lead us too far even to allude to the laws under which this suit was brought. Suffice it to say that wherever Archias was born, he was a man of superior learning and culture, and his best days and talents were devoted to the instruction of the Roman youth of the best classes. He cultivated poetry to some extent, and sometimes used it for the purpose of satirising those who seemed to him to deserve such chastisement. Whether he lampooned Gratius personally, does not appear, but the probability is that that insignificant person was but the tool of others whom the Greek scholar, educator and satirist had deservedly exhibited to public scorn. This affords the philosopher-orator a noble opportunity to vindicate the cause of literature and scholarship, and prove the priceless value of such superior intellectual culture as that afforded by men like Archias, and nobly did he avail himself of it. Among all the pleas made in behalf of scholars and literary men, there is nothing finer than that passage in which the orator reminds his audience of the exemplary conduct of Alexander the Great in always surrounding himself as much as possible with men of letters, without pausing to inquire in what country were they born, or to what nationality did they belong. In the same oration he boldly and eloquently says that if any one thinks the knowledge communicated by this so-called foreigner (peregrinus) was less valuable, or less conducive to true glory than that communicated by native Romans, he sadly errs (vehementer errat).

Before a word of this beautiful oration was translated, the professor required the students to give an analysis of the whole, and present all the facts and circumstances which formed the basis of the suit. Then followed one of the best renderings we have anywhere heard. At the close, the principal requested us to propose some questions. In order to comply with his wish, we did so; but in not a single instance was any confusion or blundering the result.

The next class to which we are introduced is that in Virgil, and the recitation happened to be in the sixth book of the Eneid. The simple truth, in brief, in regard to this is, that

at no colleges in this country, except at Manhattan College Harvard, and Columbia, have we witnessed such accurate translating as we did here. When the recitation was over the principal requested that we would turn to any of the six books of the Eneid through which the class had passed, and have them translate such passages as we preferred. With this polite request also we complied, and had the pleasure of hearing nearly a hundred verses of the most difficult part of the third book excellently rendered.

The Greek class was next in order, and the author no other than the Prince of Poets. After we had listened for nearly an hour, with most agreeable surprise, the Rev. Mr. Selleck kindly insisted on our taking old Homer into our own hands and directing the attention of the class to any part of the first six books we might prefer to hear them translate in, as in the Virgil class. This, as we remarked, we thought too severe a test—an ordeal, indeed, through which few college classes could pass unscathed; and accordingly we requested the students to translate a portion of the first book. We questioned them, also, on some of the Homeric idioms, the peculiar use the great poet makes of the article, of certain partative pronouns, etc., and had the gratification to see that not one of our questions. proved to be in the least puzzling.

Although our practice in geometry for the last twenty years, or more, has not been sufficient to enable us to examine the more complicated theorems and demonstrations in that beautiful and useful science, critically, at the present day, yet, we think, we retain sufficient of the principles to enable us to form a tolerably correct estimate of the progress made in it by young gentlemen like those in Mr. Selleck's class. This, indeed, was all we pretended to when requested to be present at the recitation in geometry. We allowed ourselves to be persuaded, however, to propose a few questions on the properties of angles and triangles, especially as illustrated in the famous Pythagorean proposition, more generally known among students as the pons asinorum. We also proposed a few ques tions on the ratios of straight lines, and of the rectangles formed

by those lines. The results were all very pleasant to us, and apparently they were equally so to the students. We think the geometricians would be as willing as the Grecians or the Romans to do us the justice to admit that, if there are persons who propose questions to puzzle or create confusion, or to show their own cleverness, we are not of the number.*

To these necessarily hurried remarks, we can only add that nowhere have we met an educator who illustrates more fully than Mr. Selleck the truth of the Homeric precept that boldness in a good cause ever meets with friends, and generally commands success. Knowing that the poet's exact words will be fully understood and appreciated at Norwalk, we take pleasure in closing our article with them as a memento of our visit: μηδέ τι θυμῳ τάρβει θαρσαλέος γὰρ ἀνὴρ ἐν πᾶσιν ἀμείνων εργοισιν τελέθει, εἰ και ποθεν ἄλλοθεν ἔλθοι. †

ART. VII.-The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, &c., &c. By JOHN LATHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D. In two vols., 8vo, with Illustrations. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1874.

THOSE who read these volumes carefully, without bias or prejudice, will not think very highly of the Dutch Republic, although it is by no means the avowed or acknowledged intention of Mr. Motley to disparage its general character. In

* After we had heard the recitations, we had the curiosity to inquire whether there were any students from Stamford, as we wished to verify the statement made to us in that town by the lady teacher mentioned in the text. The ladies rarely deceive strangers who apply to them for information, and so it proved in the present instance; for precisely as we had been told, we found that, among the students from Stamford, at Mr. Selleck's School during the past year, were Charles J. Holly, Jr., Richard H. Lockwood, Wm. B. Williams, Frank G. Williams, and J. Walters Waring.

+ Odyss. vii., 50.

deed, we do not believe that he means anything of the kind. Such a design would be entirely incompatible with his previous works, and would show a radical change in his feeling and disposition.

A number of years have now elapsed since we reviewed in these pages his "Rise of the Dutch Republic." None appreciated the work more than we; most cheerfully did we acknowledge its great merits, and assign it a high rank among contemporary contributions to historical literature. We had but two faults to find with it: one was that Mr. Motley allowed his republicanism to carry him a little too far in his denunciations of kings and emperors; the other that he made a sort of bête noire of the Pope-a genius of evil who, in one form or another, was at the bottom of everything bad or wicked.

Our readers will bear us testimony that our admiration for the so-called "crowned despots" is very slight; they will also acquit us of having any more love for a good Pope than we have for any other mortal equally good and pious. To us, temporal and spiritual sovereigns are all alike, except so far as they respectively distinguish themselves as enlightened, liberal statesmen, or patrons of literature, science or the arts.

But if any one ought to be more impartial in these respects than another it is the historian, who should be as free from bias or prejudice, political or religious, as the judge on the bench. No one has more admirably or more truthfully described this necessary condition of mind in such circumstances than Julius Cæsar in his eloquent and noble speech in the Senate in regard to "the wild justice of revenge," sought to be brought to bear on all who took part in the conspiracy of Catiline. In the pages of Sallust this speech stands forth as embodying all the wisdom of the ancients, in respect to what man's judgment on man should be. "Conscript Fathers," says Cæsar," it becomes men who deliberate upon, or discuss, doubtful things to be free from hatred, friendship,

anger and pity. The mind does not easily perceive the truth. where those things obstruct."*

Mr. Motley's long residence in Europe has made him somewhat more familiar with the " despots" than he was when he wrote his first work; he has learned to regard them as very much like other mortals-no worse, perhaps, in general, if no better, than some of our own republican patriots— such, for example, as those who love their country so intensely that that they will steal the money out of their country's treasury whenever a favorable opportunity presents itself! That Mr. Motley has not entirely got rid of the old difficulty, however, would be sufficiently evident without going beyond his preface. We quote:

"The causes and character of the two wars were essentially the same. There were many changes of persons and of scenery during a struggle which lasted for nearly three generations of mankind; yet a natural succession both of actors, motives, and events will be observed from the beginning to the close.

"The designs of Charles V. to establish universal monarchy, which he had passionately followed for a lifetime through a series of colossal crimes against humanity and of private misdeeds against individuals, such as it has rarely been permitted to a single despot to perpetrate, had been baffled at last. Disappointed, broken, but even to our own generation never completely unveiled, the tyrant had withdrawn from the stage of human affairs, leaving his son to carry on the great conspiracy against human rights, independence of nations, liberty of thought, and equality of religions, with the-additional vigor which sprang from intensity of conviction.

"For Philip possessed at least that superiority over his father that he was a sincere bigot. In the narrow and gloomy depths of his soul he had doubtless persuaded himself that it was necessary for the redemption of the human species that the empire of the world should be vested in his hands, that Protestantism in all its forms should be extirpated as a malignant disease, and that to behead, torture, burn alive, and bury alive all heretics who opposed the decree of himself and the Holy Church was the highest virtue by which he could merit Heaven."

This shows that Mr. Motley retains quite enough of the old

*P. C. qui de rebus dubiis consultant, ab odio, amicitiâ, irâ, atque misericordiâ vacuos esse decet. Haud facile animus verum providet, ubi illa officiunt."-Bell. Cat.