212 GRECIAN EDUCATION. 



now become proper for these strangers to permit me to use this my old 

 acquaintance — why the idea is as abhorrent to my mind as though I 

 were invited iu all kindness by another to kiss my own rosy wife or 

 cuff my own roguish boys. Every thing even here told me in chill- 

 ing language, I was an utter stranger, forgotten. Stammering a few 

 apologetic incoherencies for my unwelcome intrusion, I enquired after 

 some friend who I knew was far distant, and beat a hasty retreat. 

 It was with no light heart that 1 returned to my lodging. 



Sigma. 



GRECIAN EDUCATIOX. NO. VII. 



The reader of Plato and Aristotle will easily be convinced that edu- 

 cation amongst the Athenians was not only regarded as an exceedingly 

 important matter, but that enlarged views were entertained in regard to it. 

 The system advocated by these eminent men was by no means onesided. 

 The extensive culture of the human powers, both of body and soul, was 

 embraced in their systems. If we regard education as having respect to 

 the body and to the soul of man, and to the latter as consisting of intel- 

 lectual and moral powers, and classify it under the three-fold head of 

 physical, intellectual, and moral, it may be asserted that no one of these 

 was excluded from the plans of these enlightened scholars and teachers. 



What was done in training the body, calling out its energies, and fit- 

 ting it for energetic and protracted action, is well known. The gymnas- 

 tics of the Greeks were regarded as exceedingly important, and were 

 made use of with the best effects. In regard to Gymnastic Education, 

 one of the generic divisions of the Platonic system, we have the follow- 

 ing account in Professor Smith''s History of Education : 



"Gymnastics is again divided into two branches : the one for skill in combat, 

 the other in dancing. The former is designed to exercise the neck, the limbs, the 

 hips, with a view to noble carriage, to strength and health ; the latter is to give 

 grace, agility, and beauty ; so that in the whole body, and in all the motions of the 

 several members, a certain evpvB-fAict (harmony) may be expressed. Pure gym- 

 nastics ought to render warlike, and should be practised throughout the whole life. 



Children should be accustomed, like the Scythians, to use the left hand with 

 the same skill as the right. Boys ought to become strong in the feet as well as in 

 the hands." 



The exact sciences, arithmetic, geometry, &c. are embraced in the 

 course. Languages are likewise a part. Logic, economy, and astronomy, 

 are not excluded. Great attention was to be paid to the formation of cor- 

 rect moral habits. Every thing was done that could be, under the cir- 

 cumstances which then existed, duly to instruct the mind, and to call into 

 pure and active exercise its moral powers. 



