WRITINGS

OF

HUGH SWINTON LEGARÉ.

CLASSICAL LEARNING.*

1. An Address on the Character and Objects of Science, and especially on the influence of the Reformation on the Science and Literature, past, present and future, of Protestant Nations; delivered in the First Presbyterian Church, on Wednesday, the 9th of May, being the Anniversary of the Literary and Philosophical Society of South-Carolina. By THOMAS S. GRIMKE. 8vo. Charleston. Miller. 1827.

2. An Address, delivered before the South-Carolina Society, on the occasion of opening their Male Academy, on the 2d July, 1827. By Wм. GEO. READ, Principal of the same. 8vo. Charleston. Miller. 1827.

3. Inaugural Discourse, delivered in Trinity Church, Geneva, New-York, August 1st, 1827. By the Rev. JASPER ADAMS, President of Geneva College. Geneva. 1827.

WE Americans take nothing for granted-except, indeed, as it would appear from the tone of some recent publications-the immeasurable superiority of those who have lived to see this "Age of Reason," over all that have not been so fortunate. With this exception, however, (since we must needs consider it as such,) all postulates are rigorously excluded from our most approved systems of logic-and when, in the fulness of time, those mathematicians shall rise up amongst us, who, according to a cheering prophecy of Mr. Grimké, are to throw into the shade, as intellectual beings, the Newtons and the La Places, no less than the

[The reprint of this and the following articles, from the "Southern Review," is made from a bound copy of that work, which belonged to Mr. Legaré, and which was revised by him, as indicated by frequent notes, penned or pencilled by him, on the margin or at the foot of the several numbers. We shall indiVOL. 11.-1

Euclids and the Apollonius,' we shall scarcely be satisfied with their improvements in geometry, unless they begin by demonstrating its axioms.* We take up all questions de novo, and treat every subject of general speculation and philosophy, no matter how frequently and fully discussed, or how solemnly decided elsewhere, as what is called at the bar res integra, that is to say, as fair game for criticism and controversy. Besides this, we may be permitted to observe, while we are upon this topic, that the pleasant exhortation, mon ami, commence par le commencement, seems to have been made expressly for our use. We are for coming out on all occasions, not only with the truth, but the whole truth, and seem utterly unable to comprehend the reason of that peevish rule,

Nec reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri,

Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo. For instance, it would not surprise us much if a member of Congress from one of the more enlightened, because less ancient and prejudiced States, should introduce a speech upon the Colonial Trade by a "brief" account of Columbus and his discoveries, as it is every day's experience to see even our leading politicians lay hold of the most casual and ordinary questions of commerce and finance, to spout whole volumes of the merest rudiments and generalities of political economy. There are some people, we dare say, in this censorious world, who would be apt to consider all this as outrageously rational; but, perhaps, after all, it will not do in so new a country to adopt old ideas and assume established truths-and no one, we humbly conceive, can address the American public with effect, who is not himself patient enough to begin at the very beginning, and to accommodate his mode of discussion to this decided national predilection for elementary inquiry, and regular and exact demonstration according to the utmost rigour of the logical forms.

We have thought it advisable to premise thus much, at the very outset of our critical labors, by way of preventive apology,

cate these marginal notes by enclosing them in brackets. On a blank leaf of the first volume are the following remarks and quotations in pencil: ["As this volume has many typographical errors, the reader must let Martial speak for us all:

'Si qua videbuntur chartis tibi, lector, in istis,

Sive obscura nimis, sive latina parum ;

Non meus est error; nocuit librarius illis,

Dum properat versus annumerare tibi.'-i. 2. Epig. 8.

But if we complain, what must it have been before printing was invented. ‘De latinis' vero, says Cicero, 'quo me vertam, nescio; ita mendose et scribuntur et veneunt.' Epist. ad Quintum Frat. 1. 3. b. Epist. 5. Cf. Aul. Gell. 1. II. c. 14., et passim. Strabo. 1. 13. A. Gell. 1. 20. c. 6."]

*[*

*

Nondum tritis nostrorum hominum auribus nec erudità civitate tolerabiles (loci inanes). Cic. de Orat.]

so to speak, for the manner in which we shall find ourselves constrained to examine many matters that are considered in other countries as quite settled. For instance, a formal discussion at this time of day, of the comparative merits of the ancients and moderns, and the advantages of a classical education, would be set down in England by the side of that notable argument to prove, that a general can do nothing without troops, of which Cicero, if we mistake not, has somewhere made such honorable mention. But what might there very properly be rejected as supererogation, or even quizzed as downright twaddling, (to borrow a phrase from an English magazine) may be imperiously called for by the state of public opinion on this side of the Atlantic. The Edinburgh Review, in an able and elaborate article on Cobbett's writings, despatched his opinions upon the subject now before us in a summary and sweeping denunciation, as "his trash about the learned languages." But what shall we say, when in the midst of a society, once distinguished above all others in this country by these very attainments,† a gentleman having so many and such high claims to our respect, as Mr. Grimké, declares it to be his solemn conviction-and that too, founded, as he assures us, upon the fullest and fairest experiment that they are absolutely good for nothing. Nor does that gentleman stand alone. We have frequently heard the same opinions expressed by persons of scarcely less authority and influence in the southern states, to say nothing of occasional essays in the newspapers and periodicals, and discourses before the philosophical and literary societies of other cities. It is quite impossible, therefore, we apprehend, however strongly inclined we might be to do

[II. Off. 5. Panatius, of whom Cicero says, "utitur, in re non dubia, testibus non necessariis."]

+ Before and just after the Revolution, many, perhaps it would be more accurate to say most, of our youth of opulent families, were educated at English schools and universities. There can be no doubt their attainments in polite literature were very far superior to those of their contemporaries at the north, and the standard of scholarship, in Charleston was, consequently, much higher than in any other city on the continent. We have still amongst us a venerable relic of that cultivated and heroic age, whom we may single out without an invidious distinction, and to whom we gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity to offer a tribute justly due to such a union, in one accomplished character, of the patriot, the gentleman, and the scholar-of the loftiest virtue, exercised in all the important offices and trying conflicts of life, with whatever is most amiable and winning in social habitudes, in polished manners and elegant taste. To add that he is now crowning the honors of his useful and blameless life, with a blessed and venerated old age, is only to say, that he has received the sure reward purè et eleganter actæ ætatis. But there is something melancholy in the reflection, that the race of such men is passing away, and that our youth are now taught to form themselves upon other models. These improvements, with so many more, are beginning to spring up and blossom with great freshness and luxuriance about the favoured city of Boston-our Western Florence, in which industry has been the willing tributary of letters and the arts, and which is, throughout all its institutions, its character and its pursuits, one great monument of what commerce has done to civilize and adorn life.

so, to consider the instance before us as a mere sporadic case, deserving, indeed, on account of its peculiarly aggravated symptoms, to be remarked and recorded as a striking phenomenon in its kind, but not calculated to excite any alarm from its supposed connexion with the state of the atmosphere, or its probable effects upon the general health of the vicinage. We do believe, on the contrary, that this grievous malady is rapidly becoming epidemical, and that it behoves all, who, with us, think it a matter of serious public concernment, that its progress should be arrested, to apply the most efficacious remedies, and adopt all necessary precautions with the least possible delay.

As our observations will be chiefly confined to such parts only of the three discourses named at the head of this article, as relate to the study of the classics, it will, of course, be unnecessary to enter into any thing like a detailed analysis of them. We will briefly state, that the first in the order of time was Mr. Grimké's, which was delivered at the last anniversary of the Literary and Philosophical Society of this city; and that its principal object seems to be, to make out, by a comprehensive survey of the history of the human mind, the two following propositions :First, "that more has been done in three centuries by the Protestants, in the profound and comprehensive, the exact, rational and liberal development, culture and application of every valuable department of knowledge, both theoretical and practical, than has been done by all the rest of the world, both ancient and modern, since the days of Lycurgus," (page 50); and, secondly, "that in every department of knowledge, whether theoretical or practical, where thinking and reasoning are the means and the criterion of excellence, our country must, if there be truth and power in the principles of the Reformation, (and that there is, no man entertains so little doubt as Mr. Grimké) surpass every people that ever existed," (page 65). To establish and illustrate these propositions, our author has certainly spared no pains. Beginning at a period not more recent than the creation itself, he pries into the secret recesses of the garden of Eden, and speculates about the branches of science, with which it were most reasonable to suppose that its happy inmates were particularly conversant. He has not, therefore, gone quite so far as the Rabbins, who ascribe to the first man the perfection of all knowledge and wisdom; and among whom, "as learned as Adam," is a proverbial saying. We will just remark in passing, that his notions of these primitive and paradisiacal accomplishments reminded us, a good deal, of a grave disquisition in Dante's Tractate de Vulgari Eloquio; in which the Father of modern poetry has endeavoured to shew, that Adam spoke, or must have spoken, or should have spoken before Eve-that his first word was Eli or Eloi-and his mother tongue (if it is not a