ty the
English writer depends; but he has, perhaps, merely copied the statement
of Daru.... I have consulted an ancient and authentic MS. belonging to
the Venieri family, a MS. well known, and certainly better worthy of
confidence than Daru's history, and it says nothing of M. Morosini but
that he was elected Doge to the delight and joy of all men. Neither do
the Savina or Dolfin Chronicles say a word of the shameful speculation;
and our best informed men say that the reproach cast by some historians
against the Doge perhaps arose from a mistaken interpretation of the
words pronounced by him, and reported by Marin Sanuto, that 'the
speculation would sooner or later have been advantageous to the
country.' But this single consideration is enough to induce us to form a
favorable conclusion respecting the honor of this man, namely, that he
was not elected Doge until after he had been entrusted with many
honorable embassies to the Genoese and Carrarese, as well as to the King
of Hungary and Amadeus of Savoy; and if in these embassies he had not
shown himself a true lover of his country, the republic not only would
not again have entrusted him with offices so honorable, but would never
have rewarded him with the dignity of Doge, therein to succeed such a
man as Andrea Contarini; and the war of Chioggia, during which it is
said that he tripled his fortune by speculations, took place during the
reign of Contarini, 1379, 1380, while Morosini was absent on foreign
embassies."

7. MODERN EDUCATION.

The following fragmentary notes on this subject have been set down at
different times. I have been accidentally prevented from arranging them
properly for publication, but there are one or two truths in them which
it is better to express insufficiently than not at all.

* * * * *

By a large body of the people of England and of Europe a man is called
educated if he can write Latin verses and construe a Greek chorus. By
some few more enlightened persons it is confessed that the construction
of hexameters is not in itself an important end of human existence; but
they say, that the general discipline which a course of classical
reading gives to the intellectual powers, is the final object of our
scholastical institutions.

But it seems to me, there is no small error even in this last and more
philosophical theory. I believe, that what it is most honorable to know,
it is also most profitable to learn;