become harsh and violent. Something is needed to soothe the chafed spirit. What better resort than to Cicero's Epistles, or Homer's Odyssey, in order to calm the troubled heart, and recall the pleasant days of early youth. The very sight of an ancient classic sometimes acts as a spell to lay the irritated temper. It speaks with the voice of an affectionate monitor, full of the words of wisdom. In the strifes of various kinds, which all men in public life must encounter, more or less, it is well that there is a common ground on which they can mingle in friendly intercourse. There is an ancient classical homestead, which has not been divided off among the different heirs. All will be received back with a joyous welcome. All have the same right to the fruits and flowers. No theories of government, no theological feuds, no small bickerings, may find admission among this happy gathering. There is a binding influence even in Greek and Latin words. In the very midst of a stormy debate, a felicitous classical allusion will sometimes restore good humor. On the floor of the British parliament, a well-timed citation from Horace has often been like oil poured upon the troubled It recalls to whig and tory the happy days of Eton and of Westminster, or the ripening scholarship and joyous communion of later college days. In a neighboring State, there is a veteran statesman and scholar, who was fourteen years a senator of the United States, "whose selectest pleasure it has been, for sixty years, to commune with those immortal minds, who have bequeathed to the world the richest treasures of thought, and the most exquisite models of style." Who can tell the worth of this venerable Nestor, in maintaining the decorum of a deliberative body? The scenes of wild turmoil that have so often reigned in the lower branch, to the shame of the actors and the sorrow of the country, were not waters. caused, it may be confidently affirmed, by the classical scholars in that house. Those, who daily commune with the best minds of antiquity, may, and sometimes do, differ in political opinion, but they have no taste for the coarse dialect of the low-bred politician. The vernacular language is the armory to which the demagogue resorts. A thorough classical training, and a continued recurrence, through life, to these sources of refined feeling and elegant thought, is one of the best assurances for a kind and gentlemanly deportment in public men. A happy influence is exerted by classical study in another way. It is well known, that our mental and moral habits are intimately connected with our style of thinking and of speaking. Thus our sense of rectitude is very much dependent on the accuracy of the language which we employ. Confusion in speech leads to confusion in morals. Perspicuity in diction is often the parent of clear mental and moral conceptions. Hence, scarcely any thing is more important in the culture of the young, than exact attention to the nicer shades of thought; than the ability to discriminate in respect to all terms, those relating to moral subjects particularly, which are, in general, regarded as synonymous. benefits of classical study goes to this One of the chief very point. It is It is taking the itself a process of accurate comparison. valuation, as it were, of the whole stock of two most copious languages. Some of the principal authors use words with wonderful precision. Plato, for instance, defines with microscopic acuteness. His power of analysis was, perhaps, never equalled. His ear seemed to be so trained as to detect the slightest differences both in the sense and in the sound of words. This is one reason why no translation can do justice either to his poetic cadences, or to his thoughts. No one can be familiar with such an author, and really perceive the fitness of his words, and the truth of the distinctions which they imply, without becoming himself a more exact reasoner and a nicer judge of moral truth. Language, when thus employed, is not a dead thing. It re-acts, with quickening power, on our minds and hearts. When we use words of definite import, our intellectual and moral judgments will become definite. A hazy dialect is the parent of a hazy style of thinking, if it is not of doubtful actions. The dishonest man, or the dishonest State, often allow themselves to be imposed upon by a loose mode of reasoning, and a looser use of language. Here, then, may be drawn an argument not unimportant, in favor of continued attention to those finished models of style and of thought, which are found in the studies in question. question. nourish a delicacy of perception, and the sentiments and feelings gradually gain that crystal clearness which belongs to the visible symbols. They There Once more, it is to be feared, that a degenerating process has been long going on in our vernacular tongue. is danger that it will become the dialect of conceits, of prettinesses, of dashing coxcombry, or of affected strength, and of extravagant metaphor. Preachers, as well as writers, appear to regard convulsive force as the only quality of a good style. They seem to imagine that the human heart is, in all its moods, to be carried by storm. Their aim is the production of immediate practical effect. Hence, there is a struggle for the boldest figures and the most passionate oratory. The same tendency is seen in the hall of legislation, and pre-eminently in much of our popular literature. Passion; over-statement; ridiculous conceits; the introduction of terms that have no citizenship in any language on earth; a disregard of grammar; an affected smartness, characterize, to a very Bb melancholy degree, our recent literature. To be natural, is to be antiquated. To use correct and elegant English, is to plod. Hesitancy in respect to the adoption of some newfangled word, is the sure sign of a purist. Such writers 66 as Addison and Swift are not to be mentioned in the ears of our enterprising" age. The man or the woman, who should be caught reading the Spectator, would be looked upon as smitten with lunacy. In short, there is reason to fear, that our noble old tongue is changing into a dialect for traffickers, magazine-writers, and bedlamites. One way by which this acknowledged evil may be stayed, is a return to such books as Milton, Dryden and Cowper loved; to such as breathed their spirit into the best literature of England; to the old historians and poets, that were pondered over, from youth to hoary years, by her noblest divines, philosophers, and statesmen. Eloquence, both secular and sacred, such as the English world has never listened to elsewhere, has flowed from minds that were imbued with classical learning. |