IT has often been said that the present age is an age of improvement and reform. Antiquity no longer bears the stamp of authority, and prescription no longer confers a right. Old habits and customs are no longer sanctioned merely because they are old, and the beaten track is no longer followed merely because it is beaten. The human mind seems to have paused in its onward career to inquire into its destination to ascertain the means which shall speed it onward in its course, and to disencumber itself of all that is useless or detrimental to its advancement. All that has hitherto been considered as orthodox is submitted to the test of a rigid scrutiny, and whatever is wrong--whatever is spurious--whatever is not found subservient to the high destiny of man, is marked as useless and consigned to oblivion. We ask the why and the wherefore of every thing which we find established, and whatever is retained must be shewn to be accordant to reason and conducive to the end for which it was established. Time can no longer consecrate, nor can universal acceptance deter from investigation. The human mind has attained an eminence commanding the whole horizon of man--it marks his destination and pursues it to the end. A spirit of inquiry and reform is abroad in society, trying all its established forms and institutions, uprooting whatever is unsound and injurious, and settling on a firmer foundation whatever is rational and conducive to man's high destiny.

      In accepting that appointment to which I have been called in this institution it becomes my duty to give a direction to that course of instruction to be here dispensed, in a department which [3] has undergone the searching scrutiny of the reformer; the department of the Ancient languages. A department of instruction which some would blot from the curriculum as a useless waste of time and expenditure of intellectual energy. A department of instruction which has received the sanction of time, and stood the test of experience, and which is associated with the progress of the human mind from the darkest period of its degradation to the full meridian splendor of its modern achievements. The study of the Ancient Classics is coeval with the birth of modern literature, and has, accompanied it through all the successive stages of its developement; and the question is now presented whether we can resign their guidance and dispense with their assistance. That the classics have been the altar at which the torch of modern genius was lighted, and that it has been within their influence that it has attained to all its acknowledged pre-eminence, seems of itself an argument for the importance and utility of their being retained in a course of liberal education. Whatever has been conducive to the developement of the human mind during five centuries of progressive improvement must be subservient to the interests and the object of education. The physical system may continue to thrive notwithstanding the excesses and the accidents of youth, and the mind may continue measurably to improve notwithstanding erroneous systems of education; but it is not fair to suppose that that system is far wrong in which it has attained its widest expansion and loftiest pre-eminence. Yet notwithstanding the dictates of all experience, there are those who object to the study of the ancient classics, and it becomes him who would be their advocate to illustrate their importance and utility. We therefore invite your attention to a few remarks upon this subject, thrown together in the intervals of pressing and perplexing employment. In the short space of this address it cannot be expected that all will be said in favor of the classics which might be said upon so fruitful a subject. We pretend not to shew all that modern civilization owes to their influence, or to point out the numerous ways in which they are subservient to the great objects of education. We do not pretend, in the utilitarian spirit of the age in which an opposition to the classics had its inception, to enter into the arithmetic of the classics and to calculate their utility in dollars and cents, or to specify the practical purposes of life to which they may be applied. But we do intend, so far as we are able, to illustrate the importance of classical studies in promoting the great end of correct education.

      Education etymologically signifies a drawing out--a developement of all the powers and susceptibilities of man as its subject. In its extended application it is directed to his physical, his [4] intellectual, and his moral nature, and the great result to be aimed at is in the words of Juvenal,

It is not the knowledge of books merely; this is only secondary and subservient; it, is one of the means for the attainment of that greater end, the developement of our whole nature. Nor is it the acquisition of knowledge only; it is something more; it is the improvement of the percipient faculty. The object of education is to train, and discipline, and marshall in their due order and proportion, the various powers and susceptibilities of our nature, and to fit them for a course of vigorous and spontaneous action.

      The department of physical education comes not within the scope of our present subject; we shall therefore proceed to illustrate the tendency of classical studies to expand the intellect and improve the moral faculty.

      In a course of academical instruction directed to the intellectual nature of man, I think we shall discover two specific objects to be attained; the first is the discipline and improvement of the mental faculties themselves: the second, to furnish the mind with the means, the instruments, the tools, if you please, which are necessary for its future development. All our faculties, both of body and mind, are to be improved by exercise upon their appropriate objects. Is the intellectual exercise involved in the study of the Latin and Greek languages conducive to the discipline and improvement of the mental faculties? It may aid us in determining this question to consider the state of the mind prior to any thing like regular education. We shall generally find its powers and faculties undisciplined and restive, and incapable of any continued direction to a specific object. A restlessness, an impatience of restraint, and a reluctance to be confined to any settled habits of thinking, are the characteristics which mark the uneducated mind. Some course of discipline then is required which shall accustom the mind to habits of patient investigation and concentrated thinking. Such a course of discipline the study of the ancient classics furnishes, and one admirably suited to the human faculties in their imperfect state of developement. While it trains the mind to close habits of thinking and patient investigation, it presents no difficulties which are insurmountable to the human faculties in their undisciplined state. The close application of the mind to the signs of thought, necessary to elaborate the meaning of a passage, in collating, comparing, and distinguishing, inures it to the concentrated application of its powers, and that industrious research necessary to acquire all the requisite collateral aid, accustoms it to patient and laborious investigation. Perhaps no other [5] department of instruction requires a more industrious and extensive research than the study of the classics. Researches in History, Geography, Mythology, Antiquities, Manners and Customs, are indispensably required in order to a correct interpretation of the classics. Idioms and analogous passages must be frequently scrutinized, and the whole context carefully examined, before we can attain to a satisfactory determination on the meaning of an author. The mind is thus inured to habits of industry and patient investigation. At the same time that this important object is attained the individual faculties are exercised and improved.

      It is almost needless to remark that the study of languages requires the constant and vigorous exercise of memory, the first faculty to be developed in every system of education. In treasuring up the words of a foreign language, in collecting their individual meanings, and in retaining those grammatical principles by which the language is regulated, Memory finds an important and improving exercise. The discriminating faculty is continually exercised in distinguishing the various significations and shades of meaning of single words, and judgment is employed in selecting, the most appropriate, and in determining upon the meaning of every sentence. Reasoning is called into exercise in scanning the context and in making out a consistent interpretation from the whole. Frequently the mind is obliged to turn inward upon itself, and by a close study of its own powers and modes of operation, it deduces the sense of a passage perhaps otherwise inexplicable. And in transfusing the sentiment into our own language, our stock of vernacular words passes in review before the mind; discrimination is employed in distinguishing their various shades of meaning, and judgment and taste are required in selecting the most significant. Besides the process here described, comparisons are instituted between analogous passages, idioms are scrutinized, allusions to manners and customs are investigated. Antiquities, Mythology, History, Geography, are called in to our aid. A fixed effort of attention is continually required in keeping before the mind the words, the context, and the various accessories which are to aid us in the interpretation.

      The associating faculty, that by which a connection is established between the thoughts and affections of the mind, has justly been regarded an important part of our mental constitution. The associating of the appropriate words of our vernacular with the correspondent words of the language upon which we are employed, so that the one is immediately suggested by the other, is an exercise well calculated to give to this faculty a high degree of facility and quickness of operation. [6]

      That faculty, by which we recognize relations, the operation of which has been termed comparing, is that which gives pre-eminence to the human intellect. It is upon the accuracy of our comparisons that the correctness of our reasonings and the strength of our conclusions must ultimately depend. It is therefore important that this faculty should be exercised and improved in every system of education. That exercise and improvement the study of languages is eminently calculated to supply. In tracing the relations of single words and their influence upon each other, in the relations of separate sentences to the whole context, and in the comparison of idioms and analogous forms of expression, this faculty is continually exercised. You cannot distinguish without comparison, and in that process of discrimination which has been heretofore described, it may be seen how much the operation of comparing is employed in the study of languages.

      Thus a simultaneous and vigorous exercise of all the most important faculties of the human mind is continually required in the study of languages, and which is indispensable to the student of the classics.

      And here let me remark the importance of that simultaneous exercise of the mental faculties involved in the study of languages. The great object of education is not the precocious developement of any one single faculty of the mind however excellent it may in itself be, but the simultaneous and proportionate developement of the whole of our mental nature. The grand product of education is a well balanced and thoroughly disciplined mind. The various faculties of the human intellect mutually aid and strengthen each other, and the disproportionate developement of one to the neglect of the rest, leaves man an imperfect being, This simultaneous cultivation of the mental faculties involved in the study of the Latin and Greek languages is thus admirably calculated to give to the human mind that symmetrical and proportionate developement in which its chief excellency consists. Perhaps in this point of view the classics stand unrivalled. It would be difficult to point out any other department of instruction involving a more varied mental discipline in every stage of its progress.

      If, then, it be a law of our mental constitution that our various faculties are improved and strengthened by exercise, we must admit that the study of the dead languages is an important instrument in the developement of the human intellect.

      But this department of instruction is equally conducive to the second important object which we have specified in a course of academical instruction directed to the intellectual nature of man; that of furnishing the mind with the instruments which it [7] is to use in its future developement, and in making farther acquisitions.

      The next advantage, therefore, which I would remark as resulting from the study of the Latin and Greek languages, is that facility and precision which it is so admirably calculated to impart in the use of our own. And here it may be observed that the mental exercise involved in the study of these languages is well calculated to give precision and accuracy in the use of our own; for it is a mistake to suppose that in studying the classics we make a proficiency only in the languages of Greece and Rome. The constant canvassing of the meaning of English words necessary to select the most significant, the habit of distinguishing their shades of meaning and their various applicabilities, must necessarily impart a facility and precision in the use of our own language absolutely unattainable by any other means. The student thus gains an intimate familiarity with the words of his own language at the same time that he is acquiring a new one. This is an advantage which would result from the study of the Latin and Greek languages though there subsisted no connection between them and our own. But these languages have been the fruitful source from which all the cultivated languages of modern times have drawn, and our own is indebted to this source not the least among them. Whatever of harmony and elegance, whatever of strength and significancy it possesses, it owes to the Latin and Greek. Our language has been estimated to contain about one hundred and forty thousand words; of these fifteen thousand are primitives, two-thirds of which are either directly derived from the Latin or indirectly through the medium of the French. The remaining are compounds mainly resolvable into Latin and Greek, which must be etymologically analyzed before their precise meaning and significancy can be ascertained. Besides its principles of construction and of compounding words, its prefixes and its affixes are borrowed almost without exception from these languages. Thus the languages of the ancient classics have become so intimately and thoroughly incorporated into our own, that precision and accuracy in the use of the latter cannot ordinarily be attained without a knowledge of the former. The importance of accuracy and precision in the use of language may be inferred from the fact that language is not only a medium of communication, but an instrument of thought. If words float vaguely and loosely in the mind, thought must be inaccurate and undefined, and the want of precision anal accuracy in the use of language is not only the effect, but likewise the cause of inaccurate thinking. "By familiar use from our cradles," says Mr. Locke, "we come to learn certain articulate sounds very perfectly, and have them [8] ready on our tongues and always at hand in our memories, but yet are not always careful to settle their significations perfectly; hence it often happens that men even when they would apply themselves to an attentive consideration, do set their thoughts more on words than things." "This," says he, "though men make a shift with in the ordinary occurrences of life, where they find it necessary to be understood, and therefore they make signs till they are so; yet this insignificancy in their words when they come to reason concerning either their tenets or their interest, manifestly fills their discourse with abundance of empty unintelligible noise and jargon. Especially in moral matters, where words for the most part standing for arbitrary and numerous collections of ideas not regularly and permanently united in nature, their bare sounds are often, only thought on, or at least very obscure and uncertain notions annexed to them."

      Without the instrumentality of language the mind must forever remain but the passive recipient of sensations and perceptions, the mere elements of thought. The whole process of combining, arranging, and comparing these; of tracing their relations and of deducing general principles, is accorded to the mind only by the intervention of language as an instrument of thought. It is the use of language alone which enables the mind to work up the simple elements of thought into the materials of knowledge. Without this use of language as an instrument of thought, no process of reasoning whatever could possibly be conducted. If, then, language be an instrument so necessary to the human mind that, without it, it could not proceed a single step beyond its mere perceptions, the accurate and correct use of this instrument must be an object of the highest importance. And if it be true, as Mr. Locke has stated it, that men are prone to an inaccurate and unmeaning use of language, whatever is calculated to remedy this defect is an important part of education, and he who is acquiring a facility and accuracy in the use of language, is supplying the mind with its most efficient instrument. It were in vain that you furnish the student with all the facts and principles of nature--in vain would you supply him with all the imposing apparatus of science, unless you give him a correct use of that instrument by which alone all his reasonings concerning them must be conducted. Of what avail is the whole array of the sciences to the student who understands not the very nomenclature which is borrowed almost without exception from the Latin and Greek? Even the significant and correct application of the very terms of science, requires a considerable knowledge of the languages of Greece and Rome. The study of the ancient languages thus promotes the interests of physical science, not only by giving the student a facility and correctness [9] in the general use of language, but also by furnishing him with the means of an understanding application of its terms and accuracy in their use.

      More time and labor must ordinarily be spent by the student without a knowledge of these languages, in treasuring up in his memory and retaining the nomenclature, for instance, of the Linnean System of Botany, (which to him must appear mere arbitrary and capricious terms,) than would be necessary with their aid to render him a thorough practical Botanist.

      But the study of the Latin language particularly is important in furnishing the greatest facilities for the acquisition of nearly all the cultivated languages of modern times. It has been the parent of all the languages of the south of Europe in which the greatest literary riches are contained. "The languages which are spoken by the inhabitants of the South of Europe," says Sismondi, "from the extremity of Portugal to that of Calabria, and which usually receive the designation of the Romance Languages, are all derived from the mixture of the Latin with the Teutonic; of the people who were accounted Romans, with the barbarous nations which overthrew the Empire of Rome. The diversities which exist among the Portuguese, the Spanish, the French, and the Italian, arise rather from accidental circumstances than from any distinction between these different races of men. Each of these tongues is founded upon the Latin, but the form is often barbarous. A great number of words were introduced into the language by the conquerors, but by far the greater number belong to the vanquished people. The grammar was formed by mutual concessions. It has not in in any of the languages of the South preserved the cases in the nouns; but making a selection among the varying terminations of the Latin, it has created a new word from the nominative for the Italian, and from the accusative for the Spanish and Portuguese; while for the French it has contracted the word, and varied it from both these terminations."¹ It is thus obvious that a knowledge of the Latin language furnishes the greatest facilities in the acquisition of the modern.

      The study of the ancient classics is thus subservient to one of the great objects of education--the developement of the intellectual faculties. It has been shown, we believe, that it calls [10] into active operation all the important faculties of our mental constitution, and in that way which is calculated to give to the human mind that precise kind of developement in which its chief excellency consists, and at the same time that it furnishes the student with important facilities in the acquisition of physical science and modern languages; thus laying a broad and solid foundation for future attainments. Mathematics may afterwards lend their aid in bringing to a mature and perfect developement the faculty of reasoning, already called into active exercise in the study of languages; and logic may furnish the student with the correct mode of conducting the operation. Rhetoric and criticism may point out more definitely the proper objects for the exercise of those principles of taste already developed, and metaphysics may explain and reduce to system those mental operations with which the student had already become acquainted in the interpretation of language--the only intelligible transcript of the operations of the mind.

      In this connection I will notice what constitutes to us an argument of some importance for the cultivation of the languages of the ancient classics. To the interests of science and the literature of every country it is important that the language which is to be its vehicle should be permanent in its character and fixed in its meaning. But there is in every language, so long as it continues a spoken language, a natural tendency to fluctuation and change of meaning, arising in part from the varying character of the people who use it, but chiefly from that proneness in the human mind to be content with mere sound, and to the use of words without any settled or definite meaning annexed to them. Words thus change their original meaning, and in the absence of some settled standard by which their meaning can be definitely ascertained and fixed, may, mean any thing or every thing according to the time or circumstances in which they are used. But the Greek and Roman language, from which ours is principally derived, have long since ceased to be spoken; and by the cultivation of these languages we have an invariable standard by which the most important part of our own can be rendered fixed in its meaning and permanent in its character, in all ages and in all circumstances. The mere phrase, "the dead languages," has constituted a standing objection with the opponents of the ancient classics, and has been paraded by them as though it carried with itself the force of an argument. Whereas the fact that they are "dead languages" is a fact of importance to our own and their careful cultivation, can alone give to the English language that permanency of character and fixedness of meaning which will enable even the arguments of the objector to be understood by his own countrymen three centuries [11] hence. The cultivation of the dead, languages is thus calculated to impart a vitality and to give a character of permanency to the English, unattainable by any other language not similarly circumstanced; and it is a fact of no small importance to the interests of Christianity, that the facts and the doctrines, the precepts and the promises of the gospel are contained in a dead language. There they are forever secured from the mutations of language and the corruptions of men. If there be one fact which more than another has contributed to the preservation of the sacred oracles in their purity, it is the fact that this language ceased to be spoken so soon as it had been made the medium of communicating to man the greatest message which he ever received from heaven. That these languages are "dead languages," instead of being an objection to their study, is a circumstance which renders them a more valuable and important part of education. We would therefore discard an argument based merely upon an epithet, and would require some logical reasoning to support the objection.

      We have hitherto attempted to show that the influence of classical studies is to develope and improve the intellectual faculties--to give precision and accuracy in the use of language, and to impart to the English language a fixedness of meaning and a permanency of character.

      These are objects worthy of the student's attention, and of themselves would be a sufficient recompense for all tile time and labor devoted to classical studies. But the study of the classics is valuable not only as a means of mental discipline, but because of the accessions which, it makes to the knowledge of the student. In that course of reading necessary to a correct understanding of these languages, how much valuable knowledge of History, Antiquities, Mythology, Geography, Manners and Customs, has been acquired! The Ancient Classics embody the facts and the principles, the domestic and civil institutions of a whole period of human civilization. They, display the condition of the human mind for a thousand years and its gradual progress from barbarism to a state of refinement and civilization which has ever been the admiration of succeeding rages. The language of a nation is the depository, of a nation's mind, and the index of a nation's character. The sprightly French, the soft and voluptuous Italian, the grave and stately Spanish, the harsh and sedate German, are fitly represented in the national character of the people. Thus the subtle genius of Greece and the lofty majesty of Rome are embodied in their respective languages. Without a knowledge of these languages we may dimly survey the Roman and Grecian character at a distance through the mist of ages, but with them we are introduced into [12] Athens and Rome; we mingle with the spectators of the Olympic games and in the Roman Forum; we converse with Plato in the Academy and Aristotle in the Lyceum, and mingle in the philosophic parties at the Tusculan villa. If the proper study of mankind is man,^b it is here we can study him in his primitive character, unaided by the light of that revelation which now diffuses its quickening influences upon his intellectual energies. It is here we can learn what unassisted human reason can do, and are thus prepared to estimate the value of that dispensation under which we are placed. The classics confessedly embody the writings of some of the greatest Poets, Orators, Historians, and Philosophers which the world has ever seen; and can it be supposed for a moment that the student who has mastered these has done no more than merely to acquire the languages in which their immortal conceptions have been embodied? Will he not likewise have acquired the facts--the ideas, the principles of which they treat, and have imbibed some of that spirit with which they were animated? Will the student who has carefully read Herodotus and Livy, Thucydes and Tacitus, Xenophon and Sallust, have acquired no knowledge of history? Will he who shall have studied the works of Plato, of Aristotle, and Xenophon in that language which "can give a soul to the objects of sense and a body to the abstractions of philosophy,"^c have acquired no materials of thought or no subjects for the exercise of the reasoning faculty? Will he who shall have read the philosophical writings of Cicero have imbibed none of that philosophical spirit and those beautiful forms of expression which are embodied in all the efforts of his gigantic mind? Or will the student acquire no just principles of taste and criticism from the perusal of those immortal productions of the Poet and the Orator which have remained as models to all succeeding generations? There is some chance of that mind's growing into manly proportions which is thus early accustomed to measuring itself upon the most gigantic intellects that have ever existed. It was long ago remarked by Demosthenes and afterwards repeated by Longinus, that it is impossible for those conversant with low and grovelling things during their lives, to have a great or manly mind; and the converse of the proposition is now no less true, that it is scarcely possible that those who are early made conversant with the master spirits of antiquity can be diminutive in their intellectual stature--

      In mentioning some of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge contained in the ancient languages, we have as yet said nothing [13] of the sacred scriptures, nor is it now our purpose to enlarge upon the excellency of that system of doctrine and precepts revealed in the sacred volume, or to institute any comparison between them and the heathen mythology and philosophy. But we would simply ask whether any system of Christian education can be regarded as complete which makes not provision for a knowledge of that language to which the most important version of the Old Testament and the whole of the New are written? No matter how faithful a translation may be, no matter how nearly it may approach to the spirit of the original, still, in the language of another, it is the work of fallible men, it is a copy, not the original--the description of a traveller accurate indeed and graphic, but not the holy land itself. Of other lands a description may suffice us; but this land we would, if possible, visit for ourselves, and view with our own eyes, not with the eyes of others.

      We have thus presented a few remarks illustrative of the important influence of classical studies in the education of the intellectual nature of man. Their influence on the moral faculty still remains to be discussed, and on this topic we now propose to make a few observations. We are aware that this head has been a favorite topic of declamation with the opponents of classical literature. Their influence has been represented as demoralizing, and their principles as altogether unfit to be imbibed by the youth of a Christian community. Regarding as we do, the moral culture of the young as one of the chief objects of education, we could not for a moment be induced to advocate the study of the classics could we be made to believe that they had any immoral tendency. It were nothing to society that the intellectual faculties of the youth have been cultivated to the utmost, if their moral nature has been left a waste, and they have only been endued with an enlarged capacity for mischief.--While we are cultivating the head, we must not neglect the heart.

      While the capacities of the youth are enlarged society must be secured by the sure guarantee of a virtuous character. No excellency which the study of the classics may possess in the developement of the intellectual faculties can be a recompense to society for corrupting the morals of the young. But so far from the general tendency of classical studies being to corrupt and deprave, we regard them as an important instrument in moral culture, and one which cannot well be dispensed with. How shall moral instruction be instilled into the minds of youth? is an important question. Shall we begin with some abstract metaphysical disquisition concerning the nature of virtue? Shall we proceed by some train of a priori argument to discover some fundamental quality in actions which renders them [14] virtuous or vicious? Shall we represent virtue as a mere abstraction--a subject of speculation? And shall we permit the formation of the characters of the young to depend upon the erring speculations of human reason? Or shall we not rather present them with the actions and the characters of men and the uniform decisions of whole ages and nations of mankind as to the right and the wrong of human conduct?

      The latter method we have no doubt will commend itself to reason and philosophy. We must not treat of virtue in the abstract, but in the concrete. We must not begin with some arbitrary definition, and tell the youth that virtue is this, and vice that; but we must present them with examples of human conduct, and teach them that this is virtuous, and that vicious.

      We must follow the example of the father of Horace: we must recommend virtue and deter from vice by pointing out their effects in the characters and conduct of men. We should endeavor to insinuate morality in the disguise of poetry, history, and eloquence--by examples of unbending fidelity, heroic fortitude, maternal tenderness, and filial piety--by affecting incidents, and sentiments that either exalt and fortify, or soften and melt the human heart. Such was the idea of the Grecian and Roman moralists. Virtue was with them the to kalon and the honestum; and Horace long ago remarked that morality could be better learned from Homer than from professed writers on morality.

      Such a plan we believe philosophical ingenuity would devise, and this plan already exists in the study of classical literature, nor can modern literature and history ever be substituted in its place. "Modern example," says Sir James Mackintosh,^f "can never imprint on the youthful mind the grand and authoritative sentiment that in the most distant ages, and in states of society the most unlike, the same virtues have been the objects of human veneration. Strip virtue of the awful authority which she derives from the general reverence of mankind, and you rob her of half her majesty. Modern character never could animate youth to noble exertions of duty and of genius by the example of that durable glory which awaits them after death, and which in the case of the illustrious ancients they see has survived the subversion of empires and even the extinction of nations. Modern men are too near and too familiar to inspire that enthusiasm with which we must view those who are to be our models in virtue. When our fancy would exalt them to the level of our temporary admiration, it is perpetually checked by some trivial circumstance, some mean association--some ludicrous recollection [15] which damps and extinguishes our enthusiasm. They had the same manners which we see every day degraded by ordinary and vicious men; they spoke the language which we hear polluted by the use of the ignorant and the vulgar. But ancient sages and patriots are, as it were, exalted by difference of language and manners above every thing that is familiar, and low, and debasing; and if there be something in ancient examples not fit to be imitated or even approved in modern times, yet let it be recollected that distance not only adds to their authority, but softens their fierceness. When we contemplate them at such a distance, the ferocity is lost, and the magnanimity only reaches us." This eloquent passage suggests a twofold aspect under which the moral influence of classical studies may be considered.

      First, as they illustrate the universality of moral distinctions and the supremacy of conscience; and secondly, as their study developes and strengthens the discriminating poser of the moral faculty by exercise.

      First. The classics illustrate the universality of moral distinctions and the supremacy of conscience.

      Notwithstanding the vast difference between the religious opinions, the domestic and civil institution, the forms and habits of society of the ancients, and those of the present day, we still find the same distinctions of moral good and evil. We still can applaud those same instances of virtue which received the plaudits of their poets, their orators, and their historians. We still admire the virtues of Aristides, the patriotism of Epaminondos, the self-denial and fortitude of Regulus, and the simple industry and frugality of Cincinnatus; and we still visit with our condemnation the avarice and tyranny of Critias, the treachery of Pausanias, the follies and debaucheries of Heliogabalus, and the blood-thirsty cruelty of Nero. Granting that in the classics some passages are obscene--granting some are immoral--granting this to the greatest extent that any alarmist would claim, still we must contend that in the sentiments of the classics there is a vast preponderancy in favor of virtue. Though immersed in the darkness of a grovelling and absurd superstition--though worshipping abominable gods, still that immortal principle which God has implanted in the human mind ever recognized the eternal distinctions of right and wrong. The conduct of the ancients and the moral sentiments of the classics clearly illustrate the fact, that, no matter in what state of society man may exist--no matter how corrupt his religious system may be--no matter how abominable the gods which he worships, he still bows with reverence to the majesty of virtue. And if in the classics we discover some principles irreconcilable with the pure morality of the gospel, is it not an abundant, illustration of another [16] important fact, and one which cannot be too often illustrated and impressed--the insufficiency of human reason to originate and complete a perfect moral system for man? The classics, we believe, furnish the most perfect illustration which the whole history of the human mind can supply of this fact; that there is implanted in the human mind a principle which recognizes the great outlines of those eternal distinctions of right and wrong which exist in the nature of God, but that these cannot be fully discovered or understood except in the revelation which He has given of himself. "The Paganism of the ancient world," says Rousseau, "produced indeed abominable gods, who, on earth, would have been shunned or punished as monsters; who offered as a picture of supreme happiness only crimes to commit or passions to satiate. But vice armed with this sacred authority descended in vain from the eternal abode. She found in the heart of man a moral instinct to repel her. The continence of Xenocrates was admired by those who celebrated the debaucheries of Jupiter. The chaste Lucretia adored the unchaste Venus. The most intrepid Roman sacrificed to Fear. He invoked the god who dethroned his father; and died without a murmur by the hand of his own. The most contemptible divinities were served by the greatest men. The holy voice of nature, stronger than that of the gods, made itself heard, and obeyed, and respected on earth, and seemed to banish to the confines of heaven guilt and the guilty."^g Such instances as those referred to by Rousseau, illustrate the universality and paramount authority of that law, which, written on the heart of man by the finger of God himself, served thus to control the conduct and to influence the moral judgments of the ancient heathen amidst the baleful influences of a corrupting and degrading superstition. The contemplation of such instances as these must tend powerfully to impress upon the minds of youth a reverence of that law, to the majesty of which all ages and nations of mankind have bowed with reverence, even when contrary to the direct influence of a prevailing system of religious belief. And how powerfully must it tend to impress upon the mind a sense of the divine original of the gospel system, whose precepts and doctrines so completely harmonize with this voice of nature speaking in the heart of man. True religion and morality never can be contrary or separable from each other, and that religious system bears with itself a proof of its divine original which thus commends itself to the decisions of an enlightened conscience. The ancient classics display the shipwreck of the human faculties in the great sea of, morality, and it is fit that this period should be kept in careful [17] remembrance to repress the pride of human reason, and to inspire a believing confidence in that system of moral truth revealed to us in the gospel. The classics thus demonstrate the universality of that moral nature which God has given to man, and at the same time they point us to the volume of inspiration for our instruction in morality. That this is the general tendency of the classics is demonstrable to reason, and it requires only the directing hand of the instructor to turn them to this valuable account. The objectors to classical studies have told us of the obscenities and immoralities of classical literature. We readily, grant that there are in the classics some passages that are obscene--some that are perhaps immoral in their tendency; yet it is observable even with regard to those authors which fall most justly under the reprehension of the rigid moralist, that vice with them is scarcely ever the object of direct recommendation. Though Horace has occasionally draggled his genius in the low filth of obscenity--though he has ridiculed in plain--perhaps indecent language, the lewd practices and immoralities of his times; yet he abounds with the most beautiful moral precepts calculated to recommend virtue to the imagination and the heart. Though Juvenal has dragged to light indecencies and impurities which an anxiety for the honor of human nature would bury in oblivion; yet he still calls things by their right names, and is ever the stern and indignant reprehender of vice and the rigid moralist. But we do not advocate the obscenities and impurities of the classics. They are blemishes which deform them; but the candid objector must concede that they are comparatively few, and that the literature of the classics is not the only literature obnoxious to this objection. When we are pointed to a literature more free from these blemishes we will be willing to concede to the objector the inference to be derived from his argument. It is undeniable that English literature contains more that is impure--more that is debasing--more seeds of moral pestilence, than are to be found in the whole range of the classics. There is more danger to be apprehended from the single productions of some English authors, than from the whole compass of classical literature.

      We would ask any candid opponent of the classics to compare some of the single productions of Lord Byron with the most demoralizing production of the ancients, and then say which is calculated to do more mischief--which will most effectually uproot the foundations of all moral distinctions, and spread a moral pestilence throughout society. And upon what principle shall the student be excluded from classical literature on account of the obscenities, and, impurities of Horace and Juvenal, of Plautus and Ovid, and yet, be permitted to roam without [18] prohibition throughout that literature which contains the blasphemies of Byron, the obscenities of Burns, the infidelity of Hume and Paine, and the immoralities of Bulwer? To be consistent, the objector must extend his prohibitions much farther than the classics; for it unfortunately happens that few of the modern classics are free from those very blemishes which have called down upon the ancients this sweeping denunciation. He must reconstruct modern as well as ancient literature, or else debar the student from free excursions into the field of thought, and thus dwarf him in his intellectual energies. And after all, what will be gained by such a course? Are impurity and immorality to be met with only in the pages of literature?, Is there no impurity and vice in that society into which he must be introduced? Shall we introduce him into that society without the exercise of his moral discernment, to be overcome by the first temptation that assails him? The sturdy oak cannot be reared in a hot house, nor can the man of strong moral discernment be brought up in a cloister. To avoid dangers, it is necessary to foresee them; and to shun the temptations of vice, it is necessary to know something of its insidious nature. As well might you hope to attemper the physical system to the rigors of an arctic winter, under the mild influences of an equatorial sky, as to attempt the formation of a moral character adapted to the actual state of human society, by educating man apart from all possible exposure to the allurements of vice, and confining his social nature to a narrow inch of space. To preserve the youthful mind free from all possible exposure to moral contaminations, is not equivalent to rendering it virtuous and confirming it in habits of truth and sobriety. Man should be educated with reference to the part which he is to act in life, and that part is to be performed amidst the corruptions of human society. Imbue the youth early with the pure precepts of scripture morality--accompany him in his first excursions into the field of classical literature--teach him to exercise his moral discernment upon whatever is presented, and to bring the conduct and principles of the ancient heathen to the standard of gospel morality, and you need not fear the immoral tendencies of classical literature. But still we would not advocate the unrestricted reading of the classics in a course of academical instruction. Whatever is conducive to pure morality, sound philosophy, and correct taste, can be selected without embodying their impurities.

      But the study of the classics in the second place strengthens the discriminating power of the moral faculty by exercise.

      The classics confessedly contain some of the noblest exemplifications of human character that the annals of the world can produce. And whether we search for instances of unyielding [19] fidelity--of devoted patriotism--of ardent love of liberty and a detestation of tyranny--whether we look for examples of stern integrity or character--of maternal tenderness and filial piety, these are, one and all, fully exemplified in the pages of classical literature. By the study of such exemplifications of character as the classics present, the discriminating power of conscience is exercised and strengthened, and we learn to distinguish moral worth and to place a true estimate upon human character. The contemplation of such characters as Aristides, Socrates, and Epaminondas; among the Greeks; or Camillus, Fabricius, and Regulus, among the Romans, must tend to give us a just appreciation of character--to quicken our moral discernment, and to improve our moral sensibilities. The moral sense follows the general law of all our other faculties; it is improved by exercise and impaired by disuse. If it be true that our corporeal and mental powers are improved by exercise, it is not less true with regard to the moral faculty; and it is in such a field as that of classical literature that the proper subjects for its exercise are presented. It is here we find exhibitions of character stripped of all those circumstances which tend to influence and corrupt our moral judgments. Here are no partisan partialities or sectarian prepossessions which tend so powerfully to bias our estimate of human character. The moral sense is left free to act, and to form that estimate which nature and correct moral principle dictate. The characters of the classics are not the least valuable part of ancient literature. They have come down to us recorded in history and in song, adorned with the most exalted virtues of the species, and with their frailties and imperfections worn off by the attrition of ages. Virtue thus embalmed in the works of genius, and associated with all the splendors of poetry and fiction, receives, if possible, a more divine beauty and loveliness from this connection with the productions of the gifted spirits of our race, and is thus attended by every circumstance which can give it a lodgment in the human heart. Literature is never better employed than in bearing testimony to exalted deeds out of the history of the species, and in thus giving an eternity of fame to sublime manifestations of virtue. Thus displaying to the human mind, that though empires may fall and the works of man may perish--though the arm of the Goth and the Vandal may destroy the monuments of ambition and pride and despoil the temple of its beauty--though the gloom of barbarism may quench the lights of civilization; yet virtue rises secure above the conflict of the warring elements of human society and descends to the latest generations. Man is mortal, but his virtues survive him to be again represented by their reproduction in the characters of the living. "Forma mentis eterna; quam tenera [20] et exprimere non per alienam materiam et artem, sed tuis ipse moribus possis."^{2 h} We do not pretend to represent the classics as a standard of virtue: but they present to the contemplation of the student some of its embodied forms and give him a tangible conception of its nature and beauty.

      Such we believe to be the testimony of reason to the moral influence of classical studies. Their general bearing upon the interests of the christian religion may here claim a very brief consideration. In the first place, the study of the classics is the study of that state of society--of those civil and religious institutions--of those ways of thinking and of those principles which prevailed in the world when the gospel system was promulgated. It is the study of that period in the world's history to which reference must ever be had in the interpretation of the sacred volume. It is almost needless to remark how much an intimate acquaintance with heathen antiquity tends to elucidate the numerous references to its manners and customs which are to be found in the scriptures. Much of the phraseology of scripture can be fully understood by him only who has an intimate acquaintance with the antiquities and general literature of the Ancients. Such an acquaintance with the spirit and manners of antiquity must tend to strengthen the confidence of the classical student in the authenticity of scripture from the undesigned coincidences of the writings of the ancient heathen with facts recorded in the sacred volume. Besides, that species of interpretation which is derived from the analogies of language and a comparison of idioms, is fully within the reach of him alone who has a general acquaintance with the whole field of classical literature.

      Again, the spirit of the ancient classics is more essentially religious than that of modern literature. It is not ours to inquire into the value of those great discoveries in physical science which distinguish the present age. It is not ours to say how much they have contributed to the arts of life or to the understanding of the great system of nature. But it must be obvious that the constant habit of referring all things to natural causes must have the effect of withdrawing the mind from the contemplation and sense of a superintending providence who disposes of events at his will. Accordingly we find in the ancient classics a more direct recognition of a controlling providence disposing of the events and the affairs of men, than is to be found in the general compass of modern literature. This fact has given to the literature of the ancients a seriousness and a religious spirit which we in vain look for in the literature of nominally Christian countries. Though their religious system was absurd, yet they still looked [21] to an invisible power, the avenger of wrong, and the rewarder of virtue. This religious spirit pervades all the literature of the Ancients, and it is fit that this spirit should be imbibed by Christians, for the sanction of all moral and religious obligation is founded in the belief that God is, and that he is the avenger of those that do wrong, and the rewarder of them that walk uprightly.

      Again, the sentiments and spirit of the classics accord with the scripture account of the fallen condition and depraved nature of man. The Ancients fondly dwelt upon the tradition of a golden age when the Astraean Goddess dwelt among mortals; but when the wickedness of man had banished her to the skies, the deep depravity of the human heart and the necessity for some kind of expiation becomes not only a theme for their poets and philosophers, but is allegorically embodied in their whole system of Mythology. Their philosophers laboured and taxed their intellects for the renovation of human nature; and if they failed to discover the summum bonum,ⁱ it was because the search led beyond the reach of the human faculties.

      The traditions of the ancient heathen likewise afford a striking confirmation of some of the most important facts detailed in the scriptures. Their traditions of the primeval innocence of man--of his subsequent wickedness--of his destruction by a deluge and of the subsequent propagation of the human race from a single pair, are all so many confirmations of the truth of revelations. These and similar facts recurring in the pages of the classics, must tend powerfully to strengthen the faith of the student and to inspire a believing confidence in the truth of the facts detailed in the volume of inspiration.

      Such is some of that testimony which we have to adduce from reason of the moral influence of classical studies. They illustrate the universality of moral distinctions and display to the mind of the student that uninterrupted train of moral judgments in which the human mind has run from the infancy of time to the present moment. They strengthen the moral faculty of the student by the exercise of his moral discernment, and by presenting to his contemplation some of the finest exemplifications of human character. But above all, they illustrate and confirm the truth of that volume of inspiration in which must be found the sanction of all morality. With the Bible in one hand and the classics in the other, we may expect that manly growth of our moral nature which will withstand the rudest assaults of temptation, not that sickly state of the moral sensibilities which is formed by giving the youth no chance for the exercise of his moral discernment--by shutting him out from the study of man and of human nature as it has ever existed, and which falls beneath the sleightest breath of temptation. In order to a perfect [22] developement of our moral nature we must take in the whole broad ground of human character and conduct. In order to pursue virtue and avoid vice, we must understand the nature of both as exemplified in the conduct of men. And that we may attain to the formation of a confirmed, manly, moral character which shall enable the youth to withstand the corruptions of a sinful and degenerate world, virtue and vice, as in the Grecian Allegory, must both have presented their allurements, and the youth must be determined in his course by the choice of his moral discernment. But the Bible should still be, the Mentor to guide him; and with the voice of human nature, speaking from the tomb of buried nations, confirming its directions and enforcing its precepts, we need not fear for the issue.

      In confirmation of these views, it will not be amiss briefly to direct your attention to the testimony which history bears to the influence of classical studies. The period which succeeded the fall of the Roman Empire until the fourteenth century has been styled the dark ages--emphatically dark, as regarded the mental, the moral, and the social condition of man. That impenetrable gloom which pervaded Europe during this period continued without interruption, except a few glimmering lights emitted from the Monasteries, at that time the sole depositories of ancient learning, until the revival of classical literature. "Before the revival of classical literature," says Gibbon, "the barbarians in Europe were immersed in ignorance, and their vulgar tongues were marked with the rudeness and the poverty of their manners.--In the resurrection of Science, Italy was the first that cast away her shroud, and the eloquent Petrarch by his lessons and his example may justly be applauded as the first harbinger of day. A purer style of composition, a more generous and rational strain of sentiment flowed from the study and imitation of the writers of Ancient Rome, and the disciples of Cicero and Virgil approached with reverence and love, the Sanctuary of their Grecian Masters."^j In the beginning of the fourteenth century, Dante, taking Virgil for his model, gave to the world his immortal poem, and was followed by Petrarch and Boccaccio, who laboured so assiduously for the restoration of classical learning and to disseminate among their rude countrymen the elements of a former period of civilization. Petrarch, who has the reputation of having perfected the most melodious and poetical language of Europe, and in his own day the centre of Italian literature, formed his taste by the study of the ancient classics, and led the way in drawing them forth from the dungeons where they had been hitherto immured, and in holding up their light and glory to the eyes of men. In his earliest youth instead of the dry and dismal works which at that time formed the [23] general reading, he applied himself to the reading of Virgil and Cicero; and when he first commenced his epistolary correspondence, he strongly expressed his wish that their fame should prevail over that of Aristotle and his commentators; and declared his belief of the high advantages the world would enjoy if the monkish philosophy should give place to classical literature. He was the most assiduous recoverer and restorer of ancient manuscripts that had yet existed. He never passed an old convent without searching its library, or knew of a friend travelling into those quarters where he supposed books to be concealed, without entreaties to procure for him some classical manuscript. He inspired his age, says Sismondi, with that enthusiastic love for the beauty, and that veneration for the study of antiquity, which gave it a new character, and which determined that of succeeding times.

      Boccaccio, likewise, who was the creator of a style of prose the most harmonious, flexible, and engaging, was the zealous co-operator of Petrarch in the work of recovering and restoring the classics. He collected a number of Latin manuscripts, and copied with his own hand such as he could not purchase, and with a true love of letters he introduced the study of the Greek to the Italians. He founded in Florence a chair for the teaching of the Greek language, and he himself invited thither and installed as Professor, Leontius Pilatus, one of the most learned Greeks of Constantinople, and procured at his own expense from Greece the manuscripts which were thus distributed in Florence, and which served as subjects for the lectures of the Professor.

      These three great men, besides creating that intense ardor for the recovery of the classics which characterized the following century, are the fathers of Italian literature; and, in literary history, the glory of the fourteenth century.

      The fifteenth century is characterized by the utmost zeal for the study and restoration of the classics. In no other age, perhaps, was the love of study so universal. The sovereigns of Europe, at this brilliant period, rested their glory on the protection they afforded to letters, on the classical education they had themselves received, and on their intimate knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues. The Dukes of Milan, Feleppo Maria the last of the Visconti, and Francesco Sforza, the founder of a military monarchy, surrounded themselves in their capitol with the most illustrious men in science. and letters, and accorded to them the, most generous remunerations and employs of the first confidence. To these, may be added the Marquis Gonzaga of Mantua, and the Marquis d'Este of Ferrara, who endeavored to make up what was wanting to them in power, by their active zeal in the cause of letters; and it is said, that we might search in [24] vain in the most learned academies of the present day for men who wrote Greek verse with so much elegance and purity as many of the Princes of Mantua and Ferrara. Cosmo de Medici, also, a wealthy merchant of Florence, who had acquired such a degree of power as to shake the Constitution of the State, accorded in his house an asylum for all the men of learning and artists of the age, converted his garden into an academy, and produced a revolution in philosophy by substituting the authority of Plato in place of that of Aristotle. John of Ravenna, and Emanuel Chrysoloras, a learned Greek, who had come as ambassador into Italy to implore aid against the Turks, but who was eventually detained in that country by the zeal with which his lectures were attended, were the teachers, by whom a passion for Grecian letters was communicated to Italy, which produced that constellation of learned men which illumined the fifteenth century. Among these may be mentioned the names of Ambroggio Traversari, a Monk who afterwards became the head of the famous order of the Camaldoli, and who was one of the most illustrious pupils of Emanuel Chrysoloras, a friend of Cosmo de Medici, and one of the founders of the school of belles lettres and philosophy in Florence; likewise, Poggio Bracciolini, one of the most voluminous writers of his age, and one of the most diligent restorers of the classics. Among the numerous literati who adorned Italy during this period may be mentioned the name of Guarino Veronese, of whom an occurrence is related by literary historians strongly illustrative of that zeal for the cultivation of classical literature which characterized the fifteenth century.

      He commenced the study of the Greek at Constantinople, and brought from thence on his return two cases of Greek manuscripts, the fruit of his indefatigable researches. One of these was lost at sea, on the shipwreck of the vessel; and the chagrin at losing such a literary treasure, acquired by so much labor, had the effect of turning the hair of Guarino grey in one night.--"The whole of the fifteenth century was employed in extending, in every sense, the knowledge and resources of the friends of the Muses. Antiquity was unveiled to them in all its elevated characters, its severe laws, its energetic virtues, and its beautiful and engaging mythology; in its subtle and profound philosophy, its overpowering eloquence, and its delightful poetry. Another age was required to knead afresh the clay for the formation of a nobler race. At the close of the century a divine breath animated the finished statue, and it started into life."³ From this period the classics became the objects of assiduous study, [25] and it is from this period that we are to date the rise of modern literature and civilization.

      From that period until lately the classics have been considered a necessary part of education, and the brightest periods of modern literature are those in which the greatest attention has been paid to classical studies. When Polytechnic Schools, which dispense in a great measure with the study of the classics, became the vogue in France, she produced no writers comparable to those of the age of Louis XIV., when our standard editions of the classics were produced. The period when the foundations of that solid vein of English literature which we now possess were laid, was undoubtedly the age of Elizabeth; "where every man who aspired to the character of an educated gentleman, was a finished classical scholar." And it is observable with regard to all the celebrated literary productions of modern time, from the first of them, the Divina Comedia of Dante, down to the last, that they are almost without exception formed upon classic models. From these facts, independent of the illustration which they afford of the utility of classical studies, we derive another argument in their favor. The literature of modern times is not a native literature--it is formed in the classic mould, and it is almost needless to remark that some knowledge of the literature and spirit of antiquity is necessary to a full understanding and proper appreciation of our own.

      It is thus that the voice of experience concurs with that of reason in proclaiming the utility and importance of classical studies. The darkest period of the church was when the reading of secular books was prohibited to the clergy. When the deepest shades of ignorance brooded over modern nations the classics were buried in the cloisters; and when the social state of man was the most hopeless, it was when he had no access to the humanizing influences of classical literature. But from the period of their restoration there are brighter omens for humanity. It was then that the human mind received that impetus which has carried it on to the light and the civilization of the present day. We have thus adduced a few arguments illustrative of the important influence of classical studies in the developement of the intellectual and moral man. But we do not contend for the exclusive possession of the field of education. We do not argue for the pursuit of classical literature to the exclusion of mathematical, physical, mental, or moral science.

      But we do contend that in every system of education, the foundation should be laid in the classics. It is then that the student comes to these studies with a mind disciplined and prepared to grapple with their difficulties, and furnished with all the means necessary to enable him to reap the full benefit of his [26] labors. It is then that he has laid a broad and solid foundation upon which he may build for life, without meeting with those intolerable difficulties and vexations which, without a knowledge of the classics, must continually impede his progress. And in conclusion it may be permitted to say, in view of what has already been said upon this subject, that the study of the classics furnishes a more varied field of mental discipline--one which is better calculated to a certain extent to develope the whole man, than perhaps any other single branch of instruction whatever. That they bring to the view of the student more important facts out of the history of the species--facts having a most important bearing upon all the great interests of life, and illustrative of the genius of humanity. It is not intended to detract from the merits of mathematical or physical science when we say that the classics cover a field which they can never occupy--a part of the soil of human nature which it is important to cultivate, and to which the study of philology and the classics is alone adapted. The study of mathematics is highly important, but it is a narrow field--in the language of another, "they furnish an infinite line of thought, and always in one direction." The physical sciences present the mind with truths which are outward, contingent, and phenomenal; whereas philological learning alone leads the mind into the frame-work and contexture of human thought. It deals with the intelligible (the ta noeta) of material things, and with the tangible (the ta aistheta) of our intellectual nature. [27]

[IABC 3-27.]