3.0 1 



EDUCATION. 



..!'th< (.reck and Roman languages aids him in 

 mAntaoding his o n. Hcfore the n \ iv.il of literature, 

 the languages of modern l-iii'-opc wort 1 rude ami ! 

 run- ; and when the study of the (vrt'e.-t models of an- 

 tii|tiity had introduced a taste tor elegant OOOpOtition, 

 men ot'gcniu-, renouncing their own uncouth and un- 

 tractable languages, adopted the Latin, by general con- 

 sent, as the medium of all their communiritions. 'I'heir 

 cvunple oon diffused an universal predilection for a 

 language, which was thus made the vehicle of all valu- 

 able information. Latin lx?came the language, not of 

 literature alone, but o!' business ; and to JXTSOIIS of both 

 and of every rank, the knowledge of it became 

 nearly as necessary as that of their vernacular tongue. 

 One happy effect of their intimate acquaintance with 

 legant language was, that it improved and enrich- 

 ed their own. They learned from it to express ideas, 

 for v hich they had formerly no adequate signs ; they 

 Iran--! erred from it, of course, many words into their 

 native dialect, where they soon became naturalized. 

 Thus more than one half of, the English language is of 

 I-ntin origin ; and whoever wishes to study it with pre- 

 cision, will mid a knowledge of Latin indNpcnsibly ne- 

 cessary to enable him to assert iin the full force of many 

 of the most familiar words, by tracing them back to the 

 root from which they sprung. 



For the same reason, it is evident, that a knowledge 

 of the classics is the best key to all the modern langua- 

 ges. The facility with which a person who has had a 

 c'a-siral education acquires any modern language, is, 

 tt> those who have not enjoyed that advantage, almost 

 inconceivable. Thoroughly versed in all the principles 

 of grammar, he soon becomes master of those peculiari- 

 ties by which the grammar of any particular language 

 is di-tinguishcd ; and in studying any of the modern 

 tongues, he finds that his knowledge of Latin has al- 

 ready put him in possession of half its vocabulary. 



But it was not only by the addition of new words 

 tli.tt the classical languages of antiquity contributed to 

 the improvement of those of modern Europe. They 

 whose ears hail been accustomed to the melodious ter- 

 minations of Greek and Roman words, and to the har- 

 monious construction of which they are susceptible, 

 could not endure the harshness and dissonance of their 

 native jargon. Yet the intercourse of life would often 

 require that they should speak in the language of their 

 country, and the patriotic desire of benefiting even the 

 lowest of their countrymen by useful instruction, would 

 induce them sometimes to employ it in their composi- 

 tions. Thus obliged to retain their vernacular tongue, 

 they found it necessary, for their own convenience, to 

 smooth its asperities, and to correct its irregularities, 

 till acquiring a partiality for what they were daily con- 

 tributing to improve, they conceived the laudable emu- 

 lation of raising it from barbarism, to vie in elegance, 

 precision, and vigour, with the noble languages of an- 

 tiquity. Whoever will look back a few centuries, to 

 contrast the language of his ancestors, fit only for the 

 intercourse of savages, with the language in which 

 Johnson has written, in which Burke has spoken, and 

 Pope has sung, will have some idea of the extent of our 

 obligation to the admirable productions of ancient 

 Greece and Rome. From them were drawn the trea- 

 sures by which our own language has been enriclud ; 

 in them were contemplated the models according to 

 which it has been improved; with them we must have 

 an extensive acquaintance, before we acquire the full 

 command of our vocabulary, or understand the philo- 

 sophy of ur own grajnmar ; and the study of these 



irks will be our lu-<t <ecurny ag.iinsl the cor- F.<l 

 nipt ion of the language, which they have so wonderful- "Y"* 

 ly inipro'. 



The principal value ofall education, however, arises 

 from the exercue which it give- to the faculties of the 

 mind, and from the habits which it has a tendency tu 

 form. In this rcsptct we think cla^ical education par- 

 ticularly, we would almo-t say peculiarly, valuable. Nn 

 department of education ;'i\is such exercise to the me- 

 mory, the judgment, the imagination, and all the mo- 

 ral power>. as the tudy of the ancient languages. F\cn 

 the first elements oftlie^e languages cannot be acquired 

 without such a patient exertion of memory, as inu^t 

 contribute essentially to improve it in readiness and re- 

 tention; and the frequent repetitions that are require. I 

 throughout the whole course of classical discipline, 

 the habit of industrious application, while they store 

 the mind with the mo-t v.-.luable trcasurc.s. lor im- 

 parting precision of thought and accuracy of discrimi- 

 nation, no employment which we know can be more 

 useful, Ulan to mark the distinction between words 

 apparently the same in signification ; nor can any 

 means, perhaps, be more effectual for enlarging the un- 

 derstanding and quickening ingenuity, than to trace 

 back expressions to the substance-- and qualities in na- 

 ture which they are used to represent, or the peculia- 

 rities of thought in which they have originated, to com- 

 pare the idioms of different languages, and explore the 

 general laws of their analogy and construction. 



The utility of classical literature, in cultivating the 

 imagination and refining the taste, has never been denied. 

 Whatever partiality men may have entertained for the 

 writings of their own country or age, all have been 

 willing to acknowledge the advantage of studying those 

 splendid monuments of genius, which the ancients 

 have iK-quentlied to posterity, and which, through many 

 centuries, have been contemplated with unabated ad- 

 miration. The only dispute on this point has been, 

 whether the moderns have not already so fur improved 

 by these models, as to have attained nearly equal excel- 

 lence ; and whether the fine specimens which our own 

 language affords of every kind of composition, may not 

 be sufficient to form the taste of the present and of future 

 generations, without leading them back to their proto- 

 types, through the perplexed and toilsome paths of lan- 

 guages long disused. High as our admiration of an- 

 tiquity is, we are far from wishing to deny the merit of 

 the classical productions of our own times, or to assert 

 that no excellence in composition may be attained, with- 

 out being conversant with the philosophers, the histo- 

 rians, and the poets of Greece and Home. Works of 

 much genius, and of considerable elegance, have, we 

 know, been produced by some who had not the advan- 

 tage of a classical education ; but let it not be forgot- 

 ten, that the beauties which they could not contem- 

 plate in the original, they still admired as transcribed, 

 though perhaps with diminished charms, in the wri- 

 tings of those whose genius they had elevated, and 

 whose taste they had refined ; and if, even in the pa- 

 ges of Franklin and of Burns, we can occasionally dis- 

 cover some approaches to rudeness, we may perhaps, 

 without r.i-hue--, conclude, that, in composition as in 

 the other fine arts, perfection of style can only be at- 

 tained by studying the genuine productions of the 

 great masters of antiquity. This, at least, is certain, 

 that, among modern authors, there will not be found 

 one entitled to the rank of a classic, who.se mind was 

 not deeply imbued with ancient literature, and whose 

 genius was not elevated and chastened by the habitual 



