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Classical Education. Books and Methods of Instruction. ["American Journal of Education," Vol. II. No. 5. for May, 1827.]

In the "Journal of Education" for May, 1827, we observed a piece entitled "Classical Education," and more particularly devoted to the subject of "books and methods of instruction." This piece consists of a prefatory introduction, apparently from the Editor of the Journal, and of an extract from a letter from Professor Long. To many of the remarks contained in either portion of the article, we yield a cordial assent, deeming them both sound and seasonable. Of the justness of some suggestions made and strongly urged both by Professor Long and by the Editor of the Journal, we are not satisfied. By the latter, the use of Dalzel's Analecta Minora and Majora is said to be in "miserable taste," those books having been (it is added) "rejected with contempt, from the only other considerable University, in the country where they originated." "If our youth," the Editor pursues, "are ever to acquire a true classical taste, they must be permitted to read authors singly, to read them throughout, and to read them again and again, till the spirit of the writer has transfused itself into the mind of the pupil, and till every characteristic turn of thought and expression is as familiar, as those of a living acquaintance."

Professor Long seems to inculcate nearly the same doctrine in the following words;

"One single author carefully read and explained, as it ought to be, would give more real knowledge, and confer more satisfaction, than unconnected, ill selected pieces from a dozen different writers."

Again, Professor Long in the preceding sentence observes;

"Modern education has substituted, instead of large portions of these authors, little scraps, and has encumbered the student with such an apparatus of grammars, dictionaries, and other helps, that the few years spent at school are not sufficient to enable him to obtain that, which is the object of his labor."

Farther, "The use of the Analecta Minora and Majora has proved an obstacle to the acquisition of Greek; it is almost impossible to imagine, how such extracts were ever read in any school; in the best schools in England they are not used."

Among the books mentioned as those "which cannot be used with much profit," are

"Analecta Minora and Majora, and "Greek Readers."

The extensive circulation and high repute of the "Journal of Education," and the character of Professor Long as a scholar, have suggested to us the propriety of briefly examining the opinions here expressed, which we shall attempt, with the deference due to the sources from which they proceed.

We are inclined to think, then, that on examination, it will appear, that the opinion of Professor Long, as far as it goes to the censure of a practice universal in the schools of this country and of Germany, and extremely prevalent, we incline to think, in the schools of all countries, is not well matured in his own mind, nor tenable on good grounds.

If the objection be merely a specific one, to the use of ill-compiled books,―to books which consist of "little scraps," and "ill selected pieces from a dozen different writers," then there can of course be no controversy. It amounts merely to saying that a collection of ill selected scraps can be of little use, or in other words, that a bad selection is a bad selection. Perhaps it will be found, upon a revision of the whole of what Professor Long has written on this matter, that he has no objection to a judiciously compiled work of the kind under consideration. He says, "There could be no objection to a school or a college book, which contained large portions, from the best authors, arranged in proper order, with short notes in English, explanatory of the Greek idiom, and other things which require explanation; but there is no book of this description which is yet in use."

In this remark, Professor Long admits that there is no objection to a judiciously compiled selection from the Greek authors,

for the use of colleges and schools. This is equivalent to admitting, that such a collection would be convenient and advantageous, because if it were not convenient and advantageous, it would be highly objectionable.

Professor Long's objection, then, when duly weighed, amounts only to this, that the books of extracts hitherto compiled for the use of schools are not judicious and suitable collections; in other words, that the Collectanea Majora, Minora, and Greek Reader, with the several introductory Latin works in use in our schools, are all of them such as cannot be used to advantage. This is a question, which we have no wish at present to discuss. The merit of the works is various. The Collectanea Majora, in Dr. Popkin's edition, we deem a good book. The Minora is comparatively less valuable. But we do not think "the other considerable university" in Scotland ought to have rejected, even this, far less the Majora, "with contempt." The books, we think, can neither of them be fairly called contemptible;_ and when works, by an eminent teacher of the University at Edinburgh, after having passed through numerous editions, and been widely introduced into schools in concert with that University, are not merely disused, but "rejected with contempt," in a rival institution, it will naturally lead to the fear (though in this case no doubt the very groundless fear) that some feeling had mingled with the critical reasons that prompted so seemingly harsh a measure. As to Jacobs' Greek Reader, as prepared by the accomplished editor of the Anthologia, and introduced into the best schools in the country whose schools are the best in the world, it is, in our opinion, a most excellent school-book. We should have been heartily glad to have had the state of our schools and of classical education in America such, that the whole of that work could have been prepared, as an elementary work for this country. No experienced instructer, however, will, we think, be of opinion that this was possible; and we are inclined to believe that as much of the original work finds a place in the American edition, as the state of our schools and of classical education admits. We have, however, no wish or design to uphold this particular work. The general character of this class of productions is stated by Professor Long to be unobjectionable, and we should cheerfully and gratefully receive from him a compilation, to which no exception could be taken.

We have already stated, however, that Professor Long's opinions do not appear to be matured in his own mind. Although he admits that a collection of long extracts with proper notes

would be unobjectionable, he yet objects in general to the use of Greek Readers, and of "small lexicons," which seem an essential part of the plan of such works. He appears to prefer the reading even of one single author; and by the Editor of the Journal of Education, in the passage we first cited, very great importance is attached to this reading the whole of single authors.

We apprehend here, that there is a slight confusion of the objects of the profound Hellenist with those of the student at school. It cannot, strictly speaking, be called the immediate object of the latter, "to transfuse the spirit of an ancient author into his mind, and to render every characteristic turn of thought and expression as familiar as those of a living acquaintance." This is the object, this can be the attainment, only of a veteran professor; and even by him it can be extended only to two or three authors. Erasmus thought ten years not too much, to devote to the forming of such an acquaintance, as is here indicated, with Cicero alone. We feel no scruple in saying that to make “ every characteristic turn of thought and expression" in Homer, Plato, Demosthenes, Pindar, the three tragedians, and Aristophanes, as familiar as those of a living acquaintance, would be the work of an industrious, and we must add, in our opinion, (except for a teacher) of a wasted life.

But we do not conceive it the object of the school-boy to form such a perfect acquaintance as we speak of, even with a single author. He is to learn, not the peculiarities of an author, but the rudiments and general principles of the language. The Frenchman who studies English, does not (in common cases) wish to learn every characteristic turn of thought and expression in Shakspeare. He rather wishes to learn what Shakspeare has in common with other good writers. When he has mastered the general principles and the vocabulary of the language, he then proceeds, as his taste or necessity may dictate, from the study of the language to the study of individual authors; which two studies we take to be essentially different.

We believe there is no language, ancient or modern, in the study of which, resort has not been had to compilations of the kind under consideration. They are used, even in the learning of our own vernacular tongue, with respect to which, several reasons, that make their use convenient in foreign and ancient tongues, do not apply. It would, however, be thought a novel and extraordinary suggestion, that the first lessons of reading in English, or the ordinary lessons in reading in our schools, should be given, not from such selections and class books, as are universally employed for that purpose, but from the standard authors