ANACREONTIC-THE GRASSHOPPER. HAPPY insect! what can be The country hinds with gladness hear, Thee Phoebus loves, and does inspire; Phœbus is himself thy sire. To thee, of all things upon earth, Life is no longer than thy mirth. Happy insect happy thou, Dost neither age nor winter know. But when thou'st drunk, and danced, and sung Thy fill, the flowery leaves among, (Voluptuous and wise withal, Epicurean animal ! ) Satiated with thy summer feast, COWLEY. In behalf of the publishers, we offer a word of explanation respecting an oversight on their part. On account of the illness of the editor of the last number, the 'copy' was not in the hands of the publishers till a very short time before it should have been issued. It was, necessarily, arranged for the press very hastily. It was not strange, therefore, that some mistake should have occurred. An editorial notice of Mr. Northend's valuable prize essay was inadvertently omitted. The proper designation for his other excellent prize essay, found on page 172, has also, by some over. sight, been left out. Mr. Northend, from a former editorial intercourse with the publishers, will not need to be assured that these omissions, on their part, are wholly unintentional. Occasionally, mistakes will naturally occur. It is only strange that they are so few, since the editors often reside at some distance from the publishers, and intercommunication is unavoidably imperfect. We think the patrons of the Teacher have reason to congratulate themselves that the publication of their journal is in such good hands. The general prompt. ness and the beautiful style with which it has been issued deserve much praise. A Report of the proceedings of the Bristol County Teachers' Association, which want of room compels us to omit in this Number, we hope to insert in the next. THERE are various opinions, even among intelligent men, relating to the study of the ancient classics; but on this as on other subjects the decision generally turns upon a few significant questions. Will the study of a dead language qualify a man for business? May not the time be better employed upon more practical subjects? Would it not be well to learn first our own language? Without attempting a direct answer to these questions, it is proposed to offer some reasons why the teacher of the English language should be a classical scholar. In every branch of instruction, the first requisite in the teacher is accurate scholarship. Does the study of the classics conduce to habits of accuracy? The study of language is the study of thought, in its most tangible and perfect expression; and the more perfect the representation is the more definite will be the ideas conveyed, and the more exact will be the mental processes by which these signs of thought are comprehended. The classical languages are doubtless the most perfect that have ever been written or spoken; they stand forth among the monuments of the past, the imperishable embodiment of the genius and culture of ages. It follows, therefore, that the study of these perfect forms of thought will mould the mind of the student to habits of the same exactness. It is no objection to this study, that it strengthens the memory more perfectly than any other exercise; yet this is not the only, or the most important result. It begins with the memory of mere words; but every word becomes a living germ, implanting in the mind a new idea, or awakening a new relation of thought, From the knowledge of words, the student proceeds to the construction and analysis of sentences and the more complicated forms of connected discourse, weighing carefully each word in itself, and in its associated relations, with every change and peculiarity of form and arrangement, until the thought of the author, so far as language has expressed it, is fully possessed. This constant balancing of the nice distinctions which constitute the perfection of the language, assigning to each its real and relative significance, is equally salutary as a means of accuracy and of discipline. The result of this process is scarcely less authoritative than a pure demonstration; the discipline of mind is much more perfect. In the one case, we advance by successive intuitions, excluding at each step every possibility of doubt until the conclusion is attained; in the other, we proceed by a more complicated course, involving at one view the perception of each part of the whole expression, and the whole expression of all the parts combined. The Latin and Greek, in comparison with others, may be justly termed the exact languages, and the critical and thorough knowledge of them may claim a high rank among the exact sciences. The correspondence between words and ideas is more perfect than in any other forms of speech. No student has failed to notice this superiority over even the vigorous Saxon of our own tongue. The forms of words and the general structure of these languages, expressing with surprising exactness and beauty the ever varying shades of feeling and thought, indicate a stage of progress in refinement of taste and intellectual culture, altogether unrivalled and unapproached. The language we study becomes our model of thought. The character of the author and his modes of expression will reappear in the student. Hence the influence of the languages in question in producing all the distinguished scholars of more than twenty centuries. The works which have come down to us from the golden age of ancient literature, are the embodiment of all that was pure and worthy of transmission, in the mind and morals of successive generations. Their authors were the educators of the ages which they represent, nor have they yet lost their authority. The teachers of past generations have sat at their feet for lessons of wisdom, and the inspiration of their genius; and the teachers of the present should imbibe something of the same spirit. But the mantle of these high priests of the profession falls not unsolicited or undeserved upon any of their successors. The terms of discipleship are written in their own majestic language. Correctness of thought and of speech is one of the essentials in a teacher's qualifications. It is not, indeed, the only requisite; but all others, without this, are worse than worthless. One may possess a rich fund of facts and anecdotes, and the power to interest his class by eloquent displays of his own learnedness, and yet be radically deficient in the first principles of accurate scholarship. He may be a splendid teacher, and secure a temporary popularity, especially with those scholars who prefer to listen passively to the teacher's recitals rather than investigate and recite for themselves; but the results of such instruction will not abide the test of rigid scrutiny, nor satisfy the just demands of an intelligent community. The tendency to shallowness is sufficiently strong; nor has it been very sensibly arrested by the theory, more or less prevalent, that the teacher may be thoroughly qualified for a particular department of instruction without any definite knowledge of collateral branches. A very salutary check to this evil, and the self-complacency always attendant, would be found in the critical study of the Greek and Latin languages. Here all mere generalities are out of place. The force of each word depending upon the most minute distinctions of form and position, nothing avails but careful and exact discrimination. But the discipline thus attained is not the only reward. This exercise in learning a foreign language is the best preparation for the successful study of our own. We are not about to utter a word in depreciation of our strong and sensible vernacular; nor would we, on the other hand, forget its origin and history. It stands not isolated and alone, acknowledging no relationship; it is rather the resultant of several distinct forces; and not the least influential of these are the two under consideration. Hence it is that the habits of thought acquired in studying the classics, and the exact knowledge of foreign words, are so essential to a correct understanding of the English language; and it is for this reason, also, that the study of Etymology is so generally introduced as a regular exercise, in our best-conducted schools. A good beginning has been made, even if nothing more has been accomplished than to have turned the attention of teachers to the importance of this fundamental knowledge, and the proper methods of instruction. Some of the books on this subject have been found very convenient helps in teaching the analysis and composition of words, and especially in affording the pupil the means of learning the force of those elements of the language more obviously of foreign extraction. But the teacher should be in advance of his scholars; he should know more of his subject than they can learn from the common text-books; otherwise he has mistaken his calling, or at least has entered upon it altogether too soon. The several branches of even a common education have a natural and necessary connection; the boundaries of any one cannot be clearly defined without some acquaintance with the territories beyond. The teacher of common arithmetic should be master of the higher mathematics; he who would teach the English language intelligently and thoroughly, must learn the power and use of its radical elements from original sources. The full force of many foreign words incorporated into our language and sanctioned by its standard authorities, no mere English scholar can either explain or understand. The more common prefixes and affixes, in their usual significations, may be readily learned; but there are roots and germs inwrought and imbedded in the very foundations of the language, which cannot be irradicated without destroying its flexibility and beauty; nor can any adequate idea of their power be acquired by superficial study. The spirit and charm of this wonderful Mosaic cannot be appreciated by an unpracticed eye; the dead must lie mingled with the living, in unseemly confusion, until, from lips touched with the true Promethean fire, they receive the breath of life. The classical allusions in the best-selected exercises of our reading-books, will not be understood by the common reader; they must be explained and illustrated by facts and principles, in the history of language, which are accessible only to the mature scholar. The interest of an exercise in reading, as well as the just expression of the thought it contains, may, and often must, depend upon a strict analysis of its more important words. Here, at least, it is not true, "that words are like leaves;" discriminating verbal criticism is no mean attainment. Whether in reading or in any other branch of instruction, the knowledge of words is the teacher's power; it is the power by which his own ideas are to be communicated and impressed, and the thought of the pupil awakened into action. "A word fitly spoken, how good is it." It is the power which educates; but it is a rare endowment; "it cometh not by observation," in the usual sense of that word. No desultory efforts can attain it; it is the reward of severe and long-continued study. But this, it is objected, is in most cases impracticable; and should it be granted, which by too many will not, that a classical education is desirable, it will be urged that a very few only either do or can, in any proper sense, acquire it; and that "a smattering of Latin" is as worthless to the teacher as superficial knowledge on any other subject. The justness of this last insinuation is freely admitted; but the objection, that the teacher cannot qualify himself to the utmost limit of the demand for his services, thoroughly and liberally, will find no sympathy with the friends of even the most practical education. It assumes that he who educates the mind, and in an important sense moulds the character of the community, requires less acumen and a less general culture than those who honor the learned professions, that the educator may be less learned and less competent than the educated. This position is false in theory and in fact; for the skill of the workman should be proportionate to the delicateness |