languages appear to us obviously connected, mainly because we hold the Latin thread which runs through them; if that were broken, the pearls would soon roll asunder. And the mental connexion of the present nations with each other, as well as with the past, would thus be destroyed. What would this be but a retrograde movement in civilisation? In nations as in men, in intellect as in social condition, true nobility consists in inheriting what is best in the possessions and character of a line of ancestry. Those who can trace the descent of their own ideas, and their own language, through the race of cultivated nations; who can show that those whom they represent, or reverence as their parents, have everywhere been foremost in the fields of thought and intellectual progress,-those are the true nobility of the world of mind; the persons who have received true culture; and such it should be the business of a liberal education to make men. With these views, I cannot conceive it possible that any well-constituted system of University teaching, in any European nation, can do otherwise than make the study of the best classical authors of Greece and Rome, one of its indispensable and cardinal elements. But before I proceed, I cannot refrain from pointing out the evil of making such an element, or any one element alone, too exclusive or too large a part of our system of instruction. SECT. 5.-OF THE NECESSITY OF COMBINING CLASSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL STUDIES AS SUBJECTS OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING. THE arguments which we have urged in support of the necessity of the ancient languages as prominent parts of the teaching of our Universities, proceed upon the ground of their usefulness as instruments of mental culture. And this effect has been contemplated, as resulting, not only from the familiarity which the student of classical literature may acquire with the works and style of the brightest periods of ancient civilisation; but also, from the clear views to which he may be led, by such studies, of the principles and history of grammar, language, and literary thought. Now it must not be forgotten, that in classical as in any other literature, the reader who merely flutters through a series of authors such as catch his fancy, who studies them only as a literary amusement, without severe thought, or steady perception of the principles of language and composition, cannot receive from them such a culture as we have supposed; any more than from any other line of reading, suggested and directed by mere caprice and personal taste. Indeed, since principles are disclosed and illustrated by the reading of poets and orators, far more obscurely and vaguely than by most other studies, classical literature so pursued is entirely inefficient for any purpose of genuine mental cultivation. It will only produce a taste, fastidious, indeed, but superficial and arbitrary, without any distinct and developed appre hension of analogies and reasons. And even if the classical authors be studied profoundly and thoroughly, as examples of language, composition, and thought, still they only supply one occasion among many, for the cultivation of the more exact operations of the mind; and in this, or in any other way, the adoption of one instrument alone, for such a purpose, will make the resulting culture extremely partial and deficient. The mode in which this defect may most effectually be remedied, is by combining, with the study of classics, the study of the elementary portions of mathematics. For these severer studies will bring into play that class of intellectual faculties, which the pursuit of elegant literature alone leaves unexercised. We may add, too, that the mental powers so developed will react upon the study of classical authors; and the perception of general relations, of grounds and reasons, even in matters of grammar and taste, will be far more likely to arise in a student thus disciplined, than in the mere elegant scholar. Every person of mathematical cultivation is necessarily an analyst of conditions and connexions; and the analytical power thus awakened will commonly exercise itself upon language, as well as upon mathematical quantity; and thus a familiarity with the best models of composition will become such a discipline of distinct ideas, with regard to the principles of language and thought, as, for our purposes, we require it to be. The study of elementary mathematics, therefore, along with the study of classical authors, ought to be imperatively required by all Univerities. To separate these studies, and to allow students to neglect one of them, because some persons have a taste for one, and some persons for another, of these lines of reading, is to abdicate the functions of education altogether. Universities and Colleges do not exist merely for the purpose of enabling men to do what they best like to do; or for the purpose of offering and awarding prizes for trials of strength, in modes selected by the combatants. Their business is the general cultivation of all the best faculties of those who are committed to their charge, and the preservation and promotion of the general culture of mankind. And it is certain, that of all the persons who derive advantage from them, none are more benefited than those who, with a great general aptitude for learning, are prevented, by the requisitions of such institutions, from confining their exertions to one favourite channel. The man of mathematical genius who, by the demands of his College or his University, is led to become familiar with the best Greek and Latin classics, becomes thus a man of liberal education, instead of being merely a powerful calculator. The elegant classical scholar, who is compelled, in the same way, to master the propositions of geometry and mechanics, acquires among them habits of rigour of thought and connexion of reasoning. He thus becomes fitted to deal with any subject with which reason can be concerned, and to estimate the prospects of science; instead of being kept down to the level of the mere scholar, learned in the literature of the past, but illogical and inco herent in his thoughts, and incapable of grappling with the questions which the present and the future offer. To neglect to demand a combination of these two elements, would be to let slip the only machinery by which Universities, as the general cultivators of the mind, can execute their office. SECT. 6.-ON THE SCIENCES AS SUBJECTS OF FROM what has already been said of the use of mathematics in university education, it will easily be inferred, that we cannot find, in any of the more modern physical sciences, anything that can fitly be substituted for that study. The effect of the clear insight of geometry or mechanics cannot be efficiently replaced by sciences which exhibit a mass of observed facts, and consequent doubtful speculations, as geology; or even by other sciences, as chemistry and natural history, which, though they involve philosophical principles, can only be learnt by presenting numerous facts to the senses. But though such sciences cannot do the work of mental cultivation, they are highlyvaluable acquisitions to the student, and may very beneficially engage his attention during the later years of his University career. For although they do not constitute the culture, they belong to the information of the well-educated man; though his habits of thought must be formed among other subjects, they may be well employed on these. And it is well for the general sympathy and mutual understanding of |