40 Classic Literature. 



classes of citizens, and to render liberal informa- 

 tion the common portion of all ranks in the com- 

 munity, than making living languages the only 

 means of intercourse, and removing the necessity 

 of acquiring any other. 



But if some advantages have attended the de- 

 cline of classic literature; if it have produced a 

 greater diffusion of knowledge, and favoured the 

 progress of the arts and sciences, there is, per- 

 haps, reason to doubt whether it has not pro- 

 duced more and greater evils. It has rendered the 

 intercourse between learned men more difficult, 

 for want of a common medium. It has produced 

 a necessity to consume more time in the acqui- 

 sition of various modern languages. And, what 

 is of no less consequence, it has caused some of 

 the best and most precious works of antiquity to 

 be little known at the present day, and of conse- 

 quence to be, in a great measure, lost to the world. 



It has been asserted, by the ablest philologists, 

 that the knowledge of the Greek and Roman 

 writers has a most important influence in pro- 

 moting literary taste. Those writers display ex- 

 cellences with respect to the structure and polish 

 of language, which, it seems to be generally agreed, 

 are unrivalled in the annals of composition. To 

 study these excellences has a natural tendency to 

 render the mind familiar with the philosophy of 

 grammar, and to inspire it w T ith a taste for the re- 

 finements of eloquence. It has a tendency to form 

 in the student a capacity to discern, and a solici- 

 tude to attain the purity, the precision, and the 

 graces of speech. Perhaps it may be questioned 

 whether a man can possibly understand any one 

 modern language, in its various inflections, beauties, 

 and shades of meaning, without having some ac- 

 quaintance with those ancient tongues. Certain 

 it is, that almost the whole of that invaluable mass 



