inn
TATUONAOK OK CAVITATj AND TUB UKXAI SS.VNCK.
VOL. VITI,
on the mi ml by different studies, the pleas
ure lo lie derived from tlio studios ilium
selves, the knowledge which they impart,
and in what manner, if at all, it may he
otherwise obtained, can determine what
studies are host adapted to his wants. In
this manner he examines and weighs the
testimony, then decides for himsclt.
Young writers often make a mistake in
choosing subjects. Instead of selecting
those with which llioy are best acquainted,
they write upon topics entirely unfamil
iar to them. Thus we notice among the
students that nearly all the opposers of
classical study are either pursuing some
other course or have not succeeded in the
classical course. They arc not competent
to discuss the merits or demerits of these
languages as a factor of education. Let
such confine themselves to the excellcn.
cies of their own course and leave the
relative value ol studies to scholars of rip.
er years, and long experience.
Too much time has already been occu
pied by this article, for me to enter into
the special merits of classical studies, but
perhaps some of my colleagues will enter
upon that discussion in a iuture number.
Whoever has disparaged these studies, it
has not been one who has attained a (air
degree of classical scholarship. Instead
of reducing tho number of educating me
diums, let it be increased as fast as the re
sources of our country will admit. I.
PATRONAGE OF CAPITAL
THE HENAISSANOE.
AND
JjfuIE practical growth of Christian
!k power and inlluence was simultane
ous with the ruin and decay of pagan
grandeur. Impelled by a ceaseless tide
of spiritual fanaticism, the Church from
its origin, and by virtue of its canons
was forced to look upon the external for.
malitius of the Pontiffs with a loathsome
tolerance, and, as the power of the Rom
an Church increased, and as her authority
became exacting; the toleration of an ac
knowledged evil was the prince of crimes.
Thus by the linal settlement of Iconoclast
controversy, fell in the west, the emblems
and antiquated svir.bols of religious awe
and veneration.
The sculptor, conscious that his highest
conception embodied in Parian nimble,
would no longer arouse the fettered imag
ination of mankind, dropped the chisel
from his well-trained hand. Back upon
the palette fell tho brush and the art of
colors and secret blending, a relic of
Egyptian niagni licence, was buried in ob
livion. Architecture and masonry became
the prey of piraolical warfare. The orator
became the sainted bishop, the statesman
the ponlillcal envoy. Tho poet bereft of
his muse sighed for the sovcii.gr.tcd
Thebes and the magnificence of Olym
pins' Court.
The corruption of the Athenian com
monwealth, and the tyrannical magistrates
of Rome, filled the hearts of men with
strange forobodings. This terror now
worked upon by spiritual agents of an in
fallible pope, rendered nicii at the close
of the eleventh century childish and in
sane. The credulity and fanaticism of
the tenth century was the outgrowth of
(he millomium. Hut when the sun rose on
the fatal day, and passed beyond thchori.
zon, and men yot lived and moved, the
prayers that arose from Europe on that
day reechoed mockery to the dignity and
true character of man.
Men now saw their folly and delusion,
and some there were who possessed the
moral strength to cast aside superstition
and appreciate once more the relics of a
pagan Renaissance. The crumbling tern,
pics at Piestum and Ephcsus and the en.
tombed statuary of the same, became the
guides and furnished patterns am' models
for the Renaissance. The manuscripts
found in the monasteries of Italy, Ger
many and France, were brought forth
and the fall of Constantinople deluged
the world with the learning that had been
accumulated through a thousand years.
And ere long, a now Homer, a new Soph-