2. To enter into its inmost spirit. 8. To discover the great principles of reason and taste upon which its excellences are founded.

But this analytical study can neither be itself carried to perfection, nor, if perfected, would it be of any practical utility, without corresponding synthetical exercises. Analysis and synthesis are the centrifugal and centripetal forces That which impel and direct the mind in its revolution. analysis is dead which does not lead to synthesis; that synthesis is blind, which has not the light of previous analysis. We have but time just to mention some of the synthetical exercises which should accompany the several parts of the analytical study of a Classic. These exercises may be either written or extemporaneous. As a general rule, it is best that they should first be written, that they may have the advantage of greater care and repeated revision; and that afterwards, when habits of strict correctness have been formed, they should be extemporaneous, that they may have greater spirit, and may be less restricted in number and extent than written exercises must be.

Those exercises which correspond to the first part-the analysis of a composition to ascertain its meaning-are translation, interpretation, condensation and paraphrase. In the first of these, translation, the student in the person of the author, expresses his ideas either in a different language, or in a different style of composition in the same language, or by different expressions in a similar style. Thus we may translate Plato from Greek to Latin or to English; Thomson from poetry to prose; and Burke from his own splendid diction to other language, as near, and yet different, as we can give. In the second, interpretation, we explain in our own persons the meaning of the author, without paying any respect to his modes of expression. In condensation, we aim at bringing within a small space the principal ideas which the author had spread over a large surface, that they may be seen at once, both in their individual importance, and in their relations to each other. Paraphrase is the reverse, and extends the ideas over a still greater surface, that they may be examined more minutely. Condensation is the camera obscura, which combines into one view upon its glass all the striking fea

tures of the landscape. Paraphrase is the microscope, which successively and slowly examines each flower, and insect, and mineral that is found upon a hillock in that landscape.

The exercise that corresponds to the second part of the study of the Classics is imitation. This may respect only the general plan of the discourse, or it may extend to the minutest particulars of style and language. In all its varieties it is an exercise of the highest value for the forming intellect, and should on no account be dispensed with, in any course of education. It is absolutely essential for a full assimilation to the mighty spirits we adopt as our

masters.

The exercise that belongs to the third and highest part of classical study, is composition in its purely original form. The reduction of the theory of literature to practice; the embodying, so far as human imperfection will allow, of that idea of perfect truth and beauty, which dwells in the soul. In this we no longer admit any one to be our master. We recognise only the authority of those eternal laws in literature, which are founded in the nature of the human mind.

We have now briefly considered the three great particulars embraced in the study of a Classic, and the three kinds of practical exercise which are indispensable to the completeness of the study; the various forms of interpretation, (for this term in its most extensive sense, will embrace all of the first class) imitation and original composition. I regret, gentlemen, that here the subject must be left. Indeed, we have but just been digging to lay the corner stone. But be it remembered, that if that corner stone has been rightly laid, it is the foundation upon which the study of all literature, ancient and modern, foreign and native, must be built; that if the principles discussed are true, they must be practically introduced, not only into our higher private studies, our colleges and our classical schools, but into all those schools, whatever may be their name or degree, even the humblest, which have for their object not mere mechanical attainment; but, the enlargement, discipline and cultivation of the mind, or in the words of a living poet,

"The building up the being that we are."

Allow me to leave the subject in your hands, in its unfinished state, with the sincere request,

Si quid noris rectius istis

Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.

Permit one word of explanation. Perhaps, from the general mode in which I have treated the subject, discussing those principles only which are common to the study of all great compositions, in whatever language they may have been written, some may infer, that it is my opinion that the same improvement might be derived from the study of the modern classics, or even of our own great authors, as from the study of the Classics, properly so called, the immortal monuments of ancient genius; and that a substitution might be made without injury in our systems of education. I cannot now give the reasons for an opinion, or rather, I should say, a full conviction, directly the reverse. And rather than add any general remarks of my own, I will close with an extract from the very able Report upon the State of Education in Prussia, recently made to the French Minister of Instruction, by the most distinguished living philosopher, a man of equal genius, learning, and candor, the truly great Cousin. His testimony is the more valuable because it cannot have received a tinge from professional predilections, and because it is his public and responsible expression of the result of much reflection and extensive personal observation.

"You, sire," is his language, addressing the minister, "are sufficiently acquainted with my zeal for classical and scientific studies; not only do I think that we must keep up to the plan of study prescribed in our colleges, particularly the philological part of that plan, but I think we ought to raise and extend it; and thus while we maintain our incontestable superiority in the physical and mathematical sciences, endeavor to rival Germany in the solidity of our classical learning. Indeed, classical studies are, without any comparison the most important of all; for their tendency and their object is the knowledge of human nature, which they consider under all its grandest aspects; here, in the languages and the literature of nations which have left indelible traces of their passage on earth; there, in the fruitful vicissitudes of history, constantly remodelling and

constantly improving the frame of society; lastly, in philosophy, which reveals the simplest elements, and the uniform structure of that wonderful being, whose history, language and literature successively invest with forms the most varied, yet all connected with some part, more or less important, of his internal constitution. Classical studies keep alive the sacred tradition of the moral and intellectual life of the human race. To curtail or enfeeble such studies, would in my eyes, be an act of barbarism, a crime against all true and high civilization, and in some sort an act of high treason against humanity."