the great questions of law and government and revenue, and on the still greater questions of moral philosophy and theology. The profound problems relating to man's eternal destiny as stated by the Greek and Roman moralists, the degenerating process of heathenism as it wandered farther and farther from a primeval revelation, the true significance of pagan mythology, etc., have been handled with a depth and fulness of learning, with a clearness of method, and with a satisfactoriness of results, which should seem to leave little for the future inquirer. The laws of the two classical languages, the principles of syntax, the relations of these languages to others, opening the rich fields of comparative philology, have been investigated with eminent success. These investigations impart to the subject a truly scientific worth, and command the attention of all who feel any interest in the origin and fortunes of our race. Now this vast body of classical criticism, and historical literature, for which we are indebted to hundreds of able scholars in Germany and elsewhere, can be adequately appreciated only by the classical scholar. In illustration, we may refer to works on the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle; to those comparing at large the origin, structure and relations of the Latin and Greek languages; to the profound, acute, and, in one sense, creative labors of Niebuhr, and of the very able scholars who have followed in his steps, in investigating the ante-Latin languages of Italy, and the general antiquities of that country; to profound treatises on Roman law; to acute researches in ancient and modern history; and to studies of a more general nature, sweeping over the vast regions from India to the Atlantic, and deducing by a rigorous inquiry the mutual laws of the most important languages of past and present times, and showing the identity, in origin and locality, of the races that spoke them. In short, a vast field has been traversed, and is now thoroughly exploring, by hundreds of eminent scholars in Germany, France, England and other countries. The rich fruits of these explorations can be enjoyed only by those that have mastered the two classical languages. These, in some respects, constitute the central points embrace the germinating principles of the inquiry. They possess a literature perfect in form and adequate in amount. Being understood by large numbers of scholars, they can be appealed to as common umpires in a dispute. Through them, as a mirror, we can see the culture and development to which all the sister dialects might have attained, or did actually reach. We may now refer to the other great department of collegiate study, the mathematics and the relative branches of natural philoso 1851.] Value of Mathematics. 17 phy. In the language of Dr. Whewell, "No education can be considered as liberal, which does not cultivate both the faculty of reason and the faculty of language: one of which is cultivated by the study of mathematics, and the other by the study of the classics. To allow the student to omit one of these, is to leave him half educated. If a person cannot receive such culture, he remains in the one case irrational, in the other, illiterate." The great and indispensable value of mathematical study may be illustrated by a reference to the practice of composition. The ability to write in an impressive manner, is an acquisition of importance for all educated men, for multitudes indispensable. Stores of knowledge are valuable in proportion as they can be used. An effective and accomplished writer does not owe his skill to chance. Neither is he indebted only or mainly to a ready memory, to a nervous excitability, to strong passions, or to the gift of imagination. In addition to these he needs the exact training which mathematics will furnish. What are the principal hindrances in the way of the youthful writer? On what points is he liable to be discouraged? Why are many unable to make a deep and continuous impression by their written performances? One cause of it is, the inability to fix the attention. The mind is under the dominion of vagrant habits. When brought, forcibly as it were, to reflect upon a particular subject, it starts back instantly. It rebels against all efforts to confine it. The individual who has not disciplined himself to habits of close attention, may write effectively, on particular occasions; but his success is owing to some extraordinary impulse, or to some external cause powerfully exciting his feelings. The effects of his exertions will be likely to be evanescent. They have not the enduring element of connected thought, or of just and comprehensive views. He has not investigated the subject on all sides, but has been seduced by some attractive features, or by some temporary interest involved in it. Another hindrance is, the inability to abstract the mind from all intruding cares, all foreign and all related objects, and keep it inexorably fixed on the one point before it. One may have the power of fastening the attention in a measure, of drawing it within the general range of the topic to be investigated, but he fails to separate the particular quality, the identical point, to bid all related questions depart, and to keep the thoughts resolutely and for a long time, on the hinge of a discussion, or on the needle's point, as it were of a theme. Napoleon on the field of battle, or in his tent at night, could abstract his mind from every consideration and fasten it on the one necessary to gain his ob ject. With writers, it is often the reverse. Foreign or but partially related thoughts come thronging before the field of vision. Hence, they never attain to a logical consistency. One thing does not flow legitimately from another. Their compositions are as far as possible from being well reasoned. They are not the evolutions of a principle, but the stringing together of beads. A thought is impressive only by its independent force. It has no vital connection with its predecessor, nor with that which follows. The fortress is carried, if at all, by the impetuosity of a single unplanned or ill-planned charge, not by well-concerted or closely connected assaults. Defeat or want of success is the rule. Victory is accidental. In other words, the mind of the writer has not been trained mathematically. He has not been disciplined by a rigid geometry. He has not familiarized himself with the unerring and absolute truth of lines and numbers. His positions want the precision which they might acquire from the axioms of pure science. His inferences might flow legitimately from a hundred other doctrines. His reason has not been cultivated. A leading department of his intellect has run to waste. Mathematical discipline would have introduced order into this confusion. A patient study of abstract science would have added immeasurably to his power as a thinker and writer. The topic under discussion may be strikingly illustrated from experience. Several hundred years bear testimony to the value of mathematical and classical study in the collegiate discipline. The whole civilized world, since the revival of letters, have coincided in the general arrangement of the university course. This general acquiescence, however, has not been effected without discussion. The ground, at several periods and in all the leading countries of Christendom, has been sharply contested. The relative value of the classics has often been tried in a fiery crucible. Mathematical study has encountered fierce assailants. The practical utility, especially of its higher departments, has been confidently denied, as if the great object of the college course were not mental discipline, but the formation. of a corps of original investigators in mathematics and natural philosophy. Still, the verdict in favor of these studies, has been all but unanimous. In our own country, opposition to the prominent place which these studies hold in the system, has at various times appeared. But it has always given way to fair and open argument. Besides, the conviction of the value of these studies is not confined to those who have pursued them. Business men, intelligent mechanics and merchants, who have not received a collegiate education, have often given 1851.] The English Universities. 19 the most gratifying testimony in behalf of the classics. The high opinion of their value entertained by the late Dr. Bowditch, who was what is called "a self-taught" man, is well known. One of the most eminent and wealthy living merchants of Boston, not himself educated at College, has repeatedly affirmed that a business clerk with a classical education was generally far superior to one not so educated, doubtless because it secures a training of the faculties, a balance of mind, and a quickness of apprehension that is reached by no other method of discipline. An eminent author in the natural sciences, a distinguished scholar of Ritter, remarks, that, as a general rule, those individuals in the classes of natural science, who were skilled in the classics, had a marked preeminence over those who had not thus been favored. It may, however, be more instructive to adduce, in proof of our general position, the experience of the English Universities, some of the results of the liberal studies which have been pursued in our parent country for several centuries. The classics and mathematics have been from the beginning at the foundation of liberal studies in England. It is true that classical studies at Oxford have had far too great a preponderance over the mathematical, while at Cambridge, especially before the present century, mathematics were the favorite and far too exclusive study. Yet, on the whole, taking the two Universities and the Classical Schools together, the fundamental studies in the liberal education of Englishmen have been the two in question. The classical deficiency in Cambridge was partly at least supplied by the thorough classical preparation in the Schools, and by the efforts of particular Colleges. The mathematical want at Oxford has been in part atoned for by the rigid discipline of the Aristotelian logic, well known as the favorite study from the foundation of the University. We may here repeat the remark which we made in an earlier Number, that we do not by any means regard the English course of study as incapable of amendment. Some of these amendments are of grave importance. The natural sciences, political economy, etc., were jealously excluded at Oxford up to the present year. The habits and system of that university, the absorbing attention to the scholastic. logic, the exclusion of some of the more liberal classical writers, have doubtless had much to do with the peculiar theological and Papal tendencies which have given an unfortunate celebrity to that venerable seat of learning. A wider and more general course of studies would have liberalized the views of its members. The study of the clas sics at public schools and at the universities has been too much of the letter, without the spirit. It has consisted too exclusively of niceties, of imitation, of attention to forms. The pupils have kept too much aloof from the substance, from the great questions of morals, law, politics, general grammar, camparative philology, etc., which have characterized the German method. Still, notwithstanding all its defects, we look upon the English system with reverence. We believe it has wrought out immeasurable good for the people of that country, and through them on those of other lands. The subversion of the institutions, the substitution of any other branches of knowledge in place of the classics and mathematics, would be justly regarded as an irreparable calamity. The English university system was the parent of our own; and our own system, if not the cause of unmixed good, has been one of the main sources, and one of the mightiest bulwarks of all which is precious in our land. As a general proof of the practical benefits which have resulted from the English university system, we may point to the English character, to the world-wide reputation of Englishmen for virtue, knowledge, steadiness of principle, practical benevolence and usefulness. It would be folly, indeed, to attribute all this result to this or any other single cause. Many causes have coöperated; chief and paramount among them has been Protestant Christianity. Dissenters, too, who have never been graduated at the universities, havé borne a noble part in extending the influence of the British name, though they have shared largely in the indirect benefits which have flowed from the great national schools. Still, we are entitled to name the universities as one of the principal instrumentalities that have created what we mean by British character and influence. A large proportion of her naval and military officers, governors of provinces, consuls and ambassadors, travellers, the men of the three learned professions, statesmen, and multitudes of the gentry, bankers, merchants, etc., received their training in the classical schools and universities. The most susceptible and important period of their lives, from the age of ten to that of twenty-one, was passed in the venerable halls and shades of Eton, or Winchester, or Christ Church, or Trinity, or some other of those foundations, whose very stones and door ways seem to be freighted with instruction. We are authorized, therefore, to attribute to these seats of learning no small share of that which has made England what she is. She is distinguished for sterling integrity. This may be owing in a measure to the fixed and regular |