that this people had been taught exclusively,
by these writers, that whatever was beauti-
ful in their language, or mode of composi
tion, were entirely derived from this source,
what, in such circumstances, would you
think if some of those ready made scholars
inflated with a little learning, and a little
learning you know is a dangerous thing,
should set up for themselves, commence a
new plan of education, study no language,
but their own, despise their old masters and
swear the language of their teachers was
mere jargon and ought to be abolished; what
would be your indignation, what your con-
tempt! I smile to think what a lashing you
would give them; but, perhaps, you will
say the case is not applicable; it is perfectly
so if I am understood, but lest I should
render more obscure by a defective illustra
tion, a subject already sufficiently obvious,
I drop the allusion and return to my theme.
Is the Greek and Latin a barbarous jargon?
ye, illustrous shades, of those revered
names to which I have just alluded, what
apology shall I make to you, who living
devoted all your time and talents to the
study of those ancient worthies, whom
you reverenced with such enthusiasm and
whom you always owned to be the masters
from whom you had learnt whatever most
had made you the admiration and delight of
your countrymen! How silly, how super-
fluous, seems the attempt to prove that
Homer and Virgil, Demosthenes and Cicero,
Herodotus and Livy, Xenophon and Cesar,
and the numerous list of most admirable
writers in both languages, by whom ye
have been instructed, were neither barba-
rians or wrote in a barbarous language.
But, perhaps, I fight my own shadow, it is
only the language of Quacks you con-
demn, the gallipot phrases, the monkish
mummery'-No, Mr. Cobbett, I know
you are too candid to attempt to escape by
You have completely
an equivocation.
committed yourself. You say, besides the
many epithets expressive of the most sove-
reign contempt for learning and learned men,
"what are called the learned languages,
are falsely so called. Our own language
indeed, not many years ago, might with little
injustice be called a barbarous lingo. It was
then incapable of any thing in dignified
composition either in history or poetry: not
so much, indeed, on account of a deficiency
of words as chiefly on account of the want
of all construction, order, and grammar.
The learned Buchanan wrote his history and
many most elegant and classical poems in
Latin, solely because the English language
was literally too barbarous for his purpose;
and most of our books of that time, however

satisfy himself and prove to the world that
we have no innate ideas, and that all our
impressions are received through the me-
dium of the senses, he took a blind man, a
man born blind, and tried, with all the force
of his ingenious mind, to give him an idea of
scarlet: so after much pains, many argu-
ments and examples, the blind man exclaim-
ed in a rapture, "O! I understand it now,
"it is just like the sound of a trumpet."
So, in this case, arguments are useless;
the weapons of the learned are much too
fine, and I know of none but that of ridi-
cule, which he himself, in this instance,
uses, both for shield and spear, that can be
used with effect against such an antagonist
as Paine. But, Mr. Cobbett, I do not
mean that you should receive no other re-
ply. I am, indeed, very far from thinking
that you are a fit person to be laughed at.
That you are able to adduce several argu-
ments which would seem more than plausi-
ble to most mere English readers; that
you are even persuaded that the English
language is now fully sufficient for commu-
nicating every thought of the humau mind—
which, by the by, you have already by your
writings more forcibly demonstrated than
you could have done by argument,-is what
I fully believe that true genius needs but
little instruction, that it even spurns at every
plan of education, as trammels more calcu-
lated to restrain its exertion than promote its
advancement; it learns no catechisms, minds
no rules, but observes with an intentive
glance, whatever is true or valuable in the
labours of others, and appropriates them to
her own use. So, although you, Sir, per-
haps, are but little indebted to a regular edu-
cation for whatever you havelearnt; yet, in
composition, you will not deny that the
study of Addison, Pope, Johnson, Junius,
Hume, Robertson, Blair, and the innume-
rable list of fine writers on poetry and prose,
who have improved and adorned the Eng-
lish tongue, has been somewhat conducive
to your improvement in literature; and if
fortune had decreed that you should have to
maintain the honour of your native country,
(as you did in America,) in France, or any
other country, speaking a different lan
guage, with what eagerness would you seize
every passage of those writers which you
found to your purpose; you would place
them in the front of your page in their ori-
ginal form; for I know your mind would
revolt at the idea of torturing them by trans-
lation; they would, in such warfare, form
your advanced guard, your body of reserve,
and with such auxiliaries no Frenchman
Would be a match for you; but, to make
case parallel, give me leave to suppose

F

mentioned and say where, at what school they studied. Did they despise the ancients? Milton, although no doubt as sublime a poet as any country can boast, was, notwithstanding his genius, much indebted to his familiar acquaintance with the ancient writers. In fact, any person the least acquainted with both may see at one glance that he had thoroughly imbibed their spirit and manner. His ideas, his measure, construction, and as far as it is possible, his language, greatly resemble those of his masters; and in a few years hence you may compare his “On a sudden open fly with impetuous recoil and jarring sound, the infernal doors, and on their hinges grate harsh thunder.”—with Virgil, Book VI. line 574, "Tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine sacræ panduntur porte," and you will perceive a resemblance too exact to be the effect of chance. A few more arguments occur, which if I had sufficient space and could borrow your pen for half an hour, should appear most forcible and convincing; but I trust I shall, however deficient, receive every indulgence from you, sir, when you recollect with what difficulty you wrote your first essay in America, in reply to that Frenchman, to whom the English nation is so much obliged, in comparison to the little trouble you now feel in committing your thoughts to writing. The difference between you and I, Mr. Cob bett, is this, you say the Latin and Greek is a barbarous jargon, or at least your words seem fally to import this, and if you ever deny it after what you have said, I shall certainly take it as a confession that you are

ingenious the author, are written in a style so uncouth, so unpolished, that no person possessing any taste for harmony or order, or who has the least musical ear, can have patience to read more than a page of them at a time, and most of our translations from the ancients are also so coarse and disgusting, so full of vulgar and obsolete expressions, that I may sately aver they are as much shut up from the generality of readers of the present day, as if they remained in their original form; and as the greater part of them were done above a century ago; for since the improvement of our language, so far as to be a suitable vehicle for conveying the refined sentiments of so polished a people as the ancients, there has been but Hittle encouragement for men of sufficient literary endowments, to undertake the drudgery of translation, and to this principally may be attributed that general disregard and even contempt of every thing regarding the ancients. To form some idea of this, let any one compare with these the translation lately made of Sallust by Dr. Stewart. He will there see at once the great improvement of the English language, and will form some notion of the merit of the ancients while he perceives the great injustice done them by most former translators, and I may add the very best translations of the poets give but a very imperfect idea of the original. Even Dryden and Pope have entirely buried their authors under a multiplicity of high sounding words. They have covered the natural symetry, beauty, and harmony, by such a profusion of tinsel ornaments, flowers, and furbelows, that the sim-worsted in the argument. Although I canplicity of the original which is their distinguishing beauty is entirely lost: for I may say in the words of a very successful imitator of Virgil, beauty needs not the foreign aid of ornament; but is, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most:" and then there is such an offensive gingle in the rhyme continually recurring on the ear at the end of every line, that one is sure to be either sick or asleep before he has got through a couple of pages. Besides the idiom of the Greek and Latin is so different from that of the English, that it requires a language not less perfect than themselves to do them justice. Our Bible, however, is allowed to be a good translation and not liable to these objections; which is owing chiefly to its being translated from a language infinitely more congenial in its idiom to our own, being analagous and natural in its construction: the Greek and Laun being more artificial and transpositive. Whilst at the same time much praise is due to the learned men who transuted it. Refer to the names I have just

not believe, that if you should feel this to be the case, that you will not be as good as your, promise,-fairly to own it, and ask pardon of the learned gentlemen of both Universi ties; I say, Sir, our difference seems to be, that you understand the Latin and Greek to be the " last relick of monkish mummery:"

I

say, and I am almost ashamed seriously to say in the nineteenth century, that they are the languages of the most refined, most civilised, and accomplished nations, as far as we know from history, that ever existed; that we ourselves are the barbarians, who have been taught whatever we know by these very people; that whatever refinement, power, or capacity the English language can boast, is entirely owing to our imitation of that people; almost all our knowledge of science, all our scientific and technical terms, are borrowed exclusively from them. Turn up any English Dictionary and look at almost any word expressing an idea, the smallest degree above the hunting or pastoral life, and you will find it derived either from te

convey in the one, some ideas perhaps most [hno yex, ressed in the other; much more solis it calicube to transfuse the true spirit of a Greek or Latin author into ours, or any modern tongue, so remarkably different as I have already shown, as they are in genius and construction, and in this difference we discover one of the chief sources of the various interpretations, opinions, and disputes, which have arisen upon innumerable passages of scripture; and that many judicious persons thought the true spirit of certain passages of scripture is not given by the common translation is evident, from the la bour that Dr. Campbell and others have taken to make a new and correct translation of the gospels and other parts of scripture; from all which I think it is necessary to infor, that before any person can justly claim a pre-eminence in learning, before he can be intitled to the privilege of explaining what may be obscure, and interpreting what is difficult in our translation of the gospels, he ought to know something of the original, so I conclude, that a knowledge of what is called the learned languages" is necessary to a divine. And to prove that a physician must know Greek and Latin, when every term of their art is either in the one or the other of these linguages, and when it is known that the very father of the profession wrote in the former of these languages, is, I think, quite superfluous. And with respect to the lawyer, you, Sir, I presume, will require no other proof than a bare reference to Blackstone, with whom I know you are perfectly familiar, and whom I dare say you sufficiently admire. They both inforce, in the strongest language, the necessity of applying incessantly to the study of the classicks, as the only true model of eloquence and perfect poetry. They allow there are not a few good English authors fit enough patterns of writing, but whatever excellence they possess they seem to think is derived principally from that source; and as it is better to drink the liquor pure and unadulterated at the fountain head, then after it has flowed to a distance, and probably contaminated by impure mixtures, Dr. Beattie also, in his letters lately published by Sir Win Forbes, exhorts bis pupil Cameron to study the classicks day and night, until he was completely master of them it he ever expected to arrive at any excellence in either cloquence or poctry. And since writing the above, A Treatise on the Utility of Classical Learning, by the same Dr. Beattie, has been put into my hands, tu which I am very happy to be able to refer you, as most complete and satisfactory, a to which reference alone I should have co i fined my communication if I had seen it a

Greek or Latin. Such being the case, can the study of these languages ever le ia un. necessary part of an Flighelamen's educa longa No, it is impossible. Nothing Las then such a revolution as would destroy the kiws and constitution of the country, can ever, in my opinion, in luceus to almidon the study, of the Latin and Greck lur guages. They are intimately connect & not Shay with the laws and constitution · bit also with the religion of the country. What are called the learned professions, which, however some men may effect to scoff at as useless, but which I have no doub, are indispensibly necessary in the present state of society, are in fact the bonds of its unión; these cannot exist for a moment without the knowledge of these languages. They are necessary to the divine for the reasons I have aheady mentioned. viz. the imperfection and inadequacy of the English language for at least 1600 years, from the æra of our religion, during which time there was no access to any perfect knowledge of christianity, but through the medium of the Greek and Latin. And this in my opinion must have been the, case, independent of the bigotry of the Po; | pish clergy. The gospels themselves, and writings of the apostles were originally in Greek; and the Romans and those who afterwards studied their language, were the' only people who knew, or who were capa ble of knowing Greek, the other languages being, in every sense, too barbarous to have any union, sympathy, or resemblance with it so as to enable them either to understand or interpret it. Therefore, the only access to a knowledge of Greek was through the medium of the Latin; all Dictionaries or Lexicons, interpretations, notes, and commentaries being too in Latin. So, in order to hear the glad tidings of the gospel uncontaminated by the absurdities and fictions of ignorant enthusiasts, it was absolutely necessary at least to know Latin. Latin, therefore, became the common medium of intercourse, not only amongst all those who studied the gospel, but also upon every subject of literature; so, Latin being so long established as the language of learning, it will not be difficult to prove that a knowledge of Latin is even at the present time necessary to a student of divinity; although I shall not insist that it is absolutely as much so as formerly. Yet, every poison the least acquaint ed with more languages than one, and, I think you said you had learned French "because it was the language of the military art," knows that notwithstanding the very elose resemblance and athinity between the English and French, both in idiom and words, that it is often impossible justly to

terature? Will a man learn what he has no taste or genius for? I know you yourself pretty frequently hear Greek and Latin quoted in the House of Commons, by a few members who have not only had an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of the clas sicks, but who also, I have no doubt, are familiarly acquainted with them; a mortification which I know of but one way to save you from; of which I shall inform you immediately. However, I cannot avoid commending the attachment which you appear to have for your native language, and the zeal you manifest on all occasions to prevent its being corrupted by foreign idioms; but, surely, no apprehension can be entertained that it will receive any injury from the study of Latin or Greek. Yet many persons, no less zealous for the honour of the English language, but who see notwithstanding the impossibility of making it the general language of Europe, think, and I believe very justly, that as there must be some common medium for diplomatic intercourse, and also to prevent the further extension of French influence which is too much promoted by the general prevalence of their language, it were well if a more general use of Latin than has hitherto been a practice were adopted for that purpose.-I beg leave just to add, the great Cato for many years of his life opposed with equal rigour every foreign innovation, he reprobated in the strongest terms not only the manners but also the language of the Greeks, yet he was compelled to acknowledge the great advantage which men of infinitely less genius seemed to enjoy from their knowledge of the language of that people; so in order to improve that eloquence by which he intend

few days sooner. And, now, why should I multiply examples? Does not every eminent English writer, with the sole exception of Mr. Cobbett, acknowledge most explicitly that they have learnt in that school alone? You well know the great esteem which Goldsmith and Addison had for the Greek and Roman classicks. For what purpose did they travel into France and Italy? Not surely to learn to dress, dance, and make a bow. No, it was to see and admire the wonderful remains of the most noble productions of human art, left by the most accomplished people that ever lived; to see that country which gave birth to the most harmonious poet that ever sung, breathe the same air, solicit the same muse, and haply to catch a portion of his inspirations. Are we, then, like ungrateful children, who forgetting what their parents have done for them, insensible to the advantages of a good example, early instruction, or a useful trade which enables them to live in ease and affluence, who notwithstanding leave their parents to languish in penury and wretchedness; are we just let loose from school to neglect our teachers, and fancy in our ignorance that we are wiser than they? Those of their pupils who have made the most progress, and who I have taken the liberty of supposing have been not only your master but that of every English scholar of the present day were not so ungrateful. Had you asserted merely, that valuable as the ancient languages are to every literary character, yet too much time was spent in learning them, I should not, perhaps, have been inclined to contradict you; and whether a wrong plan of education be in use is not my business at present to inquire: but, it cannot be denied, that not one in a hundred who go through the longed to prevent its introduction, he himself in course of discipline ever know any thing of Latin or Greek. Yet coxcombs who remain in this ignorance, do notwithstanding vapour with hacknied schoolboy sentences, which they either do not understand, or which at most is all they understand, and that very much to the offence of men of plain sense who have never studied any other language than their mother tongue, but who think it hard to be browbeat by men so very much their inferiors, by the constant use of these gailipot phrases or legerdemain lingo. But, Mr. Cobbett, the abuse of a thing is no argument against its utility; and is it fair to conclude, because many fail, that none succeed? How many, I ask yon, arrive at any thing respectable in English li

his grand climacteric sat down to study Greek, of which he soon became a great proficient, and, what was less to be expected a most enthusiastic admirer; and, Mr. Cobbett, if you will like Cato immediately begin the study of the Latin, appropriating an hour every day without intermission, or, if you please, excepting Sunday both for religion and relaxation, only for the short space of two years, and one year more of the same constant application to the Greek, you will then, like Cato, be able to fight the soi-disant learned with weapons of their own fashion, but of far superior ease and temper.Yours, &c.- -AN AMATEUR.-Aberdeen, Jun. 20, 1807.

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