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Classical Literature,

BY

THE REV. JAMES ENGLAND, M. A.

CLASSICAL

LITERATURE,

LADIES,

BY THE REV. JAMES ENGLAND, M. A.

The subject of my present lecture is Classical Literature, not merely as the production of a former age, or as the outpourings of highly gifted and original minds, but as a portion of a liberal education. My object will be to treat of the literature of Greece and Rome as moulds in which our own minds may receive a peculiar cast, and by which we may be prepared to take a position of selfidentification with all that have deeply drunk of the same stream, and have refreshed themselves from the same source. The opinion which was once entertained respecting classical studies is indisputably declared by the grammar schools, so freely endowed by our ancestors and scattered over the country that the poorest might receive instruction in Latin and Greek; and the value in which it is still held, is attested by the prominence it still maintains in education, both at home and abroad. Yet it cannot be concealed that there are many, whose opinions deserve attention, that maintain, in opposition to this extended practice, the firm impression that classical studies are not necessary to a complete education, that the writers of our own language supply all that is required to enlarge the mind, improve the taste, and fit for all the duties of social intercourse. Looking to the array of English writers to the master minds which have poured out the rich treasures of their intellectual

fulness-they see no necessity for spending a long period of preparation in order that we may become acquainted with the literature of Greece and Rome.

Much may be said on both sides of this question, according to the stand-point from which the view is taken, and the different relations in which it is consequently seen. In treating on Classical Literature as a necessary part of a liberal education, it will be necessary for me to indicate my stand-point, that is, in other words, to define the term liberal education-by which I understand the bringing out of our common humanity. Its great object is to teach us the oneness of mind that pervades all generations of men, to link us not merely with the present or the future—not to bind us to English writers only, or to introduce us to the living languages of Europe, but to connect us in our common humanity with those who are the foundation of our present high advance-the preservers of literature in Europe. There may be an education which is purely selfish, which tends to develop individuality, and destroy that elevated humility which an enlarged contact with mental greatness must produce. "Young persons may be so employed and so treated that their caprice, their self will, their individual tastes and propensities are educed and developed, but this is not education; it is not the education of a man; for what is educed is not that which belongs to man as man, and connects man with man. It is not the education of a man's humanity, but the indulgence of his individuality."*

Regarding a liberal education in the high sense of our common humanity, classical literature has pre-eminent claims upon our attention, and by an inherent right demands our careful study. When I take this high stand for the Classics

* Whewell, page 7.

I do not, cannot detract from the necessity of cultivating modern languages; they are involved in our very idea of a liberal education; they connect us with our fellow men of the present day, or with periods but recently transpired, as the languages of Greece and Rome connect us with the earlier ages of the world. I have deemed it necessary thus clearly to explain in what sense I wish to treat my subject, as there may be in the minds of some an undefined antipathy to Greek and Latin in the abstract, not arising from any positive acquired dislike, but from ignorance of their real value, or from an indisposition to undergo the labour necessary for their acquisition. In the minds of others the value may, perhaps, be estimated by commercial equivalents, and the question, Of what use is it? find a ready and negative response. It may be that considerations such as these have shut out the classics from female education; but it is to be hoped that the dark age is passing away, and that ladies of the nineteenth century may yet take as deep an interest in the poets, historians, and philosophers of Greece and Rome as those of the period of Edward, Mary, or Elizabeth.

As a means of mental culture, classical studies stand very high. The necessity of thought involved in developing the grammatical structure of the language of Greece, especially, introduces an exercise which must have an invigorating and healthful result. Independent of the large amount of inflections used to convey the various relations of nouns and changes of time and action in verbs, the facility of combination is so great that the nicest shades of thought can be often expressed by a single word, which requires close attention and command of language to give its equivalent. We cannot estimate too highly the power of language and command of expression, which we acquire by a careful and strict rendering of the poets, philosophers, and historians of antiquity. Loose translations, giving but

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