they have been borrowing freely from the civil and continental jurists, ever since the time of Bracton and Fleta, generally without acknowledgment; so that the common law is now credited for much that is not its own proper excellence. And since the time when fortune or public convenience transferred the cognizance of mercantile affairs in England from private to public tribunals, the courts have been compelled to adopt numerous principles of law from the jurists of the continent. The modern reports, therefore, and especially those of the last century, are exuberantly rich in mercantile law; but this can hardly be said to belong to the common law, since it is professedly borrowed from foreign sources of intelligence. It is probable that the extraordinary English judge, who presided over the common law for a third part of the last century with so much benefit to his country and glory to himself, derived much of his success from the peculiar character of his knowledge as well as mind; for, without disparaging his unerring acuteness, his close, systematic reasoning, or his vigorous intellect, it is apparent that he had drunk deeply in the streams which flowed from the imperial constitutions of Justinian.

The law, merchant and marine, of this country has been formed by the union of our own statutes and decisions with all the systems above enumerated. The common, civil, and customary law of Europe have each precisely the same force with us in this branch; that is, our courts study them all, and adopt from them whatever is most applicable to our situation, and whatever is on the whole just and expedient, without considering either of course obligatory. If Mansfield, Scott, or Ellenborough, is cited with deference or praise, so likewise are Bynkershoek, Valen, Cleirac, Pothier, and Emerigon. The authority of a decision or opinion, emanating from either of these sources, is rested on exactly the same foundation, viz. its intrinsic excellence. And if we seek instruction on mercantile law from jurists in England, why not seek it from their masters on the continent of Europe? Why do we not go to the fountain-head? Why do we content ourselves with second-hand information? In fact all eminent lawyers in this country sooner or later find it necessary to study the law books of the continent; but such a course ought to be more early and universal, the continental law ought to be made an important, it might almost be said the most important, branch of elementary legal education.

STUDY OF THE CLASSICS.

THAT We owe much to the Greek and Roman writers is now, we believe, generally admitted in every country but ours. For two thousand years, the literary world have acknowledged them as their masters, and none have proclaimed the benefits of their directions and their example more gratefully, than the very English authors, whom we have lately heard extolled at their expense. It is not our intention to dwell on the merits, by which the ancients have gained their present celebrity. Few if any of those who have thoroughly studied their works, have denied its justness, and those who have not, will, we hope, think it a sufficient inducement to examine candidly for themselves. Men are certainly bound to respect an opinion supported by such an enlightened multitude, and tested by such a lapse of time, till it is contradicted by fair and competent judges. We do not deny that classical literature has been extolled in too high and unqualified a manner, that its real benefits have been mistaken, that it has been represented as the only source of advantages which belong to it in common with other branches of knowledge, and recom-. mended by many of its votaries, not always the most enlightened, for imaginary merits; nor do we consider it, as it is sometimes thought in England, the first, second, and third subject of attention, the sum and substance of all useful knowledge, the only basis of a wide and lasting celebrity.

It is indeed a bright, but by no means the only ornament of a cultivated mind. The Latin and Greek classics are best studied in conjunction with the finest English writers, and not to the exclusion of them. Though much more is learned of a foreign language by writing, than by reading it, and to a certain extent poetry is better for this purpose than prose, yet we do not deny that the practice of composing Latin verses may have been sometimes carried so far as to sacrifice the end to the means. Neither do we think that the warmest rational admirers of the ancients can well justify the practice, now prevailing, of frequently introducing passages from their works, in addresses to popular assemblies. There is no very evident reason why a line from a classical author should be treated with the veneration formerly paid to a sybilline verse, why a speech, perhaps on the most familiar subject, should be interspersed with trite and pompous extracts

in an unknown tongue. It would be absurd to say, that on such occasions, Latin and Greek quotations are always inadmissible; but as the happiest of them can gratify only a small part of a respectable audience, at the expense of all the rest, we think those only should be allowed, which are absolutely indispensable, peculiarly appropriate, or strikingly novel and beautiful. We have said the more on this subject, because we think that the friends of classical literature are bound to oppose every symptom of the affectation and pedantry, which have tended in so high a degree to render it unpopular.

It is for far other reasons that we plead for the introduction of these studies among us. It is to correct the bad taste, which, more than any thing else, has checked the growth of American literature. It is that we may have good authors in English, and great readers of Greek and Latin; we wish that those who compose may compose better, and that those who are too indolent to write may be more able to judge. The ancients are certainly of little practical use, if we read them merely to treasure up their striking expressions. We should strive to catch their spirit, and imitate their mode of thinking, and peruse the works of great authors, as we contemplate the lives of good men, that we may learn to be governed by the same general principles. We value, classical literature, because we think it sheds a light on our own, and not because we imagine that it possesses, like the vestal flames of the ancients, a mysterious influence on the welfare of the country where it is cherished. There are some, however, who admit to a high extent the excellence of the Greek and Roman authors, but deny the expediency of studying them in the original. All those which are worth reading, say they, are ably and faithfully translated, and why go any farther. This opinion is generally confined to men, who have read the ancients, if at all, only to a small extent, or at a late period of life, but has been embraced in this country, perhaps hastily, by several individuals of sense and candour. We grant for a moment, that the classics have been thus generally and faithfully interpreted, and we consider many of these versions. as valuable accessions to English literature. There are so many men, whose course of life prevents them from acquiring a thorough knowledge of the originals, to say nothing of almost the whole of the other sex, that few authors deserve the thanks of society better than able and judicious transla

tors. So rich is the literature of the ancients, that much which is valuable is preserved in any tolerable interpretation; but it cannot be denied that much is wanting in the most accurate. The nice touches, which more than any thing else indicate the hand of a master, are precisely those which it is most difficult to copy, or to imitate. Besides is it nothing that we lose their own style, that we converse with the sages of antiquity through an interpreter, instead of listening to the simple, precise, and harmonious expressions, which they themselves have chosen? Do we not necessarily seek their instructions with less ardour, hear them with less interest, and remember them less tenaciously? Those, too, who consider the intimate connexion between thought and language, who are sensible that the charms of the idea are often so delicately blended with those of the expression, that it is impossible to discriminate between them, must allow, that by stripping a work of its original language, we divest it of much more than mere verbal beauties. How particularly must this be the case in translating poetry. So different is the structure of Greek or Latin verse from that of English, that the utmost which can be done by the ablest translator is, not to preserve all the beauties of the original, but to compensate as far as may be for the loss of many of them, by others of his own. The most popular poetical translations are proverbially inaccurate, and who that has studied, however slightly, the Iliad or Æneid, does not know, that in reading them in English, it is not so much Homer and Virgil that we admire, as Pope and Dryden. Cowper determined to be faithful, and with all his genius is often prosaic, and it is owing only to his original works, that his versions are, we will not say read, but published. How little should we think of an opinion formed of Milton by a foreigner who had read him only in De Lille, and yet how few authors are there like Pope or Cowper, or even like De Lille, who are willing to undertake a task so laborious, and yet, as it is generally considered, so inglorious as that of a good copier. Such men are inclined to believe, that fidelity to their authors will contribute far less to their own celebrity than splendid deviations, and that exactness is a merit of a lower order, and of course are continually tempted to lose the translator in the poet.

There are other advantages, besides the intrinsic merit of the ancient classics, amply sufficient to repay us for devoting

a few years to the study of Greek and Latin. We have said something in a former number,* on the benefits of this pursuit, as a discipline of the mind. Indeed, we know no kind of labour, so well adapted to the general improvement of the faculties in early youth. Mathematics and metaphysics, and those only, are equally effectual in forming habits of accurate and constant attention, and those are better fitted to the force and the taste of mature minds. Besides, in studying those the fancy is completely chained down, instead of being at once strengthened and chastened, as it must be in the perusal, of even the most embarrassing of the ancient authors. This advantage is surely by no means inconsiderable, and ought of itself to exempt the classics from the reproach of being utterly useless. But it might be asked, why our faculties may not be equally improved by acquiring the finest modern languages. To this we should answer, as on a former occasion, that there is time enough for both, and the more so, because, in learning the ancient, we make imperceptibly, a considerable progress in the modern. Besides the mental discipline to which scholars are necessarily subjected, in studying the meaning of Greek and Latin authors, they may derive another, and perhaps a greater benefit, from the practice of construing them.

If in this exercise they are properly directed and assisted by their instructors, there is scarce any, through which they can so soon arrive at a command of their own language, through which they can be so well and so quickly taught, to suit the expression to the idea, and not the idea to the expression, and to speak and write on all occasions, however sudden, elegantly, yet definitely. This part of education, important as it is, was, till within a short time, scarcely regarded in this country. Little else has generally been required than that the author should be done into English, no matter how clumsily, and the extempore translations of pupils have seldom displayed any thing more, than, to use an expression of Horace, the disjointed members of the original. Some of our instructers have now adopted the custom, of exacting a neater and more connected method of construing, and we believe that none, who have observed its effects, will think that we have overrated its advantages. This is a source of improvement, which can be enjoyed in a high de

* Review of Wells' Tacitus.