men as a vain pretender, and an empty, conceited empiric, who set up his own mind as an epitome of all human wisdom, and solely sufficient for all great occasions; it is not merely by their own experience, be it ever so great, that men become skilful or intelligent and superior to others in any branch of knowledge, but by availing themselves of the wisdom and experience of others. This is the stock with which every man must begin the world, or he will make very little progress in any thing great, for no man is alone sufficient to form his own mind, or prepare himself for deeds of high emprise." The greatest men of antiquity availed themselves of all the knowledge their times afforded, and they have left us a stock which can never be dispensed with, or exhausted: they have left us books which have been considered the repositories of knowledge for many hundred years, and I trust will continue to be, when your writings, having answered their temporary purpose, are forgotten. Where then can the statesman study history, philosophy, and poetry, with so much advantage as in those authors by whom it is allowed by all but conceited ignorance, have never yet been excelled; perhaps, you will smile at the word poetry, as a qualification for a statesman, and you may if you please, but every statesman may learn much wisdom and much truth from Homer, Virgil, and Horace. I might mention many other antient poets, whose writings contain much practical wisdom for the management of states; but these are sufficient for examples. Morality, I Morality, I suppose, you will hardly deny to be a branch of knowledge highly requisite for a statesman, though it is seldom found to influence their conduct; and, in short. all that Cicero requires to form a great orator, in his book de Oratore, is equally requisite for a statesman, a man employed to consult and decide on the interests of a whole community. I maintain then that the foundation of all his knowledge must be sought for in the writers of Greece and Rome, though I am very far from saying that the knowledge of modern times is to be despised, and yet even these together are not all that is requisite to form a statesman; be must have a great natural capacity, and great strength of mind, who ventures to manage public affairs; but to say that his natural powers, be they ever so great, will not be improved, and his knowledge increased, by a familiar acquaintance with ancient history, poetry, morality, metaphysics, and eloquence, is at once to set aside all past experience, and nike every man begin the world afresh. The limits of my time and your paper forbid me to enlarge

on the further advantages a statesman may derive from the study of the classics in their original languages; or I might shew that no man can be a finished statesman without so valuable an acquirement, for no man who understands these languages will ever allow that either their spirit or their meaning can be conveyed through a translation, any more than a just idea can be formed of a fine painting from the most eloquent description, which every one will acknowledge must fall far short of the original.. To be a legislator. without being acquainted with the spirit and principles of law, or the laws of the most celebrated states of antiquity, would be a degree, of arrogance hardly conceiveable, were we not furnished with daily examples of such unprincipled presumption. To make, laws which are to bind our fellow creatures, and to preserve the peace and comforts of society against lawless violence, is the highest employment of human wisdom, and shall any man dare to undertake this employment. without being previously yersed in the prin ciples of legislation, and of all that is required of a law, before he shall venture to impose it upon others as a rule of conduct? One should think, before a man undertook such an office, he would be desirous to inquire into the effects of law in general, and of particular laws in particular states, how they have operated either to restrain or punish evil actions, and why they have failed of the end proposed; and where can any man acquire all this legislative knowledge in such excellence as in the history of the tree states of antiquity, so famous for their political and civil wisdom? Whoever ventures to become a legislator without this previens pre-, paration may sometimes do right, but he will oftener be in danger of doing wrong for want of a due knowledge of legislation. To a physician the knowledge of Greek and Latin is indispensibly requisite, not merely to understand the terms, but the principles of his art; for no modern improvements have much extended the study of medicine. Yet ancient knowledge is by no means to be de spised. The laws of Rome being at present practised in many of our courts, renders a knowledge of them indispensible for a lawyer; but it is not on that account only that he must understand Greek and Latin, but because the classical authors will tend to form his mind to the love and the practice of all that is just, and pure, and honourable, and to elevate it above the low tricks and chicanery of his profession; they will teach him, that to be a lawyer is to be the friend of the oppressed, the patron of defenceless innocence, the avenger of crimes, the pu

chiefly taught the languages of those peo"ple who have at any time been most industrious after wisdom. So that language is but the instrument, conveying to us. "things useful to be known. And though a linguist should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied the solid things in them, as well as the words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeoman or tradesman' competently wise in his mother dialect only. Hence appear the many mistakes, which have made learning so unpleasant and so unsuccessful. First, we do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much miserable Latin and Greek, as might be fearned otherwise, easily and delightfully, "in one year." And that which casts our proficiency therein so much behind, is our time lost; partly in too oft idle vacan"cies, given both to schools and universi"ties; partly in a preposterous exaction, "forcing the empty wits of children to "6 compose themes, verses, and oratious, which are the acts of ripest judgment, and "the final work of a head filled, by long

reading and observation, with elegant "maxims and copious invention. These "are not matters to be wrung from poor striplings, like blood out of the nose, or "the plucking of untimely fruit; besides "the ill habit which they get, of wretched barbarising against the Latin and Greek idiom with their untutored anglicisms, "odious to be read, yet not to be avoided "without a well continued and judicious. "conversing among pure authors digested,

"

which they scarce taste. Whereas, if "after some preparatory grounds of speech,

by their certain forms got into memory, "they were led to the praxis thereof in "some short book, lessoned thoroughly to "them, they might then forthwith proceed to learn the substance of good things and "arts, in due order, which would bring the whole language quickly into their power. "This I take to be the most rational and

most profitable way of learning languages, and whereby we may best hope to give "account to God of our youth spent herein. And for the usual method of teach"ing arts, I deem it to be an old error of universities, (not yet well recovered from the scholastic grossness of barbarous ages,) "that, instead of beginning with arts more ་ easy (and those be such as are most obvions to the sense), they present their "yoting unmatriculated novices, at their first coming, with the most intellective

σε

"abstractions of logic and metaphysics. So that they, having but newly left these grammatic flats, where they stuck unreasonably to learn a few words with la"mentable construction, and now on the "sudden transported under another climate to be tossed with their upbalasted wits: in "fathomless and unquiet deeps of contro versy, do for the most part grow into ha❤ "tred and contempt of learning, mocked: and deluded all this while with ragged "notions and babblements, while they ex-: "pected worthy and delightful knowledge: "till poverty or youthful years call thea

66

importunately their several ways, and "hasten them, with the sway of friends, either to an ambitious and mercenary,, or · "ignorantly zealous divinity; some allured to the trade of law, grounding their pur-poses, not on the prudent and heavenly " contemplation of justice and equity, which was never taught them, but on the promising and pleasing thoughts of litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees; "others betake them to state, affairs, with. "souls so unprincipled in virtue, and true

ἐσ

generous breeding, that flattery and "courtshifts, and tyrannous aphorisms, ap-... pear to them the highest points of wisdom, instilling their barren hearts with a con scientious slavery, if (as I rather think) it... "be not feigned; others, lastly, of a more "delicious and airy spirit, retire themselves, "(knowing no better) to the enjoyments: "of ease and Juxury, living out their days "in feast and jolity, which indeed is the "wisest and the safest course of all these, '; "unless they were with more integrity un"dertaken. And these are the errors, and "these are the fruits, of mispending our

1

prime youth at the schools and universi-... "ties as we do, either in learning mere "words, or such things chiefly as were bet "ter unlearned." Milton's Tractate on Education. It is passing strange that at this very day, the learning of England is little better than what Milton in another places denominates" the toilsome vanity of ver "bal curiosities." The glory of an English scholar is to know the obscure niceties of Greek versification. In this trifling study is the time of our hopeful youth at the schools and universitics wasted. Every reflecting, T man who has attended to the instructions at our schools, and universities,, must lament that science forms a very insignificant part of a the business. Instead of studying the laws of the universe, the nature of man, the p the print ciples of human society, and of government the students are immersed in the gramm cal subtillies of Greek prosody and if the

HALE CONTAMIN

5 IL

happen to walk forth a little better instructed in these than their neighbours, they swell with a self conceit which knows no bound, and look down upon others as altogether illiterate and vulgar compared with them.But this wretched trifling is not less to be complained of by the lovers of ancient literatore, than by any other indignant observer. This is not to study an ancient author; any more than was the employment of the mathematician, who read Virgil merely to have the pleasure of tracing the voyage of Æneas on the map. This is to divert the attention from the thoughts and spirit of the author; it is to range butterflies on sheets of paper according to the colour of their wings, instead of studying the great principles of nature which regulate the order of their existence. The consequence is, that among so many who pride themselves in knowing the language of the ancient authors, nothing is so rare as to find a man who has studied lie.

sentiments which they express, and the unrivalled skill which they display in the management of their thoughts. Of course nothing is so rare as to find a nian who has profited, in any considerable degree, by the knowledge of the learned languages. It is not understanding the mere words of Mil. ton's divine poem, if any man reads it without studying the thoughts, and the admirable artifice of the composition, that is calculated to convey any improvement, even if he should spend his whole days in calculating the syllables of each line, and meditating the pauses. This abuse of ancient learning, Mr. Cobbett, which has prevailed so long, and to such extent in England, greatly requires the hand of chastisement. Yet the study of the ancient languages, were it but wisely conducted, would form an invaluable part of a liberal education. Absurd indeed would it be to say, in the infinite stores of knowledge which our own language now contains, that a man, by the study of English books, may not become a very wise man, and a very good writer. But still there are advantages in the knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, which are much more than worth all the time requisite for acquiring them. To study more thoroughly the genius of the two most celebrated nations of antiquity, is itself an object of manly and liberal curiosity, and of great utility. The languages which they spoke are much more regular and ingenious in their structure than the modern languages of Europe, and greatly assist the youthful mind in acquiring that most important article of knowledge, an insight into the nature of speech. The ancients have been universally allowed to be exquisite masters

t

in the art of composition. They present their thoughts with a skill and an effect, which has scarcely ever been equalled; their: ingenuity is refined, and inexhaustible; and the artifice of their writings cannot be stu died without the greatest improvement.You, Mr. Cobbett, are too acute and intelligent not to know that there is something more in the acquisition of a language than the mere knowledge of sounds, or of such ideas as might be conveyed by a translation. Are you not the wiser; is not your mind improved, by the acquisition of the French language, beyond any ideas which you would have acquired by translation? There is an exercise of intellect in the comparison of another language with your own, in observing the mode in which an idea is expressed in the one, and in the other, which you will allow to be in the highest degree improving, and to give a much clearer apprehension of many important distinctions and relations of thought. If this mighty advantage is gained in any degree by the study of a language so nearly resembling our own in structure and idiom as the French, must it not be gained in a much greater degree by studying languages whose idiom is so different, and their structure so much more perfect-You and I, Mr. Cobbett, will still farther allow, that to derive the highest improvement from an exquisite author, we ought not to satisfy ourselves with a vague conception of his ideas. We ought to enter deeply into his mode of thinking, and imbibe, as it were,

his very spirit. But can this be done in a translation? If every English scholar must derive great improvement from studying profoundly the Paradise Lost, could he de rive equal advantage from studying it in a translation? Or, to take another example, could any man read the Spectator with equal profit in another language, as in its own? If the art of presenting one's thoughts in the best light be of unspeakable value; if it be second only to the faculty of thinking justly, and must ever form a main object of good education, then the study of the finished pieces of the greatest masters of stile, who have ever appeared, is no idle occupation.Your Correspondent in No. 4, p. 219, endeavours to involve the question in a metaphysical subtlety. He says no new idea is to be got from the ancient authors. But are those authors useless by whom we are rendered more masters of our ideas; by whom our ingenuity is sharpened; our ardour kindled; our taste improved; our powers of imagination enlarged; and our skill in exhibiting our thoughts improved? Perhaps, in a metaphysical sense, no new idea is to be

got from Milton or Shakespeare. But shall we therefore be argued into a belief that the perusal of these authors is not instructive, and that in the highest degree?-But let us take this twister of sand ropes on his own metaphysical ground; even there we shall find it is not true, that the Greek and Roman languages convey no new ideas. It will surely not be denied that they convey the ideas of the Greek and Roman languages themselves; that is, of the most perfect instruments of communication ever known among men. I trust it will not be rashly asserted that this is a trivial matter. Next, they convey all those important ideas of comparison to which I alluded above, and of the subtle relations of thought which those comparisons discover. They convey ideas of all the various idioms of these languages; and what is highly curious and instructive, ideas of the genius, stile, and manuer, of the exquisite authors by whom they are adorned.-The truth, Mr. Cobbett, lies in a very narrow compass. As far as languages are learned for the purpose of business, for immediate communication with those who speak them, it is evident they do not form part of the present argument. But, as far as languages are studied for merely mental improvement, it will be found that every reason, with hardly any exception, which applies to the learning of any language, applies to that of the ancient languages, and with greater force and that many reasons of the strongest kind apply to the learning of the ancient languages, which are not applicable to any other. I can with confidence leave this comparison to yourself. Your, &c.-D. S.

LEARNED LANGUAGES",

(No. 30.)

SIR;In the controversy which has lately formed a part of your weekly publication, it is to be wished that your correspondents No. 1. and No. 3 would duly consider the force of the just distinction made by W. F. S. (No. 4) between Learning," so called, and the wisdom or knowledge, whereby a man is enabled to become really useful to himself and to others. That the study of some foreign grammar tends to-facilitate the acquirements of writing and speaking the English language with correctness will be allowed. Yet it does not follow, that this foreign grammar should be the Grecian or the Roman. In the present age, the French or the German would be more useful.-Admitting, however, the desirableness of an acquaintance with the two dead Janguages for amusement or for ornaments even this will not support the present necessi

ty or usefulness of the numerous ancient and expensive endowments in our two universities. When colleges were first founded, they were the only seminaries or schools almost in the several kingdoms of Europe. But the very great number of excellent private schools established in England within the last century, and the universal custom now, with every parent who possesses the means, to send their children to some such school, for 7 or 8 years, must surely weaken, if not destroy, all pretensions to exclusive or any superior usefulness in these ancient foundations, whereat the education of a bishop, in their early institution, was not equal to that now acquired by almost every tradesman's son at a common school.-Visiting a friend in a college at Oxford some years ago, he facetiously observed, "there must be a great "stock of learning in that university, be

cause so much was brought thither by "lads from their provincial schools, and so

little, comparatively, taken away with "them." As far, even, as the boasted knowledge of the two languages extends, I believe that on the aggregate, the above remark is no more than just; while the injuries to their dispositions and to their morals, contracted by the young men, and the gloomy pride and discontent of those, who are compelled for a subsistence to reside until their middle age, contribute not inconsiderably to diminish the sum of public and general comfort. Is it not well known, that these constant residents, as fellows, waiting for preferment until their 40th year, are mere children when they emerge from their cloisters into the world? And I would ask

any man of like or fewer years, who has been educated wholly at a decent rural school, from 7 until his 15th year, where he had the opportunity to acquire mathematical with some classical and other now customary knowledge, and who has afterwards been occupied in some business, useful to himself and to others; whether such a man, I say, would exchange his habits and acquirements of knowledge for those of any fellow in any college in either of our two universities?— To speak of arithmetic as an acquirement or a science, will, I must expect, excite a smile of contempt from these people. But this is no more than a confirmation with me of their extreme ignorance of whatever is truly valuable. It is well known they all despise that knowledge, which the late Dr. Johnson said was the most useful, because it was the most certain of all the sciences; that knowledge, without which Sir Isaac Newton never could have accomplished his subfinte discoveries. If it should be said