The Mirror — Concord, N.H., 1798-05-01 00:00:00, page 4

• In Islington there was a man,
Os whom the world might fay,
Thatff ill a godly race he ran.
Whene'er he went to pray.
fad,
Fear rend bis breast, and furies o'er bim
An Elegy on the Death of
a Mad Dog.
GOOD people all, of every fort.
Give ear unto my song ;
And if you find it wonderbus Ihott,
It cannot hold you long.
The wound it feem'd both fore and fad,
To every Christian eye;
And whik they swore the dog was mad,
They swore the man would die.!
But soon a wonder came to light,
That Ihew'd the rogues they ly'd.
The man recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that dy'd.
fflifcdU
From the Green Mountain Patriot.
[ ^ ty^ M' r lo@" Pca<bam > Vermont.]
On the dead, sometimes called the
learned Languages.^
A QUESTION which inter
etts the community at large,
ought to b© a fubjedt of free and
candid difeuffioo, iq a newfpsper.
[j ite discussion, the arguments
for and against, and objections,
should be fairly coefidered and
aofwered. Individual interest should
stand aside, during the debate ;
bread ;
Whose flint, bojom throbs not vsitb afgb,
Nor teems with pit, at the Or,ban s cry.
ALBERTO.
gives,
And the lorn hop refufeitated lives.
Shame burn bis dt confufion mix bis
A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes ;
The ?aked every day he clad,
When he put on his clothes.
Apostrophe to Humanity.
HAIL, charming N,mpb ! to Mortals ever
known,
By, the Joft look that makes their woes th) own ;
Thrill every nerve, the beart-frung fibres
Jhake, >
From letbean dreams, the torpid ferfes wake.
Humanity 1 expression, all divine !
Th, balfam'd cinßure round our hofoms twine:
Be it our care th' unhappy to relieve,
And if we cannot fuccour, learn to grieve .'
When pale difireft, imprisonment and pain,
Burst from the coffin of indignant gain ;
Tb, presence footbs, to woe new tranJport
This dog and man at firft were friends ;
But when a pique began,
This dog, tp gain his private eads,
Went mad and bit the man.
And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be ;
Both mongrel, pupty, whelp and hound,
And curs of low degree.
Around from all the neighboring streets,
The wondering neighbors ran,
And swore the dog had loft his wits.
To bite so good a man.
extracted by H. A. J
FOR THE MIRROR.
[BY DR. COLDSMITH.]
FOR THE MIRROR.
THE Btbulet.
SENTIMENTAL MEDLEY.
any further retort to its derivations,
as any other language. For, any
other, in like manner, had derive-^
I tions from, and was composed of,
pre-exifting ones. For instance,
the ancient Latin and Greek, were
so. If it be necessary therefore, to
the good onderftaading of our own
language, that etymology and de
rivation should be explored, to the
root, we must not only know the
Latin and Greek, but we must
know all the pre exiftiog ones, in
the eastern world, through all the
3. This knowledge introduces
ui co the etymology and derivation
of our own language, io far as it
bat been derived from those ; —
which is, in a part very considera
ble ; without which etymology,
our knowledge of our own lan
guage, would not be radical and
complete.
4. It would behighly defedive
in the teachers of our refigion, pot
to ppffefs the original language of
the New Testament, at lead. —
This I have observed reformed to
as a dernier argument.
Argument! againfl. 1. At the
period of youth is short, in which
they can have the advantage of
education, those fubjeas of know
ledge, from the wide field of sci
ence, which are the most ufeful
and necessary, should be taught ;
and those which are not so, should
give way to the other, or be whol
ly omitted. The knowledge of
the ancient languages, to fay no
more, is left ufeful than other fub
je&s of Science. For,
2. Although it was of use, near
the time of the existence and use
of those languages, for translating
the works of the ancient Greeks
and Romani, into English ; yet,
that being now done, their utility,
in a very great measure, ceafei.
3. As the knowledge of things
is of more consequence to man
kind than that of words, by which
they lire delcribed ; so, it is of
more consequence to us, to know
the lignification of the words io our
own language, as it now exists,
than its etymology, or derivation
from the ancient language!: The
lets time which is foent on words,
the more will there be left for the
study of things. Our language
may at well be independent, and
have idioms of its own, without
and especially, petfonalicies mould
be avoided. I have, for one of
your readers, a desire to fee the
question, of the utility of the learn
ed languages being taught io our
feminities, to our youth, undergo
Inch a difeuffioo. I hope the re
sult would be, information and the
public good. Coofideriog myfelf
somewhat incompetent to the de
bate—but, to provoke better pens
on the fubjed, 1 will briefly state
what I view to be the leading ar
guments, for and agaij,ft the pro
position.
Arguments for. I. It is certain
ly ,n article of knowledge, and all
knowledge is ufeful.
2. The knowledge of those lan
guageaenables us to read the Greek
and Roman authors of antiquity,
from whom so much information
and entertainment are derived.
c< TO RAISE THE GENIUS, AND TO MEND THE HEART."
THE
ages up to Babel, A genius might
occupy all his days in this fearcb,
acd of course know nothing else ;
nor, confideriog the mutability of
all human affairs, and the difficulty
of penetrating tar back into PA
times, with accuracy, on litery fub
jeds, would he know but little in
this, bis favorite fubjeft,
4. Our piety or morality cannot
depend on the nice, critical read
ing of a word, or text, in any lan
guage. Our essential duties, in
both these refpeds, are so obvi
ously before us, that " he who
runs, may read ;" — It is to miflake
them costs the pains." It is not
indispensably necessary, therefore,
to him who aims to teach religion
and morality, to possess the anci
ent languages. But, if he has not
Hebrew alfo§ he will be obliged
to take the Old Testament in the
Greek, or feptusgint transition ;
and if he take that, in a tongue,
not the original in which it was
firft written, why not, in like man
ner, take the New Testament in
English tongue ; it will be as near
the original, in Eoglifh, translated
from the Greek, as tte old is, in
Greek, translated from the He
brew.<
5. The order of things will ren
der the objeft, at a certain period,
impracticable and unattainable.—
All human things will change, de
cay, moulder away and disappear ;
and others arise and take their
place. Mutability and progeffion,
are (perhaps the only) fixed quali
ties to all human and terrestrial
things. Where are the languages
of the ancient Egyptians and Chal
deans ? they are as extinct, as the
habitations in which they resided.
Where are Joseph's store-houses,
and old Pharaoh's palaces, in E
gypt? And where the ancient su
perb capital city of the Chaldeans ?
They are no more; neither are
their languages ; and an attempt
to have preserved the one, would
have, doubtless, been as futile and
unavailing, as the other. ? So it
has been, and will be in their turns,
at due periods of time, with all
other languages. Witoefs the de
cay of the Greek and Latin, in its
use with the learned, within our
memory, and the total disuse of
the Hebrew (excepting among the
Jews.) Besides, is it not vain, to
suppose, that after a long lapse of
time, fioce the language was alive,
the Greek we will fay for instance,
the true pronunciation can be re
tained ; an essential article in all
languages. How uncertain, also,
any- ftaadard for an ancient lan
guage, when, from our own expe
rience, we fee how great the altera
tion of the living, English lan
guage, in the Spate of one century
Having observed such remarks
as chefe, on both tides of the fub
jeft, it would please me, to have
some perlon of ability, difcufi the
fobjeft more iarg^y, or, in some
other poibo view, io order that
the question might ,be more Atto
hßorily fettled; whether the con
tinuance of the teaching of the an
cient Latin and Greek, at this per
riod of time, is a ufeful branch of
education ^ It cannot certainly be
a fufficieot matter of recommenda
tion, that it makes our children
barborous and unintelligible to all
who know only English, ortbac
they, or we for them, Ihould exer
cise a pedantic pride, io an acquisi
tion, which, to fay the least, will
be much less tileful, than other
(cientific studies in which they
might be engaged, aad for ob
taining proficiency in which, the
whole time and opportunities they
can have, will be efficiently small.
With the best withes for the im.
provement and happiness of the
rising generation, the public's obe
dient and humble servant,
REFORMATIST,
WHILST we live, let us live well ;
for be a man ever so rich, when
he lights his fire, Death may perhaps en
ter his door before it be burnt out.
Riches pass away like the twinkling of
an eye : of all friends they are the most
inconstant. Flocks perish ; relations
die ; friends are not immortal ; you wilt
die yourfelf ; but I know one thing that
is out of the reach of fate, end that is the
judgment which is passed upon the dead.
Praise the fineness of the day, when it
is ended : Praise a woman when you have
known her; a sword when you have
proved it ; a maiden, after the is marri
ed ; the ice, when you have crossed it ;
and the liquor afterit is drank.
Laugh not st the grey-headed declai
med nor at thy aged grandfire. There
often come forth from the wrinkles of
the skin words full of wifdcm<*i
Never difeover your uneasiness to ans
evil person, for he will afford you nJ
comfort. ,
• He who advocates exploding the dead
languages, would here, nan e f me of
those studies, judged more uftlul, v^z.
Geometry— Trigonometry—its various
applications in the several knds of Sur
veyings and mensurations—Natural Phi
losophy—Anatomy— Geography—As
tronomy—Architecture — Hiftpry — Rhe
toric— Politics—Ecckfiaftic Hiftory, &c.
&c.
'THOSE who are fubje& to
A an absence of mind, are
guilty of such ridiculous ac
tions, and misapplication of
their observations, as fre
quently occasion much, em
barrassment to the company
which they are in. Their
blunders, however, are pro
du&ivc of much laughter.
Moliere was frequently
fubjedt to be abfeht. One
day being in a hurry to get
to the theatre, he hired a
coach to convey him there ;
and as it did not go as sass as
he wished, he got out, placed
himfelf behind the carriage,
and endeavored to push it
forward. He did not perceive
his folly, notwithstanding the
loud and general laughter of
every one that passed. When
he got to the theatre, he was
covered with mud, and abuf-„
ed the coachman for having
such a dirty carriage; nor did
he know of what he had been
guilty, until the coachman,
after laughing until he was
tired, told him.
ABSENCE of MIND.
SELECT SENTENCES.