Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1830-02-16
FOR THE LANCASTER GAZETTE.
CLASSICAL LITERATURE.
CoLlegisse J,tuat.--HoI

CLASSICAL LTTERATURE.- 4
CoIlegisse JtUat.-HoR.
To goto College is of use.-LINK. FTP.
MEssRs. EDIToRs-The writers of Our
Opinions" No. Ia, have, as usual, givenyour
readers very well written and temperate
article. which demands reply, if not to re-
move wrong impressions, yet certainly from
the Importance of the subject. 1t seems to
me that wrong premises have been assumed,
and, of course, wrong deductions drawn.
Are the classicks mistaken for the end, and
not the means of knowledge We believe
the writer, in laying down this affirmative
proposition, has gone farther than thewarm-
est opposers of Classical Literature. Is it
built upon facts? Though it may require a
lifetime completely to master the Language
es, how many can be adduced who make
them the end of existence, the end of all
knowledge. had almost said, not one in
million. True, Germany numbers some
who have consumed almost lifetime in
commenting upon Greek particles. But she
is single exception. Does he infer the
classicks are the end of all knowledge, be-
cause there are three or four years spent in
preparing for College, and as many more
perhaps in College? This is not the shad-
ow of proof. 1t is to be remembered that
when one has completed his collegiate edu-
cation, he has, in fact, but laid the ground
work of education, mingled, as other studies
are, with the classcks. Thus far his edu-
cation has been strictly liberal. It has been,
as the word implies, of such character as
to fit him for euery situation. He then may
commence professional education, or he may
be farmer or merchant. He may turn his
mind to whatever he chooses. The pedes-
tai and base have been laid, and the column
may be of the Doric, Ionic, or Tuscan order.
think there is not proof from fact and OBJ
,servatlon, to support the proposition; but the
reverse of it seems true, that the classicks are
made the means Of acquiring knowledge.
That knowledge may be acquired and impart-
ed, the faculties of the mind must not be DOR
mant. 1t must be thoroughly disciplined !;
there must be, if may SO speak, balance,
an equilibrium preserved, its energies must
be reused and kept active different ways,
yet all combining to form true equilibrium.
But the classicks will not do this alone, nor
mathematics alone, or any thing else,
whether resting on demonstrative or other
evidence, without the aid of something else.
The classicks, the study of language, its
elements, combinations. and infections are
considered by the most competent judges,
if not by universal consent, to be one of the
best instruments in effecting mental disci-
pine. This, with others, is used as best ex-
ercising the powers, acting and acted upon,
leading the mind to anayze and trace things
to their source, to weigh and examine. This
disciplining the powers is the first step in a
SUPERIOR education, and leads naturally to
an acquaintance with the leading principles
of the great objects of human investigation,
and knowledge of facts. In proportion to
the extent of this mental discipline, new
truths will arise, and knowledge will spread,
from the continual action and reaction of
mind. We say nothing here of the prefer
ence to be given to the classicks, as being
interviewer into our language and literature,
apart from the mental discipline they furnish.
We cannot forbear mentioning in this con-
nectioD fact, illustrative of the value of the
ancient languages as mental exercise,
which has been frequently proved. If in a
school half of the pupils study English
branches exclusively, and the other hall
study them in connection with the languages,
the latter will not only make fair profcien-
cy in the languages, but will outstrip the
former in the English branches to which
they are attending exclusively.
The writer asserts that the worshippers
of the classicks initiate the ancients, yel
deride the nature which. they follow. This
is great mistake. Thatwe initiate the an
clients, is allowed; but it is second hand
imitation not with the sole purpose of initial
ing them, but, copying as they did from liv.
ing subjects, to take them as the best guide:
and interpreters to read Nature herself; no
to deride her to attain nearer perfection by
the comparison. In this sense we ..imitate
their language, as being the best models o
the perfection to which language can arrive
as showing US how thought and mind car
be most beautifully and eloquently unfoldet
and expressed. That we initiate the an