now before us, in a summary and sweeping denunciation, as "his trash about the learned languages." But what shall we say, when, in the midst of a society once distinguished above all others in this country by these very attainments, a gentleman having so many and such high claims to our respect, as Mr. Grimké, declares it to be his solemn conviction-and that too formed, as he assures us, upon the fullest and fairest experiment—that they are absolutely good for nothing. Nor does that gentleman stand alone. We have frequently heard the same opinions expressed by persons of scarcely less authority and influence in the Southern States, to say nothing of occasional essays in the newspapers and periodicals, and discourses before the Philosophical and Literary Societies of other cities. It is quite impossible, therefore, we apprehend, however strongly inclined we might be to do so, to consider the instance before us as a mere sporadic case, deserving, indeed, on account of its peculiarly aggravated symptoms, to be remarked and recorded as a striking phenomenon in its kind, but not calculated to excite any alarm from its supposed connexion with the state of the atmosphere, or its probable effects upon the general health of the vicinage. We do believe, on the contrary, that this grievous malady is of an endemial or epidemic class, and that it behoves all, who, with us, think it a matter of serious public concernment that its progress should be arrested, to apply the most efficacious remedies, and adopt all necessary precautions with the least possible delay. As our observations will be chiefly confined to such parts only of the three discourses named at the head of this article, as relate to the study of the classics, it will, of course, be unnecessary to enter into any thing like a detailed analysis of them. We will *Before and just after the Revolution, many, perhaps it would be more accurate to say most, of our youth of opulent families, were educated at English Schools and Universities. There can be no doubt that their attainments in polite literature were very far superior to those of their contemporaries at the North, and the standard of scholarship in Charleston, was, consequently, much higher than in any other city on the continent. We have still amongst us, a venerable relic of that cultivated and heroic age, whom we may single out without an invidious distinction, and to whom we gladly avail ourselves of this opportunity to offer a tribute justly due to such a union in one accomplished character, of the patriot, the gentleman, and the scholar -of the loftiest virtue, exercised in all the important offices and trying conflicts of life, with whatever is most amiable and winning in social habitudes, in polished manners and an elegant taste. To add that he is now crowning the honors of his useful and blameless life, with a blessed and venerated old age, is only to say, that he has received the sure reward pure et eleganter actæ ætatis. But there is some thing melancholy in the reflection, that the race of such men is passing away, and that our youth are now taught to form themselves upon other models. These improvements, with so many more, are beginning to spring up and blossom with great freshness and luxuriance about the favoured city of Boston-our Western Florence, in which industry has been the willing tributary of letters and the arts, and which is throughout all its institutions, its character and its pursuits, one great monument of what commerce has done to civilize and adorn life. briefly state that the first in the order of time was Mr. Grimk's, which was delivered at the last anniversary of the Literary and Philosophical Society of this city; and, that its principal object seems to be, to make out, by a comprehensive survey of the history of the human mind, the two following propositions :— First, "that more has been done in three centuries by the Protestants, in the profound and comprehensive, the exact, rational and liberal developement, culture and application of every valuable department of knowledge, both theoretical and practical, than has been done by all the rest of the world, both ancient and modern, since the days of Lycurgus;" (page 50.) and, secondly, "that in every department of knowledge, whether theoretical or practical, where thinking and reasoning are the means and the criterion of excellence, our country must, if there be truth and power in the principles of the Reformation, (and that there is, no man entertains so little doubt as Mr. Grimké) surpass every people that ever existed." (page 65.) To establish and illustrate these propositions, our author has certainly spared no pains. Beginning at a period not more recent than the creation itself, he pries into the secret recesses of the garden of Eden, and speculates about the branches of science with which it were most reasonable to suppose that its happy inmates were particularly conversant. He has not, therefore, gone quite so far as the Rabbins, who ascribe to the first man the perfection of all knowledge and wisdom; and among whom, "as learned as Adam," is a proverbial saying. We will just remark in passing, that his notions of these primitive and paradisaical accomplishments reminded us, a good deal, of a grave disquisition in Dante's Tractate de Vulgari Eloquio; in which, the father of modern poetry has endeavoured to shew, that Adam spoke, or must have spoken, or should have spoken before Eve-that his first word was Eli or Eloi-and his mother tongue (if it is not a catachresis to call it so) the Hebrew. From this remote period Mr. Grimké rapidly descends to the æra of the Reformation, distinguishing the intermediate space of about 5523 years (to imitate his own precision) by such epochs as the building of the Tower of Babel and its disastrous results-a gigantic enterprise, he observes, "to be undertaken by the new world when only 115 years old"-the call of Abraham, the exodus of the Jews, the age of Thales, &c. Looking back from the last mentioned æra to take a survey of what the human race had done to better its condition, or to elevate its character, Mr. Grimk affirms that "the moral improvement of man, and the cultivation of those sciences which relate to his political and moral welfare, were totally neglected;" and adds, with great emphasis, "THE PEOPLE were as yet unnoticed and unknown in the history of science." We call the particular attention of our readers to these passages, and especially to the last, because we shall have occasion, in the sequel, to expose what appears to us, to be a singular confusion of ideas that runs through them all; and, indeed, through the whole discourse from which they are extracted. But it is upon the second proposition that our author enlarges with the greatest fondness and triumph. He is evidently one of those that indulge in the pleasing day-dreams of perfectibility. He seems persuaded that the world, or at least this part of it, is to end, as other parts of it are fabled to have begun, with a race of (intellectual) Titans. In his visions of the future glories of his country, his imagination is wrought up to the highest pitch of rapture, and he pours out prediction after prediction with all a patriot's enthusiasm and a prophet's fire. "I fear not, he says, the great names of Archimedes, Aristotle and Plato, of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Tacitus and Thucydides. I know that we must excel them. I fear not the greater names of Bacon and Newton, of Locke, Butler, Hume and Robertson, Chatham, Burke and Pitt. I know that we shall surpass them also." (p. 66.) These immortal men, it seems, did but lay the foundations upon which we shall build up far more lofty and enduring monuments of genius and wisdom;-they were only allowed to point out the career which is to be run by us, and to enjoy a faint antepast and distant prospect of that glorious perfection, with which the efforts and aspirations of the human mind are destined to be erowned in this new land of promise. "Even in this autumnal age of the world (we continue to quote our author's words) at the going down of the sun, a nation has arisen, European in language and descent, which has laid the foundations of literature broader and deeper than ever nation did before,-in the nature of man, in the character of universal society, in the principles of social order, in popular rights and popular government, in the welfare and education of the people." Now we do not deny that all this is exceedingly brilliant and encouraging, and that it is impossible to read such passages as these (and they are a fair specimen of the spirit in which the whole discourse is written) without conceiving the highest esteem for the character of the author, and even kindling, in some measure with a zeal, apparently so cordial, in the holiest of all causes, that, namely, of the moral and intellectual improvement of mankind. But it is our very painful and prosaic duty to request Mr. Grimké, in his own language, "to curb this patriot feeling which hurries him on from flight to flight," and return for a few moments, to what in this aerial excursion he has more than once lost sight of,-the true state of the question between himself and the venerable names of antiquity. We shall resume the subject as soon as we shall have paid our respects to Mr. Read and Mr. Adams. The former of these gentlemen, upon being inducted into the office which he now so honorably fills of principal of the SouthCarolina Academy, was requested by the committee of trustees or managers, to deliver a discourse explanatory of their views and anticipations, in making the changes that have been recently introduced into that important foundation. In performing this task, he very naturally adverted to the opinions of Mr. Grimké, which had been just before published, and in his examination of them, though very little time was allowed him for preparation, acquitted himself to the entire satisfaction of a most numerous and respectable auditory. The style of this address, although occasionally too florid and ambitious, is in general, however, very good. We were particularly pleased with those idiomatic turns of expression with which it abounds, and a certain air of colloquial ease and freedom so rare in our American writing, and so essential to all true grace and elegance in composition. But we were still more pleased with Mr. Read's style of thinking.This brief and hasty production shews him to be deeply imbued with an enlightened spirit of improvement, and to combine in rather an uncommon degree, for so young a man, the refined taste of a scholar, with more enlarged and philosophical views, than have always directed the studies of philologists and grammarians. We have very little doubt about the success of the experiment, of which the results depend so much upon his zeal and ability; and we need scarcely add, with what heartfelt satisfaction we anticipate a complete revolution, or at least a visible and decided improvement, in our hitherto defective system of elementary education. We would not be understood as denying all merit to the primary schools established in this city within a few years past, some of which, we are well aware, deserve the thanks of the community for the progress they have already made in the great work of reformation.* But much-very much remains yet to be done before the system will be good for any thing, and the establishment of a rival institution of such promise as the Academy of the South-Carolina Society, under the conduct of a gentleman so zealous and accomplished as Mr. Read, can scarcely fail to inspire a new ardour, and lead to more vigorous and persevering efforts than have hitherto been made to perfect those improvements, and to secure the benefits of them to a future generation. *It is nothing but justice to state that these improvements received their first impulse from the Rt. Rev. Bishop England. And, here, we will take the liberty of addressing ourselves more particularly to a class of men who occupy amongst us a post, which is, in our opinion, beyond all comparison or controversy, the most important of any in the whole circle of social avocations, especially in a country where the national character is, in a great measure, yet to be formed. It is vain to talk of having good schools until we get truly learned teachers, or of becoming a literary and refined people, until the education of youth shall be committed to accomplished and elegant, and we will add, enthusiastic scholars. From time to time, indeed, a few of our young men, by visiting foreign institutions at a very great expense, or by devoting themselves to these studies with a zealous and determined assiduity, scarcely to be expected at that early age, and by keeping out of the arena of professional or political ambition longer than is usual, or than may, perhaps, be quite expedient, will, probably, attain to a high degree of excellence in this kind. But such examples make no impression whatever upon the great mass of society, at least they produce no useful or meliorating effects. "They shed," to borrow a fine thought of Mr. Grimké's, "their unheeded beams on the moral desert around, and remind us of scattered stars, diffusing unnatural light amidst the gloom of an eclipse." Besides, the young scholar, after all his labours and vigils may, perchance, find himself in any thing but an enviable situation, and learn by his own painful-happy, if not worse than painful!—experience, the wisdom of that profound sentence of Tacitus, ignota, (Parthis) virtutes, nova vitia.* It is, indeed, the unfortunate results which occasionally take place in isolated instances of this kind, that have given most colour to the speculations of those innovators in literature and education amongst us, who are urging us to forsake the fountains of living waters and to hew out for ourselves, after some rude and uncouth model in their great patent-office of untried projects and infallible quackery, broken cisterns that will hold no water. But where are we to find these erudite and accomplished teachers? Are we to fold our arms in indolent and supine imbecility until "the march of mind" shall bring about these changes in due season, or shall we send a solemn embassy across the Atlantic, to tempt by offers of extravagant emolument and honour, a small colony of adventurous scholars to come over and propagate literature in these parts? We answer, no such thing. We have the means of improvement within ourselves. Let our young schoolmasters begin by * The scholar will be reminded of poor Ovid's lamentation Barbarus hic ego sum quià non intelligor ullis, |