A fortune acquired by commerce, when it is discreetly expended in
advancing learning, acquires a grace and elegance, which a life devoted
to the accumulation of money, for its own sake, can seldom possess.
Few of us are so improved by philosophy, though we study and admire it,
as not to feel the influence of interested motives. This insensibly
blinds the understanding, and often impels the judgment to decide
unjustly, without the guilt of intention.
Not only the taste, but the religion, the virtue, and even the liberties
of our country, greatly depend upon that discipline which lays the
foundation of improvement in ancient learning. True patriotism and true
valour, originate from that enlargement of mind, which the
well-regulated study of philosophy, poetry, and history, tends to
produce; and if we can recal the ancient discipline we may perhaps recal
the generous spirit of ancient virtue. He who is conversant with the
best Greek and Roman writers, with a Plato, a Xenophon, and a Cicero,
must imbibe, if he be not deficient in the powers of intellect,
sentiments no less liberal and enlarged than ingenious and elegant.
A certain enlargement, refinement, and embellishment of the mind, is the
best and noblest effect of classical instruction. It is not only
desirable, as it qualifies the mind for this or that profession, but as
it opens the source of pure pleasures, unknown to the vulgar. Its
tendency is to adorn and improve human nature, and to give the ideas a
noble elevation.
The possession of an elegant mind is greatly superior to the possession
of a fortune, and the enjoyment of a good conscience is far superior to
both.
The passions will sometimes ruffle the stream of happiness in every man;
but they are least likely to discompose him, who spends his time in
letters, and who at the same time studies virtue and innocence, which
indeed have a natural connexion with true learning.
He who has caught the spirit of the polite writers of the politest ages
and cities, must possess a peculiar degree of polish and comprehension
of mind.
The best kind of education is that which endeavours to improve the
powers of understanding for their own sake; for the sake of exalting the
endowments of human nature, and becoming capable of sublime and refined
contemplation. This furnishes a power of finding satisfactory amusement
for those hours of solitude, which every man must sometimes know in the
busiest walks of life; and it constitutes one of the best supports of
old age, as well as the most graceful ornament of manhood. Even in the
commercial department it is most desirable; for besides that it gives a
grace to the man in the active stage of life, and in the midst of his
negociations, it ‘enables him to enjoy his retreat with elegance,’ when
his industry has accumulated the object of his endeavours.
If taste, which classical learning immediately tends to produce, have no
influence in amending the heart, or in promoting virtuous affections; if
it contribute not to render men more humane, and more likely to be
disgusted with improper behaviour, as a deformed object, and pleased
with rectitude of conduct, as beautiful in itself; if it be merely an
ornamental appendage; it must be owned, that life is indeed too short to
admit of long attention to mere embellishment. Polite learning, on the
contrary, is found to be friendly to all that is amiable and laudible in
social intercourse; friendly to morality. It has a secret but powerful
influence in softening and meliorating the disposition. True and correct
taste directly tends to restrain the extravagancies of passion, by
regulating that nurse of passion, a discorded imagination.
To be completely skilled in ancient learning is by no means a work of
such insuperable pains. The very progress itself is attended with
delight, and resembles a journey through some pleasant country, where
every mile we advance new charms arise. It is certainly as easy to be a
scholar, as a gamester, or many other characters equally illiberal and
low. The same application, the same quantity of habit, will fit us for
one as well as for the other. As to those who tell us with an air of
seeming wisdom, that it is by men, not books, that we must study to
become knowing; repeated experience teaches this to be the common
consolation and language of dunces.
[[Source:
The article is a paraphrase of Vicesimus Knox, “Liberal Education”.
The phrase ‘enables him to enjoy his retreat with elegance’ is
a direct quotation.]]
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_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._
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