Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Circumstances Which Render The Retrospect Of Past Ages Agreeable.
Words to this effect would immediately produce , ln ' the mmds of a French army ready to engage with English enemies , a comparison of situation similar to themselves and ancestors before engagemwit ; and would stimulate them to strive hard for victory , lest their national honour should a second time be stained with infamy . The disgrace of their progenitors would appear as a disgrace on themselves ; but the glory of victory gained by themselves would reflect glory on their
progenitors . So , much the same with their ancestors , would posterity ¦ feel themselves to be , under such circumstances , nearl y the same . To be employed in the same literary pursuit is another connecting circumstance " . Hence the mind of Lucretius is naturally carried back to Epicurus in Non ita certandi cupidus , quarri propter amorem
Quod te imitariaveo Xii ' cr . iii . 5 . Hence too the allusion of Virgil to Hesiod in Ascra ; uinqiie cano Koniana per oppida carmen .. Ceorg . ii . 176 . And his compliments in Felix qui potuit , & c . Gcorg . ii . 4 . 90 . to Liicretiuswhomas a descriptive poetVirgil frequently imitates .
, , , If to similarity in literary pursuit be added likewise any resemblance in condition , the connection seems still more close ; hence Milton says Nor sometimes forget ' Those other two equal'd with me in fate , So were 1 equal'd with thern in renown ,
. Blind Thamyris , and blind Mseonides . Par . Lest , b . iii . 32 . A farther circumstance connecting us with antiquity is the- use of the same language . By this we know familiarly Bacon , Spenser , and Shakspeare , in the sixteenth century ; and are not altogether strangers to Chaucer , Lydgate , and Gower , in the fourteenth . With writers of original English , higher than that period , the generality of us cannot converse freely , But men of learned education carry their
connexion with past ages to times very far remote . The reader of Latin can laugh with Plautus ; the Greek scholar can with admiration hear the Strains of Homer ; the HebiEean can feel the influence of that divine inspirer , " who touch'd Isaiah ' s hallow'd lips with fire . " The Romans have entire writings two centuries antecedent to tha Christian sera ; the Greeks at least eight hundred years ; the Hebrews , of date
so ancient as not to be ascertained . If . thes ' e languages had nothing to recommend them but their antiquity , they would surely , on that account only , be at least as' valuable as old coins , or decayed ruins , which are sought with so great avidity ; but when it is considered that the ancient languages convey to us the aggregate knowledge of innumerable agesthat they perpetuate " thoughts that breatheand
, , , words that burn , " they are of inestimable price : and the pleasure experienced by an ingenuous mind in understanding them , apart from any consideration of the influence which ancient learning has on religion , manners , and liberty ; apart from any view of respect and enr couragement-in civilized society lobe derived from sound erudition ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Circumstances Which Render The Retrospect Of Past Ages Agreeable.
Words to this effect would immediately produce , ln ' the mmds of a French army ready to engage with English enemies , a comparison of situation similar to themselves and ancestors before engagemwit ; and would stimulate them to strive hard for victory , lest their national honour should a second time be stained with infamy . The disgrace of their progenitors would appear as a disgrace on themselves ; but the glory of victory gained by themselves would reflect glory on their
progenitors . So , much the same with their ancestors , would posterity ¦ feel themselves to be , under such circumstances , nearl y the same . To be employed in the same literary pursuit is another connecting circumstance " . Hence the mind of Lucretius is naturally carried back to Epicurus in Non ita certandi cupidus , quarri propter amorem
Quod te imitariaveo Xii ' cr . iii . 5 . Hence too the allusion of Virgil to Hesiod in Ascra ; uinqiie cano Koniana per oppida carmen .. Ceorg . ii . 176 . And his compliments in Felix qui potuit , & c . Gcorg . ii . 4 . 90 . to Liicretiuswhomas a descriptive poetVirgil frequently imitates .
, , , If to similarity in literary pursuit be added likewise any resemblance in condition , the connection seems still more close ; hence Milton says Nor sometimes forget ' Those other two equal'd with me in fate , So were 1 equal'd with thern in renown ,
. Blind Thamyris , and blind Mseonides . Par . Lest , b . iii . 32 . A farther circumstance connecting us with antiquity is the- use of the same language . By this we know familiarly Bacon , Spenser , and Shakspeare , in the sixteenth century ; and are not altogether strangers to Chaucer , Lydgate , and Gower , in the fourteenth . With writers of original English , higher than that period , the generality of us cannot converse freely , But men of learned education carry their
connexion with past ages to times very far remote . The reader of Latin can laugh with Plautus ; the Greek scholar can with admiration hear the Strains of Homer ; the HebiEean can feel the influence of that divine inspirer , " who touch'd Isaiah ' s hallow'd lips with fire . " The Romans have entire writings two centuries antecedent to tha Christian sera ; the Greeks at least eight hundred years ; the Hebrews , of date
so ancient as not to be ascertained . If . thes ' e languages had nothing to recommend them but their antiquity , they would surely , on that account only , be at least as' valuable as old coins , or decayed ruins , which are sought with so great avidity ; but when it is considered that the ancient languages convey to us the aggregate knowledge of innumerable agesthat they perpetuate " thoughts that breatheand
, , , words that burn , " they are of inestimable price : and the pleasure experienced by an ingenuous mind in understanding them , apart from any consideration of the influence which ancient learning has on religion , manners , and liberty ; apart from any view of respect and enr couragement-in civilized society lobe derived from sound erudition ;