contrast which the missionary character forms to the literary and philosophic, as drawn by classic writers! The missionary character, even in outline, never entered into their minds. What would Cicero, in his latter years, when his powers and attainments had reached maturity, have thought of that character as it is exhibited in the work of Williams? How novel and unearthly would it have appeared! How strange, and, upon philosophic principles, how unaccountable his pursuits! He leaves a civilized country for barbarous islands in the Southern ocean, where, at once, and without fear, he assails the gods-all the gods-the highest not excepted! He resolutely and relentlessly rushes on to the destruction of systems which have lived, flourished, and been profoundly revered for thousands of years beyond the memory of man! Those systems, at length, he completely overthrows. He induces the natives to receive a body of entirely new doctrines, by which they are changed into new creatures. stages, he lifts them up at once rism to the truest civilization. current of their thoughts and feelings; he entirely quenches their warlike passions, and subdues their souls into a mood of gentle tenderness! He creates among them an order of society altogether novel. He effects a thorough revolution among the social habits of the occupants of whole islands-a revolution such as history never recorded, such as philosophy never imagined! How anxiously would the orator have inquired, Who is this man? Whence is he? What is the mystery of his success? By what skill, spell, or power, does he work these wonders? The great Roman would have deemed the whole thing a romance; but if he could have believed in the reality of the missionary and his reported performance, he must, upon his own principles, already set forth, have pronounced him incomparably the greatest man that ever appeared in our world!

Without intermediate from the lowest barbaHe reverses the whole

Permit me now, my dear Sir, to submit certain points for academic consideration. I submit, first, that the missionary character immeasurably surpasses every thing recorded in the classic page, and every thing known among the men of our time; and that it ought to receive more homage, by a hundred fold, than it has hitherto commanded from the learned world. I submit that the Universities of Great Britain ought occasionally to mark their strong sense of its high claims, by conferring special honours upon such men as have sustained it with extraordinary zeal and ability. I submit that it was a great, a lamentable, a culpable oversight in our chartered colleges, to allow John Williams, after the publication of his wonderful record, to return to Polynesia without such a mark of their approbation and favour. I submit that, religion wholly apart, men who become voluntary exiles, and take up their abode among savages, teaching them the alphabet and figures, reducing their language to writing, moulding them by grammars, and fixing them by dictionaries, preparing in them school books and an infant literature,-I submit that such men confer benefits above all price, work wonders above all praise, and establish a claim to the highest honours of learning; and that, when to all this, they add translations of the Word of Life, they achieve a good which cannot be requited,—which cannot be adequately acknowledged, and which renders the whole world their debtors. No degree of ability, no mere literary desert, no measure of home service in the republic of letters, can for one moment stand in competition with such claims ! These, and these alone, are in idolatrous, barbarous, and despotic countries, the true foundation of the empire of religion, liberty, and letters. To them future ages will

the men who are laying,

trace the institution of schools, colleges, and universities, and all the blessings of arts, science, and civilization!

My dear Sir, if these statements be correct, and if these anticipations be realized, how great, how aggravated has been the injustice of the present age to these lights of the world! Is it not matter both for wonder and for lamentation, that the guardians of British learning, the patrons of literature, and the princes of science, have been so indifferent to the claims of the missionary character; and that so few tokens of academic regard have been conferred upon those who sustain it? Surely sages and philosophers should not be the last to cheer a body of men of whom the world is not worthy! Posterity will note these things, and view them with astonishment. It is time for academic senates to awake to the importance of the character of the Christian evangelist. To them it belongs to rescue that character from the neglect of ignorance, and the contempt of frivolity; -to lift it up to its proper elevation in the sight of mankind,—and enhance the dignity of their own degrees by associating them with its highest exemplars. Academic honours, in themselves considered, possess absolutely no value: but, in their results, they may be of priceless worth. Such honours, bestowed occasionally on a few of the veteran missionaries of the London, Baptist, Wesleyan, and other Societies, would be as beneficial-especially among the higher orders of society-to the cause of heathen evangelization, as they would be creditable to the learned bodies that should confer them. Such men as Moffat and Morton, Ellis and Freeman, Knibb and Burchell, Turner and Cross, possess a weight of character and a claim of service amply sufficient to sustain them. By such a course reproach would be rolled away from this most exalted walk of intellectual, moral, and philanthropic labour. The minds of students, capable of promoting the mighty work, would be directed towards it, and it would be presented in a vastly more favourable and commanding light before the eyes of the millions. The time will

unquestionably come when these views will be realized, and when the colleges of Great Britain will deem it an infinitely higher honour to have produced a Martyn than a Milton, a Carey than a Cuvier, a Coke than a Canning, a Williams even than a Wilberforce. Our American brethren, always in advance of us, have already set us the example. Their universities are beginning rightly to estimate the work and worth of the Christian missionary; they are encouraging their choicest spirits to go "far hence unto the Gentiles," and bestowing their highest honours on men who have laboriously earned them on the foreign field.

I beg leave to submit, secondly, that if such be the characters of the classic writers themselves, and such the character of their works, it is of the utmost importance that the study of them be conducted not only with due regard to the interests of morality, but also to the formation of a right judgment relative to true greatness. The period of life at which such studies are carried on is of itself a matter for grave consideration; early impressions are deep and lasting; and it is, therefore, the more necessary to look well to their nature and tendency. On this subject but little care has hitherto been exercised, and the result has been a world of mischief. The time, however, draws nigh when the Christian spirit of Great Britain will acquire sufficient purity and strength to force on the consideration of this question. You will not anticipate, from an admiring disciple of your illustrious relative and predecessor, Dr. Hunter, any sympathy with those who clamour against classical learning. The pupils of that great man are in no danger of falling into this error. By him I was taught its incalculable importance; and time has only served to confirm the lesson. In my humble judgment, indeed, it can hardly be over-estimated. It has been, beyond controversy, the main source of the massive, profound, various, and copious literature of England.

All our mighty masters in History, in Morals, in Theology, in Politics, in Oratory, and, with a solitary and but partial exception, all our great Poets, drank deeply at the fountains of Greece and Rome. In this way their stupendous intellects were disciplined; their taste was formed; their stock of imagery was increased; and their stores of language were augmented. It appears to me that what the classics themselves are to a national literature, that the study of them is to the literary character. It is difficult, in fact, to conceive of such a character apart from an acquaintance with the ancient languages. On this point, one month's attendance on your celebrated predecessor would have sufficed to banish for ever all scepticism. How full of instruction and pleasure were his philological discussions, expositions, and dissertations!

The benefits derived from Classic study are as lasting as they are great. Even where the acquirements of early age are largely forgotten in after life, the substantial advantages remain. The value of classic learning for the work of Christian missionaries is very great. For generations to come, the business of translation will constitute a chief part of the evangelical enterprize; and the preparation of translators will consequently become an increasingly important branch of college education. The drilling and toil of the Latin and Greek classes, will exceedingly contribute to expedite the superior performance of this all-important undertaking. On these, my dear Sir, not to mention other grounds, I cheerfully and emphatically give my feeble voice for the widely increased spread of Classical learning. Let it fill the plains, towns, and cities of England, and spread through all the world! But I submit that its study ought to be combined with a careful, a copious, and an elaborate exposition of its manifold and momentous deficiencies.

The prose writers, on the score of purity, are seldom