CLASSIC. 



261 



sophy and religion, the papers of which were collect- 

 ed and addressed to the princess of Wales, afterwards 

 queen Caroline. In 1717, he published Remarks 

 upon Collins's Inquiry concerning Human Liberty 

 and, soon after, gave much offence by altering the 

 doxology of the singing psalms at St James's ; on 

 which occasion the bishop of London sent a circular 

 to the clergy forbidding the use of them. In 1724, 

 he published a volume consisting of seventeen ser- 

 mons, and, on the death of Sir Isaac Newton, in 1727, 

 was offered the place of master of the mint. 

 This office he declined accepting, as inconsistent 

 with his profession, preferment in which had, how- 

 ever, now become hopeless. In 1728, he wrote a 

 letter to Mr Hoadley, On the Proportion of Velocity 

 and Force in Bodies in Motion, and, the next year, 

 published the first twelve books of Homer's Iliad, 

 with a Latin version, the remaining books of which 

 were published by his son in 1732. Doctor Clarke's 

 reputation as a classical scholar is chiefly founded on 

 this performance, which is held in high esteem. He 

 had all his life enjoyed sound health ; but, on Sun- 

 day, May 11, 1729, when going to preach before the 

 judges at Serjeants' Inn, he was seized with a pleuri- 

 tic complaint, which carried liim off, after a few days' 

 illness, in his fifty-fourth year. He left in manu- 

 script, prepared for the press, An Exposition of the 

 Catechism, which was published by his brother, 

 with ten posthumous volumes of sermons. The pri- 

 vate character of doctor Clarke was extremely ami- 

 able, being upright, mild, and unaffected. His intel- 

 lectual eminence was founded on a strong cultivation 

 of the reasoning faculty, without passion or enthusi- 

 asm. He closely pursued his object, with methodi- 

 cal accuracy and logical acuteness, aided by a strong- 

 ly retentive memory and indefatigable attention. 



CLASSIC (from the Latin classts). The Roman 

 people were divided into six classes, and classici was 

 the name given to the citizens belonging to the first 

 class. From this circumstance, the Greek and Ro- 

 man authors have been, in modern times, called 

 classics, that is, the excellent, the models. There 

 is, of course , a great diversity of value among them ; 

 but their superiority to the writers of modern Europe, 

 at the time of the revival of letters, was so great, 

 that it was very natural lor their admirers to give 

 them, collectively, the name of classics. The Ger- 

 mans soon gave the word klassich (classical) a wider 

 sense applying it more philosophically, and making it 

 embrace, 1. the standard works of any nation, and, 2, 

 ancient literature and art, in contradistinction to the 

 modern or romantic. The British and French have 

 followed this example, though but recently. Dic- 

 tionnaire de V Academic gives no other definition to the 

 word classique than Auteur classique, c 'est-a-dire un 

 auteur ancien, approuve, et gut fait autorite dans une 

 certaine matiere : Platan. Homere, Demosthene 

 Cicerone, Pirgile, Tite Live, fyc. sont des auteur 

 classiques. 



As regards classical, by which we mean, in this 

 place, ancient, literature, we observe a striking dif- 

 ference between it and modern literature. The 

 Greek authors were the pupils of nature and an ac- 

 tive energetic life. These furnished their discipline 

 rather tlian the pedantic forms of schools, which 

 are impressed with painful labour upon the memory, 

 and only half understood. They had, besides, a very 

 keen sensibility for beauty, which was fully develop- 

 ed by the loveliness of surrounding nature, and by 

 their active life in which all their faculties were un- 

 folded. They spent their lives in constant contests 

 for liberty anu superiority in physical or mental ac- 

 complishments. Everything was public ; everything 

 stimulated emulation. Nature and liberty are the 

 Cfonii which presided over the labours of the Greeks ; 



and their works are classical, that is, models, as far PS 

 they are the natural fruit of the circumstances in which 

 they were placed. The successes of the Greeks over 

 the slaves of Asia, and the overthrow of their own ty- 

 rants, first produced poets among them ; and these 

 continued, in an uninterrupted series, exerting a deci- 

 sive influence upon rhetoric, history, and the plastic 

 arts, and receiving, in their turn, a corresponding in- 

 fluence, until degeneracy, over-refinement and political 

 subjugation tooK the place of nature and liberty. The 

 Macedonian and Roman dominion fixed the limits of 

 Greek classical literature. From that time, Greece 

 produced only learned inquirers and rich treasures of 

 knowledge, but no works distinguished as models, 

 such as Had been composed in the time of her free- 

 dom, under the joint influence of her political consti- 

 tution, religion, beautiful climate, and language, 

 which contained the elements of the highest perfec- 

 tion in a far greater degree than most other lan- 

 guages.^ The Romans, from their political constitu- 

 tion and national character, have become models 

 only in history and rhetoric, and works on war, ar- 

 chitecture, and law. The most active element in 

 their national character was always the military and 

 legal spirit. But their language acquired, from the 

 haoits of the nation, such conciseness and precision, 

 that they remain models in history, and, in fact, in 

 every branch of composition, as far as concise expres- 

 sion is concerned, so difficult and so valuable an at- 

 tainment. The rapid growth of their power outstrip- 

 ped the development of their literature, which at- 

 tained its meridian soon after the overthrow of liberty 

 and the establishment of despotism. Hence it 

 speedily degenerated, and the time soon arrived 

 when Roman literature consisted, in a great measure, 

 of descriptions of the universal corruption and misery 

 of the people, characterized either by a morose bit- 

 terness or by the complacency of deep-seated immo- 

 rality. The style of the ancient writers is very cha- 

 racteristic, and forms a striking distinction between 

 them and the moderns. Their language is generally 

 simple, natural, pure, and therefore expressive ; 

 whilst the modern writers, by reason of their greater 

 erudition, and the refinements of our social life, are 

 constantly tempted to sacrifice energy and concise- 

 ness to brilliancy and richness of illustration ; so 

 much so, that Rousseau was led into the paradox of 

 declaring himself an enemy to all wit. Besides 

 the style of the ancient writers, so many circum- 

 stances contributed to the excellence of their pro- 

 ductions; the union of knowledge and ignorance, 

 of rudeness and refinement, was fitted to exercise 

 so beneficial an influence upon them, but the 

 best works of the Greeks and Romans have secured 

 to themselves a permanent place among the means 

 of intellectual cultivation, throughout Europe and 

 the nations of European descent. It has often been 

 said, that the knowledge of the languages and litera- 

 ture of Greece and Rome can be of little value to us, 

 as their condition and character, their principles, po- 

 litical and religious, were so different from ours. 

 But, without mentioning the advantages to be de- 

 rived from a knowledge of these languages by men 

 devoted to certain particular pursuits, we do not 

 hesitate to affirm, that the highest degree of intellec- 

 tual accomplishment is not possible without classical 

 attainments. We ought to be thankful that we are 

 permitted to avail ourselves of the literary treasures 

 of these glorious nations, without being obliged to 

 participate in the sufferings and struggles which con- 

 tributed so essentially to their richness and beauty. 

 The very study of their languages has a most salu- 

 tary influence on the intellectual development of the 

 students of modern times, whose native languages 

 arc of a much less philosophical construction. It' it 



