contemporaries in the rear. But in antiquity, the author was formed much more by the audience. That, which is written to be recited, declaimed, and chanted, implies a community prepared to relish and appreciate it. A minstrel poetry, especially, cannot rise far above the level of the taste and intelligence of the age; and we think it quite fair to argue, for instance, that the period of the world, when the sixth canto of the Iliad formed the entertainment of some hero's festal board, or the interlude of the games at some public celebration, though it were a period more remote than the return of the Heraclidæ, the siege of Troy, ay, or the expedition of the Argonauts, was no savage period. The conception of the scene of Hector and Andromache is one of civilized life; it is the conception of an age of sentiment, exclusively as that is claimed for the modern world and the romantic nations.

Every institution, in modern times, which has the effect of adding to the advantages peculiar to the art of printing, those which belonged to the ancient forms of literature, promises the beneficial result of a double agency in promoting the improvement of society. It may even be necessary to aim at such a combination, by way of corrective of those evils, which our new and all powerful arts have introduced. It is precisely these objects, which we think may be attained by our literary societies. An assembly composed chiefly of well educated and intelligent persons, collected under the sanction and within the precincts of respectable establishments for education, addressed on literary topics by men of science and letters, under circumstances likely to produce a great effort to excel, is no faint image of the assemblies of the ancient world, before which the great productions of cultivated minds were exhibited. It is true, these assemblies are with us occasional; anciently, they were essential; here they are a relaxation; to the elder world they were an important part of the organization of social life. Everything, however, which is done to give dignity and interest to these assemblies, has a favorable operation and tendency of the kind alluded to. Science is wooed from her cell. She casts off her monkish stole, and relaxes from her stern and melancholy aspect. The cheerful countenances of an intelligent assembly, the welcome note of applause, the animation of the living voice, the communication of thought, feeling, and sentiment from breast to breast, on topics of polite literature, of taste, or of philosophy, make these occasions a source of high gratifica

tion, and ultimately must make them the means of essential and wide spread benefit. No pains should be spared, to add to their interest and importance, by the selection of those, who are able and willing to render them attractive.

The public taste of our community runs decidedly, but by no means too strongly, in favor of holidays of all kinds, and especially those of a literary character. Respectable as some of them are already, they are likely to become more so, by the honorable rivalry of sister institutions, by the improved character of the audiences usually assembled, and by the consequently strengthened demand for talent to entertain and satisfy a fastidious assembly. It is now several years, since on occasion of the public appearance of the lamented Buckminster, on the anniversary of the society of Phi Beta Kappa at Cambridge, the public attention and curiosity were excited and gratified to a degree, which has left a permanent and not yet expended effect. To this institution, we are accordingly indebted for almost the only literary effort of one of the most accomplished of our scholars and one of the most elegant of our writers. His performance on the occasion alluded to, will ever remain a jewel in our literature. It is matter of serious regret, that the combination of certain exercises of a totally different character, we mean the prize declamations, with the performances of the society, should have been allowed to take place. The audience, collected for a different object, is thus preoccupied and wearied out; and what might in itself be the most rational and agreeable of our purely literary festivals, is made tedious and fatiguing. Believing these to be the feelings of the public, we hope the encroachment here alluded to will be abated.

For the reasons to which we have already referred, we think the public gratitude is due to the eminent jurist, to whom we owe the first of the performances named at the head of this article. We regard him as deserving well of our republic of letters, for lending the sanction of his name and of his example to this literary celebration; as he has especially so deserved of it, by his well conceived, well digested, and well written Discourse. Most of the readers of this Journal are already acquainted with it, and it scarcely needs our aid, either by way of analyzing or extracting, to make it known to the literary public, in proportion to its merits. It is indeed a highly finished sketch of a most extensive subject, presenting nothing less than a discriminating, comprehensive, and accurate review of the present state of

science and letters, particularly in this country, by way of marking the characteristics and peculiarities of the age and of its cultivation. It is a report from a strong, highly cultivated, and richly stored mind, not of some single professional study, not of some favorite branch of individual pursuit, but of the whole broad domain of intellectual culture, as presenting itself to a mind competent and resolved to go along with the age. It is the less easy to attempt any selection or comparison of the parts of this performance, as one of its merits is the ready transition from one member to another of a long series of interesting topics, treated in due proportion to their relative importance, all with spirit, and many with felicity and power. Were we to make an indication, by way of specimen, we should say, that the remarks on female education, on classical learning, and on the deceased patriarchs of America, were among those, to which the reader might first turn back, to prolong and repeat the gratification of the perusal.

'Nor should it be overlooked, what a beneficial impulse has been thus communicated to education among the female sex. If christianity may be said to have given a permanent elevation to woman, as an intellectual and moral being, it is as true, that the present age, above all others, has given play to her genius, and taught us to reverence its influence. It was the fashion of other times to treat the literary acquirements of the sex, as starched pedantry, or vain pretensions; to stigmatize them as inconsistent with those domestic affections and virtues, which constitute the charm of society. We had abundant homilies read upon their amiable weaknesses and sentimental delicacy, upon their timid gentleness and submissive dependence; as if to taste the fruit of knowledge were a deadly sin, and ignorance were the sole guardian of innocence. Their whole lives were “sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," and concealment of intellectual power was often resorted to, to escape the dangerous imputation of masculine strength. In the higher walks of life, the satirist was not without color for the suggestion, that it was

"A youth of folly, an old age of cards;"

and that elsewhere," most women had no character at all," beyond that of purity and devotion to their families. Admirable as are these qualities, it seemed an abuse of the gifts of Providence to deny to mothers the power of instructing their children, to wives the privilege of sharing the intellectual pursuits of their husbands, to sisters and daughters the delight of ministering knowledge in the fireside circle, to youth and beauty the charm of refined sense, to age and infirmity the consolation of studies,

which elevate the soul and gladden the listless hours of despondency.

These things have in a great measure passed away. The prejudices, which dishonored the sex, have yielded to the influence of truth. By slow but sure advances education has extended itself through all ranks of female society. There is no longer any dread, lest the culture of science should foster that musculine boldness or restless independence, which alarms by its sallies, or wounds by its inconsistencies. We have seen that here, as every where else, knowledge is favorable to human virtue and human happiness; that the refinement of literature adds lustre to the devotion of piety; that true learning, like true taste, is modest and unostentatious; that grace of manners receives a higher polish from the discipline of the schools; that cultivated genius sheds a cheering light over domestic duties, and its very sparkles, like those of the diamond, attest at once its power and its purity. There is not a rank of female society however high, which does not now pay homage to literature, or that would not blush even at the suspicion of that ignorance, which a half century ago was neither uncommon nor discreditable. There is not a parent, whose pride may not glow at the thought, that his daughter's happiness is in a great measure within her own command, whether she keeps the cool sequestered vale of life, or visits the busy walks of fashion.

'A new path is thus opened for female exertion, to alleviate the pressure of misfortune, without any supposed sacrifice of dignity or modesty. Man no longer aspires to an exclusive dominion in authorship. He has rivals or allies in almost every department of knowledge; and they are to be found among those, whose elegance of manners and blamelessness of life command his respect, as much as their talents excite his admiration. Who is there, that does not contemplate with enthusiasm the precious fragments of Elizabeth Smith, the venerable learning of Elizabeth Carter, the elevated piety of Hannah More, the persuasive sense of Mrs Barbauld, the elegant memoirs of her accomplished niece, the bewitching fictions of Madame D' Arblay, the vivid, picturesque, and terrific imagery of Mrs Radcliffe, the glowing poetry of Mrs Hemans, the matchless wit, the inexhaustible conversations, the fine character painting, the practical instructions. of Miss Edgeworth, the great KNOWN, standing in her own department by the side of the great UNKNOWN?' pp. 15-18.

We were more especially gratified by the remarks on classical literature, as being made at a seasonable moment, and as an authority not open to suspicion. To the testimony of professedly academical men, those whose habits are formed to the

study of the ancients, and still more those whose reputation and interest are connected with that study, it is always easy to object a selfish bias. It is not easy to make such an objection, with much plausibility, against the authority of Mr Justice Story, a man, who, however, meritorious as a scholar, owes his standing in society to a different kind of learning; and whose prepossessions must of necessity be such as are formed in the busy practice of the most practical of professions. The testimony of such a man possesses all the weight which is due to mere authority of any kind, and which, though no reverencers of mere authority, we think ought to be regarded, in the present case, as a counterpoise to the weight of authorities, which have lately been busily accumulated in the opposite scale. The truth, however, here, as in most other controversies, is in the golden mean, where it is placed in fact by the discriminating observations of Mr Justice Story. To deny all importance and all value to the study of classical literature, is a bigotry just as ridiculous, as to make that study the sole business of education. Most of the argumentation at present current on this head is aimed at particular abuses; at the extravagances of individuals; or at the excess of that which is good in moderation; or the wrong application of what is good in the right place. The most illogical confusion, moreover, prevails, of the different objects to be attained, by the study of the ancient languages.

This study may be pursued by the man of taste, for the literature of which they are the depository; by the historian, not merely in order to be sure of the sense of historical authorities, but in order to get at what is sometimes the only clew to be had, to the affinity of nations; by the philosopher of the mind, in order to survey the operations of the human intellect to the greatest advantage in the structure of the most perfect systems of expressing thought; by the members of the different professions, in order to master that portion of the literature of their professions, which is contained in these languages; and what is still different from all the rest, this study may be pursued at school and at college, as the study which is found, upon the whole, to furnish the most eligible basis of education. A great part of what we have seen written and heard said of late, on the topic of the languages, resolves itself into showing that the reasons which recommend the study to one class of men do not apply to others. In reference to the last mentioned use of the dead languages, namely, that of being a convenient basis for educa