226 On the Ufes of Glaffical Education. 
If in any department of polite literature, whicl 
they have cultivated, the ancients have failed, it is 
in the drama; whether owing to the defects of their 
theatres, which admitted no change of fcene, or 
whether we are to confider the drama, as one of the 
moft improveable branches of literature, and as then 
being only in its infancy, I muft confefs to you, my 
dear Sir, that there are fcarcely any productions, 
which I find fo uninterefting, as the Greek tragedies. 
The uniformity, the nothingnefs of their plots, their 
tedious declamations, and their fnip-fnap dialogue, 
are poorly compenfated for, by a few elegant odes, 
and. a few beautiful or firiking fentiments. If one 
play of Terence (the Andria) only had been left to 
pofterity, he would rank among the firft of 
dramatic writers, but after reading this, who can 
admire any other of his productions? Ariftophanes 
and Plautus are as much beneath our common farce 
writers, as the beft of the ancient dramatifts are 
inferior in excellence to Shakefpear and Moliere. 
There are fome other branches of literature, in 
which I think the’moderns have excelled, and fome 
which have not at all been cultivated by the ancients ; 
but this does not, in any view, militate againft the 
utility of claffical literature, as an accomplifhed per- 
fon ought to be acquainted with the moft perfect 
productions, \ both of ancient and modern times. 
From a fair confideration of the real ufes of claffical 
Hterature, fome practical conclufions. refult, which 
appear 
