THE NEW CRATYLUS. BOOK I GENERAL INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I. THE UTILITY OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES. 1 Motives for a preliminary inquiry respecting the practical usefulness of philological learning. 2 Education, information, and knowledge, often confused. I. Philology necessary to education. 3 Definition of Philology. 4 Liberal and professional education. 5 Philology contributes to liberal education by teaching deductive habits. 6 Study of dead languages recommended by their fixity. 7 Advantage of learning any foreign language. 8 Value of ancient literature. 9 Comparative grammar leads to extensive acquisitions. II. Philology an important branch of general knowledge. 10 Worth and dignity of ethnographical science. 11 Changes of population and government clearly indicated by language. 12 Study of language belongs to a great branch of inductive Philosophy. III. Philology valuable as the method of interpretation. 13 Historical criticism derived from Philology. 14 The philologer mediates between reason and tradition, and pleads for a maximum of belief. 15 Importance of Philology for the divine, both as the method of interpretation, and a branch of ethnographical science. 16 Classical education, to whatever extent it is carried, ought to be rational and philological. 1 IT may be stated as a fact worthy of observation in the literary history of modern Europe, that generally, when one of our countrymen has made the first advance in any branch of knowledge, we have acquiesced in what he has done, and have left the further improvement of the subject to our neighbours on the continent. The man of genius always finds an utterance, for he is urged on by an irresistible impulse-a conviction that it is his duty and his vocation to speak: but we too often want those who should follow in his steps, clear up what he has left obscure, and complete his unfinished labours. Nor is it difficult to show why this should be the case. The English mind, vigorous and healthy as it generally is, appears to be constitutionally averse from speculation; we have all of us a bias towards the practical and immediately profitable, generated by our mercantile pursuits, which make all of us, to a certain extent, utilitarians, and stifle the development of a literary taste among us; or, if the voice of interest fails to control the vanity of authorship, there is still another modification of self-love, a cold conventional reserve, induced by the fear of committing one's self, which imposes silence upon those who have truths to tell. To this general fact, however, there is one very remarkable exception. The regulations of our grammar-schools, and, perhaps, somewhat of the old custom and antiquated prejudice, of which we hear so much, have made classical studies not only the basis, but nearly the whole of a liberal education in this country; and circumstances, which we shall point out in the following chapter, have created for us a thriving philological literature. Although the rewards and encouragements held out by our great Universities have been considered by many as a sufficient justification of such studies, it is the spirit of the age to inquire, what advantage a young man derives from so protracted a study of Latin and Greck, in addition to and independent of the University distinctions and emoluments which he may have the good fortune to obtain. There is much of reason in this demand, and it is doubtless incumbent upon those who have devoted themselves to such pursuits to point out to others their importance and utility. Hitherto this has not been done in a satisfactory manner; and therefore, although our object is rather to add something to philological knowledge than to justify philological pursuits, we deem it a necessary preliminary that we should endeavour by some plain arguments to recommend to our readers the sort of learning which we wish to increase and the studies which we design to facilitate-that we should make known at the very outset the nature and value of the subject on which we write. And in doing this we disclaim any wish to perplex ourselves with the polemics of the question, as it has been treated by other writers. It is not our purpose to discuss the merits or demerits of our collegiate institutions, still less to impugn or exculpate, as the case may be, the conduct of those who are |