GRECIAN EDUCATION, 95 



GRECIAN EDUCATION. 



The most instructive writers on the subject of education, amongst 

 the Greeks, are, unquestionably, Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle. In the 

 republic of Plato there are very full and interesting exhibitions of his 

 views. Xenophon in his Cyropaedia, or institutes of Cyrus, unfolds 

 many instructive facts on the same subject. The manner in which the 

 hero of his history, or romance, was trained, is given with considerable 

 amplitude. Aristotle, in his UoXirix.ci^ leaves but little to be desired in 

 regard to his own views, and the views of such a man cannot but be 

 considered as invaluable. In the 7ih and Slh books, the subject is dis- 

 cussed in detail. It may, however, be worth while to inquire whether 

 anterior to the age of these eminent men (he nations of Greece had in 

 any degree turned their attention to mental and physical culture. Re- 

 garding Homer as the oldest Greek writer known to us, we may turn to 

 his immortal productions to ascertain the sentiments prevalent in his 

 time. The Iliad and Odyssey, those wonderful creations of a sublime 

 genius, the admiration of past ages, the admiration of the present, and 

 destined to be the admiration of men till the end of time, contain many 

 incidental references to the process in vogue, in his own age and in 

 those which preceded. That distinguished German writer on Pedago- 

 gics, Schwartz, in his comprehensive and learned work on the History 

 of Education, cites numerous passages from the poems of Homer illus- 

 trative of the subject of education. Homer lived between 1000 and 900 

 years before the Christian era. He was educated by travel in foreign 

 countries. He had, probably, visited Egypt, celebrated for its learning 

 and science, at an early period. He was well acquainted with the peo- 

 ple and cities around the Mediterranean. He is to us a guiding star of 

 great value. How his own mind was disciplined in youth, to what sub- 

 jects, more particularly, he attended, what impulses drove him from 

 home, and what particular knowledge he sought, we have not even 

 scanty materials to enable us to determine — but his communings were 

 with animate and inanimate nature — particularly with men. 



A correct opinion may be formed of his views, and of what he re- 

 garded as important, and of what prevailed in the times about which he 

 wrote, from his epics. His works certainly present us with a true pic- 

 ture of men and things as he knew them by observation, or had learned 

 them from history, or tradition. 



The writer mentioned before has gleaned some intimations from the 

 llomerir poems wliich are deserving of attention. 



The hero of the Iliad, if hero it has, Achilles, was in his infancy 

 entrusted to the care of Phoenix, who even in his old age was esteem-^ 



