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THEME XLIII. A Classical is far superior to a mere English Education.

INTRODUCTION,-A training from early youth in the dead languages, not to the exclusion of other studies, but as the basis of mental culture, has peculiar advantages.

1ST REASON. The Greek and Latin classies, being in dead languages, require a patience and attention far greater than books written in our own vernacular tongue. Every word is strange, and must be minutely examined: every word is subject to inflexions and changes, and must be scrutinised from beginning to end; every sentence is more or less inverted, and must be analysed and reduced to grammatical English order: Thus the utmost minutiæ must be noted with patience and unremitted attention.

2ND REASON. The study of the dead languages trains the eye to accurate observation, better than the study of modern languages. In studying Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the eye must dwell not only on each word, but on each letter of each word, and sometimes on extremely minute accents and points, appended either above, below, or on one side: This is not the case with the English language; a single syllable, and often a single letter, will give a clue to an entire word, and not unfrequently to a whole sentence; in consequence of which, the eye hecomes accustomed to skim carelessly along from line to line, the mind is enervated, frivolous, and superficial.

3RD REASON.In studying the dead languages, the memory is most admirably developed. The gender, number, and case; the mode, tense, and person; the grammatical and syntaxical concords; the peculiar construction of every word and sentence, as well as the covert meaning of both, all lay an embargo on the memory. Nothing of this kind is needed in studying our own vernacular tongue; a little common sense being all that is required to understand the meaning of every ordinary sentence, with

out any minute attention, critical examination, or effort of memory.

4TH REASON. The study of the ancient classics trains the judgment, strengthens the understanding, and tutors the taste, far better than that of our own mother tongue : For, as every word has several shades of meaning, only one of which is to be selected, both intelligence, taste, and judgment are incessantly brought into requisition, in order to make choice of the most appropriate. This difficulty occurs, not only in each individual word, but in every sentence and paragraph; for the meaning of a classical author cannot be guessed at by a catch" word or two, like that of an English writer, because the idea is more diffused, and the meaning of the author more secreted : This necessity of searching out the individual and collective meaning of the several words scattered throughout an entire period, makes the study of the ancient classics such an invaluable mental exercise.

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It is far otherwise in the study of mere English authors; for though the memory may be occasionally put into requisition, in order to learn by rote a given task, yet the taste and judgment are never called into action. The exact words, and their exact meaning, are already fixed : the idea of the author lies on the surface, and is thrust upon the reader: No judgment is needed to change one word for another, no taste is required to accommodate well-known expressions for others less known, no ingenuity is conjured up to present given ideas in a new costume. All is done already. "Every hill is made low, every valley is filled up, the rough places are made smooth, and the crooked places are made straight." Hence the mind is apt to become flippant from indolence, instead of solid; the attention volatile, instead of staid; the eye careless, instead of attentive; the judgment dormant; the understanding weak; the memory merely mechanical; and the student unqualified for patient research and laborious exercise.

5TH REASON. The study of the ancient classics will contribute to form and invigorate the literary temper of

the mind, which the utilitarian character of a mere English education tends most effectively to suppress.

6TH REASON. The highly cultivated judgment, taste, memory, and understanding of a well-educated classical scholar, has a very happy effect on the countenance and

manners.

7TH REASON. The enigmatical difficulty of the dead languages, independent of other considerations, affords several new and varied sources of delight.

8TH REASON.-A sound classical education gives men a rank and position in society denied to others of equal birth and fortune; because experience has shown the world that the classical scholar is more suited to polished and polite society, than those who have not been so trained His understanding is more mature, his taste more refined, his ideas more aristocratic : in a word, classical learning so humanises, and refines, and sublimates the mind, that it has received the name of "Humanity Studies."

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9TH REASON. None of the foregoing advantages can be attached to "translations," because a translation is no longer a dead language.

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10TH REASON.-The full force and beauty of an author is no more capable of translation, than a fine painting is capable of being represented by a copy. would study a Guido, a Raphael, a Titian, or a Michael Angelo, from the danbs of a needy garret artist ?—And the golden thread that runs through Homer and Virgil, Thucydides and Livy, Demosthenes and Cicero, can no more be transferred to a bald translation, than the genius of a great painter can be transferred from canvas to canvas, by tracing his outline and imitating his colours.

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SIMILES. An original work may be compared to the works of nature, a mere translation to a painted portrait or pencilled sketch the outline may be correct, the general features like, the proportions well preserved, and even the colouring faithful; yet there will be very little

of the gracefulness of posture, the shadowings, the spirit, the vitality, and play of life which animates the original.

The "caput mortuum," we grant, may remain, after the works of genius have been melted down in the crucible of another language, and entrusted to the idiom of another country; but the spirit flies off, like the volatile parts of a fine essence, which has been poured from bottle to bottle.

As a description of Greece and Italy is not to be compared to the actual sight which awaits the traveller to those classic lands, so a translation of the Greek and Latin authors is not to be compared to their original productions.

As the architecture of the Greeks and Romans puts to shame the tawdry decorations and incongruous designs which disgrace the metropolis of England in the nineteenth century, so also an unrivalled talent, and as yet an unrivalled taste, breathe over the classic page.

As a garden of exotics is more valuable and beautiful than the hedge and heath flowers of our own island, so classical erudition is superior to a mere English education.

Travelling enlarges the mind, ameliorates the manners, stores the understanding, and delights the fancy. The classical student may be compared to a great traveller; a mere English scholar to a "stay-at-home."

Gymnastic exercises develop the muscles, and bring the body into subjection, far better than the simple art of walking; so also the labour of a classical education develops the mind, and brings it into subjection, far better than the study of authors in our own vernacular tongue.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study.-Lord Bacon.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.-St. Paul, the most useful and laborious of all the apostles, was well versed in the Greek and Latin classics.

Most of our great divines and eminent statesmen have been eminent classical scholars.

Sidney and Raleigh, Milton and Temple, Taylor and Barrow, poets and historians, moralists and philosophers, -nay, almost all who have conspired to render Britain the glory of the world, were trained to classical literature in their youth.

Follow the history of Burke at Beaconsfield, and Fox at St. Anne's Hill, and you will find these distinguished and gifted men alleviating the cares and struggles of public life, and girding themselves for fresh combats, in the wisdom and enchantments of the ancient classics.

The Marquis of Wellesley says of William Pitt, "he was perfectly accomplished in classical literature; had drawn its essence into his own thoughts and language; and had applied the whole spirit of ancient learning to his daily use. At Walmer Castle his apartments were literally strewed with Greek and Latin classics."

The Elizabethan age was peculiarly devoted to the study of the ancient classics, children of both sexes being trained from early youth to write, and even speak, in Greek and Latin; and when did England nourish giants of equal strength and stature?

Let any one try to draw out a list of immortal names, picked from the ranks of mere English scholars, and he will soon find how difficult, and almost hopeless, a task he has undertaken: Even Cobbett, the first name of the selfinstructed, was a complete master of the French language, and did not leave unlearnt or unvalued the Greek and Latin tongues.

Dr. Mead was a beautiful model of classical education; that elegant scholar and distinguished physician delighted every one with the brilliancy of his wit, the urbanity of his manners, and the depth of his erudition; none could be in company with Dr. Mead without feeling that the study of the ancient classics had cast a halo round him.

QUOTATIONS. The ancient classics avail to humanise

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