state of* labour and forrow) arises mostly from the crabbed and difficult methods of instruction, which are too often imposed upon them; and that, therefore, all attempts to reduce the number of the difficulties, which, like so many thorns, are laid in their way, and to † render the paths of instruction pleasant and easy, will encourage and invite their attention, even to the study of the most difficult authors, among the foremost of which we may rank Juvenal and Perfius. Should the prefent publication be found to answer this end, not only to school-boys, but to those also who would be glad to recover fuch a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to encourage the renewal of their acquaintance with the Classics (whose writing's fo richly contribute to ornament the higher and more polished walks in life, and which none but the ignorant and tasteless can undervalue) it will afford the Editor an additional fatisfaction. Still more, if it prove useful to foreigners; fuch I mean as are acquainted with the Latin, and wish to be helped in their study of the * " The books that we learn at schools are generally laid "aside, with this prejudice, that they were the labours as well as the forrows of our childhood and education; but they are among the best of books-the Greek and Roman authors " have a spirit in them, a force both of thought and expression, "that later ages have not been able to imitate." Bp. BURNET, Paft. Care, c. vii. + Quod enim munus reipublicæ afferre majus, meliusve pofsumus, quàm fi docemus atque erudimus juventutem? CIC. de Divin. Lib. ii. z. English 1 English language, which is now so much cultivated in many parts of Europe. The religious reader will observe, that God, who " in times past suffered * all the nations (πανία τα “ εθνη, i. e. all the heathen) to walk in their own v "ways, nevertheless, left not himself without witness," not only by the outward manifestations of his power and goodness, in the works of † creation and providence, but by men also, who, in their feveral generations, have So far shewn the work of ‡ the law written in their hearts, as to bear testimony against the unrighteousness of the world in which they lived. Hence, we find the great apostle of the Gentiles, Acts xvii. 28. quoting a passage from his countryman, Aratus of Cilicia, against idolatry, or imagining there be gods made with hands. We find the fame apostle § reproving the vices of lying and gluttony in the Cretans, by a quotation from the Cretan poet Epimenides, whom he calls “ a prophet of their own," for they accounted their poets writers of divine oracles.-Let this teach us to distinguish between the use and abuse of classical knowledge—when it tends to inform the judgment, to refine the manners, and to embellish the conversation; when it keeps a due fubordination to that which is divine, makes us truly thankful for the fuperior light of God's infallible word, and teaches us how little can be truly * See Whitby on Acts xiv. 16. § Tit. i. 12. known known* by the wisest of men, without a divine revelation, then it has its use-still more, if it awakens in us a jealousy over ourselves, that we duly improve the fuperior light with which we are blessed, left the very heathen rife in judgment † against us. If, on the contrary, it tends to make us proud, vain, and conceited, to reft in its attainments as the fummit of wif dom and knowledge; if it contributes to harden the mind against fuperior information, or fills it with that four pedantry which leads to the contempt of others then I will readily allow, that all our learning is but "fplendid ignorance and pompous folly." As to any mistakes or oversights, which the Editor has been guilty of, and which are almost unavoidable in So long and difficult a work as this, he leaves them to the candor and correction of the learned reader, to whom he shall feel himself much obliged for any alterations, which may be thought necessary for the improvement of the work. Such corrections and additions as occurred to the Editor, on a revisal of the whole when the printing was finished, are collected at the end of each volume, and placed under the heads of the several Satires to which they belong. * 1 Cor. i. 20, 21. † Luke xii. 47, 48. 1 state of *labour and forrow) arifes mostly from the crabbed and difficult methods of instruction, which are too often imposed upon them; and that, therefore, all attempts to reduce the number of the difficulties, which, like so many thorns, are laid in their way, and to † render the paths of instruction pleasant and easy, will encourage and invite their attention, even to the study of the most difficult authors, among the foremost of which we may rank Juvenal and Perfius. Should the present publication be found to answer this end; not only to school-boys, but to those also who would be glad to recover fuch a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to encourage the renewal of their acquaintance with the Classics (whose writings fo richly contribute to ornament the higher and more polished walks in life, and which none but the ignorant and tasteless can undervalue) it will afford the Editor an additional fatisfaction. Still more, if it prove useful to foreigners; fuch I mean as are acquainted with the Latin, and wish to be helped in their study of the * " The books that we learn at schools are generally laid " aside, with this prejudice, that they were the labours as well as the forrows of our childhood and education; but they are among the best of books-the Greek and Roman authors " have a spirit in them, a force both of thought and expression, "that later ages have not been able to imitate." Bp. BURNET, Paft. Care, c. vii. + Quod enim munus reipublicæ afferre majus, meliusve pofsumus, quàm fi docemus atque erudimus juventutem? CIC. de Divin. Lib. ii. z. English |