that these colleges are necessary to the qualification of persons intended for the church, this is answered by shewing, that a sufficient degree of previous "learning," or as much as at a college, is acquirable in a provincial school; sufficient, however to enable the candidate to pass the ordeal of the bishop's or his chaplain's examination. But why is so much stress laid on the necessity of laborious study and of much learning, to render men fit teachers of the Christian religion? It no where appears, that either Jesus or his Apostles were learned beyond their native language, which was the Hebrew. or Syriac. And it seems a peculiar sort of inconsistency, that all who are designed to propagate the Gospel of Christ must of necessity prepare themselves by nearly 20 years of stucy into the manners and opinions of pagans, Greeks and Romans, from authors who wrote and died before Christ was born, and who had no expectation nor idea of such a Redeemer. I shall conclude by quoting a noble Englishman and a "scholar," and one who therefore was not "a fox without a tail."The usual studies of those who are called "learned" are but a specious ،، sort of idleness, and the knowledge acquired thereby is but a creditable. ignorance. Such studies may form mere antiquaries and scholars, or prating pedants, but such are not useful.men."-I am, &C. —J, B.—ilion, Feb. 14, 1897. "" LEARNED LANGUAGES." No. 31. SIR,-Of the five parts into which I have supposed the knowledge requisite, in order to a good general education may be divided (see No. 13, p. 477), the doctrines of ancient writers upon those enumerated 2dly and 3dly are either wholly exploded, or are capable of correct translation, and may therefore be acquired without any previous knowledge of the Learned Languages. The parts enumerated 1st and 4thly are closely connected with each other.". To be able rightly to appreciate our own actions, supposes the knowledge of every 'secret spring exciting to them, which in effect amounts to a perfect knowledge of ourselves. The knowledge of ourselves is that standard by which we compare our first observations respecting man; it is upon this knowledge we engraft all the conclusions that we draw from such observations, and the correctness or incorrectness thereof, will therefore materially depend upon its perfectness or im perfectness. But events of which man is the active agent, forcing themselves in quick succession upon our attention, and sometimes involving our safety and our hadpiness, arge us to a search for more exten sive information respecting him. The individual standard we have thus created, is found inadequate to the dispatch we meditate, and we proceed to form a more general standard, viz. we arrange in one general idea the dispositions, the habits, the passions; the restraints, both moral and political, together with every fact and circumstance which we find inseparate from man in the state of civil society, and when we have established these two standards for our guide and correction, we are enabled to proceed with safety in informing ourselves of those peculiar habits, dispositions, passions, restraints moral and political, and of every fact and circumstance, which distinguish individuals and states around us from each other. We take the like method in grounding our conclusions, as we proceed in estimating the effects likely to arise out of these circumstances, as well in regard of those which are general, as of those which are peculiar. And, therefore, we may call the knowledge of ourselves, and the general idea of man in a state of civil society, the theoretical knowledge of mankind, and the knowledge of such variations therefrom, as distinguish individuals and states from each other, the practical knowledge of mankind. The part 5thly enumerated applies to authors and orators. These may be divided into two classes. First, historians, philosophers, lecturers, teachers of moral, political, rhetorical and other rules and precepts. Second, poets, political orators, moral, literary, and other censurers and satyrists. The first always address themselves to the understandings of the world in general, and define their meaning with so much care, as to render it capable of being conveyed to a reader through the medium of any language. The second address themselves also to the understandings in part, but principally to the feelings of a limited number of mankind, under the immediate influence of certain peculiar circumstances, and the language which they make choice of, bears so immediate and constant a reference to, and is (if well adapted) so completely interwoven with those same circumstances, that unless the reader is perfectly acquainted with them, as well as with the relative circumstances of the author himself, he can never become the perfect master of such an author's thoughts and conclusions, nor enter at all into the spirit, the beauty, and the propriety of many of his most material observations. It may be assumed with equal truth respecting authors of this latter class, that unless they possess an extensive Knowledge of the passions, dispositions, opinions, and circumstances distinguishing and peculiarly influencing those whom they ad dressist is about impossible for them to make any lasting impression on their feelings, the agreeable excitation of the former being the only music with which the latter will at all chord or harmonise and hence it appears that this latter knowledge (which in fact forms the principal part of what I have called the practical knowledge of mankind) is the only salient and living source from whence the fundamental parts of all elegant and impressive language in writings, &c. of this latter description can ever flow; by its means, our heart would transfuse and force its own powerful feelings Into the hearts of others, and language is the bed through which the torrent bends its course.-For ac-quiring this practical knowledge of mankind, the assistance we may receive from a know Jedge of the dearned languages, may be measured by the degree of assistance, which the knowledge of them can render us in forming a more correct and extensive general idea of man in a state of civil society, one part of the theoretical knowledge of mankind. This will depend, Ist, how far it is necessary for us to know what was peculiar to Greeks, Romans, &c. in order thereto; 2d, how far that knowledge can be acquired without some knowledge of their respective languages. We can form a general idea of man in a state of civil society, correct and extensive enough for all practical calcula tions without knowing any thing of the Greeks and Romans, by proceeding as I have before pointed out, and assisted by the facts of modern history.But in the writings of their authors we frequently find delineated, scenes of the most exalted fortitude, patriotism, and virtue on the one hand, and scenes of the most depraved treachery, tyranny, and wickedness on the other hand. From these facts the theorist will gain a most extensive view into the human heart, and into the consequences resulting from virtue or depravity carried to such a pitch, and may thereby correct and carry his speculations to a great degree of moral possibility. But the field for such actions was then more unlimit ed than it can ever become again, unless all that has since been discovered can be forgot tem; and, therefore, in applying such speculations to practice, all these variations must be taken into consideration, and if we annex them to our general idea, as something to be deducted from it, we shall have in the mind an unsettled process, rather than a clear conclusion. However, we can acquire that knowledge without the assistance 6.om od team spevynud arcigno to w by of their respective languages. For those facts from which alone such knowledge can cts from truly be collected, are recorded by historians and philosophers only, and their relations are capable of correct translation, and have been translated men of the highest lite rary reputation. cannot become post sessed of it from the writings of poets, poli tical orators, censors, satyrists and others be fore placed in the second class, because the information we are seeking must be known before we can understand those writings. Of what use then may the learned languages be to us? I conjecture the following. They may enable us to distinguish those niceties, if I may so call them, of the genius and the imaginations of ancient writers, as dependupon stile, and pointed and agreeable language, and by rendering us equal to the examination of those niceties, may fit us for one of the most agreeable perhaps of mental relaxations, one which may invigorate and tone the heart and the mind for more exalt-T ed themes and studies. We admire the smallest trifles of ancient magnificence. We must, however, be acquainted with the his-> tory of the original structure to which they were attached, before we can derive from them the pleasure of a connoisseur in we must also have learned all knowledge which can be useful to us in the general concerns of life, before the learned languages can af-, ford us any use or profit, or perhaps any teaki pleasure. N. S. Y.-Sheffield, April 4, 1807. LEARNED LANGUAGES." SIR-I congratulate the times we live in, that they have at length found in you plain dealer, whose doric style of composition bids fair to cure many of us of our false taste for that meretricious mode which prefers the light and ornamental manner to the solid and intelligible.-Your journal is that star in the west propitious of a happy revolution on more than one subject, and to which, if it can preserve its ascendant, all well meaning men must bow; but should it decline behind the influence of corruption, I own, (impudent, arrogant, conceited and scurrilous as your polite and learned correspondents say you are,), it will be difficult to know where to seek for any steadier opponent to despotism either in the political or literary world.As to your polities, they are to me fre frequently a cordial after the horrors which the conduct of our trimming Whigs of our trimming Whigs daily produce in bigaily my nerves; horrors that almost reconcile 501 01 God 2 me to the memory of the apostate Pitt and his northern accomplice: Those wicked creatures yet do look well favoured, "When others' are more wicked-not being worst ❝Stands in some rank of praise."-Shakspeare." Italian, he got to it when full grown like a child, in the country, and yet who is ace customted to take great pleasure in almost daily perusing authors of note both ancient and modern in these tongues; nay, which But what now calls forth my pen, is the is still more abominable, who never regrets desire I entertain, in return for the amuse- his ignorant state, except when compelled ment you have afforded me, to cheer you to read the miserable language of many on in your tally-ho to the learned hounds translators of the classics, whom all their and foxes of both universities; some of floggings, and all their college studies have whom I see already coming out of their not taught to render in accomplished exkennels, shaggy and grim, deep-mouthed, pressions, what they tell us are the works of coarse-grained grammarians, of the genuine the most perfect writers, and to imitate blood of the pedants and the pedagogues; whose style alone they recommend a life of yet who all, as yet, as far as I can judge, study! From these, of course, I except are upon a cold scent with hot noses; Sydenham's Plato, Colman's Terence, and particularly your rugged old doer into a few similar performances, for no one wilb English of Mulus (p. 304) who so kindly in- deny that, as far as the gratification of our forms you, and me, and all your readers, taste in stile goes, nothing can be more that there were such men as the Bacons, mortifying than to satisfy our curiosity. on Newton, Locke, &c. who were good Latin the subject of this entertaining part of antischolars, with his ergo, that a Greek and quarian knowledge at the expence of the ear, Latin scholar must be a good thing. The which we must do, under tortures, if wei correct dramatic figure, however, that he would examine only in translacion how nears insensibly makes of himself, must be allow- Varro approached to the experience of some ed to be a valuable portrait, and may, in of our common Farmers of this day, or in the hands of a man of wit, be the future half the doers of the Poets of antiquity seek source of much harmless sport. I think, either for poetry or sense. When, therefore, for my part, when he apostrophises you, we see how little effect this knowledge of I see his 'everlasting wig trembling on its their styles has produced even on the best horrific block, and but that I conceive it taught, and ablest heads, I must confess I would be ungenerous to rob you of the run should think I did my son an injury to con be is destined to afford your course-mettled demn him to the drudgery, and vice, and hunter, I could find in my heart a wish to the murder of time, that 8 years passed at begin the hark- forward, at once. But this either Eton or Westminster to attain being, I am sure, an old fox with a famous them must include; not to speak of that bushy tail, of the right red herring smell, decomposition of morals, and contempt of and not likely ever to lose his brush, I sup. religion that usually accompanies the experi-o pose you would like to keep him for your ment.-As to the real knowledge they be... March meeting, when you take the field in stow, when it is by solid argument proved to style.-Of your other correspondents on me, that Shakespeare could not have created the subject of the challenge I forbear to his dramatic scenes, without the immedi speak, as some of them are not high game ate aid of the Learned Languages, that others have I think misunderstood you, as to Milton's prose is the better constructed for the period at which you place the non-necessity his knowledge of them, or that even Goldof Latin and Greek. But what I mean to say is smith's Deserted Village owes its charms to simply this, that you have in me that rare their assistance, which he could not as well monster, so long sought by your dead-lan- have derived from a hundred other sources; guaged correspondent. M. S., (p. 299) viz. then I shall begin to think them absolutely a genuine For without a Latin tail, or even necessary to all writers, and that we must a Grecian hair to cover his naked poll, yet be dumb without their influence: But as > who contrives to think and write almost things are, no man can make me believe daily, on some subject or other that he that ideas are the more precious from being conceives to be of importance to himself or d derived immediately from a foreign idiom, mankind; and, what is still more extraordi- even although the language we take them nary, has never since he was born looked from be at its utmost perfection, according to into any grammar, except having, when a the notions of its own grammarians; for ideas child, by rote learned a few French exer- being originated from things known.com: cises without learning the language; after-pared with things related and possible, wards, when learning the language I conceive in the present state of signs for without the ; while as to the ideas, our copious language must be more grammar; than sufficient to enable us to explain living. Yes, we see, indeed, where they do - qnire a stock of ideas, which his natural taste enabled him to appreciate according to their value; also a close observer of manners and the human heart, who well knew that we are all much alike, only differently dis guised as to our feelings and failings; and I cannot help thinking that he owed his noble and almost divine style to his good ear and profound knowledge of the whole of our language, selecting from the stores, of his memory always such words as uniting sound and sense were best calculated to impress his robust thoughts. To go further into this subject would demand a volume rather than an essay. I shall therefore leave others to pursue the train, and also forbear to add a hundred other reasons,why mere Greek or Latin scholars must, whe ther they will or not, be half of them pedants or ignoramuses on many subjects, while the general reader of English authors cannot fail to be saturated with informa. tion for since men can only think in one language, the better they are acquainted with the dead ones, the less readily they compose in the living; and this I believe to be tha genuine reason why we have amongst those who by courtesy are called good scholars, so few who compose profitable and original works, who write in a good style, or who join in any conversation with intelligence on the subject of practical improvements in the arts of life, or general economy. Sir, A FOX, WITHOUT A LATIN TAIL. Keynsham, near Bristol, March 1, 1807. LEARNED LANGUAGES." -I am are upon the whole more productive of beneficial ends, or that can more easily be applied to useful purposes; and it is in this point of view that I regard the study of the learned languages as a very insignificant pursuit. Men are perpetually reducing themselves and others into erroneous principles by judging of things not according to their intrinsic or comparative value; but in con formity to the opinion that is formed of them by the world, and that seems in its omnipotence to have decreed that whatever is scarce is valuable, however destitute it may be of utility; and to this circumstance it is, that I in a great degree attribute the impor-tance which is by so many attached to a proficiency in the learned languages. We are indeed triumphantly informed by some of these gentlemen, that the study of moral science was no where pursued to such, an extent or with so much success, as by the sages of Greece and Rome; and that the discovery and dispersion of ancient manuscripts drew Europe from the sink of barbarism into which it had been plunged for so many ages; but, because these manu scripts contained moral and scientific knowledge, elaborate reasoning and curious dis tinctions and disquisitions to which the people of these dark and ignorant times were utter strangers, are we, therefore, warranted to conclude, that at this enlightened period they must necessarily be of inestimable importance to us; to us, who have elegant and discriminating, writers in our own language, upon every subject that can warmthe imagination, interest the heart, ameliorate the character or dignify the mind. I am disposed to believe that there is not an idea in any of the works of the ancient authors but what may be met with in, the writings of our own countrymen; or I think one solitary instance would have been adduced by the advocates on the other side of the question; but, supposing it were otherwise, and it could be proved that the books of the ancients contained a certained species' or degree of knowledge which was not to be found in the living languages, this cin cumstance would by no means establish the SIR; -I have long been impressed with the truth of your assertion, that in general -education, the learned languages as they are called, are worse than useless, and that they operate as a bar to real knowledge; and so decided is my opinion on the subject, that I cannot but feel astonishment at the number of those persons, who have seriously come forward to oppose it. That a certain kind of good is connected with the study of languages no one will deny, who is aware that to every species of pursuit, advantages, and advantages peculiar to itself, are attached.truth of the assertion, that the knowledge In the present order of things, we are strangers to evil unaccompanied with good, and equally so to good unadulterated with evil, so that when we say of a thing that it is good we only mean that it is comparatively so; or if we affirm that it is evil, wedo not mean to convey the idea, that it is in its own nature totally destitute of every thing that is valuable, but that we estimate it as worth less if put in competition with others which of the dead languages must be productive of real advantage to us, unless it could also be proved that it was impossible to convey it to the mind of any but a linguist; and even if that were the case, that the time and industry expended in the search after the hidden mystery could not have been more use. fully employed for such are the limited powers and faculties of man, that no one can possess himself in an eminent degree of |