the possession most salutary; but there is a wide difference between peace and slavery. Peace is the tranquil enjoyment of liberty; slavery is the extreme of evils, not only to be repelled by war, but even by death.”

"Sin aliquando necessitas nos ad ea detruserit, quæ nostri ingenii non erunt: omnis adhibenda erit cura, meditatio, diligentia, ut ea si non decorè at quam minimum indecorè facere possimus."-Cic. de Off.

"If sometimes necessity should compel us to what is contrary to our minds, we must exert our utmost care, attention and diligence, that if we cannot do them decorously, we shall at all events do them as little indecorously as possible."

In the writings of the poets, the most useful and beautiful reflexions are expressed with a simplicity which delights, or a force which penetrates the heart; the former is chiefly the characteristic of the Greek, the latter of the Roman muse.

If HISTORY is classed among the sciences, in this the antients cannot be too warmly com. mended. To their admirable writings we are indebted, not only for the most important facts

in the history of mankind, but for the most perfect models in that species of composition. The antients have indeed scarcely been equalled in this line, and I think I can venture to say, that I have not seen the sweet simplicity of Herodotus-the dignity of Thucydides, the harmony and elegance of Sallust, or the pointed and forcible expression of Tacitus, transferred. into any modern language, by their most learned translators.

VII. But whatever was wanting to the antients in science, is amply compensated in taste. Homer and Virgil are still unrivalled, and the latter of them is certainly still untranslated. The pastorals of Theocritus, and perhaps the odes of Pindar, have nothing exactly resembling them in modern languages. The satires of Horace and Juvenal have only been imitated. In every department of prose composition also, we find among the antients excellent models. Without deprecating the merit of our contemporaries, we may truly say that the clear and energetic reasoning of Demosthenes, the full, harmonious, and ornamental periods of Cicero, and the sententious neatness of Sallust, have not been excelled. To form, therefore,

a correct taste, one effectual mode, at least, is by a well directed study of these estimable compositions, and by occasionally comparing them with the excellencies and defects of modern productions.

If in any department of polite literature, which they have cultivated, the antients have particularly failed, it is in the drama; but of this I have said sufficient in the preceding letters.

There are some other branches of literature, in which I think the moderns have excelled, and some which have not at all been cultivated by the antients; but this does not, in any view, militate against the utility of classical literature, since an accomplished person ought to be acquainted with the most perfect productions, both of antient and modern times.

From a fair consideration of the real uses of classical literature, some practical conclusions result, which appear of no inconsiderable importance in the education of youth.

Impressed as I am with a full sense of the advantages resulting from a classical education, I cannot help thinking, that an unreasonable and enthusiastic regard has sometimes been

paid to the writings of the antients. Instead of considering them as useful assistants, as guides to knowledge, they have been extolled, as containing within themselves all that is worthy of being known, and men have mistaken the rudiments of science, for science itself. How , many have devoted their lives to the study of the classics, as if there were no other duties to be performed, no other advantages to be obtained, no other laurels to be reaped? How many have continued, during their existence, in the elements of science, without extending their views to any thing beyond them, without indeed making use of their own understanding.

I should wish to see the antients studied for their matter, as well as for their language; but the information which they convey, is too commonly made a secondary consideration. The attention of youth is directed to the elegant latinity of Cæsar and of Horace, not to the facts, observations, or precepts, which are contained in these valuable authors. If the tutors of our youth condescend to remark even upon the beauties of the classics, it is not on the beauty of sentiment, it is not on the vigour of imagination, it is not on the poetical ornaments.

Their attention is at the utmost extended to a choice of words, to a curious grammatical connexion, or to the nice intricacies of idiomatical phraseology.

At the revival of letters a race of commentators were useful, if not necessary; they were the pioneers of literature, who cleared the way for more respectable adventurers. But in the present state of literature, can we behold without regret a man of genius dedicating a life to a few barren and fruitless verbal criticisms, to the regulating of a few phrases, or correcting in a few instances the quantity and metre of an obscure author; when, had he applied his talents as they ought to have been applied, he, perhaps, would have produced an original composition, more valuable than the produc tion on which he has so unworthily bestowed his labour?

To write Latin decently and intelligibly, may occasionally prove a convenience to a literary man; chiefly in facilitating his commerce with foreign literati; but surely the attempt (for it is but an attempt) to compose poetical productions in Greek and Latin, is, at best, only a species of elegant trifling. If life is short, and