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pal faculties of the mind, and to beget a purity and refinement of taste, that no other kind of learning can bestow. The memory, for [example, must be invigorated by the habitual exercise it undergoes, in the acquisition and retention of strange words and foreign expressions; the judgment is improved, from the necessity the learner is under of selecting, out of many, the most suitable word to express the idea of the original-for the original gives the idea only; the imagination is chastened and improved by the exquisite imagery, and the rich, chaste, and beautiful coloring the ancient authors display; and the taste is improved by the fine models of purity and beauty, and the refined and delicate touches of nature, everywhere diffused over the pages of the Greek and Roman classics. The most eminent and distinguished men in oratory, poetry, history, law, &c. have been well versed in those languages, and have had their minds early imbued with a love of these chaste and polished models of antiquity. Be, therefore, solicitous to master them; regard not the difficulties that may arise, at first, to impede your progress; they will soon, by a little perseverance and application, be surmounted, and, when you have reached that point of familiarity with them, which will enable you to relish their beauties, and feel and enjoy their excellencies, they will become a source of high and exquisite gratification that will never forsake you, even amidst the dull and vapid realities of life. In acquiring those languages, it will be necessary to observe the peculiarities of style, the fine thoughts, and daring felicities of expression, which distinguish the authors you are reading, and to endeavor, frequently, to commit to memory the finest and most beautiful passages, that are to be found in the poets of Greece and Rome. This will strengthen the memory, improve the taste, and furnish you with happy illustrations, and apt and appropriate allusions. It will be proper, too, to keep up this practice while reading modern poetry; you will find, as many of the most distinguished modern orators have found, that it is of much greater advantage than you may now be disposed to believe. Of the copiousness, harmony, grace, and beauty, of the Greek and Latin languages, it is unnecessary to say anything. Those who study them, with that care and attention which they deserve, will soon be enabled to judge for themselves, and, of consequence, capable of relishing their various excellencies, without the aid of criticism. But of all the languages, ancient or modern, I conceive the Greek to be the most admirable. A knowledge of that language was deemed by the Latins to be an indispensable branch of study, and should be so considered by the present and every future age. It is the foundation of most other languages, and is so blended with the sciences, as almost to form their keystone and groundwork.' pp. 23-26.

After these general remarks Mr Watterston proceeds to the science of grammar, and then explains the degree of care with which the ancient languages should be studied, and the quantity of time requisite for their acquisition. Those persons, who are accustomed to hear the learning of Latin and Greek denounced as an almost impracticable undertaking, for men of common industry and leisure, must not be incredulous on reading the observations which follow, for experience fully supports their truth. We know not with what rapidity it is thought possible to read Homer in our schools; but Tanaquil Faber says of his pupil, that one hour was sufficient not merely for understanding, but also for committing to memory a hundred lines of the Iliad.

'While I recommend such a proficiency in those languages as I have mentioned, I do not wish to be understood as conceiving it either important or essential, that you should be profoundly and critically versed in their different idioms and various metres, or be able to write them with fluency. I wish that degree of skill to be left to professors, who make teaching the occupation of life. It is enough that you can read them with such ease, as to be capable of feeling and relishing the numerous and exquisite beauties in which the classical writers abound. To this point your efforts must be directed, and if you have even an ordinary tact for the attainment of language, you will be able to reach it without any very appalling difficulty; and when you have reached it, the acquirement of the modern languages will be a source rather of pleasure than of pain. Of those, the most useful are, the French, Spanish, Italian, and, if you please, the German. These, like the dead languages, may be regarded as instruments of knowledge, calculated to open to your mind a wider field, and more extended range of thought. Experience will show that the labor and difficulty of acquiring the dead, as well as the living languages, exist more in fancy than reality. In the short interval of eight months, Gibbon made himself a complete master of the Latin and French, with which he had been previously but superficially acquainted; read a great deal in both, went through the Greek grammar, and mastered the principles of De Crousas' Logic. And a French writer of considerable ability asserts, that with a knowledge of the grammar barely sufficient to distinguish the cases of nouns, and the principal tenses of the verbs, a very competent facility in reading Greek may be obtained in the short space of five or six months. "I experienced, at first, some embarrassments," says Deleuze, the writer I have alluded to; "but the difficulties insensibly vanished; the analogy of words enabled

me to recognise the roots, I became passionately fond of Homer; the verses, which I had committed, recalled to me his expressions, and accustomed my ear to his harmony. In fine, in less than six months I was in a condition to read Sophocles." pp. 29-31.

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Mr Watterston continues to give good advice.

'In learning the Latin and Greek, I beg you to remember never to resort to translations to enable you to acquire a knowledge of these, or, indeed, of any other languages. Its tendency is to produce habits of indolence, by enabling you to get, with too much facility, at the meaning of the words you desire to translate. This facility enfeebles the memory, and by thus depending so little upon it, the foreign word is no sooner acquired than it is forgotten, and language, in truth, becomes nothing more than "winged words."' pp. 32, 33.

It is the purpose of Mr Watterston to present a general outline of the studies essential to the lawyer, or the statesman: We cannot follow him through the various subjects of which he treats, and we regard his work as valuable rather for the interest it may awaken in liberal pursuits, than as a practical guide to the young inquirer. Private study, however well directed, can never be equal in its results to a public education. It is the advantage of great universities, that, besides the libraries and collections which they possess, each science has its peculiar teacher, whose honor and success depend on his eminence in his own branch; and that the young mind is interested and instructed by men of various habits of thought, yet each thoroughly versed in the department which belongs to him. All narrowness of feeling is thus prevented; and all fantastic humors and vain speculations are counteracted by collisions with other inquirers after knowledge, and the different views of the instructers.

In the progress of his work Mr Watterston recommends the study not only of rhetoric and oratory, but of poetry also, as a means of refining the mind, enriching the imagination, and supplying the imagery, illustrations, and fire of diction, which render a public speaker more impressive. The mathematical sciences are sufficiently commended for their tendency to fix the attention, discipline the mind, and improve the reasoning faculties. A just knowledge of the earth and of physical geography is considered a necessary preparation for a course of history. Music is allowed to have claims to be

regarded in a good education, for nothing serves more to relieve the toil of study, and the gloom of solitude, to soften the asperities and lessen the miseries of life. We need but remember the blind and suffering Milton at his harpsichord, to be convinced of the justice of this commendation. In treating of the study of history, it is contended, and we doubt not, with justice, that a course of ancient history should precede the modern. But we cannot agree with Mr Watterston in selecting Millot and Rollin as the best compilers of general history. The natural sciences are defended as worthy of being studied by men of business, for the new views which they give of the extent and power of Divine Providence, and the great variety of beautiful forms in which the supreme agency is exerted. To these subjects, add a knowledge of the sciences of morals, of religion, and of civil polity, and in the view of Mr Watterston the preparatory education of a young man is finished.

We have left ourselves no room to enlarge on the topics suggested by the author's remarks. In addition to its literary merits, his book is worthy of much praise for the spirit and temper in which it is written; it may be safely recommended as affording many useful hints to parents and instructers, and as calculated to elevate the principles, guide the inquiries, and quicken the ardor of the youthful mind.

J. Sparks.

ART. VIII.-A General Description of Nova Scotia, Illustrated by a New and Correct Map. 8vo. pp. 208. Halifax, N. S. 1823.

THE near vicinity of the province of Nova Scotia to our own frontier, and the extensive commercial intercourse between it and this country, afford us a sufficient motive for wishing to obtain an accurate acquaintance with its history, condition, and prospects. The intimate connexion of its early history with that of the Massachusetts Colony also gives it a claim on our attention. For more than a hundred years, while it was a French Colony, it was an object of great

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jealousy to its neighbors of Massachusetts, on account of their respective conflicting territorial claims, and more especially on account of the influence, which the French of Nova Scotia, as well as of Canada, were supposed to have in exciting the hostilities of the Indians, the dangerous and cruel enemy of all the early New England settlers. In consequence, Nova Scotia was involved in frequent hostilities with her more powerful neighbor, in which were repeatedly retaliated upon her the severities, which the latter had suffered from the natives.

The country, formerly known under the name of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, was of much greater extent than the present province; its limits were for a long period quite indefinite, and the question of boundary was several times the subject of national controversy. When the French possessed it, they claimed the right of territory as far west as the Penobscot river, and even to the Kennebeck. They made several settlements within the territory, which now forms the state of Maine, regarding it as a part of their province of Acadia. A celebrated controversy arose on the question of the limits of Acadia, as ceded by the treaty of Utrecht, which lasted many years. When the boundary between that province and the United States was established, by the treaty of peace in 1783, it was fixed upon the river St Croix. A point of some difficulty remained, and that was to ascertain what river was meant by the St Croix. This being determined, a further question arose, as to the islands belonging respectively to the two governments situated between the mouth of the St Croix and the ocean. These several controversies lasted for a period of near two hundred years. Soon after the peace of 1783, that part of Nova Scotia bordering on the United States was made an independent province by the name of New Brunswick. Since that time, the province of Nova Scotia has been confined to the peninsula on which the earliest permanent settlements were made, together with the neighboring island of Cape Breton.

The first discovery of Nova Scotia was made by John and Sebastian Cabot, Venetians, domesticated in England, and appointed by Henry Seventh to the command of two public vessels, destined for the discovery of a western passage to India. They sailed from Bristol in England, in May 1497,

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