is deep and lasting. But, in truth, it is not so laborious a task to a boy as it may appear to a parent, or to any other adult, who has had neither experience nor observation in this department. The boy who has been habituated to the task, will learn thirty or forty lines, as an evening exercise, with great ease, and with apparent pleasure. This is really done three or four nights in a week in our best schools. Even those among boys who apprehend quickly, are seldom disposed to reflect much on what they have read, to review the sentiments and the language of their author with attention, or to fix them deeply in their memory. They read a beautiful passage, they understand it; they admire and feel its beauties; but, if they do not studiously commit it to memory, it passes over their minds as a shadow over the earth, and leaves no trace behind. There are many passages in the classics which a polite scholar is expected to have by heart as perfectly as his alphabet. They naturally obtrude themselves in conversation with scholars, they occur on almost every subject, and they are in themselves well worthy of being treasured in the mind for their intrinsic value. To quote passages from authors, is perhaps unfashionable in those circles, where a smooth insipidity of manners precludes every thing which requires an exertion of memory or of imagination; but among persons of the professions, and of a truly liberal education, it is both common and agreeable. Exercises in Latin verse, and in Latin prose, are usual in our best schools, and at the university. They are attended with very desirable effects, and pave the way for improvement in every kind of vernacular composition. Supposing, for a moment, that they have no influence in elevating and refining the taste and imagination; yet to be totally deficient in the power of composing, is a disgrace to those who are destined to support a literary character. But in order to excel in Latin composition, poetical or prosaic, a great number of words and phrases must be collected and laid up in the storehouse of the memory. To effect this purpose, it will not be enough to read the classics; they must be committed to memory at that age which easily admits, and long retains, all impressions which have been once properly enforced. I know of nothing advanced against the established practice of committing passages from the classics to memory, which ought to have weight. It is common to declaim against loading the memory. But what shall be done? The memory of boys in general is abundantly capacious. If it is not filled with valuable furniture, it will be crowded with lumber, it will be the repository of trifles, of vanities, and perhaps of vices. How much more desirable, that it should be stored with fine sentiments and beautiful diction, selected from the noblest writers whom the world ever produced! Honour, spirit, liberality, will be acquired, by committing to memory the thoughts and words of fine writers, of heroes, and of worthies, who eminently shone in every species of excellence. Its effects in polishing and refining the taste, are too obvious to be called in question. There are abundant instances, living as well as dead, of its peculiar influence in embellishing the mind, and giving it a gracefulness which no other ornaments can supply. As soon, therefore, as the latin grammar is perfectly learned by heart, I advise, that the practice of our ancient schools should be universally adopted, and that passages of the best classics, construed as a lesson on the day, should be given as a task to be learned memoriter at night. Habit will render it no less easy than it is beneficial.* ... * I will cite a specimen of the ancient scholastic discipline in France, in which it appears, that great attention was paid to learning the classics by heart. Henry de Mesmes says of himself, "At school I learned to repeat; so that when I went from thence I repeated in public a great deal of Latin, and two thousand Greek verses, made according to my years, and could repeat Homer by heart from one end to the other. ... We rose at four, and, having said our prayers, began our studies at five, with our great books under our arms, and our inkhorns and candlesticks in our hands. For diversion after dinner, we read Sophocles, Euripides, Demosthenes, &c." ROLLIN. This Henry de Mesmes exhibited, in his life, those noble and generous sentiments, which a successful study of the fine writers of Greece and Rome usually inspires. He refused a lucrative place offered him by the king, that he might not supplant a person against whom the king had conceived an unjust displeasure. Rollin, from whom the above example of de Mesmes is taken, may be justly called the Quinctilian of France. I will recommend his Belles Lettres, as a work well calculated to fill the young mind with virtuous sentiments, and at the same time to inspire a love of learning and a classical taste. There is indeed much which might be omitted as useless to an English schoolboy; such as those parts which concern the French universities, and are addressed rather to masters than to scholars. A selection might be made from the very copious assemblage of matter, which, though it might not amount to more than half the quantity of the present work, would form a very desirable abridgment for the use of classical schools. Rollin's Belles Lettres were put into my hands at a very early age, and I have always thought myself greatly indebted to them. REMARKS. THE notice, which the accomplished editor of the London "Classical Journal" has been pleased to take of our first efforts in Latin versification, deserves our acknowledgment. It was "early," and therefore, according to Dr. Johnson, "kind." The hints for the improvement of "the young candidates for poetical fame," appear to be dictated by a spirit of courtesy and candour, and are kindly received. The verses would undoubtedly be improved by the alterations suggested in each of the three instances mentioned. We find however the rule, that "a verse should not begin with a spondee closing the sense," frequently violated by Horace, though he is not considered as the best authority in Heroic verse, viz. B. I. Epist. 1. 97. Rides. 6. 43. Mittam. Sat. II. 7. 70. Possis, and passim. It is occasionally, though rarely, violated by Virgil, as in Buc. I. 24. Noram. V. 21. Flebant, Æn. X. 879. Terres? The position of the enclitic mentioned was evidently an error from inadvertence; as the enclitics are correctly placed in every other instance. The remark that lads. leave school earlier here than they do in England is too true. And so long as parents will remove their sons from school at the age of 14 or 15 years, we must not look for elegance in classical learning. |