CHAP. II.

The Study of Foreign Languages and Literature a powerful Instrument of National Improvement. The Instruction of the upper and middle Classes the first Object.

THE past history of the world authorizes us to believe that the movement which is taking place in India, if properly directed and supported by the Government, will end in bringing about a decided change for the better in the character of the people. The instances in which nations have worked their way to a high degree of civilization from domestic resources only are extremely rare, compared with those in which the impulse has been communicated from without, and has been supported by the extensive study and imitation of the literature of foreign countries. The cases in which the most lasting impressions have been made upon national character, in which the superior civilization of one country has taken deepest root and fructified most abundantly in other countries, have a strong general resemblance to the case before us. In those cases the foreign systems of learning were first studied in the original tongue by the upper and middle classes, who alone

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possessed the necessary leisure. From this followed a diffusion of the knowledge contained in the foreign literature, a general inclination of the national taste towards it, and an assimilation of the vernacular language, by the introduction into it of numerous scientific and other terms. of all, the vernacular tongue began to be cultivated in its improved state; translations and imitations sprang up in abundance, and creative genius occasionally caught the impulse, and struck out a masterpiece of its own.

Every scholar knows to what a great extent the Romans cultivated Grecian literature, and adopted Grecian models of taste. It was only after the national mind had become deeply impregnated from this source, that they began to have a literature of their own. The writers of the Augustan age were bred in the school, were animated by the spirit, were nourished with the food of conquered Greece. Virgil was a mere imitator, however noble: the Roman dramas are feeble translations from the Greek: the entire Roman literature is only an echo of the Greek literature. The Romans made no scruple in acknowledging the obligations they were under to the cultivation of Grecian learning. Their enthusiasm was directed to the object of enriching their native

language with all that, in that age of the world, could be imported from abroad.

It is a curious fact that an intellectual revolution similar to that which is now in progress in India, actually took place among the Romans. At an early period, the Etruscan was, as Livy tells us, the language which the young Romans studied. No patrician was considered as liberally educated who had not learned in the sacred books of the augurs of Clusium and Volaterræ, how to quarter the heavens, what was meant by the appearance of a vulture on the left hand, and what rites were to be performed on a spot which had been smitten by thunder. This sort of knowledge — very analagous to the knowledge which is contained in the Sanskrit books, was considered as the most valuable learning, until an increased acquaintance with the Greek language produced a complete change. Profound speculations on morals, legislation, and government; lively pictures of human life and manners; pure and energetic models of political eloquence, drove out the jargon of a doting superstition. If we knew more minutely the history of that change, we should probably find that it was vehemently resisted by very distinguished Etruscan scholars, and that all sorts of fearful consequences were represented as inevit

able, if the old learning about the flight of birds and the entrails of beasts should be abandoned for Homer, and if the mysteries of the bidental should be neglected for Thucydides and Plato.

The Roman language and literature, thus enriched and improved, was destined to still prouder triumphs. The inhabitants of the greatest part of Europe and of the North of Africa, educated in every respect like the Romans, became in every respect equal to them. The impression which was then made will never be effaced. It sank so deep into the language and habits of the people, that Latin to this day forms the basis of the tongues of France and southern Europe, and the Roman law the basis of their jurisprudence. The barbarous hordes which triumphed over the arms, yielded to the arts of Rome. Roman literature survived the causes which led to its diffusion, and even spread beyond the ancient limits of the empire. The Poles and Hungarians were led neither by any pressure from without, nor by any artificial encouragement from within, to make Latin their language of education, of literature, of business, and, to a very remarkable extent, of ordinary colloquial intercourse. They did so, we may presume, because their own language contained nothing worth knowing, while Latin included within itself

almost all the knowledge which at that time existed in the world.

After this came the great revival of learning, at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. At that period, the historian Robertson observes, "all the modern languages were in a state extremely barbarous, devoid of elegance, of vigour, and even of perspicuity. No author thought of writing in language so ill adapted to express and embellish his sentiments, or of erecting a work for immortality with such rude and perishable materials. As the spirit which prevailed at that time did not owe its rise to any original effort of the human mind, but was excited chiefly by admiration of the ancients, which began then to be studied with attention in every part of Europe, their compositions were deemed not only the standards of taste and of sentiment, but of style; and even the languages in which they wrote were thought to be peculiar, and almost consecrated to learning and the muses. Not only the manner of the ancients was imitated, but their language was adopted; and, extravagant as the attempt may appear, to write in a dead tongue, in which men were not accustomed to think, and which they could not speak, or even pronounce, the success