t precious instrument which is
meant not only to express valuable thought, but to preserve it as
well. Further, he will learn to feel respect for the language in
which he writes and thus be saved from any attempt to remodel it by
arbitrary and capricious treatment. Without this schooling, a man's
writing may easily degenerate into mere chatter.

To be entirely ignorant of the Latin language is like being in a fine
country on a misty day. The horizon is extremely limited. Nothing can
be seen clearly except that which is quite close; a few steps beyond,
everything is buried in obscurity. But the Latinist has a wide view,
embracing modern times, the Middle Age and Antiquity; and his mental
horizon is still further enlarged if he studies Greek or even
Sanscrit.

If a man knows no Latin, he belongs to the vulgar, even though he be
a great virtuoso on the electrical machine and have the base of
hydrofluoric acid in his crucible.

There is no better recreation for the mind than the study of the
ancient classics. Take any one of them into your hand, be it only
for half an hour, and you will feel yourself refreshed, relieved,
purified, ennobled, strengthened; just as though you had quenched your
thirst at some pure spring. Is this the effect of the old language
and its perfect expression, or is it the greatness of the minds whose
works remain unharmed and unweakened by the lapse of a thousand years?
Perhaps both together. But this I know. If the threatened calamity
should ever come, and the ancient languages cease to be taught, a new
literature will arise, of such barbarous, shallow and worthless stuff
as never was seen before.

ON MEN OF LEARNING.

When one sees the number and variety of institutions which exist
for the purposes of education, and the vast throng of scholars and
masters, one might fancy the human race to be very much concerned
about truth and wisdom. But here, too, appearances are deceptive. The
masters teach in order to gain money, and strive, not after wisdom,
but the outward show and reputation of it; and the scholars learn, not
for the sake of knowledge and insight, but to be able to chatter and
give themselves airs. Every thirty years a new race comes into the
world--a youngster that knows nothing about anything, and after
summarily devouring in all haste the results of human knowledge as
they have been accumulated for thousands of years, aspires to be
thought cleverer than the whole of the p