GRECIAN KDUOAIION. 183 



tire energies to the topic under discussion, and of making a subject per- 

 fectly clear and intelligible to his hearers. His method of instruction 

 was the Socratic, in which it is said he particularly excelled. His suc- 

 cess as a teacher is seen in the "literary career of his more distinguished 

 pupils, who reflect in their writings the puiity of his taste, the elegance 

 of his Latin style, and the justness of his criticisms. All who came 

 under his influence, reveal in their works, that sobriety in regard to or- 

 nament, and that rythmical cadence, which charm both the mind and the 

 ear in the works of theii master, and on which one reposes most de- 

 lightfully, after being wearied with the toilsome rhapsodies and barba- 

 rous dialect of those who fail to make themselves intelligible, by not 

 taking pains with the language which they use." 



But we must slop, merely stating in conclusion that his principal 

 works are Annotations on Plutarch, Roecepta PhilosopJiia logica:, Se- 

 lecla Principum Gracicc Historlcoriim, Vita Ruhnkenii. 



GRECIAN EDUCATIOX. NO. Vt. 



The Athenians deserve our most particular attention, in treating of 

 Grecian education. It is natural to infer from their great eminence in 

 all the walks of literature, that their system of instruction must have 

 possessed many excellencies. It is, as a historical fact, undeniable that 

 the classic age of Greece was classic in Pedagogics. From all the great 

 writers in the Attic dialect, may something be learned in regard to the 

 course of training the body and mind, at Athens. Aristophanes, Xeno- 

 phon, Plato and Aristotle, furnish us exceedingly interesting and very 

 ample expositions of the views entertained, and the usages adopted by 

 this refined and highly cultivated people. 



Education at Athens was not restricted to any particular model from 

 which there could be no deviation. It was not designed to produce uni- 

 formity. It partook of the freedom of the Constitution under which 

 they lived. It expanded itself in the various directions, which, in a re- 

 publican government, might be expected. It assumed at different peri- 

 ods various forms. The innovations were not always such as to give 

 satisfaction to those who intelligently compared the past and the pres- 

 ent. It was then, as it is now, innovation is not always improvement, 

 and the abandonment of the processes of our fathers and the substitu- 

 tion of others for them do not necessarily issue in good. A picture of 

 the contrast between his own times and the good old time of Athens, is 

 drawn by the unrivalled dramatist, Aristophanes, in his celebrated piece, 

 "The Clouds." The passages are quoted by Schwartz, and rendered in a 



