spired with a masculine spirit, which, although it maintained a race of heroes, was nevertheless unnatural and unlovely. Their judgment was sharpened and their views elevated, but all the softer and gentler affections of the sex were crushed by the absorbing spirit of nationality. But at Rome, feeling was cherished-the natural and beautiful emotions of the heart were not blighted, and there woman appeared in her native dignity and grace. The Spartan mothers taught their sons how to die, the Roman how to live and die too. If any one would see the difference between the highest specimens of female cultivation at Athens and at Rome, let him observe on the one hand the beautiful but dissolute Aspasia teaching Socrates the art of speaking, and on the other Cornelia presenting to her jeweled visitor her well instructed children with the memorable expression of maternal affection and maternal pride, "These are my jewels!" It is not difficult to see what influence such mothers must have exerted on Roman education. As the youth remained until fifteen always at home, the moulding power of the mother was decisive. And we may see the relation between this mode of education and the character of the Romans. Maternal influence is exerted not so much in the form of law as in a general and more silent way, by the force of affection; and history tells us that the earlier Romans in their public affairs were governed less by law than by feeling and custom.* The dignity of a Roman mother had power to restrain the most impetuous youth, and her sacred image hovering over him, like the vision of a goddess, pointed him to the path of virtue and of honor. It was the glory of Coriolanus to give his mother joy.t Another feature of the Roman education which distinguished it from that of the Greeks is, that its prevailing character was not intellectual but moral. The Athenians cultivated the intellect, the Romans the affections. We have said indeed, that the Athenians aimed in their education at the development of all the powers of the man. And so they did. But the actual result of their system was a high state of intellec * "Non pas par crainte, non pas par raison, mais par passion." Montesquieu. † Plut. Life of Coriolanus. tual cultivation, and a taste of the most exquisite refinement, while the moral sense was blunted by vice. The Roman education in this respect approached more to the Spartan than to the Athenian, and in moral effect it far surpassed both. It has been said that the Orientals lived in the future, the Greeks in the present, and the Romans in the past. And it is true that the Romans in their education made great use of history. Reverence for their ancestors may even be regarded as its central point. Their forefathers were deified, the faults of their more immediate predecessors were forgotten, their virtues magnified, and their characters held up as patterns for imitation. Not only distinguished men, but women also were eulogised in funeral orations.* The first Cæsar pronounced over the body of his wife, such an oration, in which he set forth her virtues.† The moral effect of these things was great. The principle of reverence was strongly developed. Deference to superiors was insisted on as the corner-stone of character, and the youth who refused or neglected to rise up in the presence of age was punished with death. In the Roman education, everything pointed to decorum. Whatever might be the virtues of the Roman youth, modesty was to be the crown and glory of them all. If the want of courage was disgraceful, so also was the want of modesty. When Cato said he wished for youth who should turn red and not white, he expressed the universal feeling of Rome. Another feature of the Roman education was that it aimed chiefly at utility. As in the literature, so in the education of the Romans the practical feeling predominated. With the Greeks, music was so important a branch that it embraced all others, and with them, music led to the development * Liv. V: 50. Plut. De Virtutibus Mulierum. † Plut. C. Jul. Caes. Vit. §5. Apud antiquissimos Romanorum neque generi neque pecuniæ praestantior honos tribui quam aetati solitus; majoresque natu à minoribus colebantur ad deûm prope et parentum vicem; atque omni in loco, inque omni specie honoris priores patioresque habiti. A. Gellii Noct. Att. II: 14. Cramer's Geschichte der Erziehung I: 387. of a world of ideas of beauty and taste. But the Romans cultivated chiefly the understanding. In their objects of instruction they aimed more at actual life-at the wants of the citizens, and of the state. This difference of character may be seen in the objects for which the two nations pursued the same studies. The Greeks, as we have said, regarded Geometry as a steppingstone to Philosophy. The Romans esteemed it for purposes of measurement. With the Romans, reading, writing, and reckoning were the three chief branches, because they were the most useful. The Greeks thought that all knowledge is desirable, and aimed not at utility only, but at nature and truth. Among the Greeks, development was the prominent idea, among the Romans, instruction. The fine arts were cultivated with ardor by the Greeks, and esteemed above all else. But the Romans asked first what is useful, and afterwards, or not at all, what is beautiful. The whole life of the Greek was a struggle, and a struggle for what? For a branch of olive or a sprig of laurel which might be twined in a graceful wreath around his brow. But the Roman valued the olive or the myrtle not merely for the wreath, but for the fruit which it furnished. This outward and mercenary aim of Roman education was a theme of satire for the poets, as may be seen in Juvenal and Horace.* There was no regard for science and art for their own sake, but they were cultivated only for the use of the state. In physical education the Greeks exercised the body, because it is the veil and instrument of the noble spirit of man; the Romans trained it only as a preparation for war. Hence physical education was much less esteemed by the Romans than by the Greeks. In Greece, none but freemen cultivated gymnastics. But the Romans looked on gymnastics, except in relation to war, as fit for slaves rather than freemen, and considered the prevalence of such exercises as evidence of effeminacy. The Romans were the only nation of antiquity that cultivated foreign languages. This study, however, was prosecuted only in the later ages, and their pursuit of it was owing not to a love of literature, but to the necessity imposed by the extent of their possessions. *Juv. Sat. XIV. Hor. Sat. II: 3. We have seen that in the Grecian education, rhetoric and philosophy went hand in hand, and that the metaphysical genius of the Greeks at length caused philosophy to stand forth as the highest summit of intellectual culture. But such was not the result at Rome. The idea of Isocrates, that oratory is the pinnacle of human excellence, and that a faultless orator is the most perfect specimen of human nature, was first nationalized in the Roman world. The genius of Rome was not of a philosophical cast. Philosophy, as well as all culture, was introduced into Rome by the Greeks, and in later times' it was extensively cultivated there. But it never found a genial soil. Rome produced no great philosopher. The versatile genius of Cicero gave him a taste for philosophical studies, and his writings show that he knew how to prune away the rhetorical amplifications of which he was so fond, and to approach in his style more nearly to the simplicity which philosophy requires. But the orator is ever bursting forth and assuming his native predominance. Even in his treatises on the theory of rhetoric itself the practical is always uppermost. In the early ages of Rome, both rhetoric and philosophy were viewed with a jealous eye, and regarded as highly dangerous to the public morals. The old simplicity and sternness struggled long against them, and through the influence of Cato, the Greek philosophers and rhetoricians were at length banished frome Rome.* We must no doubt suppose that there was something in the doctrine and characters of the men who then taught philosophy and rhetoric that increased the existing prejudice against such studies. But after the introduction of philosophy into the Latin language by Cicero, and especially after the establishment of an extensive intercourse with Greece through the Roman conquests in the east, it was impossible to repress the study of philosophy and rhetoric. Teachers in both these sciences were eagerly sought by the youth at home and abroad. Rhetoric especially was cultivated with ardor. Cæsar not only wrote commentaries in the camp and a Latin grammar, but also assiduously practised declamations. In the early days of the republic unconditional obedience prevailed in the armies of Rome, but *Bucheri Institutiones Histor. Philos. 287. Cramer's Geschichte der Erziehung I: 423. t in later times, and especially under the empire, oratory was resorted to as a means of influencing the troops. Not Cæsar alone but Pompey, Anthony, Augustus, and other Roman commanders were in the constant habit of declamation. While the speculative spirit of the Greeks delighted in philosophy, the practical feeling of the Romans preferred oratory. In the higher schools at Rome, rhetoric became in later times the chief means of intellectual discipline. Law and eloquence were there regarded as the noblest objects of pursuit. The bonds of Grecian philosophy, which for centuries bound the modern world, are broken; but the jurisprudence of Rome has given permanent laws to Christendom. Thus have we sketched some of the features of the Greek and Roman education. In doing this we have aimed not at the exhibition of details but at the development of principles; for there was not time for both, and the root is more essential than the branch. If any one supposes that because the institutions of which we have been speaking passed away two thousand years ago, their characteristics are to us of no practical importance, he errs; for human nature remains. unchanged, and the principles which must govern the right education of man are immutable The nature, limits, and application of the power of the state in education; the extension of the benefits of education to all the children of the state; the time to be devoted to this purpose; the necessity, and the mode of physical culture; the union of development and instruction; the systematic, employment of music as an instrument of education; the cultivation of the taste in connection with morals; and the relation of philosophy and oratory to each other and to education. as a whole;-these points in the Grecian system are of equal interest in our own Nor are those which have been touched upon in the Roman education less practical. The plastic power of domestic education without the interference of the state; the influence of mothers and of the whole female sex; the principle of utility in education, and the superior advantages which attend the cultivation of the moral part of our nature, are topics which must command the attention of all who are called to influence the opinions of their countrymen on this important subject. We boast ourselves the freest and best educated nation the world has ever seen. And doubtless we have many advanta |