The Classics [pp. 221-233]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
were in Latin. In Belles Lettres, criticism and rhetoric, in history, physics and morals, the models of the
moderns were all chosen from antiquity. In addition
to this too, the progress of Roman arms, and afterwards
the advance of Roman letters, had incorporated much
of the Latin language and idiom in all of the polite
modern languages except the German. The Italian
and Spanish in particular have been well called "bastard Latin." How then can any student of modern literature only, hope to understand the genius of his own
language, or even the spirit of that literature to which
he has devoted himself? What scientific inquirer can
hope, in any great degree, to forward the march of discovery no matter what may be his genius and spirit, if
he be without this learning? Independently then of
the intrinsic value of ancient learning, we humbly
think that thle reasons enumerated by us, suffice to
prove not only the importance but the absolute necessity of these studies to the accomplished scholar and
man of science. But we are prepared to go flirther, and
maintain that on certain subjects of mental inquiry, it
still affords the best models extant. In poetry, the best
models are confessedly ancient. In rhetoric, Aristotle,
Cuinctilian and Horace, have left nothing for modern
investigation to add upon that subject. But it is in history, oratory, the philosophy of government, law and
psychology, that the pre-eminence of ancient literature
is most important to be noticed. We are perfectly
aware that the history of remote antiquity has for every
mind a charm which does not belong to the genius or
the taste of the historian. Ideas of events remote in
point of time, whether past or future, always fill the
mind with a certain degreeof awe and uncertainty. A
feeling of mystery always attends our ideas of what is
remote in point of time or place. It is on the tale of
the traveller from far distant lands that we hang with
most delight and wonder. Had Columbus discovered
America within two days voyage of Europe, the tale of
his genius had been yet untold. So too the mind looks
to events long past with an awe and wonder akin to
those feelings which fill it in its eager gaze into futurity. It is this power of association which attaches the
antiquarian so devotedly-to his peculiar study, and so
soon converts it into a pursuit of feeling rather than of
reason. It is the same mysterious link which binds the
poet to the early customs and history of his country,
and which lends a charm to the simplest ballad if it be
ancient, and connects his contemplations with the past.
It was the same feeling so strong in the human heart
which swelled in the breast of the indignant old lawgiver when in despite of his formal pursuits and fancykilling studies, he pronounced his rebuke on those who
ignorantly maligned "that code which has grown grey
in the hoar of innumerable ages." It is a mighty jour —
ney which the human mind takes when it is transported from the present to the past. When the mind awakes
to realize these long-gone scenes, feelings of mingled
awe and pleasure insensibly possess it. A thousand
associations of gloomy grandeur attend us as we seem
to walk amid the mighty mionuments of the dead in the
silent twilight of past ages. We feel as if we were
treading the lonely streets of the city of the dead, and
lifting the pall of ages. We start to find that the mouldering records of roan's pursuits then told as now, that
still eternal tale of empty vanity and misbegotten hopes.
The ashes of buried cities on which we tread, the timeworn records of fallen empires and past greatness, the
monuments of events yet more remote and faintly discernible in the dim distance, seem the too visible memorials of "what shadows we are, and what shadows
we pursue," and like Crusoe we recoil with wonder
and fear from that trace of man on the desert shore.
The earlier the records to which we refer, the more
deeply are we struck with the wonderful power of our
minds which enables us to use the hoarded experience
of ages and enter into silent cotnmunion with the dead,
and the more sensibly are we impressed by the comparison of the imperishable creations of our spiritual
nature, with the fading glories of our mortal state. We
ascend the stream of time as the traveller of the Nile
in quest of its mysterious sources, and the farther we
proceed the more wonderful is the view adown that vale
of ages through which it flows. Behind us, in the dim
distance arise the dark and impenetrable barriers, whose
cloud-capt summits seem to point to the heavens as the
source of the mysterious river, whilst before us flow the
dark rolling waves of that wide stream which is to
bear us too to the mysteries of that land of shadows
where we are taught to expect an eternal, perhaps an
awful home. Fair cities and mighty empires arise in
momentary show along its shores, and then pass away
upon its rolling waters. In swift succession the generations of man chase each other upon its heaving billows in shadowy hosts,-tlse dim phantasmagoria of
our mortal state! And yet like shades that wander
along the Styx, some memories still live upon its silent
shore to tell the tale of wrecks and ruins which stud the
wave-worn banks. Lo! yonder rocky headland around
which sweeps the swift stream as it stretches into the
dark bay where the waters lie in momentary repose.
How many wvere the marble palaces, how smiling were
the gardens which gladdened that once lovely spot. Yon
mouldering fane that yet clings to the wave-worn rock,
was once the least amongst ten thousand, and where are
they?-Lost in these dark waters in wvhose deep womb
are buried the long forgotten glories of our mortal race.
From the charm of such associations we do not pretend to be exempt, nor do we envy the man who could
claim such an exemption. But we are free to confess
that this circumstance is too apt to disturb the judgment
in a comparison of the merits of ancient and modern
history. To a certain extent it may fairly be estimated amongst the advantages of the former, for if it gives
a greater interest to early history it holds out a greater
temptation to the ardent prosecution of that study. But
we do not fear the comparison without such adventitious aid, for we maintain that as historians the ancients
are still unequalled. Of all their histories which have
descended to the present time, there are none which
have not many of the higher excellences of historical
composition; but it is for Thucydides, Tacitus and Plutarchus, the great masters in their respective styles, that
we challenge modern history to produce the parallels.
The definition which Diodorus has given of history,
"that it is philosophy teaching by example," may truly
be applied to the writings of the two first named historians. Indeed, we have never taken up the w orks of
the first without wonder at the rare and philosophical
temperament which enabled him to conduct his eager
search after truth without disturbance from those feel
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