THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF TASSO. 
175 
and to make the mass of the citizens good citizens and good men. 
Applying this to modem times, the paper suggested that however 
inapplicable much of the scheme might be, some of Plato's prin- 
ciples are still of value, such as that the object of education should 
not be to make men rich, but good citizens ; that a check should 
be given to the modern system of trying to advance education by 
bribes of a valuable or honorary kind ; and that it would be well 
to use the endowments of our Universities more for the advance- 
ment of pure learning and knowledge, and less as mere prizes, and 
to hold up to youth that knowledge is worth pursuing for its own 
sake, and not for the sake of merely getting on in life. 
THE LIFE AND GENIUS OF TASSO. 
ABSTEACT OE EP:V. J. M. CHAELTON's PAPEE. 
(Read February 8th, 1872. ) 
The object of the lecture was to call attention to the general 
merits of a branch of Foreign Literature, which now scarcely 
receives in this country the attention to which it is entitled, as a 
part of a liberal education. He took as a specimen the writings 
of Torquato Tasso. 
The lecturer commenced by describing the masterpieces of ancient 
and modern genius as furnishing studies for the psychologist. He 
then adverted to the rise of the Italian language, and the general 
circumstances which led to its formation from the ancient Roman 
tongue ; and mentioned some of its distinctive features as compared 
with Latin. He then proceeded to define the boundaries of what 
are called the golden and silver ages of Italian literature, the for- 
mer filling up the fourteenth century, and the latter the sixteenth ; 
the revival of Letters in the fifteenth, having led to an interval of 
decline by attracting special attention to the ancient classics. 
Torquato Tasso belonged to the silver age, born at Sorrento in 1544, 
and rising into universal fame as a poet some years before his death, 
in 1575. 
The lecturer briefly sketched the circumstances of his youth and 
early manhood, and his connection with the Duke of Ferara, and 
discussed the question of his attachment to the Princess Leonora. 
He then slightly touched upon some of the leading incidents of his 
subsequent years. 
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