4453. LANGUAGE (Latin), Utility of.
—To whom are they[the classical languages]
useful? Certainly not to all men. There are
conditions of life to which they must be forever
estranged. * * * To the moralist they
are valuable, because they furnish ethical writings
highly and justly esteemed; although in
my own opinion the moderns are far advanced
beyond them in this line of science; the divine
finds in the Greek language a translation of his
primary code, of more importance to him than
the original because better understood; and, in
the same language, the newer code, with the
doctrines of the earliest fathers. * * * The
lawyer finds in the Latin language the system
of civil law most conformable with the principles
of justice of any which has ever yet been
established among men, and from which much
has been incorporated into our own. The physician
as good a code of his art as has been
given us to this day. * * * The statesman
will find in these languages history, politics,
mathematics, ethics, eloquence, love of country,
to which he must add the sciences of his own
day, for which of them should be unknown to
him? And all the sciences must recur to the
classical languages for the etymon, and sound
understanding of their fundamental terms.
* * * To sum the whole, it may truly be
said that the classical languages are a solid
basis for most, and an ornament to all the
sciences.—
To John Brazier. Washington ed. vii, 131.
(P.F.,,
18191819)gt;
