ; abstracts of historical 
 narrative or of oratorical argument ; dissertations on 
 points treated by the author in hand ; criticism on the 
 passages read, and summaries of granamatical and phi- 
 lological discussions. The resources of the instructor 
 are thus multiplied a hundredfold. Sparks are con- 
 stantly struck off from the sacred fire that is ever 
 burning on the altar of ancient genius, which, flying in 
 all directions, light on the susceptible minds of the 
 young, kindle in their hearts the love of freedom and 
 of virtue, and inform their whole thoughts with noble- 
 ness. 
 
 If, in addition to all these different means of illustra- 
 ting the classics, we make occasional excursions into 
 the field of general criticism, and endeavor to ascertain 
 the principles upon which we feel admiration for the 
 masterpieces of antiquity ; if, deducing from those prin- 
 ciples the rules of judging, and refusing to be guided 
 by blind partiality, we venture, not petulantly, but with 
 the reverence due to names so sacred, to " hint a fault 
 and hesitate dislike ; " if, to quicken our perception 
 and our relish of what is exquisite in writing, we insti- 
 tute a comparison between the kindred productions of 
 ancient and modern genius, detecting the imitations 
 which often do equal lionor to both, and adjusting their 
 respective claims to our homage and admiration, we 
 shall be laying the foundation of that refinement and 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 241 
 
 delicacy of taste which gives the last finish to the char- 
 acter of an accomplished gentleman. 
 
 After even so brief and hastj a sketch of what may 
 be done for the training of youth by a course of classical 
 discipline, I think myself entitled to ask its impugners 
 what is the process they propose to substitute for this, 
 it being taken for granted that the end in view is not 
 so much to rear a youth for a particular trade, craft, 
 or profession, as to bestow on his mind that general 
 culture, and give him that free and dexterous use of 
 his faculties which will enable him to excel in any. 
 
 What means, let me ask, shall we have recourse to, 
 different from those above described, to accomplish the 
 youthful mind for the purposes of life, and give it the 
 culture required for a liberal profession ? By what 
 other treatment or manipulation shall we prepare so 
 rich a mould, trench it so deeply, pulverize it so thor- 
 oughly, plough it and cross-plough it so frequently, 
 give it so effectual a summer fallow, and sow so much 
 precious seed, and promising so abundant a crop of all 
 that is required for the use and embellishment of life ? 
 It is so much easier to destroy than to build up, and 
 it is, besides, so impossible, I conceive, to meet this 
 question with a direct answer, that the enemies of the 
 classics will probably shift their ground, and evasively 
 reply : '' All this is well enough, if it were done ; but 
 nobody will pretend that such practice is general ; the 
 picture drawn is purely ideal." But even if the practice 
 were more rare than it is, we cannot, as I have said 
 before, admit the argument against the use of a thing 
 from the abuse of it ; it is enough for us to show the 
 
242 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 tendencies and capabilities of the study, and to chal- 
 lenge our adversaries either to disprove their existence, 
 or to show us a course of early discipline which pos- 
 sesses them to a greater extent, and with less chance 
 of imperfection and abuse in the teaching. A single 
 instance of success, and there are many, is as good for 
 our purpose as a thousand. The argument from pres- 
 ent practice proves nothing against the principle. 
 
 . But again it may be argued : Why might not all this 
 be done, and done more compendiously and expedi- 
 tiously, by taking the works of our own English authors 
 for the substratum of this intellectual and moral train- 
 ing ? My answer is, that with such means, it could 
 not, I think, be done at all. In order to maintain this 
 argument, it is not necessary that one should be an 
 exclusive admirer of ancient literature, and blind to 
 the merits of our own English writers. I claim for the 
 ancients no faultless excellence, no immeasurable supe- 
 riority. The raptures which some people seem to feel 
 in perusing Homer and Virgil, Livy and Tacitus, while 
 they turn over the pages of Shakspeare and Milton, 
 Hume and Robertson, with coldness and indifference, I 
 hold to be either pure affectation or gross self-delusion ; 
 being fully satisfied that we are in no want of models 
 in our own English tongue, which, for depth of thought 
 and soundness of reasoning, for truth of narrative, and 
 what has been called the philosophy of history, nay, 
 even for poetical beauty, tenderness, and sublimity, may 
 fairly challenge a comparison with the most renowned 
 productions of antiquity. 
 
 The languages, however, in which these qualities are 
 
PROFESSOE PILLANS. 243 
 
 embodied, are essentially and widely diflferent, not so 
 much in the words or combinations of letters that re- 
 spectively compose them, but in genius, in structure^ 
 and in idiom. The ancient are languages of flexion and 
 conjugation, expressing the relations of things to one 
 another, and the variations of the verb in time, person, 
 number, mood, and voice, by changes in the termina- 
 tion of the words, all, or nearly all of which we express 
 by separate small particles and monosyllables, which, 
 to prevent ambiguity and confusion, have their places 
 fixed, and must stand in juxtaposition to the words 
 they are intended to afiect. Hence two results ; one, 
 that our English sentences admit of very slight and 
 rare deviations from a precise definite arrangement of 
 words ; and the other, that modern, and more espe- 
 cially English composition, is necessarily overrun with 
 monosyllables, most of which, in our language at least, 
 terminate in consonants. The ancient languages, on 
 the contrary, from the circumstance of their incorpora- 
 ting the expression of various relations among objects 
 and ideas into the words themselves, derive two advan- 
 tages ; first, by avoiding a crowd of such little words 
 as encumber our diction, they acquire a pomp, sono- 
 rousness, and condensation of meaning, " ^ long-re- 
 sounding march and energy divine," which we cannot 
 look for in our modern dialects; and secondly, they 
 admit a variety in the collocation of words, and a free- 
 dom of transposition, which materially contribute, in 
 the hands of an accomplished writer, both to mould his 
 periods into the most perfect music and melody to the 
 ear, and what is of more consequence still, to present 
 
244 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 them in the most striking forms to the understanding 
 and imagination of his reader. 
 
 It is, indeed, a great and just boast of these langua- 
 ges (which have been called, from the circumstance, 
 transpositive), that this liberty of arrangement enables 
 the speaker or writer to dispose his thoughts to the best 
 advantage, and to place in most prominent relief those 
 which he wishes to be peculiarly impressive ; and that 
 thus they are pre-eminently fitted for the purposes of 
 eloquence and poetry. It is owing to the same pecu- 
 liarities in the structure of the ancient languages, that 
 the writers in them were enabled to construct those 
 long and curiously involved sentences, which any at- 
 tempt to translate literally serves only to perplex and 
 obscure, but which presented to the ancient reader, as 
 they do to the modern imbued with his taste and per- 
 ceptions, a beautiful, and, in spite of its complexity, 
 a sweetly harmonizing system of thoughts. I have 
 already alluded to the exertion of mind required to 
 perceive all the bearings of such a sentence, as to an 
 exercise well fitted for sharpening the faculties ; and 
 this view of the ancient tongues — considered as instru- 
 ments of thought widely differing from, and in most 
 respects superior to, our own — is one which recom- 
 mends them to be used also as instruments of educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Again, our mother tongue is so -entwined and identi- 
 fied with our early and ordinary habits of thinking and 
 speaking, it forms so much a part of ourselves from the 
 nursery upwards, that it is extremely difficult to place 
 it, so to speak, at a sufficient distance from the mind's 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 245 
 
 eye to discern its nature, or to judge of its proportions. 
 It is, besides, so uncompounded in its structure, — so 
 patchwork-like in its composition, so broken down into 
 particles, so scanty in its inflections, and so simple in 
 its fundamental rules of construction, that it is next to 
 impossible to have a true grammatical notion of it, or 
 to form indeed any correct ideas of grammar and phi- 
 lology at all, without being able to compare and contrast 
 it with another language, and that other of a character 
 essentially different. 
 
 But how much is the title of the ancient languages 
 to the distinction we claim for them strengthened and 
 enforced by the consideration, that to them our own 
 and most of the other dialects of modern Europe, 
 changed as they are in form and structure, owe a very 
 large portion of their vocabulary. The more imme- 
 diate descendants of the Latin — the Italian, Spanish, 
 Portuguese, and French — are little else than corrup- 
 tions of the parent stock, altered in shape, and frittered 
 down in the parts, but the same in substance ; and the 
 complicated tissue of our own tongue is so wrought up 
 and interwoven with the Latin chiefly, and also with 
 the Greek, that it is impossible to unravel its texture 
 or understand its nature and uses, without a compe- 
 tent knowledge of both. It may be regarded as a most 
 agreeable and improving exercise to young minds, and 
 one which will engage much of our attention here, to 
 trace English words through the various forms and 
 significations which they have assumed in the interme- 
 diate stages of French and Italian, up to their roots in 
 the Latin or Greek tongues. 
 
 21* 
 
246 CLASSICAL STUDY 
 
 Indeed, when one considers these venerable forms of 
 speech in connection with the history of Europe from 
 the times in which they were spoken to the present day, 
 one is tempted to compare them to splendid edifices 
 reared by the genius of antiquity, fairly proportioned, 
 and presenting an elevation of squared and polished 
 blocks of the finest marble ; but which, at a period 
 when time had begun to impair without destroying 
 their beauty, an earthquake and tempest, suddenly com- 
 ing on, shook from their foundations and shivered into 
 fragments. Out of these fragments, with whatever 
 other materials came in our way, we moderns, when 
 the storm had subsided, built ourselves habitations, 
 convenient enough in point of accommodation, and 
 destined to lodge many a gifted tenant, but nevertheless 
 devoid of the grace and decoration and exquisite sym- 
 metry of the original structure. And if a few speci- 
 mens of this architecture have escaped the wreck of 
 ages, and survive in all their primitive chasteness and 
 elegant simplicity, shall we not teach our youth to visit 
 them, to admire their fair proportions, to study their 
 cunning workmanship, and to imitate whatever is imi- 
 table of their perfection ? In the volumes you have 
 read or are preparing to read in this place, there are 
 remains of antiquity, nobler, more graceful, and more 
 entire, than the ruins of Paestum and the Acropolis ; 
 and while our very antagonists pretend to join in the 
 admiration which these architectural ruins inspire, and 
 to envy those who have had the good fortune to behold 
 them on their site, shall we, by a cruel and infanticidal 
 act, block up the avenue to still holier monuments — 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 247 
 
 those sacred repositories of mind wherein its brightest 
 manifestations are consecrated, and which, instead of 
 being, like the other, distant and almost inaccessible, 
 are with us and about us, and ever ready when invited, 
 jpernoctare nobiscum, peregrinari, rusticari ? 
 
 The very difficulties encountered in the way to these 
 treasures — though they ought not to be multiplied, and 
 there is much room and a strong call for diminishing 
 their number — are not without their advantages to the 
 student. There is no royal road to great attainments, 
 nor is it desirable there should be ; the labor of acquir- 
 ing is itself half the reward, both in pleasure and in 
 profit. What is easily learned makes little impression, 
 and is soon forgotten. Hence an advantage in classical 
 education, which may be regarded as an important one; 
 that the variety of aspects in which, as I explained at 
 the outset, the portions read are viewed — grammatical, 
 syntactical, antiquarian, historical, mythological, geo- 
 graphical — are all, besides their own peculiar uses, 
 just so many means of riveting the sense, when at last 
 brought out in all its fulness, permanently in the mem- 
 ory. And this, indeed, is one of the sources of the 
 secret charm and depth and dignity, which to well- 
 trained minds seem to invest and hover around the 
 choice passages of the classics. It would be impossible 
 to dwell at such length and with such improving efiect 
 on equal portions of our mother tongue. The Paradise 
 Lost is perhaps of all compositions in our language, 
 that which would best admit of being made the ground- 
 work of curious prelection and interesting discussion ; 
 and I should be glad to find that divine poem adopted 
 
248 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 as a text-book in school or college, and taking its place, 
 as it might most worthily do, alongside of the produc- 
 tions of Homer and Virgil. But the circumstance 
 which marks out Milton's poetry for this distinction, is 
 the reverence and devotion he everywhere shows for 
 those ancient models, in whose steps he was proud to 
 tread. Hence the necessity of recurring perpetually to 
 the classics if we would enter into the mind of the 
 author, or comprehend one half of his beauties. Strip 
 Milton of his translations and imitations of the classics, 
 and still more of those direct and distant allusions to 
 particular thoughts or expressions of theirs, and he will 
 be found, to use a phrase of his own, " shorn of his 
 beams." 
 
 Finally, much as I dislike mysticism and factitious 
 extacies, I am not disposed to overlook or discount the 
 delightful associations connected with compositions, 
 which, though they carry us back to a remote antiquity, 
 and an order of things very different from the present, 
 are true to the great principles of our common nature ; 
 nor am I inclined to quarrel with prepossessions and 
 preferences for works which are stamped with the ap- 
 probation of all the intervening ages. Is nothing to be 
 allowed to the witchery of a great name ? no weight or 
 value to be attached to the evidence of a cloud of wit- 
 nesses who have testified to the worth of the classics by 
 the use they have made of them in works of their own, 
 imbued with the spirit of the ancients, and breathing, 
 as it were, through their lips ? Must we adopt the 
 utilitarian logic so far as to become henceforth insensi- 
 ble to all the references and felicitous expressions which 
 
PROFESSOR PILLANS. 249 
 
 our own classics are constantly making to, or borrow- 
 ing from, those of antiquity — expressions and refer- 
 ences so inseparably wrought into the web and tissue 
 of our finest literature, that they give to the whole of it 
 a relative character ? Must we renounce all attempts 
 to execute, and all power even to comprehend, those 
 delicate touches and happy allusions to matters classi- 
 cal, which distinguish the speeches of our most eminent 
 orators? Must we doom ourselves nevermore to hear, 
 or if we hear, to have no relish or understanding of, 
 those appropriate quotations which come like a gleam 
 of light on the landscape, or " rise like a steam of rich 
 distilled perfumes," diffusing around an atmosphere of 
 odors redolent of joy and youth, and filling the mind 
 with noble fancies and cherished recollections ? Must 
 such ornaments be discarded in all time to come from 
 our senate ? and where they are already recorded in 
 the published specimens of parliamentary eloquence, as 
 having fallen from the lips of a Burke, a Pitt, a Fox, a 
 Wyndham, and a Canning, must they become to the 
 next generation a sealed letter ? Taste, feeling, public 
 character, all the fondest remembrances of ancient and 
 modern times, oppose themselves to so lame and impo- 
 tent a conclusion. Introduce such a change in the 
 training of our ingenuous youth, and we. shall soon 
 justify the bitterest taunts of our enemies, by degen- 
 erating, in the worst sense of the term, into a nation of 
 shopkeepers. 
 
 But while we adhere steadfastly to the principle that 
 a classical education is the best training for the youth- 
 ful mind, and the finest equipment for exploring the 
 
250 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 fields of science and for playing our part in life, we 
 must not shut our eyes to the fact or our minds to the 
 conviction, that much is yet wanting to improve and 
 perfect the discipline. 
 
 Let us drive the enemy from his last and strongest 
 hold, by applying ourselves, with all earnestness, to 
 rectify what is amiss in our methods of classical in- 
 struction, to disencumber the earlier stages of all that 
 is mere rubbish and lumber, to simplify our grammars, 
 and to infuse more philosophy into our treatment of 
 the youthful mind, adopting whatever is proved to be 
 most effectual for exciting it to healthy action, for in- 
 creasing its knowledge, and for invigorating its powers, 
 but rejecting all nostrums that only fill the head with 
 a jumble of words, and dispense with the exercise of 
 every faculty but memory. Let us multiply our holds 
 upon the pupil's attention, and double the interest of 
 his lessons by associating the science and literature 
 of our own country with those of Greece and Rome ; 
 thus entwining, as it were, the most graceful shoots of 
 modern genius around the majestic pillar of ancient 
 learning. It is then we may indulge the hope — that 
 while we strengthen and multiply the stays and but- 
 tresses that give stability to the temple of our common- 
 wealth — no sacrilegious hand will be raised successfully 
 against the graceful shaft and Corinthian capital which 
 at once support and adorn it. 
 
XII. 
 
 But not upon the state alone has the power of our 
 colleges been exerted and felt. The classical education, 
 which has constituted their foremost work thus far, 
 has refined and elevated society, and has furnished that 
 broad foundation of general culture upon which all 
 special knowledge may most securely rest. It may, 
 perhaps, be true, as has been said : " That when fifty 
 years have passed, not one fourth of any college class 
 will be found to have been of real, visible use in the 
 world, except the humble use of keeping the great 
 machine going" — though no man here will believe it. 
 But these discouraging critics should remember that it 
 is from this class in society, raised as they are into the 
 atmosphere of letters, if not all invigorated by it, that 
 the great lights of learning always spring. We turn 
 our eyes to the beauty and grandeur of the heavens, 
 to be reminded that in all that shining throng there 
 are but few which we can call by name, and that under 
 the divine decree, '^ one star difiereth from another star 
 in glory." But we do not ask that darkness may again 
 o'erspread the heavens, and that the constellations may 
 be blotted out. One great scholar in an educated 
 generation is all we have a right to expect ; while we 
 
 This Chapter is an Extract from an Address on Classical Education, 
 delivered at Amherst and Williams Colleges, in 1867, by Dr. George B. 
 Loring, of Salem, Mass. 
 
 261 
 
252 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 who walk, with unequal steps, the path which he has 
 trod, may thank God that we are at least his brethren. 
 And as we walk by his side, we must find ourselves in 
 the companionship of the great men of the past whose 
 spoken word is even now forgotten, as well as of the 
 great company whose voices have hardly yet died away, 
 if we would realize the full power and beauty of the 
 order to which we belong. We are not all familiar 
 with the wonderful humanity of Homer ; we do not all 
 dream in the mysterious thought of Plato ; we cannot 
 all walk the grove with Socrates ; we have not all risen 
 into the refined oratory and philosophy of Cicero ; we 
 are not all warmed by the genial verse of Virgil ; but 
 we all love those who are, and we feel that they bring 
 down to us, from the language of the dead, refinement 
 and beauty for the daily walk of life. What matters 
 it if Homer's heroes are cruel, and Plato's philosophy is 
 exploded, and Cicero's dream of immortality is to us a 
 divine revelation and reality ; our firmament would be 
 dark without them, even to those who worship them as 
 the Athenians did an " unknown God." I know the 
 arts, and the church, and the state may be conducted 
 without the immediate application of classical literature ; 
 but I cannot conceive of an educated community rising 
 to the full measure of its capacity Avithout it. The 
 languages which compose it may be dead, their artic- 
 ulation may long since have been forgotten ; but though 
 dead they yet speak, and will speak so long as man 
 takes courage to his heart and strength to his soul from 
 the thought that, among all perishable things, his spirit 
 does not decay. 
 
DR. GEORGE B. LORING. 253 
 
 In order that I may come as near as possible to the 
 plane of those who believe that all knowledge is useless, 
 except as it applies to the practical affairs of life, and 
 that the science of Technology has at last destroyed the 
 value of letters, I desire to call before you some of the 
 working scholars of our land, and the spheres in which 
 they have labored. 
 
 The science of politics has many students among us ; 
 the business of public affairs has many devotees ; and 
 it is not claimed that it furnishes great opportunity for 
 the scholar or the man of taste and letters to exercise 
 his elevating influence. And yet, in this state, without 
 considering at all the political sentiment which has 
 controlled it, what a brilliant irradiation has our political 
 history received from the scholarship of Edward Everett ! 
 He was in every sense a man of culture, familiar with 
 the literature of ancient and modern times, the classic 
 orator of Massachusetts for nearly two generations of 
 men. When he differed from the popular voice, his 
 presence was always felt as that of an accomplished 
 and graceful antagonist. When the popular heart and 
 his own Beat in unison, and he uttered his last great 
 speech in Faneuil Hall, his greatest speech for the glory 
 and honor of his struggling country, how the eloquence 
 of Demosthenes, pleading for the crown, rose up before 
 us, and the great cause for which he labored received 
 new life and grandeur ! Do you doubt that the scholar- 
 ship of Everett gilded all that scene ? If you do, imagine 
 how the assemblies of Massachusetts would rise and 
 swell with exultation were the sound of his silver 
 voice heard once more among them, and the public 
 
 22 
 
254 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 affairs of this State were once more illumined by his 
 presence. 
 
 The practical business of popular education has been 
 brought to a system so nearly allied to the positive 
 methods which Technology claims to teach, as to give 
 to the model of a school-house a representative signifi- 
 cance in the great Industrial Exposition of all nations. 
 We all acknowledge the capacity of those who are 
 engaged in this work, and we count the fruits of their 
 labors as the most valuable of all the industrial products 
 of our busy population. The course of education is 
 intentionally adapted to the actual business of life. 
 And yet, among all those who have labored in this field, 
 no one has given it more renown, more elevation of 
 character, more substantial vital force, than he who 
 brought from the University his thorough scholarship, 
 and demonstrated that a classical education and popular 
 instruction may go hand in hand. President Felton 
 was emphatically a scholar. Commencing his early 
 mental discipline in one of the academies of this State, 
 those rare old nurseries of our early classics, whose 
 valuable service can never be forgotten, and which are 
 still entitled to our pious care, he stepped at once, with 
 all his zeal, into the society of the ancient men of letters. 
 We are told that in the first fifteen months of his aca- 
 demic career, he " read Sallust four times, Cicero's Ora- 
 tions four times, Virgil six times, Dalzel's Graeca Minora 
 five or six times, and the poetry of it until he could 
 repeat nearly all of it from memory ; the Annals and 
 History of Tacitus, Justin, Cornelius Nepos, the Anab- 
 asis of Xenophon, four books of Robinson's Selections 
 
DR. GEORGE B. LORING. 255 
 
 from the Iliad, the Greek Testament four times, besides 
 writing a translation of one of the Gospels, and a trans- 
 lation of the whole of Grotius de Veritate, which he 
 brought in manuscript to college ; he also wrote a 
 volume of about three hundred pages of Latin exercises, 
 and studied carefully all the mathematics and geog- 
 raphy requisite to enter college.^ He was an accurate 
 Greek scholar, exploring every manifestation of Greek 
 mind and life." The spirit of Aristophanes seemed 
 lodged in him ; "he had the same sense of the ludicrous, 
 the same keen judgment of character, the same undying 
 
 1 The following extract from the Inaugural Address of Mr. Felton as 
 Professor of Greek at Harvard University, delivered in August, 1834, will 
 show how fully he had imbibed the spirit of the Classics, and how richly 
 he had profited by them, even at so early a period in his studies. — [Ed. 
 
 " The early language of the Greeks, like every other language, must 
 have been rude. But it was soon brought to a wonderful degree of full- 
 ness, strength, and beauty. Its words are made up of the most expressive 
 sounds. The breeze and the hurricane, the laving of the ocean over a 
 beach, and the tempest-tossed waves breaking against the shore, the 
 stream and the mountain torrent rushing to meet the tide of the sea, the 
 storm, and the coming out of the stars one after another, in a clear night, 
 when, in the language of Homer, 'the shepherd rejoices in his heart,' are 
 described by the early poets in terms of the most significant harmony. 
 All the works of man, too, whether in peace or in war, are depicted in 
 strong and lively colors. We see the warriors arm and go forth to the 
 battle; we hear the tramp of advancing multitudes, and the clash of the 
 onset. The council, the feast, and the sacrifice are made to pass before the 
 eye by such happy strokes of the poet's art, that we seem to be living in 
 the midst of them all. In short, this language of a freely organized and 
 developed people, formed under the genial influence of a serene and beau- 
 tiful heaven, amidst the most picturesque and lovely scenery in nature, had 
 acquired a descriptive force and harmony, equally capable of expressing 
 every mood of the mind, every affection of the heart, every aspect of the 
 world. Its words are images, and its sentences finished pictures. It gives 
 the poet the means of clothing his conceptions in every form of beauty 
 and grandeur; of painting them with the most exquisite tints and hues; 
 
256 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 earnestness of patriotism." His aesthetic power was 
 great, and he studied Greek poetry and art, until he 
 was fully imbued with the spirit of that most aesthetic 
 of all people. With what enthusiasm did he discourse 
 of Athens, after he had trod the soil made sacred by 
 the poets, and philosophers, and orators with whom he 
 had, in spirit, spent his life ! That marvellous and 
 almost voluptuous sense of beauty which produced in 
 Greece the only Venus and Apollo, and wrote the record 
 of great deeds and great men in marble, with the 
 sublimest grace, and realized all the divinity of form 
 and feature and soul of which man is capable, had 
 become a part of the daily thought of this great scholar, 
 who, we may be told, had so buried himself among the 
 dead, that he had no heart for the duties of the living. 
 But how was it with him ? His own mental culture 
 filled him with a desire to cultivate others, and inspired 
 him with liberal views with regard to the fertilizing 
 power of every rill of knowledge. And when he took 
 his stand with the popular educators of our State, with 
 what new lustre did he clothe himself, and what radiance 
 did he impart to the work of education here ! 
 
 It is not easy to soften the asperities of the law. 
 The hard and systematic practice of the courts belongs 
 
 of gathering around them the most appropriate images, wisely chosen and 
 tastefully grouped; and of heightening the effect of the whole by the 
 idealizing power of a chastened imagination. The curious mechanism of 
 its metre, combining softness and strength, its "linked sweetness long 
 drawn out,'' and its forcible brevity have never been surpassed. What 
 modem tongue has reproduced the stately march of Homer's majestic 
 hexameters? What translator has given us the compressed energy of 
 Pindar's Doric Odes ? " 
 
DR. GEORGE B. LORING. v 257 
 
 to that service which least of all others cultivates the 
 broadest faculties and cherishes the loftiest sentiments. 
 The greatness of this greatest of professions is attained 
 only by the largest comprehension of what law is and 
 what a state should be, supported by all the subtilty 
 and self-possession of well-trained faculties. We ask, 
 however, of our legal adviser only a thorough knowledge 
 of the law, and expertness in its practice. And as we 
 bring this great science down to the level of a mere 
 useful machine, we lose sight of the opportunity it offers 
 for the most accurate general culture. How are we 
 surprised then, and how do the courts glow to our 
 astonished vision, when a great cultivated mind lavishes 
 upon them the wealth of its cultivation ! The bar of 
 Massachusetts has won for itself an imperishable renown, 
 for its labors in that sphere where the greatest and the 
 meanest of mankind seem to flourish alike. Its jurists 
 are known wherever laws protect the people, and as a 
 fountain of common law it is undoubtedly unequalled. 
 But who of all men has given it its peculiar glory ? Who 
 is the lawyer whose rich intellectual cultivation has 
 shed life and light around our bar, as the midsummer 
 sun warms the capes that bound the polar sea ? Need 
 I tell the scholars of this commonwealth that it is 
 Rufus Choate, the lawyer and the scholar, who in the 
 courts never forgot the cloister, who enjoyed his "Horae 
 Thucididianae " as common men do their newspaper 
 and novel ; who dropped his brief to translate Tacitus ; 
 who carried with him everywhere the letter and the 
 spirit of the classics, of the dead languages and the 
 living ? It may be that his lore did not serve to in- 
 
 22* 
 
258 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 terpret the law which he loved so fondly ; but it did 
 ennoble his profession; it did give the fraternity of 
 lawyers a high place in the fraternity of scholars ; it 
 did throw a light around our courts, which shall never 
 be extinguished until 
 
 " All earthly shapes shall melt in gloom." 
 
 The study of the dead languages has done this, at least, 
 for the law in Massachusetts. 
 
 It were easy to enumerate many similar examples of 
 the effect produced by letters when carried into practical 
 life. But these three distinguished illustrations are 
 sufficient to show the deep sympathy which mankind 
 in this age have for the intellectual efforts of the past, 
 and the refining and invigorating influence of associa- 
 tions with experts in thought and modes of expression, 
 even through an interpreter. 
 
XIII. 
 
 There are twx) processes in the study of every impor- 
 tant subject — the accurate mastery of its details, and 
 the contemplation of it as a whole. We cannot, of 
 course, pretend to exhaust the whole subject of classical 
 antiquity. No scholar, nor all the generations of schol- 
 ars, have exhausted, or probably ever will exhaust; the 
 interest and meaning of the subject. But by reading 
 considerable portions of the best authors, we can enter 
 into their minds, and understand the subjects they treat 
 of with far more truth and completeness of insight 
 than when our vision is limited to a small part of their 
 works. We raise ourselves, independently, to that 
 higher level of study from which the relations to one 
 another of the particular matters we have examined in 
 detail become apparent. Every fact in ancient history, 
 every feeling expressed in ancient poetry, every thought 
 in ancient philosophy, acquires for us a new meaning 
 when we perceive its relation to the whole character 
 and civilization of antiquity. Prom the region of phe- 
 nomena we rise into that of ideas, by which I do not 
 mean bare abstractions, but truths of thought realizing 
 themselves in experience. In other words, we enter 
 
 This Chapter is from a Lecture entitled " Theories of Classical Teach- 
 ing," delivered in opening the Third Humanity Class, Friday, N^ovember 
 8, 1867. By W. Y. Sellar, Professor of Humanity in the University of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 259 
 
260 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 on the philosophical study of ancient literature and 
 history. 
 
 In determining what should be the work of the class, 
 one naturally considers what are the objects which you 
 probably have in view in attending it. I should fancy 
 that these objects are twofold, one general, the other 
 special. Many, I hope, indeed, all of you, come here 
 animated by an interest in the subject, feeling the same 
 kind of interest in the best Latin literature that you 
 feel in the best English literature, conscious that the 
 impressions you have received from Latin literature 
 have fostered your intellectual growth, and desirous to 
 deepen and enlarge those impressions. Virgil and 
 Horace, Cicero and Tacitus, have helped to refine your 
 taste, to enlarge the range of your ideas and sympathies, 
 to open up to you a new world of human experience, 
 and you feel loth to quit that world before you have 
 brought it permanently under the domain of your in- 
 telligence. It is because of their inexhaustible human 
 interest that the great writers of Greece and Rome 
 maintain a life-long hold upon us ; a hold which is 
 strengthened, not loosened, in proportion to the force 
 with which the living questions of our own day afiFect 
 us. To communicate, in so far as his longer familiarity 
 with the subject enables him to do so, his own sense of 
 this human interest, to act as a faithful interpreter to a 
 modern generation of the thought and experience which 
 the ancient writer imparted directly to his own genera- 
 tion, is the highest function which any teacher of the 
 classical languages can perform. 
 
 But there is another kind of hold which the classical 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 261 
 
 languages have upon the world. The highly organized 
 structure of these languages has recommended them as 
 a formal instrument of intellectual training for minds 
 still too immature to sympathize with the thought and 
 experience contained in the ancient writers. Hence 
 they have, in England at least, obtained to a degree 
 which many of the strongest advocates of classical stud- 
 ies acknowledge to be excessive, a preponderance in 
 the higher school education of the country. There are 
 many signs that the days of this excessive preponder- 
 ance are past or passing ; and no liberal mind will 
 regret the abolition of this or of any other monopoly. 
 But at the same time, if there is one thing in the future 
 about which we can augur more hopefully than another, 
 it is that there will be a more general demand for, and 
 a more intelligent appreciation both of popular and of 
 liberal education, than there has been in this country 
 in former times. And classical teaching, even though 
 deprived of the monopoly which it has enjoyed in Eng- 
 land, will share in the general impulse communicated 
 to all liberal education. It is probable, indeed, that 
 the elementary knowledge of the Greek language will 
 not continue to be taught at school so generally as at 
 present to all sorts of boys, whatever may be their ca- 
 pacity or their prospects in life : but for all who have 
 the ability and can afford the time required for a high 
 intellectual cultivation, for all true students of theology, 
 philosophy, and political history, for all lovers of poetry 
 and art, the study of the Greek language and litera- 
 ture must, I believe, maintain its unquestionable pre- 
 eminence among literary studies. And though Latin 
 
262 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 literature does not lay any such claim to supremacy 
 among the literatures of the world, yet its value as sup- 
 plemental to the knowledge of Greek literature, and its 
 independent value as expressing the mind and char- 
 acter of the race that has played the greatest part in 
 human affairs, are likely to maintain for it too a leading 
 position among university studies ; while the practical 
 uses of the language, as the best possible instrument of 
 grammatical and philological training, and as essential 
 to any proper understanding of our own language and 
 of other modern languages, are likely to preserve its 
 place among the essential branches of ordinary, though 
 not of course as elementary, school-education. 
 
 But the two objects which I have mentioned, so far 
 from being incompatible with one another, are really 
 essential to supplement each other. The mere interest 
 in the literature is apt to lose itself in vagueness and 
 dilettanteism. The passive and receptive attitude of 
 the mind in unfolding itself to the beauties of a great 
 poet or the wisdom of a great thinker, though refining 
 and elevating, may yet become enervating, if not com- 
 bined with some active exertion of our own, some pro- 
 cess of consecutive thinking, or some concentration of 
 the faculties in mastering dijB&culties. In education 
 the mind must act as well as receive, must learn to use 
 as well as to acquire knowledge. On the other hand, 
 the more masculine exercise of the understanding in 
 gaining mastery over some subject remote from our 
 ordinary associations, and of difficult access, — such as 
 the language of the ancient Greeks and Romans, — 
 while in the highest degree invigorating, has, if uncom- 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 263 
 
 bined with the more feminine influence of human in- 
 sight and sympathy, the tendency to leave the mind 
 and character hard, dry, and unsympathetic ; in short, 
 to make pedants or doctrinaires instead of cultivated 
 men. While accurate scholarship builds up and 
 strengthens the active faculties of the understanding, 
 the study and enjoyment of ancient literature awak- 
 ens, expands, and educates the intellectual and moral 
 sympathies. 
 
 The true theory of classical education lies, I think, 
 like many other true theories, between two extremes ; 
 or rather, it combines into one two half-truths, acted 
 upon or advocated by our extreme conservatives, and 
 by the best of our extreme reformers in educational 
 matters. The one extreme theory is, that education is 
 purely a discipline of the understanding, that the form 
 of the subject is everything, the content little or noth- 
 ing. A severe study, such as classics or mathematics, 
 is the thing wanted to train or brace the faculties. It 
 does not matter whether it is in itself interesting or not. 
 The student will find sufiicient interest in the sense of 
 power which he has to put forth in training for the 
 great race with his competitors. " It is not knowledge," 
 they say, " but the exercise you are forced to incur in 
 acquiring knowledge, that we care about. Read and 
 learn the classics simply for the discipline they afford 
 to the understanding. You may, if it comes in your 
 way, and does not interfere with your training, com- 
 bine a literary pleasure with this mode of study; but 
 that is no part of your education ; as teachers we do 
 not care to encourage it, we do not care to interpret 
 
264 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 for you the thought or feeling of your author ; all such 
 teaching is weak and rhetorical ; we do not profess 
 to examine into your capacity of receiving pleasure. 
 Accurate and accomplished translation, effective com- 
 position in the style of the ancient authors, thorough 
 grammatical and philological knowledge, these are our 
 requirements. The training in exactness, in concen- 
 tration, in logical habits, and in discernment of the 
 niceties of expression, is the one thing with which we 
 start you in life. Whether you have thought at all, or 
 care to think about the questions which occupy and 
 move the highest minds, is no affair of ours." 
 
 This theory, though I believe it to be one-sided and 
 limited, has, from its very limitation and concentration 
 of aim, been very effective in its practical application to 
 education. It is, I think, a purely English theory of 
 education ; it has grown up within the last half century, 
 and it is in the University of Cambridge that it has 
 been and still is most fully realized. The rigor of in- 
 tellectual training has probably never been carried to 
 so high a pitch as in the preparation for the honors of 
 the classical and mathematical triposes at Cambridge. 
 The result of this education has told upon the world in 
 those modes of intellectual and professional activity 
 which require exactness of mind, concentration, just- 
 ness of criticism, temperance of statement. Those who 
 have been trained in such a system enjoy, in a high 
 degree, immunity from intellectual weakness, vague- 
 ness, and extravagance. It might possibly be sufficient 
 if the world were content to go on forever in its tradi- 
 tional modes of thinking and acting. Combined with 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 265 
 
 the pleasant social life of the University, it prepares 
 men to carry on the intellectual business of life in 
 accordance with established usage ; it trains to intel- 
 lectual habits the politicians, lawyers, divines, and 
 critics of uneventful times. But our lot has been cast 
 in a more restless age, when the deepest questions 
 affecting our whole view of life are agitating all classes, 
 learned and unlearned alike, and are pressing for a 
 solution. We look for such solution partly to the 
 genius and patience of . individual thinkers, partly to 
 the capacities of thinking and appreciating truth which 
 may be created and diffused by a larger and more phil- 
 osophical education. In order to interpret the present 
 and to regulate the future progress of the world, the 
 speculative faculty must discern the full meaning of 
 the past; how, under previous conditions, man has 
 solved for himself, or failed to solve, his religious, phil- 
 osophical, and political difficulties ; how he has built up 
 the fabric of his social life ; what charm he has realized 
 for himself in art and literature. To study the lan- 
 guage of an ancient people, and yet to leave these ques- 
 tions unattempted, is surely to blind ourselves to the 
 highest interest and deepest meaning of our subject. 
 If it were not for a strong and ever-increasing sense of 
 this inexhaustible source of interest in the great writers 
 of antiquity, of the endless stimulus and food which 
 they afford to speculative energy, as well by the con- 
 trasts as by the analogies which they present to our 
 modern civilization, one could see, perhaps, without 
 much regret, classical studies altogether superseded by 
 studies of a more immediate utility. 
 
 23 
 
266 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 This leads to a consideration of the opposite theory, 
 at present indeed rather advocated than acted upon. 
 "Can we not," it is said, ''understand 'the ancient 
 spirit ' through the help of lectures, modern books on 
 the subject, translations from the classics, without the 
 unnecessary labor of acquiring an exact knowledge of 
 two unfamiliar and difficult languages, essentially dif- 
 ferent in their structure from all the forms of speech 
 now in use among men ? Nothing is gained by the 
 mere difficulty of the process. Our object is to arrive 
 at the result, the knowledge of the life and genius of 
 antiquity, in the shortest, easiest, and pleasantest way." 
 This is perhaps an extreme statement of the opposite 
 theory of education, which makes nothing of discipline, 
 everything of acquirement. Bach of these theories 
 appears to me to be true in what it affirms, false in 
 what it denies. Each half-truth gains greatly, even 
 in the position which it affirms, by admitting the 
 counter half. The value of discipline is immensely 
 enhanced when it is regarded as a process towards 
 important results. A new and higher discipline is 
 given to the mind by the active exercise of the faculties 
 in thinking out the thoughts and reducing to order the 
 impressions received in the sympathetic study and en- 
 joyment of ancient literature. On the other hand, the 
 easiest and shortest is not the surest way of realizing 
 the results, perhaps is not compatible with permanently 
 realizing them at all. There is all the difference in 
 the world between imparting transient impressions and 
 educating the steadfast sympathies of the mind. It is 
 the same kind of difiference that there is between pass- 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 267 
 
 ing rapidly in a railway carriage through a country 
 rich in its natural beauty and historic associations, and 
 exploring on foot all its heights and recesses, allowing 
 its varied aspects to become part of our being, a lasting 
 memory and source of joy, 
 
 " Felt in the blood and felt along the heart." 
 
 Is it unavoidable that we should carry this railway pace 
 into our processes of education ? Are the requirements 
 of our nineteenth century progress so peremptory ? 
 After all, it is not universal information, whether pleas- 
 antly or painfully acquired, but more freedom and 
 power, more insight and wisdom, that our intellectual 
 being longs for. There is a danger for ordinary minds 
 in trying to know too many things, and to know them 
 too easily. Knowledge directly imparted may be a 
 source both of usefulness and of immediate pleasure 
 to an active mind ; but the toil and patience needed 
 to bring a remote subject near, to make an unfamiliar 
 subject familiar, may be the condition of more useful- 
 ness and more pleasure in the long run. I should 
 fancy that both scholars and men of science would 
 agree in this, that what they looked back upon with 
 least dissatisfaction in their career, what they would 
 now prize as the main source of their intellectual health 
 and strength, was the strenuous toil which they under- 
 went — lhpo)6* ov iSpcoora fJLorya) — in mastering for them, 
 selves the essential difficulties of their subject ; what 
 they looked upon with less satisfaction was the time 
 spent on what was not essential, or in following wrong 
 processes; what they looked upon with least satisfac- 
 
268 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 tion of all was the easy methods they had adopted to 
 gain some immediate result, to produce the show of 
 acquirement, to impose for the moment on themselves 
 and others. 
 
 I do not, however, for one moment wish to preach 
 the doctrine of keeping up difficulties for the sake of 
 the difficulty. In every important study or undertak- 
 ing there is quite enough of absolutely essential diffi- 
 culty to satisfy the requirements of the most rigorous 
 advocate of discipline. 
 
 " Pater ipse colendi, 
 Haud facilem esse viam voluit ; " 
 
 and mark the reason 
 
 " Curis acuens mortalia corda.** 
 
 The aim of the teacher should be to create in the 
 mind of his pupil a real, independent, permanent in- 
 sight into and sympathy with his subject, as distinct 
 from a transient impression and vague enthusiasm 
 about it. This aim will help him to distinguish be- 
 tween the kind of difficulty which it is good for the 
 student to encounter, and that which it should be his 
 teacher's part as far as possible, to spare him. 
 
 Intellectual difficulties must be distinguished from 
 intellectual puzzles and intellectual burdens. The solu- 
 tion of the first braces the mind to meet the difficulties 
 of thought and action which await the student in every 
 {serious pursuit of life. The solution of the second may 
 be a pleasant amusement or a useless waste of time. 
 The struggle with the last may be a source of perma- 
 nent weariness and weakness to the mind. 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 269 
 
 It is quite right to train even a young boy to encoun- 
 ter difficiilties suited to bis age ; but this discipline is 
 adequately secured by the necessity of learning accu- 
 rately the forms and inflections of the language he is 
 studying, and of practically observing grammatical laws 
 and distinctions in interpreting, with the help of a few 
 simple rules, the sentences of an ancient author. 
 
 The conclusion to which we come on this point is, 
 that there is no value whatever, but rather a great hin- 
 de ranee in the unmeaning and unnecessary difficulties 
 with which classical studies have been too much en- 
 cumbered ; that it is the duty of every teacher to do 
 his best to clear them away ; tliat he should keep stead- 
 ily before him the aim of awakening in every one of 
 his pupils the power of independent insight into, and 
 sympathy with, the various modes in which the spirit or 
 genius of antiquity realized itself; and that he should 
 strive to attain this result neither by the longest and 
 most difficult, nor by the shortest and easiest, but by 
 the surest and most intelligent, process. But after 
 removing, to the best of our power, all unnecessary 
 impediments to the independent mastery of the ancient 
 languages and literatures, there still remains to be 
 encountered a great deal of real difficulty, much more 
 certainly than in the acquisition of a modern language 
 or literature. In acquiring the mere vocabulary of 
 two unfamiliar languages, such as ancient Greek and 
 modern German, the mere strain on the memory may 
 perhaps be nearly equal. But the intellectual difficulty 
 of familiarizing ourselves with the structure of the an- 
 cient language is much greater, from the fact that 
 
 23* 
 
270 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 the logical and imaginative conditions under which the 
 ancient language was moulded were different from the 
 framework of our modern thinking. Consciously or 
 unconsciously, we must enter into these unfamiliar 
 modes of thought and imagination in interpreting the 
 meaning of an ancient writer ; we must at every step 
 conform to intellectual laws and requirements different 
 from those to which we unconsciously conform in using 
 our own or any modern language. What we express 
 as an abstract relation of thought the ancients more 
 frequently express as concrete fact; what we express 
 as a number of independent statements, they express in 
 one complex, highly organized period ; while the con- 
 ditions of our language force us to a monotonous 
 observance of the order of construction, their richly 
 inflected languages enable them to vary, in many ways, 
 the structure of their sentences, in accordance with the 
 conditions of logical relation, rhetorical emphasis, and 
 rythmical cadence. The ideas which they realized out 
 of the relation of their circumstances to their inward 
 conditions of mind and feeling are different from those 
 which modern nations have realized from analogous 
 relations. Thus though we find that the words expres- 
 sive of things discerned by the senses, and of the sim- 
 pler states of feeling and simpler relations of life, may 
 often correspond completely with one another in the 
 ancient and modern languages, as, for instance, our 
 modern words hread^ wine^ stone, dog, heart, liver, an- 
 ger, grief, father, king, have their exact, or nearly their 
 exact, equivalents in Greek and Latin ; yet in the great 
 number of words expressing complex modifications of 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 271 
 
 thought and sentiment there is no such exact equiva- 
 lence. You cannot say, for instance, that there is any- 
 one English word which we can at all times use as 
 equivalent with such words as jides^ religio^ virtus^ 
 ingenium^ humanitas^ gravitas^ pietas^ officium^ and 
 hundreds of other words expressive of the manifold 
 diversities of idea that exist in the infinite world of 
 consciousness. To find an English equivalent for such 
 words in any particular passage, we must first realize 
 to our minds all the shades of meaning which that word 
 conveyed to a Roman, following in our minds the pro- 
 cess by which each shade of meaning passed into the 
 other ; we must judge by the context which is the 
 particular meaning there conveyed, and then we must 
 find, out of several words, the exact English equivalent 
 which may perhaps have no other point of coincidence 
 with the Latin word. Though this may be a momen- 
 tary process in the mind of an accomplished scholar, 
 the facility and certainty with which he finds his equiv- 
 alent English words are the results of a long-continued 
 and severe training, not of his memory merely, but 
 of his reflective power. Again, in translating from a 
 modern into an ancient language, we become aware of 
 another great difference between the two languages, 
 consisting in the immense number of decayed metaphors 
 which we vaguely employ in modern speech, and which 
 very rarely correspond with the metaphorical uses of 
 ancient speech. To realize and fully bring out all 
 such differences between the ancient classical and the 
 modern European languages is thus no mere exercise 
 of verbal memory, but implies the constant use of 
 
272 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 highly-developed faculties, both of judgment and ex- 
 pression. 
 
 While, therefore, we rest the value of classical study 
 not solely on its power as a discipline or exercise, but 
 also on the variety of ways in which it animates and 
 enriches the mind, we yet rank among the advantages 
 of the study those essential difficulties which require 
 the constant use of, and thereby afford a constant 
 training to, the logical and rhetorical faculties. What 
 mathematics are as a discipline in the sphere of scien- 
 tific truth, that the study of language may be made in 
 the sphere of ethical truth, — of that complex world of 
 thought and feeling in which we truly live and have 
 our being. In the words of the ancient languages are 
 wrapped up a record of the past thought and experi- 
 ence of our race. Through the knowledge we acquire 
 of these languages we cannot help familiarizing our- 
 selves with some at least of the infinitely varied modes 
 of intelligence and emotion through which the mind of 
 man has passed. Thus, even if it were possible for a 
 teacher to communicate, by means of lectures and 
 translations from the classics, a true insight into the 
 manifestations of the spirit of antiquity, the student 
 would forfeit a large element of the educational value 
 of classical study in foregoing the process of becoming 
 familiar with the ancient languages. But to communi- 
 cate this power of insight, independently of classical 
 scholarship is, I believe, quite impossible. No doubt 
 there have been men of genius — a Shakspeare or a 
 Keats — who have got from a translation of a Latin or 
 a Greek author, or even from the sight of some work of 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 273 
 
 art, a truer insight into antiquity than mere verbal 
 scholars will get in a lifetime. But it is not for men 
 of exceptional genius that our educational appliances 
 are wanted. They are independent of them ; they find 
 their mental food by processes unknown and unimag- 
 ined by common men. 
 
 The general conclusion, therefore, to which we come, 
 is that in classical study we are educated through the 
 active exertion of our understanding, combined with 
 our capacity of receiving impressions, and the sponta- 
 neous awakening of our ideas. Our aim must be to 
 unite these modes of intellectual progress, to make 
 the interpretation of the classical authors a process of 
 steady, continuous exertion, and at the same time to 
 find in them a source of literary impulse, and materials 
 for ethical and political reflection. The active exertion 
 of mastering the difficulties of the language ought 
 gradually to give place to another and higher kind of 
 active exertion — that of reducing into order and giv- 
 ing shape to the materials for thought which come to 
 us through the influence of ancient literature on our 
 imagination, and through the expansion of our ethical 
 and political sympathies. Thus the study of ancient 
 literature rises into the study of the philosophy of 
 history and of human life. 
 
 In regard to exercises, I attach importance to com- 
 position in Latin chiefly as an instrument of securing 
 accurate grammatical knowledge of the language. I 
 should expect all candidates for classical honors to trans- 
 late from an English author into Latin prose, in such 
 a way as to show sound grammatical knowledge, and 
 
274 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 a true perception of the essential differences between 
 the ancient and modern idioms. Without practice in 
 prose composition up to this extent at least, you can 
 have no sure hold over the language. I am well aware 
 that a very much higher standard than this is both 
 aimed at and attained in English schools and universi- 
 ties ; and I can, I hope, genuinely admire the finest 
 results of modern scholarship in writing Latin prose and 
 verse ; 
 
 " Non equidem invideo, miror magis." 
 
 But I have long been convinced, and acted on the con- 
 viction, that this extreme refinement was not essential 
 to the standard of scholarship attainable in the com- 
 paratively short time allowed for classical study in 
 our Scottish universities, and that it could be attained 
 by the majority even of our good scholars only by an 
 expenditure of time and labor disproportioned to its 
 value. 
 
 I should attach equal if not more importance to ex- 
 ercises in translatipn from Latin authors into English. 
 This kind of exercise, if carefully performed in such a 
 manner as to bring out in forcible idiomatic English 
 the full truth, and nothing but the truth, of the au- 
 thor's meaning, is quite as efi&cient a discipline in 
 - scholarship, and is of more direct practical utility as a 
 training of the rhetorical faculty, than composition in 
 the ancient languages. But I attach the most impor- 
 tance of all to such exercises and essays as require 
 thought and reasoning on the facts, feelings, and ideas 
 presented to our contemplation in the ancient writers. 
 Many persons, inadequately, I think, informed on the 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 275 
 
 subject, speak slightingly of such exercises, as capable 
 only of eliciting what is called crammed knowledge. 
 How far ^'cram" may tell in examinations or exercises 
 will absolutely depend on the competence or incompe- 
 tence of the examiner. If he can be imposed upon by 
 a mere superficial display of second-hand information, 
 got up for the occasion, or by the reproduction of 
 another man's views on a subject, and is altogether 
 incapable of appreciating originality of observation, 
 thought, and feeling on the part of the student, there 
 is a very great danger that such exercises as I am 
 speaking of may be unproductive of any good. But if 
 he sets before himself the object of attracting, suggest- 
 ing, and eliciting thought on the matters of most inter- 
 est that meet the student in reading his author, he may 
 do more to awaken and educate his intelligence by the 
 questions which he thus proposes to him than by the 
 directer processes of teaching. 
 
 Before concluding this lecture there are one or two 
 other points which I must touch upon, though my 
 limits will not allow me to discuss them. The contro- 
 versy as to the utility of classical studies, so long dor- 
 mant, has again been revived. Scotland has been 
 made, in the first instance, the battle-field, but there 
 is little doubt that the war will soon be carried across 
 the Tweed. Three remarkable addresses, in which the 
 subject has been treated, have recently been delivered 
 to Scottish audiences by three men of great natural 
 gifts, great cultivation, and great eminence in public 
 life — Mr. Mill, Mr. Grant Dufif, and Mr. Lowe. Though 
 in very "different degrees, yet they all are opposed to 
 
276 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 tilings as they now are. From the objections urged by 
 Mr. Mill against the exclusive pretensions of classical 
 study, and against the methods of study elsewhere in 
 use, we in the Scottish universities need not withhold 
 our absolute assent. We may also cordially offer to 
 him the tribute of our gratitude for the noblest and 
 justest vindication of the claims of ancient literature 
 uttered in our time, or, I believe, in any time. And 
 that these opinions of his are not of recent date, may 
 be shown by a passage which I venture to extract from 
 his earlier works, as sound and useful doctrine for this 
 time : 
 
 " Not only do these literatures furnish examples of 
 high finish and perfection in workmanship, to correct 
 the slovenly habit of modern hasty writing, but they 
 exhibit in the military and agricultural commonwealths 
 of antiquity precisely that order of virtues in which a 
 commercial society is apt to be deficient ; and they 
 altogether show human nature on a grander scale, with 
 less benevolence, but more patriotism ; less sentiment, 
 but more self-control ; if a lower average of virtue, 
 more striking individual examples of it ; fewer small 
 goodnesses, but more greatness and appreciation of 
 greatness ; more which tends to exalt the imagination 
 and inspire high conceptions of the capabilities of hu- 
 man nature. If, as every one may see, the want of 
 afiinity of these studies to the modern mind is gradu- 
 ally lowering them in popular estimation, this is but a 
 confirmation of the need of them, and renders it more 
 incumbent upon those who have the power to do their 
 utmost towards preventing their decline." 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 277 
 
 I will not venture at the end of this lecture to take 
 up in detail the many points of difference suggested by 
 the witty and pointed address delivered last Friday 
 evening at the opening of the Philosophical Institution. 
 The eminence of the speaker ^ will, I hope, call forth 
 other champions, to whom the words " impar congressus 
 AcJiilli^^ may not be so fatally applicable. With his 
 opposition to the antiquated superstitions of classical 
 teaching, the lessons on the loves of the gods and god- 
 desses, the universal requirement of Latin verses, and 
 the cram of commentators' theories about other com- 
 mentators' theories on corrupt passages, of which he 
 made so much, one may cordially agree. One may 
 agree also with his protest against the preponderance 
 enjoyed by classical and mathematical studies in deter- 
 mining the highest honors and emoluments of the Eng- 
 lish universities. But there one's agreement with his 
 theory of a liberal education ends. Omitting many 
 objections in detail, I may draw attention to the fact 
 that the first principles he announced are not beyond 
 question. It has already been pointed out that a fal- 
 lacy is involved in one of his principles, namely, that we 
 live in a world of things, not of words, and that it is 
 more important to know the things. This account of 
 the world is hardly exhaustive, unless "things" is made 
 a very comprehensive term indeed. Besides outward 
 objects and the words denoting them, there are ideas 
 and sentiments and relations with which it is important 
 for us to be familiar ; and the ancient languages and 
 literatures may be of use in imparting to us this form 
 
 1 Right Honorable Robert Lowe. — [Ed. 
 24 
 
278 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 of knowledge. Another of his first principles seems to 
 me not above question. Is it certain that university 
 education should be practical rather than speculative ? 
 No one thinks of denying the use of practical aptitude 
 in any calling; and though this cannot be imparted 
 directly by university lectures or examinations, yet, iu 
 the higher kinds of calling, those which demand the 
 application of general views to practice, the discipline 
 of a university education is of inestimable service. But 
 is it true that our speculative or critical faculties and. 
 our intellectual sympathies are of such little conse- 
 quence — harmless contributions perhaps to the amuse- 
 ment of idle men — that their education may be left to 
 the casual intercourse of society ? Is it not the case 
 that we cannot read an article in a newspaper or review, 
 we cannot listen to a speech or a sermon, we cannot 
 hold a serious conversation with any one on any sub- 
 ject worth talking about, without having to exercise 
 whatever speculative capacity we may have, and to 
 bring into use whatever speculative opinions and sym- 
 pathies we have formed for ourselves, or have taken 
 unquestioned from the current speech of society ? We 
 live in a world not of words and things only, but also 
 of speculations ; and if we have not educated our fac- 
 ulty of originating, or at least of judging of specula- 
 tions, we are at the mercy of any sciolist, rhetorician, 
 or fanatic who may be kind enough to take upon him- 
 self the office of forming our opinions and stimulating 
 our feelings on the most important subjects of human 
 thought. It is because I believe that liberal, as distinct 
 from popular and professional, education, should be 
 speculative rather than practical, should develop the 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 279 
 
 highest capacity of human thought and sympathy, that I 
 so strongly urge upon you the claims of classical study. 
 But while some of the objections to classical study 
 appear to me to be what the Greeks call /Sdvavaa^ and 
 may best be answered by denying at the outset the 
 mechanical conception of the aims and objects of human 
 life which they presuppose, oth-ers, we must admit, are 
 forcible and formidable. In so far as these last are 
 directed against the exclusive pretensions of classical 
 teaching, they are reasonable, and deserve to prevail. 
 But such exclusive pretensions never have been put 
 forward in our Scottish universities. By far the most 
 formidable objection to my mind is, not that the classi- 
 cal languages and literatures are not in the highest 
 degree worth learning, but that we cannot teach them, 
 or do not in general succeed in teaching them. It may 
 be said — not, I acknowledge, without justice — that 
 a large number of boys who learn Latin and Greek 
 never acquire either language thoroughly ; that many 
 of the best verbal scholars remain ignorant of or un- 
 affected by the spirit and ideas of classical literature ; 
 that even those who have received the sound discipline 
 of scholarship and the rich culture of ancient literature 
 and philosophy, remain through life a great deal more 
 ignorant of other things than they need be or ought to 
 be. It is our duty and our interest to recognize the 
 truth of these reproaches, and to do our best to remove 
 them. I believe they can be removed by a liberal con- 
 cession to the claims of other studies, and by modifying 
 the scope and improving the methods of classical teach- 
 ing. For such modification and improvement we must 
 look to the good sense of our classical teachers in 
 
280 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 schools and universities, to their living interest in their 
 subject, and their power of making that interest live 
 again in the minds of others. Their power and enthu- 
 siasm must spring from a large and genial appreciation 
 of all the sources of interest, instruction, and pleasure 
 which abound in ancient literature. This large and 
 genial appreciation it should be the special office of the 
 classical chairs in our universities to impart, in such a 
 way that every classical school in the country should 
 soon share in the impulse. 
 
 It is a question for those much interested in any one 
 absorbing pursuit, how far they can combine their de- 
 votion to that pursuit or branch of knowledge with a 
 many-sided interest in other branches of knowledge. 
 It is a disputed question whether the true principle of 
 education is that of opening the intelligence, in succes- 
 sion, to a variety of subjects of interest, or that of con- 
 centrating the faculties on a few great and important 
 subjects. It seems to me that in what we may hope 
 will soon assume the importance it deserves, namely the 
 higher intellectual education of women, the first is 
 the true principle ; and also that the very highest order 
 of minds among men is capable of uniting the variety 
 of the first with the thoroughness of the second process; 
 but that for the larger number of educated men, it is 
 best to study thoroughly two or three great subjects 
 mutually related, as, for instance, classical literature 
 and modern philosophy, and in so far as they have en- 
 ergy and capacity, to combine this with enough general 
 instruction to make them able to appreciate the pur- 
 suits of others. It is necessary to impose a limit on 
 ourselves, but not too narrow a limit. Concentration, 
 
PROFESSOR SELLAR. 281 
 
 like every other great intellectual faculty, may be 
 carried too far. Against the beneficial tendency of 
 continuous devotion to any subject must be rated the 
 depressing influence of monotony. A classical student 
 may become a first-rate verbal scholar by devoting him- 
 self to classics alone ; but he never can realize the full 
 worth of his subject without being also a student of 
 mental and ethical philosophy, and of modern languages 
 and literature. And every other real addition to our 
 knowledge of man or nature will add to our interest in 
 life, and will conduce to our moral growth by helping to 
 free us from the dominion of our prejudices. There is, 
 however, a danger of dissipating energy by attempting 
 too much. Each man in settling this question for himself 
 must take the measure of his own power and capacity. 
 
 It is not, however, without reason that the foremost 
 place has in fact been assigned to this [classical] study. 
 Grammar is the logic of common speech, and there are 
 few educated men who are not sensible of the advan- 
 tages they gained as boys from the steady practice of 
 composition and translation, and from their introduction 
 to etymology. The study of literature is the study, not 
 indeed of the physcial, but of the intellectual and moral 
 world we live in, and of the thoughts, lives, and char- 
 acters of those men whose writings or whose memories 
 succeeding generations have thought it worth while to 
 preserve. 
 
 We are equally convinced that the best materials 
 available to Englishmen for these studies are furnished 
 by the languages and literature of Greece and Rome. 
 From the regular structure of these languages, from 
 
 24* 
 
282 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 their logical accuracy of expression, from the compara- 
 tive ease with which their etymology is traced and re- 
 duced to general laws, from their severe canons of taste 
 and style, from the very fact that they are " dead," and 
 have been handed down to us directly from the periods 
 of their highest perfection, comparatively untouched by 
 the inevitable process of degeneration and decay, they 
 are, beyond all doubt, the finest and most serviceable 
 models we have for the study of languages As litera- 
 ture they supply the most graceful and some of the 
 noblest poetry, the finest eloquence, the deepest philo- 
 sophy, the wisest historical writing ; and these excel- 
 lences are such as to be appreciated keenly, though 
 inadequately, by young mind^, and to leave, as in fact 
 they do, a lasting impression. Besides this, it is at least 
 a reasonable opinion that this literature has a powerful 
 efiect in moulding and animating the statesmanship 
 and political life of England. Nor is it to be forgotten 
 that the whole civilization of modern Europe is really 
 built upon the foundations laid two thousand years ago 
 by two highly civilized nations on the shores of the 
 Mediterranean ; that their languages supply the key to 
 our modern tongues ; their poetry, history, philosophy, 
 and law, to the poetry and history, the philosophy and 
 jurisprudence, of modern times ; that this key can 
 seldom be acquired except in youth, and that the pos- 
 session of it, as daily experience proves, and as those 
 who have it not will most readily acknowledge, is very 
 far from being merely a literary advantage.^ 
 
 1 This and the last part of page 281, is from the Report of the English 
 School Commissioners in favor of retaining the Study of the Classics. 
 
XIV. 
 
 I AM prepared to vindicate the high place which has 
 hitherto been allotted to languages in all the famous 
 colleges of the Old World and the New, though I can- 
 not defend the exclusive place which has been given 
 them in some. Without entering upon the psychologi- 
 cal question, whether the power of thinking by means 
 of symbols be or be not an original faculty of the mind, 
 or the physiological one, whether its seat, as M. Broca 
 thinks he has proven, be in the left hemisphere of the 
 brain, specially in the posterior part of the third frontal 
 convolution of the left anterior lobe, I am prepared to 
 maintain that it is a natural gift, early appearing and 
 strong in youth. You see it in the young child acquir- 
 ing its language so spontaneously, and delighting to 
 ring its vocables the live-long day ; in the boy of nine 
 or ten years of age, learning Latin — when he could 
 not master a science — quite as quickly as the man of 
 mature age. Now, in the systematic training of the 
 mind, we should not set ourselves against, but rather 
 fall in with, this natural tendency and facility. Boys 
 can acquire a language when they are not able to wres- 
 tle with any other severe study ; and why should they 
 
 This Extract is from the Address delivered by James McCosh, D.D., 
 
 LL.D., on "Academic Teaching in Europe/' on the occasion of his 
 
 Inaugm-ation as President of +he College of New Jersey, Princeton, 
 
 October 27, 1868. 
 
 288 
 
284 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 not be employed in what they are capable of doing ? 
 There are persons foreter telling us that children 
 should be taught to attend to " things " rather than 
 " words." But then words are " things," having an 
 important place in our bodily organization and mental 
 structure, in both of which the power of speech is one 
 of the things that raise us above the brutes. And then 
 it can be shown that it is mainly by language that we 
 come to get a knowledge of things. This arises not 
 merely from the circumstance that we get by far the 
 greater part of our knowledge from our fellow-men 
 through speech and writing, but because it is, in a 
 great measure, by words that we are induced, nay com- 
 pelled, to observe, to compare, to abstract, to analyze, 
 to classify, to reason. How little can we know of things 
 without language ? How little do deaf mutes know of 
 things till they are taught the use of signs ? I have 
 known some of them considerably advanced in life 
 who not only did not know that the soul was immortal ; 
 they did not know that the body was mortal. Children 
 obtain by far the larger part of their information from 
 parents, brothers, sisters, nurses, teachers, companions, 
 and fellow-men and women in general, and this comes 
 by language. But this is, after all, the least part ; it 
 is in understanding and using intelligently words and 
 sentences that children are first taught to notice things 
 and their properties, to discern their differences and 
 perceive their resemblances. Nature presents us only 
 with particulars, which, as Plato remarked long ago, 
 are infinite, and therefore confusing, and the language 
 formed by our forefathers and inherited by us, puts 
 
PRESIDENT M'COSH. 285 
 
 them into intelligible groups for us. Nature shows us 
 only concretes, that is, objects with their varied quali- 
 ties, that is, with complexities beyond the penetration 
 of children, and language makes them intelligible by 
 separating the parts and calling attention to common 
 qualities. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, conjunctions, and 
 other parts of speech in a cultivated tongue, introduce 
 us to things, as men have thought about them in the 
 use of their faculties, and combined them for general 
 and for special purposes ; primarily, no doubt, for their 
 own use and advantage, but turning out to be a valu- 
 able inheritance to their children, who get access to 
 things with the thought of ages superinduced upon 
 them — as it were, set in a frame-work for us that we 
 may study them more easily. In the phrases of a civ- 
 ilized tongue, we have a set of discriminations and 
 comparisons spontaneously fashioned by our ancestors, 
 often more fresh and subtile, always more immediately 
 and practically useful, than those of the most advanced 
 science. Then a new language introduces us to new 
 generalizations and new abstractions, made, it may be, 
 by a people of a different genius and differently situ- 
 ated, and thus widens and varies our view of things, 
 and saves us from being the slaves of the words of our 
 own tongue ; saves us, in fact, from putting words for 
 things, putting counters for money (as Hobbes says), 
 which we should be apt to do if we knew only one 
 word for the thing. Charles V. uttered a deep truth, 
 whether he understood it or no, when he said that a 
 man was as many times a man as he acquired a new 
 tongue. Then, in learning a Ian gug,ge "grammatically, 
 
 /uHiyBiiGiTr)) 
 
286 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 whether our own or another, we have to learn or gather 
 rules and judiciously apply them, to see the rule in the 
 example and collect the rule out of the example ; and 
 ill all this the more rudimentary intellectual powers, 
 not only the memory, but the apprehension and quick- 
 ness of perception and discernment are as quite effectu- 
 ally called forth and -disciplined as by any other study 
 in which the youthful mind is capacitated to engage. 
 
 I have been struggling to give expression in a few 
 sentences to thoughts which it would require a whole 
 lecture fully to unfold. Such considerations seem to 
 me to prove that we should continue to give to lan- 
 -. guage an important — I have not said an exclusive — 
 place in the younger collegiate classes. Among lan- 
 guages a choice must be made, and there are three 
 which have such claims that every student should be 
 instructed in them ; and there are others which have 
 claims on those who have special aptitudes and desti- 
 nations in life. There is the Latin, important in itself, 
 and from the part which it has played. It has an edu- 
 cational value from the breadth, regularity, and logical 
 accuracy of its structure, giving us a fine specimen of 
 grammar, from its clear expression, and from its stately 
 methodical march, like that of a Roman army. It is 
 of inestimable value from its literature, second only to 
 that of Greece in the Old World, and to that of Eng- 
 land and Germany in modern times, and a model 
 still to be looked to by English and by Germans, if 
 they would make progress as they have hitherto done. 
 Then, besides its intrinsic worth, it has historical value 
 as the mother of several other European languages, as 
 
PRESIDENT M'COSH. 287 
 
 the Italian, the French, the Spanish, and Portuguese, 
 to all of which it is the best introduction, and, as one 
 of the venerated grandmothers of our own, ready to 
 tell us of its descent, its lineage and its history ; and, let 
 us not forget, as the transmitter of ancient and eastern 
 learning to modern times and western countries ; and 
 as the common language for ages in literature, phi- 
 losophy, law, and theology, and thus containing treas- 
 ures to which every educated man requires some time 
 or other to have access. Then there is the Greek, the 
 most subtile, delicate, and expressive of all old lan- 
 guages, embodying the fresh thoughts of the most intel- 
 lectual people of the ancient vrorld, and containing a 
 literature which is unsurpassed, perhaps not equalled, 
 for the loveliness, purity, and grace of its poetry, for 
 the combined firmness and flexibility of its prose, as 
 seen, for instance, in Plato, who can mount to the 
 highest sublimities and go down to the lowest familiar- 
 ities without falling — like the elephant's trunk, equally 
 fitted to tear an oak or lift a straw. And it is never to 
 be forgotten that it is the language of the New Testa- 
 ment ; that it was the favorite language of the Reform- 
 ers. Luther said : " If we do not keep up the tongues, 
 we will not keep up the gospel " ; and so the stream is 
 still to be encouraged to flow on, if we would keep up 
 the connection between Christianity and its fountain. 
 A nation studiously giving up its attention to these 
 tongues would be virtually cut off" from the past, and 
 would be apt to become stagnant, like a pool into which 
 no streams flow, and from which none issue, instead of 
 a lake receiving pure waters from above, and giving 
 them out below. These languages differ widely from 
 
288 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 ours, but just because they so do, they serve a good 
 purpose, letting us into a different order and style of 
 thought, less analytic, more synthetic, as it is com- 
 monly said, more concrete, as I express it ; that is, in- 
 troducing us to things as they are, and in their natural 
 connection. True, they are dead languages, but then, 
 just because they are so, we can get a completed biog- 
 raphy of them ; and, as we dissect them, they lie pas- 
 sive, like bodies under the knife of the anatomist. As 
 Hobbes expresses it, '' they have put off flesh and blood 
 to put on immortality " ; they are dead, and yet they 
 live ; live in the works which have been written in 
 them with their diversity of knowledge, living specially 
 in their literature which is imperishable, which, for 
 fitness of phraseology, brevity, clearness, directness, 
 severity, are models for all ages, bringing us back to 
 simplicity when we should err by extravagance ; and 
 to be specially studied by the rising generation in our 
 time, when there is so much of looseness and inflation, 
 stump oratory and sensationalism. It would be diffi- 
 cult to define it, but we all know what is meant by a 
 classical taste; there are persons. who seem to acquire 
 its chaste color spontaneously, as the ancient Greeks 
 and Romans must have done ; but, in fact, it has been 
 mainly fostered by living and breathing in the atmos- 
 phere of ancient Greece and Rome; and our youths 
 may acquire it most readily by travelling to the same 
 region where the air is ever pure and fresh. I believe 
 that our language and literature will run a great risk 
 of hopelessly degenerating, if we are not ever restrained 
 and corrected, while we are enlivened and refreshed, 
 by looking to these faultless models. 
 
XV. 
 
 In the lore that has come down to us from other 
 days, the student can still commune with the spirits of 
 the illustrious dead. The philosophers, the orators, 
 the historians, and poets of antiquity still speak to us 
 in the very words which they chose for the dress of 
 their undying thoughts. " Shining through the dark- 
 ness of ages, they still remain stars of changeless and 
 unequalled brilliancy." Their works have served to 
 enrich and embellish the intellects of those who, in 
 later times, have created the literature of their respec- 
 tive countries. All the civilized nations of the earth 
 have drank from the same common fountain. Many 
 of the most polished modern languages are but chan- 
 nels through which, from the same exhaustless reservoir, 
 flow streams of knowledge, fertilizing and enriching the 
 world of thought and feeling. The imagination of the 
 poet, the eloquence of the orator, the understanding of 
 the historian, and the critical acumen of the philoso- 
 pher, have all been trained and matured by these same 
 great teachers. The principles of their philosophy, 
 poetry, and oratory, originated in the nature of man, 
 and are as permanent and universal as the essential 
 attributes of humanity. Hence they are adapted to 
 
 This Chapter is an Extract from an Article in the Biblical Repository for 
 July, 1841, on " The Study of the Classics as an Intellectual Discipline," 
 by Professor Edwin D. Sanborn, LL.D., of Dartmouth College. 
 25 289 
 
290 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 all nations and all ages. They have been so freely 
 adopted by subsequent writers, and so fully incorpora- 
 ted in their works, that their origin is almost forgotten, 
 and they are regarded as the common property of the 
 literati. The golden coin has been so often exchanged 
 that its superscription is effaced, and the fortunate 
 possessor now enjoys the reward of the original miner. 
 
 Thus the treasury of modern science and literature 
 is replenished by the spoils of ages ; and our philoso- 
 phers and poets are wearing laurels plucked from the 
 brows of ancient sages and bards. Every generation 
 adds something to the world's intellectual treasures. 
 The literature of our own age, therefore, possesses ele- 
 ments as ancient as the origin of human civilization. 
 There is not a civilized nation of past times to which 
 our scholars are not indebted. They laid the founda- 
 tions upon which we are building. They enriched the 
 soil from which the human mind now derives its nutri- 
 ment. They originated many of the arts and much 
 of the literature which are reflecting honor upon our 
 institutions. 
 
 The languages to which modern nations are most 
 deeply indebted are thus beautifully characterized by 
 H. N. Coleridge : " Greek — the shrine of the genius of 
 the old world, as universal as our race ; as individual 
 as ourselves ; of infinite flexibility ; of indefatigable 
 strength; with the complication and distinctness of 
 nature herself ; with words like pictures ; with words 
 like the gossamer film of summer, at once the variety 
 and picturesqueness of Homer; the gloom and intensity 
 of Aeschylus ; not compressed to the closest by Thu- 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 291 
 
 cydides, nor fathomed to the bottom by Plato ; not sound- 
 ing with all its thunders nor lit up with all its ardors 
 under the Promethean torch of Demosthenes. And 
 Latin — the voice of empire and of war, of law and of 
 state ; rigid in its construction, reluctantly yielding to 
 the flowery yoke of Horace, although opening glimpses 
 of Greek-like splendor in the occasional inspirations of 
 Lucretius ; proved to the utmost by Cicero, and by him 
 found wanting, yet majestic in its barrenness, impres- 
 sive in its conciseness ; the true language of history ; 
 uniform in its air, whether touched by the stern and 
 haughty Sallust, by the open and discursive Livy, or by 
 the reserved and thoughtful Tacitus." 
 
 But it is not my object to eulogize the ancient lan- 
 guages. They have outlived the ravages of time and 
 barbarism. Like the native diamond, they have ac- 
 quired a higher polish by incessant use, and, in some 
 instances, have received new lustre from the very blows 
 that were dealt to mar their beauty. Omitting, there- 
 fore, the intrinsic excellence of these languages, as 
 instruments of thought, and the rich materials of 
 poetry, history, and philosophy, which they contain, let 
 us contemplate the influence of a diligent and judicious 
 study of them upon the development of the youthful 
 mind. 
 
 The classics have probably been injured as much by 
 indiscreet friends as by open enemies. When it is 
 gravely announced that the classics are the storehouse 
 of all knowledge, that every modern author only re- 
 peats, for the thousandth time, what was better said by 
 the ancients, and that they are the only efficient helps 
 
292 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 to a liberal education, the common sense of the intelli- 
 gent reader revolts at such groundless assertions. We 
 do not affirm, therefore, that the ancients possessed all 
 wisdom — only that they were wise ; nor that a knowl- 
 edge of the classics is absolutely essential to a good 
 education — only that it is highly important ; nor that 
 classical study should alone or chiefly occupy the stu- 
 dent's attention — but that it ought to hold a prominent 
 place in every, system of education which claims to be 
 liberal. The design of all intellectual training is to 
 develop and strengthen the native faculties of the mind. 
 It does not aim at mere acquisition, but at origination. 
 Its design is, not so much to learn what others have 
 thought wisely, as to think wisely ourselves ; not so 
 much to accumulate as to originate thoughts. It is 
 ^jiather learning liow to think than what to think ; pro- 
 viding intellectual strength and skill rather than intel- 
 lectual stores. The great object of the young student, 
 therefore, is to expand and invigorate the mind, to 
 promote an harmonious development of all its powers ; 
 to improve the memory, control the attention, give 
 accuracy and discrimination to the judgment, refine- 
 ment and elegance to the taste, and to impart to all 
 these faculties such a manly vigor and compactness as 
 will enable him to grapple successfully with the most 
 difficult and abstruse questions of philosophy, and, at 
 the same time, appreciate and enjoy the most splendid 
 creations of imagination. But some one may ask : Do 
 you pretend that the classics can accomplish this great 
 work alone ? Most certainly not. A mere classical 
 scholar is by no means a thoroughly educated man. 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 293 
 
 A complete education contemplates other objects be- 
 sides intellectual culture. Man needs physical and 
 moral as well as mental training. He has a will to 
 be regulated, passions to be governed, appetites to be 
 checked, and affections to be cultivated. The influence 
 of classical study in these respects, it is not our object 
 now to discuss. We wish to show its utility as an in- 
 tellectual discipline ; and, be it remembered, while we 
 maintain the importance and excellence of such disci- 
 pline, we do not exclude other sciences, or deny their 
 utility. We would not recommend the exclusive appli- 
 cation of the mind to any department of knowledge. 
 It is only the combined influence of different studies 
 which can make the finished scholar, the able reasoner, 
 and deep thinker. While we make these concessions 
 in favor of other sciences, we may safely assert that 
 the study of the languages is the best discipline for the 
 tyro, and one of the most valuable helps to the mature 
 scholar. The mathematics and metaphysics are suited 
 to a more advanced stage of education, and are pecu- 
 liarly adapted to develop the reasoning powers, though 
 less eflBcient in the cultivation of a correct taste, a 
 chastened imagination, and a tenacious memory. 
 
 A great part of the work of education is preparatory. 
 The foundation must be laid broad and deep before a 
 stable superstructure can be reared. How often have 
 we been told that the mind, like the body, requires ex- 
 ercise in order to its complete development ? Who 
 does not know, that without that exercise, the mind 
 must forever remain infantile and weak ? It should be 
 the first object of the teacher, therefore, to promote 
 
 25* 
 
294 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 intellectual activity. It is in vain to crowd the young 
 mind with facts and theories ; the understanding must 
 be enlarged before it can contain ; the judgment must 
 be matured before it can decide ; the memory must be 
 strengthened before it can retain ; the taste must be cul- 
 tivated before it can distinguish. Knowledge cannot 
 be poured into the mind like water into a cask — as the 
 ancient sophists taught — without regard to capacity. 
 As well might you teach the infant to walk, by present- 
 ing to his eye the process upon a canvass, as teach the 
 young pupil to think by the bare presentation of facts. 
 In both cases the child must exercise his own powers ; 
 and that he may properly exercise his mmd, he must 
 be furnished with appropriate subjects of contempla- 
 tion. The proper stimulus must be applied, and a 
 right direction given to his thoughts. If the material 
 be such as to employ all the powers of the mind at once, 
 time will be saved and great advantage secured. The 
 mind is enlarged by expansion and not by accretion. 
 
 If the business of education has been properly stated, 
 it follows that that course of study which most effectu- 
 ally secures the object of all mental training is the best. 
 Let us now examine more particularly the claims of 
 the classics to our attention. Let us notice their influ- 
 ence upon the individual faculties of the mind — the 
 memory, the attention, judgment, imagination, taste, 
 and reasoning powers. 
 
 1. In the acquisition of the words and grammatical 
 forms of a new language, the memory is essentially 
 improved. This is, perhaps, one of the least important 
 results of this discipline. The memory is more easily 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 295 
 
 trained than any other faculty of the mind. Almost 
 any exercise will be profitable to the memory of the 
 child ; still, in the process of a regular education, econ- 
 omy of time and mental advantage should determine 
 our choice of means. If we take into view the col- 
 lateral benefits which result from classical study as a 
 discipline for the memory, its influence in creating 
 mental capacity and stimulating to mental effort, by 
 invigorating the mind, and, at the same time, furnish- 
 ing the richest materials of thought, it may be ques- 
 tioned whether we can select a better exercise for the 
 young student. 
 
 2. The study of the languages enables the student to 
 command the attention at will, to fix it for any length 
 of time upon a single point, and to form those habits 
 of patient investigation and nice discrimination which 
 are essential to intellectual eminence. This is the most 
 difficult and painful part of the whole business of edu- 
 cation. Indeed, it is difficult for the best trained minds 
 to gain a perfect control of the attention so as to com- 
 mand it at will and concentrate it for a longer or a 
 shorter period, upon a given subject. This habit is by 
 no means the gift of nature. The mind naturally loves 
 ease or amusement better than toil and solid improve- 
 ment. It is disinclined to patient thought. It loves 
 to indulge its own idle reveries, to sport with its own 
 spontaneous musings, to brood over the creations of its 
 own imagination, and to follow its own vagaries to the 
 ends of the earth. " Every man who has instructed 
 others," says Dr. Johnson, " can tell how much patience 
 it requires to recall vagrant inattention, to stimulate 
 
296 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 sluggish indifference, and to rectify absurd misappre- 
 hensions." " In order to grapple successfully with the 
 difficulties of science, the mind should be brought to 
 the task in a collected and unruffled state. No half- 
 subdued gust of passion should start up ; no melancholy 
 train of thought should pour in its muddy current ; no 
 sudden start of skittish fancy or engrossing remem- 
 brance of darling diversion ; no dreams of romance 
 should come in to ruffle the smooth surface. The whole 
 soul should be only a mirror of thought, whose every 
 image should be well defined and without distortion." 
 
 Such a perfect control of the emotions, passions, and 
 thoughts can only be acquired by the truly philosophic 
 mind, and that by intense application and rigid disci- 
 pline. Still trial, effort, and practice may do much, 
 even for the feeblest intellect. Confined attention is 
 always irksome to the undisciplined mind, and it readily 
 welcomes any amusing day-dream, which may help to 
 expel unwelcome thoughts. 
 
 Now, it is found by long experience that the study 
 of the languages is an excellent remedy for languid 
 attention and intermittent application. It is impossible 
 to advance a single step without careful attention. The 
 interpretation of language requires thought, reflection, 
 and reasoning. In the more difficult passages it re- 
 quires undivided attention and intense application. 
 The student must not only have a clear idea of the 
 separate meaning of the words, but also of the thought 
 presented to the reader by their combination. He must 
 not only be familiar with the general meaning of each 
 word, but he must know its particular meaning in the 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 297 
 
 passage he is examining. He must form a just concep- 
 tion of the import of each sentence, and of its relation 
 to the context. The precise thing indicated by every 
 word and every sentence must be presented to the 
 mental eye, and the exact shade of thought which lay 
 in the author's mind must be exhibited under new 
 forms and in new relations, so as not to lose one of its 
 original characteristics. This requires a careful atten- 
 tion to all the circumstances of the writer's situation, 
 the time, the place, and the cause of his writing. The 
 author's peculiar mental and physical constitution, 
 his mode of life, and habits of thinking should also be 
 investigated. Sometimes an author cannot be fully 
 understood and appreciated without an intimate knowl- 
 edge of the geographical, commercial, and political con- 
 dition, domestic manners, mental habits, private and 
 public life of the people to which he belonged. So that 
 frequently the whole field of ancient lore must be ex- 
 plored, and the whole world of antiquities be laid under 
 contribution to illustrate a single author. 
 
 The connection of each word, thought, and para- 
 graph, with every other portion of the work, must be 
 carefully scrutinized, lest in translating we make the 
 writer contradict himself. The nature of the subject 
 discussed, and the logical sequence of the arguments 
 must also be noticed, so that our interpretation may not 
 be incongruous or irrelevant. This process requires a 
 vigorous exercise of the powers of invention and com- 
 prehension. Thus the mind is kept in a constant state 
 of healthy activity and pleasurable excitement. Its 
 natural appetency for new truths and new relations is 
 
298 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 abundantly gratified. The pleasure of acquisition be- 
 guiles the tediousness of severe study, and the habit 
 of patient investigation and critical analysis is formed 
 without the consciousness of fatigue. " The power 
 of making nice distinctions and of separating things, 
 which, to the ignorant and inexperienced, appear alike," 
 says Professor Stuart, ''is one of the most important 
 powers ever acquired and exercised by the human 
 mind. I must believe that linguistic study, directed as 
 it ought to be, namely to acquire a knowledge of tilings 
 that are designated by the words of a foreign language, 
 is one of the most important means of improving and 
 strengthening the faculty of nice discernment that is 
 within the reach of a young man." The same author 
 acknowledges himself more indebted to this discipline 
 than to all his other studies. The Judgment is also 
 called into active exercise during the whole process of 
 interpretation, in unravelling and recomposing every 
 sentence and paragraph, but more especially in an- 
 alyzing an entire work. The same faculty may be 
 judiciously exercised in comparing synonymes, in deter- 
 mining their exact shades of difference, and in deciding 
 why a particular word is used in a given place instead 
 of another. In reading different authors their pecu- 
 liarities may be noticed, their excellences or defects 
 compared, and their merits determined. In this way 
 even the young student may create for himself a stand- 
 ard of merit, and form some notion of a higher and 
 philosophical criticism. When he has once learned to 
 think with precision and to discriminate with accuracy, 
 he will easily command right words and forcible ex- 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 299 
 
 pressioii for the vehicle of his thoughts. The classical 
 student, if he have clear ideas and definite notions of 
 what he wishes to communicate, cannot want for words. 
 His familiarity with the best models will generally 
 secure him from inaccuracies in the use of language 
 and offences against taste. 
 
 3. The study of the classics tends to refine, chasten, 
 and exalt the imagination. Perhaps there is no one of 
 the native powers of the mind which usually exerts so 
 important an influence upon our happiness or misery 
 in this life as the imagination. If properly trained and 
 directed it may become the source of the most exquisite 
 pleasure ; if neglected and abused, of the most excru- 
 ciating torment. In those departments of literature 
 which are the peculiar province of the imagination, the 
 ancients stand unrivalled. In their poetry and oratory 
 the student is introduced to the most splendid creations 
 of genius. It is the prevailing opinion of some of our 
 best critics that the infancy of society is most favorable 
 to poetic excellenee. Everything then is new. All 
 the impressions of the bard are fresh and vivid. The 
 current of his thoughts gushes out warm from nature's 
 living fount. As men advance in society they become 
 less susceptible to those lively emotions, excited by an 
 ardent imagination. They deal more in general ideas 
 and cold abstractions. The reasoning powers become 
 more acute, the imagination more tame. The experi- 
 mental sciences, which require time for maturity, ad- 
 vance with the improvement of society, while poetry 
 remains stationary or retrogrades. " As civilization 
 advances," says Macaulay, " poetry almost necessarily 
 
300 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 declines. In proportion as men know more and think 
 more, they look less at individuals and more at classes. 
 They therefore make better theories and worse poems." 
 
 If this theory be true the student can kindle the true 
 poetic enthusiasm in his own bosom only by stealing a 
 coal from the altar of the ancient muses. A thorough 
 acquaintance with ancient poetry will undoubtedly give 
 him a just notion of the office of the imagination in lit- 
 erature, and reveal to him the secret process by which 
 this " shaping spirit" creates the magic wonders of its 
 power. It is not enough that the scholar views and 
 admires these unequalled productions of genius; he 
 must become familiar with them and feel their influ- 
 ence. It is not sufficient to notice and treasure up 
 the beautiful conceits and striking expressions of an 
 author ; but he must strive to reproduce in himself the 
 inspiration of the bard and the enthusiasm of the orator. 
 He must, for the time, forget self, and, in imagination 
 at least, exchange places with the author, live in the 
 very midst of the stirring scenes that called forth the 
 orator's pathos or kindled the poet's fire, breathe in his 
 spirit, be moved by the same impulses of feeling that 
 actuated him, be touched by his sorrow, be melted by 
 his tears, catch his fire, feel the same emotions of sub- 
 limity, and enjoy the same beauties that elevated or 
 ravished his soul, soar with him in imagination, and 
 train the whole intellectual being to like modes of 
 thought. In this way he may acquire sufficient strength 
 and nerve to wield the giant armor of men of other 
 days. 
 
 By this process alone can the student become an 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 301 
 
 adept in classic lore. Some practical men may cry 
 out : " Enthusiasm ! extravagance ! " Admit that it is 
 enthusiasm. Great attainments were never made in 
 any branch of literature, science, or art, without some 
 degree of professional enthusiasm. This devotion of 
 eminent scholars and artists to their favorite pursuits 
 is the very secret of their success. 
 
 4. The taste is refined and matured by this same 
 discipline. By constant association with refined society 
 the individual is himself refined. The mind, in like 
 manner, is moulded by the objects it contemplates. By 
 long familiarity with these finished models of composi- 
 tion, the principles of philosophic criticism are grad- 
 ually acquired, and a cultivated taste is unconsciously 
 formedj^so that in writing the student instinctively 
 adopts what is beautiful in sentiment and faultless in 
 expression, and rejects what is vulgar and anomalous. 
 Though he may forget every word and every thought 
 he has ever learned from ancient authors, his time will 
 not have been lost. There still remains in the soul 
 " an intellectual residuum," a kind of mental precipi- 
 tate, which, though differing from all the elements that 
 were originally thrown into the intellectual crucible, 
 still contains their very essence and is superior to them 
 all. The student's taste is classical. And can we use 
 a more expressive epithet ? Can there be higher praise ? 
 After long acquaintance with classic excellences, he 
 has an intuitive perception of the beauties of a literary 
 production. He does not need to recur to the standard 
 he once used. He has risen from the condition of a 
 learner to that of judge, and his nice perception of the 
 
 26 
 
302 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 beauties of a finished composition has become a part 
 of his mental constitution. The man who has been 
 thus educated, can scarcely become so degraded as to 
 lose entirely his taste for the beautiful, the poetic, and 
 the sublime in literature. Nor is this discipline, which 
 thus forms the taste and polishes the mind, a mere un- 
 requited toil, destitute of pleasure or profit. There is 
 a pleasure in mere intellectual activity. We are so 
 constituted that without exertion we cannot enjoy. 
 Knowledge is the proper aliment of the soul, and the 
 highest mental enjoyment results from the uninter- 
 rupted pursuit and the constant acquisition of new 
 truths. A philosopher once said : " If the gods would 
 grant me all knowledge I would not thank them for 
 the boon ; but if they would grant me the everlasting 
 pursuit of it I would render them everlasting thanks." 
 5. Classical study is eminently useful in strengthen- 
 ing the reasoning powers. The art of reasoning is one 
 of the most complicated and difiicult of all arts. It 
 can be acquired only by long and laborious training. 
 Perfection in this art would require all knowledge. 
 The noblest productions of human reason have resulted 
 from the combined influence of all liberal studies. The 
 higher mathematics furnish an excellent discipline for 
 minds that have already been partially matured by an 
 appropriate early education. But as mathematical rea- 
 soning alone admits of absolute certainty, and all moral 
 reasoning is based upon probabilities, classical study is 
 found to be an excellent co-worker with the mathemat- 
 ics and metaphysics in preparing men for the diversified 
 employments of life. In most of our daily avocations 
 
PROFESSOR SANBORN. 303 
 
 we reason from probable evidence. The difBculty of 
 this process is increased by the ambiguity of human 
 language. In the business of translating from a foreign 
 tongue the mind is constantly employed in weighing 
 evidence and balancing probabilities. It is made famil- 
 iar with the very process of reasoning which we need 
 to employ in the intercourse of life. " The mind," 
 says Dugald Stewart, " in following any train of rea- 
 soning beyond the circle of the mathematical sciences, 
 must necessarily carry on, along with the logical deduc- 
 tion expressed in words, another logical process, of a 
 far nicer and more difficult nature, that of fixing, with 
 a rapidity which escapes our memory, the precise sense 
 of every word which is ambiguous, by the relation in 
 which it stands to the general scope of the argument." 
 Now this is precisely the student's occupation who is 
 translating a foreign language. He is incessantly em- 
 ployed in determining the meaning of words from the 
 connection in which they stand, constantly weighing 
 evidence and drawing conclusions, if he does not use a 
 translation ; for in that case he is only exercising his 
 memory. Each word has various significations. He 
 must carefully examine the sentence and then fix upon 
 the appropriate definition. In this way he is for years 
 training the mind to the most accurate discrimination 
 in comparing words and adjusting nice shades of mean- 
 ing. Thus he learns to practise the most delicate and 
 difficult part of the art of reasoning. In what other 
 way could one become so intimately acquainted with 
 the right use of language which is the great instrument 
 of all ratiocination ? Without a minute knowledge of 
 
304 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 definitions and of the nice shades of meaning which 
 result from the subject discussed and the connection 
 of the argument, no person can speak with precision, 
 or reason with force and perspicuity. Many eminent 
 teachers have been so fully convinced of the utility of 
 classical studies in invigorating and maturing the men- 
 tal powers, that they give it as their opinion, that, if 
 two students of equal capacity be put upon a course of 
 study for six years — the one pursuing English studies 
 wholly, and the other devoting one third of the time to 
 the languages — at the end of the course the classical 
 student, by his superior discipline, will have acquired 
 a better English education aside from his knowledge of 
 the languages than the other. An eminent French 
 philosopher supposes if two boys were put to study — 
 the one upon the classics and the other upon the sci- 
 ences — and, " on leaving the first class," the classical 
 scholar should, by some accident, lose every word he 
 had learned, but retain his intellectual powers in the 
 same state of maturity as before the loss, that this 
 scholar, beginning his acquisitions anew, would, at the 
 close of his course, be better educated and better pre- 
 pared for the business of life than the other, who had 
 devoted the whole time to other pursuits. This may be 
 an extravagant opinion, yet by no means so extravagant 
 as many would suppose. It is undoubtedly true that 
 the time which many students think absolutely wasted 
 upon the classics, is the very seed-time of life. It is the 
 apprenticeship of mind ; the time when they are acquir- 
 ing strength and skill for greater efibrt ; the time when 
 they are preparing their weapons for future warfare. 
 
XVL 
 
 And now we come to the last tug of the war — Latin 
 and Greek. Are they to go? Whoever says "Yes," 
 I adhere to " No ; " and if I could, I would say it in 
 thunder. Here, too, however far I should go for pure 
 addition, or however willing to allow a certain slight 
 amount of option, I should be against any considerable 
 subtraction. In the great English schools and univer- 
 sities they may wash away much, and welcome ; but we 
 in Scotland cannot spare any of our Greek and Latin. 
 There are various grounds on which the continued 
 study of Latin and Greek might be maintained. There 
 is the well-known argument of the drill these languages 
 give. The argument has been sneered at, but it is too 
 stout to be overcome. There are few things of which 
 I am more convinced. The first requisite in all educa- 
 tion is training to accuracy ; and it is my distinct 
 experience, checked again and again by observation, 
 that no ordinary agency has yet been invented com- 
 parable, for its stringency in clearing inaccuracy out 
 of the mind of youth, to an exact school discipline in 
 Latin. yes ! but we must have done with the mere 
 study of words, you know ; we must have a knowledge 
 of things ! This is the favorite form of expression 
 
 This Extract is from an Address delivered at the Ceremonial of Gradua- 
 tion at the University of Edinbm-gh, April 22, 1868, by Professor Masson. 
 26 * 305 
 
306 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 with the anti-classicists — Things versus Words. I am 
 sorry to find Mr. Lowe, with his great strength and wit, 
 leading some of the worst forms of Philistinism, and 
 lending his authority to this particular clap-trap. 
 Things, indeed ! Are things only pokers, shovels, 
 rocks, trees, fields, harbors at home, and townships in 
 Australia ? Are not the thoughts of Plato things, and 
 Homer's heroes and battles, and the grand imaginations 
 and choral wails of Sophocles, and Demosthenes's bolts 
 of reasoning, and Livy's fine legends, and Horace's 
 consummate lyrics and maxims, and what Yirgil musi- 
 cally chants, and the versatile speculations of Cicero, 
 or the more ferocious flamings of Lucretius ? Is not 
 the whole life of the ancient world into which the 
 classics admit us also a world of things ? May not 
 commerce with some of those things — let us say the 
 things in one of Sophocles's tragedies — be as edifying, 
 leave as many flakes and recollections of precious sub- 
 stance in the mind, as an hour among the pokers and 
 shovels and the commercial statistics of all our col- 
 onies ? And if, as is argued, this commerce is best at 
 first hand ; if there is an advantage in respect of matter 
 even, in that close and minute contact with the mean- 
 ing of the classic authors which reading in the original 
 insures ; and if, at the same time, one can drink in 
 only by that means the full beauty of the form, and 
 acquire a sense, even to fastidiousness, of what beauty 
 of form is for ever ; if all this is true, and if (which 
 must always be remembered) the modern has still to 
 be added in full bulk, and all parts of it in their due 
 proportion, then I see not why classical studies, which 
 
PROFESSOR MASSON. 307 
 
 have certainly assisted in educating for us hitherto most 
 of our ablest and best, need yet be abandoned. Have 
 we advanced so far ; are we so princely ? But, again, 
 about that statement that we must study things rather 
 than words. What if there were a sense, not destitute 
 of practical significance, in which things resolve them- 
 selves into words ? This I will not argue, but I am 
 entitled to assert, surely, that words are, at all events, 
 one kind of things. Nay, more, not only are words 
 things, but they are a most interesting and important 
 class of things, and the study of them is about the 
 most subtile and fruitful study on which man can 
 engage. And here we are in sight of a final argument 
 for classical learning, of a. very special character, and 
 not frequently referred to, but which ought to be of 
 particular weight with the advocates of strict or posi- 
 tive science. Latin and Greek are not finished and 
 stereotyped studies, any more than is logic, or chemis- 
 try, or political economy. They retain their names, 
 but they sustain modifications from the course of gen- 
 eral thought and knowledge. They imbibe what is 
 around them, and grow, and change their color, by 
 what they imbibe. The Latin and Greek training of 
 the present century is different from that of the 
 eighteenth, just as that was different from what had 
 prevailed in the seventeenth, and the Latin and Greek, 
 besides their other recommendations, have now a pecu- 
 liar one. Being the two dead languages most minutely 
 and grammatically taught in our schools and imiver- 
 sities, and most worthy of being so taught, on account 
 of the treasures to which they are the keys, they are 
 
308 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 also, or they might be made also (along with our ver- 
 nacular, and a mere hand-book of Indo-European or 
 other radicals), the most convenient illustrations and 
 furtherance of that new linguistic science, or general 
 Science of Language and Grammar, the prospects of 
 which are absolutely enormous. Philology, to use the 
 old name for it, promises to be a calculus of as great 
 potency for solving problems of the human past as 
 geology has been for solving problems of the pre-human 
 past, but of still greater exquisitness and complexity. 
 It is divisible into the allied sciences of glottology, or 
 the science of elementary vocalizations, their origin, 
 significance, and combinations historically into speech ; 
 and mythology, or the science of the primitive, trans- 
 mitted, and perhaps organic, imaginations and concep- 
 tions of the human race. Let any one look into even 
 such comparatively popular works as Professor Max 
 Miiller's " Chips from a German Workshop ; " or the 
 American Professor Whitney's " Lectures on Lan- 
 guage," and he will have an idea of what may come 
 out of the study of words. Why, you can see that, 
 through this study, scholars are already twining their 
 hands in the mane of back-rushing Time, and compell- 
 ing the monster to stand, and extracting from her some 
 of her obscurest secrets. Science against philology ! 
 Why, philology is the latest of the sciences. The 
 physical sciences conspiring against linguistic studies ! 
 Why, gentlemen, this is Joseph's half-brethren selling 
 him into Egypt, on account of his dreams of permanent 
 supremacy and his parti-colored coat. 
 
XVII. 
 
 In the year 1778, in the midst of our revolutionary 
 conflict, when the resolution to maintain the Declaration 
 of Independence had become an unalterable purpose, 
 the brothers Samuel Phillips, of Andover, and John 
 Phillips, of Exeter — 'par ndbile fratrum — under the 
 moving influence of the illustrious son of the former, 
 Samuel Phillips, Jr., of Andover, for "the safety and 
 happiness of the people," for " the good of mankind " 
 and the service of " our Heavenly Benefactor," founded 
 this Institution, the first incorporated Academy in New 
 England. They established it for a twofold purpose, 
 having for its secondary object the preparation of young 
 men for the business of teaching, and for those active 
 pursuits of life which require the practical application 
 of the mathematical and physical sciences, together with 
 a superior knowledge of the English tongue, but having 
 for its primary and great end the due preparation for a 
 university course, and the proper commencement and 
 foundation of that integral, symmetrical, and complete 
 culture, which involves the harmonious development 
 of all the higher faculties and capacities in their true 
 order and proportion, and which, in the words of Milton, 
 
 This Chapter is from an Address on " Classical Studies as a Part of Aca- 
 demic Education," delivered at the Dedication of the New Academic Hall 
 of Phillips Academy, Andover, Feb. 7, 1866, by Hon. Philip H. Sears, of 
 
 Boston. 
 
 809 
 
310 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 " fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnani- 
 mously all the offices, both private and public, of peace 
 and war." 
 
 The importance and necessity of the secondary object 
 and function of the institution they fully appreciated 
 and insisted on, as their trustees have done ever since ; 
 but, in order that there might not be wanting to our 
 rising nation those great supports and ornaments, the 
 enlightened divine, jurist, statesman, scholar, and man 
 of letters, and true scientific philosopher, they aimed 
 principally to provide here the solid foundation for a 
 truly liberal culture, planting the chief corner-stone 
 thereof deep in the study of the classics. For the best 
 discipline and cultivation of the highest powers of the 
 human intellect, the reason, memory, imagination, and 
 taste ; for the best preparation for the learned professions, 
 as well as for the duties of the republican citizen and 
 patriot, and the Christian scholar : and, in the words 
 of the founders, for furnishing the students " with such 
 general maxims of conduct as may best enable them to 
 pass through all the several connections and various 
 scenes incident to human life, with ease, reputation, and 
 comfort," — they believed there was nothing so effective 
 as thorough training in classical studies ; and accord- 
 ingly the successive trustees and instructors of this 
 academy have faithfully carried into efiect the original 
 design and plan of education, devoting the first depart- 
 ment to classical training, and the second department 
 to the study of mathematical and physical science and 
 the English language and literature. 
 
 The expediency and utility of such scientific and 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 311 
 
 English course as is here pursued, so extensive, complete, 
 and efficient, and the importance of its influence in the 
 community, have never been called in question ; on the 
 contrary, the peculiar tendencies of our people and 
 times secure to it from all, unqualified appreciation and 
 commendation. But, from time to time, and especially 
 in very recent times, under the influence of the answers 
 made to the Parliamentary Commission upon the great 
 schools of England by the scientific men of that country, 
 the propriety of studying the classic languages, and 
 particularly the Greek language, as part of an academic 
 or collegiate education, has been made the subject of 
 attacks the most elaborate and most widely spread 
 abroad through popular channels, addressing the pecu- 
 liar predispositions of our people, and calling perhaps 
 for some defence of classical study on an occasion like 
 this; especially when, by the testimony of the same 
 scientific men, by reasoning that never has been, nor 
 can be, answered, and by the actual results of the career 
 of this academy, the classical course here pursued may 
 be not only perfectly vindicated, but commended to still 
 higher and wider approval. 
 
 The favorite objections now so much in vogue against 
 classical study as part of a liberal education, which most 
 require our notice, may .be stated in few words, and be 
 answered, I believe, almost as briefly. 
 
 It is urged in these objections. First, that many 
 desirous of obtaining superior education have no apti- 
 tude for classical studies, and therefore a different kind 
 of study and discipline ought to be provided for them. 
 Secondly, that the observing powers of the mind are 
 
312 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 developed in the order of nature at an earlier age than 
 the powers of relBection and reasoning; that certain 
 branches of natural science are better fitted to train the 
 powers of observation than the study of the classics, and 
 therefore classical study ought to be removed from the 
 course of all early academic education. Thirdly, that 
 classical study is superfluous as a means of intellectual 
 discipline, being inferior for that purpose to the study 
 of the physical sciences and modern languages, which 
 alone are accounted of actual use in life, and therefore 
 these latter studies ought to supersede and replace the 
 classics; and, Fourthly, that the great progress of science 
 and increase of knowledge within the last half century, 
 together with the impatience felt in this country to 
 enter early into the active pursuits of life, make any 
 general scholarship, or general culture altogether im- 
 practicable, necessitate a minute subdivision of intel- 
 lectual labor, and require that all preliminary general 
 education should be reduced to a minimum, and be 
 superseded in great measure by special professional 
 training. 
 
 These several objections, I need not say in this 
 presence, are founded mainly upon mistakes of fact, 
 or of reasoning, so evident to those familiar witii the 
 subject, as to obviate the necessity of making any 
 elaborate reply. 
 
 That those who have no aptitude for classical study, 
 but have capacities alone adapted to the physical and 
 practical sciences, or modern utilitarian studies, should, 
 nevertheless, be obliged to pursue a classical course, no 
 advocate of classical studies in this country, and least 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 313 
 
 of all, any acting under the constitution of this academy, 
 ever claims ; the English department of this institution, 
 the technological institutes, the scientific schools con- 
 nected with our colleges, are peculiarly fitted for such. 
 Let them enter there, and pursue the studies and adopt 
 the vocations best suited to them. 
 
 Again, that the power of accurate external observation 
 has commonly an earlier development than the powers 
 of reflection, and that the early study of the elements 
 of natural history will best train the mind in exact 
 habits and methods of outward observation and classi- 
 fication, may be readily granted ; but what the friends 
 of classical study claim is, that the reflective and reason- 
 ing powers, when in the order of nature their active 
 development does begin, equally require their proper 
 nourishment, exercise, and discipline, and that thorough 
 classical study is the proper and best nourishment and 
 discipline. 
 
 According to the testimony given to the Parliamentary 
 Commission by the scientific men, and especially by Sir 
 Charles Lyell, Faraday, Owen, Carpenter, and Hooker, 
 the development of the powers of accurate observation 
 and classification, begins as early as the age of eight or 
 nine years, and all the necessary gymnastic training of 
 these powers may be completed by the age of twelve or 
 . fourteen years. According to the testimony of the 
 same scientific men as well as upon common observation, 
 the active, marked development of the reflective and 
 reasoning powers begins ordinarily between the ages of 
 thirteen and fifteen years, and their discipline ought 
 then to commence, and to bo continued through the 
 
 21 
 
314 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 course of academic and collegiate education. The 
 statistics of this academy, on examination, show that 
 the average age of entering the classical department 
 through the whole period, from the first to the present 
 time, does not differ much from fourteen years, the 
 average age of entering during recent years being still 
 greater, and only very few in recent years entering 
 earlier than the age of thirteen ; leaving ample time for 
 the previous study of the common branches of English 
 education, including elementary botany and zoology, 
 at the public schools established under the laws of the 
 commonwealth. The classical course of this academy 
 begins, therefore, with the active normal development 
 of the reflective and reasoning powers, and this classical 
 course, with a suitable collateral course of mathematics 
 to be duly continued in college, it is hardly too much 
 to say, is the best conceivable discipline for the three 
 years through which the course extends. 
 
 For the cultivation of the power and habit of internal, 
 reflex observation of the mind's own processes of thought, 
 feeling, and expression, — for the cultivation of the 
 powers and habits of sustained, continuous attention, of 
 persistent application, of nice discrimination, of search- 
 ing and exact analysis, of moral or probable reasoning 
 and consecutive reflection, of clear perception in attain- 
 ing distinct ideas with the ability of precise expression, 
 of well-trained judgment in weighing and comparing 
 conflicting considerations, of abstraction, memory, shap- 
 ing imagination, critical and refined taste ; what dis- 
 cipline can be found or imagined, to be compared with 
 thorough study of the classic languages and literature ? 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 815 
 
 The study of language is at once an objective and a 
 subjective study, and through its subjective part it is 
 the best introduction of all to the genuine study of the 
 philosophy of mind, the best introduction to that real 
 knowledge of the mind and heart of man which is so 
 essential in the professions of divinity and law, in the 
 questions of history and of politics, in the arts of design, 
 in all the active dealings of life, and is not less important 
 as necessary preparation for the true philosophical study 
 of nature. Call to mind for a moment in a summary 
 and simple form the actual process of studying the 
 languages. After learning the rules of grammar with 
 appropriate illustrations, in attempting to render from 
 the unknown tongue into the vernacular, the student 
 has in the open volume before him simply a series of 
 printed words, printed characters, that are in themselves 
 mere arbitrary or phonetic signs ; by means of the 
 vocabulary and grammar he has suggested to him, in 
 vernacular terms, the various possible ideas, relations, 
 objects, or conceptions of objects which these words, 
 phrases, and forms of construction may be used to 
 represent ; but before he can determine what particular 
 thoughts or conceptions are actually intended to be 
 there expressed, he is obliged to turn his attention 
 inward upon his own consciousness, and call up there 
 these various conceptions, and scan them carefully, and 
 compare them exactly with the ascertained meanings 
 in the sentence before him, if any there be, with the 
 known values, to speak in mathematical ph]*ase, or else 
 with the several possible values within the determinate 
 limits, until by much comparison and going backward 
 
316 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 and forward, to and fro, he is able at length to settle to 
 his own satisfaction the true meaning of the whole 
 sentence and of each of its parts. On the other hand, 
 too, in undertaking to compose in the classic language 
 or to translate into it, inasmuch as he cannot think in 
 that language, and as scarcely any individual word of 
 the vernacular tongue is precisely equivalent in meaning 
 to any individual word of the classic tongue, he will be 
 still more obliged to disrobe his thoughts of their ver- 
 nacular garb, and look in upon them face to face, and 
 ascertain definitely their real purport and extent, their 
 quality and quantity, before he can express them pre- 
 cisely in classic phraseology. No one can reflect for a 
 moment upon this simple, ordinary process of studying 
 the languages without seeing at once how it contributes 
 to the formation of some of the highest and most im- 
 portant intellectual habits. It takes the youth at an 
 age when during his whole previous life his attention 
 has been given to outward observation, and when the 
 direct study of what Milton calls the "intellective 
 abstractions of logic and metaphysics" would be alto- 
 gether impossible, and turns the attention inward, and 
 by an indirect method forms the habit of internal obser- 
 vation, and lays the foundation for the subsequent direct 
 study of mental philosophy. And indeed, unless the 
 power of internal observation be thus developed by the 
 early study of languages, the study of mental philosophy 
 itself at any period of life will too often become merely 
 learning the speculations and conclusions of others, 
 without any testing of them by direct inspection and 
 study of actual consciousness. 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 317 
 
 The same process, it is equally evident, must produce 
 by its direct effect, habitual clearness and precision, both 
 of thought and expression, which Locke makes to be 
 the most important work of education. It involves, 
 too, necessarily close application and steady attention. 
 It constantly exercises the understanding in analyzing, 
 discriminating, comparing, in weighing and judging of 
 probabilities of meaning, and thence forming conclusions : 
 in short, in all the operations of practical logic; and 
 when the student has to prepare himself also to answer 
 the manifold questions that may be put to him in the 
 manner illustrated so admirably in that invaluable 
 work, " The Method of Classical Study," in respect to 
 the composition, derivation, and affiliation of words, 
 the peculiarities of idiom, the exact force of particles, 
 phrases, and forms of construction, the arrangement 
 and syntax of the whole, the comparison of the classic 
 languages with each other, and with the English, as the 
 basis for understanding universal grammar and the 
 philosophy of language, together with all questions of ' 
 ethnography, mythology, geography, history, biography, 
 antiquities, and of the logic, the rhetoric, the style and 
 art of composition of the author, what various resources, 
 as well as powers, are not of necessity called into 
 requisition ? 
 
 But how much all these various mental exercises and 
 eflforts are enlarged and intensified when the student 
 in due course comes to the more difficult portions of 
 classic study, to those condensed, elliptical speeches in 
 Thucydides, or to those long, complicated passages of 
 Livy, wherein the author, taking advantage of the pecu- 
 
 27* 
 
318 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 liar means for transposition in the arrangement and 
 collocation of words and clauses given to the classic 
 languages by their properties of inflection through de- 
 clension, conjugation, and comparison, thereby dispensing 
 so much with the use of prepositions, adverbs, auxiliaries, 
 and pronouns, for purposes of artistic effect, involves his 
 intricate sentences with clause enfolded within clause, 
 with qualification upon qualification, limitation after 
 limitation, governing words removed far from the words 
 governed, qualifying words far from those qualified, 
 but all the parts connected together by nicely adjusted 
 mechanism, and the whole almost as difiicult of com- 
 prehension, and grasp, in one general view as the most 
 complicated pieces of modern machinery. And yet the 
 work of comprehending and interpreting throughout is 
 to be accomplished by the student himself, through the 
 exertions of his own understanding, with such aid only, 
 often absolutely necessary, as the judicious teacher or 
 editor may think it wise to give. For let it be remem- 
 bered, that, by the methods of study here pursued, the 
 student of to-day, as truly as the student of three cen- 
 turies ago, in endeavoring to make out the sense of 
 each successive passage or sentence of the classic author, 
 has .to exercise his own faculties originally upon the 
 solution of the problem of its meaning. With most 
 valuable aid upon the abstruse points, but without aid 
 in other parts, he has to work his way laboriously, per- 
 severingly through the difficulties of the question ; and 
 it is this patient, persistent, strenuous, intellectual 
 exertion, that most effectively develops into active energy 
 all the native powers of the understanding. 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 819 
 
 The physical sciences, evidently, cannot supply this 
 place of classical studies as mental discipline. After 
 the early study of botany and zoology for forming habits 
 of observation and classification, the physical sciences 
 for the most part are communicated to the student as 
 general results already attained, illustrated by simple 
 experiments, and requiring very little intellectual effort 
 for their comprehension, or else they belong to a much 
 later stage of education, after an advanced course of 
 mathematics, like the mathematical parts of astronomy, 
 optics, or electro-magnetism. They are not studied as 
 original investigations of the student himself. In the 
 language of Sir William Hamilton, " Merely to learn 
 what has been already detected and detailed, calls out 
 in the student the very feeblest effort of thought. Con- 
 sequently, these [physical] studies tend the least to 
 develop the understanding, and even leave it, for aught 
 that they thus effect, in a state of comparative weakness 
 and barbarism." 1 Not even the scientific men of 
 England have ventured to claim for these studies any 
 disciplinary influence to be compared with the classics. 
 But yet that the physical sciences should be studied at 
 some time before the close of the university course, for 
 acquiring knowledge of their principles, and of the 
 important truths embraced in their general results, the 
 friends of classical study are ever among the foremost 
 in maintaining. Nor need the great progress of science 
 and increase of knowledge within the last half century 
 deter any student from acquiring a mastery of the 
 general principles and results of these sciences. Their 
 
 1 Discussions, p. 705. 
 
320 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 details belong only to the special cultivator of each 
 science, and are of but little value to any one else. 
 This very progress within the last half century has 
 reduced these sciences to a more systematic form, and, 
 instead of making the acquisition of their general 
 principles and results more dijfficult, has rendered it 
 far easier than ever before, as has been shown so clearly 
 by Humboldt in his " Cosmos." 
 
 Neither, again, can the English, or any other modern 
 language, take the place of the classic languages as the 
 groundwork of intellectual training. Apart from mani- 
 fold other defects, their relative lack of inflection and 
 consequent use of particles, while denying to them the 
 artistic capabilities of the ancient languages, at the 
 same time impose upon them a comparatively fixed 
 order in the collocation of words and clauses with little 
 possibility of transposition or variation ; and this pecu- 
 liarity alone would deprive them of a great part of the 
 disciplinary power of the Greek and Latin tongues. In 
 comparison with those tongues, the modern languages 
 can hardly be said to have any grammar, except that 
 inevitable grammar to which the logical laws of human 
 thought subject them. Neither could any text-books 
 be found, or prepared, to compare with the great classic 
 text-books whose critical annotations are the work of 
 ages. From the time that Plato and Aristotle discussed 
 grammar as a part of logic, — from the time that Zenod- 
 otus developed its principles as an instrument for the 
 criticism of the text of Homer, and Dionysius Thrax 
 formulized them in Latin for the instruction of Roman 
 youth, down to the latest grammatical or critical work 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 321 
 
 of the. German scholar of to-day, the classic languages 
 and authors have been the perpetual subjects of critical 
 study and commentary by the most acute and cultivated 
 minds of twenty centuries. The classics are studied in 
 an atmosphere of light. In comparison, no modern 
 language or author can claim to have any critical 
 exposition or commentary. These living languages 
 rather are, and will be, studied chiefly for actual use in 
 social and business intercourse, or in reading their 
 literary and scientific works for the sake of the subject- 
 matter, and these objects lead to entirely different 
 methods of study, involving but little disciplinary in- 
 fluence. 
 
 But, what is far more important, the moulding taste, 
 the ideals, the essential soul of modern literature, are 
 vitally classic. The plastic spirit of Greece is the bond 
 of affinity and sympathy running through all the works 
 of modern genius, uniting them in a common republic of 
 letters, and requiring for their appreciation a partici- 
 pation in the same spirit. In the words of Macaulay, 
 from " that splendid literature of Greece have sprung 
 all the strength, the wisdom, the freedom and the glory 
 
 of the Western world What shall we say when 
 
 we reflect that from hence have sprung, directly or 
 indirectly, all the noblest creations of the human intel- 
 lect ; that from hence were the vast accomplishments, 
 and the brilliant fancy of Cicero, the withering fire of 
 Juvenal, the plastic imagination of Dante, the humor 
 of Cervantes, the comprehension of Bacon, the wit of 
 Butler, the supreme and universal excellence of Shaks- 
 peare? All the triumphs of truth and genius over 
 
322 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 prejudice and power, in every country and in every 
 age, have been the triumphs of Athens." Who, then, 
 without imbibing the same spirit from the same original 
 fountains, shall dream of entering into the inner genius 
 of modern literature, of appreciating its highest artistic 
 beauties, of enjoying its greatest charms, or of being 
 able to make any genuine contributions to it ? To cut 
 off Apierican mind from access to this primal source 
 of inspiration, would be to insure a lapse into intellectual 
 barbarism. To no literary man so much as to the 
 American, is classical study essential. Well has it been 
 said by De Tocqueville : " No literature places those 
 fine qualities in which the writers of democracies are 
 naturally deficient, in bolder relief than that of the 
 ancients ; no literature, therefore, ought to be more 
 studied in democratic times." 
 
 Still more practically essential is classical study to 
 the divine, the jurist, the scientific philosopher, and the 
 statesman. Protestant theology has been defined by 
 Sir William Hamilton to be substantially " applied 
 philology and criticism." Even though this be not the 
 whole of Christian theology, certainly no man can be 
 thought competent to instruct others in Christian truth 
 who is himself unable to interpret the original writings 
 in which alone the Christian oracles have been trans- 
 mitted to us. The ordinary text-books, too, of the 
 lawyer, are bristling over with Latin, and the earliest 
 precedents of his profession are in the Latinized French 
 of the Normans, neither of which can be understood 
 without a familiar knowledge of the Latin language. 
 Classical study is also the best, if not absolutely indis- 
 
HON. PHILIP H. SEARS. 323 
 
 pensable, preparation for that part of his professional 
 duty which involves the interpretation of constitutions, 
 statutes, ordinances, wills, contracts, and writings of 
 every description. And if the lawyer aspire to that 
 systematic knowledge of principles which constitutes 
 the science of jurisprudence, he must of necessity resort 
 constantly to those great works of the civil law, those 
 peerless monuments of juridicial wisdom, which the 
 Roman tongue contains. 
 
 For the right study and interpretation of nature, also, 
 there is no better preparation than early classical train- 
 ing. The physical world, it must not be forgotten, is 
 only a part, only one hemisphere, of the creation of 
 God, and it cannot be understood or interpreted aright, 
 without the light reflected upon it from the counterpart 
 and correspondent hemisphere, which is the mind and 
 soul of man. The physical inquirer, whose training 
 has been wholly in physical pursuits, will find in nature 
 nothing but the operation of mechanical and chemical 
 forces ; but the physical student, whose early attention 
 through the study of the languages has been turned 
 back upon the inner consciousness, and who has observed 
 there the essential characteristics of free causality and 
 rational design, will, like the great masters of antiquity, 
 see nature everywhere pervaded and irradiated by the 
 presence of upholding spiritual power, and will learn 
 
 " To look through nature up to nature's God." 
 
 For the republican statesman what school can be 
 found like the history of the Grecian and Roman 
 republics ? What mistakes in that great contest which 
 
324 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 has just closed might not have been avoided through a 
 more thoughtful study of classic history? With the 
 facts of that history vividly or clearly in mind, who 
 could disbelieve the possibility or the likelihood of civil 
 conflicts in a federate or a consolidated republic ? Who 
 delay to gird up all the strength of the nation in the 
 outset for a contest of " Greek meeting Greek " ? Our 
 most distinguished Massachusetts statesmen of classical 
 scholarship, Everett, Quincy, Webster, Choate, foresaw 
 the approaching conflict, and had they all survived in 
 their vigor, they would all undoubtedly in 1861 as in 
 1831 have brought to the support of the government 
 and flag of their country the united resources of their 
 great statesmanship and eloquence. The same classic 
 history equally supplies an inexhaustible storehouse of 
 political instruction for the future emergencies of the 
 nation and the State. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 It might well be matter of surprise that the great 
 masters of antiquity, whose works have stood the test 
 of two thousand years, should at this late day be sum- 
 moned before the tribunal of public opinion, their merits 
 closely scrutinized, questioned, doubted, and in some 
 cases passionately disputed. It might, I say., be matter 
 of surprise, had we not all observed and felt the revolu- 
 tionary character of the present age. There has been 
 for years past a strong tendency to overturn old systems, 
 however hallowed ; to dispute old opinions, however 
 established by the lapse of ages ; and to carry the work 
 of revolution and reform from the halls of legislation to 
 the halls of learning. These stirring movements of the 
 awakened and excited mind, have doubtless swept away 
 many systems and theories that had their origin in an 
 age of darkness, and were unfit for an age of light. 
 They have taught men to examine, compare, think, 
 decide, and act for themselves. But it becomes a 
 momentous inquiry for us who are in the very vortex of 
 the troubled waters, whether there is not great danger, as 
 well as advantage, in our present situation ; whether we 
 may not, in the giddy whirl, neglect too much the old 
 landmarks, and make shipwreck on the ocean of change. 
 
 This Chapter is from a Lecture " On Classical Learning," delivered at 
 Boston, before the American Institute of Instruction, by Cornelius C. 
 Felton, Tutor in Greek (afterwards Professor and President), in Harvard 
 University, August, 1830. 
 
 28 ®25 
 
326 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 The adversaries of classical learning assert that ' the 
 main reason for giving such importance to the ancient 
 masters in a course of liberal education was, in former 
 times, the fact that they were the only teachers. The 
 moderns had not yet begun that series of researches 
 and discoveries which have been so splendidly exhibited 
 in these latter days. The physical, moral, intellectual 
 sciences were unknown, save as the sages of the Acad- 
 emy and the Porch had taught them. The genius of 
 modern poetry was voiceless, or breathed only harsh 
 strains in the barbarous Latinity of the Monks. It was, 
 therefore, correct and proper that recourse should be 
 had to their instructions, for want of better. But now 
 the case is widely different ; the tables are turned. 
 The ancients were not wiser than we are, but we are 
 wiser than they. We have carried on and perfected 
 what they only began. They might have been giants, 
 we grant, and we may be pigmies ; but then we have 
 the advantage of being upon their shoulders, and of 
 course see farther. Shall we then continue to look 
 with their eyes ? ' Such is the reasoning of the more 
 moderate and rational among the opposers of classical 
 learning. 
 
 Others have entered into the controversy with a spirit 
 of violence and denunciation, altogether unbecoming 
 gentlemen and scholars. The advocates of classical 
 learning have been held up to the ridicule of the public 
 as the bigoted adherents to a useless and cumbrous 
 system, because they are too idle and selfish to admit 
 the lights of modern improvement. They have been 
 charged with palming off upon the world a cheap and 
 
PRESIDENT FELTON. 327 
 
 trifling stock of words, a parade of verbal niceties, for 
 the genuine learning which is to prepare young men 
 to act their parts well in the great drama of life. A 
 tone of bitterness, a rancor like that of personal hostility 
 and family quarrels, has assailed them, and the whole 
 armory of sarcasm has been exhausted. But denuncia- 
 tion and anathema are not to be reasoned with, — 
 " and who can refute a sneer ? " It often happens, we 
 well know, that the most violent are the most ignorant. 
 Men have derided the wit and wisdom of antiquity, who 
 are unable to explain a classical allusion, or interpret 
 a Latin sentence. Smatterers have assailed the reputa- 
 tion and denounced the writings of the mightiest of 
 Grecian philosophers, to whom the curious inquirers 
 into the mysteries of the Greek alphabet, would turn 
 in vain for light. And yet the opinions of such men, 
 unworthy as they are of confidence, derive from their 
 impudent assurance an authority against which reason 
 and good sense and sound learning are for a time of 
 little avail. But the calm and rational sceptics have 
 stated their questions and deserve a reply. An exposi- 
 tion of the claims that classical learning still maintains 
 upon our attention and respect, will contain that reply. 
 Much wit has been expended in ridiculing the pur- 
 suits of the philologist. But true philosophy regards 
 every manifestation of mind, whether in the forms of 
 language, the creations of poetry, the abstractions of 
 science, or the godlike gift of oratory, as worthy of its 
 study. The mind, the essential and immortal part of 
 man, is not to be contemned in any one of its thousand- 
 fold aspects and operations. Among the most curious 
 
328 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 and subtile of these operations, the process unfolded by 
 the development of speech may fairly be classed. This 
 gift, so universal, so indispensable, like the air we breathe, 
 is scarcely valued because its loss is rarely felt. ' But 
 let us reflect a moment upon its infinite importance, 
 and we cannot, with anything like the spirit of true 
 philosophy, scorn its study as a puerile and trifling 
 object. That power by which all other powers are 
 guided and fashioned, by which all emotions are de- 
 scribed, by which all the playful efibrts of fancy are 
 made distinct to the perceptions of others, by which, 
 more than by all our powers besides, the creations of 
 genius* are illustrated — and language the instrument 
 of that power, the most ingenious and finished of all 
 instruments — can it indeed be so small, so contemptible, 
 as to fix justly upon those engaged in its study the 
 scornful epithets of " word-weighers," and " gerund- 
 grinders" ? Language opens a wide and curious field 
 to the observation of those whose pursuits lead them to 
 trace the intricate phenomena of intellect. The great 
 difficulty in studying the philosophy of mind, arises 
 from the impalpable nature of the objects to be scanned 
 in that study. Language is one of the modes, and a 
 most essential one, by which the operations of intellect 
 are distinctly made visible. In studying language, 
 therefore, we are in fact studying mind, through the 
 agency of its most purely intellectual instrument. In 
 mastering language, we not only attain the power of 
 wielding this most efficient instrument, but we make 
 ourselves familiar with the results, and we comprehend 
 the compass of those gifts which make us feel that we 
 
PRESIDENT FELTON. 329 
 
 are " fearfully and wonderfully made." Sucli pursuits 
 can have no other tendency than to strengthen and 
 elevate the mind, and prepare it, consequently, to act 
 with energy, dignity, and success, upon the various 
 objects presented to it in life. But it is said, the stu- 
 dent of language is employed about words to the neglect 
 of things. I cannot help calling such reasoning, or 
 rather such assertions, for it is not reasoning, poor, un- 
 meaning cant. Wasting time upon words to the neg- 
 lect of things ! Are not words realities ? Have they 
 not a separate, an independent existence ? Nay, more ; 
 have they not a power to stir up the soul, to ^sway 
 nations even, such as no other things ever possessed or 
 ever can possess ? Did not the words of Demosthenes 
 carry more dread to the heart of Philip than the arms 
 of Athens and the fortresses of her tributary cities ? 
 Have not the words of Homer touched the hearts and 
 roused the imaginations of myriads, many centuries 
 since the walls of Troy and the armaments of Greece 
 perished from the face of the earth, and the site of 
 Priam's capital was lost from the memories of men ? 
 It is true that the trifling and quibbling of some philolo- 
 gists give a plausible air to the objection^ raised against 
 these studies. But would you condemn the mathe- 
 matics, because one votary of the science declared his 
 contempt for Paradise Lost — a work which proved no 
 truth by a chain of geometrical or algebraic reasoning ? 
 Would you reject geology because an enthusiast values 
 a stone, apparently worthless, more than a splendid 
 product of imagination ? Would you shut your mind 
 against the beautiful science of botany because you 
 
 28* 
 
330 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 have seen one so absorbed in its study that he would 
 expend more anxious care in rearing a puny hot-house 
 plant, than in alleviating sorrow or saving life ? Are 
 you prepared to throw away the hopes of religion, be- 
 cause a few bigots, attaching an over-strained impor- 
 tance to trifles, make it appear absurd, and strip it of 
 almost every attribute that can command your respect? 
 Analogy, I am aware, is not argument ; but the same 
 kind of reasoning, which is aimed at philological studies, 
 might be aimed with equal success against every science 
 we value, every truth we hold sacred. 
 
 Such are some of the general considerations that 
 recommend the study of language. But the classical 
 languages, besides these, have other and peculiar claims 
 upon our attention. No one will for a moment dispute 
 the importance of understanding the full power of our 
 vernacular tongue. I assume this as a fact beyond 
 discussion and argument. I assert, moreover, the im- 
 possibility of doing this without the aid of Greek and 
 Latin. 
 
 The Latin was formed chiefly from a modification of 
 Greek. The Romans drew largely from Grecian foun- 
 tains, both in language and literature ; and vain would 
 be his labors, who should essay to comprehend the 
 efforts of Roman genius, without first listening to the 
 instructions of Rome's literary masters. 
 
 In the division of the Roman empire and the forma- 
 tion of modern states, other languages arose from the 
 ruins of the Latin. Four of the principal dialects of 
 modern Europe bear so strong a resemblance to the 
 parent tongue, that a knowledge of the latter makes the 
 
PRESIDENT FELTON. 331 
 
 attainment of the former an affair of trifling labor. 
 Other languages of Europe, and our own among the 
 rest, are derived but in part from the Latin ; and I 
 assert that so far as that part goes, a knowledge of 
 Latin is essential to one who would understand it fully, 
 and wield it with certainty and effect. Nearly all our 
 words of Roman origin retain the radical meaning of 
 their primitives. Their general import may, it is true, 
 be gathered from English usage ; but the peculiar, the 
 nicely critical propriety of their application, is unknown 
 save to the classical scholar ; and all others, who 
 attempt to write their own mother tongue, especially 
 in the discussion of literary subjects, are liable to mar 
 their pages by slight inaccuracies of style, and inaccu- 
 racies in the use of single words, which destroy their 
 claim to the honor of being classical models of composi- 
 tion. Such is the inevitable result of the natural pro- 
 gress of the human mind. Had we lived in the time 
 of the ancients, and they in ours, the case would have 
 been reversed. They would have drawn instruction 
 from our writings ; their languages would have received 
 an infusion from ours ; and to learn the exact quality 
 of that infusion, they must have traced it to its fountain 
 head with us. We do not compromise one particle of 
 our claim to originality, by admitting the necessity of 
 resorting to ancient tongues, in order to learn our own. 
 It is only admitting, in the spirit of philosophy, what 
 the natural course of human thought, and our relative 
 position to the great civilized nations who have gone 
 before us, make it incumbent on us, as reasoning men 
 to admit. Perhaps the exceptions may be urged of 
 
332 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 such men as Franklin, who have written our language 
 in great purity and elegance, without having been 
 trained in the discipline of classical schools. If I grant 
 that these apparent exceptions are exceptions in fact, 
 I might defend my position by the plea that a few excep- 
 tions never invalidate a general rule ; and I might array 
 in reply to every single exception five hundred exam- 
 ples in which the rule holds good. But there is little 
 argument to be drawn from the literary powers of 
 Dr. Franklin against the utility of classical learning. 
 According to his own statements, his style was formed 
 by closely imitating the best models of English compo- 
 sition — the papers of the Spectator — which, we all 
 know, are from the pens of the most accomplished clas- 
 sical scholars England has ever produced. The purity, 
 simplicity, and beauty of Dr. Franklin's style, therefore, 
 is, after all, the consequence of an exquisite taste in 
 ancient literature ; although with him it comes at 
 second hand. Is any one prepared to say that the lan- 
 guage of Franklin would not have been more bold, more 
 stirring, more eloquent, had his mind, after having 
 been cultivated and refined in the study of antiquity, 
 given free scope to its acknowledged powers, and acted 
 by its own resistless impulses, untrammelled by the 
 fetters of imitation. 
 
 Not only our language, but our literature, is closely 
 dependent on the classical. The fine conceptions, the 
 productions of the beautiful fancy of the ancients, have 
 exerted so strong an influence upon the tone and 
 genius of the elder English literature, that one half of 
 the beauties of the latter are- lost sight of without a 
 
PRESIDENT FELTON. 333 
 
 knowledge of the former. The great writers of England 
 have been filled to overflowing with classic lore. The 
 history and poetry and oratory of Greece and Rome, 
 have lent them their tributary aids; the sages of 
 antiquity have poured out their richest treasures to 
 illustrate, adorn, and enforce the glorious conceptions 
 of English intellect. Classical allusions and illustra- 
 tions tastefully employed, are enchanting to a cultivated 
 mind. In English literature they are used with a skill 
 and beauty that forni one of its most delightful traits. 
 This does not arise from, nor does it argue, a want of 
 originality. It would be impossible to prevent such 
 influences of the literature of one age upon that of 
 another, except by entire ignorance of everything that 
 does not come within our own experience. We may 
 complain of it, if we please, but we cannot change the 
 order of time, and place ourselves at the beginning of 
 the history of our race. The ancients were before us, 
 and we have studied them, and cannot help it. We 
 cannot read our own writers without being constantly 
 reminded of those great men. The law of progress 
 requires that it should be so. 
 
 Fortunate, indeed, is it for us, that the creations 
 of Grecian genius were guided by such unerring taste. 
 The intellectual character of that gifted nation was 
 formed under the happiest auspices. Nature was lavish 
 of her beauties upon her favored land ; but she did not 
 convert it into a region of oriental softness. Every influ- 
 ence that tended to give refinement and elegance to the 
 mind was there felt ; but refinement and elegance were 
 made to stop at the proper limits, and never allowed to 
 
334 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 become degenerate and effeminate. Her free and oft- 
 times tumultuous politics gave energy, her matchless 
 climate infused vivacity and cheerfulness, her scenery 
 inspired a pure taste and an exquisite perception of 
 beauty. The human form was developed in its fairest 
 proportions. The majestic and intellectual head, the 
 finely expanded frame, the active and airy and graceful 
 motion, gave to artists the prototypes of their chiselled 
 gods. Add to this their beautiful modes of instruction : 
 music and science uniting to give at once a humanized 
 and manly tone to the character, in the groves of the 
 Academy, on the places of public resort, by the wisest, 
 best, and most eloquent from among them, with the 
 noblest specimens of art all around them, the marble 
 almost waking into life, the canvass glowing with the 
 hues of heaven — and we cannot wonder at the perfec- 
 tion of Grecian taste ; we cannot but congratulate our- 
 selves, that a rate so favored, so gifted, were called to 
 preside over the beginnings and direct the destinies of 
 intellectual Europe ; that the Genius of Greece yet lives, 
 as fresh, as bright, as beautiful as her own blue hills, 
 sunny skies, and green isles. 
 
 Another additional consideration in favor of the study 
 of ancient languages, is the fact that they are more fin- 
 ished than any others. The perfection of the Greek 
 tongue has always been the admiration of scholars. Its 
 flexibility, its exhaustless vocabulary, its power of in- 
 creasing that vocabulary at will by the use of compounds, 
 make it an admirable vehicle for the communication of 
 thought, even to the nicest shades ; while its unrivalled 
 harmony imparts to poetry a richness and beauty beyond 
 
PRESIDENT FELTON. 335 
 
 the capacity of any modern tongue. The principles 
 and power of language are here more fully unfolded ; 
 the philosophy of rhetoric is more thoroughly displayed. 
 Add to this, the Greek grammar is now fixed and set- 
 tled. There it is, beyond the reach of change, an object 
 of study, to be resorted to at any time, ever perfect, 
 ever beautiful. But beyond and above the study of 
 mere language, I know of no better intellectual disci- 
 pline than to determine the meaning of an ancient 
 author. The principles of grammar are to be applied 
 by the reason and the judgment ; the situation of the 
 author must be vividly presented to the mind by the 
 memory and the imagination ; the connection of the 
 passage in question with the context, is to be closely 
 scrutanized ; the style of ancient thought to be taken 
 into consideration, and, after thus exercising the most 
 important of our powers, the purport of a difficult pas- 
 sage may be settled. This is precisely the course of 
 reflection and reasoning which men must follow, in 
 determining the proper conduct for many difficult con- 
 junctures in life ; it is acting upon probabilities. 
 
 Such is the process, and such the discipline, of 
 determining single passages. Of a similar and more 
 elevated kind, is the intellectual effort of comprehend- 
 ing the entire worth of an author. It is not enough 
 barely to give his works a hasty perusal, or even a 
 careful perusal, with a knowledge of the language 
 simply. The student who would enter fully into the 
 merits of a classical author, must take himself out of 
 the influences immediately around him ; must trans- 
 port himself back to a remote age : must lay aside the 
 
336 . CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 associations most familiar to him ; must forget his 
 country, his prejudices, his superior light, and place 
 himself upon a level with the intellect whose labors he 
 essays to comprehend. Pew are the minds that would 
 not be benefited by such a process. We are disposed 
 to permit our thoughts and feelings to repose too much 
 upon the objects nearest us ; and thus a constant refer- 
 ence to self becomes the habitual direction of our 
 thoughts. What was the character of the age in which 
 he lived ? what was the religion ? how far did it gain 
 a hold upon the minds of cultivated men ? to what 
 extent did it influence the tone of poetry ? what were 
 the philosophical theories, and how far were they true, 
 and how extensively were they believed ? what was the 
 character of the nation, and what had been its historical 
 career ? what was the state of political parties and what 
 was the government ? what were the doctrines held by 
 each, and wherein did they differ, and how far was the 
 individual mind of the author in question wrought upon 
 by all these influences — are questions which should be 
 asked, and, as far as possible, answered, by the scholar 
 who would do himself and literature full justice, by the 
 mode in which he pursues his classical studies. I am 
 aware that such is not often the path followed by the 
 scholars of our country ; but I do sincerely believe that 
 the worth of classical learning will never be realized 
 until some such method is adopted. I know, too, it 
 involves a depth of thought and a wide range of 
 studies, from which we are apt to shrink in alarm, 
 and ask ourselves if there is not some shorter way 
 to attain the object; but reason, as I think, decides 
 
PRESIDENT FELTON. 337 
 
 without appeal, that such is the price of genuine clas- 
 sical erudition. 
 
 Knowledge of the sort I have described, may not lead 
 to the invention of a single new mechanical agent ; it 
 may not be the direct means of increasing our fortunes 
 a single dollar. But it will give us an enlarged view of 
 our natui^e; it will disclose the workings of our common 
 powers under influences widely differing from any that 
 have acted upon ourselves ; it will teach us to judge 
 charitably of others' minds and hearts ; it will teach us 
 that intellect and sensibility and genius have existed 
 beyond the narrow circle in which we have moved — 
 beyond the limits of our country — centuries before our 
 age. Such lessons are needed in the every-day concerns 
 of life. Those who say that the classics are of no 
 practical use — those even who say that they are merely 
 ornamental in a liberal education, show an entire for- 
 getfulness of their most striking and obvious effects. 
 They are eminently practical. They require the most 
 practical modes of reasoning to comprehend them ; they 
 give the most practical views of our nature ; they pre- 
 pare the professional man for his labors, by presenting 
 a field of practically similar labor, before he enters 
 upon its special duties. I have no hesitation in assert- 
 ing, that a mind long trained in unfolding the meaning 
 and worth of classical authors, by the course of inquiries 
 I have described, will be eminently prepared for the in- 
 tricate investigations of the profession of law. 
 
 If, then, it be desirable that our young scholars 
 should be trained up in classical pursuits, and in such 
 a manner as best to fit them for the duties of life, it is 
 
 29 
 
338 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 evident a general change must be made. Those who 
 are devoted to the business of instruction must enter 
 more deeply, more philosophically, into the spirit of the 
 classics than has been common among us in these latter 
 times. We must put forth our best energies to master 
 the treasures of learning, and awaken in our pupils an 
 enthusiasm for similar pursuits. In the whole circle 
 of the learned professions, I know of none which pre- 
 sents nobler topics of eloquence, more exciting and 
 elevating subjects of reflection, and, I may add, more 
 useful fields of labor, than that of a man of letters. 
 Indolence and stupidity have no part nor lot here ; 
 every power is called upon ; every moral feeling is 
 confirmed, and every honorable aspiration may be 
 gratified. It is not my purpose to eulogize the pro- 
 fession of a teacher ; but when I see many engaging in 
 it with dread, and leaving it with pleasure ; when I 
 hear it spoken of as a fit resort for the drudge and the 
 blockhead ; I cannot but ask, if the explanation of the 
 authors of the ancient world — embracing, as it does, 
 such a depth and variety of learning ; admitting, as it 
 does, the highest flights of imagination and eloquence ; 
 employing, as it does, thousands of the first intellects 
 of the first intellectual country on earth, — I cannot 
 but ask, if it is a fit resort for a drudge or a blockhead ; 
 if it is a pursuit to be adopted with dread, and relin- 
 quished with pleasure. My answer to these questions 
 would be one and decided. 
 
XIX. 
 
 I HAVE spoken of two classes of study, the mathe- 
 matics and ancient languages, as complementary and 
 supplemental. This may be made evident by a few 
 general considerations. The demonstrations of pure 
 mathematics, and of the physical sciences which depend 
 on the mathematics for their most subtile and irrefraga- 
 ble proofs, start from axioms which are universally and 
 necessarily true. No multiplication of examples can 
 make them appear more true, nor can any lapse of time 
 or chan ge of circumstances diminish their validity . Their 
 conclusion, then, must be equally certain ; and the stu- 
 dent, in advancing from step to step, feels always the 
 delightful assurance that he is standing upon solid 
 ground, and that no power can change his convictions. ^ 
 It may not be a great conclusion that he has reached, 
 but it is a sure one. But in order to this certainty, he 
 must exercise the most careful discrimination respecting 
 his premises and every individual process in the reason- 
 ing. Now, this habit of judging from indisputable facts 
 and not from feeling or prejudice or bare authority, this 
 habit of exactness and discrimination, of eliminating 
 every possible source of error, of including everything 
 
 This Extract is from the Address delivered by Rev. Samuel Gilman 
 Brown, D.D., on the occasion of his Inauguration as President of Hamil- 
 ton College, Clinton, New York, July 17, 186T. 
 
340 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 essential to the process before you, and of excluding 
 everything indifferent or accidental, and therefore only 
 disturbing or confusing, is one of the most valuable in 
 life. " There are more false facts in the world," as Sir 
 William Hamilton quotes from that eminent medical phi- 
 losopher. Dr. William CuUen, " than false theories." It 
 seems sometimes as if one could liardly overestimate the 
 importance of exactness and precision as mental habits. 
 But then a large part, far the largest part, of our 
 reasoning processes in actual life are not demonstrative, 
 but what are called moral or probable ; where sound 
 arguments exist on both sides, and we are obliged to 
 form our conclusions according to the preponderance of 
 testimony ; where we are to weigh, and not merely to 
 number ; where there are conflicting judgments and 
 contrary statements ; where facts are not all within our 
 reach, or are presented with distortion, and colored to 
 suit the occasion ; where we deal not with nature alone, 
 with her fixed facts and immutable laws, but with men, 
 varios et mutabiles semper. And here will he who has 
 been disciplined to form his judgments from premises 
 somewhat intangible and indefinable ; to determine 
 the consequents from antecedents a little variable and 
 uncertain ; to discriminate between the nicest shades 
 of thought, and see which will best fit all the demands 
 of a severe intellect and a pure taste ; who has become 
 familiar with the infinite, evanescent, indescribable 
 forms of thought, sentiment, passion, conviction, habit, 
 which languages and letters have revealed to him in 
 the great domain of imagination and history, and ethics 
 and polity, — have an insight, a soundness of judgment, 
 
PRESIDENT BROWN. 341 
 
 a discriminating sense, which pure science or the study 
 of nature with her fixed certainties cannot give. The 
 analysis and translation of languages has given him 
 precisely the discipline which he needs. What an end- 
 less amount of comparison and reasoning, of balancing 
 of probabilities, and forming of independent judgments 
 and expressing them in the best forms, the student has 
 gone through with in the careful reading of a single 
 classical author. Hence every student of the higher pro- 
 fessions, especially of law and theology, feels the special 
 advantage which he derives from this kind of training. 
 Let me suggest a little more particularly, that there 
 is no study which calls into play at the same moment 
 so many of the mental faculties, and those of quite 
 diverse character, as the languages ; not only do we 
 exercise the powers of judgment, discrimination, and 
 reasoning, but our sympathies, our taste, our sense of 
 the fitting and the beautiful. What logic so subtile as 
 the logic of grammar ? What pleasure more pure and 
 inspiring than that which we get in mastering the 
 thought, and rising to the comprehension of the poetic 
 beauties of some of the master minds of the world ? 
 To these studies, too, the majority of young students, 
 with fair opportunities, apply themselves with a natural 
 aptitude. During all our younger years we are perforce 
 learning language, in one aspect undoubtedly a diffi- 
 cult task, where absolute perfection is unattainable, for 
 who ever yet mastered his own tongue ? but in another 
 aspect, an easy and delicious exercise of the faculties, 
 for we are constantly making positive progress, and a 
 child, if he has fitting opportunities, seems to learn two 
 
 29* 
 
342 CLASSICAL STUDY 
 
 or three languages at once with the same ease as one. 
 Nor can we easily overestimate the value of translation, 
 so that it be at once accurate and elegant, the transfer- 
 rence of the full power, precision, and beauty of thought 
 from one tongue to another, as an aid to our own 
 powers. What comprehensive attention, what concen- 
 tration of mind, what intuitive perceptions of mental 
 peculiarities, tastes, and habits, what knowledge of sub- 
 tile allusions, what feeling, what plasticity of mind, 
 adapting itself instinctively to every varying emotion, 
 before we begin to satisfy ourselves in the ejBFort ; so that 
 to excel in this really fine art is proof itself of a mind 
 of the most admirable structure. 
 
 But the study of languages, say some, helps only to 
 expression, not to the thought expressed ; to the form, 
 not to the substance. Taking this for the moment as 
 something like an adequate statement, that it only helps 
 us to represent that which we acquire with other aid, 
 do we fully understand what great praise this is ? Do 
 we remember that a word fitly spoken is like apples of 
 gold in pictures of silver ? that as social beings, a great 
 part of our duty in life lies in the power of expres- 
 sion ? in bringing truths, from whatever source acquired, 
 to bear upon our fellows for their advantage ? Do we 
 remember as we should, that the necessity of advo- 
 cating the cause of righteousness, and resisting the 
 machinations of dishonesty and craft, is as ancient as 
 justice and as permanent as religion ? So that if the 
 value of the study of language were confined to the 
 giving us a good vocabulary, and enabling us to express 
 our thoughts and emotions in a manner the most vigor- 
 
PRESIDENT BROWN. 843 
 
 ous or persuasive, it would help us to a function of 
 almost universal necessity, and which we cannot afford 
 to neglect or slight. 
 
 But we may look much further than this : at the 
 general enlargement of mind produced by the study of 
 the language of a great and powerful people. " So often 
 as I learn a language, so often do I become a man," is 
 not an epigrammatic expression without meaning. How, 
 indeed, can you enter into the inner life of a people so 
 well as by reading their thought in their own idiomatic 
 tongue ? We gain our impression, not at second-hand, 
 but from our own observation. Can any description 
 give us an idea of the eager, passionate, versatile, philo- 
 sophic, art-loving Greek, equal to that which we gain 
 from Homer and Tliucydides, from Plato and Sopho- 
 cles ? or of the proud, imperious, conquering Roman, 
 like that which Sallust and Virgil and Cicero uncon- 
 sciously reveal? A nation's thought, its aspirations, 
 its ambition, its faith shines through its literature. 
 Every page is illumined or darkened by the spirit that 
 pervades it. The great difference between ancient and 
 modern intellectual and moral life ; between classic art 
 and romantic ; between Sophocles and Shakspeare ; be- 
 tween Phidias and Michael Angelo ; the history of ideas ; 
 the great march of civilization ; can be realized fully 
 only as we become permeated with the spirit of the 
 times and the nations ; and this it is almost impossible 
 to do without some acquaintance with that most won 
 derful of products and of agencies, a nation's language. 
 
 Nor is the actual knowledge which is directly or in- 
 cidentally imparted to the student of a language by any 
 
844 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 means small in amount or trivial in value. He is in- 
 troduced of necessity to the history of new nations ; to 
 a knowledge of their science and art, their civil polity 
 and their domestic customs, their military conquests 
 and the tranquil pursuits of peace. His thoughts are 
 carried beyond the sphere in which he of necessity is 
 constantly busy ; beyond the petty annoyances of daily 
 life. He becomes insensibly emancipated from the 
 tyranny of narrow tastes and provincial habits. You 
 could less easily make of him a man of one idea, of 
 sectional ambitions, of impoverished sympathies. It 
 surely should be one purpose, also, of a liberal education 
 to give the student some taste of the most thoughtful 
 and influencing literatures of the world. And how can 
 this be done with any fairness and completeness, if you 
 omit those writers who fairly governed the philosophic 
 thought of the world for sixteen centuries, and who, 
 after all our culture, remain still models of style, illus- 
 trious examples of the most refined and perfect literary 
 composition that the world has ever seen ? Why it was, 
 and how, that they acquired such marvellous skill, it is 
 not worth the while for us to stop to inquire. Whether 
 the cause lay in their artistic culture, in their greater 
 deliberateness of work (no steam-driven press or impor- 
 tunate public urging them for copy), in their obedience 
 to the Horatian principle, nonum prematur in annura^ 
 and of course in repeated criticism and eliminations 
 and emendations, in tlieir stern fidelity to the demands 
 of a pure taste, their resolute purpose of perfection, so 
 far as unflinching labor could secure it, or in their finer 
 mould, the rare texture of mental material, the exquisite 
 symmetry of development, and the indescribable com- 
 
PRESIDENT BROWN. 345 
 
 pleteness and harmony of discipline and attainment, or 
 all these causes combined, the fact remains confirmed 
 by the judgment of all generations. But what stimu- 
 lant is there for a generous, enthusiastic, and resolute 
 mind, at once so pure and so strong, as the contempla- 
 tion of excellence ? Was there not a world of truth in 
 the saying of the ardent young Greek, that "the victory 
 of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep " ? Place 
 ever before the eager mind of the learner models of 
 attainment and excellence, point out wherein their 
 virtues consist and how they were gained, by what self- 
 denial and resolute endeavor they must have been won, 
 if you would teach him to be both modest and aspiring, 
 to be ambitious of true excellence rather than of tem- 
 porary popularity. 
 
 There is yet another point of considerable consequence 
 not very often alluded to. Have you considered what 
 a marvellous product is any language, even the most 
 meagre ? How in its very vocabulary, its forms and 
 euphonic changes, it embodies the mental growth and 
 modifications of thousands of minds ? How much more 
 wonderful it is than the works of any one who uses 
 it ? that no one can be said to be absolute master of any 
 tongue ? that the most discursive or profound thinkers 
 carry on their grand processes of reasoning and imagi- 
 nation far within the limits of the unbounded domain 
 of a nation's speech ? 
 
 Language is the ever-living, self-evolving product of 
 the most vital powers, no more to be absolutely fixed 
 than the action of the mind itself. It is Coleridge, I 
 think, who somewhere says, that the history of a word 
 may be more important than that of a campaign. And 
 
346 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 if the naturalist finds a pure and intense pleasure in 
 observing the habits of reptiles and fislies, if he thinks 
 the toil of years well repaid when he absolutely deter- 
 mines the shape and hue of the wild bird's wing, or the 
 the processes of the coral insect, should not the student 
 of a nation's philosophy and poetry, within a domain 
 whose boundaries ever recede as he approaches them, 
 feel his mind expand with a new delight, and be con- 
 scious of the growth of new power ? 
 
 Nor is the study of the ancients without a certain 
 moral discipline, which is not of small account. In the 
 midst of our intense life, of our indomitable self-assur- 
 ance, legitimately born of our marvellous national pro- 
 gress, of our almost unchecked prosperity, it will do us 
 no harm to feel, as we only can feel through familiarity 
 with their works, that " great heroes lived before Aga- 
 memnon," and that to no age and no nation has been 
 committed the supremacy of the earth. We are in no 
 danger of failing through excess of diflfidence. If 
 modesty be not our national virtue, it is still a beautiful 
 one ; a necessary result too, or should be, of the best 
 education. The finest, purest, most attractive, most 
 sacred minds, are those which to masterly attainment 
 and delicate culture, add the winning grace which 
 beautifies and charms. And I know not by what means 
 open to our public education we can so well imbue tlie 
 student with the proper feeling as to all high literary 
 attainment, as by bringing him into close and daily 
 contact with those whom he may imitate but cannot 
 excel ; who have worn their crowns so long, and whom 
 he honors not alone, but in company with the noblest 
 and best-taught of modern minds. 
 
XX. 
 
 A DEAD language : what a sad and solemn expression ! 
 Trite enough, I own ; but to a reflective mind, none the 
 less sad and solemn ; for in the death of which it speaks 
 are involved deaths untold, innumerable. 
 
 I can understand what is meant by " a Dead Sea" ; 
 and should suppose it to be a sheet of water cut off from 
 all intercourse* with the main ocean ; never rising with 
 its flow ; never sinking with its ebb ; never skimmed 
 by the sail of commerce ; never flapped by wing of 
 wandering bird ; undisturberd by the bustle of the rest- 
 less world ; but slumbering in a desolate wilderness, 
 far from the track of caravan or railway or steam- 
 ship, in a stagnant and tide-forgotten and unheeded 
 repose. 
 
 The chance-directed efforts of an enterprising traveller 
 exhumed, but recently, the sculptured monuments of a 
 dead civilization. We then learned that Nineveh and 
 Babylon were not only the homes of conquering kings, 
 but the seats of tranquil learning and treasured science, 
 before ever a fleet had sailed from Aulis, or the eagles 
 had promised empire to the watcher on the green 
 Palatine. 
 
 This Extract is from Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster — the Chapter 
 entitled " Dead Languages " — by Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson, of 
 Queens College, Galway, Ireland. 
 
 84T 
 
348 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 The language of priestly and kingly Etruria is re- 
 vealed to us only by dim marks upon vase or tablet, or 
 by melancholy inscriptions on sepulchral stones. That 
 is, indeed, a language imquestionably dead. 
 
 But can such a term be applied to that Hellenic 
 speech that in the Iliad has rolled, like the great Father 
 of Waters, its course unhindered down three thousand 
 years; that in Pindar still soars heavenwards, staring 
 at the sun ; that rises and falls in Plato with the long, 
 sequacious music of an Aeolian lute ; that moves stately 
 and black-stoled in Aeschylus ; that reverberates with 
 laughter half-Olympian in Aristophanes ; that pierces 
 with a trumpet-sound in Demosthenes ; that smells of 
 crocuses in Theocritus ; that chirrups like a balm- 
 cricket in Anacreon ? If it be dead, then what language 
 is alive ? 
 
 Or again, is that old Italian speech dead and gone, 
 that murmurs in Lucretius a ceaseless, solemn monotone 
 of sea-shell sound ; that in Virgil flows, like the Eri- 
 danus, calmly but majestically through rich lowlands, 
 fringed with tall poplars and rimmed with grassy banks ; 
 that quivers to wild strings of passion in Catullus ; that 
 wimples like a beck in Ovid ; that coos in TibuUus like 
 the turtle ; that sparkles * in Horace like a well-cut 
 diamond ? 
 
 No: Heaven forbid it! No! Pile upon these twin 
 daughters of Omphaean Zeus mountains of Grammars 
 and Grammatical Exercises and Latin Readers and 
 Greek Delectuses and Graduses and Dictionaries and 
 Lexicons, until Ossa is dwarfed and Pelion is a wart. 
 Let dull, colossal Pedantry — unconscious handmaid of 
 
PROFESSOR THOMPSON. 849 
 
 the Abstract Bagman — with her tons of lumbal lead press 
 heavily on the prostrate forms. For a while they may 
 lie, breathless and exhausted ; but when that is grown 
 again wherein their great strength lay, then will they 
 make a mighty effort, and fling high in air the accumu- 
 lated scoria of ages : like a hailstorm in the surround- 
 ing sea will fall the fragments of a million gerund- 
 stones ; and the divine Twain will clothe themselves 
 anew in their old strength and beauty, and sit down by 
 the side of Zeus Omphaeus, exulting in glory. 
 
 No, no ! The music of Homer will die with the choral 
 chants of the Messiah, and the strains of Pindar with the 
 symphonies of Beethoven : una dies dabit exitio Aris- 
 tophanes and Cervantes and Moli^re ; the Mantuan will 
 go hand in hand to oblivion with the Florentine, divinus 
 Magister cum Discipulo diviniore ; the Metamorphoses 
 of Ovid will decay with the fantastic tale of Ariosto and 
 the music of Don Giovanni ; Horace will fade out of 
 ken, linked arm in arm with that sweet fellow epicure, 
 Montaigne ; Antigone will be forgotten maybe a short 
 century before Cordelia ; and Plato and Aristotle will 
 be entombed beneath the Mausoleum that covers for ever 
 the thoughts of Bacon, Kepler, Newton, and Laplace. 
 
 Moreover, before the last echoes of Greece and Rome 
 shall have died away, a Slavonian horde will throng 
 the Morea and the Cyclades ; and in some crumbling 
 cathedral, Catholicism will have chanted, for the last 
 time, its own Nunc dimittis in the grand imperial lan- 
 guage of the City of the Seven Hills. 
 
 When all this shall have come about, then may it be 
 said with truth: ''Rome is dead; and Athens is no 
 
 30 
 
350 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 more! the words of whose wise ones. went out into all 
 lands, and the songs of whose singing-men to the ends 
 of the world: their pomp and their glory have gone 
 down with them into the pit." 
 
 But, gentle reader, long, long before this desolation 
 shall have come about, you and I will be lying in a 
 very sorry plight, with a strange and not beautiful ex- 
 pression on our human countenances ; our quips, our 
 cranks, our oddities all gone : quite chapfallen. Yes, 
 friend, a very long while indeed, before all this shall 
 have come about. 
 
XXI. 
 
 What position is to be held henceforth by the 
 Classics ? That is the main question now for directors 
 of liberal education. Let us approach it in a rational 
 spirit, neither defending the Classics with fanatical 
 devotion, nor assailing them as though they were crim- 
 inal usurpers : but placing ourselves, if we can, at the 
 true point of view, and considering what measure of 
 change is really required. Nobody concurred more 
 cordially, or took part more actively, than I did in 
 breaking down the monopoly of the Classics and wel- 
 coming the new studies in my own University ; but I 
 wish to avoid alike the bigotry of conservatism and the 
 bigotry of innovation. 
 
 Undoubtedly the intrinsic value of the Classics has 
 been greatly diminished since the period of the Revival 
 of Learning, when they were first adopted as the staple 
 of high education. There was, at that time, no other 
 literature worthy of the name ; no philosophy but the 
 arid speculations of the schoolmen ; no history but the 
 monkish chronicle ; no oratory but the monkish homily ; 
 no poetry but the monkish hymn. The Greek and Latin 
 languages were then the caskets in which all the treas- 
 ures of intellect were enclosed : and it was as the key to 
 
 This Extract is from a Paper on *' University Education," read before 
 the Ameiican Social Science Association, at Albany, February 17, 1869, 
 by Professor Goldwin Smith. 
 
 851 
 
352 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 that casket, not as a mental gymnasium, that Grammar 
 was established as the prime instrument of education 
 for both sexes alike. In fact, it was expected that 
 Greek and Latin, as alone containing any writings 
 worth a cultivated man's notice, would be the lan- 
 guages, we may almost say the vernacular languages, 
 of the cultivated world ; and the universal practice of 
 Latin composition in prose and verse, no doubt, had 
 reference to this expectation : Erasmus and Politian did 
 not suppose themselves to be writing in a dead lan- 
 guage : they supposed themselves to be writing in one 
 of the only two languages in which writings would live. 
 But we have now not only a modern literature, but 
 three or four modern literatures, each of them equal 
 to the ancient in intellectual power, and of course far 
 superior to it in depth and range both of thought and 
 sentiment, and in nearness to our personal interests 
 and feelings. 
 
 Nor is this all ; the claim of literature and philosophy 
 altogether to monopolize the higher education, or even 
 to be its principal elements, is challenged by Physi- 
 cal Science, which in the sixteenth century had not 
 advanced beyond the Physical Works of Aristotle. 
 
 These are evidently strong grounds for a revision 
 of the system. On the other hand, the superiority of 
 Greek and Latin as languages, and as instruments of 
 linguistic training, to the modern languages, appears to 
 me to be undiminished. In fact, it is constantly in- 
 creasing, since a flood of extraneous and heterogeneous 
 elements, themselves to a great extent classical, though 
 often hideously barbarized, is constantly flowing into 
 
PROFESSOR GOLDWIlSr SMITH. 353 
 
 the modern languages, principally through the vocab- 
 ulary of Physical Science. Greek, especially, if you 
 compare it with any modern tongue, seems from its 
 symmetry, its richness of inflection, its unlimited power 
 of forming compounds, its liberty of arranging the 
 words of a sentence in tlie order of thought, alone 
 worthy to be the organ of the human mind. So 
 marked is this superiority, indeed, that I can hardly 
 believe that the destinies of the two ancient languages 
 are yet accomplished, or feel sure that Latin will not 
 some day be again the language of Law, and Greek the 
 language of Philosophy and Science. So far, therefore, 
 as linguistic studies are an essential part of educa- 
 tion — so far as the habit of analyzing language is 
 necessary or conducive to the perfection of the powers 
 of thought, Greek and Latin seem to me still to hold 
 their ground. The only linguistic study which can 
 compete with them, as it appears to me, is that of our 
 own language, which, though eminently wanting in the 
 peculiar qualities which I have noted in the Greek, 
 makes up for that want by some peculiar qualities of 
 its own, but above all, by its vast practical importance 
 as the organ of our daily thoughts, constantly reacting 
 on the thoughts which it expresses. At all events, the 
 culture of the English tongue is a duty to which the 
 attention of all educators ought to be turned. Culti- 
 vate your language and it is one of the highest instru- 
 ments of civilization : neglect it and it becomes a vehicle 
 of barbarism. 
 
 The usefulness of a knowledge of modern languages 
 is beyond question. But wo now suppose ourselves to 
 
 30* 
 
354 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 be laying out a course of general culture, and we must 
 consider what is conducive to culture, not merely what 
 is useful. The power of reading the modern languages 
 is acquired with great facility by any one who has 
 undergone the linguistic training of Classical education, 
 especially in the use of French, Italian, and Spanish, to 
 which Latin is the master-key. The power of speaking 
 a language can be acquired to perfection only in the 
 country in which it is spoken ; and it is there acquired 
 with such ease that to go to a university for it would 
 seem a waste of time. At Oxford we have declined, 
 hitherto, to admit the modern languages into the Uni- 
 versity course, except so far as a knowledge of them 
 may be useful to candidates for honors in the School 
 of Modern History: but we have an institution for 
 teaching them called the Taylor Institution, with four 
 teachers, German, French, Italian, and Spanish, a Pro- 
 fessor of Modern Literature and a library of foreign 
 books and periodicals. Two scholarships are given 
 annually, by examination, to the most proficient among 
 the students, and the examination is conducted in such 
 a manner as to test, as far as possible, not merely a con- 
 versational knowledge of the languages, but the critical 
 and literary acquaintance wiMi them which could alone 
 be thought an equivalent for classical scholarship and 
 a worthy product of high culture. But the winners are 
 so often students of foreign parentage, or who have 
 lived abroad, as to suggest a strong mistrust of the 
 value of proficiency in these studies as a criterion of the 
 proper work of a university ; and when I was last at 
 Oxford there were thoughts of abolishing the scholar- 
 
PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. 855 
 
 ships altogether, as being useless for Academical pur- 
 poses, and of applying the fund to the other objects of 
 the Institution. 
 
 A Classical education ought to include, and that 
 which a candidate for honors received at Oxford did in- 
 clude, besides a philological knowledge of the Greek 
 and Latin languages, a thorough acquaintance with the 
 works of the best Classical authors, philosophers, and 
 historians, as well as orators and poets. As I have 
 already said, the ancients, in every department of lit- 
 erature, are surpassed by the moderns in present in- 
 terest. But taken as a whole they still seem to me to 
 constitute the best manual of humanity. For this 
 purpose they have even an advantage in being remote 
 from the questions and the emotions of the present 
 time. We have been asked whether a knowledge of 
 Goethe, for instance, is not as valuable as a knowledge 
 of any author of antiquity. One answer to that ques- 
 tion is, that to study Goethe with profit, the mind of 
 the student must be tolerably mature, able in some 
 measure to appreciate the influences, religious, philo- 
 sophical, political, and personal, under which Goethe 
 wrote, to take a stand above those influences, and 
 calmly to discriminate, in their complex result, truth 
 from falsehood, good from evil. But this is too much 
 to expect from a youth under education brought into 
 contact with such a writer as Goethe. The Classics 
 present humanity entire, but with transparent simplic- 
 ity, with statuesque calmness, free from modern bias 
 or influence, near to our sympathies (for Homer's 
 nature is ours), but far from our controversies and 
 
356 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 passions. It would be difficult to suggest any course 
 of modern philosophy, history, oratory, and poetry of 
 which the same could be said. 
 
 There are more ways than one of teaching the Clas- 
 sics. They may be taught dryly and pedantically ; or 
 they may be taught as a man of cultivated and compre- 
 hensive mind would teach them, enlarging their scope 
 and increasing their interest by commentary and mod- 
 ern illustration. Supposing the style of teaching to be 
 the highest, are there any better text-books of history 
 even now than Thucydides and Tacitus, — is there 
 any better text-book of politics than the treatise of 
 
 Aristotle ? 
 
 In point of form, at all events, and as models and 
 
 schools of pure taste, the classical writers are still peer- 
 less. Our use of the term " classical " to denote faultless 
 beauty of form is a popular testimony to the fact. On 
 different races nature bestows different gifts. The 
 Greek she endowed above all races with the sense of 
 beauty. I saw the other day, in the house of a friend, 
 an excellent judge of art, two casts, one of a great 
 work of Michael Angelo, the other of a great work of 
 Phidias, hanging side by side : and my friend pointed 
 out how superior, not of course in poetry or depth 
 of sentiment, but in artistic beauty, was the master- 
 piece of the Greek. There is no part of our old classical 
 system which is more decisively condemned than the 
 general practice of Greek and Latin versification. But 
 even this practice exacted, in the first place, a very in- 
 timate acquaintance with the Greek and Latin poets, 
 and, in the second place, cultivated the taste for form. 
 
PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. 357 
 
 I have heard one of the most experienced chiefs of the 
 English press remark that his best writers had gener- 
 ally been men who had excelled at school and college 
 in verse composition. It is not in a new country, 
 where the historical monuments and works of art 
 which in old countries cultivate the sense of beauty 
 are for the present necessarily wanting, that we can 
 afford to expel the beauties of the Classics from our 
 course of education without finding something to supply 
 their place. 
 
 Of course we may have translations ; and it is time 
 that some really good English translations should be 
 made. But great poets cannot be translated at all; 
 great orators cannot be adequately translated: no works 
 can be adequately translated of which, as of the works 
 of Plato and Tacitus, a principal excellence is the style. 
 
 The fatal objection to classical education, as it has 
 fallen under my experience in my own country, is, that 
 it fails with the great mass of the students. The great 
 mass of the students — though so many years of their 
 life are mainly occupied in the study — at the end of 
 their course have not acquired a sufficient knowledge 
 of Latin and Greek to read the ancient authors with 
 facility, to appreciate their beauties, or to receive from 
 them any mental culture beyond the mere exercise of 
 the faculties involved in getting up any subject for an 
 examination. They have read only a few authors, trans- 
 late them with difficulty, and on leaving the Univer- 
 sity lay them and all classical studies aside forever. 
 Whether these same men could be brought to study with 
 success any other subject requiring as much mental 
 
358 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 effort as the Classics, or to undergo high training of 
 any kind, may be doutful. The increase of industry at 
 Oxford which I mentioned as having followed the adop- 
 tion of the elective system of studies is found mainly 
 in the school of which modern history is the staple : 
 and, with all due loyalty to the subject of which I 
 am Professor, I must say that the intellectual effort 
 undergone in getting up a certain amount of modern 
 history for examination, does not seem to me to be of 
 the severest kind. As a mental discipline, and a mode 
 of acquiring mental power, I could never place it on a 
 par with the classical school. 
 
XXII. 
 
 The most commonly understood result of University 
 studies is the acquisition of knowledge. It is the busi- 
 ness of the teacher in each department to know what 
 is known of his subject, if possible, to add to what is 
 known, and to impart freely what he has discovered 
 or acquired. It is the business of the learner to avail 
 himself, as far as he is able, of the stores of .knowledge 
 which are placed within his reach in books and in oral 
 instruction. To raise the fabric of scientific attainment, 
 tier after tier, adding fact to fact, law to law, theory to 
 theory, that is one view of the work that we are taking 
 in hand. 
 
 And, certainly, if the word " knowledge" is taken in 
 the widest sense, and if the knowledge so conceived is 
 pursued with the entire heart, without disturbance from 
 any narrower motive, there can hardly be a nobler 
 aim. In this highest aspect, there is much truth in 
 the Socratic paradox, that knowledge is identical with 
 virtue. But no single term can actually express " the 
 chief end of man," and even the great name of 
 knowledge, when used alone, is apt to become limited 
 in meaning. The mere accumulation and arrangement 
 
 This Chapter is from an Address on " The End of Liberal Education," 
 delivered at the opening of the United College in the University of St. 
 Andrews, Nov. 3, 1868, by Rev. L. Campbell, Professor of Greek. 
 
 859 
 
360 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 of facts and theories may be an endless labor, but it 
 may also be barren of result. Great stores of learning 
 may be unfruitful, where there is no living energy ; 
 and, as the theologian speculates on the possibility of 
 having all faith without the gift of charity, so it may 
 be said to be equally conceivable that a man may have 
 " all knowledge," and yet have no mind. 
 
 And the idea of knowledge becomes still further 
 lowered, and the desire of knowledge, which exists 
 naturally in all men, is still more enfeebled, when the 
 pursuit of knowledge is recommended for the mere sake 
 of power. " How did Such-an-one lay the foundation 
 of his princely fortune ? " " He got schooling enough 
 to make him an exciseman ; that was the first step." 
 This answer exemplifies, certainly in a rudimentary 
 form, one way of looking at the usefulness of knowledge ; 
 and it is, perhaps, better that education should be 
 valued on such grounds as these, than if it were not 
 valued at all ; but such a conception of the advantages 
 of learning is hardly adequate as an ideal, although it 
 has sometimes been appealed to as a fundamental prin- 
 ciple, or so-called canon of ponderation. The great 
 author of the saying, " Knowledge is power," has him- 
 self taught us ever to look beyond immediate results. 
 We are not, he says, like Atalanta, to stop to pick up 
 an apple while we are running in the race. 
 
 Knowledge, then, is not by itself a sufficient expres- 
 sion of our object; first, because the word is apt to 
 suggest a mere abstract notion ; and, secondly, because 
 when thus narrowed it is liable to be tacitly regarded 
 as a means rather than as an end. 
 
PROFESSOR CAMPBELL. 361 
 
 Another definition of the aim of study, perhaps more 
 suited to the subjective spirit of this age, is intellectual 
 culture. This notion may help to supplement the too 
 abstract or objective conception of knowledge. It may 
 be said the test of a real education is not what a man 
 knows, nor even what he can do, but what is the con- 
 dition of his mental powers. The true process of 
 teaching is not like that of filling a vessel from without, 
 or impressing a mould on some yielding and merely 
 passive substance, but consists rather in developing 
 conscious activities from within ; and the consumma- 
 tion of the process is not an aggregation of knowledges, 
 or a bundle of accomplishments, but the harmonious 
 development of mind, the cultivation of an intelligent 
 and thoughtful spix-it. I might enlarge on this aspect 
 of our common purpose, which may suggest many 
 practical inferences to those who will consider it deeply ; 
 but I will only observe, before passing on, that intel- 
 lectual excellence or beauty, like knowledge, may, or 
 may not, be an adequate expression of our ideal, 
 according to the extent of signification which we attach 
 to the term. We cannot aim higher than perfection — 
 all depends on our notion of what is included in per- 
 fection. And here that secret egotism, which is the 
 source of so many weaknesses, creeps in and tempts 
 men to rest short of what is really highest, by thinking 
 of self-culture apart from the love of truth and the 
 practical good of men. The subjective form of expres- 
 sion is thus liable to misconception, as well as the 
 more objective form. So diflBcult is it to keep a firm 
 grasp of the whole of anything, especially of a thing so 
 
 31 
 
362 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 complex as a human life. For education can only be 
 truly estimated in relation to life as a whole ; and 
 hence the design of education is something more than 
 the amassing of information ; more, even, than the 
 cultivation of mental faculties. It is the enlargement 
 and elevation of the whole nature — the growth of 
 individuals and communities towards the measure of 
 the perfect man. 
 
 The analytical spirit of modern times, may I add, 
 the logical tendency of our own nation, leads us to 
 think of human life and character in a fragmentary 
 and disjointed way. Not contented with ideal distinc- 
 tions between things which can have no life when put 
 asunder, we are prone to separate and oppose them. 
 We set the heart against the intellect, feeling against 
 reason, formal against real truth, forgetting that no 
 true life is possible in which both sides of each antithe- 
 sis are not combined. There can be no sound theory 
 of education in which any element of humanity is lost 
 sight of. And university education is only a stage in 
 that larger scheme of progress which for the individual 
 extends over the whole of life, and for the community, 
 embraces the welfare of every class. In that scheme, 
 it has an appropriate place and work, but this separate 
 function is vitally related to the whole, from which no 
 part can be isolated without losing use and meaning ; 
 and therefore, although the object of our meeting here 
 is chiefly and directly an intellectual one, whether this 
 be regarded as the acquisition and diffusion of knowl- 
 edge, or the promotion of mental culture, yet this 
 purely intellectual aim, noble in itself, cannot have 
 
i»ROFESSOR CAMPBELL. 363 
 
 free course unless it is animated by a still greater 
 purpose — the formation and growth of character, the 
 knowledge of self, the diffusion of right principles of 
 action in private and public. 
 
 I now turn to the consideration of a department in 
 which I am more at home.^ 
 
 The periodical reaction against classical studies seems 
 to have again set in. Their partial or entire abolition 
 was advocated about a twelvemonth since, in a well- 
 known speech, on grounds which tell almost equally" 
 against every form of liberal education. If by " things 
 versus words " is meant familiarity with material ob- 
 jects, as distinguished from the products of the mind ; 
 if " truth, not falsehood " means the mere inculcation 
 of traditional beliefs, without the deeper study of the 
 history of opinion ; above all, if the highest training is 
 to be in things that are nearest and most immediately 
 useful, I do not see why the Faculty of Arts in our uni- 
 versities should exist another day. The advanced teach- 
 ing of the physical sciences must be proscribed equally 
 with that of classics. The pulpit and the industrial 
 school, with some machinery in the shape of seminaries 
 for keeping up the traditions of the several professions 
 or crafts, would supply all the educational wants of 
 the age. On the other hand, the defenders of these 
 studies appear to me to omit some reasons which might 
 be urged in their support. To revert once more to 
 the premises laid down at first, the study of the classics 
 
 1 He had been speaking of mental and moral Philosophy and Mathe- 
 matics. 
 
364 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 is to be maintained as a branch of science, as a means 
 of culture, and as an engine of progress. 
 
 1. The study of Greek and Roman antiquity is, for 
 western nations, the first and most important chapter 
 in the science of man, in the several departments of 
 language, poetry, religion, politics, and speculative phi- 
 losophy. Thanks to the wonderful labors of earlier 
 and later scholars, this lesson is more intelligible than 
 formerly. The materials of the science are ready to 
 our hand, and are in that state of preparation in which 
 scientific inquiry becomes most fruitful in results. If 
 the grammar of the ancient languages, and the mere 
 verbal study of their literature, was a sufl&cient edu- 
 cation for great men a few generations since, will not 
 the more philosophical analysis of their language, as 
 compared with others, the more critical and compre- 
 hensive interpretation of their great writers, still form 
 a valuable preparation for the science which begins to 
 absorb all sciences — the history of thought ? Shall we 
 withdraw this study from education just when it is be- 
 coming clearer and more universally interesting, and, 
 if that is to be a reason, when European antiquity is 
 coming nearer to us than ever before ? Are we to cease 
 educating men in critical and historical inquiry, and 
 that, in the name of freedom of thought, when questions 
 of sacred criticism are among the burning questions 
 of the day ? Are we to throw away the best means of 
 creating the power of realizing modes of thinking 
 remote from our own, just when that power is becoming 
 of the highest practical value ? 
 
 2. This leads to the second consideration ; for is not 
 
PROFESSOR CAMPBELL. 865 
 
 this very power the highest evidence of culture, the 
 essence of an enlarged and liberal spirit ? The value 
 of classical studies in this respect has been so often 
 stated, and has so recently found a worthy exponent 
 in our Lord Eector, that I need only remark that the 
 exercise of composition in the ancient languages has 
 other uses besides that of familiarizing us with their 
 idioms and vocabularies. It is one means among 
 several of enabling the student to live in the ancient 
 world, and to realize something of the subtile beauties 
 of classical thought and speech ; for scholarship is not 
 a crude mass of information, but a habit of mind, a 
 mould not impressed from without, but fashioned from 
 within, through intercourse with the great of old, with 
 the " select men," who were the leading spirits of great 
 nations when the world was young. 
 
 3. And the result of such a habit ought to be some- 
 thing more than is usually expressed in the term 
 " culture." The earliest name of the study is the most 
 suggestive: Rerum humaniorum scientia — the study 
 of what is more essentially human. The outcome of 
 such a study should be an enlarged humanity, a 
 growing consciousness of the higher things in man, 
 an increased perception of the inward power and free- 
 dom of the human spirit. It is well that this should 
 be combined with those other perceptions of order and 
 uniformity and law which are so much strengthened 
 by the sciences of nature. It is well that both should 
 be carried up by reflection into the still higher region 
 of philosophical inquiry. But it is a matter of common 
 experience that the mind that has not been thus brought 
 
 31* 
 
SQQ CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 into contact with the past, and trained to follow the 
 various movements of early thought, sees less of what 
 is deepest in the life of man, and is ever liable to be 
 enslaved by the newest physical hypothesis, or, what is 
 sometimes the same thing, the newest metaphysical 
 generalization. 
 
 While thus urging the claims of philology to con- 
 tinued recognition, I am quite ready to concede that 
 we shall lose nothing by judiciously making room for 
 other subjects, and that the most hopeful thing that can 
 be said of our methods of teaching is that they have 
 begun to change. 
 
 The consideration of student-life is not completed 
 with a survey of the curriculum of study. In remark- 
 ing more generally on some of the principles which 
 should guide us in our work here, I wish still to keep 
 in view what I said at first, that our object is something 
 more than knowledge or mental culture — something 
 which may be better described as personal progress. 
 Human nature is complex, and, if we are chiefly en- 
 gaged with a part only, we must not forget that that 
 part is tended by us for the sake of the whole. Pine 
 character alone ennobles intellect, and that intellectual 
 training is not worth much which has no effect in 
 elevating character. 
 
 It is a phenomenon not less sad than frequent to see 
 the defects of the school-boy perpetuated in later life. 
 There are characters whose growth seems to be arrested 
 at a certain point, like a leaf that has been nipped, or a 
 a tree stunted by some prevailing wind. There are 
 latent excellences and possibilities of greatness, which 
 
PROFESSOR CAMPBELL. 367 
 
 remain undeveloped, until, like green corn in November, 
 they have no more chance of ripening in this world. 
 In observing such things in ourselves and others, the 
 reflection * naturally arises : Could not education do 
 more for us than it does ? If the habit of self-criticism 
 and of correcting faults were once begun, could it so 
 entirely cease ? Could men be so indifferent to the 
 decision of important questions, if the love of truth 
 were more inculcated in youth? Could that sacred 
 ardor be then extinguished " more utterly," as Plato 
 says, " than Heraclitus's sun, in that it is never re- 
 illumed " ? If consciousness were once fully alive, 
 would not the result be more perceptible in the upward 
 growth of character ? 
 
 For what is the root of self-improvement ? Why is 
 the work of individual progress begun earlier and 
 continued longer by some than others ? We are apt to 
 attribute this to an instinctive prescience, which out- 
 runs experience, and much is no doubt due to an 
 original gift ; but this gift shows itself in the quickness 
 and firmness with which the intimations of experience 
 are seized. Tiie first warning that some course of 
 action, or the overgrowth of some quality in us, is likely 
 to be hurtful to ourselves or others, may be accepted 
 with manly faith, or may be childishly rejected. The 
 worth and nobleness of some act which is not required 
 by common opinion may be apprehended, or may pass 
 by us unperceived. In such perceptions as these lies 
 the secret of true originality. And their development 
 depends greatly on the early cultivation of a habit of 
 reflection, which to some men seems to come naturally, 
 
368 CLASSICAL STUDY. 
 
 but can surely in some degree be formed in most men 
 by education. 
 
 The most ordinary lesson contains the type of all 
 true human growth, in the consciousness of new powers 
 alternating with the consciousness of deficiency.' And 
 these two are most thoroughly combined in the most 
 perfect method, which consists, not merely in reading 
 and hearing and reproducing what is heard and read, 
 or even in original eflForts generally approved or con- 
 demned. That mind is sure to run to waste which is 
 not frequently subjected to friendly but unsparing 
 criticism. To invite such criticism, and to lay it well 
 to heart, is the wisdom of every learner. To know 
 how to bestow it, not discouragingly, but convincingly, 
 and with stimulative effect, is one of the highest gifts 
 of the teacher. It is by this means, more than by any 
 other, that the mind is trained to set the love of truth 
 before the love of display. " I am one of those," says 
 Socrates, " who would gladly be refuted if I say any- 
 thing that is not true, and gladly would refute another 
 who was in error ; but, of the two, would rather be re- 
 futed, inasmuch as it is a greater gain to be one's self 
 delivered from the greatest of all evils, than to be the 
 means of deliverance to another." 
 
 The simple love of truth is a greater thing than in- 
 tellectual power. Without this, all other gifts and 
 acquirements are so many means of going further 
 astray. Reason is made the minister of prejudice. 
 Opinions which happen to suit the temper are hastily 
 caught up, and all the resources of ingenuity and 
 learning are spent in defending them. The love of 
 
PROFESSOR CAMPBELL. 369 
 
 truth is the meeting-point of intellect and character, 
 improving both the heart and head. When this eye 
 of the soul is dimmed, the greatest mind has but a 
 discolored and shadowy prospect of men and things. 
 This helps us to distinguish between verbal and real 
 discussion, and shows the one to be as worthless as the 
 other is valuable. This teaches that intellectual mod- 
 eration and repose, which is the best safeguard against 
 rhetorical extravagances and perverse reasoning. This 
 raises us above the pettiness of viewing knowledge as a 
 mere means of gain. I would not speak slightingly 
 of any motive which is deeply infixed in human nature, 
 and has the power of inspiring great and continued 
 effort ; and the desire of rising in the world and estab- 
 lishing a position for one's self undoubtedly has a cer- 
 tain use. But as the ruling motive of a life, as an 
 ideal of practice, as the mainspring of character, the 
 determination to get up in life is simply vulgarizing. 
 That is, indeed, a low and poor ambition into which 
 there does not enter some dream of truth and good, of 
 unending progress in knowledge and in virtue, of real 
 and lasting service to mankind, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Accuracy of thouglit and expressions promoted by the study of the 
 
 Classics, 305. 
 Age at which the study of the Classics should be commenced, 
 
 61, 63, 70. 
 Analytical faculty; strengthened by the study of the Classics, 17. 
 Antiquity, Classical, the whole subject inexhaustible, 259. 
 Arago's opinion as to the value of classical studies. 111. 
 Attention, influence of classical studies on the powers of, 294, 295. 
 
 B. 
 
 Brown, Pres. Samuel G., extract from his Inaugural Address 
 339-346. 
 
 C. 
 
 Choate's, Rufus, fondness for classical studies, 256. 
 
 Classics and Classical Studies, the question of their proper position 
 in a system of education, one of great interest, 1 ; causes of the 
 high position occupied by them for so long a time, 2-5 ; that at 
 the revival of learning there was no literature worthy of the 
 name in existence except the Classics, 3 ; that Latin was then 
 the language of the church and the vernacular language of 
 learned men, 3 ; that classical subjects then furnished the chief 
 materials for thought, 4 ; that the foundation of seminaries of 
 learning was contemporaneous with the revival of learning, 4 ; 
 that the educational field was then occupied exclusively by the 
 Classics, 4 ; question of the tenableness of the position occupied 
 hitherto by the Classics, 5 ; they are not entitled to an exclusive 
 position among studies, 13; are entitled to a central position, 
 15, 281, 282, 286 ; they cannot effect the whole of our mental 
 culture, 19 ; effect of classical studies on the memory, 19 ; on 
 
 371 
 
872 INDEX. 
 
 the judgment, 16; they strengthen the reasoning powers, 17, 
 802, 339; and the faculty of analysis, 17; they educate the 
 taste, 17 ; they improve the imagination, 18 ; they give precision 
 to language, 18, 317 ; they may be regarded as a natural centre 
 among subjects of study, 19 ; much information given as to many 
 subjects in properly teaching the grammars of the classical lan- 
 guages, 19 ; the translation of classical authors into English, the 
 best possible exercise in English composition, 21 ; the study of the 
 Classics may be made the basis on which much other knowledge 
 may rest, 21 ; it gives an insight into the first principles of 
 literary criticism, 23, 193; the Classics of much greater educa- 
 tional value than our own or any modern languages, 24 (see 
 Languages) ; of greater educational value than mathematics, 34 ; 
 or natural science, 34 (see Mathematics and Natural Science) ; 
 or history, 41 (see History) ; the Classics an essential part of 
 an educational course because they connect us with the intellec- 
 tual eflforts of past ages, 46 ; on account of the influence of the 
 Greek and Roman mind in moulding modern civilization, 46, 88; 
 they could not be abandoned without a great shock to our system 
 of thought and social culture, 47 ; they are indispensable in the 
 learned professions and for statesmen, 48, 80, 322 ; the intrinsic 
 value of Classicar literature, 50, 351 ; objection to the study of 
 the Classics that they are pagan and impure, 52; that they are of 
 little practical utility, 53, 326, 337, xxiii ; everything in education 
 not to be regulated by the dictates of a vulgar utilitarianism, 54 ; 
 that the Classics are appreciated only by a few, 55 ; but certain 
 studies may be indispensable, even though their usefulness is not 
 appreciated by those who are required to pursue them, 55 ; that 
 the study of the Classics cannot be the best, because introduced 
 before the rise of modern science and literature, 56 ; this objec- 
 tion refuted by the fact that an exclusive position is not claimed 
 by the Classics, 5 7 ; and by reference to positive arguments, 5 7 ; 
 the Greek and Latin, it is said, should not be studied together, 
 58, 82 ; this in part admitted, 58 ; the study of Classics not to be 
 forced upon all, 69 ; too much time, possibly, devoted to them in 
 England, 79 ; the Classics eminently humane, 195, 365 ; they 
 are useful as giving the power of analyzing sentences, 233 ; they 
 are delightful and improving on account of their associations, 
 248 ; and c^f their refining influence, 251 ; their bringing us into 
 communion with the illustrious dead, 289 ; not to be pursued 
 
IKDEX. 373 
 
 merely on account of the entertainment given by them, 262 ; 
 they relate to the substance as well as 'to the forms of thought, 
 342 ; they promote general enlargement of mind, 343 ; useful 
 because remote from present questions, 355 ; their usefulness as 
 related to language, religion, politics, and philosophy, 364 ; their 
 intrinsic value diminished since the revival of learning, 351 ; 
 comparatively useless if they give only the power of translation 
 from one language into another, 228-233 ; objection to classical 
 studies that they are not thoroughly pursued, a valid one, 279; 
 that many have no aptitude for such studies, 312, 357 ; that the 
 powers of external observation are developed earlier than those 
 of reflection, 313 ; a matter of surprise that their value should 
 be questioned, 325 ; too much ground gone over in a given 
 time, XXV ; history of the controversy in relation to their value, 
 vii-xii ; requisites to the thorough mastery of the classical studies, 
 the removal of obscurities, geographical information, parallel 
 passages from other authors, written exercises, general criticism, 
 237, 241 ; excessive importance sometimes claimed for the 
 Classics, 291 ; testimonies of eminent scholars to the value of 
 the Classics, xiii-xxii; Victor Cousin, xiii; Sir W. Hamilton, xiv; 
 Edward Everett, xiv; Prof Ejngsley, xiv; Moses Stuart, xv; 
 Adam Sedgewick, xv ; K. B. Patton, xvi ; N. F. More, xvi ; 
 Dr. William Smith, xvii ; James Talmadge, xvii ; D. W. Thomp- 
 son, xvii, xxi ; John E. B. Mayor, xvii, xxii; D. E. Fearon, xviii; 
 Rev. R. I. Bryce, xviii ; Edmond Edmunds, xix ; Frederic W. 
 Walker, xix ; Rev. Wm. Charles Williams, xix ; Rev. Joshua 
 Jones, xix; G. W. Dasent, xx ; Matthew Arnold, xxi; Frederic 
 Thiersch, xxi ; J. Collingwood Bruce, xxii. 
 
 Conington, Prof John, extract from his Lecture on Accademical 
 Study, 197-214. 
 
 Coleridge's, Henry Nelson, beautiful description of the Greek lan- 
 guage, 290. 
 
 Culture, true mental, best effected by a -harmonious blending of 
 many studies along with one as central, 15. 
 
 D. 
 
 DiflSculties met with in the study of the Classics, an advantage 
 rather than an evil, 74, 247; not to be created for their own 
 sake, 268 ; every effort to be made for their removal, 269 ; many 
 difficulties unavoidably left, 269. 
 32 
 
374 INDEX. 
 
 Discipline and development of the faculties tlie chief object of 
 education, 6, 92, 162,175, 215, 314, 361; studies best fitted to 
 promote mental discipline, 11, 75 ; mental discipline best effected 
 by the study of language, and especially of the classic languages, 
 144, 146, 150, 175, 346 ; best effected by a few studies or even 
 one, 166 ; the reason of this, that thereby the idea of unity is 
 created in the mind, 167; mode in which mental discipline is 
 effected by the study of the Latin, 17^ ; mental discipline secured 
 by careful grammatical analysis, 180. 
 
 E. 
 
 Edinburgh Review, in regard to the uselessness of the ability to 
 repeat the Eton Grammar, 66. 
 
 Edwards, Prof. B. B., extract from his Article on Collegiate Educa- 
 tion, 185-196. 
 
 Education, necessity of determining its proper object, 6 ; the de- 
 velopment and discipline of the faculties, its chief object, xxiv, 6, 
 92, 162, 165, 215, 229 ; education must be based on knowledge, 
 8 ; three kinds of education — primary, secondary, and the higher, 
 8 ; primary education, the imparting of the mere elements of 
 learning, 8 ; secondary education, that of the vast majority of 
 the middle classes, 9, 162 ; the higher education, meant for those 
 able to pursue their studies up to early manhood, 9 ; primary 
 education, a necessary preparative for the secondary and the 
 higher, 10, 293 ; the main distinction between the secondary and 
 the higher, one of degree rather than of kind, 10 ; influence of 
 classical studies on practical education, 79 ; those branches of 
 study which are best suited to the old, not necessarily so for the 
 young, 106 ; no education worthy of the name which does not 
 include both literature and science, 118; neither school nor 
 university education need include every useful branch of learn- 
 ing, 124 ; no other languages but Greek and Latin to be included 
 in a course of education, 133 ; superior value of classical studies 
 for educational purposes, 133 ; education not identical with in- 
 struction, 164 ; education, classical, its aim not merely to dis- 
 cipline the intellect, but to impart knowledge and entertainment, 
 263 ; that the former is its only aim, the English theory, 264 ; 
 this theory, not altogether injurious, 264 ; the latter, if alone 
 acted upon, of hurtful tendency, 266; the kind of work to be 
 done in education, often misapprehended, xxiv ; (see Classical 
 
INDEX. 375 
 
 Studies, Languages, Modern Languages, in relation to the com- 
 parative educational value of classical studies). 
 
 Eloquence, the favorable effect of classical studies on, a reason why 
 they should be pursued, 219-223. 
 
 English Composition, facility in, best gained by the translation of 
 Latin and Greek authors into English, 21. 
 
 English Language, a knowledge of indispensable, 24 ; ill effects 
 of confining our language studies to it, 25 ; it cannot take the 
 place of Greek and Latin, 242, 320 (see Languages and Classical 
 Studies). 
 
 English Literature best understood by the aid of classical studies, 
 332. 
 
 Everett, Edward, his example as encouraging classical studies, 253. 
 
 F. 
 
 Felton, Pres. C. C, an illustration of the advantages of classical 
 studies, 254 ; extract from his Inaugural Address (note) 255 ; ex- 
 tract from his Address before the Institute of Instruction, 325-338. 
 
 Fox, Charles James, effect of classical studies on his power as an 
 orator, 222. 
 
 French and German languages, their educational value compared 
 with that of the classical languages, 28 (see Languages, Modern). 
 
 G. 
 
 Gardiner, William H., extract from his Phi-Beta-Kappa Address, 
 215-225. 
 
 German Language, its educational value compared with that of the 
 Greek and Latin, 28. 
 
 Gladstone's, Mr., opinion as to the place to be occupied by classical 
 studies in a system of education, 14, 46. 
 
 Grammar of the Classical Languages, if properly taught, a means 
 of giving much information on many topics, 19 ; the injudicious 
 use of grammars a cause of losing the benefit of classical studies, 
 232. 
 
 Grammatical Analysis, its advantages in relation to mental disci- 
 pline, 180. 
 
 Greek and Latin Languages to be studied together, 82; better 
 taught in Scotland than in England, 119 ; a knowledge of Greek 
 and Latin acquired with more difficulty than that of the modern 
 languages, 269 ; the study of these languages promotes accuracy 
 
376 INDEX. 
 
 of thought and expression, 305 (see Languages and Modem 
 
 Languages). 
 Greek Literature, the most extraordinary phenomenon in the history 
 
 of the human mind, 103 ; sure to be pre-eminent among literary 
 
 studies, 260 (see Literature). 
 Grimke, Thomas, his views of the value of classical studies, 91. 
 
 H. - 
 
 Hamilton, Sir William, quoted in reference to the value of classical 
 studies, xiv; as to the value of the study of natural science, 
 319. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, his case an almost solitary exception to the gen- 
 erally benign influence of classical studies on eloquence, 222. 
 
 History its educational value, 41 ; reply to statements of the West- 
 minster Review, 41 ; the primary aim of education, not the 
 qualifying of a man to be a citizen of modern Europe, nor to 
 make him able to view all things in relation to the progress of 
 the race, 42 ; history, only a part of a language and literature 
 training, 43 : modern historical writers, inferior to the classical 
 historians, 44 ; the young, not able to receive the advantages of 
 historical study, 44 ; it has not, as a matter of fact, trained the 
 best statesmen, 45. 
 
 I 
 
 Imagination improved by classical studies, 299. 
 
 Instructions, classical, value of the system of, pursued in England, 60; 
 the objections of Sydney Smith and of other writers, 61 ; the 
 study of the Classics alleged to be begun too early, 61 ; opinion 
 of the Westminster Review, 63 ; the opinion of the Edinburgh 
 Review as to the uselessness of *' rote teaching " acquiesced in, 
 66 ; remedies for the deficiencies of our system of classical in- 
 struction, 66 ; importance of special training for classical instruc- 
 tors, G6^ xxvii ; importance of the question of the best mode of 
 classical instruction, 67. 
 
 Introduction to this work by the Editor, vii~xxxv ; history of the 
 controversy as to the value of classical studies, vii-xii ; testimonies 
 of eminent scholars on the subject, xii-xxiii ; obstacles in the 
 way of the successful pursuit of classical studies, xxiii ; need of 
 qualified teachers, xxvii ; of philological seminaries, xxx ; object 
 and motives of this work, xxxii. 
 
INDEX. 377 
 
 J. 
 
 Jones's, Rev. Joshua, Essay on Classical Studies, 1-71. 
 Judgment, the, as affected by the study of the Classics, 16, 76, 298. 
 
 K. 
 
 Knowledge, its acquisitions the aim of university studies, 359. 
 
 L. 
 
 Language and Languages, the study considered as a means of mental 
 discipline, 11, 144; the classical languages especially, 144; its 
 study a necessary preparation for the study of nature, 315, 323 ; 
 it promotes clearness of thought and expression, 317 ; its study, 
 interesting merely as a mental phenomenon, 327, 345 ; its study 
 in keeping with our tendency to think by means of symbols, 283 ; 
 the classical languages contain stores of learning concealed from 
 those not conversant with those languages, 9 7 ; stores of theo- 
 logical, legal, and historical knowledge, 98 ; an acquaintance 
 with them necessary to an understanding of modern languages 
 and literature, 33, 148, 216, 245 ; the knowledge of them not 
 useless, 217; not a waste of life, 218; the modern languages, 
 their comparative educational value, 24, 112, 132, 352; the con- 
 finement of our language studies to the English, hurtful, 25; it 
 prevents the attainment of a correct insight into the nature of 
 language, its laws, forms, and analogies, 25 ; our language too 
 simple in the structure of its sentences, 26 ; its grammatical 
 structure imperfect, 26 ; it is based on the classical languages, 27 ; 
 alleged superior educational value of the French and German 
 languages, 28; these languages, acquired too easily, 30; the class- 
 ical languages dead and unprogressive, and therefore superior in 
 educational value, 30 ; more perfect and accurate in the expres- 
 sion of ideas, 31 ; afford a common standard of the principles of 
 all languages, 31 ; they supply the finest literary models, 32 ; 
 the profusion of classical sentiments and allusions in all modern 
 languages, 32 ; they are free from references to all modern con- 
 troversies, 33 ; the advantage of uniting the study of modern 
 languages with the classical, 159 ; should be studied in America 
 because of their effect on eloquence, 219-223 ; illustrated in the 
 cases of Fox and James Otis, 221, 222; the classical languages 
 not dead, 347. 
 
 82'^ 
 
378 INDEX. 
 
 Latin language, the vernacular language of the church and of all 
 learned men at the revival of learning, 3 ; its study, a good 
 mental discipline, 175 ; its educational value, not inferior to the 
 Greek, 197; as a preparative to the study of the English, 181, 
 330 ; Latin and Greek languages deserve to be studied because 
 so highly finished, 334 ; on account of the intellectual labor re- 
 quired to apprehend the entire worth of an author, 335 ; the 
 best method of studying it, the exegetical, 207 ; illustrated by 
 examining the first seven lines of the Aeneid, 208 ; this mode of 
 study requires much time, 214. 
 
 Latin composition, its use, 273. 
 
 Legare, Hon. Hugh, extract from his works, 89-110. 
 
 Literature in all its parts has reference to the Classics, 95 ; literature, 
 the true object of its study, to enter into the mind of men eminent 
 in thought and power of expression, 202 ; the labor needful to 
 an acquaintance with it identical with enjoyment, 202. 
 
 Literature, classical, its superiority for all purposes of education, 133; 
 its elements to be thoroughly mastered in early life, 185 ; Latin 
 literature, 182 ; to be studied on account of its efiect on the 
 nations which succeeded Rome, 198 ; not to be neglected because 
 of its intimate connection with that of Greece, 200 ; a great 
 amount of education involved in its right study, 211 ; it both 
 serves as a discipline and excites interest, 213. 
 
 Loring, Dr. George B., extract from his Address at Amherst College, 
 251-258. 
 
 Lowe, Right Hon. Robert, his objection to classical studies, 277, 306. 
 
 M. 
 
 McCosh, Pres. James, extract from his Inaugural Address, 283-288. 
 
 Masson, Prof, extract from his Address, 305-308. 
 
 Mathematics, its comparative educational value, 34 ; its importance 
 admitted, 34 ; the mental discipline given by mathematics, not 
 given by it only, 36 ; the central place in education not merited 
 by it, 173 ; its elements, to be mastered in early life, 186 ; sup- 
 plemental to classical literature, 339. 
 
 Memory strengthened by classical studies, 16, 230, 294. 
 
 Mill, John Stuart, extract from his Inaugural Discourse at St. An- 
 drews, 117-141 ; his opinion as to the value of classical studies, 
 275. 
 
 Modern Languages (see Classical Studies and Languages). 
 
INDEX. 379 
 
 Miiller, Max, quoted as opposed to the confinement of the mind to 
 the study of one language, 25 ; in regard to Latin as the foun- 
 dation of modern languages, 34. 
 
 N. 
 
 Natural Science, its claim to occupy the place now held by the 
 the Classics, 37, 319 ; its study that of things rather than words, 
 38 ; confessed importance of its study, 39 ; it merits only a sub- 
 ordinate place, 40 ; the mental discipline which it gives, is de- 
 rived not from its elements, 40 ; opinion of Sir William Hamil- 
 ton as to the value of the study of natural science, 319. 
 
 Nature, external, the knowledge of it not excluded by dassical 
 studies, 230, 313. 
 
 O. 
 
 Objections to the study of the Classics, 62 (see Classical Studies, 
 Languages). 
 
 Otis, James, his power as an orator, how far attributable to the study 
 of the Classics, 222. 
 
 P. 
 
 Payne, Joseph, extract from his Lectures on the Curriculum of 
 Modern Education and the respective claims of Classics and 
 Science, 161-183. 
 
 Phillips Academy, allusion to its foundation, 309. 
 
 Philologists, usefulness of their labors, 327. 
 
 Pillans, Prof. James, extract from his Lectures on Education, 
 227-250. 
 
 Porter, Prof Noah, extract from his Article on American Col- 
 leges, 142-160. 
 
 Precision of thought and expression promoted by the study of the 
 Classics, 317. 
 
 Public Schools Commissioners, English, their report as to the value 
 of the study of natural science, 38, 172, 383; as to the value of 
 classical studies, xviii. 
 
 R. 
 
 Reason and reasoning powers, strengthened by classical studies, 
 17, 302, 339. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sanborn, Prof Edwin D., extract from his Article on the Study of the 
 Classics, 286-304. 
 
/ 
 
 880 INDEX. 
 
 Science, Natural, its comparative educational value, 37, 118, 161 
 (see Education, Natural Science, Classical Studies) ; the condi- 
 tion on which science becomes a good mental discipline, that it 
 be studied in the right manner, that it be a study of things and 
 not of words, 1 70. 
 
 Seai-s, Hon. Philip H., extract from his Dedicatory Address, 309-324. 
 
 Seminaries, Philological, greatly needed, xxx. 
 
 Sellar, Prof. W. Y., extract from his Lectures on Theories of Clas- 
 sical Teaching, 259-289. 
 
 Smith's, Sydney, objection to the system of classical instruction pur- 
 sued in England, 60. 
 
 Smith, Prof. Goldwin, extract from his paper on University Educa- 
 tion, 351-359. 
 
 Stuart, Prof Moses, on the value of classical studies, xv. 
 
 T. 
 Taste, the, educated by the study of the Classics, 1 7, 76, 1 90, 301,322. 
 ^ Teachers, the want of qualified teachers a great obstacle to the 
 
 successful study of the Classics, xxvii. 
 Testimonies of eminent men to the value of classical studies, 
 
 xiv-xxiii. 
 Thiersch, Prof Frederic, his essays on learned schools, 72-88. 
 Tliompson, Prof D'Arcy W., extract from his Day Dreams of a 
 
 Schoolmaster, 347-350. 
 Translation from Latin into English, its use, 274. 
 Truth, its love, a greater thing than intellectual power, 368. 
 
 U. 
 
 Utility, immediate, not the true measure of the value of a study, 
 54, 89, 159, 162. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaughan, Prof H. H., his opinion as to the value of the study 
 
 of natural science, 39. 
 Vei-sification, Greek and Latin, recommended, 356. 
 
 W. 
 
 Westminister Review, its opinion in regard to the educational value 
 of the study of History, 41 ; in regard to the time of commencing 
 the study of the Classics, 63. 
 
[415] 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 381 
 
 Whewell, Dr. William, on the advantages of classical studies, 46 ; 
 
 extract from his Principles of English University Education, 
 
 111-116. 
 Whitens, Pres., opinion as to the comparative value of the ancient 
 
 and modern languages in a course of study, 147. 
 Words, the importance of a precise knowledge of their meaning, as 
 
 a safeguard against error, 126 ; this knowledge best gained by 
 
 the careful study of the classical languages, 126, 129; words 
 
 are things, and the consequent usefulness of the study of them, 
 
 306. 
 Writers, ancient, their superiority to the modern, 234 ; unequalled 
 
 as models of taste, 32, 356. 
 
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