the profound principles on which their works are formed. A close investigation of the harmonies of style naturally prepares the mind to open itself to the deeper harmonies of thought. And the more carefully this is done, the nearer and more distinct will be the student's view of the transcendent excellences of those works, which the world has for many centuries united in admiring. We cannot write Greek prose like Xenophon, or poetry like Homer; but, by the scrutinizing study of the exquisite structure of their language implied in attempting to imitate them, we come to understand them better and feel their beauties more sensibly. The judgment is exercised, the taste refined, and knowledge increased. We make the great authors of antiquity our own, and we attain a sense of literary beauty, which no other productions perhaps would have bestowed upon us. Not that we can ever relish the epics of Homer or the tragedies of Sophocles, like an ancient Greek. There is a skill in the native ear, that passes the comprehension of the duller organ of the foreign critic. A thousand readings of the Antigone will not bring to the perception of the closet scholar in modern times, all the delicate graces of its style, which every person in an Attic audience of thirty thousand men caught, the instant the actor's voice struck upon his senses. Many idiomatic arrangements of words, a thousand nameless touches of the master's native hand, on which, to a great extent, the mysterious effects of poetical works depend, must pass unheeded by the profoundest scholar's mind. Conjectural emendations by the ablest philologist are much more likely to mar than mend an exquisite original. Changing the order of a phrase, or the place of a word, or substituting one minute particle for another, may break a charm, which held enthralled the passions of listening thousands. How many flowers of grace in the Odes of Horace withered, for a time at least, under the rude touch of Bentley's daring hand. And perhaps we should never have known what the trouble with them was, had he not tried the same wanton treatment upon the "Paradise Lost" of Milton. Then, indeed, men saw the folly of trusting to modern skill, to restore the faded or injured beauties of an antique original. But we have wandered a little from our subject. Classical studies, if pursued with proper views, are unquestionably the best means to train the manly mind to habits of accuracy and of patient labor. They form the taste with greater certainty and to greater purity, than any other studies; and composition in the classical languages, both in prose and verse, is a most important means towards the full accomplishment of all the useful results to which these studies are capable of leading; not, as may well be supposed from what we have said above, with any prospect of rivalling the ancients in their own arts, or of acquiring a Greek or Latin style that would not strike a Greek or Roman as insufferably stiff and awkward, but to exercise the judgment and the taste, and to learn to comprehend more completely the mighty genius of antiquity. To our shame it must be confessed, that classical studies have been pursued in the United States with little comparative success. We have individual scholars among us of distinguished acquisitions; men who stand upon a level with the best scholars of Europe. A steady progress is making towards a better state of things in this respect. Schools are improving, books are multiplying, and college courses are becoming more complete. But we fear the great body of what are humorously called our educated men would make but a poor figure at present by the side of the corresponding classes in the other great civilized nations. We have no fear, however, that the defects in our hurried systems of public education will not in time work out their own remedy. We have no idea, that American gentlemen will submit for ever to the imputation of inferiority in those intellectual accomplishments from which life borrows its grace and lustre; or that they will consent to stand apart from those beautiful associations of scholarship, drawn from the common sources of ancient letters, which bind together the cultivated minds of all the European races into an intellectual brotherhood. But many of the prevailing vices of our society might be corrected more speedily than seems likely at present. Why should our young men be in such a hurry as they universally are, to rush into the business and professions of life? Why should they not be content to pass two or three more years in filling their minds with the treasures of elegant literature; with classical learning beyond the superficial courses of most American colleges; with historical reading, and moral and intellectual philosophy? No satisfactory reason certainly can be assigned, except the temptations in the shape of rapidly accumulating wealth, or early notoriety, those two monstrous cheats, those pernicious dreams, ovo vigor, which lead astray so early into paths of toil οὖλοι ὄνειροι, and peril, the best intellects of the republic. It requires only a sound public opinion to set this matter right; and a sound public opinion can only spring from a right example set by the few who see and feel the wants of the country, and, seeing, dare to do what they can to supply them. The best educated men ought to look to the condition of our classical schools, and take care that their defects are not allowed to pass unscrutinized. We have some schools that would do honor to any country. The Boston Latin School, raised to great eminence by a succession of able teachers, has done more than any other institution of its kind in the country, to cherish among the young a love of classical learning. In that school, the foundation is deeply laid for the suitable education of a gentleman. There, no boy is allowed to hurry over the preparatory studies of his literary training, for the sake of getting through the work as if it were a necessary evil, and the sooner disposed of the better. But every thing is thoroughly learned, and in order. The elements of a classical education are properly understood and conscientiously taught, and not easily forgotten by the pupils. One thing, however, we have regretted, the omission of late years to publish the prize compositions of the boys in Greek, Latin, and English, which formerly excited much interest in the literary community, and drew great attention at home and abroad, upon that school. Why this publication was given up, we have never been very clearly informed. If the movement was owing to one of those sudden spasms of economy, to which all public bodies are occasionally subjected, we can only say, that the palliative was applied at a very unlucky spot. That little annual pamphlet, besides the excellent effects it produced among the pupils of the Latin School, was a yearly reminder to the masters and pupils of other schools, of what could and ought to be done by the highspirited boys, who were emulous of the pleasures and honors of literary acquisition; it excited a generous ambition sar beyond the circles for which it was more particularly designed. We hope the enlightened city of Boston will some time or other reconsider this matter; her literary reputation was more deeply interested in it, than those who have passed all their days within the sound of Boston bells have probably imagined. We say, then, let the publication be resumed. The friends of classical learning ought also to look to the condition of our colleges. The establishment of prizes and honors for compositions in the classical languages would have the happiest influence in stimulating young men to an ardent pursuit of those studies. A few scholarships, — the expense of which would be trifling, at our principal colleges, just sufficient to give a modest support to their incumbents, and bestowed as a reward for distinguished attainments in the classics, would be of immense importance in raising the standard of a learned education. To say that such things cannot be done here because this country is less ancient and less wealthy than other nations, is to talk nonsense. We have wealth enough for every other conceivable thing; wealth enough to give expensive balls to youthful princes, when they set their royal feet upon our republican shores; wealth enough to load our tables with the costliest luxuries from every foreign clime; wealth enough to clothe our wives and daughters in showy fabrics from the looms of Europe, in gossamer tissues from the furthest Ind; and can we do nothing to encourage the growing intellect of the country, and stimulate it to a manly rivalry with the kindred intellect of the country of our fathers. ture. But to return to the book from which we took our deparWe have read it with amusement and delight, and nothing remains but to present to our readers a few specimens from its varied pages. We are glad to see that our old friend, Gammer Gurton, is so well esteemed among the wits and scholars of England. A very large number of her immortal productions we find here learnedly rendered into the languages of Greece and Rome. We begin, in sids · ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχόμεσθα, with one by no less a person than Richard Porson, yes, the great Porson himself. -- "THE PARENTS' WARNING. "THREE children sliding on the ice All on a summer's day, As it fell out, they all fell in, The rest they ran away. "Now had these children been at school, “ You parents that have children dear, If you will have them safe abroad, "GAMMER GURTON. VERSIO. Κρυσταλλοπήκτους τρίπτυχοι κόροι φοὰς Τοῖς παισὶν, εὖ σφᾶς ἐν δόμοις φυλάσσετε. — R. P.” We find an acquaintance of our infancy, Gentleman of Tobago,” clad in a Greek dress aldson, a Fellow of Trinity College. pp. 28, 29. THE OLD GENTLEMAN OF TOBAGO. “THERE was an old man of Tobago, His physician said this, — "The Old by Mr. Don To a leg, Sir, of mutton you may go.' "GAMMER GURTON. "" SENEX TOBAGENSIS. “ Γέρων τις, οἰκῶν τοὺς Τοβαγῴους μύχους, Φάγοις ἂν ἤδη πρόβατον, ὦ μάκαρ γέρον. - J. W. D.” - pp. 16, 17. |