History made upon her mind been known. to an able preceptor, it might have been corrected in her early education. When she was led to execution, she exclaimed, as she passed the statue of Liberty, “Oh, Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy "name!"*

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Formerly it was wisely said, "Tell me "what company a man keeps, and I will tell "you what he is;" but since literature has spread a new influence over the world, we must add, "Tell me what company a man "has kept, and what books he has read, and "I will tell you what he is."

A

* "Oh Liberté, que de forfaits on commet en ton nom!" V. Appel à l'Impartielle Postérité.

CHAPTER XIII.

ON GRAMMAR AND CLASSICAL

LITERATURE.

As long as gentlemen feel a deficiency in their own education, when they have not a competent knowledge of the learned languages, so long must a parent be anxious that his son should not be exposed to the mortification of appearing inferior to others of his own rank. It is in vain to urge, that language is only the key to science; that the names of things are not the things themselves; that many of the words in our own language convey scarcely any or at best but imperfect ideas; that the true genius, pronunciation, melody, and idiom of Greek, are unknown to the best scholars, and that it cannot reasonably be doubted, that if Homer or Xenophon were to hear their works read by a professor of Greek, they would mistake them for the sounds of an

unknown language. All this is true, but it is not the ambition of a gentleman to read Greek like an ancient Grecian, but to understand it as well as the generality of his contemporaries; to know whence the terms of most sciences are derived, and to be able, in some degree, to trace the progress of mankind in knowledge and refinement, by examining the extent and combination of their different vocabularies.

In some professions Greek is necessary; in all a certain proficiency in Latin is indispensable; how, therefore, to acquire this proficiency in the one, and a sufficient knowledge of the other, with the least labour, the least waste of time, and the least danger to the understanding, is the material question. Some school-masters would add, that we must expedite the business as much as possible; of this we may be permitted to doubt. Festina lente is one of the most judicious maxims in education, and those who have sufficient strength of mind to adhere to it, will find themselves at the goal, when their competitors, after all their bustle, are panting for breath, or lashing their restive steeds. We see some untutored children start for

ward in learning with rapidity: they seem to acquire knowledge at the very time it is wanted, as if by intuition; whilst others, with whom infinite pains have been taken, continue in dull ignorance: or, having accumulated a mass of learning, are utterly at a loss how to display, or how to use, their treasures. What is the reason of this phenomenon? and to which class of children would a parent wish his son to belong? In a certain number of years, after having spent eight hours a day in "durance vile," by the influence of bodily fear, or by the infliction of bodily punishment, a regiment of boys may be drilled by an indefatigable usher into what are called scholars; but, perhaps, in the whole regiment, not one shall ever distinguish himself, or ever emerge from the ranks. Can it be necessary to spend so many years, so many of the best years of life, in toil and misery? We shall calculate the waste of time which arises from the study of ill-written, absurd grammar, and exercise-books; from the habits of idleness contracted by school-boys; and from the custom of allowing holidays to young students; and we shall compare the result

of this calculation with the time really necessary for the attainment of the same quantity of classical knowledge by rational methods. We do not enter into this comparison with any invidious intention, but simply to quiet the apprehensions of parents; to show them the possibility of their children's attaining a certain portion of learning within a given number of years, without the sacrifice of health, happiness, or the general powers of the understanding.

At all events, may we not begin by imploring the assistance of some able and friendly hand to reform the present generation of grammars and school-books? For instance, is it indispensably necessary that a boy of seven years old should learn by rote, that "relative sentences are independent; "i. e. no word in a relative sentence is governed either of verb, or adjective, that "stand in another sentence, or depends

upon any appurtenances of the relative; and that the English word That' is always a "relative when it may be turned into which "in good sense, which must be tried by "reading over the English sentence warily, "and judging how the sentence will bear