Alden, Timothy. Seven forensic disputations on the question whether the time usually spent in learning the Latin, Greek, & Oriental languages be usefully occupied : by Timothy Alden, Samuel Dana, Jotham Bender, James Kendall, David Kendall, William Wells,

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pedagogues are surprised at the ill success of their labors.

We shall mention some of the benefits, which may result from a study of the classics.

To extol the ancients and depreciate the moderns has been a favorite employment with some admirers of antiquity. Former times are represented as the golden age of the world when wisdom and virtue were universally prevalent. We have already heard too many of these ridiculous assertions. It is our pride and pleasure to believe that the world is at present more humane, and more virtuous, and consequently more happy than at any former period. Yet, if we are superior to the Greeks and Romans in the milder and more amiable virtues of society, we are deficient in those heroic and disinterested sentiments which they possessed. Our virtue is too much the result of calculation; and a habit of coolly reasoning has almost annhilated the warm and generous feelings of the heart. The present age is also unhappily distinquished by an inordinate love of riches. Ambition, among the ancients, was the rulling principle, a principle productive indeed of much vice and misery, yet surely superior in its nature and its consequences, to the mean and base selfishness of avarice. It is the province of history to

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correct the defects of modern times by the example of former ages; and the object of education to fortify the youg and untainted mind against the contagion of fashionable vice. What more effectual method can we take to produce these excellent effects, than by imprinting upon the sensitive memory of childhood the inflexible justice of Aristides, the voluntary poverty of Valerius, the modesty of Cato, who chose rather to be, than to seem, good, and the virtue of Fabricius, whom, by the confession of an enemy, it was more difficult to turn from the path of honor than the sun from his course. Let a boy read the story of Regulus or of the Decii. He burns to imitate them, his eye flashes fire; his breast heaves with indescribable emotions; every noble and honorable sentiment is stamped in deep and lasting associations; and a tone is given to his future character. Will he ever stoop to meanness or betray his country? impossible! He is already a Washington.

Instead of the cringing deference recommended by modern ethics, the classics inspire that noble Panhesia, that honest and fearless avowal of opinion, which renders venerable the name of Erasmus; and which, in the present age, has honorably distinguished a Wakefield and a Knox.

To give an opinion on the general merit of the

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classics would be ridiculous. Such pretensions to learning could gain no credit, even with the most ignorant. The authority of the best critics, however, justifies us in asserting, that in poetry, in history and in eloquence, they have no equal in modern times. The Iliad and the Anabasis of Xenophon are so interesting that they are read with pleasure, even by the school boy, who turns to his dictionary at every line. The Georgics of Virgil are esteemed by the learned equal, if not superior, to any of the most admired productions of later ages; and it may well be doubted, whether we shall be gainers by laying aside the plain and simple rules of the Ars Poetica, to substitute in their stead those obscure and ponderous volumes of metaphysical criticism, which in our day so greatly abound.

Against making the study of the classics an essential part of education with those, who are designed for the practice of Law and Medicine, it is urged, that attention to professional studies allows no time for the perusal of classic authors. But this is the plea of indolence. Very many of the most eminent lawyers and physicians were not more distinguished for professional skill, than for classical learning. Independent of those direct advantages which are derived from an acquaintance with the learned languages, they communicate a grace and dignity to those liberal professions, which render them respectable in the eyes both of the vulgar & the learned.

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In these times of doubt and infidelity an accurate acquaintance with the classics is highly necessary in the teachers of a religion, the evidence of whose truth is contained in the Greek and Latin language. In vain shall we oppose to a future Hume or Gibbon the arguments of our best divines, however superior their reasoning may appear. The appeal is made from them to the original authorities. If we are ignorant of these and unable to examine them the cause of Christianity may suffer in so unequal a contest.

It is said, that a few men, singularly well acquainted with the learned languages, will be sufficient to prevent those ill consequences. This is true; but it should be considered that to obtain these few, many must be well instructed; the study must receive encouragement and general esteem, or men of genius will turn their attention to pursuits which gain more notice and applause.

Not only the evidence for the truth of our religion but our religion itself is contained in the language of the Greeks. The leading and most important doctrines of the new Testament are indeed plain and easy to be understood. The were adapted to the understanding of the multitudes, and cannot be obscured even by an imperfect translation. Yet there are some parts of the sacred volume, of which this cannot be as -

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affirmed. The apostle Paul was educated in all the learning of ancient philosophy. Hence his epistles abound with subtle argumentation and intricate reasoning, with allusions to Grecian customs, and allusions drawn from antient authors; they are also full of abrupt digressions, and the chain of argument is often so fine, that if one sentence be misunderstood, the whole becomes unintelligble. From such premises we infer, a priori, an improbability that a translation, executed in the early dawn of learning, and executed too by men, who in many cases must necessarily tinge the scriptures with the colours of their own prejudice, should give universally the sense and spirit of the original. God forbid that we should cast any reflexion on the memory of those pious, those venerable men, to whom we are indebted for the common version of the scriptures. That they performed their task so well will ever be matter of astonishment and admiration. They emancipated themselves from a heavy load of established prejudices. At a period when it was dangerous to doubt and criminal to reason they dared to think and decide for themselves; and we have profited little by their excellent example, if in this free and enlightened age, we are so idle or so indifferent, as to rest contented with a human copy, when we have before us the divine original. Let a clergy, who are restrained by episcopal au-