illustrative associations. Who that reads the poetry of Gray, does not feel
that it is the refinement of classical taste which gives such inexpressible
vividness and transparency to his diction? Who that reads the concentrated
sense and melodious versification of Dryden and Pope, does not perceive in
them the disciples of the old school, whose genius was inflamed by the
heroic verse, the terse satire, and the playful wit of antiquity? Who that
meditates over the strains of Milton does not feel that he drank deep at

"Siloa's brook, that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God,--"

that the fires of his magnificent mind were lighted by coals from ancient
altars?

It is no exaggeration to declare, that he who proposes to abolish classical
studies, proposes to render, in a great measure, inert and unedifying, the
mass of English literature for three centuries; to rob us of the glory of
the past, and much of the instruction of future ages; to blind us to
excellencies which few may hope to equal, and none to surpass; to
annihilate associations which are interwoven with our best sentiments, and
give to distant times and countries a presence and reality, as if they were
in fact his own.
J. Story.


XXXVII.

AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF PATRIOTISM AND LOYALTY.

I call upon you, fathers, by the shades of your ancestors, by the dear