The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1874-12-10
THE STUDY OF THE CLASSICS.
ARTICLE III.

sesses a thorough knowledge of the Lat
and Greek, has the key by means G
which an easy entrance to the moder
languages may be obtained
In enumerating the many benefit
which accrue from a study such as this
attention should be given to the mora
influence which it exercises over the stu
dent. 1t is the best means of inculca
ting love of literature, and of goo,
reading. 1t acts as a great moral re
straint upon temptations to vice ant
wiekedness. He who is thoroughly i'm
bued with relish for the study, may b,
said to be encased in an armor apains
dissipation and iddleness. The classi,
scholar is proof against ennui, if you will
but surround him with Greek and Latir
literature, or good literature of any kind
1t tends to elevate the soul and refine
the feelings. 1t developes taste for the
arts. 1t enables one to better appreciate
the sciences, and to recognize and set al
Il higher value the beautiful and sub
lime; and thus it is, that we rarely ever
hear Of a good classic scholar becoming
an habitual gamester and sot. From q
study, such as this, the principles imbibed
are too pure to admit of many, who have
drank them in leading a drunkards
life
Again, when it is remembered that
every one, excepting only very few,
who in England has figured upon the
theatre of letters, was more or less pro-
fcient in classic learning, and that all
who attain superiority in it, unanimously
concur in the belief that it developes
every faculty of the mind, and is a great
source of intellectual enjoyment, we are
irresistibly driven to the conclusion that
it should occupy conspicuous place in
the education of youth. 1t may, how
ever, be triumphantly urged that there
have been orators, and statesmen, and
poets, who have made themselves illus
trious, and have been acknowledged by the
world to be men of talent, and great
calibre of mind, who were unacquainted
with any other language than their own.
Yet, it will generally, by investigation,
be found, that such men have had their
efforts centered upon one object alone !;
that they have given indications of ge-
MUS only in that particular department
upon which their irtellects were concen-
trated, and that they are not universal
geniuses. Dante was profound classic
scholar, so was Milton, so was Shakes
peare. 1t is almost as idle and futile to
deny that Shakespeare was a thorough
Greek and Latin scholar, as to assert that
there was never such man. And, al
though there have been men, and men of
ability, too, who have denied the exist
ence of such a man as Shakespeare, yet
their writings have succeeded in estab-
fishing only the nihility Of such Efforts
Saying nothing of his works, which are
evidences in themselves, it is foolish to
deny that the associate and friend of Ben
Jonson, the greatest classic scholar of his
age, was himself one. 1t is said of John
Stuart Mill, that, at the early age of
three years, if my memory does not fail
me, he was well acquainted with the
| Greek verb; and whatever we may think
of his vindication of woman, and his adj
vocacy of woman's suffrage, we cannot
deny the fact that he is Il genius, a uni
versal genius, having once been a mem
Der of the house of parliament, and his
whole writings bearing positive testimony
to this fact And yet I will venture to
assert, that could he be questioned as to
what gave him the greatest stimulus to
thought and study, in fact what taught
him how to think best, he would answer,
my early acquaintance with the classics.
1t appears to me that the reason many
of to-day disregard the study of the clas-
sizes, and that parents so often enjoin their
sons to neglect it, and pay attention to
those branches which they consider more
profitable, is on account of the desire to
give to their children what they term a
practical education. By practical edu-
cation they do not mean a training of
every mental faculty, which, by the way,
is the best practical education, but they
understand by it that education, which
will form the readiest stepping stone to
wealth and opulence. So this end may
be achieved, they care not whether their
sons attain intellectual superiority or not.
Money, give me money! is the cry of
the nineteenth century. The filthy
lucre" is its god, and with idolatrous wor-
ship the people of to-day bow at its
shrine, and offer up libations at its affairs.
If the boarding in of gold is the chief
end Of mans existence; if the Almighty
created him in order that the one object
of his life should be continual endea-
your after this tempting lure, then, hu-
man life is mockery, and the highest
human aspirations are a lie. Then the
devil is, indeed, the author and finisher
of our being, and our best thoughts, our
best motives, and our best actions eman-
ate from him.
III. L. EDWARDS.
Dec. 7th, 1874.
A Republican Congressman EIect