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I. The benefits which the student derives, as a matter of course, from these pursuits, are neither few nor unimportant. Yet being of a more latent kind they are the less perceived, and therefore fail to be appreciated as they deserve.

1. In the first place, he acquires, while learning the mere words of the ancient tongues, a fund of knowledge applicable to a variety of purposes, and in some pursuits essentially important. It is true that words are but the signs of ideas, and that when dissociated from these they are destitute both of meaning and of value. But it is not in this abstract view that they are made the object of study. The utility and importance of a thorough and extensive acquaintance with words in every department of knowledge are too obvious to need illustration, and the benefit which the student of antiquity derives from such an accession to his learning forms no slight argument in favor of the pursuit in which he is engaged. His familiarity with the etymology of the dead languages renders more extensive and accurate his knowledge of the words of his own tongue. The great number of Latin and Greek roots which enter into the composition of the latter makes it an object of no slight importance, even to the mere English scholar, to make himself acquainted with them. It is, indeed, the surest, if not the only way, for the inheritor of the English tongue entirely to master his vernacular. An intimate and thorough acquaintance with any language implies an accurate knowledge of the derivation and radical import of the words which compose it. There are, however, in our own tongue a multitude of words with which such an acquaintance can only be obtained by tracing them to their sources in the languages of Greece and Rome. He, therefore, who would be thoroughly grounded even in his household dialect will accomplish that object most effectually by studying the etymology of antiquity. But besides this most obvious advantage, the youthful scholar, while studying the ancient vocabularies, is laying the foundation for the easy acquisition of all the languages derived from them. He who desires to learn the modern tongues, if he engage in the pursuit of them with the advantage of a previous acquaintance with classical literature, will realize the utility of the latter when he finds his progress through the languages of modern Europe greatly assisted, and the time and labor he would have to expend in learning them materially diminished. Let it then be remembered "how much an acquaintance with one language facilitates the acquisition of a second and a third; what essential aid a knowledge of the ancient affords to the study of the modern tongues, as respects the utility of which there is no dispute; and that it is difficult, if, indeed, it be possible, to know well even our own language otherwise than through the medium of the Latin and the Greek."

Again: the utility of a critical knowledge of radical words, and of the derivatives formed from them, is clearly exhibited in the study of linguistic or comparative philology-a science which has done much to explode "those absurd opinions relative to the origin and classification of communities which are now slowly passing away from the world of letters, and are giving place to a more rational and legitimate spirit of research." In tracing the origin and settlement of nations an acquaintance with the roots of the ancient languages is indispensable. It is an auxiliary for which there is no substitute. The aid of history can scarcely be brought to the inves

tigation of a people's rise and progress at a period which is itself anterior to the earliest historic record. It is only by cautiously and patiently comparing the words which compose their respective languages that we are enabled, in the absence of historical evidence, to arrive at any degree of certainty respecting the localities, migrations, and affinities of the primitive races of mankind. "Elevated to the rank of a science," says Professor Anthon, in an able disquisition on the study of language, "she proceeds to solve all problems relative to language on the surest and most philosophical principles. Does a philologist of this school wish to determine whether any affinity exists between two races or nations? He examines the vocabulary of each, and if he find that such terms as express the more immediate ties of relationship, the principal parts of the human frame, the heavenly bodies, the leading phenomena of nature, and the primary numbers, are either identical in their roots, or very nearly so, he concludes that these two nations sprang undoubtedly from one common source. It makes no matter how far they may be separated from each other by geographical position. Chance may produce a coincidence in three or four expressions, but never in three or four hundred." In like manner he discovers an analogy between the arts of government, of war, or of husbandry of different nations, by tracing an identity or strong resemblance in the terms which have reference to those arts respectively, and infers from such analogy an intercourse between the two nations or a community of origin. Thus the science of comparative philology renders a most important service to the study of history by supplying chasms in the latter, and enabling us to carry back our inquiries to a period more remote than even the earliest mythic accounts. Surely, then, a branch of study so intimately connected with philology as classical literature, and shedding light upon the history of the darkest periods, is deserving of the most liberal encouragement.

There is another advantage arising from an acquaintance with the mere words of the Latin and Greek, which ought not to be overlooked. The scholar is rendered at once familiar with the nomenclature of science, and with the whole technology of the legal and medical professions. "The very language of science," says Professor Moore, "is derived from Greece and Rome; and the zoologist, the botanist, the mineralist, the chymist, and others will bear witness to the necessity of some acquaintance with the ancient tongues to a clear understanding even of the terms of art." Languages which possess qualities that have caused them to be incorporated into the different branches of science, or extensively used in professional practice, ought not indeed to be proscribed as useless and unprofitable.

In reference, however, to the benefits here contemplated as arising from a knowledge of the words of the ancient languages, it is to be observed that they do not result from a mere acquaintance with the Greek and Roman vocabularies. They can only be fully realized by a thorough familiarity with the etymology of those tongues-by such a knowledge of words as it is almost impossible to acquire without learning the languages themselves.

2. Another advantage inseparably connected with the study of the ancient classics is the thorough knowledge of grammatical principles. This the student cannot fail to obtain. The easy simplicity

of the one, and the philosophical structure of the other of these languages, as well as the peculiar idioms of both, render them the most effectual, and, in the opinion of some, the only medium for the attainment of this object. By studying their inflections and construction the mind of the scholar is led to a more perfect understanding of the principles of his own tongue, and to a fuller comprehension of the philosophy of language, than he could by any other means attain to. When he has once mastered the principles of universal grammar, he has laid the foundation for the easy attainment of most other languages. The value of this acquisition, and the utility of the classics as auxiliary to it, we presume that none will deny. The intimate connection between the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind stamps upon the former a degree of importance which no enlightened mind can fail to appreciate.

3. Again: the scholar, in his progress through a course of classical studies, acquires necessarily a vast store of useful knowledge which he would not otherwise possess. He imbues his mind with a more thorough and intimate acquaintance with the history of antiquity than he could possibly obtain from any modern writer, or from the most learned and correct translations. He learns the manners and customs, the laws, religion, opinions, arts, and sciences of the ancients with a degree of minuteness and accuracy to which the mere English scholar never attains, but which is yet essential to the profitable reading and right understanding of the history of those times. Without such auxiliary knowledge to illustrate it, what is the value of history? It is this collateral information which renders it intelligible, and makes it useful. Without this, its character would be entirely changed, and its most important end defeated. "The student," says Dr. Moore, "spends much time in learning words, no doubt; but he cannot learn the signs without at the same time gaining some acquaintance with the things signified. Does he not learn the history, geography, and chronology of the ancient world; the civil, military, and religious institutions, the private life, manners, and customs of the most interesting nations of the earth, as also the wisest systems of philosophy and morals that unassisted human reason has been able to invent? Does he not become acquainted with the most sublime and beautiful monuments of human wit and genius? And is it possible that all this should be unattended with most sensible advantage?" Indeed, the advantage thus resulting to the youthful scholar is too obvious to be questioned, and too important to be disregarded. They who underrate the knowledge thus gleaned in the pursuit of classical literature, and affect to consider it superfluous, might urge the same objection, with equal plausibility, against every kind and degree of knowledge that do not immediately become a source of lucre.

4. But the chief excellence of the study which we recommend, and that which gives it its highest value to man as a rational being, consists in its influence on the mental character. It is a most important medium of intellectual training-that training "in which the individual is cultivated, not as an instrument toward some ulterior end, but as an end unto himself alone; in other words, in which his absolute perfection as a man, not his relative dexterity as a professional man, is the scope immediately in view."

All the uses and benefits of study may be summed up under two

heads, viz. the forming and the furnishing of the mind. Every branch of knowledge to which the scholar applies himself produces its designed result either by giving scope for the exercise of his intellectual powers, and thus invigorating the mind, or by supplying the memory with facts, which constitute the nutriment of the mind, or else in both these ways combined. But the mere acquisition of facts, unconnected with the proper exercise of the judgment, is seldom productive of real benefit, and liable to be attended with positive injury. It is true that a knowledge of facts is an indispensable element of intellectual culture; but their value entirely depends upon the manner and amount in which they are received. If they accumulate too rapidly, they clog the intellect, so to speak, and retard its operations. If, while the memory is treasuring them up, the understanding be not vigorously employed in arranging and classifying them, in comparing them together and determining their relative importance, the mind will be oppressed and distorted, instead of strengthened and developed. The chief aim of education-that which is admitted to be its most important object-is the harmonious evolution of the faculties. In this lies the perfection of our nature. Every branch of study, therefore, which contributes to this end possesses an intrinsic importance which entitles it to the highest consideration; while, on the other hand, the advantage of those studies. which lack this quality may, for that reason alone, be justly suspected. "It is an ancient and universal observation," says an able living writer, "that different studies cultivate the mind to a different development; and as the end of a liberal education is the general and harmonious evolution of its capacities in their relative subordination, the folly has accordingly been long and generally denounced which would attempt to accomplish this result by the partial application of certain partial studies. And not only has the effect of a one-sided discipline been remarked upon the mind in general, in the disproportioned development of one faculty at the expense of others; it has been equally observed in the exclusive cultivation of the same faculty to some special energy, or in relation to some particular class of objects. Of this no one had a clearer perception than Aristotle; and no one has better illustrated the evil effects of such a cultivation of the mind, on all and each of its faculties."

That the study of the ancient classics contributes most essentially to the full and equal development of the intellectual powers is proved by long experience, and attested by all who are competent to judge. The study of language in general, and of the Greek and Roman tongues in particular, (for from these the philosophy of language is most effectually learned,) is one of the most useful exercises of the understanding, and eminently calculated to impart vigor and acuteness to the faculties. This is the opinion alike of scholars, critics, statesmen, and philosophers; and he must have unbounded confidence in his own pretensions who presumes, in the face of such authority, to disparage these pursuits, or deny their utility.

The opinion of so celebrated a critic and scholar as Madame De Stael, on this point, deserves to be quoted. In comparing the effects of classical studies with mathematical, she observes, "The study of languages, which in Germany constitutes the basis of education, is much more favorable to the evolution of the faculties, in the earlier age, than that of mathematics or of the physical sciences.

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There is, no doubt, a point at which the mathematics themselves require that luminous power of invention without which it is impossible to penetrate into the secrets of nature. At the summit of thought the imaginations of Homer and of Newton seem to unite; but how many of the young, without mathematical genius, consecrate their time to this science! There is exercised in them only a single faculty, while the whole moral being ought to be under development at an age when it is so easy to derange the soul and the body in attempting to strengthen only a part."

Von Weiller, a distinguished German philosopher, and president of the Royal Institute of Studies in Munich, also bears decided testimony to the superiority of classical pursuits over mathematical. "Mathematics and Grammar," he remarks, "differ essentially from each other in respect to their efficiency as general means of intellectual cultivation. The former have to do only with the intuitions of space and time, and are, therefore, even in their foundation, limited to a special department of our being; whereas the latter, occupied with the primary notions of our intellectual life in general, is coextensive with its universal empire. On this account the grammatical exercise of mind must, if beneficially applied, precede the mathematical. And thus are we to explain why the efficiency of the latter does not stretch so widely over our intellectual territory; why it never develops the mind on so many sides; and why, also, it never penetrates so profoundly.-The best of our former real scholars, when brought into collation with the Latin scholars, could, in general, hardly compete with the most middling of these-not merely in matters of language, but in every thing which demanded a more developed faculty of thought."

To illustrate the manner in which these studies cultivate and improve the mental powers would exceed the limits of our present design. The following excellent remarks of Professor Pillans, of the University of Edinburgh, may, however, properly be added to the authorities already quoted, both on account of their justness and truth, and of the weight which attaches to the name of their author: "The ancient languages, from the circumstance of their incorporating the expression of various relations among objects and ideas into the words themselves, derive two advantages: first, by avoiding a crowd of such little words as encumber our diction they acquire a pomp, sonorousness, and condensation of meaning- a long resounding march and energy divine'-which we cannot look for in our modern dialects; and, secondly, they admit a variety in the collocation of words, and a freedom of transposition, which materially contribute, in the hands of an accomplished writer, both to mould his periods into the most perfect music and melody to the ear, and, what is of more consequence still, to present them in the most striking forms to the understanding and imagination of his reader.

"It is, indeed, a great and just boast of these languages, that this liberty of arrangement enables the speaker or writer to dispose his thoughts to the best advantage, and to place in most prominent relief those which he wishes to be peculiarly impressive; and that thus they are pre-eminently fitted for the purposes of eloquence and poetry. It is owing to the same peculiarities in the structure of the ancient languages, that the writers in them were enabled to construct those long and curiously involved sentences which any attempt

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