meaning, illustrate it by examples and by frequent repetition, and show its bearings, its limits, and the exceptions. It must then be committed to memory by the pupil; and in this the greatest accuracy and strictest adherence to the words of the book must be required; for confusion and uncertainty follow, if the pupil be allowed to substitute expressions of his own. The first school books used in the study of every language are arranged by the Germans on this principle. With us, those of French and Spanish are so, at least in regard to the writing of exercises, and the teachers are able to say, with how great advantage. For the study of Greek, such an elementary work has been prepared by Professor Jacobs, of Gotha, and expressly adapted to the Grammar, which Professor Everett has translated. This is already announced as on the eve of being published, and will much facilitate the study of Greek, by conducting the learner methodically from the simplest union of subject and predicate, to the full harmony and variety of the Attic periods.

When the pupil has thus become acquainted with the accidence and the syntax, and learnt their application from a judicious selection, like that of Jacobs, he should at once be introduced to Homer. The Odyssey contains a variety of stories, well suited to interest and delight the boyish mind, to teach lessons of prudence and virtue, and awaken a taste for learning and literary pleasures. When we consider the influence of the Chian bard on the characters of men, the brave and disinterested spirit, which he gave to his countrymen, the many poets that have caught their inspiration from him, the critics that have become conversant with beauty and sublimity through his works, the artists, who, from the days of Phidias to our own, have found in his immortal inventions the best subjects to employ the chisel, we cannot but wish, that the works, which have produced such glorious fruits wherever they have been cherished, should be studied, and understood, and valued by our young countrymen. long as bravery and perseverance shall be honored, so long as the relations of family and friendship shall be acknowledged, so long as the mild and gentle affections shall be esteemed the best safeguards against the haughty actions of men, so long as liberty shall be prized and defended, the poems of Homer will awaken sympathy and admiration.

So

They present as a mirror the purest qualities of our nature, and since their beauties rest on the true delineations of the human passions, working within the mind, or expressed in action, they have been welcomed by every age and every nation, and are hardly less grateful to the innocence of boyhood, than to the maturity of scholarship.

Herodotus, too, will have charms for the youngest; for he unites an almost childish simplicity with an acute and inquisitive mind, a manly love of liberty, and the accuracy of a discriminating historian. In our schools and colleges we are already accustomed to read extracts from this delightful writer; but we do not read enough, nor the proper parts. Nothing better can be read in the years when the deepest impressions are made, than the original history of the Grecian victories, which began at Marathon. We should not entertain the young students with the fables, which are scattered through the first books of Herodotus, but direct him to the more inspiring matters of fact, which are contained in Erato and the three following Muses.*

There is one other author we would willingly put into the hands of the young student, who desires to become acquainted with the spirit no less than the character of the Greeks; we mean the elegant biographer of the heroes and statesmen of antiquity. Plutarch, under the disguise of translations, has gained a place in almost every modern library, and though our English version of his Lives is deficient in spirit, he still seizes on the attention, and is read with delight. It seems established by universal consent, that he is much to be recommended; and if the Attic dialect is really to be taught, why should not this eloquent moralist be presented to the young in the polished elegance of his native language?

By the study of the authors we have named, the learner will receive no impressions but those, which are favorable to virtue and liberty; and he will have become so far possessed of the idioms and syntax of the Greek tongue, as to be able to understand the tragedians. Thucydides is so much of a rhetorician, that he will serve as the best author, preparatory

The history of the first invasion of Darius commences at the 94th section of the sixth book. No better school book for the Greek language can be put into the hands of the young, than might be made of the residue of this book and the three following, which constitute the history of the wars with Persia New Series, No. 17.

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to the study of the orators. The diligent will soon master the difficulties of his style, and enjoy his strength, his eloquence, his rapid narration, and his skill in estimating the motives of action, and delineating the characters of men.

But after all, the choice of authors should in a great measure be left to the instructer, who, if he knows his business as a teacher, and understands his branch, will best be able to select those, suited to the capacity of his pupils, and calculated to excite an interest in the study of Greek letters. It is our misfortune, that we confine the attention of all to the same dull round of elementary books, instead of introducing them to the Grecian Muse herself. Our youth have the means of contemplating solitary fragments, but not of learning to admire the symmetry of a perfect whole. We instruct in a few compilations, and leave the great body of Greek literature to remain unknown, or to make friends for itself. We are in consequence exposed to many evils; while some regard with undue admiration everything that is ancient, others depreciate the whole study of classic literature, and declare it of no practical value, because little profit has thus far resulted from the imperfect methods, by which it has been pursued. It is an intimate acquaintance with the Grecian literature, which will prove useful and pleasant. We must grasp at the forms, which are seen floating at a distance in shadowy sublimity, and hold them fast, till they assume distinct shapes and intelligible voices. The Attic Muse delights and instructs as a bosom friend, when close acquaintance has worn away all that is foreign in her air, when she admits us to her confidence, and shows us by what arts she has gained her perennial youth and beauty.

ART. VI.-Ali Hissas di Tepeleni, Bassà di Jannina; Prospetto storico e politico del Sig. Malte-Brun.* In the Florence Antologia. 1821.

FRUITFUL as this age has been of extraordinary men, the individual, of whom we now propose to give an account, is

* We have not been able to see this sketch in the original French.

one of the most remarkable, which it has produced. If, in estimating the characters of distinguished barbarians, we ought not apply to them the severe rules of morality by which civilized heroes and statesmen are judged, still less ought we, in tracing the rise from obscurity to eminence of an individual like Ali Pacha, forget that he owed everything to the force of his own character, in a far more literal sense, than those who rise from obscurity to eminence in civilized countries. A security of private rights protects every one in the exercise and application of his powers, however high the aim he may propose to himself. In a country like Turkey, superior talent is an offence against the government monopoly of all the means of influence. In most of the civilized countries of the world, there is a certain authorized path from any station, however low, to almost every point of honor and trust. In Turkey, favor and intrigue do all, and the cabals of the seraglio govern the empire, to the exclusion of every kind of rational politics. The only counterpoise to these cabals is the insolent spirit of the janisaries, itself an engine as uncertain and capricious in its operation, as that against which it affords the only check.

In this state of things, to rise like Ali Pacha, from an humble station in society, to a power far greater than that of several crowned heads of Europe; and to acquire and maintain this power by a series of successful enterprises for more than sixty years, without any particularly favorable external circumstances, and by the sole energy of character and fertility of personal resources, argue a truly great man. That the crimes of barbarous society,-cruelty, assassination, oppression in all its forms, and jealous despotic interference with individual rights must be numbered among his resources, is true. But we firmly believe, that the cruelties of Ali Pacha have been much exaggerated; that tales have been positively related of him, which, if they cannot be proved false, are such as could not be proved true, nor even rendered probable by any evidence; and that finally, Ali Pacha lived among those, who could probably be ruled in no better way.

In the year 1819, the road leading from the sea coast of Albania opposite to Corfu up to Yanina, was perfectly safe for unarmed travellers, by day or by night. Ten years before, that road was made wholly impassable, by the robbers

who infested it, and according to the remark of Ali Pacha himself, he could not have traversed it with all his armies. No one can suppose, that to reduce tribes of warrior shepherds, men, who feed their flocks and pasture their herds, with daggers in their belts and guns over their shoulders, from a perfectly lawless state to one of perfect submission to government, and to do this in the space of a few years, is the achievement of a mild and paternal government. It was not to be brought about by distributing tracts, promulgating codes of law, or introducing the trial by jury. The evil required such a violent remedy, as can only be found in other different but violent evils. Without intending to disguise one of the dark shades of Ali's character, we only express the opinion, that the vices of his religion, of his race, of his country, and in a word of the whole state of society in which he lived, may account for some portion of what is usually charged upon him, as personal crimes.

One more preliminary remark we beg leave to make. The authority for minute details of the lives of men in barbarous countries must often be extremely questionable. The want of the art of printing prevents the circulation of contemporary information, by the thousand channels of the periodical press. Recollection and tradition must be depended upon, farther than is warranted by the nature of those sources of evidence. The impartial reader must therefore bear in mind the medium, through which the statements laid before him have passed. The account we propose to give of Ali Pacha will be borrowed in a great measure from the late work of M. Pouqueville, who was for a long time the consul of France at Yanina; from the Travels of Mr Hughes, and from the Memoir of Malte-Brun, named at the head of our article, which is itself chiefly drawn from Pouqueville and the Travels of Mr Hughes. For the events of the last year of Ali's life, we have also had recourse to the French Annuaire, and the files of the continental newspapers.

Pouqueville certainly possessed the greatest opportunities for obtaining information. Long residence in the country and official access to Ali, must have put it in his power to collect, to observe, and to hear much, which would escape a traveller. Nevertheless, M. Pouqueville writes in a tone far too passionate to prepossess us in his favor. He vilifies Ali