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best source of general mental culture known among men; and that their unpopularity is owing exclusively to a general ignorance of the above opinion among the great mass of parents and teachers; and I shall finally endeavor to show, briefly, and as clearly as the nature of the subject will allow, upon what foundations of reason and experience that opinion is based. To accomplish my first object I shall quote from authorities which are entiled to the highest respect-men who have been the embodiment of the highest human wisdom, virtue and honor. In doing this let it be understood that I am not using the argument of “ancient prestige and renown," but simply citing the opinion of great and far seeing minds, who of all men have been the best qualified to judge respecting the matter at issue, who have had no motive for deceit, and who have voluntarily given in their testimony. The selection I have made is from a great multitude of witnesses.

Who could be better qualified to judge of the comparative worth of different studies than Dr. Arnold, the former head master of Rugby, a great scholar, a great Teacher, a great Historian, and withal the most practical of men.

"That classical studies," says his biographer, Stanley, "should be the basis of intellectual teaching, he maintained from the first. The study of language,' he said, 'seems to me as if it was given for the very purpose of forming the human mind in youth; and the Greek and Latin languages, in themselves so perfect, and at the same time freed from the insuperable difficulty which must attend any attempt to teach boys philology through the medium of their own spoken language, seem the very instruments by which this is to be effected.' But a comparison of his earlier and later letters will show how much this opinion was strengthened in later years."

I am tempted to remark that Dr. Arnold himself was a great living embodiment of the value of classical culture. No one who is at all familiar with the character of that great man, but will admit that no such Dr. Arnold as the world knows would have been possible without the languages of Greece and Rome.

Our next witness is Lord Macauley, who in his critique on the Athenean Orators says, speaking of Grecian literature:

"The celebrity of the great classical writers is confined within no limits except those which separate civilized from savage men. Their works are the common property of every polished nation. In the minds of the educated classes throughout Europe, their names are indissolubly associated with the endearing recollections of childhood-the old school-room, the dog-eared grammar, the tears so often shed and so quickly dried,"

In what more forcible words can a man acknowledge his indebtedness to those studies which the common testimony of the wise has pronounced the most fertile source of instruction possessed by the schools.

Burke, the greatest of English orators and statesmen, says in respect to æsthetic culture:

"I am persuaded that understanding Homer well would contribute more to wards perfecting taste than all the metaphysical treatises upon the arts that ever have or can be written; because such treatises upon the arts can only tell what true taste is, but Homer everywhere shows it."

Sydney Smith in one of his educational essays, while condemning the almost

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exclusive study of the classics in English Universities in his day, yet admits that this is only an abuse of what is in itself good. He says:

"To go through the grammar of one language thoroughly is of great use for the mastery of every other grammar; because there obtains through all languages, a certain analogy, to each other in their grammatical construction. Latin and Greek have now mixed themselves etymologically with all the languages of modern Europe-and with none more than our own; so that it is necessary to read these two tongues for other objects than themselves." Again, "There are quite sufficient reasons why the classics should be studied for the beauties of language. Compared to them merely as vehicles of thought and passion, all modern languages are dull, ill contrived and barbarous."

He also argues that the classics should be studied for cultivation of style, and finally says "that vast advantages, then, may be derived from classical learning, there can be no doubt."

Madame De Steil, whose work on Germany Sir James Mackintosh regarded as the greatest production of feminine genius, says in her chapter on German Universities:

"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 mathematies, or of the physical sciences. Pascal, that great geometer, whose profound thought hovered over the sciences which he peculiarly cultivated, as over every other, has himself acknowledged the insuperable defects of those minds which owe their first formation to mathematics."

After some admirable remarks on the infirmity of the training of mathematics and of the natural sciences, she adds:

"It is not, therefore, without reason, that the study of the ancient and modern languages has been made the basis of all the establishments of education which have formed the most able men throughout Europe."

For some of the most logical and luminous thought I have ever read on this subject I can but refer to the whole of this most interesting and philosophical essay.

Milton, in his celebrated tractate on Education, in mapping out a course of liberal study, gives a most conspicuous place to the study of the classical languages. No Teacher, especially, should fail to read that brief but remarkable letter, in which the Poet's ideal of an educational course is delineated, somewhat extravagantly, it may seem, but most characteristically.

In Sir William Hamilton's essay "On the Study of Mathematics," which is probably the most profound and exhaustive treatise on the subject to be found in our language, the following words may be taken as the key note of his conclusions:

"If we consult reason, experience, and the common testimony of ancient and modern times, none of our intellectual studies tend to cultivate a smaller number of the faculties in a more partial or feeble manner, than Mathematics. This is acknowledged by every writer on Education of the least pretension to judgment and experience; nor is it denied, even by those who are most decidely opposed to their total banishment from the sphere of a liberal instruction."

In the same author's essay, "On the Conditions of Classical Learning," in alluding to some opposition raised in Scotland to classical training, the great Philosopher says:

"Indeed the only melancholy manifestation in the opposition now raised to

the established course of classical instruction is not the fact of such opposition; but that arguments in themselves so futile-arguments which, in other countries, would have been treated with neglect, should in Scotland not have been wholly harmless. If such attacks have had their influence on the public, this affords only another proof, not that ancient literature is with us studied too much, but that it is studied far too little. Where classical learning has been vigorously cultivated the most powerful attacks have only ended in a purification and improvement of its study."

Further on is the statement that "classical study, if properly directed, is, absolutely, the best means toward an harmonious development of the faculties -the one end of all liberal education."

I have placed these quotations together, because the Mathematics are the only rival in this country which the classics can properly be said to have. Says Gibbon, in speaking of the influence of classic literature at the revival of learning in the West:

"The students of the more perfect idioms of Rome and Greece were introduced to a new world of light and science; to the society of the free and polished nations of antiquity; and to a familiar converse with those immortal men who spoke the sublime language of eloquence and reason. Such an intercourse must tend to refine the taste, and to elevate the genius of the moderns."

That most sagacious commentator on our institutions, De Tocqueville, shows that the study of Greek and Latin literature is peculiarly useful in democratic communities:

"No literature," he says, "places those fine qualities, in which the writers of democracies are naturally deficient, in bolder relief than that of the ancients; no literature, therefore, ought to be more studied in democratic ages."

Mr. Dwight, in his Modern Philology, has the following remarks:

"And in no way as a matter of general experience and of general testimony, can all the higher faculties of the mind be so well trained to lofty, vigorous, sustained action, as by the study of language; its analytic, philosophic, artistic, study. Classical discipline is, accordingly, the palestra in which, throughout Christendom, the rising generation is everywhere prepared, and for ages has been, to wrestle manfully with the difficulties of after life, in whatever profession or calling. From Latin and Greek fountains, the living waters have been drawn, from which the intellectual thirst of great minds in all nations has been slaked."

Prof. Porter, of Yale College, in the course of some remarks at the inauguration of the Norwich Free Academy, a few years since, said:

Most men

"I rejoice that in the course of study prescribed by the founders of this Academy, so great prominence is given to the Classics. Of the importance of classical study, the views of many persons are vague and unsettled. are taught to esteem them valuable, though they cannot see how. They submit themselves passively to the necessity which forces them or others to go through the study of Greek or Latin, because they are made a part of liberal education, but farther than this, they neither judge nor are they convinced. To such it may be suggested that the study of a language must be the study of thought, and in it are recorded the processes and operations of human thinking, even the most subtle and refined. To follow and trace these by the study of any language is an invaluable discipline. To do it in such languages as the Greek and Latin, which are so peculiarly and especially adapted to call out and enforce this discriminating and close analysis, is a discipline which cannot be too highly esteemed."

Mr. Marsh, the accomplished author of "Lectures on the English Language," who is probably as well qualified to judge on this subject as any man living, shall be our last witness. He says:

"I do but echo the universal opinion of all persons competent to pronounce on the subject, in expressing my own conviction that the language and literature of ancient Greece constitute the most efficient instrument of mental training ever enjoyed by man; and that a familiarity with that wonderful speech, its poetry, its philosophy, its eloquence, and the history it embalms, is incomparably the most valuable of intellectual possessions."

Again he says:

"While the Latin trains us to be good grammarians, the Greek elevates us to the highest dignity of manhood, by making us acute and powerful thinkers." Quotations from men, who, it must be admitted, are best qualified to judge respecting the subject, might thus be added indefinitely, but sufficient have been presented to sustain my proposition-That in the opinion of those competent to judge, the classical languages constitute the best source of general mental culture known among men.

No such array of authority can be presented in opposition to classical training. Those who have denied its high value have generally been men who, in the language of Sir Wm. Hamilton, "are inclined to soothe their vanity with the belief, that what they do not themselves know is not worth knowing." And he adds "that they should find it easy to convert others, who are equally ignorant, to the same opinion, is what might also confidently be presumed."

As for the very small number, such as Mr. Whewell and Herbert Spencer, who have combated classical learning, and whose opinions must be entitled to respect, they seem but to illustrate the general truth that "there are exceptions to all rules." In respect to Mr. Whewell, his defense of Mathematical training will mislead no one has read that wonderful review of Hamilton's "On the Study of Mathematics." In regard also to Mr. Spencer, the greatest modern champion of the opposition, the remarkable clearness of his style has rendered his fallacies so obvious that they are easily distinguished by the careful reader. A few of them I propose to exhibit in a future article.

I will add, in conclusion, the number of students in the Scientific and Classical Courses, respectively, of the principal Colleges in the United States. The figures are from the latest Catalogues. They form a fitting sequel to the proof already adduced of the estimation in which the Classics are held in sections of our country most noted for education and intelligence: Yale College,- Scientific students, 57 Classical,.

Harvard University,

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75

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Dartmouth College,

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Amherst College,

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Brown University,

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.471

.417

.161

..202

..165

The Scientific students in the latter include those in the Select Course, some of whom, probably, are in part of the Classical Course.

In the Catalogue of Union College, I find some very interesting statistics. The students, on counting up, stand as follows:

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It will be seen at a glance that the proportion of Classical to Scientific students has been, during the last four years, rapidly changing in favor of the Classical. I believe the same is true of most of the other Colleges, although I find in the Catalogues no distinction by classes.

In a future article I will show that the opinion of the high value of classical training entertained by such men as Dr. Arnold, Macauley, Milton, Burke, and Hamilton, is, as may well be inferred, based upon solid foundations of reason and experience.

Milton Academy.

Written for the Journal of Education.

CALLING UPON PARENTS.

It is acknowledged by our best educators, that the teacher, in order to reap the richest fruits of his labor must be on terms of friendly intercourse with both pupils and parents. Over the former, he can exercise a daily influence, while the latter are seldom found in the school-room. Accordingly, weeks, months, and even whole terms sometimes pass, before a new teacher has formed a dozen genuine acquaintances in the entire district. This, evidently, is not well. Ought the teacher, therefore, to visit the parents? Many answer negatively, even with emphasis, and affirm that the teacher has no time for visiting; that school-cares and labors unfit him for it; and finally, that the work itself is too menial.

While " ought" may express too strong an obligation, would not such a course, when practicable, be very judicious? The principal work of the instructor is indeed to educate, but whether obligated or not he is at least privileged to exert an influence, a moral power, without as well as within the school. room. There are wrongs to be combated, errors even in the school-system, to be brought to light and discussed, improvements to be urged and suggestions offered, in the performance of which a teacher may modestly engage, without turning aside from his legitimate calling.

Our friend Pickard makes good suggestions; let the teachers of the State press home the same to parents and thus assist in carrying them out. Schoolelectors not unfrequently are sluggish and averse to change, fearful of expense without profit, and often unwilling to accept a manifest improvement, "not having considered the matter." With such, certainly, sound logic and persuasive speech can do no harm. Good black-boards, a bell, outline maps, phonetic tablets, &c., are all needed in every school, and whenever their need is fairly presented by a trustworthy teacher, they are frequently procured. About such things men are often more reasonable than thoughtful.

Probably not less than a thousand teachers in the State will give instruction this summer in districts new to them, and in which, of course, they will form new associations. These, though young, and inexperienced, and perhaps, "back in the country," have a special work, a work which even the State Superintendent and other leading educators can in no wise accomplish. Indeed,

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