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.
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