_A Life of George Washington, in Latin Prose: By Francis Glass, A.M.
of Ohio. Edited by J. N. Reynolds. New York: Published by Harper and
Brothers._
We may truly say that not for years have we taken up a volume with
which we have been so highly gratified, as with the one now before us.
A Life of Washington, succinct in form, yet in matter sufficiently
comprehensive, has been long a desideratum: but a Life of Washington
precisely such as a compendious Life of that great man should
be--written by a native of Ohio--and written too, in Latin, which is
not one jot inferior to the Latin of Erasmus, is, to say the least of
it,--a novelty.
We confess that we regarded the first announcement {53} of this _rara
avis_ with an evil and suspicious eye. The thing was improbable, we
thought. Mr. Reynolds was quizzing us--the brothers Harper were
hoaxed--and Messieurs Anthon and Co. were mistaken. At all events we
had made up our minds to be especially severe upon Mr. Glass, and to
put no faith in that species of classical Latin which should emanate
from the back woods of Ohio. We now solemnly make a recantation of our
preconceived opinions, and so proceed immediately to do penance for
our unbelief.
Mr. Reynolds is entitled to the thanks of his countrymen for his
instrumentality in bringing this book before the public. It has
already done wonders in the cause of the classics; and we are false
prophets if it do not ultimately prove the means of stirring up to a
new life and a regenerated energy that love of the learned tongues
which is the surest protection of our own vernacular language from
impurity, but which, we are grieved to see, is in a languishing and
dying condition in the land.
We have read Mr. R's preface with great attention; and meeting with
it, as we have done, among a multiplicity of worldly concerns, and
every-day matters and occurrences, it will long remain impressed upon
our minds as an episode of the purest romance. We have no difficulty
in entering fully with Mr. Reynolds into his kindly feelings towards
Mr. Glass. We perceive at once that we could have loved and reverenced
the man. His image is engraven upon our fancy. Indeed we behold him
_now_--at this very moment--with all his oddities and appurtenances
about him. We behold the low log-cabin of a school-house--the
clap-board roof but indifferently tight--the holes, ycleped windows,
covered with oiled paper to keep out the air--the benches of hewn
timber stuck fast in the ground--the stove, the desk, the urchins, and
the Professor. We can hear the worthy pedagogue's classical
'_Salves_,' and our ears are still tingling with his hyperclassical
exhortations. In truth he was a man after our own heart, and, were we
not Alexander, we should have luxuriated in being Glass.
A word or two respecting the Latinity of the book. We sincerely think
that it has been underrated. While we agree with Mr. Reynolds, for
whose opinions, generally, we have a high respect, that the work can
boast of none of those elegancies of diction, no rich display of those
beauties and graces which adorn the pages of some modern Latinists, we
think he has forgotten, in his search after the mere flowers of
Latinity, the peculiar nature of that labor in which Mr. Glass has
been employed. Simplicity _here_ was the most reasonable, and indeed
the only admissible elegance. And if this be taken into consideration,
we really can call to mind, at this moment, no modern Latin
composition whatever much superior to the _Washingtonii Vita_ of Mr.
Glass.
The clothing of modern ideas in a language dead for centuries, is a
task whose difficulty can never be fully appreciated by those who have
never undertaken it. The various changes and modifications, which,
since the Augustan age, have come to pass in the sciences of war and
legislation especially, must render any attempt similar to that which
we are now criticising, one of the most hazardous and awkward
imaginable. But we cannot help thinking that our author has succeeded
_à merveille_. His ingenuity is not less remarkable than his
grammatical skill. Indeed he is never at a loss. It is nonsense to
laugh at his calling Quakers _Tremebundi_. _Tremebundi_ is as good
Latin as _Trementes_, and more euphonical Latin than _Quackeri_--for
both which latter expressions we have the authority of Schroeckh: and
_glandes plumbeæ_, for bullets, is something better, we imagine, than
Wyttenbach's _bombarda_, for a cannon; Milton's _globulus_, for a
button; or Grotius' _capilamentum_, for a wig. As a specimen of Mr.
G's Latinity, we subjoin an extract from the work. It is Judge
Marshall's announcement in Congress of the death of Washington.
"Nuncius tristis, quem heri accepimus, hodierno die nimium certus
advenit. Fuit Washingtonius; heros, dux, et philosophus; ille,
denique, quem, imminente periculo, omnes intuebantur, factorum
clarorum memoriâ duntaxat vixit. Quamvis enim, eos honore afficere
solenne non esset, quorum vita in generis humani commodis promovendis
insumpta fuit, Washingtonii, tamen, res gestoe tantoe extiterunt, ut
populus universus Americanus, doloris indicium, qui tam latè patet,
deposcere suo jure debet."
"Rempublicam hancce nostram, tam longè latèque divisam, unus ferè
Washingtonius ordinandi et condendi laudem meret. Rebus omnibus,
tandem confectis, quarum causâ exercitibus Americanis proepositus
fuerat, gladium in vomerem convertit, bellumque pace lætissimè
commutavit. Cum civitatum foederatarum Americanarum infirmitas omnibus
manifesta videretur, et vincula, quibus Columbi terra latissima
continebatur, solverentur, Washingtonium omnium, qui hancce nostram
proeclaram rempublicam stabiliverant, principem vidimus. Cum patria
charissima eum ad sedandos tumultus, bellumque sibi imminens ad
propulsandum et avertendum, vocaret; Washingtonium, otium domesticum,
quod ei semper charum fuit, relinquentem, et undis civilibus, civium
commoda et libertatem servandi causâ, mersum, haud semel conspeximus;
et consilia, quibus libertatem Americanam stabilem effecerat,
perpetua, ut spero, semper, erunt."
"Cum populi liberi magistratus summus bis constitutus esset, cumque
tertiò præses fieri facillimè potuisset, ad villam, tamen, suam,
secessit, seque ab omni munere civili in posterum procul amoveri, ex
animo cupiebat. Utcunque vulgi opinio, quoad alios homines, mutetur,
Washingtonii, certè, fama sempiterna et eadem permanebit. Honoremus,
igitur, patres conscripti, hunc tantum virum mortuum: civitatum
foederatarum Americanarum consilium publicum civium omnium sententias,
hác una in re, declaret."
"Quamobrem, chartas quasdam hîc manu teneo, de quibus Congressûs
sententiam rogare velim: ut, nempe, civitatum foederatarum
Americanarum consilium publicum proesidem visat, simul cum eo, gravi
de hoc casu, condoliturum: ut Congressûs principis sella vestibus
pullis ornetur; utque Congressus pars reliqua vestibus pullis
induatur: utque, denique, idonea à Congressu parentur, quibus planè
manifestum fiat, Congressum, virum bello, pace, civiumque animis
primum, honore summo afficere velle."[1]
[Footnote 1: The sad tidings which yesterday brought us, this day has
but too surely confirmed. Washington is no more. The hero, the
general, the philosopher--he, upon whom, in the hour of danger, all
eyes were turned, now lives in the remembrance, only, of his
illustrious actions. And although, even, it were not customary to
render honor unto those who have spent their lives in promoting the
welfare of their fellow men, still, so great are the deeds of
Washington, that the whole American nation is bound to give a public
manifestation of that grief which is so extensively prevalent.
Washington, we had nearly said Washington _alone_, deserves the credit
of regulating and building up, as it were, the widely extended
territory of this our Republic. Having finally achieved all for which
he had accepted the command of the American forces, he converted his
sword into a ploughshare, and joyfully exchanged war for peace. When
the weakness of the United States of America appeared manifest to all,
and the bands by which the very extensive land of Columbus was held
together, were in danger of being loosened, we have seen Washington
the first among those who re-invigorated this our glorious Republic.
When his beloved country called him to quiet tumults, and to avert the
war with which she was menaced, we have once more seen Washington
abandon that domestic tranquillity so dear to him, and plunge into the
waters of civil life to preserve the liberties and happiness of his
countrymen: and the counsels with which he re-established American
liberty will be, as I hope, perpetual.
When he had been twice appointed the Chief Magistrate of a free
people, and when, for the third time, he might easily have been
President, he nevertheless retired to his farm, and really desired to
be freed from all civil offices forever. However vulgar opinion may
vary in respect to other men, the fame of Washington will, surely, be
the same to all eternity. Therefore, let us show our reverence for
this so great man who is departed, and let this public counsel of the
United States of America declare upon this one subject the opinion of
all our citizens.
For this end I hold these resolutions in my hand, concerning which I
would wish the opinion of Congress, viz: that this public counsel of
the United States of America should visit the President to condole
with him upon this heavy calamity--that the speaker's chair be arrayed
in black--that the members of Congress wear mourning--and lastly, that
arrangements be entered into by this assembly, in which it may be made
manifest that Congress wish to do every honor to the man first in war,
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.]
The 'barbarisms' of Mr. Glass are always so well in accordance with
the genius of Latin declension, as {54} never to appear at variance
with the spirit of the language, or out of place in their respective
situations. His 'equivalents,' too, are, in all cases, ingeniously
managed: and we are mistaken if the same can be said of the
'equivalents' of Erasmus--certainly not of those used by Grotius, or
Addison, or Schroeckh, or Buchanan, neither of whom are scrupulous in
introducing words, from which a modern one is deduced, in the exact
sense of the English analogous term--although that term may have been
greatly perverted from its original meaning.
Having said thus much in favor of the _Washingtonii Vita_, we may now
be permitted to differ in opinion with Professor Wylie and others who
believe that this book will be a valuable acquisition to our classical
schools, as initiatory to Cæsar or Nepos. We are quite as fully
impressed with the excellences of Mr. Glass' work as the warmest of
his admirers; and perhaps, even more than any of them, are we anxious
to do it justice. Still the book is--as it professes to be--a Life of
Washington; and it treats, consequently, of events and incidents
occurring _in a manner_ utterly unknown to the Romans, and _at a
period_ many centuries after their ceasing to exist as a nation. If,
therefore, by Latin we mean the Language spoken by the Latins, a large
proportion of the work--disguise the fact as we may--is necessarily
_not Latin at all_. Did we indeed design to instruct our youth in a
language of possibilities--did we wish to make them proficient in the
tongue which _might have been spoken_ in ancient Rome, had ancient
Rome existed in the nineteenth century, we could scarcely have a
better book for the purpose than the Washington of Mr. Glass. But we
do not perceive that, in teaching Latin, we have any similar view. And
we have given over all hope of making this language the medium of
universal communication--that day-dream, with a thousand others, is
over. Our object then, at present, is simply to imbue the mind of the
student with the idiom, the manner, the thought, and above all, with
_the words_ of antiquity. If this is not our object, what is it? But
this object cannot be effected by any such work as the _Washingtonii
Vita_.