imagine that a well-formed mind cannot reason well without logic, is no less abfurd, than to fuppofe that the folid oak wants the support of the ivy that creeps round it.

The best school for the improvement of reason, after a competent education, is the living world. We find even the illiterate, who have spent their lives in conftat action, poffefling a very extenfive knowledge of things, and a most accurate method of judging of them; a knowledge and a method to which the cultivated but inexperienced reafoner can feldom attain. It is common to fee the learned academic, whofe labours are at laft rewarded by a rural benefice, unable, notwithstanding his acquired ftrength of reafon, to cope with the rude ruftic in a bargain for dues which the laws have allotted him.

It feems, then, that the gradual decay of fcholaftic logic, and the contempt in which fyllogiftic skill is held, is not unreasonable. It contributes little to the benefit of fociety. It is rather injurious to it, by drawing off that attention which might be usefully bestowed. What then shall we say? Muft an art, which our forefathers have ftudied from age to age, and to which many of us have devoted our first years at the univerfities, be exploded? A veneration is due to long established opinions. The powers of judging, which ftimulate the prefent age to innovation, were poffeffed by the paft in equal perfection. Some reafon they had for their inftitutions. The fame reafon may perhaps remain to prevent the total abolition of them; for truth and reafon are unchangeable. Our ancestors eftablished logical ftudies in the univerfities, becaufe in their days there were few other books to be obtained, and no other learning was prized. Their defcendants muft continue to bestow on them a moderate attention, because every part of knowledge contributes to accomplish the profeffed scholar. But they need give no more than a moderate attention, because the improvements of philofophy, and the great multiplication of books in every part of human learning, enable the ftudent to spend his time and fagacity more usefully and more agreeably.

He who poffeffes the genius and tafte, together with the philofophical spirit of the attic Harris, will do right

to

to cultivate them by ftudying the unread works of antient logicians. Our English Ariftotle, whofe productions are at once the quinteffence of elegance, and prodigies of analytical ingenuity, has pointed out flowers in thofe paths of learning where thorns only were feen before. The Stagyrite was literally idolized; and had it been the fate of Harris to have lived a few centuries ago, he alfo would have been honoured with a fubordinate deification. If any thing can reftore a tafte for thefe languishing ftudies, it is the grace which his ftyle and his accuracy have given them.

For metaphyfics what can be faid? If every book that has been written on them, and thousands have been written, were annihilated, not a fingle individual in the great community of all mankind would in any one refpect have juft reason to lament the lofs. Mathematical and arithmetical ftudies are fpeculative, it is true; but they do not terminate in fpeculation. They afford a great pleasure, abftractedly confidered, by the full evidence with which they difplay their truths; but they tend to obvious utility as well as to delight. The builder, the navigator, alınoft every mechanic art, is affifted by geometry, and all men, without exception, benefited by arithmetic. But metaphyfics tend only to benight the understanding in a cloud of its own making, to lofe it in a labyrinth of its own contrivance.

Metaphyfics were once encouraged and cultivated, because they served the purposes of fuperftition. They involved theological fubjects in a perplexity which the fimple could never unravel. They gave an air of myftery and depth, which caught the admiration of the vulgar. They are now employed, in a fimilar manner, in the fervice of infidelity. They have induced the half-learned and the conceited, those who think they understand them, and those who wish to be thought by others to underftand them, to adopt, without being apprehenfive of danger, opinions fatal to their own happiness and to the existence of 'fociety.

Even

Even when cultivated by the honeft and truly ingenious, they exhibit an inftance of blameable pride. They aim at a science to which man can never attain. It is truly laughable, to obferve a creature with hardly knowledge enough of the things around him to guide him with fafety, perplexing himself with ontological enquiries into the nature of angels, and the effence of the devil.

The ontologifts and pneumatologifts, the nominales and reales, the doctores feraphici, and all the tribe of microfcopic philofophers, are, in the prefent age of difcernment, totally neglected. Even Malebranche and Locke, the most rational of the metaphyficians, are daily lofing ground. As a tafk they are attended to in public feminaries, where fome obfolete plan of study requires metaphyfical exercifes; but the multitude of more agreeable works feldom leave time or inclination, to the ftudent who is at liberty to chufe his books, for the controverfy concerning innate ideas. A few, however, in the present times, have been fo unfortunate, as to waste their labour in defending materialism, in expatiating on liberty and neceffity, in diffufing fcep ticifm, and in proving that man is no more than an animal. This fentence and doctrine will probably induce them to prove, in their own perfons, that he is an irritable animal.

Such miferable effects of metaphysical research have induced an amiable writer, whofe heart and abilities vie with each other for excellence, to vindicate the nature and iminutability of truth, to expofe the futility of metaphyfics, to confound the devices of their patrons, and to eftablish the natural rights of common fenfe. This formidable champion has given the last fatal blow to languishing fophiftry; a blow which, that the may never recover, every man must wish, who knows the baneful influence of a Hume's dark inventions, and who defires to counteract it.

To put an end to fpeculative error, it might perhaps, in fome degree, be effectual to lay lefs ftrefs upon metaphyfics in academical education. Thofe who prefide over our feminaries are no less liberal than enlight ened, and will furely, on fome future day, if any part the prefent fyftem of inftruction is trifling or pernicious,

of

renounce

renounce it with alacrity. But a proper deference to their refpectable opinions renders it reasonable to fuppoft, that an attention to this abftrufe, though otherwise useless fcience, may tend to give the young mind a habit of thinking with depth and precifion. As a fevere difcipline, it may be advantageous. Many a manœuvre is taught the foldier in his courfe of preparation for war, which will feldom be useful in the field of battle.

All thofe however who have little opportunity of being actively ferviceable to others, have an unqueftionable right to feek amufement in abftrufe fpeculation, or in any other paftime which is innocent. They may puzzle themfelves for diverfion even in metaphyfics. But if, in the courfe of their enquiries, they thould fall upon a wonderful discovery, which, when divulged, would difturb the happy ignorance of mankind, let them for once be selfish, enjoy it in private, and withhold it from the community.

No. CXLI. ON LATIN VERSE AS AN EXER

N°

CISE AT SCHOOL.

part of claffical education has been more generally cenfured and more firmly adhered to, than that of exercifing boys in the compofition of Latin poetry. The trite remark, that a poet is born, and not formed by difcipline, has been urged against it. It has also been alledged, that the time beftowed on it would be more advantageoufly spent in the ftudy of things, and in acquiring a right method of expreffing our fentiments in humble profe. It is abfurd enough, fay the objectors, to exact a certain portion of English verfe from the fcholar; but to perplex him with Latin verfe, at a time when he might be learning a thousand useful things; what is it but extreme imprudence, countenanced indeed by general practice, but nevertheless both culpable and truly ridiculous?

They allow however, that the cuftom is general, and of long duration. Surely then that degree of

refpect

respect is due to the general opinion of mankind, and to the wisdom of our predeceffors, which leads us to prefume, that there muft have been fome benefit perceived by experience from an inftitution thus antient and universal. And it is natural to confider, whether a few arguments may not be found in favour of a mode filently and uniformly purfued, amid the loud clamour every where raised against it.

The defenders of practices unjustly cenfured, often do an injury to their caufe, by admitting none of the objections to be reasonable. We will then allow, that to learn to make Latin verfe is to lofe time, when the scholar is deftined to spend his life in commercial or in mechanical, employments. But, at the fame time, we must infift on its utility to the man of independent fortune, to the divine, the lawyer, the phyfician, and perhaps to the accomplished military commander.

To all thefe an acquaintance with the claffics will add an elegance, fuch as tends to complete their characters as gentleman, as well as fcholars. It is the finishing polish of education, and operates on the mind, like dancing on the perfon, by fuperadding a graceful habit. But there is no method fo well calculated to infuse an intimate knowledge of an author, as to imitate and endeavour to rival his excellences. To write Virgilian verfe with true elegance, it is neceffary to commit to memory every phrafe; to catch the very fpirit of Virgil to mark the varied paufes of his verses, the length of his periods, the peculiar grace of his expreffions; and to give the whole compofition a majestic dignity. All thefe requifites to poetical compofition in Latin, can only be acquired by a frequent and attentive perufal of the noble Mantuan.

The firft-fruits of genius produced by the finest writers that adorn our annals, were compofitions in Latin verfe. Milton, at a boyish age, wrote it with great elegance. Cowley excelled in it early. Addifon was much celebrated for his juvenile effays in it. Prtor began with writing Latin epigrams. All the great men who have been educated at public fchools, where it is invariably an exercise, were, during feveral years,

obliged