the mind, and make life innocent, intellectual, and happy. -Dr. Arnold.

The quickening influences of the ancient classics need not be urged on those who are familiar with the history of modern Europe, and who know the spring given to the human mind by the revival of ancient learning: The great men of antiquity have, through their writings, exercised a sovereignty over these latter ages, not enjoyed in their own. Dr. Channing.

We have no desire to rear in our country (N. America) a race of pedants, of solemn triflers, of laborious commentators, in the mysteries of Greek accent or a rusty coin. We would have men explore antiquity not to bury themselves in its dust, but to learn its spirit, and to become joint workers with the great of nations and times gone by. Dr. Channing.

Works of taste and genius can only be estimated and enjoyed through a culture and a power corresponding to that from which they sprung.-Dr. Channing.

The Greek and Latin classics is not a study, as some have called it, of mere syntax and syllables, but the record of lofty feelings and heroic deeds.-Dr. Jones.

Surrounded as we are with printed books in all languages, and treatises upon all subjects, we are comparatively mere compilers. Amidst this endless repetition,this reproduction of dead men's minds,-it must give vigour to the intellect to consult the pages of younger and fresher days; pages which teach us the first thoughts of writers, and which will survive and instruct so long as the world endures.-Dr. Jones.

Make classic authors your supreme delight;
Read them by day, and study them by night.
Ars Poetica, translated.

In the simple, transparent, energetic, and almost faultless writings of the extant classics, may be found elements of history, glimpses of poetry and philosophy, materials for profound reflection, and models of the purest taste.Oxford prize essay.

Everything suffers from translation except a bishop.— Lord Chesterfield.

Expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those who are learned.-Lord Bacon.

The language in which an author writes has an identity, a "curiosa felicitas," an untransferable witchery of words, and euphony of sound, which are truly vital and vocal.--Dr. Jones.

Distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things —Lord Bacon.

Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral philosophy, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.-Lord Bacon.

Scilicet ingenuas dedicisse fideliter artes

Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.-Ovid.

Abeunt studia in mores.

Sapientia est possessio pretiosior divitiis.

Literæ semper jucundæ et utiles.-Cicero.

Maguá quidem, sacris quæ dat præcepta libellis,
Victrix fortunæ sapientia.-Juvenal.

Vos exemplaria Græca

Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna.-Horace.

CONCLUSION.

THEME XLIV. Works of Taste have a social Benefit on Man.

INTRODUCTION.-The study of poetry, elocution, music, painting, and all the other polite accomplishments, tends to make men sociable and urbane.

1ST REASON.-Works of taste give grace of mind to the admiring reader, because the emotions they excite are soft, tender, and refining.

2ND REASON. The polite accomplishments draw off the mind from the hurry of business, and the fever of worldly interest, cherish reflection, dispose to tranquillity, and produce that agreeable ideality and visionary enthusiasm, which soften down the ruder passions, and excite the heart to whatever is amiable, generous, lovely, and elevated in nature.

3RD REASON. -A cultivated moral taste presents an effectual security against the grossness necessarily connected with many vices.

4TH REASON.A delicacy of taste is favourable to sociability, inasmuch as it confines our choice of companions to few people, and those few not the gay and dissolute, but the "finely touched" and the domestic. A mind that has no relish for the graces of life, may love to mix in the crowded soiree or ball; but the fever of excitement differs toto cælo from the placid delight of sociability and literary ease.

5TH REASON. All persons must be furnished with amusements; those who have no taste for the fine arts will seek for recreation at clubs and banquets, routs and races, theatres, and places perhaps still more objectionable: But those who can appreciate and enjoy the polite arts, can find more "attractive metal" in quiet contemplation and converse with the mighty dead."

6TH REASON. A very powerful effect is produced on the mind and manners by the association of ideas; as works of taste direct the mind to the beautiful and noble, and guard it against what is vulgar and wicked, they superinduce a love for the former, and an aversion to the latter, by the influence of associations.

7TH REASON. It would be anomalous for the same person to admire that which is refined, and what is coarse and vulgar; that which is sweet and beautiful, and what

is gross and degrading; that which is humanising and elegant, and what is debasing and brutish; that which is full of sympathy and human kindness, and what is selfish and unfeeling also.

SIMILES. AS music tunes the ear, and fine colours tutor the eye, so works of taste refine the mind. A good musician is pained by discord, a good artist by ill-assorted colours, and refined taste by vulgarity and uncourteous

manners.

A delicate exotic cannot bear the rough winds, nor thrive in the same soil with common flowers; neither can a well-cultivated mind enjoy the gross amusements of sensual and low companions.

An unvitiated palate will turn with disgust from unwholesome food; and a refined mental palate will feel equal aversion to vicious pleasures and associates.

There is as much difference between a cultivated mind and one uncultivated, as between a pelargonium and a mallow, a pine and a pumpkin, a crab-tree and a gardenapple, a melon and a cucumber.

A cultivated taste may be compared to a garden, a mind uncultivated to a heath or desert; the one is favourable to domestic sociability,the other is more fit for thieves and vagrants, than for friendly intercourse and social enjoyments.

The rough diamond, the unpolished pearl, the cornelian on the sea-beach, and the precious metals in the ore, have very little beauty, and are unfit for ornaments; so also the mind which has not been polished by elegant accomplishments may be fit for the market and exchange, but is very ill-suited to the social fireside and interchange of friendship.

The Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in the year 1851, was the greatest display of the works of art and elegance ever beheld by man; and was no less remarkable for its social and humanising influence.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.—Sir Walter Scott was remarkable for his fine taste and his social habits.

Southey, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, are names well known for their highly cultivated minds, and love of the fine arts; they are no less well-known for their social and domestic habits of life.

C. Cilnius Mæcenas, the greatest patron of the fine arts that Rome ever produced, kept open house for every literary man, and was proverbial for his sociability and amiable manners.

Savage tribes are so accustomed to a nomade life, that the two terms are synonymous: on the other hand, urbanity (Latin, urbanitas) means polished behaviour and city or social life.

Nothing more refines the taste and polishes the manners than Christianity, in so much that Mrs. Hannah More expressively calls St. Paul "the paragon of a gentleman" At the same time Christians are notorious for their "fellowship and social communion."

The fellows of a University are men of the most cultivated minds, and the very name by which they are called indicates their social habits.

The proverb says, "there is no companionship amongst thieves" by which is meant, that wickedness is subversive of friendship.

The ancient Athenians and the modern French, both notorious for their love of the elegancies of life above all the nations of the world, are notorious for their social dispositions also.

QUOTATIONS.-Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, think of these things.-Phil. iv. 8.

Delicacy of taste, like delicacy of passion, enlarges the sphere of our happiness, and makes us sensible of pleasures which escape the rest of mankind.-Hume.