An American missionary and his wife have established a school at Smyrna,
for the instruction of children of both sexes in the English language,
and in general elementary education, after the most approved system.
This school is chiefly attended by the children of English parents
settled in the country. It must be productive of important good; for it
is a positive fact, that only a few years ago, from the want of some
such establishment, and the carelessness of their fathers, many of whom
had married women of the country, these children were not only sadly
deficient in those rudiments which the poorest among us now acquire, but
positively ignorant of the English language. You would meet, for
example, a Mr. John _this_, and a Miss Mary _that_, with names the most
English, who would not know how to address to you a single decent
sentence in the idiom of their fathers; and it need scarcely be added,
that in English character, intelligence, and energy, they were almost
equally deficient. Two or three respectable families of Dutch descent
also send their children to this school.
The other European settlers, who are nearly all Catholics, have not yet
had the good sense to overcome their religious prejudices, and to send
their children to be educated by a Protestant minister; but, even
confined as they are, we look upon the labours of the respectable
American missionary in this part of the world as praiseworthy and
important.
What, however, is of still more importance at Smyrna, as regards numbers
and a whole people, is the settlement of a good Greek seminary for the
education of the young Greeks. The British consul has been recently
allowed to take this establishment under his special protection; and,
with the arms of England over its gateway, it has now nothing to fear
from the Turks, but goes on teaching steadily and quietly.
An intelligent friend, who was in England a short time ago, delighted us
with an account of an annual examination of the pupils of this Smyrna
school. The Greeks, who, with all their defects--defects that have
mainly resulted from the oppression of the Turks, and their own want of
education--are a quick, intelligent people, curious, and eager for
information, crowded the place of assembly, and when, in the course of
the examination, a son, or a younger brother, or any young relative or
friend, acquitted himself well, their satisfaction and glee were
forcibly expressed by their animated countenances. It added to our
satisfaction to learn that many of this audience were common sailors or
artisans--a proof that education is, as it ought to be, cheap, and
within the means of the industrious poor. A number of the youths thus
educated are so far advanced in the study of the ancient Greek (which
glorious language will be gradually restored to common use, as the
modern Greeks advance in civilization), that they get up and play scenes
from the tragedies of Euripides. To these representations the Greeks of
Smyrna throng with the most lively delight. They do not at present
understand one-third of what they hear, but they will “live and learn.”
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_Queen Elizabeth._--Lord Chief Justice Coke told this anecdote of Queen
Elizabeth upon the bench:--“When I was the Queen’s Attorney-General she
said to me, ‘I understand my counsel will strongly urge the Queen’s
prerogative, but my will is, that they stand for our Lady the Truth,
rather than for our Lady the Queen, unless that our Lady the Queen hath
the truth on her side.’ And she also used to give this in charge many
times, when any one was called to any office by her, that they should
ever stand for the Truth rather than for the Queen.” This was told
thirteen years after Queen Elizabeth’s death; yet too many facts prove
that she was accustomed to violate her own precepts.
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_Good Effects of a Predilection for some celebrated Author._--A
predilection for some great author, among the vast number which must
transiently occupy our attention, seems to be the happiest
preservative for our taste. Accustomed to that excellent author whom
we have chosen for our favourite, we may possibly resemble him in this
intimacy. It is to be feared, that if we do not form such a permanent
attachment, we may be acquiring knowledge, while our enervated taste
becomes less and less lively. Taste embalms the knowledge, which
otherwise cannot preserve itself. He who has long been intimate with
one great author will always be found to be a formidable antagonist;
he has saturated his mind with the excellences of genius; he has
shaped his faculties insensibly to himself by his model; and he is
like a man who ever sleeps in armour, ready at a moment! The old Latin
proverb reminds us of this fact--_Cave ab homine unius libri_: be
cautious of the man of one book.--_Curiosities of Literature._
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